The Treatment of News

The moon is seen beside a quadriga on the top of the Cinquantenaire arch in Brussels, Belgium
Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters
 Hard news events
• Killing, catastrophe, presidential election, civil war, protest, etc.
• Chronicling as concisely as possible

Palij, seen here in this 1949 US visa photo,

denied involvement in Nazi crimes/ Reuters
There was anger among residents when it emerged
Palij was living in the Queens area of New York
City/ Reuters
Soft news events
• How people cope with heat wave, a car wash by four graders to raise
money for a friend with cancer, etc.
• Not usually considered immediately important or timely to a wide
audience
• Still containing some elements of news

Comedian Jon Stewart rescues goats from

New York subway tracks

The grazing goats gave police and train staff the

runaround/METROPOLITAN
TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY
Organising a News Story
Gathering the News: What Are News
Sources
New sources
Events Meetings, courts, sporting events of every sport,
theatrical and other performances, displays,
parades, demonstrations
Stories from written material Press releases, White Papers, council policy
documents, reports from charities, memoirs, etc.
Stories from contacts People living the area for local news
Other sources Rival publications, local radio, and TV
National and international newspapers, radio, and
TV
Advertisements: in publications, radio, local
cinema, shop windows, fly posters, leaflets,
websites
Newsworthy people:
Get their quotes
• Essential elements to all news stories
• Bringing a story to life
• Highlighting the tensions between
group of people
• Telling both of the reporters and
readers exactly what happened
• Explaining the story’s significance
• Painting a picture
• Telling both of the reporters and
readers what will happen next
Interviews

• Traditional methods
• Human sources for making stories
• Credible and readable stories
• Immediacy to the stories
• Interesting stories
• Face-to-face interviews
• Interviews done from the work desk
Reporting news sources

• Attribution
• Citing the source
• Authenticity
• Authority to a story
• A complete identification of the source
• Full name and job title
• Source qualifications (valuable, authoritative, independent)
Reporting news sources

• Unnamed sources
• Weak sources
• Not being identified with those of a larger group
• Example = eyewitnesses providing details about events
• Information not available on the record
Reporting news sources

• Anonymous sources
• Keeping the source’s name concealed
• Not being able to check the validity of the sources
Quoting sources to create stories

• Using reported speech

• Direct speech
• Indirect speech
• Different principles of representing verbal process
Direct qoutes

• Direct quotes/ Original wording

• Words put in quotation marks
• Authenticity
• Giving a dialogic dimension/narrative potential
• Adding a voice to a reported story
• Telling about the person’s feelings, opinions, and reactions
Direct qoutes (Cont.)

• More personal, more involving

• Not always essential to news reporting
• Used for reporting surprising and uncommon facts
• Being able to distance themselves from the truthfulness of a
certain statement
Direct quotes (Cont.)

‘It finally happened': the long fight to expel

America’s last known Nazi

“It’s finally happened. This is the last Nazi.

You can close the book on this chapter,” said
state assemblyman Dov Hikind, who helped
lead several protests outside Palij’s home,
and visited on Tuesday morning for what he
said would be the last time.
Indirect quotes

• Indirect quotes
• Not adhering strictly to the source’s words
• Fairy close to the original speech
• Being able to add credible and authentic information
Indirect speech (cont.)

• Reproducing the source’s opinions without using the exact

words
• Focusing on the substance given by the source
• Providing the narrative and preparing the reader for the direct
quotation
Examples of the Use of Direct and Indirect
Quotes
‘It finally happened': the long fight
to expel America’s last known Nazi

The older man seemed nice enough, Naranjo

said, but he believes it is right for Palij to pay for
his crimes – though the deportation should have
happened years ago.

“I know he did bad things”, he said. “Right now,

it’s good – but 30 years ago is better.”
Paraphrase

• The main idea

• Different words
• For the content that not particular dramatic, interesting, clear,
grammatically correct
• A mixture of paraphrases and quotes
Paraphrase (Cont.)

• ‘I do not believe this is true,’ said Dr Thompson.

(Direct Quote)

• Dr Thompson said she did not believe that to be

true. (Indirect Quote)

• Dr Thompson was skeptical. (Paraphrase)

The component of a news story
• The headline
• Not written by the report, but by the sub-editor
• Written after the story
• Extracted from its lead/based on the main point
• Concise, informative, attractive
• The most creative aspects of journalism
• Synthetic language
• Using lexical words carrying the main meaning unit such as
nouns, adjectives, adverbs, main verbs
• Omitting functional words such as determiners or auxiliary
verbs
The component of a news story (Cont.)
• The lead and the effective intro
• Found after the headline and the picture and its caption
• Equivalent to a news story introduction
• The first and the most important paragraph
• Giving an immediate sense what the story is all about
• Typically not exceed 25 words to create a more powerful
impact and easier to read
• The headline and the lead giving main details clearly and
engagingly
• To provide the keyword for search engine optimisation
 5Ws in the Lead

• Answering the question “What happened?”

Who? What? When? Where? Why?

Reuters: How? (How do I know this?)

The aircraft carrying the US hostages took off Iranian soil today,
a Reuter reporter at the scene said.
 Who What When Where Why
This will nearly What happened Today, yesterday Where something - Not always
always be a person happened needed
or a group of people. - Could be left - Could give the
But it could be out context to the
something else such - Not mentioned story
as an object, event, a until nearly the - Important in
fire, a tornado, etc. end (tabloids) political,
economic or
business stories

Venezuela hit by 7.3-magnitude earthquake

Buildings in the capital Caracas have been evacuated and
shaking has been felt across the Caribbean

Venezuela’s northern coast has been rocked by a

powerful earthquake that was felt across the Caribbean
and sent people rushing out into the streets hundreds of
kilometres away in the capital, Caracas.
Part of the abandoned skyscraper Torre de David leans precariously
in Caracas after the quake. Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty
Images
 Who What When Where Why
This will nearly What happened Today, yesterday Where something - Not always
always be a person happened needed
or a group of people. - Could be left - Could give the
But it could be out context to the
something else such - Not mentioned story
as an object, event, a until nearly the - Important in
fire, a tornado, etc. end (tabloids) political,
economic or
business stories

Aung San Suu Kyi to be stripped of Freedom of

Edinburgh award
Nobel peace prize winner loses seventh honour over refusal to act
over violence committed by Myanmar military against Rohingya

Aung San Suu Kyi is set to be stripped of her

Freedom of Edinburgh award for her refusal to
condemn the violence against the Rohingya in A group of Rohingya people cross the border into
Bangladesh after fleeing violence in Myanmar. Photograph:
Myanmar. Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP
The paragraphs after the lead

• The first few paragraphs, particular the first five paragraphs are
crucial.
• Keeping the readers engaged in the story
• The second and the third paragraphs expand upon the lead
telling the readers why the news is significant.
• Succeeding paragraphs can go into further detail including a
biographical sketch of the person, historical or socio-cultural
information, or any other background information adding
interest and contextualizing the story
• The last sets of the paragraphs often add non-crucial
 information that can be easily cut from the bottom up.

Inverted-Pyramid Style
1. Write a terse lead --- not more than 25-35 words giving the
majors news of the story
2. Provide background --- explaining things for reading.
3. Present news in order of descending importance.
4. Use quotations early and throughout.
5. Use transitions.
Numerically --- first, second, third, etc.
By time --- at 3 pm, by noon, three hours later, etc.
Geographically --- in Tuscan, outside the home,
District 3 voters, etc.
With words --- also, but, once, meanwhile,
therefore, in other action, however,
below, above, etc.
6. Do not editorialize.
7. Avoid “the end”.
https://vanseodesign.com/web-design/inverted-pyramid-design/
 Hourglass Style

How to write
• Covering trials or police and fire news
• The major news in the first paragraphs (written in order of
descending important, as an inverted pyramid)
• Using a turn (a transitional paragraph to introduce a
chronology of the events of the story)
• After the turn, the rest of the details of the story is added and
told in chronological order.

http://blogs.stlawu.edu/hannahklossner/2014/09/29/the-body-
of-a-news-story/
 Hourglass Style

Advantages of Hourglass style

• The important news is presented high in the story.
• The writer can take advantage of narrative.
• The most important information is repeated in the narrative so
that readers have a chance to support it.
• It has a balanced structure.
• It keeps readers in the story and leads up to a real conclusion.
• It discourages the editor from slashing from the bottom.

http://blogs.stlawu.edu/hannahklossner/2014/09/29/the-body-
of-a-news-story/
 References
• Busà, M. G. (2014) Introducing the Language of the News:
A Student’s Guide. London: Routledge.
• Itule, B.D. & Anderson, D.A. (2000) News Writing and
Reporting for Todays Media. (5th). Singapore: McGRAW-
Hill
• McKane, A. (2014) News Writing (2nd). London: Sage