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The document provides definitions of news from various journalists and experts. It discusses that news must be timely, interest a large number of people, and have elements like prominence, oddity, significance and human interest. News should be accurate, brief, clear, objective and factual. The lead is the most important part of a news story and should summarize the key information in one or two sentences. The body provides more details and context. Headlines need to attract attention, indicate the story's importance, sell the story to readers, and tell the facts concisely while dressing up the page. News writing should just report facts without editorializing.

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John Michael
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70 views

Students

The document provides definitions of news from various journalists and experts. It discusses that news must be timely, interest a large number of people, and have elements like prominence, oddity, significance and human interest. News should be accurate, brief, clear, objective and factual. The lead is the most important part of a news story and should summarize the key information in one or two sentences. The body provides more details and context. Headlines need to attract attention, indicate the story's importance, sell the story to readers, and tell the facts concisely while dressing up the page. News writing should just report facts without editorializing.

Uploaded by

John Michael
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Definition of News:

• Anything that interest people. (Jose Luna Castro)

- Jose Luna Castro was an newspaperman during his time.

• Another journalist, defined news as: Anything is news if you know


how to present it in news form.

If we look at these two definitions it would seem that everything can be


the subject of the news as long as the one who would write it knows how
to do it right. But of course, this makes everything simplistic because
there are things or events which cannot be the subject of news no matter
how good the writer is or how he does it.

• Any event, idea, or opinion that is timely, that interests or affects


large number of persons in a community, and that is capable of
being understood by them. (M. Lyle Spencer)

- M. Lyle Spencer was a long time dean of the popular School of


Journalism of the Syracuse University
Through this definition, it may be said that not every happening, incident
or event is considered as news. It maybe an important information or
fact, but if it lacks the necessary elements such as freshness, proximity,
prominence, oddity and significance, it may not be considered as news.

See the first few definitions. The definitions are too simplistic and
unrealistic because an occurrence or event may be interesting
information to a limited number of people, but will not be of interest to a
bigger group. For example, when an ordinary office worker is fired from
his job, this may be a shocking news to his family and close relatives,
but it may not be of interest to a greater number of his community.

There are still other definitions of news:

• It is a break from a normal flow of events, an interruption of the


expected. (Melvin Mencher)
• It presents to society a mirror of concerns and interests. (Gay
Tuchman)
• It is both a product and a point of view. (George A. Hough 3rd)

- George A. Hough 3rd was a Professor Emeritus of the University of


Georgia. He said as a product, news is gathered, processed,
packaged and sold by newspapers, news services, news magazines
and other periodicals as well as radio, television and cable stations,
networks and social media.

Other great and successful journalists have their own definitions:

• Anything that will make people talk. (Charles A. Dana)


- Editor of the New York Sun

• Anything that makes a reader says “Gee Whiz”. (Arthur McEwan)


- Editor of the San Francisco Examiner

• Anything you can find out today that you didn’t know before.
(Turner Catledge)
- Former Managing Editor of the New York Times

Looking closer into these definitions, it’s noticeable that their common
denominator is that the incident or event must be of interest to the
readers. An incident for instance, may just involve a little boy. But if
this is enough to arouse the curiosity and interest of the reading public,
this may yet become significant news.

Let’s now proceed to the different elements of news:

Timeliness refers to a news is always a timely matter. The word


journalism comes from the Latin word diurnalis, which means daily,
current and timely reporting of events. This element stresses the latest
angle or development of the story.

Proximity refers to the nearness of the event to the place of the readers
or its closeness to their personal affairs, their homes, their business and
other activity.

Prominence… Readers are primarily interested or even fascinated to


read about places, events, and people, especially if these involve with
celebrities, rich and influential businessmen, high ranking government
officials or big-time politicians.

Oddity means unusualness or not ordinary thing to happen. This kind of


news story is about rarity or the occurrence of unusual incident, event or
thing.

Significance also known as a consequence. For example, any law, for


instance, passed by Congress which has a strong impact to the lives of
the people will be an interesting subject of news.

Conflict refers to physical and mental struggle. It is the most obvious


element in stories dealing with wars, revolution, sports performances,
political battle and any other activities which involve competitions.

Suspense… The continuing suspense of a day-to-day news event will


always attract the attention of the readers. This usually used in news
features or feature articles where just like a storyteller the reporter must
keep his reader’s interest up to the end of his story.

Human interest refers to a news story which appeals to human emotion


and instinct.

These are the essential qualities of news:

Accuracy is broadly defined as truthful reproduction of an event or


activity of public interest.

Brevity helps create simplicity. The longer the sentence is, the more
difficult it is to understand.

Clarity means that you should have all of your facts and have them
organized before you start writing.

Objectivity means that when covering hard news, reporters don’t convey
their own feelings, biases or prejudices in their stories.

Factual is concerned with facts or contains facts, rather than giving


theories or personal interpretations.

LEAD WRITING

- The lead is known as the first paragraph of a news story that usually
summarizes the news and dictates the mood of the story such as those
used by the news features or featured reports.

Most journalists think the news lead is the most important part of the
news story. It is an artwork of concise information that captures the gist
of a news story in one or two sentences.
BODY CONSTRUCTION & ORGANIZATION

- The body of the news story on the other hand, is the entirety of the
story.

The body of the story explains or clarifies features found in the lead or
add features found in the lead or add features not found in the lead. The
body of the story provides details and background.

- Transitions are necessary to show the reader that the writer has a
sense of direction. A word, phrase, sentence or paragraph can
move the reader from one thought to another.

Transitions are very, very important because it holds story together. Link
the paragraphs together.

FUNCTIONS OF HEADLINE

Attract attention… The first step in all communication is to attract the


attention of the one to receive the message.

Grade the story… Only few of the readers read all the pages and
contents of a newspaper. Busy newspaper readers want their news
departmentalized and graded so they can quickly select what interests
them.

Sell the story… A headline should sell its story. Sell it to the reader and
make him want to go down into the lead and then to the body of the
news story.

Tell the facts… Headline words must be precise and have headline
utility. It should say something specific.
Dress up the page…Time was when heads were used principally to
break up the page, to get rid of the big gray areas. They did some selling
and grading. Boldface subheads were designed to relive the monotony of
the body type.

Just report facts; do not editorialize


Wrong: Pinoy gives inspiring talk

The word “inspiring” is an opinion.

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