News or PR?

Sometimes PR looks like news (the aesthetics, etc).

PR SOMETIMES tends to use general photos, no captions, no individual authors (sometimes),
less variety in the kinds of stories. Typically aims at a specific audience, selling something (idea,
ideal, product).
News is for a more general audience, a little something for everybody.

Journalism doesn’t have to do with what it look like, it is dependent on what the intentions are of
the people writing the news. “You aren’t trying to sell something, or advocate for a specific
cause.” ”It’s the intangible stuff that defines ‘what is journalism?’”
Traditional news values:
- Neutrality (not representing cause, brand, or product/does not apply to opinion really; as
long as you’re upfront that it is opinion)
- Accuracy (good faith effort to be accurate; no one is 100% accurate all the time,
“journalists and editors oblige to go the extra mile”)
- balance and fairness (50/50 both sides; close as we can get)
- Transparency (transparent about how we get our info and how reliable it is)
- Mission and Public Service (purpose is to function/play a role in democracy)

Newsworthiness:
1. Impact (Will the story affect readers’ lives, wallets, kids?)
2. Immediacy (we care about what’s happening NOW)
3. Proximity (We care about ‘this’ because it’s happening near us, or can apply to a
specific kind of news (ie environmental) pages)
4. Prominence (who is the news about? Celebrity, public figures, politicians)
5. Novelty (dog bites man = not news; man bites dog = news)
6. Conflict (competing groups/opinions. Any kinds of competing interest, legal, social,
politician, economic)
7. Emotions (NOT opinion; how will the audience feel reading the story?)

People’s ideas of media:

1. Sensationalist (report to make money; clickbait, news as entertainment)
2. ‘Big brother’
3. Randomness (all news is random, reporters decide what they like/care about and cover
that. Reporting as a personal whim)

More realistic approach to how news gets made:

Media as an organization
- the interest of advertising v. news (can conflict w one another)
- what does the audience care about /how can we sell more ads?
- What does the audience need to know/ how can we make $ in other ways?
- How can we fulfill our role as a government watch dog? As a public service?/
How can we promote our reputation as a news brand?
-
 - The “separation of church and state” (having opinion as a separate entity from straight
news reporting)
- news reporters and editors:
- What stories should we cover it?
- How many people will cover them?
- What additional information do we need?
- How should the stories be illustrated?
- Editorial board:
- what is our position on controversial issues?
- What is our position on elections?
- What is our analysis of developing news events?
- Columnists:
- how can I add value with my personal perspective?
- Content editors: check content for newsworthiness, bias, do we need legal
advice, do we wait until more is known?
- Copy editing: grammar, AP style, infographics clear? Mechanical issues of
writing, consistency.

- Content v. style (what you need to know v. Entertainment value)

- Reporter/editor: sentence structure, verbs, quotes, voice, context, background,
description.
- Photographers/photo editors/illustrators/graphic artists: layout, composition, form
and function, logistics, access, research.
- Text vs. Design
- (how you communicate it (audio, visually) v the design (spacing, colors, graphics)
- And Platform
The path from idea to finished story

Where do journalists get their information.

- people (man on the street, officials, experts, victims, lawyers, witnesses, contacts on
beat, the audience)
- Documents (court records, police reports, school records, transcripts of government
business, official and private databases, security and exchange commission filings)
- Direct observation and note taking (public events, government hearings, trials,
speeches, scene of crimes, natural disasters)
- Handlers (press releases, press conferences, official websites, social media posts,
advance notifications)
- News wires (routers, Associated press, etc examples)

Info-gathering attitude; alert detachment

- it’s not about you, but you’re locked in on what’s happening; the scene.
- Recognize different between fact and opinion
 - Recognize your opinions
- Park them
- Avoid vague value adjectives that mean something different to everyone

How to stay detached

Hard News:
- Use a hard news lead for
- Disasters
- National Crisis
- Passing Major Legislation
- Violent death
- Death of prominent figure
- These are not feature stories! Hard news
- Use immediately after the event takes place

How to craft a hard news lead

- 1. Length: 30 words maximum.
- 2. Full sentence, not a headline
- 3. 5 W's + H: Answer all or most of the six questions in one sentence
- Who,what,when,where,why, how
- 4. Concrete detail emphasizes one of the five Ws + H
- 5. Uses “delayed identification” -- that means you don’t use full names until the
- second paragraph
- Inverted pyramid
- Delayed identification applies to people, places and things
- “Man shot his grandma” then in second paragraph “John Smith”
- “Hotel issues new rules against drinking” then “The grand budapest hotel”
- “Painting stolen from museum” then “the Mona Lisa”
- 6. End with attribution
- According to….
- Delayed identification also applies to attribution
- “Said officials” “according to new poll”

How to structure a hard news story

- Use the inverted pyramid
- Summarize the key facts in a concise lead. Then organize the story as logically
as possible, arranging paragraphs in descending order of importance. End the
story when you run out of facts (or you run out of room on the page).
-
- Put the most attention grabbing details in the lead, then offer some insight into the
people, places and things mentioned in the lead (delayed identification), put your most
eye-catching quotes and most important facts at the beginning to set up the story,
readers are busy!
News Values
● What's the difference between journalism and PR or advocacy?
● What’s the difference between news and opinion?

Newsworthiness Criteria
● How do journalists decide “What’s news”

Newsroom Organization and decision making

● How is a newsroom organized?
● What competing concerns of the newsroom help shape the news?

Academic Writing vs. Journalism

● What are the differences in organization and formatting?
● What are the differences in research methods?
● What are the differences in language?

Reporting Basics
● What are quote guidelines?

● What should you quote vs. paraphrase?

Directly quote: color, opinion, emotion, illustrations of personality, speech of prominent people
(credibility)
Paraphrase: data, straight info, background info, anything you can say more succinctly yourself
● Where do journalists get their information?
People - man on street, officials, victims, experts
Documents - court records, police records, official and private databases
Direct observation & note taking - Public events, trials, speeches, scene of crime/ natural
disasters
Handlers - press releases, official websites, social media posts
● How do you identify your source?
● How does the value of neutrality affect reporting?

Hard News
● How do you write a hard news lead?
● How do you structure a hard news story? Why?
● When do you need a hard news lead?

AP Style
● Why do news outlets need a style guide?
Readers like predictability, and don’t want to waste time,
● What are common problems with comma use? How do you correct them?
Commas are supposed to be used as entry and exit ramps in the highway of your sentence
A problem is forgetting to get back on the highway (Not using 2nd comma)
Another is not using it when there are two different subjects - the comma before a conjunction
and an independent clause: 2 actors on stage, each doing something different
Don’t use a comma before a conjunction in a series unless it’s needed for clarity

● What are common problems with hyphens?

Hyphens are used when two adjectives act like a team - brown-and-yellow cat
Don’t use when “very” or and adverb ending in “ly” is part of the phrase (Avoid using very in
general - except for quotes)
Use to avoid duplicated vowels, triple consonants
Use when two or more adjectives or nouns express a single concept

● How do you express ages? Measurements? Numbers in general?

Use arabic numerals for numbers with 2+ digits
When most numbers in a series are 2+ digits, use numerals for all
Generally, spell out ages less than 10.
Exceptions:
Ages - 2-year-old girl
Measurements - use numerals but spell out units (feet, meters)
Days of the month - Numerals only, no nd, rd, or th
Time and dates - don’t be redundant - 10 a.m. this morning