Revision: News, News

Structure, News Values

News or not News?

• Legendary film actor Razzak died of cardiac arrest.

• BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today alleged that
the government failed to tackle natural disasters.
• Rakib, a 12-year old boy, who lived in Kalyanpur slum, died of
diarrhoea today.
 What is News?

• The concept of what news is, varies, with people and places.
• What is news to one may not be news to another.
• News has two priorities: it must be new, and it must mean something
to people (public interest).
 Definition of News

• There are many definitions of news:

‘News is anything that you didn’t know yesterday.’
‘News is anything and everything interesting about life and materials
in all their manifestation.’
‘News is a piece of information about a significant and recent event
that affects the audience and is of interest to them.’
Definition of News
• The news changes with the changes in other factors related or
connected to it. The definition of a news item is dependent on:
i) The size of the community (readers)
ii) The periodicity of the publication (weekly, daily etc)
iii) The social character and economic base of the community.
iv) The focus of attention or emphasis of the community.
Salient point of News
i) The news is perishable – when the event is understood and the
tension is eased off- the news gets less informative and more of
history.
ii) The news is of interest to a large number of people.
iii) The news is of unusual events and happenings.
iv) The news is what is new to the public.
v) The news is an event put forward by a reporter- without a reporter,
a news item does not exist.
 Essential ingredients of News
• Timeliness: News must be timely and new. Timeliness is defined by
the publication cycle of the news medium.
• Proximity: Proximity simply refers to the nearness of the event-in
terms of both time and place.
• Conflicts: Conflict involves tension, surprise, suspense and opposing
forces. Strikes and wars make news because they have all elements of
conflicts. However, not all conflicts make news. If two school children
get into a fight, it is not a news, but if a schoolboy beats up the school
principal, that is a news.
 Essential ingredients of News
• Prominence: Information has prominence if it involves a well-known person or
organisation.
• Consequence: Consequence refers to the importance of the event. If what has
happened or will happen will have an effect on a large number of people, and
then it has more consequence than something that will affect fewer people.
• Progress: Progress makes news. The passing of a law or other orders
concerning general people, cabinet meetings, parliament and assembly
sessions, notifications about new rules and regulations are news worthy.
• Human interest: People are interested in what is happening to other people.
More often, children, animals, old people and people overcoming adversity
are worthy of coverage as human interest.
 News values

• News values determine how much prominence a news story is given

by a media outlet.
• In practice such decisions are made informally by editors on the basis
of their experience and intuition, however, analysis shows that several
factors are consistently applied across a range of news organisations.
 Structure of the News Story
• Each news story should have one dominant idea (news angle). That is
the focus or reason for writing the story. Without a focus, stories
confuse the reader.

• Next, decide which of your facts are most important and place them
in a logical order. Discard all facts that don’t flow from your focus
statement.
 Structure of the News Story

• Each story needs a plan. Each point should grow from the previous
point and lead to the next one. Poor organisation loses more readers
than anything else.

• A minute spent in planning the story will prevent countless problems

later on. Look through your notes and background material. Mark the
best of it, the key points and strongest quotes.
 Organisation of the News Story

• The most popular structure for news stories is the inverted pyramid.
• In the inverted pyramid, the information is arranged in descending
order of importance.
• The most important material is placed at the beginning of the story
and less important material follows.
 Inverted Pyramid Style

Inverted Pyramid
Regular Pyramid
 Inverted Pyramid Style
Regular Pyramid (Narration) Inverted Pyramid

Joynab was a student of Class V in Viqarunnesa A student of Viqarunnesa Noon School and College
School. She lived in an apartment near to the school. was killed in a road accident. The victim has been
She used to walk down to the school everyday. While identified as Joynab, a student of Class V of the school.
coming to the school this morning, as she was crossing The accident occurred when a speedy car hit Joynab
the road, a speedy car hit her from behind. Joynab fell from behind while she was crossing a road for the
down on the street. Other students took her to the school. Fellow students took her to a nearby hospital
emergency department of a hospital. But doctors said where doctors declared her dead.
she had already passed away. Joynab lived in an apartment near to the school.
 Inverted Pyramid Style

• The inverted pyramid is described by an upside-down triangle- one

with the narrow tip pointing downward and the broad base pointing
upward.
• The broad base represents the most newsworthy information in the
news story, and the narrow tip represents the least newsworthy
information in the news story.
Inverted Pyramid Style

Most newsworthy information at the top.

Other information is
arranged in descending
order of importance.

Least newsworthy information at the bottom.

 Inverted Pyramid Style
• The inverted pyramid style enables:
i) A new story, to be self-contained, even if paragraphs are deleted at
the bottom due to space shortage.
ii) A hurried reader to skip over many stories in a short time by just
reading the opening paragraphs.
 The big disadvantage is many times stories do not have an ending
crafted by the writer; they simply end. There is no suspense.
 News Lead
• The opening sentence/paragraph summarises the basic facts of a
story and conveys to the readers what you, the writer, found out in
your reporting. It is called lead or intro.
• The lead must also catch a reader or listener’s attention and make
them want to read the rest of your story.
• Imagine your friend asking, “what’s your story about?” Answer that
question in one sentence that captures the essence of the entire
story.
 News Lead
• There are many kinds of news leads, but they all fall into two
categories: ‘hard’ leads and ‘soft’ leads.
• A hard lead is suited for an urgent, breaking event, while a soft lead is
more indirect and suited to feature writing.
• Leads must be honest. They should never promise what does not
follow in the story. Don’t begin with a startling or sensational
anecdote if it is not organically related to the theme.
 Types of Leads
• There are two main types of leads: direct or delayed.
• Direct Lead: The direct lead, also called the summary lead, is the
statement of the most important events contained in the story.
• It is usually one sentence, but sometimes two. It answers
immediately, in 25 words or less, the main questions of who, what,
when and where.
• Most often used on a hard news or breaking news stories.
Main Characteristics of Direct Lead
 Must stress what is newsworthy (relevance, usefulness,
interest to the reader) by explaining impact (so what)
 One clear sentence, not too long, not too short. Make
two short sentences if necessary.
 Avoid minor or lesser important details in the lead
sentence (specific time, address, sometimes names). Use them
in later paragraphs.
 Know when to use immediate identification leads. If the
‘who’ of the news story is a celebrity or prominent person in
the community, you will probably use the name in the lead
sentence.
 Avoid leads that are direct quotations.
 Delayed or Feature Lead
• It is used mostly on feature stories. It usually sets a scene or evokes a
mood with an incident, anecdote or example. Essential information is
temporarily withheld.
• The delayed lead can be short, perhaps two sentences, or it can be
longer, up to four paragraphs.
• The delayed lead still must fulfill the two roles of the lead. It must
capture the essence of the story and do it in a way that encourages
the reader to continue.
 The Body
• In a news story, the body supports the lead, and in the classic inverted
pyramid style the body is organised in a way so that the facts and
quotes are written in declining importance.
• The real strength of your story will come from the details that back up
the promise of the lead. This is the background material, the
examples and quotes, the things you have observed and the
explanations.
 The Body
• A story should proceed in a natural and chronological order.
• Don’t jump back and forth and keep paragraphs short and simple- one
idea at a time.
• News writers also refer to a story’s ‘flow.’ Writers don’t just plop
down a string of ideas, one after another. You have to string them
together, which you do by writing transitions.
 The Ending
• Inverted pyramid stories don’t need a strong ending since those hard
news stories simply end when there is nothing more to say.
• But other kinds of news stories often need a good ending.
• The most common type of ending is the quote ending. Look for a
quote that sums up the main idea of the story.
• Another favourite is the circle end in which, you return to an idea
expressed in the lead.
 The Angle
• Angle is the main idea if a news story that the lead and rest of the
story try to support.
• A news writer must sort through the facts that were gathered from
the reporting and decide what the theme is.
• There may be several different themes, but the writer must decide
what the central theme of the story will be in the lead.
 Hard and Soft News
• News stories are basically divided into two types: hard news and soft
news.
• Hard news generally refers to up-to-the-minute news and events that
are reported immediately, while soft news is background information
or human-interest stories.
 Hard News
• The hard news is mostly event-centered. It is a narration of an event.
• It is a chronicle of current events/incidents and is the most common
news style on the front page of your typical newspaper.
• Politics, war, economics and crime used to be considered hard news.
 Soft News
• Soft news or infotainment refers to a general type of news media
broadcast programme which either provides a combination of current
events, news and entertainment programming, or an entertainment
programme structured in a news format.
• Soft news are more of analysis, reasons, background and
interpretation.
• Arts, entertainment and lifestyles are generally considered as soft
news.
Thank You