NEWS WRITING

FELIX O. ASIS
What is News?
Ceciliano Jose Cruz, in his book, campus journalism, defines news as “a
timely and factual narration of past, present and future events.” This could
be presented through oral, written, or visual medium.

Rachel Khan, in her book Campus Journalism, after putting more essential
elements of news together defines it as “an accurate and timely account
of an idea, issue, or event that affects a significant number of people.”
ELEMENTS OF NEWS
1. Proximity: if the event is happening close by, it will have a greater impact on your
readers.
2. Timeliness: if something is happening now, it has more impact on the reader. The
most recent development in a story can be used as a feature.
3. Prominence: if the people in the story are well known, the story will have more
impact on the reader. Most people are not as impacted if the story involves people
they do not know.
4. Conflict: readers are interested in rivalries, arguments, fights, and disagreements.
5. Novelty: if something is unusual, original, or unique, readers want to know what it
is and why it happened.
6. Human interest: if the story evokes (inspires) emotion in the reader such as
anger, sadness, or happiness, the reader will have a greater connection with the
story and the story will have a greater impact.
CHARACTERISTICS OF NEWS
1 Accuracy. It refers to the correctness of statements, names, figures,
and other information
2 Objective. The news does not take sides and is devoid of any
impartiality.
3 Factual. It consists of actual persons and events with nothing
invented.
4 Balance. It gives proper emphasis on each fact concerning other
facts; gives attention to both sides in a controversial issue
5 Concise. It is short enough to contain the most important facts.
6 Timely. It refers to the freshness or immediacy of the event.
TWO MAIN TYPES OF
NEWS
1Straight news. The data are presented in a direct fashion
using the summary lead. It is also called hard news.
2News feature. The data are presented indirectly through
the use of novelty lead. It is also called soft news.
BASIC STRUCTURE OF NEWS
Straight news follows the traditional structure of news writing. It is written in
inverted pyramid form. The most important facts are placed at the beginning.
The other details and background are given in the succeeding paragraphs.

Primary Lead

Secondary Lead

Other Important Details

Least Important Details

INVERTED
PYRAMID
• To understand what the "inverted pyramid" name means,
picture an upside-down triangle -- one with the narrow tip
pointing downward and the broad base pointing upward.

Most
Newswort
hy

Least Newsworthy

• 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.
Primary lead – usually a short paragraph which answers at least
four of the five Ws and one H at its most effective angle
Secondary lead – complement the main lead by answering
those of the five Ws and one H, which are left unanswered
Other important details – other less important data that give
flesh to the story
LEAD

The lead is the story’s opening sentence or two. In straight news, it tells
the most important facts of the story.
In a feature article or news feature, it could be a word, a phrase, a
sentence or a paragraph that attracts and sustains the reader’s interest.
CLASSIFICATION OF
LEAD
1. Summary lead. It answers the five Ws and one H
(What, Who, Where, When, Why and How). The story is
presented using the inverted pyramid form where the
most important data are in the first and second
paragraphs. This is used in the straight news.
2. Novelty lead. It attracts the reader’s attention,
arouses his curiosity, and sustains his interest. It is
used in writing a news feature or a feature article.
THE LEAD

• To write an inverted-pyramid story from the facts,

you first write a lead summarizing the most
important information.
• This summary should attempt to answer all 5W’s
&H
• (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How)
• President Rodrigo Duterte arrived in Beijing
Wednesday evening to begin his 4-day visit. He
is set to join 39 other world leaders in the 2nd
'Belt and Road' forum slated this week.

• A magnitude 3.7 earthquake struck Sarangani in

Davao Occidental on Wednesday night, the
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and
Seismology (Phivolcs) said.
WRITING HEADLINE
1. Identify the key terms in the article to create the headline. Read
the article in full and make note of the details in the first paragraph of the
article. The key details of the story should be in the first one to three
sentences of the article, so look for the key terms in these lines.
2. Use action verbs and the active voice in the headline. A good
headline is driven by good action verbs, which are verbs that describe
something a person does clearly and convincingly. Often, simple action
verbs are more effective than complex action verbs, for example, “use”
instead of “utilize” or “show” rather than “demonstrate” or “model”.
3. Put the headline in the present tense if the events are
happening now. The headline should have a time element so it is clear to
the reader when the event is taking place. If the event occurred in the
recent past and is considered breaking news, for example, Austria finds up
to 50 bodies thought to be migrants in truck, you can use the present
tense.
4. Do the TACT test. Once you have completed your headline, you should
run it through the TACT test to confirm it is print-ready. The TACT test is
taste-attractiveness-clarity-truth. Ask yourself the following questions about
your headline:
TACT TEST
Is it in good taste? Is there anything possibly offensive in the headline? Can
anything in the headline be taken the wrong way?
Is it attractive to the reader? Can it be improved so it is more engaging and
interesting, without sacrificing accuracy?
Does it communicate the key points of the article? Is it clear and simple? Does
it use the active voice and active verbs? Are there any odd words or double
meanings that could confuse the reader?
Is it accurate? Are the proper words or terms from the article used in the
headline? Is the headline factually correct?
If you answer no to any of these questions, you will need to rethink the
headline and adjust it so it meets the tact criteria.
WRITING SPEECH
NEWS
A news writer can never write a speech news without
the speech data of the speaker. Hence it is a must that
he obtains a copy of the actual speech or has taped or
jotted down the most important parts of the speech as
his data in writing the news story. He must also see to it
that he quotes the speaker word for word correctly or
paraphrases the statements without deviating from what
the speaker has said.
TIPS ON WRITING SPEECH
NEWS

1. From the copy of the speech that you have obtained

or tape-recorded, or its excerpts that you have written
down, get the most striking part and make it as your
quotation lead.
2. On the second paragraph, answer the Who, What,
Where, and When.
3. Place direct quotations and indirect quotations or
paraphrases alternately in the succeeding paragraphs.
EXAMPLE
Strive for academic excellence – Abedin
“We should strive for academic excellence.” (The most striking
part of the speech)
This was the challenge posed by Ellana A. Adebin, principal of
Irineo L. Santiago National High School of Metro Dadiangas, General Santos City, to the
curriculum heads, department heads, master teachers, and teachers with special
assignment in a meeting at the school audio-visual room, September 16. (Answers the
who, what, where and when)
Abedin observed that the academic performance of the school
has not improved since 1999. (Indirect quotation)
“Our academic performance shows that since 1999 up to the
present, we just have been contented with a 47 percent performance rating,” Abedin said.
(Direct quotation)
 Abedin noted that such a rating constitutes a very low
performance considering that it has not even raised the excellence of the
school when it comes to academic contests in the division. (Indirect
quotation)
“One thing I cannot understand is why a very big
school like ours performs far below when pitted against even smaller schools
in our division level.” (Direct quotation)
The principal challenged the teachers to work doubly
for the promotion of academic excellence. (Indirect quotation)
“Let us give the best that we can give to our school.
Teachers should teach well and should double the efforts in the promotion of
academic excellence,” Abedin said. (Direct quotation)
ACTIVITY FOR NEWS WRITING ENGLISH
Write a news story based on the scrambled news article below. Write a headline for your news story.

Apex Mining Corporation issued a statement, saying the landslide occurred in the area where buses waited to ferry their
workers at around 7:30 pm.
The Maco Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Office reported that 11 miners, one critically injured, were pulled out from the
mud and debris and rushed to a hospital in Tagum city.
Hambala said soldiers were sent to the landslide site to help in the rescue and recovery efforts.
Rescuers used their bare hands to dig through tons of mud and rocks to reach miners buried in a landslide at the apex mining
corporation in Maco, Davao de Oro on Tuesday night, February 6.
Major General Allan Hambala, commander of the army’s 10th infantry division, told Rappler that the landslide happened at
the apex mining company site in Maco, burying two buses carrying workers in Zone 1, Barangay Masara in Maco town.
Apex Mining said they were still doing a headcount to determine if there are missing workers.
Mobile phone footage shared on Facebook showed rescuers using their bare hands to reach the miners after the landslide
buried the buses.
DXDC-radio Mindanao network, based in Davao City, reported that over 300 residents from Masara were evacuated to a
school in Maco after the local government enforced a forced evacuation in barangays Masara, Elizalde, Tagbaros, and
Panibasan.
ACTIVITY FOR NEWS WRITING FILIPINO
Panuto: Sumulat ng isang balita batay sa mga sumusunod na impormasyon. Lakipan din ng kaukulang ulo
ng balita ang iyong artikulo.
• Nangyari ang naturang pagkapanalo mahigit isang buwan maatapos ang kontrobersiya ng pag
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• Ayon sa naturang batas, kinakailangang buwisan ang lahat ng lotto winnings na lagpas P10,000.
• Kinakailangan ding makuha ang mga naturang winnings sa loob ng isang taon matapos ang araw ng
pagbola ng mga numero upang maiwasang ma-forfeit patungo sa charity fund ng PCSO.
• Samantala, wala namang pinalad makakuha ng P144.24 milyon jackpot at P15.84 milyong jackpot prize
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• Hindi tuloy maiwasan ng ilang netizens ipahayag ang pagkadismaya sa PCSO, dahilan para magduda na
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