JOURNALISM

What is
journalism?
 Definition
JOURNALISM is the art of
writing for publication in
newspapers and other media,
embracing all thoughts and
actions that have significance
and interest to the readers. In
this kit, we will only concentrate
on print journalism.
 WHAT IS NEWS?
News is an oral or written report
of an event that
HAPPENED,
IS HAPPENING,
WILL HAPPEN
in the North, East, West, or South
that is of interest to the reader
and which should be reported.
But what is
interesting to
one is not always
interesting to
another.
 BASIC RULE IN
WRITING:
ACCURACY,
BREVITY,
CLARITY. {ABC}
Different forms of writing
an incident


Situation: A fire broke out
and four persons made
their separate essays on
what happened.

For a 10-year-old
grade school pupil,
“I saw a fire. It was a big red
fire. It burned a house. There
were many people around.
Some men put water on the
fire.”
For a romantic high
school student,
“Fearful scarlet tongues arose to
the star-studded heaven and licked
greedily at the doomed edifice
while the stout-hearted firefighters
risked their all to quench the
terrible conflagration.”
For a lady
bystander,
“You know, Mare, there was a fire in
our community. I think it cost the
owner a great deal of money. The date
was August 8. August is the eighth
month. So I bet in the lottery, 8-16-24-
32-40-48.”
For a campus paper writer,
“A fire of undetermined origin razed to the ground a
two-storey apartment owned by lawyer Herman
Lagon of 80 Lopez Jaena St., Jaro Iloilo City, last
night. Four trucks from the Jaro Fire Station subdued
the fire within an hour. The damage estimated by
the police at P500,000 was covered by insurance.”
The combination of simple, vivid and
dignified articles produces a copy simple
enough for Mr. Average Reader to
understand. We call it news article.
 Narrative vs News
(Example: Dog hero story)

Narrative: Pyramid (from less important to climax)

Structure of news:

News: Inverted Pyramid (from climax

to less important)
Sample News

Headline (ulo ng balita)

Dog dies saving blind

master
Lead (pamatnubay)– Most important facts
A FOUR-YEAR-OLD dog saved the life of his
blind master, Thursday night, but the
canine’s loyalty cost the trusty animal his
life.
Bridge—Elaboration of lead
In serious condition today in
Doctor’s Hospital is Erland
Escobanez, 71, a street
sweeper. Escobanez of SSS
Building, Rizal St., Iloilo City
was found early this morning
unconscious on a sidewalk near
the Aglipayan Church in the
Iloilo Terminal Market.
Less important facts
Police theorized that
Escobanez was knocked
unconscious when he fell, his
head hitting a stone. Potpot,
his dog, apparently tried to
shield its master from the
cold and the rain by draping
itself over the fallen man.
When discovered this
morning by the Police
Patrol, Escobanez was still
out cold. The dog lay near,
dead.
Relatives of Escobanez
who is still a bachelor, told
authorities that he always
took nightly strolls at about
 Minor facts
 According to doctors, only the
warmth from the dog’s body saved
Escobanez from certain death.

Escobanez told police that he

remembers nothing of the incident. A
wallet containing P500 was still in his
pocket leading the authorities to rule
out robbery.
A. Scope or origin
a. Local news
b. Foreign news
c. Dateline news

B. Chronology or sequence
a. Advanced or anticipated (dope or
prognostication)
b. Spot news (reporter an eyewitness of the event)
c. Coverage news (beat)
d. Follow-up news
C. Treatment
a. Fact story (plain exposition)
b. Action story (narrative of actions)
c. Speech or quote story
d. Interview story

D. Content
a. Routine story- celebrations, enrollment,
graduation, election stories
b. Police reports-crime stories, fire
c. Science news
d. Development new3s
e. Sports news
E. Structure
a. Straight news- news that consists of facts given
straight without embellishment. It informs, uses summary
lead and the inverted pyramid structure
b. News feature- based on facts but it entertains more
than it informs. Writer may describe or narrate but
without resorting to biased opinion.
b.1 Single-feature structure- story deals with isolated
event
b.2 Several-feature structure- several facts are included
in the lead in their order of importance.

F. Advanced news
a. Investigative
b. Interpretative
c. Depthnews
G. Minor
a. News brief
b. News bulletin (gist of the
news)
c. News-featurette (quirks in
the news)
d. Sidebar (side by side with
the mother story)
e. Flash (boxed message
How to write a
Lead
Lead
It is a single word, a phrase, a clause, a brief sentence, an
entire paragraph or a series of paragraphs. The main
functions of the lead, aside from introducing the news
story, are to tell the story in capsule form and to answer
right away the questions the reader would naturally ask.
A good lead answers all the important questions of
the reader, indicates the facts if they are all
important, and arouses the readers’ interest to
continue reading the story.
 Kinds of lead
A. Conventional or
summary lead
This kind of lead used in straight
news, answers right away all or
any of the 5 W’s and/or the H. It
may be one of the following:
1. WHO lead
PRESIDENT Noynoy addressed, April 20,
the PMA graduates in Baguio City.

2. WHAT lead
AN ENTRANCE examination will be given
Nov. 24 to all graduating high school
students desiring to enroll in the four-year
college course.
3. WHERE lead
TRAPICHE, Oton, Iloilo will be the
site of the next International Film
Festival.
4. WHEN lead
TODAY, almost to the hour, the
Revolutionary Government was
proclaimed by former President
Corazon Aquino.
5 . WHY lead
BECAUSE of poverty, around a
hundred students dropped from school
last year. This was learned from Iloilo
Scholastic Academy principal Juan dela
Cruz.
6. HOW lead
BY APPEALING to the school board, the
University of Iloilo was able to construct a
30-storey, concrete building.
B. Grammatical beginning
lead
1. Prepositional-phrase lead
WITH BROOMS and other cleaning equipment,
boy scouts from the Iloilo public high schools
cleaned the city markets in consonance with the
city mayor’s Clean and Beautiful Drive.
2. Infinitive-phrase lead
TO ENCOURAGE tourism, balikbayans are given
a warm welcome by their fellow Filipinos.
 3. Participial-phrase lead
HOPING to cop first place, the ISA
woodpushers honed up for the chess
championship games. (present participle)

DRESSED like priests, robbers were able to

enter the bank. (past participle)

4. Gerundial-phrase lead
WINNING the developmental
communications trophy during the national
press conference was Iloilo Scholastic
Academy’s best achievement of the year.
 5. Clause lead
BECAUSE Sept. 9 was
Osmena Day, all lessons in
class dealt with the life of
the late President Sergio
Osmena Sr. (subordinate,
adverbial)
C. Novelty lead
1. Astonisher lead
CHAMPION of Division of Iloilo City!
BETTER look your best this week!

2. Contrast lead
FOUR MONTHS before the Green Drive, Zone 3 of
Brgy. Bo. Obrero, Iloilo City was the dirtiest
community. Three months after the campaign, it
won first place in the cleanliness contest sponsored
by the Department of Interior and Local
Government.
3. Epigram
LIKE father, like son.
Herman Lagon Jr. graduated first honor this year.
Twenty years ago, his father, Engr. Herman Lagon
Sr. also topped his class and delivered his
valedictory address on the same rostrum where
the young Lagon gave his.

4. Picture lead
THE NEW principal, Ms. Arianne Agnes Ciao,
although only in her early thirties, is already
silver-haired. She seldom talks, but when she
does, she talks with sense.
5. Background
lead
THE CPU campus was turned
into a miniature carnival
ground Sept. 1 during the
89th Foundation Day
celebration of the school.
Decorated with buntings and
multicolored lights, the
6. Descriptive lead
DRESSED in white polo barong, and
with diplomas in their hands, 109
graduates marched down the stage
to the tune of Hail Alma Mater.

7. Parody lead
WATER, water everywhere, but no water to
drink. This was what the flood victims found to
their dismay.
8. Punch lead
VICTORY Day!
Bonifacio High School celebrated March 18 its
fifth victory in the city-wide journalism
contest.

9. One-word lead
MARCH!
Thus ordered Chess Club president Pol
Buenconsejo to start the “Walk to Win” fund-
raising drive.
9. One-word lead
MARCH!
Thus ordered Chess Club president
Pol Buenconsejo to start the “Walk
to Win” fund-raising drive.
10. Quotation lead
“THE YOUTH sucks,” thus said
Association of Dimwits president Don
Pepot in a seminar-workshop yesterday
in Brgy. Walang Kwenta, Siete Pecados,
Guimaras.
11. Question lead
WHO WILL reign as Miss
Intramurals this year?
This will be known Aug. 8
after the final screening to
be held at the WVSU gym.
3.There was food and fun
galore! The student body of
Lally Jane Cabanilla High
School held an excursion in
Villa beach last Sunday.
4. Supt. Rasan Trompeta was
the guest speaker during the
investiture of boy scouts held
Jan. 15 at Jaz Tandug High
 NEWS WRITING EXERCISE
Identify what kind of lead is used in the following:

1. He used to be a mechanic. Now,

he is president of a college.

2. Dressed in caps and gowns, and

with diplomas in their hands, the
graduates sang their farewell song
to their alma mater.
News leads are not always one
sentence in length, but because of
the frequent paragraphing in
journalistic writing, a one-sentence
lead (of at most 25-35 words) is
the most common. Whatever the
arrangement, the lead answers
some or all of the 5 W’s and 1 H.
The shorter, more complete
and clearer the lead, the
better it is.
NEWS WRITING EXERCISE

Find the 5 W’s and 1 H

1. OnSaturday, April 30, the moon will pass directly in
front of the sun causing a total eclipse for half an hour.

2. Aboard an airplane flying 30,000 feet above the

ground was born a fat plump baby boy this morning to
a 60-year-old woman.

3. At least 100 young surfers, who are members of

the Surfing Association of Brgy. Ortiz will go to Siargao
on Nov. 22-26 to view the Annual Championship
Competition.
NEWS WRITING EXERCISE
Write a summary lead using the data
below:
• reforestation drive
• held at the foot of Mt. Makunat in
Lambunao
• last September 10
• local boy scouts participated in the
three planting activities
• they were headed by Scout Master
Joven Kidlat
Write a summary lead
using the data below:
•seminar on population education
•third of a series
•being currently held this year in
Laklak High School
•reason: in observance of World
Population Year
•held October 01 at the school
social hall
Do’s and Don’ts in
writing a news story
1. Write the story
immediately.
2. Play up the dominant points.
3. Be accurate and truthful.
4. Avoid opinions called
editorializing.
5. Use adjectives sparingly.
6. Avoid libelous, seditious and
rebellious matters, prejudice and
bad taste.
7. Give source (attribution) of the
news.
8. Write names in full when these
are mentioned for the first time.
9. Identify the names mentioned.
10. Avoid redundancy.
11.Watch out for errors in fact,
grammar, structure, and style.
12.Observe the guidelines for
clear effective writing (unity,
coherence, emphasis, brevity,
clarity, etc.)
13.Adopt a paper style sheet or
stylebook for consistency and
professionalism
Guidelines in writing a
news story
1. Give your lead sentence a “punch” to
catch the interest of the readers.
2. Starts with the most important event
or idea.
3. Use the rule or proximity and explain
how the news affects the people in the
locality or the students in school.
4. If your story has something unusual
or novel to tell, bank on that for the lead.
It’s hot copy.
5. Make your sentences concise and clear
so that they could be easily understood. Long
tedious sentences will likely “kill” the
readers’ interest. Besides, they usually “lose”
the readers along the way. News stories are
not “luxury” or ”pleasure” reading. They have
the basic function to inform.
6. Use simple words. Using highfalutin
words does not prove anything but pedantry
and literary pretentions. Even literary writers
try as much as possible to use simple words.
7. Never be afraid of breaking the rules if
it will prove helpful in making a good copy.
NEWS WRITING EXERCISE
Make a four-paragraph
news report of this Seminar
Workshop Journalism.
The article shall be
published tomorrow,
October 9. Supply the
headline.
Writing the news story exercise
Instructions
If you have successfully completed
Exercise 1 on intro writing, you are
now able to go ahead and write the
rest of the story from the information
below. Remember to list your key
points, put them in order of priority
then write in the system of the
inverted pyramid. Again, assume that
all these events happened within the
area served by your newspaper, radio
or television station.
Story 1
Dr Michael Kai is a scientist with the
Papua New Guinea Department of
Primary Industry. He has been
working for ten years on a project to
breed larger pigs. One of his pigs, an
adult male, has been weighed at 350
kgs. This is the heaviest pig ever to
have been bred in Papua New
Guinea. Mr Kai hopes to use this
animal to breed other very large pigs.
Story 2
A school bus ran off City Road in Suva,
narrowly missed an electricity pole and
came to rest in a garden. Most of the bus
windows were smashed. There were more
than 30 children on the bus. They were
going to Martyr School. It was a 36-seater
bus. All the children escaped serious injury.
Some of them jumped out of the bus and
grazed themselves. Eye-witnesses said the
children were helped from the bus
screaming and shouting and in a state of
panic. This happened this morning.
Story 3
In July last year, Mr Sione Tuanuku went to
work for the Royal Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in Nuku`alofa,
cleaning out the dog pound and caring for the
dogs. Yesterday he was sacked by the manager
of the dog pound, Mrs Anita Chan. She said
that he had mistreated one of the dogs.
Mr Tuanuku said: "The dogs always barked at
me and sometimes they tried to bite me. I
didn't like it. Yesterday I got fed up with one
dog that tried to bite me, so I bit the dog in the
leg to teach it a lesson. Now I have been
dismissed from my job."
 Story 4
 Mr John Erikub and his wife, Laura, were driving to their home in Majuro
yesterday afternoon, after shopping in Uliga. Mr and Mrs Erikub were in
the front of their Toyota pick-up. Their three children were travelling in
the back - Paul, aged nine; Rachel, aged seven; and Miriam, aged three.
 Driving past the cemetery, they met a truck travelling in the opposite
direction. This was a semi-trailer belonging to Pacific Earthmoving Inc,
carrying a 12-ton bulldozer. The truck was driven by Mr Lewis Kili, who
comes from Jaluit Atoll. The pick-up ran out of control and collided head-
on with the semi-trailer.
 Police and ambulance were sent for. Mr and Mrs Erikub and their two
elder children died instantly. Miriam was taken to hospital with serious
injuries and died later. The pick-up was a write-off. The semi-trailer
suffered only minor damage. Mr Kili was also taken to hospital and
treated for shock, but was later allowed home.
 Police have interviewed Mr Kili. They say they are unlikely to charge him
with any offence.
SAMPLES:

Failed bank heist ends with 1 dead

AN ALLEGED bank robber was shot dead
by a security guard in a robbery hold-up at
Equitable Bank, Quezon St., Iloilo City
noontime yesterday.

Police Supt. Bakleng Bading of Iloilo City

Police Office (ICPO) identified the fatality as
Garin Farm thru a Comelec identification
card, while the security guard was
identified as Neil Andrew Tupaz y Falayfay,
42, of 17 Gen. Blanco St., Iloilo City.
Police reports revealed that at 10:45 a.m. Monday,
the suspect entered the said bank to encash a
check with a companion waiting outside. The
suspect demanded money from the teller, Ethel
Booba Sya, but the latter refused prompting Farm
to grab the guard’s shotgun. In the commotion, the
guard fired the gun, hitting the victim in the
abdomen.

A certain Mr. Pelongsya informed the police thru a

phone call about the incident.

The companion of the suspect evaded arrest and is

still being hunted by the authorities. No amount
was reportedly lost.
6 killed in attacks vs
cops
THE PHILIPPINE National Police has blamed the New People's
Army rebels for the two ambush attacks yesterday, October 7
that killed five policemen and a security guard.

Three policemen were responding to a call about an alleged

bomb in Silang town, Cavite when they were shot dead on
Thursday afternoon, a police report said.

Two hours later, unidentified men sprayed a police checkpoint

in Olongapo City with bullets, killing two policemen and a
security guard. Two other police officers were seriously
wounded.
Authorities said they have launched an
investigation of the attacks that could be the
work of the NPA.

PNP chief Director General Edgardo Aglipay

said the communists were known to step up
their attacks just ahead of their anniversaries.

The Communist Party of the Philippines marks

its 36th anniversary on December 26.

Aglipay also noted that the communists

announced in October that they would step up
their attacks.
COMPARISON
NEWS EDITORIAL
FEATURE
1. Definition Report an event Interpretation An
essay based on facts of an event/issue
2. Main Purpose To inform To interpret To entertain using
present human
interest stories
3. Timeliness Timely Timely Timely
4. Length Short Around 300 words
Depends
(2000 computer characters)
upon the needs

5. Use of words Simple, precise, Simple, forceful

May be descriptive, concrete direct
flowery, colorful
COMPARISON
NEWS EDITORIALFEATURE

 6. Use of sentences Short, simple, May be longer May be

longer
15-25 words average
 7. Paragraph No topic sentence, With topic, With
topic
one idea, sentence longer sentence,
one paragraph longer
 8. Use of literary devices Journalistic, direct to the point, no
idioms, figures of speech/ Journalistic, direct to the point, may use
idioms, figures of speech if properly handled/ Literary, can be
journalistic; idioms, figures of speech used freely
 9. Use of adjectives/opinionUses adjectives sparingly; opinion,
never Adjectives used freely; primarily opinion As much as
desired
10. Parts Lead, (Bridge), Body Introduction
(newspeg, reaction), body, conclusion (clincher)
Introduction, body, ending
11. Style Follows style-sheet newspaper style
Follows style-sheet, newspaper style
Composition style or newspaper style
12. Structure Inverted pyramid
Hypothesis, arguments/stand on issue, conclusion
Suspended interest or pyramid structure
13. Title/Headline Short (subject-verb; telegraphic
sentence form) Shorter (at most three words)
Any length as long as it is appealing to the
reader/topic
IMAGINE THIS…

You are a reporter of a newspaper covering

a beat in the Iloilo Port Terminal. While
going home for work, you notice an old
man ferrying people across a narrow
waterway that divides the passenger
bancas from the wharf.
You have passed by him hundreds of times
before without a second thought, but
suddenly you get off your motorcycle press
and grab your notepad. You have just
spotted a feature story.
You take a candid shot of the old man
and start asking him questions about
himself, his family, his job, his odd
experience with the endless stream of
humanity that he ferries daily across the
small brook.
At home, you sit down and focus your
thoughts on the old gnarled ferryman and
study the odds and ends about him on
your notepad. You organize your material
and determine your focus of interest.
Then, you begin to write your story:
REGIE Zabalacheng has the loneliest job in town.
 Each day, he ferries hundreds of people across the Iloilo stream,
but no one bothers to say “hello,” or even give a friendly wave.

 Sabalacheng, 68, of 70 Lopez Jaena Street, Iloilo City, has been

at his job for 40 solitary years.

 “Nobody ever pays attention to me except to give me the two

peso-fare after I get them safely across the river. I know them
all by face because I see them every day but I don’t know their
names,” Zabalacheng said with a cynical grin, “I guess they
don’t know mine either.”

 “It’s not a bad job, but it sure gets lonely.”

 The story continues with more quotes from Zabalacheng, a

description of his appearance and mannerisms, anecdotes from
his 40-year career, and his family.