Writing the News Story

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Chapter 4

• Writing the News Story

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• What are some big recent news stories? What
  makes them newsworthy?
• Elements of news (Examples of stories that have
  these elements?)
• Timeliness Proximity significance conflict
  prominence .. human interest.
• Visual aspect what sort of stories have good
  visual appeal?
• How could you make a story about inflation (Say,
  high gas prices) visual? See p. 81.

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• Leads (p. 83)
• Summary leads alert viewers to what story is
  about and indicate why they should be interested
  (Detroit may be without fire protection by six
  o clock tomorrow morning.)
• Hard-news lead contains essential facts of the
  story.
• Soft-news lead . Used on feature stories. More
  literary, relaxed style of writing.

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• Freshening the story
• How can you write stories so that they sound
  fresh, up to date?
• Delay reference to past events (see example, p.
  86)
• Updating your stories
• Important to rewrite stories from newscast to
  newscast
• As new information develops, where does it go in
  the story? (p. 87)

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• Localizing
• How can you localize national or international
  stories?
• Communicating effectively
• Broadcast news writing is conversational use
  contractions. Sound like your TALKING to (or
  with) viewers/listeners, not READING to them.
• Writing must relate to the listener/viewer
  what does this mean? Answer the fundamental
  question, What does this have to do with me?
• Avoid overusing the pronoun you.

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• Good (creative) writing requires writer to
  re-write extensively.
• Writing has to make sense viewer/listener must
  UNDERSTAND the story. Focus on essential details
  who, what, when, where, why, how.
• Of the above, which are the most impotant?

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• Writing must be technically correct announcers
  must be able to read it without stumbling.
• Writing must be accurate.
• One of the best ways to test your copy is to READ
  IT OUT LOUD.