Journalism1

1. Advance

2. Angle

3. Attribution

4. Brite & Brief

5. Caption

6. Censor

7. Cliché

8. Copyright

9. Cutoff Test

10. Defamation

11. Downstyle

12. Editorial

13. Elements of News

14. Feature

15. 5 Ws & the H

16. Format

17. Gutter

18. Inverted Pyramid

19. Kicker

20. Lede (lead)

21. Libel

22. Nameplate

23. Nut Graf

24. Plagiarism

25. Point

26. Primary head

27. Proofing

28. Secondary head

29. Tabloid

30. Transition2

TERMS

HISTORY OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM

PUBLICK OCCURRENCES- 1690

No “Freedom of the Press”

Peter Zenger Case-Printed criticisms about the governor of NYZenger charged with seditious libel

Libel is a form of defamationLibel law at the time: “The greater the truth, the greater the libel”Trial established the right of a newspaper to print the truth

3

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging

the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a

redress of grievances. ~ 1776

4

THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

of

freedomthe

press

Yellow Journalism

“You furnish the pictures. I’ll furnish the war.”

~ William Randolph Hearst

5

Based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration

Unethical, irresponsible journalism

Hoaxes, altered photos, sensational headlines

Competition between New

York Journal and New York World

Spanish-American War

Early 1900’s

THE MUCKRAKERS

Upton Sinclair

1906

“The Jungle”

These were/are journalists who exposed corruption in government and business

Term comes from “muck” on meatpacking floors — “The Jungle”McClure's Magazine (1893–1929)Unethical & illegal business dealingsFood & drug corruptionChild laborContinue into investigative journalismAutomobile safetyPolitical corruption

Ralph Nader1965

“Unsafe at Any Speed”

Bob Woodward &Carl Bernstein

Washington Post 1972

“Watergate”

Ida Tarbell1904

“The History of the

Standard Oil Company”

Types of articles

STRAIGH

T

NEWS

INVESTIGATIVE

FILLERS7

EDITORIAL

SFEATURES

SPORTS

1. Proximity

2. Timeliness

3. Prominence

4. Consequence

5. Personality, Human Interest

6. Rarity

7. Concreteness

8. Conflict

9. Change

8

Straight NewsThese are known as

The Elements of News

NewsReporting news in a straight-forward manner covering all the required facts.

The style is direct with focus on the gist of the story with other necessary points.

The news style should be concise and precise.

The facts must be crosschecked which makes the news item as authentic as possible without any media bias.

Such news pieces often cover politics and social movements.

News stories based on political suppression, public movements or abuse of human rights have proved instrumental in effecting many a social change, or giving voice to the oppressed.

Similarly, cultural events are also covered in news journalism. 9

Types of News

1. Spot story Write it quickly, clearly and simply.

2. Sidebar is a spot story that is filed as a companion piece to a running “trunk” story or series of updates on breaking news. It may be a related Alert and Newsbreak or a basic spot news story. It may cover reaction or some other development linked with a major running story.

3. Curtainraisers or previews by definition are written ahead of set-piece events – meetings, visits, elections, trials, earnings, speeches etc. 

10

Types of NewsInvestigative journalism is a primary source of information. 

Investigative journalism often focuses on investigating and exposing unethical, immoral and illegal behavior by individuals, businesses and government agencies

It can be complicated, time-consuming and expensive—requiring teams of journalists, months of research, interviews (sometimes repeated interviews) with numerous people, long-distance travel, computers to analyze public-record databases, or use of the company's legal staff to secure documents under freedom of information laws.

11

Stories that go into deeper detail than straight news

More “human”Human interestEntertainment

More creativity

12

Feature Stories

FeaturesA feature story is an insight into a trend or an issue or personality.

Usually longer forms of writing; more attention is paid to style than in straight news reports.

Must be written in a creative and interesting way. The first two paragraphs must grab the reader's attention and still convey article’s ideas

They are often combined with photographs, drawings or other "art" such as a picture, graphic, video or factbox.

They may also be highlighted by typographic effects or colors.

It uses specific examples to illustrate trends or issues and puts them in a broad framework allowing the social, economic, corporate or political implications to shine through, whether local, national or global.

A feature is essentially cross-sectoral i.e. it should appeal to anyone in a global audience of politically and financially aware readers.1

3

Types of Features1. News Feature: cover the same subjects as deadline hard-

news stories, but do so in greater depth and detail.2. Spot features are feature stories produced on deadline that

focus on a breaking news event. Often news features are used as sidebars to the mainbar, the main deadline news story about an event.

3. Profiles of prominent or unique individuals of interest to the community.

4. A “brite” or “odd” is a story which is funny, quirky or bizarre. A “bright” may also be poignant or sad and invariably involves people. Usually covered because the details were unusual.

5. Reviews: books, films, music, restaurants and more6. Q&A-type interviews7. Background for certain events or traditions8. Historical pieces that delve into the past

14

Sports

Reporting on a particular sport event.

Provides accurate facts and statistics related to that event.

Interviews with celebrity sport stars are yet one of the interesting features of sports journalism.

Although sports-lovers watch the live coverage thanks to the media, there are many people who still enjoy reading or watching in-depth details about the event.1

5

Brites

Advances

Comics

Horoscopes

Puzzles

Recipes

Other “fun” stuff 16

Fillers

NOTNews

NEWS!

Dog bites man

Man bites dog

17

5Ws & H

18

WHO?WHAT?WHEN?WHERE?WHY?

HOW?

LEDE (LEAD)

19

Almost always a single sentence

Less than 30-35 words long

Summarize the most important of the “Ws”

Limit to one central idea

“Hook” the reader

LEDE (almost always one sentence)

The most important information in the story should be in the first

few paragraphs

BODYSecondary facts of the

story

Minor factsof thestory

Inverted Pyramid

20

A “slant” to your story.

makes the purpose of the story clear and give it focus.

21

HAVE AN ANGLE

RIGHT:More than 100 people were left homeless after a tornado struck Titusville yesterday.

WRONG:Seventeen houses were flattened by a tornado that struck Titusville yesterday.

murder

forced

captured

22

BIAS/TONE

death assisted detained

HIGHLY CHARGED WORDS LESS CHARGED WORDS

BIASEDMORE

OBJECTIVE

37 feared dead in boat accident

Men heard boasting of daily shootings

Shark fin soup alters ecosystem

Oh rubbish!! Sucking up trash

Violent storms batter southeast

Groups sue over toxic toys 23

HEADLINES

Few or no articles

Action verbs only

Does the headline express the main idea of the story?

Does the headline effectively label the story's content?

Will it create reader interest?

Will it move readers into the story?

Does the headline focus match the lead focus?

Are the words short, common, colorful, powerful, specific?

Would you read a story with this headline?

 

24

HEADLINE CHECKLIST

HEADLINE TERMSTerm Meaningdownstyle

Capitalizing one the first letter of the first word and proper nouns in the headline

primary head

A headline that is larger and bolder than its accompanying headline

secondary head

A headline that is smaller and lighter than its accompanying headline (also called a kicker)

25

Craze makes comeback

Hula Hoops on a roll

Kicker / secondary

headPrimary

head

Downstyle

HEADLINE EXAMPLE

26

REALLYBad Headlines

Man stabbed 37 times-police rule out suicide

March planned for next August

Patient at death's door--doctors pull him through

Child's stool great for use in garden

Juvenile court to try shooting defendant

Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers

27

Really Bad Headlines

William Kelly, 87, was fed secretary

Iraqi head seeks arms 

Drunk gets nine months in violin case

Enraged cow injures farmer with ax

Deer kill 7,000

Local high school dropouts cut in half

Include your children when baking cookies28

Tabloid

Format

Fold

Gutter

Caption

Point 29

PARTS OF A NEWSPAPER