Transcript Chapter 4

Chapter 4
Writing the News Story
• 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.
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.
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)
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.”
• 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?
• 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.