Journalism Linda Carty ENGL 668 April 15, 2013. How to Write a News Story: Associated Press Style...
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Journalism Linda Carty ENGL 668 April 15, 2013
Transcript of Journalism Linda Carty ENGL 668 April 15, 2013. How to Write a News Story: Associated Press Style...
Journalism
Linda Carty
ENGL 668
April 15, 2013
How to Write a News Story: Associated Press Style
• When writing a journalism news story, follow Associated Press Style usage rules.
• www.apstylebook.com/online • A newspaper story is written in the shape of an inverted pyramid.
• The heavier, more important news is at the top of the pyramid, at the start of the story.
Writing a News Story
• Information gradually becomes lighter, less important toward the end of the story, at the point of the pyramid
• Inverted pyramid
Lead with a Lead
• Begin your story with a lead, a hook that will catch your reader’s attention. The lead is the introductory section of the news story that is intended to entice the reader to read the full story. The lead gives the reader the main points of the story, and gets the reader interested, in as few words as possible, 34 to 40 words. Included in the lead: who, what, where, when, why, how.
After you have written your lead…
• After you have written your lead, expand on the information covered in the lead.
• While writing this story, you must simultaneously write a follow-up story, keeping in mind the causes and consequences of this story.
• Your editor will give you a specific number of words for the story.
• You will have to write this story and submit it to your editor by a deadline.
News Services• The Associated Press (AP) (www.ap.org) was founded in 1846,
by five newspapers, to bring news about the United States’ war with Mexico, via pony express, to its main office in New York City. The Associated Press was the first to publish the news of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Today, the A.P. has journalists in 300 locations in 100 countries. Thirty A.P. journalists have been killed while covering stories.
• United Press International (UPI) www.upi.org was founded in 1907 and has its main office in Washington, D.C.
• http://www.reuters.com/ Reuters, started by Paul Reuter and established in 1851, is an international news service with its headquarters in London.
Journalism/Journalist
• Journalism n (1828) The collection of news and the editing of news for presentation through the media.
• Journalism School concerned with training journalists in the collection and editing of news writing designed for publication in a newspaper or news magazine.
• Journalist n (1693) A person who works in the field of journalism collecting and editing the news.
Two Important Schools of Journalism
• http://journalism.missouri.edu/
• http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/
Journalism 101
• Johannes Gutenberg, in 1578, invented the movable type printing press, a machine that produced printed copies. It is from the printing press that journalism gets its name, press.
• Press n The act or process of printing. A printing or publishing establishment.
• Freedom of the Press is protected in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
• Freedom of the Press is essential in our democratic society because journalists question authority and expose corruption. If we did not have freedom of the press, journalists would be silenced.
WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHY? HOW?• Journalism is nonfiction. • Unbiased journalism news reporting is about the facts and
answers these questions: • Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?• Journalists conduct research on their stories before conducting
any interviews• To avoid bias, journalists need to interview as many people as
possible, for multiple points of view on their subjects. During the interviews, journalists double check information for accuracy by asking the persons interviewed if names are spelled correctly and to clarify information for accuracy.
Journalists also write stories about…
• In addition to writing news stories, journalists also create political cartoons; write opinions; write stories about health and medicine; the weather, the arts, sports, business, the economy, politics, education, science, and technology.
Beat Reporter
• If you are a beat reporter, you are assigned to a specific entity, such as the state legislature, the local school board, the county court house, or the city police station, and you will write breaking news stories.
• People on beats usually develop reliable sources within the entities they cover.
• Crime beat reporters develop sources within the police department who will inform the reporter about a crime scene, so the journalist is the first reporter at the scene to cover the story.
Newspaper PublisherWilliam Randolph Hearst
• Yellow Journalism n Featuring sensational or scandalous items or ordinary news sensationally distorted.
• William Randolph Hearst, an American newspaper publisher, with a reputation for publishing yellow journalism, was known for his quote: “You furnish me the pictures, and I’ll furnish you the war.” Hearst reportedly said this in 1897 to artist Fredric Remington while Remington was in Cuba covering the Spanish American war.
William Randolph Hearst Quotes
Try to be conspicuously accurate in everything, pictures as well as text. Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more interesting.”
William Randolph Hearst quote
Putting out a newspaper without promotion is like winking at a girl in the dark -- well-intentioned, but ineffective.”
William Randolph Hearst quote
Newspaper Publisher Joseph Pulitzer
• Joseph Pulitzer was a newspaper publisher who began the Pulitzer Prize to recognize outstanding journalism.
• www.pulitzer.org
• Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.
Joseph Pulitzer
Old Media Evolves into New Media
• The Washington Post http://washingtonpost.com• The New York Times http://nytimes.com• The Wall Street Journal http://wsj.com• Time http://time.com• Newsweek http://newsweek.com• Newsweek is an example of how old media is becoming
obsolete: Newsweek, an old media/new media entity, eliminated its old media/offline print version on December 31, 2012, and only has its new media/online version.
New New Media• New new media had its origins online
• Huggington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
• YouTube http://www.youtube.com/
• Facebook www.facebook.com
• Twitter https://twitter.com/
News Article: Sink Hole in Florida
Follow-up Story: Sink Hole in Florida
Political Cartoon: Based On Sink Hole News Story
Health/Medical: Writer’s Cramp
Weather: Scientists Study a Tornado
Weather: Winter Storm Blows
Weather: 1961 Winter(and Gasoline Prices)
Obituary: Stanley Karnow, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist
Obituary: Mildred Dalton Manning, World War II Army Nurse & Prisoner of War
Technology News
Technology News
Asteroid in the News
Meteor in the News
Follow-up on Asteroid & Meteor
The Arts in the News
International News• Malala Yousafzai
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/malala-yousafzai-speaks-18405032
• http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12859• On October 9, 2012, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head
and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus In the days immediately following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, but later her condition improved enough for her to be sent to a hospital in the United Kingdom for intensive rehabilitation.
Malala Writes Her Story• By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News• The memoir of 15-year-old Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai will be published
this fall, publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson announced Wednesday. The deal is reportedly worth about $3 million.
• Titled "I Am Malala," the book will tell the story of the young advocate for women's education who was shot in the face at point-blank range by Taliban gunmen on Oct. 9 in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.
•Follow @NBCNewsWorld
• The bullet passed through her head, neck and stuck in her shoulder but miraculously spared her life.
• Malala was treated in England following the attack, and last month she underwent skull reconstruction surgery.
• "I hope the book will reach people around the world, so they realize how difficult it is for some children to get access to education," Malala said in a news release. "I want to tell my story, but it will also be the story of 61 million children who can't get education. I want it to be part of the campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school. It is their basic right."
Reporting on Religion: Pope Benedict XVI Retires
Follow-up Story: Pope Benedict XVI to be Emeritus Pope
Opinion: Peggy Noonan’s Response to the Pope’s Retirement
Political Cartoon: Based uponPope Benedict’s Retirement
Follow-up Story: Election of New Pope
Follow-up Story: New Pope’s Name will be Francis
(after Saint Francis of Assisi)
Opinion Cartoon: Commentary on New Pope’s Name Francis (Advocate for the Poor) vs. Goliath (Economic Inequality)
Opinion based upon the Pope stories
How to Read a Newspaper
• When reading a news story, highlight the who, what, where, when, why, and how. Look for bias in the story.
• When reading an opinion/editorial piece, try to determine the writer’s opinion; is the writer for something? Against something?
• When reading a political cartoon, try to interpret the cartoon. Upon which current event or person is the cartoon commenting?
Can You Find These in Your Newspaper?
• Byline: A byline in the reporter’s name who wrote the story. The byline is placed at the beginning of the story
• Photos: Photographers take photographs that help tell the story• Ads: Ads are created by people who know how to write them
to attract customers• Index: Newspapers have an index on page one• Jump: Find a jump that tells you where a story is continued• Folio Line: Find the folio line at the top of each page, giving
the name of the paper and the date• Headlines are at the beginning of stories • Captions help us make sense of the photographs
