The document discusses several key aspects of writing news stories, including: - News should be clear, concise, relevant and about current events. - News uses active voice and third person point of view. All sides of issues are presented objectively without bias. - Important news elements include proximity, prominence, timeliness, consequence, and human interest. Strong news stories have several elements. - The five Ws and one H (who, what, when, where, why, how) must be answered in every news story. Reporters obtain answers from eyewitnesses and involved parties. - News writing follows a consistent style as outlined in style guides. Copy editing ensures proper grammar, spelling and formatting.

1. NEWS BASICS
Unit One
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2. WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THE NEWS?
Unit 1: 1 News Qualities
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3. News Is...
★ clear
★ easy to understand
★ concise
★ to the point
★ relevant
★ what is happening in the world
TODAY.
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4. What makes news... news?
★News is written in ACTIVE
voice
★Active voice uses the
structure of Subject-Verb-
Object
★Subject always comes before
the verb and object
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5. What is unique about the news?
★News is written in ACTIVE
voice
★The opposite of active voice
is passive voice
★In passive voice, the subject
is last in the sentence
★The person, place, or thing
(noun) who performed the
action is placed at the end of a
sentence as if he received the
action rather than caused it.
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6. Active Voice
★ACTIVE Example: The
businessman (subject) hit
(verb) the envelope (object)
★PASSIVE: The envelope
(object) was hit (verb) by the
businessman (subject)
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7. News is about facts
The SOURCE of the facts is
always identified
★Identifying the source is called
attribution
★Reporters find and identify
authentic sources
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8. Opinion
Opinion in a news story:
★ Never that of the reporter
★ Clearly attributed to a person involved
in the event
Example: John Smith, 43,1234 Oak
Lane,Clarksville, said, “The accident
was one of the worst I have ever seen
in my life.”
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9. Objective
★It is OBJECTIVE
★All sides of an issue are
equally presented
★The reporter takes great
care to present all sides of an
issue without favoring one or
the other
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10. Writing News
★News is written in THIRD
person
★Never uses “I, me, or
my” (FIRST person)
★Never uses “you” (SECOND
person)
★Uses names of sources and
avoids the use of pronouns
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11. Third Person vs.
First/Second Person
★Correct: Third Person
★Assistant Principal John
Garza estimated that about
50 students attended the fall
dance. The school gym
capacity is 1500. Marcella
Johnson said “the music is
boring and that is why no one
came.”
★ Incorrect: First or Second
Person
I don’t think there were more
than 50 students at the fall
dance. You could have easily
found a place to sit and “enjoy”
the boring music.
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12. NEWS ELEMENTS
Unit 1: 2
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13. News Elements
★ The news elements are used to
determine if an activity or event is
newsworthy.
★ Is this event valuable enough to
get space in our newspaper or on our
broadcast?
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14. Proximity
★Events that happen in the
same place or location as the
news organization are more
valuable to the people who
live there
★LOCAL news/events
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15. Prominence
★Events that involve very
important people have more
news value
★Celebrities, elected officials,
millionaires
★People who are famous
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16. Timeliness
★Events that are happening
NOW are far more
interesting than those that
happened a long time ago
★The attention span of the
public is very short
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17. Consequence
★How MANY people will be
interested in this story?
★The greater NUMBER of
people affected or involved,
the greater the value of the
story
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18. Human Interest
★Stories that evoke strong
reactions or feelings
★Stories of human triumph
and tragedy
★Stories that lift our spirits
★Stories that bring us to the
depths of human feelings
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19. Strong News Stories Will Have
★Several of the news elements
★Many news elements
(especially front page or lead
broadcast stories)
★(News elements help editors
make decisions)
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20. The News Questions
★The 5 W’s and the H
★Must be answered in every
news story
★WHO
★WHAT
★WHEN
★WHERE
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21. The news questions
★The reporter should get the
answers to these questions
first:
★Who was involved?
★Full name spelled correctly
★What happened?
★When did it happen or
when will it happen?
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22. The News Questions
★The reporter should get
answers from those in the
event.
★Where? Get the exact address
★Why? Retrieved from
witnesses
★How? Provide quotes from
several viewpoints.
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23. WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THE NEWS?
Unit 1: 3 Copy Editing
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24. News Style
★News must be written in a
consistent style
★Stylebooks provide
guidelines for news writers
and editors
★The Associated Press
Stylebook and Libel Manual
is the most common
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25. Copy Editing
★Copy - The word used in
journalism for printed words
★Stories
★Captions
★Sidebar information
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