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.