WRITING A NEWS STORY

  News is an update on the happening around us. As the terms suggests News is any newpiece of information. It can be the details on a current event, on going projects or it can be on future projects. 

A newspaper publishes the back ground information, analyses and criticizes the details to interpret it for the society. There is something called “news worthiness”. There are several factors that decide the news worthiness of news. 

They are 

1. RELEVANCE How important is the news for the audience is an important question. An event of Canada might be irrelevant news for an Indian who would prefer a more local news. The news should be of a current issue. 

2. TIMELINESS : Recent event or upcoming events are likely to be news. 

3. IMPORTANCE, IMPACT OR CONSEQUENCE. How important is the news to the reader. Issues of social concern come under this category.

 4. PROMINENCE : The news of public figures are likely to be of interest than non-public figures. 

5. PREDICTABILITY : Certain events like elections, major sporting events, award announcements, legal decisions etc are predictable.

 6. UNEXPECTEDNESS : Events like natural disasters, accidents or crimes are completely unpredictable. 

7. CONTINUITY : Some events like wars, elections, protests and strikes require continuing coverage. These events are likely to remain news for along time. 

8. HUMAN INTEREST STORIES: Editors should know the response of the audience. The editor should select high interest stories to balance out other hard hitting investigating stories. 

9.` NEGATIVITY : The news should make an impact on the reader. So there is a normal trend of publishing negative news. 

10. THE UNUSUAL : Strange and unusual stories are likely to receive reader’s interest. Readers expect their newspapers to be accurate sources of information. A straight news story is supposed to be objective and fair. The news story has a structure. It has an inverted pyramid structure. The news story has a particular writing style. The summary of the news is the introductory paragraph. The details are given in the body of the news and the story is concluded with minor details. Every news story has a Headline. 

HEADLINE. There should be a simple and direct headline that can attract the reader. The head line usually has a logical sentence structure, written in an active voice in the present tense of the verb. 

 The Lead : The lead or opening paragraph is the most important part of a news story. It is the first paragraph of a news story. It gives the reader important details and the summary of the news. There are several ways to write a lead. 

1. The Five W s’ and “H” :- the lead should explain the what, why, when, which, where and how of things. 

2. Specificity : Try to give specific details about the news. 

3. Brevity : Readers should be told why a news is important and in few words as possible. Avoid unintentional redundancy. Go right to the heart of the story. 

4. Active Sentences : Use active sentences to make the lead lively.

 5. Honesty : The lead should be a honest portrayal of the story.