Journalism Midterm

3 main categories of news releases

1)Announcements of coming events 2)Information about a cause 3)Information meant to build someone's or some organization's image

Forms of Citizen Journalism

1)Audience participation: user comments attached to news stories written by members of the community 2)Independent news or information websites: sites published by those not normally associated by with traditional media 3)Participatory news sites: Readers get to publish their work with the assistance of professional editors 4)Collaborative and contributory news sites: sites based on reader comments and contributions 5)Thin media: mailing lists/ newsletters 6)Personal broadcasting sites: operators provide news-based subject matter in a specific area, resulting in downloadable audio and video

Attributing quotations

1)If a direct quote is more than one sentence long, place the attribution at the end of the first sentence 2)If direct quotes from two different speakers follow one another, start the second with its attribution 3)Separate partial quotes and complete quotes 4)The first time you attribute a quote, identify the speaker fully 5)Attribute direct quotes to only one person 6)Do not make up a source 7)In stories covering past events, use the past tense in attributions and use it throughout the story 8)Place the noun or pronoun before the verb in attributions

Use the information if one or more of the following is true:

1)Info is a matter of public record 2)Generally known 3)Available from several sources 4)You are a witness

Things Journalism Grads Should Know

1)Knowledge of the web 2)Differences between web and print content 3)Video skills 4)Familiarity with mobile devices 5)Understanding of audiences 6)Understanding of web analytics

Bias in a News Story

1)Leave personal bias out of the story 2)Use neutral language

Accuracy in a News Story

1)Make sure facts are correct 2)Verify facts with multiple sources 3)Use reliable sources for statistics 4)Use facts as the substance of the story 5)Include all necessary facts

Accuracy in Commentaries

1)Make sure facts are correct 2)Include all facts needed to prove a point of view 3)Possibly leave out facts that don't support the argument but ideally provide context or ideas that explain the facts

10 Journalism Principles

1)Obligation to truth 2)First loyalty to citizens 3)Discipline to verification 4)Practitioners must maintain independence from those they cover 5)Journalism must serve as an independent monitor of power 6)Provide a forum of public criticism and compromise 7)Strive to make the significant interesting and relevant 8)Keep news comprehensive and proportional 9)Practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience 10)Citizens have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news

Fairness in a News Story

1)Provide context for facts 2)Give all relevant sides of a story 3)Strive for balance

Fairness in Commentaries

1)Provide context for facts 2)Use facts and reason to persuade the audience of a point of view 3)Appeal to emotion, but not by distorting the facts

Bias in Commentaries

1)Support pe4rsonal bias with facts and reasoning 2)Acknowledge and rebut other points of view 3)Use civil language, not highly charged language or personal attacks

Problems with commercial database services

1)copyright laws must be obeyed 2)not all articles from newspaper appear in database 3)publication doesn't ensure accuracy 4)the reporter might not be credible 5)databases aren't infallible

Sample outline

1)lead 2)nut paragraph 3)foreshadowing 4)transition back to the beginning 5)the body 6)ending

Order of people a story goes through

1)reporter 2)city editor 3)news editor 4)copy desk chief 5)copy editor 6)copy desk chief

Strategic communication

A combination of advertising and public relations that increasingly is in demand

Immediate identification lead

A lead focusing mainly on who the story is about, usually when it's about a famous person.

Sample

A small number of people picked at random to represent the population as a whole

Open-ended question

Allow the respondent some flexibility

Webcast

Audio or video report published online

Spot News

Breaking news that occurred today.

News Editor

Decides on placement of story in newspaper, forwards story to copy desk chief for implementation of instructions

Closed-ended questions

Designed to elicit a specific response

Podcast

Digital audio file that can be posted on a news website and downloaded by listeners

City Editor

Edits story, returns to reporter for changes or additional detail, forwards story to news editor

Engagement

Engaging the public in the news.

Timeliness

Events should be reported as they happen.

Proportion to numbers in the news

Explaining things relative to the size of the whole

Libel

False report

Web analytics specialist

Finds ways to expand the audience of a website

Citizen Journalism

Gathering and reporting of the news by non-journalists

Reporter

Gathers facts, writes the story, verifies accuracy, forwards to city editor

Interviewing

Having conversations with sources

Proximity

How does it relate to the reader's community?

Impact

How many people are affected by an event or idea? How seriously does it affect them? Heavier the impact, better the story.

Feature

Introduces or helps us understand people who are making the news

Attribution

Involves giving the name of, and sometimes other identifying information about, the source of a quotation or paraphrase material

Nut paragraph

Is a paragraph that gives the theme of the story and summarizes key facts

Journalists Responsibility in Democracy

Journalists report the news Journalists monitor power Journalists uncover justice Journalists tell compelling stories that delight us and some that dismay us Journalists sustain communities Journalists set the record straight.

Obscenities

Language that is in some way lewd or indecent

Slug

Name of a story

Morgue

News archive

Inverted pyramid

News story structure putting most important information in first paragraph

Novelty

Newsworthy because unusual or bizarre.

Dialogue

Occurs when two or more sources are speaking to one another

Commentary

Opinion

Copy editor

Polishes writing of story, checks for missing or inaccurate detail, writes headline, returns to copy desk chief for final check

Copy desk chief

Prepares page design, forwards to copy editor, after copy editor, verifies story is trimmed as necessary and has correct headline, transmits page to typesetting equipment

Elements of a good news story

Relevance Usefulness Interest

Solutions

Report not only about problems but about solutions too.

Community engagement editor

Responsible for coordinating efforts of a legacy media outlet to connect with the public

Web Producer

Responsible for creating content for a website

Web designer

Responsible for the design of a website

Summary lead

Several important points highlighted in the lead rather than highlighting a specific action

Lead

Simple statement consisting of the most important information, first paragraph or two of the story.

Secondary sources

Someone who talked to a witness, such as a public safety official, lawyer, or next-door neighbor

Hard News

Straightforward reporting of a news event

Conflict

Struggles between people, among nations, or with natural forces.

Prominence

The bigger the name, the bigger the news. (Celebrities)

Convergence

The effort to use different strengths of different media to reach broader audiences.

Direct quotes

The exact words that a source says or writes

Sound bite

The few seconds of words with accompanying video that convey not only information but also emotion

Investigative reporting

The pursuit of information that has been concealed, such as evidence of wrongdoing

Primary Sources

Those who witnessed the event or have authority over documents

Sidebar

When story coverage of a single event is broken into a main story and a shorter story, which is the sidebar.

Delayed identification lead

When the person or organization isn't well known so exact names and locations aren't featured in the lead.

Vulgarities

Words primarily referring to excretory matters; coarse, crude

Profanities

Words used irreverently to refer to a deity or to beings, places or objects that people regard as divine or sacred; cursing

Not for attribution

You can use the information but with no reference as to its source

Off the record

You may not use this information

Background

You may use it with a general title for a source

Deep background

You may use the information, but you may not indicate any source

Paraphrase

You use your own words to communicate the speaker's meaning

Tie-back

a reference to something that appears at or near the beginning of the story

Service Journalism

attempt to present information in the most useable way

News Narrative

combines inverted pyramid and chronology

Analysis Journalism

explains what the hard news means to the people reading it

"You" lead

lead telling why reader's should care

Parallelism

repetition of a word or grammatical form

Multiple-element lead

when two or more actions are of equal importance. Used when one theme is too restrictive. Used when actions can be relayed within the confines of one, clear, simple sentence. Usually use parallel structures.