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.