Journalism Midterm Exam Study Guide

proximity

- "Proximity" is the word journalists use to mean, this happened here. - This focuses on stories that concern local interests. The closer the story hits home, the more important the news is - Occasionally local papers will report on news stories from elsewhere, but will focus on the local angle - that is, the part of the story that could be of interest to the local population of readers.

citizen journalism

- "The collection, dissemination, and analysis of news and information by the general public, especially by means of the Internet." -Oxford Dictionary "...separates citizen journalism from pure observation is the use of the net as an avenue to either aid or circumvent traditional media outlets and spread the news independently. Average Joes can take their own photos, record their own video and recount a story through blogs or other social media, often more quickly than a media organization can begin to report and in a more organic way than is usually presented by mainstream media." -Adweek.com - When looking at online news use combined - the percentage of Americans who get news often from either news websites or social media - the web has closed in on television as a source for news (43% of adults get news often from news websites or social media, compared with 49% for television). Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/ 2018/12/10/social-media-outpaces-print -newspapers-in-the-u-s-as-a-news-sour ce/

(3) Transitions

- ARE VERY IMPORTANT - they hold the story together. Link the paragraphs, building bridges of understanding for your readers. - Provide organization and flow. There are three types of transitions: - the Fact - the Indirect Quote The Partial Quote.

Walter Cronkite

- American journalist and pioneer of television news programming who became known as "the most trusted man in America." - He was the longtime anchor of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (1962-81), for which he reported on many of the most historic events of the latter half of the 20th century. - In 1968 he left the anchor desk to report from Vietnam on the aftermath of the Tet Offensive. Upon his return Cronkite departed from his usual objectivity, declaring that the war could end only in a protracted stalemate. - U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson told his staff, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America," and some held that Johnson's decision not to run for reelection that year was a direct result of Cronkite's reporting.

Nellie Bly

- American journalist whose around-the-world race against a fictional record brought her world renown. - In 1887 she went to work for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. - One of her first undertakings for that paper was to get herself committed to the asylum on Blackwell's (now Roosevelt) Island by feigning insanity. Her exposé of conditions among the patients, published in the World and later collected in Ten Days in a Mad House (1887), precipitated a grand-jury investigation of the asylum and helped bring about needed improvements in patient care.

William Randolph Hearst

- American newspaper publisher who built up the nation's largest newspaper chain and whose methods profoundly influenced American journalism. - As editor of The San Francisco Examiner, William Randolph Hearst adopted a sensational brand of reporting later known as "yellow journalism," with sprawling banner headlines and hyperbolic stories, many based on speculation and half-truths. About one quarter of the page space was devoted to crime stories, but the paper also conducted investigative reports on government corruption and negligence by public institutions.

Benjamin Franklin

- As publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette, Franklin established a style of journalism that became the foundation for modern American news coverage.

Bylines

- Bylines come directly underneath the headline and this is where you place your name. - You want this font to be significantly smaller than the headline. Write the byline as: - By [Your Name] - This should not be bolded. This should be in size 10 font.

Format (w/headline)

- Depending on the news publication and space available for a story, a news story can be published in one, two, or three columns. - The columns of a news story are called legs. - There isn't necessarily a standard font for newspapers, but Helvetica, Arial, and Times New Roman all work. Choose one that is easy to read! - Likewise, font size is variable. A good starting point (for our purposes) is to put your article in size 12 font, the headline in size 22, and your byline in size 10. - This is negotiable, but each font should coincide with each section of the story. - 3-Columns (legs) - 1.15-Line Spacing - Size 12 Font - Columns - Arial, Helvetica or Times New Roman-Font -Byline = Not Bolded; Size 10 Font - No extra space between grafs - Indent first sentence of each graf - May add/include a picture with a caption for aesthetic/visual effect

James Gordon Bennett

- Devoted attention particularly to the gathering of news - Sent small boats out to intercept oceangoing vessels for news - Initiated the society page; an antiquated version of "celebrity" gossip which dealt with aristocratic "goings-on" - Was the first to use the telegraph extensively for news coverage; helped established "breaking news" in real-time - Insisted that advertisers change their ads frequently, a policy that skyrocketed - consumer sales and caused merchants seeking similar results to flock to the Herald.

Conflict

- Disagreements and controversy make news - Readers love stories that provide a debate or reveal a difference of opinion especially on issues important to them. Example: -Greta Thungburg's U.N. climate speech and the discourse it provoked about climate change as well as youth activism

DO'S of lead writing

- Don't forget the basics. If you're stuck for a lead, ask which of the 6 W's is the most important question for this story. - Focus on the strongest element of the story. - State the news as concisely as possible. -Make it brief and enticing, capturing the essence of your story in a few words. - Good news leads are usually structured so as to use subject-verb-object word order. - The best verbs for leads are active verbs. Example of a sentence NOT in active voice (written in passive voice): The ball was thrown at 100 miles per hour by the pitcher. - Good example of a sentence THAT IS CORRECTLY written in ACTIVE VOICE: The pitcher threw the ball at 100 miles per hour. Stress the unusual aspects of a story. "News" is, by definition, something that deviates from the usual. - Emphasize the magnitude of the story. - Focus on reader impact. Entice the reader. Does your lead tell the reader why this story is important to her? If not, should it? - Keep a news lead objective - Include as many adjectives and adverbs as possible. - Write complete sentences. - Write the way people talk. Your reading audience will be comprised of a wide-range of people! -Good example of a lead (a hard lead): A West Windsor-Plainsboro High School student is a millionaire today. - Good example of a lead (a soft lead): If you like to grub lunch money, then today there's a student you definitely won't want to miss.

The Indirect/Paraphrase Quote Transition

- Example: Parent Raquel Simones said the school should not compromise student safety simply to give teachers fewer papers to grade.

Partial quote transition

- Example: Reeves said Figgs has done "an outstanding job" since she took over in the nurse's office.

False light

- False light refers to the portrayal of someone inaccurately to the point that they are embarrassed and a reasonable person would be offended. Examples: - If you use a photo of students eating lunch to illustrate a story on food fights. -A caption published with a photograph in a news article about a protest describes a person as a participant, when in fact, the person was only observing the protest.

James Franklin

- He was a printer who also founded The New England Courant - considered the second newspaper in America. Ben Franklin published under a pseudonym, and his brother James was later arrested and imprisoned for his brother's subject-matter for expressing opposition of a political nature.

Headline

- Headlines advertise a story to readers. Each competes with all the others for the reader's attention, so without an effective one, chances are the writer's days of research, writing, and rewriting will be wasted because few people, if any, will stop to read the story. - Headline writing is one of the most important, if not the most difficult of the journalist's jobs, one done all too often up against the inevitable pressure of a final deadline. -Lure the reader into the story - Retell the story accurately by summarizing the news - Reflect the tone of the story - Serious news stories should have a serious headline - Follow generally accepted rules -SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT = HEADLINE Example: - President approves education budget -Are honest and accurate to the details of the story -Use S-V-O and active voice - Use present tense for past and present events and use future tense for future events. - Omit any filler words, such as "a," "an," "the" - Use a comma in place of "and" - Use single quotes for titles i.e. 'Macbeth' - Do not have periods at the end - Use only widely known abbreviations - Avoid the repetition of the same word - Use facts from the lead itself -The headline should also be flush left, starting at the left margin of the story and running fully to the right margin (or as long as the headline requires) - Headlines are written in downstyle - only capitalize the first letter and proper nouns. -Headline = Bold, Size 22 Font (refer to rules of headline writing)

intrusion

- Intrusion refers a reporters' behavior while and methods for gathering the news refers to when/where/how news can (and cannot) be appropriately gathered. - Intrusion protects your right to privacy while you are in solitude or seclusion. Examples: - it is illegal for a neighbor to peek through your windows or take pictures of you in your home. - The use of electronic equipment to eavesdrop on a private conversation.

Appropriation

- Involves the commercial exploitation of someone's name or image. - Appropriation of name or likeness laws protect your right to control the use of your own identity for business or economic purposes. This is often a problem in advertising. Example: - A celebrity could sue a hair salon for appropriation if that salon used that celebrity's image to promote their services

Inverted Pyramid Structure

- Lead contains most of the 6 W's -Interesting facts and colorful details are found in the body of the story. - Least important info is found at the bottom of the story

Muckraker

- Muckraker are any group of American writers who identified with pre-World War I reform and exposé literature. -The muckrakers provided detailed, accurate journalistic accounts of the political and economic corruption and social hardships caused by the power of big business in a rapidly industrializing United States. - In short, they sought to counter "yellow journalism" and to hold society and politicians accountable.

DON'TS of lead writing

- News leads generally should not start with the attribution (i.e. "Someone said...") - No OLD news! Do not include facts that are obvious or routine; avoid what has already happened, and start with what is going on now or in the future. - Do not emphasize what did not happen or exaggerate the facts to make them more interesting. - Avoid vague phrases. If your lead starts with (or uses) vague phrases such as "there are" or "it is," see if you can rewrite it with strong, specific subjects and verbs. - No past tense! - No names of people in the lead, unless the person is a well-known figure/common knowledge. No numbers - Don't treat your lead as a suitcase into which you will cram as much as you can fit - Bad example of a lead: Dan Broughton, who is a local student, won a contest yesterday, and received one million, 200 thousand dollar

Obscenity

- Obscenity is a legal concept used to characterize certain material as offensive to the public sense of decency. - A wholly satisfactory definition of obscenity is elusive - as in, it is hard to define! Note: - Materials can be offensive without being obscene. -In its ruling on the 1973 case of Miller v. California, the Supreme Court established the "Miller test," also called the three-prong obscenity test, for deciding what types of material qualified as obscene. It has three parts: - Whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards", would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to indecent (sexual) matters , - Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct...specifically defined as obscene under state law. - Whether the material... lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Attributions (2)

- Put the attribution after the first sentence when the quote is multiple sentences. - DO NOT start a quote with the attribution. - Attribution should be noun + verb. Correct: - Vice Principal Bill Smith said. - Incorrect: Said Vice Principal Bill Smith.

Edward R. Murrow

- Radio and television broadcaster who was the most influential and esteemed figure in American broadcast journalism during its formative years. He joined CBS in 1935 and was sent to London in 1937 to head the network's - European Bureau. Murrow's highly reliable and dramatic eyewitness reportage of: - the German occupation of Austria and the Munich Conference in 1938 - the German takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1939 the Battle of Britain during World War II brought him national fame and marked radio journalism's coming of age.

Direct Quotes (1)

- Select the most important, compelling, interesting quote to put first in your story. - Quotes should be linked to the paragraph before them. The quote should elaborate on the detail of the previous paragraph. - Should not be dry, basic facts or description that you can observe with your own eyes. Instead, quotes should add opinion, emotion, and life to the story. Should not repeat the transition before them. For example: - Figgs said most of her job is distributing prescribed medicine to students. - "Most of what I do is distribute medicine to students," she said. - Can be longer than one sentence. Do not place two different people's direct quotes next to each other without a transition.

Consequences/Impact

- Some news has a direct impact on people's lives (The impact of the story quickly establishes the importance of the piece to the reader) - The content of the story reveals that there are consequences that the reader should be aware of Example: The mayor passes a law that will increase local property taxes; there's been a ban on plastic bags at the supermarket; an evening curfew has been implemented, etc...

prominence

- Some people make the news because they are important, some because they are interesting. - News tends to report on human behavior and audiences like well-know humans. - Examples: 6ix9ine's court trial, Ariana Grande's newest

Currency

- Stories that capture the public's interest in some way and are of high interest to the public - Some stories dominate for an intense day or week, others remain current for a wide range of time. Examples: - Stories about vaping laws/vaping bans, stories about President Trump, stories about athletes and their sports contracts, etc.

Timeliness

- The "when" of a story that encourages journalists to produce a timely coverage. News stories require immediacy in reporting to keep the public informed - News organizations compete to be the first to report these stories - and each subsequent development/new piece of information that emerges. - Papers that do not publish daily tend to lack timeliness as the news was likely reported elsewhere, and the public is already aware (to some extent) of that story - Examples: A bridge collapse resulted in fatalities and injuries

Fact Transition

- The Fact Transition Example: After long-time school nurse Ema Stilton died in a car accident in December, part-time teacher aide Betty Figgs covered Stilton's responsibilities. Impressed with Figgs' competence, Reeves proposed keeping Figgs to avoid hiring a new nurse. With the savings, Reeves wants to hire a new teacher — a move supported by teachers.

invasion of privacy

- The intrusion into the personal life of another, without just cause -Public personas (such as politicians and celebrities) are not protected in most situations, since they have placed themselves already within the public eye, and their activities (even personal and sometimes intimate) are considered newsworthy, i.e. of legitimate public interest

public disclosure

- The publication of accurate information regarded as private. - For example, publicizing facts about a personal illness, financial troubles or old criminal records would all likely be an invasion of privacy. This issue centers on the questions of: - Does this info concern the private rather than public life of the individual? - Is this information newsworthy? - Does the public need to know this information?

L-T-Q-T format (4)

- The remainder of a hard news story should use what is called the L-Q-T-Q formula, which stands for lead, quote, transition, quote. After you write a lead with as many of the 6Ws, your second graf should fill in any remaining crucial details, your third graf should be a quote, and your fourth graf should be a transition. The rest of the story should alternate between quotes and transitions until you reach the kicker! -The lead, remaining essential details, and the first quote start off the first three grafs of the story. - Lead: A high school Principal has proposed the hiring of a part-time teacher as the school's new nurse on Thursday at West Roxbury High School after being brought in as a temporary placeholder. - Second Graf: After long-time school nurse Emma Stilton died in a car accident in December, part-time teacher aide Betty Figgs covered Stilton's responsibilities. Impressed with Figgs' competence, Principal Stella Reeves proposed keeping Figs instead of hiring a new nurse. With the savings, Reeves wants to hire a new teacher — a move supported by teachers - Third graf with Quote: "I thought the parents would jump on board with this proposal," Reeves said. "It will decrease our class sizes and benefit students directly."

Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

- The story intrigued two young reporters on The Post's staff, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward who were called in to work on the story. As Woodward's notes show, he learned from police sources that the men came from Miami, wore surgical gloves and carried thousands of dollars in cash. It was, said one source, "a professional type operation." -Watergate coverage, especially at The Post, also raised questions about the use of anonymous sources. - Much of what Bernstein and Woodward uncovered about Nixon's cover-up attempt about the crimes committed during Watergate was from an unnamed source, later to be identified as an FBI director. - Nixon sought to retaliate against the press in response to leaks made during Watergate investigations; one such form of retaliation was to wiretap phone conversations of several journalists who were perceived as particular threats.

human intrest

- These stories tap into the humanity of their subjects - Readers focus on the feelings these stories evoke as they read Example: - A homeless woman receives a record deal after being filmed singing

Viewtron

- Viewtron was an early telephone-based information service by AT&T and media company Knight Ridder in 1983. - The system could provide weather reports, news, stock prices, and other info through a video terminal that was connected to a modem. It was expensive, slow, and ultimately canceled in 1986. - This was a precursor to the age of social media, but has a similar premise - instant news delivered in a digital manner.

Yellow Journalism

- Yellow journalism is the use of lurid features and sensationalized news in newspaper publishing to attract readers and increase circulation. - The phrase was coined in the 1890s to describe the tactics employed in furious competition between two New York City newspapers, The World and The Journal. (Hearst v. Pulitzer)

John Dickinson

-"Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonie" - Lawyer and legislator John Dickinson wrote a series of essays that, appearing in 1767 and 1768 as Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, were widely reprinted and exerted great influence in forming a united colonial opposition. - Dickinson agreed that Parliament had supreme power where the whole empire was concerned, but he denied that it had power over internal colonial affairs; he quietly implied that the basis of colonial loyalty lay in its utility among equals rather than in obedience owed to a superior.

prior restraint

-An attempt by the government to prevent the expression of ideas before they are published. Gov't can exercise prior restraint only in cases relating directly to national security.

Whistleblower

-An employee who discloses information that s/he reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, mismanagement, abuse of power, general wrongdoing, or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety.

defamation of character

-Catch-all term for any statement that hurts someone's reputation.

Multicolumn

-Headline found in today's modern publication is multicolumn - (meaning it goes horizontally across the entire width of the article at the top and is NOT aligned with only the first column of the article.)

Novelty/Oddity/Rarity

-Sometimes, subjects of news stories offer rare or unusual experiences, traits or talents that make for interesting stories. - News reports the unusual, not the routine. This is why crime and accident news stories are important and interesting. - This category also encompasses the novelty of "firsts" or "the few" - when someone becomes the first to do something (or a scientific breakthrough has been discovered), these are the stories that attract readers most. Example: - NASA announces the first all-female spacewalk, Israel discovers a 5000 year old temple

Libel

-The publication of a false statement that defames someone's character and reputation. (Written defamation is called "libel.") - There are no federal libel laws; libel cases come under state laws - meaning the laws and punishments vary. -Since it is a civil issue, you cannot be jailed, but you can be fined. Some libel cases have resulted in fines of up to $20 million dollars.

Benjamin Harrison

A British bookseller and writer who published pamphlets in England; often these were critical of Religion and current Government Officials.

Slander

spoken defamation