What is news?

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News is difficult to define because it has many variables. News must be factual, yet
not all facts are news.
News may be opinion, especially that of a prominent person or an authority on a
particular subject.
News is primarily about people, what they say and do.
News is not necessarily a report of a recent event, as stated in most dictionaries.
What is news for one school or community may not be news for another.
What is news today may not be news tomorrow.
What is news for one person may not be news for another person.
Two factors necessary to news, interest and importance, are not always
synonymous.
Hard News and Soft News
Journalists today often refer to hard news and soft news.
A. Hard news:
1. is important to large numbers of people
2. is timely
3. usually about events in government, politics, foreign affairs, education, labor,
religion, courts, etc.
B. Soft news:
1. usually less important because it entertains, although it may also inform
2. often less timely than hard news
3. includes human interest and feature stories which may relate to hard news
Hard news, despite its importance, usually attracts fewer readers because it may
not be as interesting as soft news or may be more difficult to understand.
Readers may not understand its significance. Reporters must be careful to
include information to help the reader understand what the story means.
Many stories are a combination of hard and soft news, and may present some
of the information in sidebars and infographics.
The following triangle shows the idea that the basis of all news is FACT.
The job of the reporter is to make facts interesting to a particular group of
readers.
1. News must be factual.
2. News is based on actual occurrences, situations, thoughts and ideas. Yet not
all facts are news.
3. News must be interesting. But not all facts are interesting.
4. Different facts will be interesting to different readers.
5. News has qualities that distinguish it from nearly all other forms of writing.
I. It must be accurate
Factual accuracy
Every statement
a. every name
b. every date

c. every age
d. every address
e. every quote

Accuracy of General Impression

The general impression--the way the details are put together and what type of
emphasis is put on the details--should be accurate. Reporters should not distort the
importance of a fact by giving it too much attention.
Accuracy is difficult to achieve because there are so many facts that go into
a story reporters must work fast to meet deadlines many people are involved in
producing the finished story: the reporter, copy reader, editors, typists, etc.
Reporters must work hard to achieve accuracy.
They must check, double-check and re-check every fact.
Reporters must question their sources carefully.
Informants sometimes misinform, although rarely on purpose.
School reporters sometimes dont ask the right questions to get the information
they need for a story.
Reporters should talk out stories with assignment editors to make sure they
understand questions that need to be asked.
II. It is balanced.
Balance in a news story is a matter of emphasis and completeness.
Reporters must give each fact its proper emphasis, putting it into its proper
relationship to every other fact and establishing its relative importance to the main
idea or focus of the story.
News is considered balanced and complete when all significant details are
included and have proper relationship to each other.
The purpose of balance is to give the reader a fair understanding of the
event, not a detailed account of every fact.
III. It is objective.
News is a factual report, not a report of how the reporter thought something should
have been.
A reporter must report news as impartially and honestly as possible.
Objectivity is difficult to achieve because a reporters own opinions and feelings can
easily interfere with factual presentation in stories.
IV. It is concise and clear.
Hard news stories almost always follow the inverted pyramid and are written
concisely and clearly so that the meaning is clear to an average reader.
V.It is recent.
Timeliness is of major importance in this era of fast communication.
Other factors being equal, a news editor will choose one story over another because
of its timeliness.
News elements help to make facts interesting to people.
Elements of News
Top elements that make a story newsworthy.
Timeliness-

 How recent a story is.

Not all of the story needs to be timely.
Proximity
How near to you a story is.
People are generally more interested in stories that are geographically close
to them.
Consequence/Significance
How many people are impacted by the story.
Examples: new laws, taxes, etc.
Prominence
The more famous a person is, the more likely they are to make the news.
If you and the president both went to lunch, only the president would make
the news.
Names
Important names make important news. Also the more names there are in
the story, the better.
Drama
The more movie-like a story is, the more newsworthy it is.
Whenever life and death hang in the balance, it is news
Mystery, suspense, comedy, the unusual, the bizarre are chief elements of
drama.
Conflict
Whenever there are two opposing side to an issue.
This can also be taken literally a fight or argument
Inherent in sports stories, war news, crime news, violence, domestic
disputes, government bodies
Oddity
Whenever strange things happen, it will make the news.
It can also occur with events that only happen once every great while.
Firsts, lasts, and onlys have been staples of newspapers since the 19th
century.
Emotions
People love reading stories that play on emotion.
Awwwwww factor
Stories about the home-less, babies needing trans-plants, a 4-year-old girl
abandoned in freezing weather who must have her legs amputated, baby
girls rescued from wells, some-one winning the lottery
Sex
Should always be reported in a mature manner.
Deals with marriage, divorce, dating, etc.
Romance and adventure
The romance of senator Chiz Escudero with Heart Evangelista had hugged
headlines for sometime.
Progress
Any new discovery or helpful invention can make the news.
This can also be a timely update on a long-standing project.

 Involves any significant change for the betterment of mankind.

May refer to achievement in the laboratory, industrial plant, legislative body,
etc.
May refer to success in treating AIDS patients, etc.

Animals
Stories of animals, especially those with talents are good reading matter
because of their human-interest value.
Number
Sweepstakes numbers, vial statistics, election results, scores in games,
casualties, fatalities, price of goods, and ages of women make good news.
Dont forget!
The more of these elements you combine, the more newsworthy a story is.
Rarely will a story just have one element if it is on the front page.
A number of factors modify the importance of news elements in actual practice
The policy of a news publication may increase or decrease the importance of a
story.
The class of readers may determine what news for a publication is.
The amount of space available may determine if a particular story is told briefly or
in detail.
Timing may alter the value of a news story. All news is in competition with the news
available at the moment.
Previous publication may change a storys value.
Censorship, particularly in war time or times of national crisis, may change news
value, sometimes keeping stories from being published for long periods of time.

Exercises on Elements of News

Name:_________________________ Date:_______________________ Score:_________________
I.

Identify the elements involved on the following headlines. There

may be more than one answer.
1. Principal issues new school policy
2. Dog saves masters life by attacking robbers
3. Cure for AIDS discovered
4. Man becomes pregnant
5. Icebergs appear in Northern Luzon
6. Senator injured in a car accident
7. Two solons lambaste each other, then end in a fist fight
8. Woman permitted to celebrate holy mass
9. Filipino wins Miss World title
10.10 killed in shootout
11.Headless lady hails jeepney at night
12.Manila zoo has a baby hippopotamus
13.DepEd secretary visits the school
14.A new gymnasium will be erected
15.Honest boy returns 1 million peso
16.Manny Pacquiao wins against Rios
17.A teacher marries an American actor
18.Dog befriends rabbit
19.Haunted house gives up the ghost
20.Love blooms in Delhi?
21.Florida facing threat from trees
22.Asia most populous continent
23.Whales suicides break human heart
24. Computer added to the curriculum
25.Zoos baby hippo dies