What is news..?

News is the communication of selected

information on current events which is

presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or
word of mouth to a third party or mass
audience.

Different forms of writing an

persons made their separate essays on
incident
what happened.
Situation: A fire broke out and four

For a 10-year-old grade school pupil,

I saw a fire. It was a big red fire. It burned a
house. There were many people around.
Some men put water on the fire.

For a romantic high school student,

Fearful scarlet tongues arose to the starstudded heaven and licked greedily at the
doomed edifice while the stout-hearted
firefighters risked their all to quench the
terrible conflagration.
For a lady bystander,
You know, Mare, there was a fire in our
community. I think it cost the owner a great
deal of money. The date was August 8. August
is the eighth month. So I bet in the lottery, 816-24-32-40-48.

For a campus paper writer,

A fire of undetermined origin razed to the ground a
two-storey apartment owned by lawyer Herman
Lagon of 80 Lopez Jaena St., Jaro Iloilo City, last
night. Four trucks from the Jaro Fire Station
subdued the fire within an hour. The damage
estimated by the police at P500,000 was covered
by insurance.
The combination of simple, vivid and

dignified articles produces a copy simple

enough for Mr. Average Reader to
understand. Thats what we call a news
article.

Narrative vs News
(Example: Dog hero story)
Narrative: Pyramid (from less important to

climax)
News: Inverted Pyramid (from climax to less

important)

Sample News
Headline (ulo ng balita)
Dog dies saving blind master
Lead (pamatnubay) Most important facts
A FOUR-YEAR-OLD dog saved the life of his
blind master Thursday night, but his canines
loyalty cost the trusty animal his life.

BridgeElaboration of lead
Erland Escobanez, 71, a street sweeper, is in
serious condition today in Doctors Hospital. A
resident of SSS Building, Rizal St., Iloilo City,
Escobanez was found unconscious early this
morning on a sidewalk near the Aglipayan
Church in the Iloilo Terminal Market.
Less important facts
Police theorizes that Escobanez fell off the
sidewalk and was knocked unconscious, his head
hitting a stone. Potpot, his dog, apparently tried
to shield its master from the cold and the rain by
draping itself over the fallen man.

When discovered this morning by the Police Patrol,

Escobanez was still out cold. The dog lay near,

dead.
Relatives of Escobanez, who is still a bachelor, told
authorities that he always took nightly strolls at
about 11 p.m. with his dog.
Minor facts
According to doctors, only the warmth from the
dogs body saved Escobanez from certain death.
Escobanez told police that he remembers nothing
of the incident. A wallet containing P500 was still in
his pocket leading the authorities to rule out
robbery.

The parts of a news

article
Headline the text at the top of

anewspaperarticle, indicating the

nature of the article below it.
Deck a phrase, sentence, or several
sentence near the title of an article or
story.
Lead the first or leading sentence
The actual story itself

Essential rules in writing a

news
story
BASIC RULE IN WRITING:
The ABCs
A - ACCURACY
B - BREVITY (Concise or Brief)
C CLARITY
The 5 Ws and the H
Who, what, where, when, why, and how.

The inverted pyramid

Style of journalism which places the most important
facts at the beginning and works down from there.

The Lead
The most important structural element of a

news story.
An effective lead is a 'brief, sharp

statement of the story's essential facts.

Types of Leads:
Hard Lead - provides a comprehensive thesis

which tells the reader what the article will

cover.
Soft Lead - introduces the topic in a more
creative,attention-seekingfashion, and is
usually followed by a nut graph the story in
brief

Example Lead-and-Summary Design

Humans will be going to the moon again. The

NASA announcement came as the agency

requested ten trillion dollars of
appropriations for the project...

Example Soft-Lead Design

NASA is proposing another space project. The

agency's budget request, announced today,

included a plan to send another person to the
moon. This time the agency hopes to
establish a long-term facility as a jumping-off
point for other space adventures. The budget
requests approximately ten trillion dollars for
the project...

Common Types of News and

News-Feature Leads
Summary lead:
This answers the 5Ws of the story in one

sentence and is usually the best choice for a

news release.The journalist gets the all the
facts and can make a decision about where
its worthwhile to find out more.
A Company is launching A Product at A
Tradeshow taking place on A Date, in A
Town, it was announced today.

 Question lead:
Good for feature stories, columns and blog

posts this lead can be effective in drawing

readers in.Here, curiosity is raised with the
question and the issue being discussed is
explained in the answer.
Avoid using questions that require a yes/no
answer.(I.E. -Have you made your will
yet?No. Not interested. Turn the page. Or,
Yes. Not interested. Turn the page.)
What has wheels, is green and
everyone is jumping on it?
The environmental bandwagon is
rolling through marketing departments
of large corporations all over the world
as companies seek to appeal to
ethically-motivated consumers.

 Factual lead:
Using statistics and hard facts up front can
gain immediate interest and encourages the
reader into the story. The target audience
will identify regardless of which side of the
issue they fall on.
Fifty per cent of workingmothers fail
to prepare healthy family meals
because they just dont have the time,
according to a survey conducted by A
Meal Preparation Company.

 Quotation lead
1. Drawing on well known sayings and
famous quotes gives the reader immediate
context.

With great power comes great

responsibility
Gov. Juan Bayani borrows the words from
Spiderman to emphasize his point as
Guest Speaker at the TAU Commencement
Exercise held April 11, 2015.

 Anecdotal lead:
Using personal experiences to illustrate a point. This

can be an effective device for news features, if done

well.
I was with my grandchildren other day and was
enjoying watching the kids playing and running
around in the school yard, when it struck me.
This is how my love for God makes me feel,
energetic and full of joy!

Descriptive lead:
This is where you draw a picture with words to put

your reader into the scene and is very effective for

longer feature stories. Cliched but effective.Readers
can picture themselves in the scene and are now part
of the story.
It was a dark and stormy night.Sitting in the
food court of a busy surburban mall, the
yummy mummies were ignoring their designer
prams while greedily gulping down lattes and
exchanging lively banter among themselves.

Inverted pyramid structure

The essential and

most interesting
elements of a
story is placed at
the beginning,
with supporting
information
following in order
of diminishing
importance.

Inverted pyramid
structure
Enables the readers to stop reading at any

point and still come away with the essence of

a story.
It also enables articles to be trimmed to any
arbitrary length during layout.

Different Types of
News
General news
News that appeals to the general population.
Appeal to the general population because the

effects of these general news events will have

wide or deep impact on the lives of average
people.
Is easy to digest.

Political news
Is about people, and the how those people
make decisions that affect the lives of
everyone else.
Business news
Tells us about the state of the economy, our
stocks, our products, and our work places.

Regional news
News with limited national appeal.
Interested in covering their town or city, or

geographic region of the country.

Entertainment news
Is a popular area for news writers.

Fortunately, there is also a huge demand for

it.
Best suited to anyone who has connections
or lives in an entertainment-rich area.
Entertainment news is also for any news
writer who likes to write features, profiles
and interview celebrities.

Niche news
Includes many topics. Popular niche news

topics: health, science, technology,

women's, children's and travel.
Each of those topics has its own sub-topics.
Writers in these and other topics, will need
to become masters of their domain, and
have a solid background in their topic.

Crime reporting
Should be written using good taste, ethics, a

sense of respect for the crime victims and

their families.
Should not be gory, or gross.

Sensationalism
Sensationalism are those stories that go viral,

because they are unbelievable or sensational

in some way. They often involve extreme acts
of violence of bizarre behavior.
Appropriate for tabloid style press, in print,
and online.

Distinguishing sensationalism
and news.
Does the information just seek to thrill, titillate, or

to shock?
Does it lack social or redeeming value?
If you said Yes to both questions - Sensationalism.
Example: Isang dalaga, muntik nang mamatay
sa tuwa dahil nakita niya ang kanyang nawawala
cellphone.
Artista, binugbogng tanong ng mga taga-press
dahil sa kanyang sexy pictorial para sa FHM
Magazine

So, are you ready?

Remember these Tips:
Think ABC - Accuracy, Brevity, and

Clarity
Also, try KISS Keep it short and simple.
Write not for yourself, but for your
readers.
Have an angle. A simple event can be
written in several different ways,
perspectives, etc.
Keep it objective. Avoid writing your
own opinion regarding the topic

Use Quotes. Make sure it is interesting and

memorable.
Dont get too flowery. Stick to the facts.
Use active sentences as much as possible
-

HAVE FUN.