News Writing and Styles

News Stories

Contains:

• Headline – tells what the story is about.
• Byline – shows who wrote the story.
• Lead – tells the most important facts (5 W’s)
• Body – contains more information and details.
• Ending – gives something to think about.

5Ws and 1H

Cause and effect; after effect Impact - the effect of the news on people Context - Background information about an issue Follow up story - because low attention span; adds information and helps keep a story in the public conscience Emotions - keep to minimum; factual

Hard News Vs Soft News

Hard News - Short, FACTUAL, to the point Focuses on impact Important Urgent / pressing

Soft News - Unimportant, longer niche,

Inverted Pyramid

Leads

maximum amount of information
main idea and subject
be clear what the story is all about
grab attention

Body

Conclusion

Avoid jargon, complicated words. Surprise them; element of surprise

5 Important aspects

be clear what the story is all about decide whether hard or soft news grab attention

Tips

News stories should not be very long Engage the reader

Attributions and quotations → very important Sentences should not be too long Not too many punctuations Text should not look hard to read, or messy Voice - Use Active Voice

Words - don’t use complicated words Reduce words and word length

Link to original

→

1. inverted pyramid
2. Kabob Style
3. Martini Glass (journalism)
4. Hourglass - pyramid style, then a “turn” (transition), and a narrative
5. Narrative Journalism - creative non-fiction, focuses on literary techniques but uses only facts
6. Interpretative - Facts but with interpretation of it by the reporter