Introduction to Journalism Week 5

After the normal weekly deconstruction of the tabloids and broadsheets, and discussing how The Daily Express is also owned by the same people that own OK! Magazine and how they will usually report on similar subjects (i.e. celebrity personality weddings and the like) but in different way that appeal to different demographics, thusly selling items on two different fronts and doubling their profits. In things like this, people like Wayne Rooney (Shrek-like as he is) represents a huge celebrity personality as he is on TV a lot of the time, and therefore appears across all kinds of papers and all kinds of mediums. Because of how recognisable he is, any news that is associated with him will instantly become more interesting than regular news. This is exactly the kind of Celebrity Effect that takes place in the News.

This principle of Celebrity Effect on the news mostly applies to what markets and sources you are trying to appeal to - as in what kind of news and information applies to which demographics. But it is safe to say that a Celebrity Effect will always enhance reading possibilities.

After this, we went on to study the correct ways in which to write a news story, and how these are structured to create the best kinds of delivery of information possible. We started by looking into the structure of a news article, and how the delivery of the information is relevant to the importance of the information. This relates back to last week’s Friday lecture on Writing for Online News and the Pyramid system of how the information appears or should appear in an article:

*HEADLINE + INTRO + PICTURE --> These are the most important part as it is what sells the paper as a whole. To put it into a film related parallel, this is the one line pitch that sells your entire film script. --> You DON'T write the headline first, as that is a completely separate job to do because the headline brings the reader in, so it should be written last as the part of the article that sells it to people.

*There are three main types of intro to an article:
à Simple Summary
à A 'Washingline' intro, which are very uncommon.
àA Drop-Intro, which is used more for features as was explained last week.

For the full summary of the Pyramid Theory of Article Writing, you can see my post from last Friday’s lesson where I explained the different steps of the Pyramid. However, to reiterate:

è The 1st para is the Who/What/When/Where and the "who" should have the persons function as well (as in what they do and how it is relevant to the article, unless it’s not absolutely necessary).

è The 2^nd para is the Why. This should mostly be the reasons behind what has happened and who it has happened to. Phrasing it with something like “the move follows...” helps, but basically this is delivering the solid reasons for why the thing you’re reporting on has happened.

è The 3^rd para is the quotes of the article. Quotes should always be just comments from people about the situation you are reporting on, so then all the facts of the article are coming straight from you the writer! So for the most part, a quote would consist of a general comment like “it was a horrible accident,” or “I’d never want to be part of that again,” basically stating the general situation of whatever you’re reporting on so that its actually you that can deliver the stone cold facts and not someone else!

è The 4^th para is all about the details, and you should be putting in as many facts as you can into as short a space as possible! Just details, details and more details packed into one paragraph!

è The end should finish with a big “But...” in the sense that this is where you would put contrary information, or other quotes or any kinds of facts that will be able to give you Qualified Privilege from your article. If you need to, you can also look back on my post from last week’s Media Law lecture on the definition of Qualified Privilege and how this can affect and protect you!

Sentences in an article like this normally consist of about 8 to 10 words, and there are normally about 3 sentences in 1 paragraph. And bear in mind that the reason you are reporting on these news stories is to try and make something that is true be something that is also interesting at the same time, so use the facts of the situation to tell an interesting story that will get people excited about what you have to say as opposed to just delivering straight facts!