Journalism Primer 3

[Mike Gange]

News stories

What makes a news story? Good news stories are community oriented. If you teach in a school, you have a ready made community. It includes kids, parents, teachers, etc. Have your students write things for that audience.

Evergreen stories work best. This is a story that is not stale within a few days. Keep it general will be a helpful idea. Last night's dance is not a good idea, it's stale by tomorrow. But the way students dance in general is a good evergreen idea. The clothes they wear when they dance is another idea that stands up. And why they like dances is a good idea.

The process: start with a germ. an idea. let's use 'why do kids like dances.' The writer should give it a slug, which is just a working title. Then a by-line. By Bob M. is a by-line. If the students are going to write under a nom-de-plume, they have to use the same nom-de-plume on every assignment. It is not unusual in journalism to have a name for your work that is different than the one on your pay stub.

(Hint: be careful with this. If a kid chooses a nom-de-plume, be sure you read it out loud to yourself without anyone listening. There are always jokes about getting the principal to say some name that really does not exist but sounds funny. Bak Mi-off for example. or something even worse.)

Lead: written after the interviews are done. Usually 25 words or less. Succintly tells what the story is about. ('School dances may become a thing of the past, if students don't keep their clothes on, says the school principal.' well now that is going to get their attention. ) A lead gets the attention of the reader and makes the reader want to know more.

Para 2. Old fashioned journalists used to use para 2 as the quote. Better yet however is to use it to make a nut-graph. This is more details the readers want to know, need to know, to make the story more complete. (Principal Chuckie Chiese says the way dancing has evolved has become too sleazy and provocative, and he wants the studenty council to address this with students.)

Para 3. Now go for the quote. A direct quote. Use Chuckie's words exactly. Use quotation marks, ect. "When I see students with their hands inside their partners clothing, that is going too far," he said. "We have to have dances, but we have boundaries we have to respect, too."

There are seven parts to a complete quote. Quotation marks. Capital letter. Words. Comma. Close quotations. he said. period.  Seven. anything else is not a complete quote. Its one of those formulas kids have to learn to write in.

Here is another formula. L-T-Q-T. Lead. Transition. Quote. Transition. This is the way each story flows, first lead, then trans, then quote, then trans. etc. to the end of the story. The transitions are the mortar to the bricks of your story. The glue that holds them together. After reading a transition, you expect a quote from someone. Watch the TV news. The transitions are easy to pick up on. "According to officials at the zoo," says the reporter, "the baby elephant should be born today." That is a trans.

Cut to the person talking. "Mumbo is going into labour now, and with our team of animal doctors on the ground, we will make her comfortable and help her do what nature intended," he said. "If its a boy, we will call him Bumbo, if its a girl, she will be Gumbo." Cut to shots of the elephant, lying in straw, animal doctors standing at the ready. That is quote.

Finish the story, editing, etc, and then give it a real headline. Sometimes called a header. Replace the slug with something more pertinent. Headlines are written with an active verb in the present tense. Story is in the past tense, 99 % of the time. Headers in the present. To show the future in a header use an infinitive. President to visit Russian Bath House. Police to get new cars.