Journalism The gathering and reporting of the news, writing, editing, and publishing articles for newspapers, periodicals, or newscasts

Types of Journalistic Works  News Articles: presented in a straightforward style and without opinion or editorial comment.  Often referred to as Hard News Story  Feature Articles: report of a person, event, or aspect of a major event often having a personal slant and written in an individual style.  Editorials: presents the opinion of the writer/reporter and written in an individual style.  Interviews Articles the report of a meeting or conversation between the writer/reporter and one or more persons.  Sports: report on sporting topics and games.  Reviews: report by critic on the overall quality of books, tv, movies, music, etc.

Style for News Articles  Inverted Pyramid  Story Contracts rather than expands  This allows editors to cut from the bottom to save space Most Important Information Least Important Information

 Purpose: capture the attention of the average reader and hold it as long as possible  Words: chosen with special care because they must impact reader  Space is limited in both print and broadcast media  Sentences: short and to the point  Compound and complex sentences still used to create fluidity  Paragraphs: brief, often between 3-5 sentences

Important Questions  Who: who are the important people involved in the story?  What: what are the important events?  When: when did everything occur? How long did it last?  Where: where did everything happen?  Why: why did the events occur? Did these people get involved?  How: how was everything resolved?  Note: The why and how will not always be discoverable when investigating/researching a story

Things to remember…  Reporter must meet a deadline  Deadline: time at which the final article is due.  Varies depending on media type. Newspaper could be midnight, while TV may be 10 pm for the 11 o’clock broadcast  Requires truth and objectivity  Objectivity: the quality of being objective and non-biased  Often written from notes taken through observations and interviews on site of the event  No feelings, reactions, or opinions of the reporter  Never use “I” or “Me”  The reporter is not the focus of the story

Terminology (Jargon)  Deadline  Byline: the reporter’s name at the start of the story  Copy: all material for publication  Deck: headline apeparing underneath the main headline  Dummy: a layout of the newspaper page, showing the placement of stories, headlines, pictures, and advertisements  Flag: headline appearing above the main headline  Headline: main idea of the story written to attract attention- contains a subject and verb; usually written after the article is finished  Lead: the first sentencve of the article containing the summary of the story. It follows the general rule of telling the who, what, when, where, why, and how.  These will be expanded upon durnt the rest of article.

Example Six Million Set Aside TECHNOLOGY BUILDING PROPOSED Official Plan Released By Mary Joan Medford Mayor King and the City Council reviewed plans for the state of the art technology building last night at City Hall during the last joint meeting with the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. Lead Headline Deck Byline Flag