Introduction to News Reporting & News Elements What is a journalist? Introduction to News Reporting & News Elements

Warm-Up Log onto the Dallas Morning News at nie.dallasnews.com Teacher Last Name: Juntunen or Creel Password: 75002 Write down (or type) the top 2 stories that catch your attention and why they caught your attention.

News Elements Values that help journalists determine what stories to write about and what people will want to read about If an event has one or more of the news elements, it is considered newsworthy

1. Proximity Location. If the event is happening close by, it will impact your readers more than if it is happening across town, or across the world, all other considerations being equal. A dance at your school, for instance, is more newsworthy than a dance at another school.

2. Prominence How well known the people involved in your story are. If the person or persons are well known to your readers, the story will impact your readers more than a similar story involving people they do not know.

3. Timeliness If something is happening NOW, it has more impact than something that happened yesterday or last week. Often, the most recent development is the feature of the story.

4. Novelty/Unusualness If something is unusual, the oddity alone can make it newsworthy, because people want to know why it has happened.

5. Impact If the impact of an event on your readers is major, they want to know all about it. For instance, they might not care that a particular street is being shut down for repairs, until it is brought to their attention that this will reroute the major portion of the traffic into their residential areas. This will affect them in a significant way, and they will want to know about it.

6. Conflict Readers have an interest in disagreements, arguments, fights and rivalries. If an event has conflict attached to it, many readers will be interested on that basis alone. Stories about sports, trials, war, politics, and even Congressional debates.

7. Human Interest If a situation makes you angry, sad, happy or overjoyed, it contains the news element of human interest. Some stories are newsworthy on this basis alone.

News Elements Project Move into groups of 2-3. Each group will receive an envelope with stories for publication in today’s Dallas Morning News and a large sheet of paper. As the editor of the front page, you only have the space to run 4 stories. You must choose which 4 stories you would run and layout your front page on the large sheet of paper. (Glue stories onto the paper.) Beside each story, write an explanation of why you chose that story for the front page. Make sure you include which news elements the story has and how they influenced your decision. Also list the 5ws and h of the story.

What are the 5 w’s & h? What type of information would you like to know about Homecoming, especially if you are new to Allen?

The 5 w’s and h = 6 news questions Who What When Where Why How Every news story will include answers to these 6 questions. When you are reporting, you will be looking for answers to these questions.

Who? Who is involved? Who does/did the situation affect? Who said so?

What? What is happening? What did happen? What are the consequences? What is different about this? What are the choices?

When? When did or when will this happen? When was this discovered?

Where? Where did or will this happen?

Why? Why did this happen or will it happen?

How? How did it or will it happen? How much does it cost? How many people does this affect? How do or will people feel about this?

Example 1 – Identify the who, what, when, where, why and how To give his students a feel for the Cold War, Hartford Public High School teacher Robert Abate is sending them on a trip: to the long- neglected fallout shelter in the basement. Dateline: Hartford, Connecticut

Who – teacher and students What – taking a trip to the shelter When – n/a Where – Hartford Why – to give students a feel for the Cold War How – by traveling to a fall-out shelter

Example 2 Hurricane Bertha churned toward the Atlantic seaboard with 100 mph winds yesterday and barely a hint of making its predicted turn toward the north. Nearly 1 million residents and tourists were urged to pack up and leave. Dateline: Jacksonville, Florida

Who – residents What – residents being urged to evacuate When- yesterday Where – Florida Why – because of hurricane How – not included

Example 3 A devastating wildfire, costliest in Alaska history, raged out of control today as crews fought to protect more homes and a main road. Dateline: USA Today

Who – wildfire crews What – crews are fighting to protect homes When – today Where – Alaska Why – because of wildfire How – not included

Example 4 To make way for the latest addition to the updated Times Square – a 25 screen movie complex, a developer plans to literally pick up a historic 42nd Street burlesque house and move it 30 feet down the street. Dateline: New York City

Who – 42nd Street burlesque house What – house is being moved down the street When – Where – New York City Why – Because developer wants the space for movie complex How – pick it up as a whole

News Judgment Assignment Find 2 current events in the Dallas Morning News, USA Today or the New York Times to read about. Then complete the assignment sheet giving the 5ws and h for each story.