A Selective Reading of American and British Newspapers and Periodicals Week 1

Textbook： A quality Selection of Articles from American & British Newspaper & Periodicals 《美英报刊文章阅读》 （精选本）（第三版） 周学艺 主编 Beijing University Press，2007

What is news? What is news? What English Newspapers do you know? The definition accepted in China’s academic circles as standard is that news is the reporting of recent events. In China: China Daily; 21st Century; Shanghai Star; English Weekly, etc.

American Newspapers and periodicals New York Times; Washington Post; Los Angeles Times; Wall Street Journal; USA today; International Herald Tribune Christen Science Monitor Time; Newsweek; Business Week US News & the World Report Fortune; Reader’s Digest;

British Newspapers and periodicals The Times The Sun The Financial Times The Guardian The Observer Daily Mirror The Daily Telegraph The Economist

What parts does a news story have? All news stories answer some basic questions: who, what, when, where, why and how? Like all stories, the basic news story has a headline and three general parts: a beginning called the “lead”, a middle called the “body” and an ending.

What parts does a news story have? A news story is composed of headline, lead, body, and before lead, there are dateline and byline. (新闻电头和首行） Headline: The headline is the line on top of the story that tells the reader what the story is about.

What parts does a news story have? Lead: the beginning of the story, the hook (诱惑物) that tells the reader what the story is about A good lead attracts the reader to continue reading. In a hard-news story, the lead usually is written in one sentence—the first sentence of the story—and gives the most important information about the event.

What parts does a news story have? The dateline, which tells readers when and where the story is written, is important. The byline, which gives credit to the writer, is also very important. Headline; lead; dateline; and byline

Categories of News News falls into basic categories: hard news and soft news. “Hard news” includes ---- stories of a timely nature about events or conflicts that have just happened or are about to happen, such as crimes, fires, meetings, protest rallies, speeches and testimony in court cases. These stories have immediacy.

Categories of News “Soft news” is defined as news that entertains or informs, with an emphasis on human interest (人情味) and novelty (新奇) and less immediacy than hard news. For example, a story about the effectiveness of diets would be considered soft news.

Categories of News “Soft news” can also be stories that focus on people, places or issues that affect readers’ lives. These types of stories are called “feature stories.” A story about the growing number of babies suffering from AIDS could be considered a soft-news story. It isn’t less important than hard news, but it isn’t news that happened overnight.

Hard News Soft News features （特写） flash (快讯) personal profile (人物特写) Anecdote (趣事；轶事) flash (快讯) urgent （急电） brief （简讯） breaking news （突发新闻） If the action or event occurred the same day as or the day before publication of the newspaper, the event is called “breaking news.”

What are the qualities of a good news story? What things are newsworthy? These are some of these traditional qualities of both hard- and soft-news stories: Timeliness (时效性) Proximity （接近性） Unusual nature （新奇） Celebrities （名人名流） Human interest （人情味） Conflict （冲突）

Timeliness An event that happened the day of or day before publication or an event that is due to happen in the immediate future is considered timely. Some events that happened in the past also may be considered timely if they are printed on an anniversary of the event, such as one, five or 10 years after the incident.

Proximity An event may be of interest to local readers because it happened in or close to the community. For example: Wuhanese will be quite interested in when the subway tunnels began to be built and when it will be accomplished.

Unusual Nature: the uniqueness of an event There is a well-known saying: “It is not news when a dog bites a man, but absolutely news when you find a man bites a dog.” It sounds absurd, but fully illustrates one of the widely accepted news values—the unusual, bizarre nature of a recently happened event.

Celebrities People who are well-known for their accomplishments— primarily entertainers, athletes or people who have gained fame for achievements, good or bad—attract a lot of attention. This story ran on the front page because of the celebrity status of the entertainers….

Human interest: People like stories about people who have special problems, achievements or experiences. These stories can be profiles or unusual stories about people that make readers care about their plight. （境况） Here is an example of human interest: Kids Helping Kids Survive the Effects of Katrina.

Conflict & Impact: Stories involving conflicts people have with government or other people are often newsworthy, especially when the conflict reflects local problems.

Additional qualities Some additional qualities of news to consider: Helpfulness: Consumers, health and other how-to stories. Entertainment: stories that amuse readers, make them feel good or help them enjoy their leisure time.

Additional qualities Inspiration: Stories about people who overcome difficulties Special interest: Some stories appeal to people’s interests in such subjects as science, business or religion or to such special groups as women, minorities, disabled people, veterans, college students or other groups with particular interests.

The types of the news 按传播工具，可分为报纸新闻（newspaper coverage）、杂志新闻（magazine coverage）、广播新闻（radio news）、电视新闻（TV news）、有线电视新闻（cable news）和通讯社新闻（news agency dispatches）。按照新闻事实发生的地域和范围，又有国际新闻（world news）、国内新闻（home news）和地方新闻（local news）之分。若按报道的内容，新闻则可分为：政治新闻（political news）、经济新闻（economic news）、科技新闻（technological news）、文化新闻（cultural news）、体育新闻（sports news）、暴力与犯罪新闻（violence and crime news）、灾难新闻（disaster news）、天气新闻（weather news）、讣告（obituary）和娱乐（entertainment）等若干大类。

如按照事件的性质，新闻又可分为“硬新闻”（hard news）和“软新闻”（soft news）两大类。硬新闻亦称“纯消息报道”（spot news or straight news），指题材比较严肃、具有一定时新性的客观事实报道。软新闻是指人情味较浓、写法轻松活泼的社会新闻，其题材可能会显得陈旧或无关紧要，但决非枯燥乏味。

That’s the end of my lecture. Thank you for your attention. Now let’s come to some practice.