News Writing and Reporting

NEWS
WRITING
&
REPORTING
(DJ200)
LECTURE
NOTES
0
COMPILESD BY: MWIIMA MWESIGWA HERBERT
CONTACT: +256-701-591-900 or +256-394-823-124
Email; [email protected]
NEWS WRITING & REPORTING LECTURE NOTES, Compiled by Mwiima Mwesigwa Herbert. Mob: +256-394-823-124
JOURNALISM: WHAT IT MEANS
Journalism is the art and science of gathering, selecting and processing information or
ideas, intelligence for dissemination to the public. The media of dissemination are
usually the print or broadcast channels. In other words, there is journalism for the
print and the broadcast. For both them, the journalist follows the same principles and
is guided by the same determinants/values in gathering news materials. What makes
them different, lies in the adaptation of the principles to bear upon or reflect the
specific features of the medium. For instance, a news story for transmission in the
radio medium should use words, which are simpler and mostly conversational. But, in
the newspaper or magazines, words may not be as simple and less conversational.
Good journalism consists of the intelligent assembly of relevant facts.

Getting the facts to work with is not an easy task. Yet, it is the most important
responsibility of the reporter. Newsgathering therefore concerns the ‗what‘, ‗where‘
and ‗How‘ of identifying, selecting, collating and processing of information for
publication in the newspaper, magazine, radio, television. To achieve all this,
demands the special skill of nosing for news.
NOSE FOR NEWS
This is a journalistic parlance that describes the pulling force, zeal, anxiety and
sensitivity of a journalist in the process of newsgathering. It requires that extreme
observational tendencies and the ability to make deductions or meanings from factual
assumptions. It does not call for any invention of facts, instead, an ability to assess or
weigh the usefulness of answers from questions, especially when people, of today are
particularly observant to help a journalist give answers that they think the journalist
wants, rather than the ones he needs. In summary therefore, the ‗nose for News‘ is
• an ability to recognise possibilities of an item of information
• an ability to recognise clues which through their casual search, lead to the discovery
of important information
• the capacity to recognise the relative importance of a number of facts concerning the
same general subject
Self-Assessment Exercise
State three primary roles of the journalists that have also given direction to the
practice yesterday and today.
THE HISTORY OF JOURNALISM
Technological Developments
Strictly speaking, the word technology does not refer to mechanisms, but the way
mechanisms are used. Thus, when using such terms as modern technology, or the
latest technology, although inventions or new machines are at the heart of the matter,
it is the processes in which they are used that constitute the technology. This should
be borne in mind when studying the text by a journalism historian Robert Desmond
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(1978:1 - 12). He talks about the Roman‘s first daily newspaper. Rain or shine,
soldiers in Caesar‘s garrison in the freezing Alps or burning Sahara were lined up in
the parade ground at least once a week to have the Acta Diurna read to them. The
soldiers were easier to control and easier to motivate, if they were reassured regularly
that theirs was the greatest nation on earth. News of fresh conquests by their
colleagues in other parts of the Empire, plans by the government to increase soldiers‘
pensions, gossip about the famous, and sports reports all helped convince them they
were remembered and would get fed today and paid next week.
a) Writing
Desmond then takes several steps backward to trace the history of the ideographic and
phonetic types of writing. The phonetic writing used here is based on a 26-letter Latin
alphabet, and an Arabic numbering system. This system is pre-dated, however, by
ideographic systems.
Originally, these systems used stylised drawings of objects. By a series of
combinations and associations these pictographs could be made to represent abstract
ideas as well as objects. For instance, the abstract notion of a home could be written
down by melding the pictographs for a house, with those for a man and a woman. The
notion of a family could be portrayed by combining the pictographs of home and
children, and so on.
The three great early civilisations in India, Egypt, and China probably developed their
own ideographic systems of writing independently.
Today, only the Sino-Japanese versions survive. To those of us who only have to
learn 26 letters and nine figures, the survival of an ideographic system in which
people have to learn literally thousands of characters may seem strange. The Chinese
see the advantages of this system. The Latin alphabet is taught in schools in China
and used in many forms of public communications such as street and shop names.
However, the ideographic system has one advantage over the phonetic.
The ideographs are the same for all languages. That is to say, there are many ethnic
divisions in China, with many variations in language, but the ideographs are the same.
The word for house may be very different in each language, but the ideograph is the
same. Hence, the national television news is broadcast from Beijing in Standard
Chinese, but for those who do not understand this language, most items of news are
summarised on the screen in ideographic writing.
b) Paper and Printing

Desmond (1978) further outlines the development of writing surfaces, from animal
skins to woven papyrus; then to the invention of paper about 1800 years ago. The
latter occurred in China, but the major breakthrough in paper manufacture took place
in Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Almost simultaneously, chemists
discovered how to break the strong bonds of lignite that hold wood fibres together so
all the tree – not just the bark – could be used for paper-making. Engineers then
invented machines that could make paper continuously as a long strip. (Up to this
point paper had been made out of fibres, such as cotton and linen that were also used
to make cloth). In the final part of this reading, Desmond summarises the
development of printing.
For a start, the evidence has grown stronger that Coster (or Koster) was using
movable type before Gutenberg. George Putnam says in his two volume ―Books and
Their Makers‖ during the middle ages that Coster was using movable type in 1426
and published his first book using this method in 1430. This pre-dates the available
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evidence as to when Gutenberg started using movable type.
Second, Peter Schoffer who made the breakthrough for mass-producing type seldom
gets credit in the history of printing.
Third, Caxton is unlikely to have carried out much printing himself. By the scale of
his time he was virtually an old man by the time he returned to England after retiring
from being a wool-merchant and diplomat in Burgundy. The foreign assistants he
brought with him back from Europe, headed by Wynkyn de Word, were the real
printers. Caxton was an author and translator. Caxton used his knowledge of the
contemporary public service to get legislation passed by Parliament that could be
described as the world‘s first guarantee of the Freedom of the Press.
American Dominance
This showcases the developments in journalism technology as viewed from the
United States. This is probably an appropriate view because, after the steam-powered
rotary press was invented by Walter Koenig in German, and first used in 1811 (three
years earlier than in America), most of the significant new journalism technologies
emerged in America. These included the telegraph, telephone, radio news, and
television.
This list, however, should only be used as a guide. There is a certain ethno-centric
bias in the extract by Schramm (1975). For example, the town of Schenectady is
credited as being the place from which the first regular television schedules were
broadcast. Other countries make rival claims that such broadcasts were originated
from their soil. The most widely accepted of these claims is that the honour goes to
the British Broadcasting Corporation in London in 1936.
Today, the place of origin of new journalism technology is hardly relevant. It is not
significant if John Logie Baird invented television.
What matters is that there are more people involved with American television
coverage at an Olympic Games than competitors. What matters is that Olympic
officials time high points in the Games‘ schedules to coincide with prime-time
viewing in the Americas. What matters is that without the money generated through
and by the American television networks, the Olympic Games as we know them may
as well have some hitches.
However, the present dominance of the mass media by America is not something that
will last in perpetuity. Just as the focus of media technology shifted from China to
Europe, and then to America, so, too, will the focus move on to Asia and Africa.
Already there are signs this is happening. For instance, the present dominance of
American and/or Japanese media is largely due to the expensive and complex back-up
systems these two societies can afford to support their dominant news media. Even
today it normally takes many hundreds of people to bring an overseas item of news to
the front pages of American daily newspaper, radio newscasts, or television screens.
But the 1991 coverage by CNN of the gulf War from within Iraq showed that a story
could be covered round-the-clock by fewer than ten people using portable satellite
phones. Since then, satellite technology has been improved, and the cost of digital
video has been reduced so that it can now come within many family budgets. Soon
individual journalists will be able to afford the portable technologies to cover stories
for all types of media, without the backup of a newspaper empire, or a television
network. Such a situation might lead to a new type of less-restricted, independent
journalist, covering the world‘s news without political and economic interference.
On the other hand, it might lead to more restricted journalism as publishers no longer
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have to employ staff journalists, but can pick and choose which version of events
pleases them and their customers most from the different ones offered by the many
new technically independent freelance journalists.
Politico-Economic Developments
The history of journalism in England is the next step. Cranfield (1975) of the
University of Newcastle traces how the Tudor monarchy whittled away the freedoms
gained in the 1484 Act until the Crown had total control of all publications. Even
when Parliament gained ascendancy over the monarchy there was little inclination by
the elected government to relax the controls on publishing. Only party politics
prevented the Printing Act being renewed in 1695. This lapse in government control
meant England was the only country in Europe at that time where the publishing of
newspapers was unlicensed.
a) Freedom of the Press

A few weeks after he became king of Prussia in 1740, Frederick the Great introduced
a process that partially freed the Press by removing virtually all censorship (Koser
1907: 158-9). He even tolerated attacks on himself in books, plays, pamphlets, and
especially in the newspaper he ordered to be established in Berlin. Just across the
border in Denmark, a young doctor from Prussia, Johann Struensee, took over the
effective rule of the country in 1770 with the help of his lover, the queen Caroline
Matilda (Williams (1907: 415 – 118). One of his first edicts was the granting of
unrestricted freedom of the press. Unfortunately, a prime target of the new free press
was Struensee and his relationship with Caroline Matilda. After a sustained press
campaign, Struensee was put on trial and beheaded in 1772.
The concept of a free press jumped the 20km gap between Denmark‘s Copenhagen
and Sweden‘s town of Malmo. In 1997, the world‘s first law to specifically guarantee
the freedom of the press – including limitations to this freedom – was introduced in
Sweden. Since then freedom of the press has been guaranteed in the laws of many
nations.
In the United States and the former Soviet Union such a guarantee is enshrined in
each nation‘s constitution; although the Soviet guarantee differed from its Western
counterparts by guaranteeing freedom of access of its citizens to the columns of the
press.
b) Development of Newspapers
Anthony Smith (1979: 7 – 15) offers an explanation why the birthplace of printing.
China was one of the last places to introduce mass circulation newspapers. Smith also
expands on Desmond‘s claim that modern newspapers and accompanying forms of
journalism did not emerge in the West until about the 1850s. The author outlines four
stages before the nineteenth century in the European development of publishing news.
All were in book form, with the first stage being known as relations. These contained
a description of a single event that was written long after the event occurred. The
second stage was the collection of these relations into a publication known as a
Coranto. The first English prototype of a daily newspaper was the Daily Courant (or
Coranto) which appeared during the latter part of this stage, in 1702.
The publications in the third stage were known as diurnals. These dealt with more
recent events and were published weekly – provided a sufficient number of significant
events had occurred during the previous week. However, the diurnals ranked their
information in chronological order.
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The fourth stage was the mercury. Although these publications were still in book
form, according to Smith, their writers adopted some of the basic practices used by
today‘s journalists. For instance, for the time information was selected and ordered in
ways that would most interest or influence the readers.
In another book by Smith (1978:147) that incorporates an historical view of
journalism. The Politics of information, he quotes the nineteenth century poet Rev.
George Crabbe as describing journalists as:
―Some champions for the rights that prop the crown.
Some sturdy patriots sworn to pull them down; some neutral powers, with secret
forces fraught. Wishing for war, but willing to be brought.‖
A pessimist might say that, in the intervening years, the role of journalists has not
changed, only the technology. For instance, during the five years before the start of
the nineteenth century, two New York newspapers ―The World‖ (owned by Joseph
Pulitzer) and ―The Journal‖ (owned by William Randolph Hearst) were engaged in a
circulation battle. After running the gamut of stories on local sex, crime and scandal,
the World began to highlight often fictitious stories about the cruelty and excesses of
the soldiers in the Spanish colony of Cuba.
The Journal responded by sending a dozen of the cream of its reporters and artists to
milk as many human interest stories about the alleged civil war that was about to
erupt. After several months one of the artists telegraphed Hearst asking to come home
because there was no war.
Hearst‘s reply was: ―You supply the pictures. I‘ll supply the war‖. Sure enough,
public opinion in American had been whipped up to such a fever pitch against the
Spanish over the ―exploited‖ Cubans that Hearst was able to persuade his government
that the almost certainly accidental sinking of an American warship near Havana in
1898 was cause enough to start the Spanish-American War.
c) The Fourth Estate

Like Smith, Jeremy Tunstall in Newspaper History from the Seventeenth Century to
the present Day, identifies four stages in the development of journalism. However,
Tunstall argues that these stages are myths that have been constructed post facto in
attempts to raise the status and value of journalists.
The first of these mythical stages was ―the heroic struggle against state control of the
press, culminating in the establishment of the fourth Estate‖. The tag of Fourth Estate
helped reinforce this first myth. This was created by Lord Macaulay for journalists
when he suggested that they were a fourth-part of government – after the estates, or
classes, of the Lords Temporal (peers of the realm and members of the House of
Lords), Lords Spiritual (archbishops and bishops of the Church of England, also
sitting in the House of Lords), and the Commons (members of the lower house).
Tunstall‘s second mythical stage was the ―key role of the Fourth Estate in maintaining
a mature democracy‖ as watchdogs.
The third stage was the alleged transformation of journalist from venal hacks into
socially responsible people committed to the ideals of ―objectivity, accuracy, and
truth‖; and fourth, ―the contest within the press between commercial and non-
commercial goals, between conceptions of the press as an industry and as a public
service‖ (1978:17).
Smith also pours cold water on such a romanticised view of journalism history. He
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sees the needs of trade and the economy of particular societies dictating the rate of
development and spread of journalism. He says, for instance, that the fact that the Far
East had a 500 – year march on Europe in the development of printing and yet had to
wait for Europeans to introduce the idea of newspapers only demonstrates this
hypothesis. There was no commercial or economic need for newspapers for the
common reader in the highly-bureaucratised, pre-nineteenth century China.
Self-Assessment Exercise
Discuss how technology, politics and economy have significantly influenced the
growth of journalism practice today.
TUTORED-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. Discuss the significant trends in the world that have influenced the growth of
journalism.
2. Discuss the history and development of journalism; print, broadcast and news
agency journalism.
SCOPE OF JOURNALISM: FORMS AND FACETS,
 Print; news papers, books, magazines, newsletters etc.

 Electronic; radio, television, internet
 Public relations
 Advertising
 Photojournalism
JOURNALISM IN SOCIETY
The role of journalism in society

For example, education, information, ―watchdog‖, entertainment, agenda setting,
mobilization
QUALITIES OF A GOOD JOURNALIST
For example, curiosity, objectivity, persistence, knowledgeable
TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Research about the communication and information policies governing the media in
Uganda.
KEY PLAYERS IN THE MEDIA INDUSTRY
 Government
 Media houses
 Professional Associations
 Journalists
 Media Training Institutions
 The Public/Community
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN JOURNALISM

 Press 6
 Broadcasters
 Public Relations Officers
 Photography
 Private Sector
 Information Services
THE JOURNALISM INDUSTRY: KEY STRUCTURAL MAKE UP
Structure of News Industry

The news industry is a complex one. The structure or organisation depends mainly on
the resources available to the owner. The resources in turn influences the size of the
organisation irrespective of the size of particularly the print media house, certain key
personnel must be put in place to perform certain legitimate functions. Where the size
of the organisation does not accommodate all of the key staff, then some functions are
easily combined for adjunct personnel to perform. We shall now look at the key
personnel and their duties.
Editorial Staff
The key editorial staffs are the reporters and editors.
(i) Reporters: These are people or specialist who see and report events for the public.
They are actually news gatherers. They are the basic set of journalist. Without the
reporters, all other personnel may have nothing to do in the newsroom. The reporter‘s
main function is to be at the scene of event, whether assigned by the editor or a
regular beat. He is the one to first apply the elements, values, determinants and
essentials of good news reporting. Modern art of reporting has narrowed down the
areas of reporters‘ specialization. Special reporters have been assigned to report
crimes, court proceedings and assembly procedures, industry, sports, labour,
entertainment etc. In each of these fields, there are always a techniques and ways in
which the report must follow in order to attract readers. Each of the specialized areas
of reporting also has its language, slangs and terms, in order to carry the right
message. His job ends when he sends in his report to the editor.
(ii) The Editor: The editor is the principal gatekeeper in the newsroom. They are
many kinds of editors. While some edit for specialized interest like news, picture,
women, foreign matters, editorial page/opinion pages, sports, features and layout,
others are designated because of the need to facilitate the process itself.
For example, sub-Editors or Copy Editors.
Generally, editors edit copies of news stories sent in by reporters.
Editors make corrections in facts, spellings, grammar, names, dates, and claims. They
also edit to ensure that the copy fits into the house stylebook or the organisation. An
editor therefore is a manager as well as a supervisor. In order to perform such skill, an
editor must not just be intelligent but must be a motivator, have a good command of
English, have a sense of humour, have a nose for news, have the wealth of experience
in journalism, and have good professional manner. And all these must be in addition
to being a good policy maker, being creative and dynamic, being a good team leader
and worker and being responsible ethically and professionally.
The Production Staff 7

The production staff are the inhabitants and operators of the second level of news
processors. They are often called the production men. A production manager usually
heads the production department. The production manager not only ensures that the
news copies sent by the editorial department is typeset, he also ensure that the
proofreaders thoroughly check the typeset materials, while the paste-up men situate
stories and artwork where such materials belong. The manager also ensures that the
plate making process is in order. The production department has a crop of the
following experts:
(i) Compositors: Those who typeset by hand.
(ii) Typesetting Machine Operators.
(iii) Proofreaders: Check the gallery proofs side by side the original copy for errors.
(iv) Make-up personnel: Assemblers of types and photo engravings in page forms.
(v) Stone hands: Arrange the pages in proper sequence.
(vi) Printers: Those who operate the machines that turn out the newspaper in the form
that readers read.
The Business Department Staff

The business department is the third and the last stage of the tripartite structure of the
newspaper process. The principal personnel of this department are the circulation and
the advertising managers and staff.
The circulation manager along with his team does the marketing job. He is
responsible for the sales of the newspaper copies. He must therefore strategize on how
the copies of the newspaper can be distributed to the readers.
Note that a newspaper is a business. Most newspapers have a managing director
whose function is that of an MD in any business i.e. he is to see that the business is
run efficiently, that it makes the most economic use of its resources to manufacture a
saleable product, and finally to see that the business makes a profit. That is why this
department is referred to as the lifeblood of the mass media, hence it must be
managed by capable and experienced hands. Vendors form a large clunk of the
circulation manager‘s personnel pool. Vendors are independent personnel who collect
and sell newspapers on commission. It is important to note that the circulation
manager is influenced by time, in the same manner as other editorial and production
staffs are circulation people. But are only expected to maximise their circulation only
if other departments (editorial and production) have optimise their own share of time
and quality of work.
The Administrative Adjunct

The adjunct department consist of the personnel account and public relations units.
While the personnel manager is responsible for all administrative functions including
staffing, remunerations and promotion, the public relation expert manages the various
relationships between the organisation and the various units and groups within and
outside the organisation.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
How do the staff and functions of the editorial departments differ from those of
production and Business?
From your understanding of the structures of a typical journalism environment, draw
an organisation representing the major units and their functions.
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INTRODUCTION TO NEWS
WHAT IS NEWS?
News is one of the most difficult issues to define in mass communication. There are
almost as many definitions of news as there are journalists. Even laymen in the streets
can readily come up with acceptable definitions of news. In general terms, news is
very relative and depends on what one thinks is news. At any given moment, millions
of events happen simultaneously throughout the world. ―Museveni sacks Education
Minister‖, ―FRA Williams dies,‖ ―Uganda cranes thrashesGhana,‖ ―Obama wins Re-
election, Clinton in Sex Scandal, and so on are potentially news. However, they do
not become news until some reporters give an account of them. In other words, news
is the account of an event, not the event itself.
We can now consider some definitions given by scholars and media professionals
thus:
William S. Maulsbyl defined news thus:

News is an accurate, unbiased account of the significant facts of a timely happening
that is of interest to the readers of the newspaper that prints the account.
William G. Bleyer defines it like this:

News is anything timely that interests a number of people; and the best news is that
which has the greatest interest for the greatest number.
Mitchel Chainley defined news as:

The timely report of facts or opinions that hold interest of importance, or both for a
considerable number of people.
Prof. Charles Coates defined it thus:

News is what interests the reader, the viewer, the reporter, the editor, the producer,
their spouses and their neighbours. News is what affects their diets and their lives.
Sam Zelman of CNN says:

News is what is important because of its impact on society; it is what people need to
know and what they want to know.
There have been other numerous definitions of news but interwoven in all of this is
the fact that news must be something of interest to a significant number of people. In
this regard, the nature of news is always changing because community interests and
standards are always changing. For instance, the Western definition of news
emphasises an event that is out of the ordinary, exciting, sensational, and of the ―man
biting dog‖ variety. According to Lord North cliff, who revolutionized journalism in
England between 1890 and 1920 (incidentally he died a raving lunatic but very
wealthy), ―if a dog bites a man, it is NOT news, but when a man bites a dog, it is
News.‖
This definition has since influenced Western journalists and media in the reportorial
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duties. To them, news is made in the developing countries only when there are
scandals, coups, civil wars, uprisings, natural disasters, and so on. Western norms and
values maintain that ―bad‖ news is better than ―good‖ news. That is why when 100
planes take off from a base to a destination and 99 of them arrive safely and one
crashes, the 99 that arrived safely will not be mentioned or reported but much noise
will be made about the only one that crashed. That is news for the Western mass
media and audience.
However, for this course, I will define news as an accurate, unbiased account of a
current, timely event, which is reported in the mass media and is significant to a large
number of people in a locality. Furthermore, in contemporary thinking, today‘s news
is about real life, real people, real events, real places or real issues in a real world
reported in real time using any available means of communication. Agbese (2008)
also sees news as finding out and publishing the things people do not want others to
know and second, anything that will make people talk.
HARD NEWS AND SOFT NEWS
We need to pause to consider an important distinction that professional journalists

make between two kinds of news — ―hard news‖ and ―soft news.‖
As the old joke says, there are two kinds of people: people who divide things into
groups of two and people who don‘t. In all newsrooms, there are two kinds of news:
hard news and soft news. This is part of the way almost all professional journalists
have come to view the world — by inclination and training. If you are to understand
the culture of the people who report the news — either because you want to
understand how stories become news or because you'd like to work in journalism —
you need to understand this distinction.
Hard news stories are accounts of events that have just happened or are about to
happen.
For example, crimes, fires, meetings, court testimony, speeches, protest rallies, acts of
war, traffic accidents and elections are all typical topics of hard news stories. Hard
news stories that have developed overnight or on the same day are often referred to by
journalists as ―breaking news.‖
Hard news stories emphasize facts, not opinion or analysis. So while hard news
stories may contain ―colour‖ — that is, highly descriptive passages using colourful
language — the emphasis is on the bare, known, provable facts.
Hard news is an account of what's happened (or is about to), why it happened, who
was affected.
Soft news, on the other hand, doesn‘t depend nearly as much on the time element.
Soft news places less emphasis on the facts — though it would be a terrible mistake to
suggest that soft news must not have a factual foundation. Many journalists define
soft news as news that entertains as it informs, with more emphasis on human interest,
novelty and colourful writing and less of facts and events that have just happened.
Soft news has less immediacy than hard news. Writers of soft news often aim for the
reader‘s emotions, not his or her intellect.
Often a reporter has a little more leeway when writing soft news stories — he or she
can write a little longer, use more dramatic language, reach for a laugh, maybe even
let a little opinion creep into the story. Longer soft news stories are often called
―features‖ or ―feature stories.‖ (In the United Kingdom and Australia, these types of
stories are sometimes called ―take-outs.‖) Profiles of famous people, descriptions of
new diets and social trends, how-to features that teach how to knit a sweater or build a
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fence, accounts to trips to exotic resorts are all typical examples of soft news stories.
Is soft news unimportant? Not really. But it‘s not news that happened overnight. The
best soft news stories are based on hard facts, and are derived from hard news. Many
soft news stories contain more information and research than the hard news stories
they were based on. Editors often encourage writers to tie their soft news stories to
current hard news — in the language of the news business, this is known as finding a
―news hook‖ or a ―news angle.‖
Sometimes too, soft news is written about some aspect of a hard news story. When
you read that a tsunami has killed thousands around the Indian Ocean, that‘s hard
news. When you read about the personal stories of a team of rescuers digging out
tsunami victims, that‘s soft news.
Sad to say, the soft news category is also an excuse for a lot of really bad writing.
Still, done well, even news so soft that it's tied to no event or matter of significance
can have merit. If a piece on how to tie a bowtie can make a reader chuckle — or
laugh out loud — its writer has succeeded.
ELEMENTS OF NEWS VALUES
While definitions of news vary, the main determinant of what can be considered as
news is ―INTEREST.‖ To be news, an account of an event must be of interest to the
readers, listeners or viewers. Interest in a story is determined by the news values. The
elements that determine news values may be subdivided into two groups.
a. Determinants
b. Components
DETERMINANTS
A determinant is a factor that sets the character of something, in this case, news. The
determinants of news are as follow.
a. Timeliness b. Proximity/geographic location c. Prominence/personality
involved
d. Consequence/impact/significance e. Human-interest f. Novelty g. Conflict
h. Necessity
Timeliness
Today‘s news may be stale tomorrow. Therefore, to attain that reader –viewer or
listener interest or appeal, facts must be fresh. However, some issues of great impact
are timeliness. Therefore, the best time to tell an important story is as soon as it
happens or as soon as possible.
Proximity/Geographic Location
Distance between the news item‘s place of origin and its place of publication
determines its degree of reader – appeal, and the limits of reader – interest. Usually,
the nearer an individual is to the location of a news event, the more relevant it
becomes for him/her. This is referred to as geographic proximity.
There are two types of proximity:
Geographical Proximity - This has been described above.
Proximity of Interest
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An account of students‘ unrest in Makerere will definitely interest students in
Nkumba than a businessman in Kampala. This is referred to as proximity of interest.
Prominence/Personality Involved
All men may be created equal, but some are more equal and more newsworthy than
others. In fact, ―names make news‖ goes a cliché.
However, names do not always make news. Still, happenings that involve well-known
people or institutions are likely to be interesting even if not very important.
Consequence/Impact/Significance/Magnitude
How many people an event or idea affects and how seriously it affects them
determine its importance as news, as well as the extent to which the information may
be useful. Again, an item or event may give rise to thought not because of itself but
because of its probable consequences –its significance.
Human Interest
Interest in human beings and events because they concern men and women in
situations that might confront anyone else, is called human interest. In a general way,
human-interest stories might be defined as those stories that arouse an emotion in the
reader/ listener/ viewer and evoke emotional response.
Novelty
This sounds like human interest but shows some differences. The unusual makes
news. The bizarre makes news too. Remember the-man bite-dog principle. The
principle applies here. The first flight to the moon was big news, so was Sandra Day
O‘ Connor‘s appointment as the first woman Justice of the United States Supreme
Court. The day a female becomes the Vice President of the US it will be the biggest
news around the globe. ―Firsts,‖ ―Lasts,” and ―Only‖ have always been newsworthy.
So also are stories of freak occurrences and scientific or pseudoscientific phenomena.
Conflict
Nearly every story on each of our front pages is a report of conflict.

Conflict is a central feature of most news. Sometimes it is physical, as in wars or
sports. Sometimes it is more subtle and sophisticated like political conflicts.
Necessity
The seven earlier discussed news values involve people, events and situations that call
out for coverage. The value of necessity is, however, the journalist‘s making
(Mencher, 2010). According to the Mencher (2010), the journalist has discovered
something he or she feels it is necessary to disclose. The essential element here is that
the journalist considers a situation to be something everyone should know about and
usually it is a situation that needs to be exposed and remedied.
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THE COMPONENTS OF NEWS
So far, we have been discussing the determinants of news. In this section, we shall be
examining the components or the contents of news.
A component is a constituent part of something. They tend to have more news values
or higher news values than stories that lack them. The more of news components you
find in a story, the higher the news worthiness of such a story.
Many items could easily fall into the components of news. However, we shall discuss
eight that always sell a story anytime it is a content of such story. The eight
components of news are:
1. Age 2. Animal 3. Sex 4. Conflict 5. Money 6.
Children
7. Beauty 8. Human interest
NEWS VIRTUES/PRINCIPLES OF WRITING NEWS
Now that what news is and what determines readers‘ interest in a story have been
discussed, reporters should strive to make the news they publish or broadcast win the
credibility and confidence of their readers and listeners by adhering firmly to the
triple news virtues.
These triple news virtues are:
Truth
All news stories must represent factual events and personalities. The reporter should
also ensure that the facts of the News are truthful to the best of his/her knowledge
before publishing or broadcasting such story.
Objectivity
Objectivity presupposes that the reporter presents the reader with all sides of an issue,
presents all the facts and allows the reader to decide what these facts mean. For a
story to be objective, it must be devoid of a reporter‘s biases and prejudice. It must
not also be slanted or editorialised.
Accuracy
This is the last news virtue. Accuracy is a pillar on which every story rests. A news
story can be regarded as accurate if all names, ages, addresses and direct quotations in
the story are accurate or correct. The only way to meet this requirement is for the
reporter to check, double check or even triple-check his facts before going to the
press.
Attribution
Attribution means crediting the story to a source. All information and statements,
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except the most obvious, must be attributed to the source of the material. For
example, the police reported two people were killed when….
President Yoweri Museveni Kaguta today urged….
However, no attribution is necessary for these assertions:
―March 27 falls on a Monday‖ ―Rain fell yesterday‖.
These are obvious statements that could be verified. Attribution does not guarantee
the truth of the statement rather it places the responsibility of the material with the
source.
Balance and Fairness
By balance, we mean that both sides in a controversy must be given their say. In a
political campaign, all candidates should be given enough space and time to present
their points. In a debate, each speaker is entitled to reach the reader.
By fairness, we mean that all parties involved in the news are treated without
favouritism. Fairness also involves the honest use of words.
Words like admit, refuse, complain have varied meanings and should be used with
caution.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Discuss the elements of news values and why you think they are important in
determining a story‘s relevance.
1. Why do we have many and different definitions of news?

2. Discuss the major reasons why necessity made the list of news values.
3. Which among the news values must be present for a news story to have credibility?
Justify your selection.
QUALITIES OF A GOOD NEWS STORY
It is not enough for you to know how to gather news and define news.
You should be able to write a good news story. In doing this, there are certain basic
things that you need to master for your news story to be logical, accurate, concise,
coherent and readable.
Just as the basketball player must abide by the rules of the game, the news writer must
adhere to a set of guidelines. These are also known as rudiments of the news story.
These include:
Accuracy
This is the quality or the state of the writer being precise, or exact in terms of name
and/or data presentation in the news.
Write correctly the middle or initial in names and the exact address of people in
stories. Accuracy begins with the reporter‘s painstaking attention to every detail when
gathering facts and information. Initials, spelling of names, correct addresses, exact
quotes, precise number of deaths, should be checked and double-checked with a
source or a reference when there is doubt.
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Attribution
Attribution means crediting the story to a source. All information and statements,
except the most obvious, must be attributed to the source of the material. For
example, the police reported two people were killed when….
President Yoweri Museveni Kaguta today urged….
However, no attribution is necessary for these assertions:
―March 27 falls on a Monday‖ ―Rain fell yesterday‖.
These are obvious statements that could be verified. Attribution does not guarantee
the truth of the statement rather it places the responsibility of the material with the
source.
Balance and Fairness
By balance, we mean that both sides in a controversy must be given their say. In a
political campaign, all candidates should be given enough space and time to present
their points. In a debate, each speaker is entitled to reach the reader.
By fairness, we mean that all parties involved in the news are treated without
favouritism. Fairness also involves the honest use of words.
Words like admit, refuse, complain have varied meanings and should be used with
caution.
Brevity
News writing is the art of knowing what to leave out and condense. The subject-verb-
object (S.V.O) structure helps to cut sentences to the bone. Use action verbs, avoid
adverbs and adjectives. Or Brief and Focused The good news story should get to the
point as quickly as possible and should keep to the point.
Clarity
Ability to write clear and interesting stories is a valuable skill. Tax rates, budgets, etc,
must be translated into everyday English. To do this, you need clear thinking. You
need to understand the event before writing.
Don‘t hide your ignorance. Clear thinking extends to the writing as well as to the
subject matter.
Human Interest
Readers like the human angles to a story. The human element catches the reader‘s
interest; it should be given prominence in the story.
Reporters must include people, their reactions, their expectations, and their concerns
in their stories.
Identification
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This means identifying the people you are writing about so that readers and listeners
can visualize, locate and identify these people. The standard identifying format is
Name; Age; Address; Occupation. If a story quotes a source as an authority, it is
also essential that the source is identified by title or background to give the person the
credibility to speak on the subject on which he or she is being quoted.
News-point
Every story must have a point, and must be made high in the story. The Newspoint is
also the main theme of the story. It provides the spine of the story.
No reporter should begin to write without knowing what the Newspoint is. The News
point is consciously decided upon by the reporter usually at the scene of the event
being covered or while the person is being interviewed.
Objectivity
Objective journalism attempts to present a complete report that is not coloured by the
opinion of the reporter or the requirements of the prevailing government. Objectivity
is not only as an impersonal ‗balanced‘ style of news writing but also as representing
the broader claim of journalism as an important third party, the one that speak for the
general interest.
Verification
When a reporter checks his or her information against some kind of objective source,
we say that the material has been verified. Verification is important, as it is
recognition of the need for truth. The essence of verifying or confirming material is to
assure the reader or listener of the truth of the stories. Accuracy is important, but it is
not enough. The fact without the truth is futile; indeed, the fact without the truth is
false.
Complete
A news story should contain the specifics that illustrate, prove and document the main
point of the story.
Well-written
A good news story should be clear, direct, interesting and error-free.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Listen to two lead stories in a bulletin of any Radio Station of your choice. Will
you say the reporters are objective? Use your own knowledge of objectivity to
evaluate the stories.
TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT (TMA)
a. Differentiate between Attribution and Identification

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b. Name different ways of identifying the people you are writing about.
NEWS GATHERING AND SOURCES
To define news is one thing to get it is another. To gather news the reporter must
know where and when to look for it, what and whom to see, why and how to verify
the facts he assembled and when and how to use the information he has gotten to
write a story. Newsgathering is the major occupation of both cub and experienced
reporters.
News Gathering and Sources
Every story begins as a stream does ―from a source‖. You cannot find a great story
today that does not have a story. This reminds me what one of my great Professors
told me ―every PhD has a story!‖ Such stories also have a beginning. This is the major
reason most persons who are unfamiliar with the news gathering process often
wonder how reporters gather and assemble their information, how do they get access
to information and information sources, and how do they sustain the daily publication
of news in their media organisations. There are three broad categories of sources of
news stories thus:
1. Predictable Sources
2. Unpredictable Sources
3. Anticipated Sources
Predictable Sources
These are sources that regularly service the news industry either because of their
function that make their activities of public interest or by their nature that help
generate events that attract a large number of people.
Predictable sources include diary of news, published reports in form of newspapers,
magazines, journals, and handouts, broadcast on Radio/TV and prepared speeches. It
also includes active or dramatic newsbreaks, which include news from the police,
hospitals, fire service, hotels, schools, religious organisations, labour and political
associations. With predictable sources, you are sure to get something from there all
the time.
Unpredictable Sources
This means a nose for news that borders on the ability, training, exposure and
experience of the reporter to determine what news is and report it accordingly.
Unpredictable sources are the likely sources where breaking news or tips that could
lead to scoop could come from.
Anticipated Sources
This is similar to predictable sources except for the fact that anticipated sources are
restricted to planned events that a reporter knows will definitely happen. Such events
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include a national day celebration, budget speech and special anniversaries, workers‘
day, and so on.
No matter the sources of getting news, a good reporter should have the ability to
listen, see and possess attributes of a good interviewer. These are needed in dealing
with those sources.
In summary, a reporter gets news by:
Going to the scene of the news event and observe events unfold;
Talking to people who witnessed the event as it happens or what you will
consider as using eye witness accounts;
Consulting secondary sources like records, reports, documents, files, and so on
to cross check and corroborate facts and figures.
Sources could also be human in nature, physical or online. Human sources are
those personal contacts you have build over time. They are also authorities and
people involved in news events. The physical sources are consists of records,
documents, reference works, and so on.
The online sources include a vast array of human and physical sources, from
academics to government data (Mencher, 2010).
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Discuss the various ways a reporter could gather news of an event he or she
did not witness.
HOW TO HANDLE SOURCES
Journalists and the profession rely heavily on dependable sources to succeed with the
reportorial assignment. One of the trade secrets of any reporter/journalist is the
contact with people who confide what is happening in their places of work and
interest, whether in politics, business or society. As such, sources are as necessary as
notebooks.
Here are some suggestions on how to manipulate and/or manage sources.
Use Sources as Starting Points for Some Stories
Use sources as starting points for your story but not the end point.
Always double and triple check with other public and private sources before going to
press or on air. Do your research and you will find the supporting facts that
corroborate your story or questions the credibility and thus reliability of the facts you
are about taking to the public sphere.
Maintain a Skeptical Attitude
Do not be reluctant to discard sources‘ tips if they cannot be substantiated. It is a

healthy skeptical attitude that gets you out of trouble in the long run.
Be Careful with Confidential or Anonymous Sources

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You must be careful with sources who give you information in confidence. The Off-
the-record rule must be obeyed. In practice, you will sometimes have certain things
only if you agree to go off the record and listen without quoting. If what the source
said is true, you can verify it later from other sources or facts. Once you have
promised to keep a source‘s comments confidential, do not break your promise. Be
careful not to blunder into suggesting who your source is by some inadvertent
reference that can be traced to your source. This could lead to dry up of sources for
the industry.
Be Aware of Many Editors Attitude and Behaviour
The granting of secrecy to a source is an open invitation to exaggerate, embroider,

embellish or slant. Some reporters have found ways to avoid using unnamed sources.
One method is to read back the quote you want to use to diminish the source‘s
anxieties and fears. A second technique is to take the time to discover documents that
prove the source‘s allegation. If you can corroborate any information given to you of
the record, you could go ahead and use such information without attributing it to your
confidential sources.
Developing Your Sources
As you meet more people and learn from your community, you should continually
update your records of contacts. They come in handy sometimes. Try to develop a
bookkeeping method for keeping tracks of your contact. Developing sources differ
from one journalist to another.
Here are some tips on how to develop a source.
Keep a File Box of 3x5 Cards:
Use one card for each source. Be sure to list the telephone numbers of both office and
home or keep the same information in a small notebook you can carry with you or use
both the file and the notebook. Sometimes it pays to leave your address andphone
numbers with your source so that he can always call you up when something that is
newsworthy turns up, since you as a journalist cannot be everywhere at the same time.
Always Review Your Card or Notebook from Time to Time:
People are always moving. They are either changing jobs or location. You need to
update your notebook from time to time or you will find out you just have a record of
useless data.
Sometime you call your contacts just to say hello. Do not call them only when you
want to use them.
If you can afford it, sometimes take your contacts to lunch, dinner, and so on. Know
their kids and spouse‘s names, birthdays and anniversaries.
Build a healthy relation based on trust and confidence with sources. If they grow to
trust you, they will not have problems talking to you when something important turns
up.
You can also reverse the process. Whenever any useful information comes to you,
make it a habit to pass on such to your sources. When they get tips too, they will pass
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them on to you. It is a mutual thing.
1. Will all your sources be reliable? How would you handle sources to ensure they do
not get you into trouble?
ESTABLISHING RAPPORT WITH A SOURCE
The right chemistry produces an interview that is fun for both parties.
When John Lindsay was the mayor of New York, the AP‘s Pett opened an interview
with the question, ―Would you want your daughter to marry a mayor of New York?‖
Lindsay roared in laughter and Pett had a great interview.
Rapport is the relationship between the reporter and the source and is very crucial to
the source of the interview. The relationship is sometimes relaxed, sometimes
strained. Often it is somewhere in between. The type of relationship you try to
establish with your source is determined by the kind of story you are writing.
There are several approaches to establishing rapport with a source
(These approaches also serve as interview approaches). They include:
1. You can start off with small talk and allow the familiarity to graduate to the level
you could take advantage of and then bring up the major issues of the interview.
2. Bring up something humorous about the interviewee you have found out during
your research and which you think can interest the interviewee in your opening
statements. This may be the small talk that will create the needed rapport for you.
3. Ask about something you know the source will want to talk about. If he is a
premiership fan and ready to bet his life over Chelsea, take advantage and talk about
the Chelsea versus Man U penultimate game that may decide who wins the EPL 2011
Season. Once he identifies he has same addictions and hobbies like you, he creates the
rapport for you to talk to him.
4. Show sources what you have in common. This will support the Number 3 point
made above.
5. Empathise with your sources or subjects. Do not be judgemental.
Sometimes, it may help to put yourself in their shoe and feel their pains. This may
draw you closer during the interview process.
6. Conduct the interview where the source feels most comfortable.
When you create such a relaxed mood for him, he comes out as if he has known you
for a long time. The ultimate outcome may a great interview for you.
7. Where you sit in relation to the person you are interviewing could also be important
in determining the kind of rapport you develop.
Unless you are deliberately trying to make the interviewee feel uncomfortable, do not
sit directly in front of him/her. Permit your sources to establish eye contact if and
when they wish.
8. Tape recorders ensure accuracy of quotes, but they make many speakers self-
conscious or nervous. Try to place it in an inconspicuous spot and ignore it.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Discuss four practical things you need to do to establish a rapport with a source you
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are about to interview.
HANDLING ON AND OFF – THE – RECORD INFORMATION
Introduction: Sometimes a speaker or source may not want to be quoted at all –

directly or indirectly. Therefore, you must learn to use sound professional judgement
in handling them. If you agree to accept their information, you must honour their
request to remain off the record. Breaching that confidence destroys trust and
credibility.
Guidelines for Citing Sources
Not naming sources is dangerous for two important reasons:

Such information will lack credibility and make the reporter and the newspaper
suspect.
The source may be lying.
The following distinctions are made regarding sources and attributions:
1. Off-the-Record: This means you cannot use the information given to you no
matter the situation or pressure of breaking out with a scoop.
2. On Record: This means you can use the information as well as attribute it to the
source. This is the ideal situation you must get your sources to give you information.
Anything outside this is a risk.
3. Not for Attribution: This means you may use the information but may not
attribute it to the source. You must take responsibility for the use of the information.
4. On Background: This means you may use the information but with a general title
for a source. Example: ―A Presidential Aide‖, ―A Senior Official‖. The real source‘s
name must be mentioned.
5. On Deep Background: This means you may use the information, but you must say
it on your own and take responsibility.
Please note that there is currently no universal agreement on these terms as different
practitioners in different circumstances interpret them differently. Therefore, your
obligation is to make sure you and your sources understand each other. Set the ground
rules ahead of time.
Clarify your terms and make sure you know the policy of your paper on such matters.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Discuss the guidelines for citing sources.
TECHNIQUES OF GATHERING NEWS

Observation
Interviews
Questionnaires
Document analysis
Recording (audio, visual and note taking)
Electronic News Gathering (ENG)
Listening
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INTERVIEWING: MEANING
A large chunk of what a reporter does, to get the necessary data for his stories
revolves round meeting and asking people questions. It is the journalist‘s tool also, for
digging out facts. This is where interview comes in. By way of definition, an
interview is ―any planned and controlled conversation between two or more people
which has a purpose for, at least, one of the participants‖. To be effective, therefore,
an interview must have (a) Purpose (b) Plan (c) Control interaction.
But you can learn a great deal about the art of interview by learning how to interview.
It is practically an exercise best learned by experience.
The purpose of an interview may be specific depending on the type of interview. But
all interviews are concerned with either obtaining, passing or clarifying information.
Types of Interview
There are many types of interview open to use by the journalist. The very familiar
types are:
• Exclusive interview: This is conducted by a reporter representing a single media
house without any other reporter participating in it. Any information disclosed during
the interview is only known to the reporter.
• Panel Interview: This occurs when more than one reporter is seated to throw
questions at an invited guest. It is frequently adopted or used by radio and television
station.
• Vox Populi or Man-in-the-street Interview: ―Vox Populi‖ means the voice of the
people. So, this type of interview is conducted by reporters to elicit information from
a cross- section of the general public. It could be anybody in the street irrespective of
the status or age. There is no fixed rule as to how many responses one must get.
• Personality Interview: This is an interview conducted by a reporter concerning an
individual‘s life, activities, views, character or personality, etc. The selection of the
personality is not limited to those who have gained places in the news stream of
ongoing events, e.g. government officials, recognised businessman, traditional ruler,
professor or renowned academic, etc. A personality can also be out of the news
stream but news worthy, by a special trait of oddity, habit, play, hobby, etc. For
instance, a priest who, Sunday after Sunday, preaches to an empty church auditorium
deserves a special focus.
• New Interview: An interview with one source is just the beginning of reporting. It
can involve asking questions from several people, e.g. investigating a bank robbery.
People to interview can include: bank clerks, security men, eye-witness (customers)
etc. because time is the reporter‘s greatest enemy (deadline), he must be thorough as
well as swift. He must ask right questions directed at the right persons.
• Feature Interview: It is a form of article that focuses on an issue of general interest
by interviewing one or more persons to present and analyse the issue. It presents a
deeper insight into events than in news reports. It also allows for descriptive and
stylish techniques not used in news writing usually done around events that have
already made news. Reporter would talk to more sources than for news story.
• It is a type of creative writing which takes a lot of preparation e.g. of a fatal road
accident that claimed many lives. This can motivate a news feature on e.g. for
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interview with experts in highway, Police Traffic Officers, Road Safety Officials
(FRSC), medical officers, drivers of commercial vehicles, and or persons who have
survived such accidents etc. what about the Tsunami Disaster? Hurricane Katrina etc?
• Sport News Interview: Reporters interview police officers on crime, fire marshals
on causes of fire outbreaks; sports reporters talk to coaches, players for background
materials for games stories. In sport news interviews, reporters look for information
that will highlight or illustrate the events being described.
Techniques of Interview
Newsgathering requires tact, common sense and knowledge of interviewing
techniques. Successful interviews are the result of careful planning and preparation on
the part of one or both participants. Good interviewers and interviewees are not born
but are made. They practice the skill until they appear to be able to do it without much
effort. The notable interviewing techniques are:
• Preparation: This reminds one of the saying that ―perspiration in preparation is
inspiration in presentation‖. It requires that the reporter must read, research and know
much about the person or subject to be discussed in the interview. The reporter must
get to know the person‘s past, or the views about the subject in the past.
It all boils down to preparation.
• Have Questions Stated: This means that a reporter should prepare a set of basic
questions meant for the interview. The approach must not be rigid. It can be
structured (e.g. Yes or No answers) or unstructured (the respondent is free to say
anything).
Allowance should also be made for supplementary questions.
With time, you will learn not to strictly rely on a prepared list of questions. The
natural informal and conversational order would then prevail.
• Use of Mechanical Device: In order to ensure accurate report of what is said during
an interview, a tape recorder is recommended for use but care must be taken to avoid
situations where the presence of the recorder can disrupt the flow of ideas/response
from the interviewee. The person might feel unsafe and exposed to give out
information that is recorded.
• Appearance: This calls for modesty in your dressing habit. A reporter must be well
dressed for an interview. Excessive makeup is undesirable. Remember, there is no
second time first impression. The first is the first and nothing more.
• Be on Time: This calls for an avoidance of African time syndrome. Arrangements
should be made for the journalist to be at the venue at least, 30 minutes before time
schedule.
• Eye Contact: Good interview involves good observation of what is happening
around the interviewee. A reporter that refuses, for any reason, to maintain good eye
contact during an interview might be missing lots of non-verbal cues necessary for his
report.
This does not mean that one should stare or gaze at the other person to the point of
causing an embarrassment.
• Note Taking: A reporter should listen attentively during an interview. If he does not
know the formal shorthand writing, he can develop the abbreviated long handwriting,
for his purpose.
Only the important points should be taken down. Excessive scribbling/writing should
be avoided, although it is better to be on that part of ―too much‖, than being on the
part of ―too little‖.
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• Verification: Before ending an interview, quoting statements, names, figures and
dates should be cross- checked for accuracy.
At the end, express your gratitude to the interviewee.
Choose from (1) the types of interview (2) any of the news sources, you have studied
in this unit, conduct an interview or interviews of that sort and submit your report.
THE BASIC COMPONENTS OF A NEWS STORY
All well-written new stories have most of the parts listed below. Competent
journalists know how to write each of these components into a cohesive whole.
Most basic news stories should have:
- A headline
- A lead (sometimes written lede)
- A backup quote
- Attribution
- Reaction
- A “nut graph”
- Background
- An ending
The Headline.
The headline is seldom more than a one or two line summary of the contents of the
news story, in larger type, that tells readers what the story is about and whether (for a
particular reader) it is worth reading. Headlines have a telegraphic style and, because
they must fit a particular and very limited space that is usually not known at the time
the news story is being written, they are not usually written by the reporter.
Headlines act as an index of the contents of the newspaper, and a summary of the
information in its stories.
The Lead.
The lead is usually defined as the first sentence of a news story, sometimes as the first
few sentences. If news stories have a beginning, a middle and an end, the lead is the
beginning. The lead on a hard news story is often called a summary lead. Lots of
journalists have their own definition of the ideal lead. Virtually all agree that a good
hard news lead should contain the most important facts of the story — at least some
of the Five Ws. Most agree that the ideal lead is short — no more than 25 or 30
words. Leads should be ―tight‖ — that is, written with economy. Leads need to be
interesting — their job is to entice readers into reading the rest of the story. A news
story with a strong lead is more likely to be read.
The Backup Quote.
Most news stories, except the briefest of briefs, should have a backup quote placed
soon after the lead. Ideally, the backup quote — attributed to someone with
knowledge of the story — will sum up the claim made in the lead in a pithy,
comprehensible and entertaining way. The problem from the reporter‘s point of view,
24
of course, is that he must accurately transcribe a genuinely illustrative quote. Not
every interview subject can or will provide a good backup quote. A good backup
quote pithily explains what‘s going on and keeps the reader reading.
Attribution.
All hard news stories require attribution, and even the softest of news stories require
some. Attribution is the explanation of the source of the information in the news
story. It is also the identification of who made the statements contained in quotes or
paraphrases of quotes. Attribution allows the reader to judge for herself whether the
facts set out in the story have merit. The best stories contain lots of quotes — and all
quotes have attribution. A news story without attribution is worthless.
Reaction.
Most hard news stories, and all news stories that contain controversial statements,
should have reaction — the comments of someone who is familiar with the situation
written about, or of someone with an alternative view of the main thesis of the story.
If there has been a natural disaster in Ruritania, reaction should be sought from the
local Ruritanian community. If your community‘s MP, a member of the opposition,
slams the government, a representative of the government should have the
opportunity to respond. Fairness requires reaction.
The Nut-Graph.
A nut graph informs readers of the focus of the story. It is usually located in the top
third of the story — near the beginning of the middle — and it states the main point of
the story. Lots of news stories must deal with complex topics and a variety of ideas,
but all good stories should focus on one key theme. Not every story requires a nut
graph — in a short, hard news story, the lead will serve the same purposeas the nut
graph. In a feature story with a softer lead, a nut graph is essential to set outfor the
reader what is going on.
Background.
Most stories need some background for the reader to understand what‘s going on. The
history leading up to an event, the cast of characters, the value of the localcurrency,
the physical properties of water — all are examples of background. The more
complicated the story, the more pressing the need for background. Background helps
explain the action.
The Ending.
Notwithstanding the notion of the Inverted Pyramid story — which in theory can be
cut anywhere — the most elegantly written stories come to a clear conclusion that
somehow ties the story up with a neat little bow. Sometimes writers end a story with a
reference to future action that is expected. (―The trial continues Monday.‖)
Sometimes stories end with a new quote that summarizes what has happened. Good
endings often fall victim to heavy-handed editing. Still, they are worth the effort:
Good endings leave the reader with a feeling of satisfaction.
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GENERAL RULES FOR NEWS WRITING AND REPORTING
1. Do not pass a verdict or make a judgment:
It is not your duty as a reporter or writer to pass a verdict or make judgment. Just
gather the facts of the story present them to your audience and let them decide on
whose side they will want to go.
2. Do not editorialise:
Leave editorialising to the editorial writers. News reports must be as straightforward

and objective as possible.
3. Avoid the use of unfamiliar jargon:
Do not assume that your audience understands the meanings of the unfamiliar jargons
you are using. Always use familiar words.
4. Keep yourself and other reporters out of the story: Keep yourself and other
colleagues out of the story unless you and them are an essential part of the news.
5. Avoid the use of “told me,” “told this writer” or “told our reporter: The phrase
―in an interview will serve your purpose.
6. There must be perfect accuracy in writing and reporting: When in doubt, leave
it out.
7. There must be no willful distortion of facts in either news or headlines: Never

tamper with the facts of a story no matter the benefits that may accrue to you as a
result. This is an unforgivable offence in journalism. Any reporter who tampers or
fabricates the so-called facts of a story is ―finished‖ in the industry. You become
leprous, untouchable and unemployable.
8. Guard against publication of libelous statement: The good reporter is the one
who lives to write another report and see the fame of the previous reports come to
him. Avoid writing your way into jail. Libelous statements should be avoided because
of its capacity to keep you in jail and close down your media organisation because of
insolvency resulting from the inability to pay court fines.
9. Always use simple words: News writing and reporting are not the platforms to
impress anybody with long sounding and big words. Always use the nearest simple
word. A good news report is the one the average reader reads and understands.
10. All news copies must be typewritten and double-spaced: The era of hand-
written copies is gone. Therefore, a reporter must know how to type his story using
the computer. It must also be typed in double space so that sub-editors and editors
will be able to edit the copy.
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11. The first page must carry the reporter‟s surname, a slug line and date in the
top left hand corner: Slug lines must be short preferably one word.
12. Start your story halfway down the first page: You must give enough space for
your superior editorial staff to work on your copy.
13. Leave at least one-inch margin at left, right, top and bottom of each page: Do
not overcrowd the pages. Leave appropriate margins as required.
14. Each page must be numbered or lettered: The correct letter or numeral is in the
form of ―B copy next‖ or ―page 2 next.‖ This type of numbering must appear at the
bottom right hand corner of each page except the last.
The end of a story must be marked by a centered “30” or “***” or “#.”
15. Always make your lead interesting: Guard against misleading leads. Leads sell a
story. Therefore, to get and keep the attention of your audience, the lead must be
interesting.
16. Use the inverted pyramid format when writing your news story: This is the
generally accepted format for writing news reports because it presents the most
important elements of a story in the first few paragraphs. The format also makes it
easy to cut stories from the bottom without losing any substance of the story.
17. You must quote accurately: Use quotes only where necessary to brighten up
your story. Please, do not overdo this in your copy.
18. Use “said” if you want to write in the present tense and “said that” if it is
reported speech: This style helps the copy retain currency and life.
19. Always read your copy carefully and connect all typographical spelling and
grammatical mistakes before turning it in: This is a primary rule even in ordinary
or everyday writing. No amount of haste could justify a badly written copy.
20. Your copy must be submitted in duplicate and both copies must be properly
edited
21. Never underline words or phrases or titles of books in your copy
22. A seasoned reporter and publisher, do not exaggerate, do not over-dramatise,

beware of adjectives, use the active voice and be natural and conversational
when you write
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Identify at least 10 rules guiding writing a good copy of news and report.
1. Identify 10 rules of news writing and argue that they should be retained even
beyond this century.
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QUALITIES OF THE NEWS REPORTER
Some of the major qualities that make a good reporter are discussed below.
S/he must have a mastery of the written or spoken language of the medium of
expression: This will enable him/her to interact easily with news sources,
eyewitnesses or even the victims of events.
S/he must have a nose for news: This means the reporter or journalist must be
curious about getting news from newsy or stale situations. A good reporter must have
a natural instinct for news and should be able to identify news from seemingly events
that may not be considered newsworthy by everyone else.
S/he must be current and keep abreast of events and happenings: In the media
industry, yesterday‘s news is stale and no more needed. To remain relevant in the
industry, therefore, the reporter must keep abreast of happenings in and around
him/her.
A good reporter must be fair, accurate and objective in his news writing and
reporting job. Fairness, accuracy and objectivity are news virtues, which the
profession thrives on. Any attempt to compromise any of these values makes a mess
of the reputation and credibility of the industry. These qualities of a reporter must be
jealously guarded.
A good reporter must be creative: Creativity makes the reporter see another unique
story from an already published report. Without creativity, the reporter will remain
dry, uninspiring and boring to his readers and even his sources.
S/he must also have the ability to dress well: A common idiom says how you dress
is how you are addressed and I add that it also betrays your address. A good reporter
must know how to dress for the occasion otherwise he/she will be lost in the crowd or
misrepresented. Dressing well is not necessarily dressing expensively. It only means
having the right kind of dress for each occasion or situation.
A good reporter must have perseverance: Perseverance is having the staying power
and refusing to give up even when the situation calls for giving up. A good reporter
must have the ability to stay longer and under stress or pressure.
A good reporter must be a “good mixer”: There is no room for the reserved kind of
reporter who cannot easily get into a discussion with a potential news source. A good
reporter should be able to blend easily with all kinds of persons especially when such
persons are primary to getting the news he/she is pursuing at that moment. The good
reporter should be able to make contacts, grow and maintain them.
S/he must have a high level of comportment: The good reporter must have self-
control and high level of comportment no matter the situation or circumstances.
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He/she is not expected to be carried away easily by any surrounded situation.
A good reporter must have the ability to embark on creative risk and courage
especially in reporting coups, wars, conflicts, crime, disaster etc.
S/he must have the ability to ferret out news through the process of monitoring
people and events.
S/he must also possess good observatory skills and have an eye for details: Poorly
trained reporters look without seeing. The good reporter is able to see leads and news
worthy situations by merely observing people and situations. Whenever the good
reporter looks, he/she sees.
He/she is also able to taken in a lot of details by mere observation.
S/he must be a good listener and must have an unusual patience: The poorly
trained reporters are only interested in hearing their voices in an interview situation.
However, a good reporter is only interested in hearing the news source talk.
Therefore, listening becomes a vital quality a reporter must possess in order to
succeed.
S/he should also possess enough idealism to inspire indignant prose but not too
much as to obstruct detached professionalism (Ragged Right cited in Agbese, 2008).
A good and modern reporter must be multi-skilled: S/he should be equipped with
an array of skills to meet the demands of diverse media users (Mencher, 2010).
A good and modern reporter must also have the unique quality called enterprise:
He/she should be able to work through tougher assignments or situation by
instantaneously assessing the situation and taking decisions and steps that will give
him/her what the media organisation wants.
A good reporter must also have the strength of character to lead a disrupted personal
life without going absolutely haywire (Ragged Right cited in Agbese, 2008).
1. As an aspiring reporter identify and discuss five solid qualities you think you
must possess to be able to assume a reportorial role in a Radio station.
WHAT MOTIVATES A NEWS REPORTER?
Byron Calame cited in Mencher (2010) identified seven motivating factors while
working and competing with more than a 100 reporters in his successful career as a
reporter and editor.
Being first with new facts or fresh insights

Every reporter really desires to be the first to get the news out. The so called old
fashioned scoops are still fashionable even in today‘s media industry. Being the first
gives them a sense of fulfillment and originality.
Pursuing stories that can have impact

Successful reporters are usually motivated by the desire that their outputs changed the
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course history. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the famed Watergate Scandal
are examples of reporters in this class.
Wining prizes
This is a little controversial because most journalists argue that their stories were not
motivated by prize and awards. But a careful look at the work of journalists suggests
this is one of the motivating factors.
Impressing sources
According to Byron Calame cited in Mencher (2010), most of the journalists remain
highly motivated to impress their sources with the accuracy, fairness and depth of
their work.
Finding out what‟s really happening

According to Byron Calame cited in Mencher (2010), ―A fundamental motivation of
reporters is the curiosity that drives them to get to the bottom of a confusing or
complicated situation and to find patterns that help explain it to readers. Making sense
out of chaos-especially when you can do it first-is something many reporters find
rewarding.‖
Telling stories in a compelling way

Most reporters who aim to the top are usually moved to tell their stories in a way that
their listeners or audiences are compelled to see to the end of the story.
Getting on the front page

Any reporter who spends five months in a media organisation, say newspaper, and
does not get on the front page of the paper, may be regarded as not doing well. Front
page stories are big stories in the judgment of editors. So, reporters strive to have a
sense of fulfillment that their story was considered big and good to make a front page.
The feeling is always rewarding and unexplainable.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. In your own words, discuss five factors that drive reporters to success.
1. Defend the argument that winning prizes does not motivate reporters.
2. Explain the meaning and elements of News.
3. Describe the determinants and basic components of a news story.
4. Discuss the qualities of a news reporter.
HOW TO FIND THE STORY IDEA (MIND MAP)
How to find the story idea has always pricked the mind of reporters especially during
lull period. However, the imaginative reporter will discover in this section that the
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story idea could be obtained from a lot of places. For instance, readers sometimes
bring story ideas to the newspaper office. Most of these story ideas are the result of an
active imagination, a lively curiosity and assistance from friends. Journalists soon
learn to recognise how stories written for other publications can be written for their
own. They get in the habit of carrying a little notebook to jot down ideas when
something somebody says strikes a responsive chord. Sometimes even for good
journalists, the wellspring of ideas sometimes dries up. Therefore, take note of these
10 sources of story ideas. They are good for anytime and anyplace.
Other People
As a journalist, you meet many people from time to time. What are they discussing
when they are not discussing business? What have they heard lately? Journalists have
to listen even if it means eavesdropping while having a cup of tea. What do you think
interest people? There is no better source of story ideas than the people you meet
while you are off duty or on duty. They are, after all, your readers. Therefore, take
note of others and always try to find out what is on their mind. Whenever you look,
try to see beyond your nose.
Other Publications
News stories are sometimes recycled across the country by different media
organisations in different ways. Read other newspapers, magazines, books, pamphlets
and the house journals and newsletters of businesses and organisations. Please note
that all stories cannot fit in every community. You have to know your own readership.
A story about urban renewal will definitely attract more attention in urban area than in
rural area. When you are reading other publications for ideas, remember that you
should not duplicate a story in your own newspaper report verbatim; only look for
idea from which to develop your story.
News releases
Releases from public relations persons are valuable sources of story ideas. Try to
follow up on some of these regular releases that come to your media organisation.
You may never know where they will take you to or predict the end.
Social services directory

Many cities and localities have a composite listing of all agencies providing social
services. These listings could throw up different kinds of ideas about the society,
which a reporter could follow through. You should therefore take note that each of
those agencies and their clients could lead to a potential story.
Government reports
On a daily basis, information and statistics flow from such a place. However, behind
every piece of statistics is a person. Every person is a potential story.
The census report for instance contains not only the number of people in a
community, but also their income and education, how many cars they own, whether
they rent or own a house, and so on. Such census reports tell much more. Therefore,
find out what and why, and you have for yourself a treasure chest of stories.
Stories in your newspaper

Many a stream has yielded gold nuggets after the first wave of miners have left.
Newspapers sometimes play hit-and-run journalism. Always ask yourself, whenever
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you read a report in a newspaper, if the human interest angle has been reported
adequately. When your newspaper is concentrating on the election winners, maybe
you can get an interesting story by talking to the losers and their supporters. In
addition, when the unemployment statistics are reported in your newspaper,
remember that behind each of those numbers is a name of a person without a job and
probably a family to support.
Advertisements and Yellow Pages

Advertisements especially classifieds, could be valuable sources of story ideas. Look
through the Yellow Pages too. You may stumble on a good story idea.
Wire copy
Whenever you go through the stories from the wire services, do not forget to ask
yourself if there are any stories that can be localised amongst them. When a wire
service story for instance describes the increase in the rate of inflation, you should ask
yourself how the people in your community would be affected. Always look for a
local angle or slant.
Local Newspapers
Do not ever brush off local news tips. Your readers may be more interested in them
than the so-called national news stories.
You
In the final analysis, you are the one who must be alert enough to look and listen to
what is going on around you. Always raise posers for yourself and attempt to answer
them. Remember, reporters who are attuned to people rather than institutions will find
the world around them a rich and fertile source of human interest. Do not tune out.
Look and see!
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. As a resourceful reporter, discuss where you will look for story ideas in times
of lull.
WHO TO ASK AND WHERE TO LOOK
Here is an alphabetical list of possible informants and useful documents in obtaining

and checking information. Don‘t forget that a local university will have experts on a
wide range of subjects. It may publish a list.
Accidents: Local police, ambulance station, hospitals, police press office, doctors,
eyewitnesses (but beware of accepting allegations as fact), firms or persons owning
vehicles involved, (speak to managers) or owners.
Army: Public relations officers at divisional headquarters and major camps, press
office Ministry of Defence, regimental depots (especially for history).
Arts: Librarians, art gallery and museum curators, secretaries of arts/music societies,
arts departments at colleges, theatre managers, town or county arts and drama
organizers, education officer or director, festival organizers.
Children's welfare: Education officer or director, school medical officer, director of
social services, chairman social services committee (for children in care), inspector
National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, local secretary or organizer.
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Churches: Clergy, ministers, Pastors, bishops and their secretaries or chaplains,
superintendents and district chairpersons.
Elections: Council press office (size of electorate, number and names of' nominated
candidates), party agents and local secretariat, regional agents.
Electricity: Electricity-generating companies, power station managers, regional
electricity companies, consumer bodies.
Health: Ministry of health and health related parastatals.
Hospitals: Press officer of hospital, hospital telephones (inquiries concerning
casualties admitted), local health authority, and community health council.
Road transport: Road Transport Associations, Ministry of Transport.
Weather: Meteorological office, geography department.
Youth employment: Careers officer for town or district, training and Enterprise
Council.
TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. You are doing a story on someone who died of food poison. Think and make a
list of relevant places you will visit before writing the story.
2. (a) Identify the different news gathering tools.
(b) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different news gathering
tools.
3. Analyse the importance of news sources and attribution.
4. Discuss the ethical aspects of sourcing and reporting news.
BASICS OF NEWS REPORTING
ELEMENTS OF NEWS REPORTING/GATHERING
The Newsroom
The heart of newsgathering operations is the newsroom. Here, the news editor (or
chief reporter) presides over the news desk, compiling the diary of jobs, briefing
reporters, monitoring the day's (or week's) cover-age, checking the finished stories,
liaising with photographers, answering queries, signing expenses and briefing the
editor and chief sub-editor on the progress of operations. Technology has changed
the face of the newsroom. Reporters still have their desks but in place of the bedlam
of typewriters and telephones, there is the faint hum of computer terminals, with their
near silent keyboards, and the twinkle of telephoneconsole lights. Instead of piled up
paper, news stories scroll across Visual Display Unit (VDU) screens as reporters bend
over their terminals.
It is a change more apparent than real. Apart from the shift to on-screen writing, the
reporter's role has not altered less than any other in the computerized newspaper
industry. Newsgathering and newswriting remain, as they always were, the heart of a
newspaper's raison d‘etre.
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The news editor, who has invariably been a senior reporter, briefs reporters in varying
details on the requirements and expected length of stories to be covered. Many of the
stories will be diary jobs - that is, jobs entered in advance in the newsroom diary such
as courts, councils, committees, tribunals, inquests, political speeches, weddings,
meetings, arts events, sporting fixtures and opening ceremonies. Although the form of
an event is known in advance, what actually happens or is said or done on the day
makes the news.
There are also the unexpected events - deaths, accidents, fires, robberies, strikes,
weather stories, crashes, sinking, and occasionally the odd fight or elopement. A third
category of news jobs could be put together from tip-offs i.e. information reaching the
office or a reporter could elicit potential news from contacts. Such stories might
involve, or be about a variety of human situations and achievements, tales of heroism
or of unfair or shady dealing. Tip-offs often provide newspaper, with more
spectacular and exclusive stories.
Some materials meant for a newspaper story, which are still referred to as copy can be
gathered via the telephone. A good deal of checking and preparation can be done in
the newsroom, the office library, where cuttings of stories are filed and reference
books kept. For most reporters, however, work means being out of the office. In fact,
being where the news is happening.
The news editor will expect check calls to be made by reporters from the job so that
progress can be noted and briefings updated; and also that copy deadlines are met.
Reporters, even new ones, quickly become aware of these routines. They will learn
from bitter experience that, no matter how well they have written a story, if it misses
the edition, they are in trouble. They will learn also that there is not "just one
deadline, but a deadline for each edition of the paper, and in some cases, special
deadlines for particular pages‖.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Visit a newspaper house or Radio Station in your community and find out the
following:
(a) How many full time reporters are there?
(b) Sources of news for the organization.
© Important beats covered by reporters in the organization.
Calls and Contacts
News can be gathered either through personal visits or by telephone, on known or

likely news sources; for example, the police, fire officers, hospitals, council officials,
MPs, undertakers and secretaries of organizations. Parliamentary journalists check
what questions have been put down to be answered by ministers or attend press
briefings.
Whatever your newspaper, make your network of calls as wide as time allows. Apart 34
from your attending court sessions, council and public meetings, this might be your
only contact with some important sources of original news. Since many calls may not
receive favourable responses, there is a limit to the time worth spending on some of
them, such calls should nevertheless be made courteously, whether on the phone or
personally.
Calls to religious ministers and secretaries of organizations often turn up more

information about what is going to happen than what has happened. Make a note of
these pieces of information.
Beyond routine calls, you need contacts. Make a list of names, addresses and
telephone numbers of your regular contacts.
Tip Off
Tip offs can be a source of big stories that can make the front page of the next edition
of your newspaper. Never shun the person who approaches you, even if you are busy
and get a message that someone is at the reception wanting to see you.
Other Mass Media
One source of news ideas other than diary jobs can be the news programmes of radio
and television – often in the form of a passing mention of something that is going to
vitally affect your area. You should read your own newspaper, as well, to know what
topics are of current interest, and to find ideas for more news.
Also, remember to glance through the advert section, as it could be a source of news.
If you get news from advertisements, check to ensure that they have not already been
reported.
Besides your own paper, take time to glance at any papers you can lay hands on. Here
is what you should look for:
Ideas for stories or future diary dates.
Local stories reported elsewhere that your paper has missed and need or
require follow-up.
Ideas for pictures.
National news that may have local echoes - i.e. expeditions that may involve
local people, marketing news in city and business columns that could affect
local trade.
National sports items with local connections.
Other things to look for: letters to the editor, diary columns, show business items,
news in brief, sporting briefs, job advertisements, wills, obituaries; academics, church
and other appointments; news of industrial orders and technological developments.
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Almost every pamphlet and piece of paper that comes into the office is worth a
glance.
Chasing the Facts
When given an assignment by your news editor or chief reporter, it is up to you to

produce the story. But remember that however accurate, fair and well written your
account may be, its success will hinge on your perseverance in getting the facts. If
you are unsure of your briefing ask questions before you leave the office. Be sure you
know what is expected of you. Give yourself time to check reference books. Above
all, check the library for any filed cuttings that relate to your assignment. Making use
of the filed cuttings should be second nature to a reporter. They can show if your story
really is new, and can fill you in with previous references to the subject or to those
involved. ―Press clippings‖ as they are usually called are a good source for back-
grounding your stories.
Nothing is more embarrassing than for a sub-editor to have to go back to the reporter
and say: ‗This is old news. It's been written about before. Haven't you read the
cuttings?‘
At the same time, do not spend too much time on the preliminaries. The informant
you need to see may have gone for the day. Remember also the time it will take you
to get from A to B. You might have three locations to visit; if you have a set time to
meet someone, arrive a few minutes early rather than be late.
Tools for the Job
Don't forget your notebook - and mark the dates and reference on it so you can refer
to your notes three months after to check if someone queried your report. Your
knowledge of shorthand is important. This may not be the laborious Pitman
shorthand, but your own self-invented type.
Always dress suitably; reserve your casual clothes for off-duty periods. Jeans, leather
jackets and roll-up sweaters are not adequate for most engagements, but these may
vary considerably even in the course of a day. People will have more confidence in
you and your paper if you are smartly and appropriately dressed.
Note-Taking
You may be attending a meeting, a court hearing or a dinner at which your main task
is to watch and listen to what goes on. Check with an official afterwards if there was
anything you did not understand. Ask the person for the names of speakers you do not
know. Ensure you spell names correctly. Generally, people feel bad when their names
are wrongly spelt.
At meetings, keep an ear open for unusual or interesting points of view, or for
decisions of interest to your paper. If it is a provincial weekly it will require at least a
few sentences from each speaker. One long quote does not make up for four or five
not quoted at all. Your report should reflect the various points of view.
You may not need long notes to wade through afterwards, but you will need a 36
verbatim report of every important statement you intend to quote. To keep your notes
manageable, ignore the preliminaries, the platitudes and the funny stories (unless they
are good enough to retell in the gossip column). Try to edit long-winding
explanations.
Stay through at events to the end when possible. It is annoying to see an account of an
event in a rival paper based on some dramatic incident that occurred five minutes
after you left. For courtesy sake, try to explain to the secretary if you have to leave to
attend another function or prepare your story in time to meet a deadline.
If a speaker refers to some published body of facts, check the reference afterwards. If
a speaker is replying to something someone has said, ensure all speakers are quoted
correctly. If a speaker makes an attack on someone not present, give the other person
a right to reply. Reports of damaging statements without an opportunity for the other
person to reply are a common source of grievance against newspapers.
Watch out for the unexpected. For example, when a person was cleared of a charge at
a Newcastle court in the U.K., he was carried away shoulder-high by the crowd. A
reporter who assumed the acquittal was the end of the story missed the high point of
the story.
Make Inquiries
If your job is to make inquiries rather than attend a function, the cuttings library
should be your first port of call. But do not assume that a cutting from your own
newspaper is necessarily accurate. Match it against others - and look for mistakes that
are copied from cuttings to stories which have themselves become cuttings.
Examine carefully the information you have. If necessary, talk personally to the
persons named.
For example, a council has built a group of houses of an unusual kind. They are
centrally cooled, have small courtyards instead of gardens, have a garage each and
also a parking space. These spaces are behind the house; a footpath, not a road, runs
along the front. You may ask why the council decided to build houses of this kind,
who designed them, what are the aims of the design, why the idea of courtyards, and
so on.
Dealing with People
Persuade people you interview to let you use their names and addresses. Anonymous
quotes from 'a passer-by' carry little conviction. The readers might think you invented
them.
The danger in seeking personal views and statements is that you may cause
embarrassment or be considered intrusive. The Code of Conduct of the National
Union of Journalists reads: ‗In obtaining news or pictures, reporters and
pressphotographers should do nothing that will cause pain or humiliation to innocent,
bereaved or otherwise distressed persons.‘
Courtesy is the best policy. Explain your person and your mission. Do not ask 37
questions in an aggressive or demanding manner. If your presence is unwelcome,
leave. Never go to the house as a bearer of ill or bad news. Allow the police to do
their work first. Be patient and sympathetic with people.
If you are dealing with people against whom allegations have been made you may
need to be tougher. Point out that it is in their interest to make a comment rather than
let a one-sided story go to the public.
You will discover that every person you talk to, will shed light on a given situation in
a slightly different light. Here you must rely on your judgment of what you have been
told to make your account as balanced and accurate as possible. The basic facts of a
situation often seem like a nut covered in shell upon shell. The reporter's task is to
remove the shells to get at the truth.
Make your interviews in person if you can. People prefer to talk to someone they can
see before them rather than at the other end of a telephone. Besides, going to see your
informants helps you to get to know them, which might be useful in the future. It
makes it easier to listen and to seize opportunities for further questions on the spot.
But do make proper appointments if there is time.
If you cannot get to the person you want to, think of someone else who might be of
help. Try to avoid being put off with promises of answers ―see me tomorrow or next
week‖. Also, if you can, avoid confidential matters in case they get into print and
cause embarrassment. If you are given confidential information be sure to honour it.
If people try to persuade you to keep your story out of the paper, tell them you will
pass on their request to on the editor. Do not make any promises. Put your questions
to them just the same. Do not be fobbed off by being asked to talk to someone else.
The other person may be unavailable on the day.
Be Fair
If your inquiry concerns local government affairs and is controversial, rather than do
the routine, get in touch with the chairman of the relevant council committee. For
example, the chairman of the education committee would be more useful than the
education officer.
Where there are controversial matters, be sure to get on to people on both sides of the
argument. If anyone is reluctant to give information, point out how damaging a one-
sided report could be. Getting both sides of a story is your safeguard against the
inaccuracy of prejudiced informants. One-sided stories can also be damaging and
legally dangerous.
Similarly, when you are writing about a report or document containing allegations or
criticisms about people, give them an opportunity to make their reply.
Be Thorough
You cannot be too thorough. You need to answer all the questions the reader might
ask and all the questions you will ask yourself when you write your report. The name,
occupation and full addresses of those you obtained information from are essential.
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Do not be satisfied merely with recording opinions. Get people to give the facts on
which they have based their opinions. For example, in a strike, what the two sides say
about each other matters less than the facts of the situation that caused the conflict.
You need these facts. It is interesting to see how the hard facts of a dispute can get
lost in the midst of heated arguments.
There are other points of detail that may not be necessary but which will add life and
reality to your story: the feel of the place where an event happened, the colour of a
suit... Get all the facts you can, when you can.
There is no substitute for facts. You can always prune down; but it is hard to add to
facts when you have left the scene and the people have all gone home, and you have
not made any notes.
FACTORS AFFECTING NEWS WORTHNESS
News Judgment
We have now considered the qualities that are commonly used to define information
as news. In addition, we have divided the news into two categories: hard news and
soft news and learned about the Five Ws. Finally, before we learn how to write a
news story, we need to think about the concept of news judgment.
News judgment is that quality of thinking that journalists (not to mention their critics)
use to determine the relative merits of one story over another, in addition to the
relative value of one part of any given story versus another part of the same story.
In a nutshell, news judgment helps reporters sort out how where a story fits into the
other basic questions we have already discussed. We use news judgment to determine
if a hard news or soft news approach is warranted. We use news judgment to decide
which of the Five Ws to emphasize. We use news judgment to figure out what it is
about the story that makes it news.
News judgment is very important because a lot of time and energy is spent in the
news business filling a limited space (or limited period of broadcast time) with a
virtually unlimited amount of news. Think about it: Once the advertisements are
factored in, and regular features such as columns, letters to the editor and the
crossword puzzle are included, only a limited amount of space remains for news.
Even a large metropolitan daily newspaper can have very limited room for certain
categories of news. I was the night city editor of a large Canadian daily for several
years, and it was my responsibility to fill the city pages with local news provided by a
large staff of reporters. On many weeknights there was enough space for fewer than a
dozen short locally produced stories! Often we had two or three times as many stories.
That meant many good stories got "spiked" — that is, set aside and forgotten about.
Others had to be trimmed by the Desk, as copy editors are collectively known. (This,
in the parlance of reporters, is called "butchering.")
The situation is essentially the same in broadcasting, except that the capacity for news
stories is limited by the number of minutes in the newscast instead of available
newsprint real estate.
This means that a lot of good stories — or stories that might be considered good
somewhere else — simply don't make the cut. Or, they may make the cut, but in the
process get cut themselves to little more than a brief. This naturally leads to lots of
vociferous arguments about whether a story deserves to run, how long it should be,
and where it should be placed on the page. (It‘s not just journalists who think about 39
this. Lots of people, for a variety of reasons, feel strongly that journalists — "the
mainstream media" — give certain kinds of stories more and better play than they
deserve while ignoring other more important stories. Sometimes they are right.
Sometimes they are out to lunch.)
This also contributes to the competitive working atmosphere of the typical newsroom,
in which journalists fight hard, with editors and with each other, to get the best
possible play for their stories.
A reporter working by herself writing a story must also exercise her news judgment to
determine which facts get to stay and which facts get thrown out. Needless to say, if
you are that reporter, and you have been told by your editor that your story can be no
longer than 200 or 300 words, you are going to be tossing a lot of facts over the side.
Finally, the reporter needs to decide which facts are placed in a prominent position in
the story, and which facts go farther down. We'll discuss the format of the basic news
story in much more detail in the next section, but it's no secret that in the conventional
hard news story, the most important facts are placed at the top and less important facts
lower in the story.
Since the generally accepted style of news writing prevalent on most Canadian
newspapers calls for very short lead sentences, there will seldom be enough room to
get all Five Ws and the H into that sentence. When Pope John Paul II died in the
spring of 2005, for example, nobody wrote the story this way:
An 84-year-old Polish man who lived in Rome died yesterday after a long decline and
a brief illness.
Yes, the facts are essentially correct, but we all understand instantly and intuitively
what is wrong with this approach. Who and what are more important to this story than
any of the other Ws. Here's how the BBC wrote it:
Pope John Paul II, the third longest serving pontiff in history, has died at the age of
84.
Naturally, this is a somewhat unscientific process. But is remarkable how different
news organizations around the English-speaking world take the same approach to the
same story — even though reporters write their stories in relative seclusion from one
another.
They have all, however, developed their news judgment along similar lines. One
would only have to read the lead sentences from 100 different newspapers on the
morning after the Pope's death to see the truth of this assertion.
Because "good news judgment" is valued in the culture of news reporting
organizations, it is worth thinking a little about how this process works.
Lots of reporters — especially new ones — are accused of "burying the news" — that
is, placing less important facts high in the story and burying important facts under
mounds of copy. Reporters who recognize those gems of news are valued for their
ability to recognize the real story. A crude example might be a politician who gave
the same speech about his party's economic policy in a dozen towns. Some of the
politician's points might have been "news" on Day 1, but they're getting pretty stale
by Day 12.
But imagine that, in his 12th speech that politician revealed that, at 16, he'd robbed a
bank!
Now that's news! Naturally, if a young reporter were to stick to the economic details
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of the speech, he would risk being accused of exercising poor news judgment. On the
other hand, if he put the bank robbery story in the lead, you can bet that the politician
and his supporters would accuse the reporter taking something "out of context." (This
may seem to some an excessively cynical view, but after many years reporting news, I
have concluded that "I was quoted out of context" usually means, "I wish I hadn't said
that.")
Let's cast our minds back to the common definitions of news and work through an
imaginary but plausible set of circumstances to learn about how journalists use their
news judgment:
Let's say you're working on the city desk of a daily newspaper in a major Canadian
city.
Let's also imagine that you've just moved to that city to take this job. One morning,
the city editor hears on the police scanner that there has been a serious automobile
accident downtown. She sends you to the address mentioned on the police radio and
you are able to determine the following facts:
1. A man named Stephen Koerner has been killed.
2. Koerner was the driver of a car involved in a single-vehicle accident.
3. The accident took place at 100th Street and 100th Avenue downtown.
4. The accident took place at 7:30 a.m.
5. Police say the accident happened when the man‘s car lost control and hit a light
standard at high speed.
6. Police also say they believe the man lost control after suffering a seizure, and that
his foot then depressed his car's gas pedal.
7. A large crowd gathered at the accident scene.
8. Several people in the crowd said they felt bad that the man died.
You return to the office and prepare to exercise your news judgment to write an
acceptably short news lead. Some interesting facts must go over the side. Some will
be kept. Many reporters would come up with something like this:
A man died during the morning rush hour after he lost control of his car and plowed
into a lamp standard at a busy downtown corner.
Police at the scene said they believe Stephen Koerner suffered a seizure just before
the accident, causing him to press down on his car's accelerator pedal. He was alone
in the car.
But imagine that upon your return to the newsroom with this lead already blocked out
in your mind, you're informed by a senior copy editor that Stephen Koerner was a
well-known businessman who once served a term as mayor. Because it added the
element of celebrity that would change the lead most reporters would write to
something like this:
Former mayor Stephen Koerner was killed during this morning's rush hour in a single
vehicle accident downtown.
Police said they believe Koerner, who was alone in the car, suffered a seizure before
his car plowed into a lamp standard.
On the other hand, if you didn't know Koerner had been mayor, but had learned from
police that this was the third consecutive day that someone had been killed at that
intersection. Suddenly, because it adds the element of something extremely unusual,
precisely where the accident took place would be of paramount importance. Resisting
a powerful urge to refer to the address as ―the death corner,‖ many reporters would
writesomething like this.
A man died during the morning rush hour after he lost control of his car and plowed
into a lamp standard at the corner of 100th Street and 100th Avenue downtown — the
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third fatality in as many days at the busy intersection.
Of course, if it turned out that both new facts were true, you'd need to use your news
judgment to sort out which one was the most important and how to place them both
appropriately in the story. Maybe you would come up with something like this:
Former city mayor Stephen Koerner died this morning after his car plowed into a
lamp standard at the corner of 100th Street and 100th Avenue downtown — the third
fatality in as many days at the busy intersection.
Sometimes all that stands between an insignificant announcement and a much better
story is someone's memory of an important fact and the exercise of a little news
judgment. If you worked for the newspaper in a town near an Armed Forces base and
you'd received a press release about a routine appointment, you'd probably write a
routine story. But if you remembered a fact or two, as someone did not so long ago,
and used your news judgment, you might come up with a much better story, like this:
A general who came under fire for a ceremony that cost taxpayers an estimated
$250,000 has been hired to ―guide‖ a leadership and ethics course for senior military
officers.
Retired major-general John Archibald MacInnes will be paid from $45,000 to
$50,000 to act as mentor and guide for three months in a new course on conflict
leadership and ethics at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto.
So, before you write a story, you first need to think about three things:
1. Is it hard news or soft news?
2. What is it about these facts that makes them news?
3. What are the Five Ws and the H in this story?
Then you need to use your news judgment to figure out what's important and what's
now.
And then you need to start writing…
REPORTER‟S CHECKLIST
Information is the key to good reporting. The reporter is expected to collect enough
information and put it together to make meaning to the readers. Because facts are the
ingredients used in writing a good story, a reporter must always have a checklist of
this before the actual writing process begins.
Checklist before a Reporter Writes a Story

The checklist before a reporter writes a story is based on the practical work and
writing of Agbese (2008) as discussed below.
a. Do I have all the information I need to write a complete story?
A reporter must make sure all the required information is in before the writing process
begins proper. A good reporter usually asks himself or herself the questions his or her
readers will ask and find answers to the questions.
b. Have I covered all the angles, interviewed everyone concerned and verified all
the information given to me by the various sources?
An attempt to answer this question in the affirmative will definitely lead to a well-
written and complete story. Any reporter who is in the habit of asking himself/herself
this question and then making concerted efforts to find answers to it will end up an
award-winning reporter.
c. Have I answered all the questions posed by the 5Ws and H?
The 5Ws and H raise questions whose answers summarize all that a reader needs to
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know about an event. Every reporter should make attempt to find answers to the
questions they ask.
d. Am I clear in my mind what sort of story I want to write?
If the reporter has any doubts in his/her mind about the sort of story he/she intends to
write, then something is wrong.
e. Do I fully understand the story I am about to write?
This follows from point 4 above. The reporter must fully understand the sort or type
of story he/she is about to write by appreciating the nature of facts available and the
possible consequences of the story‘s release.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Discuss the checklist a reporter must take note of before writing his report.
2. Discuss the question posed by the 5Ws and H and state why they are
important to a story‘s completeness.
CLASSIFICATION OF NEWS STORIES
The challenge of news classification should not be seen as a simple one.

This is because the characteristics of one type of story may be found to be some of the
characteristics of another type. For instance, the difference between an in-depth story
and an investigative story is purely a matter of degree of thoroughness. In broad
terms, there are four major types of news stories:
a. Straightforward news stories which include hard news, soft news and human
interest news
b. Investigative stories c. Interpretative stories
d. In-depth News stories e. Running Stories
f. News feature Stories g. Follow Up Stories
h. Advance Stories i. Running Stories
The Straightforward News Story

This is the product of the usual routine reporting. Most of the stories published in our
commercial newspapers are straightforward news stories. Such stories are never
interpreted, editorialised or laden with reporter‘s biases and prejudices. They are
stories objectively and anchored on facts. The reporter adds or subtracts nothing from
the facts on which the story is based.
A straightforward news story may be short or long, but it can hardly be long enough
to occupy three-quarters of a page or a whole page. As a rule, its lead must answer to
the 5Ws and H and the story, as a whole must leave no questions unanswered. The
story must be simple, accurate concise and understandable. As stated earlier,
straightforward news story may be subdivided into hard news, soft news and human-
interest news.
Hard News
Hard news stories are stories that deal with government, economic, social and
political policies. They are stories with a lot of facts and figures. Stories concerning
the annual budget, political and economic programmes are all hard news stories.
Soft News
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These are stories about trends, fashion, entertainment personalities and lifestyles. The
time element is not too emphasised in writing such news stories.
Human Interest News
These are stories valued more for their emotional impact or oddity. They usually
arouse human feelings and conjure up sentiments and emotions in the persons who
read them.
Expected News
Expected News is anticipated and therefore planned for. It usually flows from events
that are scheduled in advance.
Unexpected News
Unexpected news is not anticipated. It takes people unawares. Examples include
murders, natural disasters, accidents, and so on.
Investigative Stories
These types of news hinges on the pursuit of information that has been concealed.
Investigative stories therefore require the digging out of facts. The investigative
reporter is not expected to inject his own biased ideas or opinions into his story. He is
not expected to editorialise or interpret the facts. Examples of investigate stories that
made headlines are – ―The Watergate Scandal,‖ ―The Buharigate Scandal,‖ and
―Enwerengate,‖ and so on.
Interpretative Stories
This is a form of story in which the reporter is free to interpret the news the way he or
she sees it. S/he is allowed to inject his own biased but expert opinion, editorialize
and pass comments on the fact being reported. Interpretative stories require additional
facts, detailed explanations and logical analysis. Examples include personality
profiles and feature articles.
In-Depth Stories
This is complete quality news reporting. In-depth story needs the full treatment and it
needs back grounding. It requires creative thinking and deep imagination on the part
of the reporter and writer. Most newsmagazine stories are usually in-depth stories and
there is little difference between an in-depth story and an investigative story.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Discuss four types of news stories.
1. (a) Discuss the major differences between a straight forward news story and
an in-depth story.
(b) Discuss the major differences between hard news and soft news.
2. Identify the elements and basic principles of news reporting.

44
3. Analyse factors affecting newsworthiness.
4. Classify and describe the different types of news stories.
BASICS OF NEWS WRITING
NEWS LEADS (Lede)
The opening of a news story — usually the first paragraph — is termed ―the lead.‖
In some places, this is spelled lede to differentiate it from lead, the metal from which
newspaper type used to be made. Despite the potential for confusion with base metal,
good leads are golden!
The lead is the most important part of any newspaper story, because the reader usually
decides whether to continue reading based on the lead. As a writer, you have only a
few precious keystrokes, and a few seconds of the reader‘s time, to persuade her to
stick with you. As a result, newspaper writers naturally struggle with their leads.
If you fail to engage the reader because your prose is pedestrian or you presentation is
boring, you are not long for the newspaper business, in which success is based as
much on your ability to entertain readers as to inform them. Sorry, but that‘s the way
it is.
Functions of the Lead
o To summarize the story;
o To provide answers to the questions, who, what, when, where, why and
how?
o To provide quick identification of persons, and events in the newsstory for the
reader;
o To emphasize the most important element in the news story by placing that
element in the first paragraph of the story.
Hints on Writing the Lead
In writing the lead, you need to:
1. Discover the most important element of the story;
2. Decide on what lead element to emphasize among the five Ws and H;
3. Use a single element if you find out that one element stands out uniquely in
the story;
4. Use the structure of the subject – verb predicate construction;
5. Go straight to the point. With the above points in mind, you can now start
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yourlead with any of these elements of a lead: Who? What? Where? When?
Why and How?
What: The collection of tolls on a road in the industrial town of Jinja has triggered
off misunderstanding between a firm, Herbar Estates limited and motorists. A mixture
of relief and repressed anger was the feeling expressed by Ugandans yesterday at the
late suspension of the indefinite strike called by Labour and Civil Society Coalition
(LASCO) to protest fuel price. (New Age, Wed, Nov. 17).
Who: Person, organization, company and community; e.g. President Yoweri Kaguta
Museveni has declared the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) unconstitutional.
Professor Mwiima Mwesigwa Herbert yesterday reiterated his call for a Sovereign
National Conference to determine the corporate existence of Nigeria.
A who lead can also be used when a person is not widely known. What is featured in
such a case is the person‘s occupation, sex, age and other distinguishing
characteristics e.g. A 10 year old boy who ran into the side of a moving car is
responding to treatment at a private hospital in Kamuli.
Where: Places sometimes dominate the lead; Mandela National Stadium Namboole is
the venue for this year‘s National day parade.
Victoria Conference Centre will today host the 2nd East African Children‘s Festival
When: A deadline, or the time of an event, sometimes presents anewsworthy angle to

a story.
By next year, telephone users in Uganda will smile, as the telephone network in the
country would have undergone a dramatic change for the better.
Midnight tonight is the deadline for private car owners in Mbarara to obtain their
driving test certificate, the Mbarara City Council reminded car owners yesterday.
Why: Once in a while, the news angle is the why of an event. Theshortage of
midwives has forced the Herbar International Hospital to close its maternity ward.
How: Somewhat less common are stories centered around the ―how‖to an event.
Trapped by the seat of his new car, a young accountant was burnt to death on
ahighway in Lagos last night.
A backward pass by the Cranes‘ defender earned the Ethiopian junior team their only
goal in yesterday‘s quarter–final played at Namboole.
Note: Deciding which of the 5 Ws and H is best suited for a story lead isan exercise
that gets easier only with time and experience. It is advisable for a beginner to look
for the ―WHO‖ or the ―WHAT‖ angle. The reporter could then check his fact for any
other angle that may be interesting or unusual enough to display the ‗who‘ or the
‗what‘.
LEAD WRITING STYLES

46
In addition to emphasizing one or the other of the five Ws and the H in a story lead,
reporters use several styles in structuring their leads, these include:
1. Summary/Direct lead: These are straight leads that just state the facts and include
the who, where, what, when, why and sometimes even the how of the event or
happening. It brings the central issue of discussions first and tells the readers what
they want to know in a creative manner. Traditionally, summaryleads have been used
to report breaking news or a developing story. Example:
Six students of a South-Western university, who allegedly gang-raped a 17- year-old

female colleague, were yesterday granted reprieve by a Surulere chief magistrate‘s
court in Lagos (Vanguard 16th March, 2017).
Delayed lead: Adelayed lead in journalism is used to entice readers into reading the
whole story by giving a few hints about what the story is about but not giving the
details. It sets a scene and creates an emotional response in the reader. Example: Sam
Bwire, an S 3 student of Global Grammar School, and the third in the family of five
from a very poor background has won the first position in this year‘s Herbar
Mathematics Completion.
Question lead: This begins with a question. Many editors dislike question lead on the
basis that people read newspapers to get answers, and not to be asked questions. But if
the question is provocative, it may be used as a lead. Example: What will be your
reaction if you hear that the management of your company is planning to lay off half
of its entire workforce?
Punch lead – It uses strong verbs and short sentences that are meant to create an
impact. The purpose of this type of lead is exactly that – giving a jolt so that readers
will sit up and take notice. Example: A 9 month-old baby is in need of 5 million
shillings for heart surgery in India.
Quotation lead or Statement: This begins with a direct quotation. The quote then is
followed by explanatory statement. ‗If Uganda does not kill corruption, then
corruption will kill Uganda‘. This statement came from President Yoweri Kaguta
Museveni when he inaugurated the presidential committee on anti-corruption.
Contrast lead: It is used to grab reader‘s attention by comparing two extremes.

Example: 200 million dollars have been found in a septic tank at the residence of
former naval chief, in a country where 70 percent of the populace live below poverty
line, earning less that 2 dollars per day.
Anecdotal lead: It begins with a short story. Example: She lost her parents when she
was 10. Her aunt took custody of her only for the aunt also to die three years later.
She is now being accused of killing her parents and aunt through witchcraft. This is
the story of many children in the South of Nigeria, where children are subjected to
abuse on the pretext of being a witch.
Descriptive lead: A descriptive lead describes how an event happened rather than 47
simply telling what the event is about. Example: They came in their hundreds, angry
looking men in military uniform, descended on Alu community in Adewole local
government of Ogun State in the dead of the night shooting sparodically and setting
the houses on fire.
There are still other types of lead that could be adopted depending on the style of the
writer. However as a beginner you may not need to worry with writing in any of these
styles as that would come with experience. Therefore, the most important thing is how
to write a good lead starting with any of the five Ws and H.
The Bridge: A bridge is a connecting sentence or paragraphbetween the lead and the
body of the story. Although itis not always required, it can serve several
usefulpurposes. For instance, in the bridge, you can place factsthat are too detailed for
the lead and too important to beplaced lower in the story.A bridge also can bring the
reader up to date on pastand present events related to the story by the use oftie-backs
and tie-ins.
Tie-Back: A tie-back is a newswriting device that allows youto refresh the reader‘s
memory about past events relatedto the story being written.
It is frequently used infollow-up stories.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Look for the WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHERE and WHEN in newspapers of
your choice. Cut the stories and indicate each element of the lead on the
cuttings.
2. Re-write the following leads:
 The West African Breweries Ltd manufacturers of Top Beer today laid off 200
workers at its Abeokuta plant for one month.
 400 workers of the Uganda Airways will be sent home on Friday because of
poor productivity, Managing Director Mwiima Herbert told Airport
correspondents in Entebbe yesterday.
 Obasanjo told Nigerian Universities to redirect their energies towards

solutions for the nation‘s economic problems.
WRITING HARD NEWS LEADS
Hard-news leads — which are also often called summary leads or direct leads —
must achieve two goals to succeed:
1) They must accurately summarize the most important facts in the story.
2) They must be interesting enough that the reader wants to continue reading.
If a hard-news lead fails to summarize the facts contained in the story, the reader will
not have a clear understanding of what is being reported and may not continue
reading.
If the facts are not accurately summarized, the writer will have misled the reader
about the contents of the story. This is a surprisingly common sin among news
writers. Because reporters work in a competitive environment, the temptation is great
for them to exaggerate aspects of their stories to make them seem more newsworthy 48
and hence worthy of better play. (This kind of exaggeration is disdainfully known in
the trade as hype or torque.)
The best way to achieve Goal No. 1, obviously, is for a hard news lead to provide the
reader with as many as possible of the Five Ws. After all, the Five Ws are always the
key questions the reader of any news story needs to have answered.
Normally however, it‘s not wise to try to include all five Ws — so the first task faced
by the writer of effective newspaper leads is to try to select which of the Five Ws
belongs in the lead, and which can be placed a little lower in the story. In other words,
the writer must determine what is the most important information he wishes to convey
in the story.
If you try to stuff too many of the answers to these basic questions into your lead, it
will be awkward and difficult to understand, and the reader may give up. (Some
writers call this a portmanteau lead, as it resembles a traveling bag stuffed full.
Others call it overloading. )
Consider the following example:
Albert Wells Jr., 18, a Grade 12 student at Bell rose Composite High School in the
Edmonton bedroom community of St. Albert and the son of Mr. And Mrs. Albert Wells
of 1406 Ryan Street, died at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday when his dark red late-
model Chrysler sports car went out of control and struck a telephone pole near the
intersection of Highway 16 and Highway 2A just east of the neighbouring City of
Spruce Grove.
The author of this passage is trying to cram in too many of the Five Ws in hopes of
seducing the reader into continuing. Interestingly, 50 or more years ago a lead like
this would not necessarily have been seen as overloaded. But like everything else,
fashions in news writing are always changing, and one key change over the past half
century has been a move toward shorter, tighter leads.
To satisfy modern conventions, the lead above needs to be recast to tell only the
essential facts:
An 18-year-old St. Albert high school student was killed late Wednesday when his car
struck a telephone pole west of Edmonton.
The second example tells the reader enough to know what‘s going on in the story.
Additional details should be added later.
This modern convention exacerbates a problem faced by all writers of hard news
leads: determining the order of information in the story. Let‘s analyze the story of the
unfortunate Albert Wells Jr. to see how this process might work.
First, what are the Five Ws in this story?
Who: Albert Wells Jr.
What: Killed in a single-vehicle accident.
When: 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Where: Intersection of Highway 16 and Highway 2A.
Why: Car struck telephone pole.
How: Car went out of control.
In the suggested recast lead, the writer has chosen to name five of the six key points,
but in more general fashion that allows for economy of words. How, and the
remaining details, will be filled in later.
The order used here, which emphasizes the WHO, seems defensible given the
questions the readers of a local newspaper would most likely want answered. Here‘s
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the lead again:
WHO: An 18-year-old St. Albert high school student was killed late Wednesday when
his car struck a telephone pole west of Edmonton.
Still, journalism is an art, not a science, so another writer might try to emphasize
anotherW. Let‘s try the alternatives.
WHAT: A single-vehicle crash west of Edmonton took the life of an 18-year-old high
school student late Wednesday.
WHEN: At 10:30 p.m. Wednesday an 18-year-old St. Albert high school student lost
his life in a single-vehicle accident.
WHERE: The intersection of Highway 16 and Highway 2A west of Edmonton was the
scene of a fatal one-car crash Wednesday night.
WHY: A car crashed into a telephone pole late Wednesday, resulting in the death of
the vehicle‘s lone occupant, an 18-year-old student from St. Albert.
We can see more clearly when we try each of these approaches why the Who lead, in
this case, works best.
Still, as we saw in our discussion of news judgment, an additional fact can change our
decision about which W to emphasize. Imagine that the same intersection had been
the scene of several fatal accidents in the preceding couple of years. Suddenly, Where
becomes the most compelling fact:
A deadly intersection west of Edmonton took another life late Wednesday when an 18-
year-old St. Albert high school student lost control of his car and struck a telephone
pole.
Many city editors and newspaper writing coaches advise young newspaper writers to
―keep it tight‖ or words to that effect. As a general rule, most newspaper editors
would today agree that a good lead should be no more than about 25 to 30 words in
length.
Given contemporary sensibilities, this 30-word rule is good advice — especially when
the story is so momentous that it speaks for itself. Consider these three leads from
different news organizations all covering the same story on July 20, 1969:
American Neil Armstrong has become the first man to walk on the Moon.
So said the British Broadcasting Corporation, summing up one of the great stories of
the century in 13 words. The Associated Press was even more economical:
Man landed on the moon this day, Sunday, July 20, 1969.
But the AP‘s 11 words were by no means the least spent on this topic. The New York
Times lead summed up the story in a mere eight:
Men have landed and walked on the moon.
Sometimes, of course, a less momentous story requires more words in the lead in
order for the reader to understand what is going on. Even when the lead is packed
with all Five Ws, though, economy with words is an aid to clarity.
So, as my first city editor used to say, repeatedly: ―Write tight!‖ Inexperienced
journalists, however, should strive to avoid the fault of writing so tightly that their
sentences turn into incomprehensible telegraphs.
One good rule for writing good leads and avoiding this fault is to write in complete
sentences. (A sentence, for those of you who have forgotten, or who were never
taught, is a group of words that expresses a complete thought. ―Jesus wept‖ is a
sentence. ―A bumpy road‖ is not.)
While economical use of words will almost always help a news story, however, it is
not necessarily enough. When a story is as dramatic as men landing on the moon, or
political leaders assassinated, the facts will speak for themselves and a compelling
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story will result. When the facts are a little less momentous — a fire with no injuries
in a still unoccupied suburban house, a minor robbery, a development permit granted
by city council, for example — something in addition to brevity is called for.
In the competitive atmosphere of the newsroom, journalists need to market their
stories to editors for good play (that is, favourable location in the paper), not to
mention better assignments in the future.
The lead, of course, is the best advertisement for a journalist struggling to win the
attention of the editors who make the decisions in the newsroom. One way to write a
good lead on an otherwise remarkable story is to include a telling detail — some fact,
possibly quite minor, that sets the story apart.
Imagine, for example, that a man has robbed a credit union of a small sum of money
(inevitably ―undisclosed,‖ because police rarely reveal such information). Also
imagine that the man said he had a gun, but never showed it, and that he escaped in a
car driven by a confederate. Not much grist here for the daily mill! This story‘s
unlikely to amount to much more than a three-paragraph brief in the back of the city
section.
Given this material, the journalist could opt for a bare recitation of the facts:
A small sum of money was taken when a man who said he was armed with a firearm
held up the City Credit Union on Railway Avenue just before closing time Monday.
Ho hum.
Or he could try to add a little value by spinning out a reference to the obvious
aftermath of such an event.
Police are searching for a man who robbed the City Credit Union on Railway Avenue
of a small sum of money just before closing time Monday.
But imagine that the robber escaped in a bright pink Cadillac bearing the name of a
cosmetics company, or that he was wearing the uniform of a group of religious farm
folk, or that his gun was revealed to be a rubber hammer! Any of these facts adds up
to a striking detail that sets the story apart from all the other petty robberies that
plague a big city on any day. Any one of them, incidentally, would make the story
considerably more entertaining to write. Consider just one example:
Police are looking for a man who robbed the City Credit Union just before closing
time
Monday, then escaped down Railway Avenue in a lipstick pink Cadillac.
Because they set the story apart, such small facts belong in the lead.
Another common way to add a little value — and a little interest — to the hard news
lead is what journalists call the ―impact lead.‖ An impact lead, as the name implies,
explains the impact of a development being reported on the reader. So, a reporter
might write:
A fungal infection that can cause death has extended its range from Vancouver Island
to the British Columbia Mainland — a development that could further depress the
WestCoast‘s already lagging tourist industry.
Once the writer has decided the most important information to put in the lead, perhaps
including some telling fact, and presented it as a complete sentence, he should keep
these additional common-sense lead-writing guidelines in mind.
Keep it tight — use no more than about 30 words.
Avoid distractions — strive to write a coherent lead that contains no capital letters
other than the first one, no numerals, no commas and no formal titles. Remember,
though, this is a goal, not a requirement. It is hard to do.
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Set the right tone — the tone of the lead should be appropriate for the event being
reported on. A flippant, colloquial lead may be fine for a description of a spring
festival or a soapbox derby. It is not appropriate for a report of a funeral, an airplane
crash or an incident of domestic violence. When in doubt, err on the side of caution.
Don‟t bury the lead — don‘t make readers wallow through insignificant facts to get
the point of the story. Usually, for example, it‘s the city council decision that belongs
in the lead, not who on council voted for it. Cut to the chase!
Highlight differences — find the fact, like the lipstick, pink Cadillac that makes the
story different.
Speak clearly — jargon, acronyms, foreign phrases, abstract concepts, general and
vague language all make it hard to understand what a story is about. Say what you
mean and say
it clearly and directly— your readers will thank you for it. Don‘t mumble!
Use active words — describe the action. Where possible use the active voice.
Robbers held up the gas station is superior to the gas station was held up. Union
members approved the contract not the contract was approved by the union.
Be visual — help the reader ―see‖ what‘s happening. Jason Kenney looks exhausted.
His complexion is chalky, his five-o‘clock shadow positively Nixonian, his smart blue
suit rumpled, and his tummy, a victim of too many quick and greasy restaurant meals,
creeping over his belt.
Put people first — don‘t leave them in the background while favouring facts or
technical material. Better to report that It is difficult to measure how many Ontario
workers have lost their jobs because of U.S. trade sanctions, than to say It is difficult
to measure the impact of recent U.S. trade sanctions on job losses in Ontario.
Don‟t start with subsidiary clauses — in other words, don‘t put the cart before the
horse. Despite an unusually dry spring, Saskatoon waterworks officials are confident
that water rationing will not be needed this summer. Nope! Drop the dry spring for
now. Use it later in the story. Saskatoon waterworks officials are confident that water
rationing will not be needed this summer.
Beware double-decker leads — don‘t repeat the first paragraph in the second. This
is a common error, as reporters strive to back up their leads with a telling quote and
end up restating the obvious. A Victoria alderman is shocked and appalled that
provincial transportation grants have been cut again. ―I‘m shocked and appalled that
provincial transportation grants have been cut again,‖ Ald. John Thomson said
Thursday. The quote should provide new information or be eliminated.
Place the time element with care — strive for grace and clarity. The position of the
time element in a lead is a potential problem. It should be placed so that it would
sound natural if read aloud, but not at the risk of making the story confusing or
unintentionally amusing. Normally, it‘s better to put the time element after the verb:
Union President Buck O‘Dell and City Hospital Labour Relations Director Bob
Clarke signed a new collective agreement Wednesday for the facility‘s approximately
800 support employees.
This sounds more natural than Union President Biff O‘Dell and City Hospital Labour
Relations Director Bob Clarke Wednesday signed a new collective agreement for the
facility‘s approximately 800 support employees. But not always: The Prime Minister
said Wednesday… Now why did he say that?
Avoid the insultingly obvious — let the facts speak for themselves. There‘s no need
to tell readers that the death of a small child is tragic. There‘s something wrong with
them if they can‘t figure that out for themselves. Yet ―tragedy‖ is probably the most
overworked word in Canadian tabloid journalism.
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Avoid clichés — don‘t let something go terribly wrong. Yes, that motorcycle rider is
lucky to be alive. He may not be so pleased about losing his right leg. This rule
applies to more than leads, of course. Clichés like these anywhere in your story will
have readers choking back tears.
THE SECOND-DAY LEAD AND OTHER VARIATIONS
Some journalists describe their job as writing history as it happens. That means that
reporters often cover stories that will continue developing over days, weeks or longer
periods. This creates the need for what is known in the trade as the ―second-day lead.‖
The basic hard news lead assumes the reader is hearing about the story for the first
time.
The second-day lead tries to ―advance‖ the story, or take it another step forward.
Some journalists term this giving a story ―forward spin.‖ In other words, the second-
day lead can give a sense of immediacy to a story that is growing old — or that will
be old by the time it appears.
The notion of advancing a story is particularly important to newspaper journalists
who know that many readers will read their story after they‘ve already been alerted to
the breaking news on their morning drive-to-work radio program.
So, instead of writing a basic lead, say:
A bearded man in black wielding a rubber mallet, who witnesses said resembled a
member of a religious farming commune, held up a downtown service station late
yesterday.
… a journalist might try to add a little forward spin:
Police are still seeking a bearded man in the black garb of a religious farming
commune who held up a downtown service station with a rubber hammer late
yesterday.
Here‘s a second-day lead from the June 2, 2005, edition of the Toronto Star:
Police chief William Blair said today that yesterday afternoon‘s shooting that
wounded two innocent women at the Yorkdale subway station was believed to be
drug-related and he said police are stepping up plans to take down the ―small
number of gangsters‖ still operating in Toronto.
The news is that two innocent women were injured in a shooting. But given the
vagaries of newspaper publishing, the Star‘s editors knew the story would be getting
long in the tooth by the time it appeared on the streets in the wee hours of the next
morning. So they gave it some forward spin, to wit, police plans to nab Toronto‘s
remaining gangsters.
Sometimes second-day leads are entirely justifiable. It‘s legitimately news, for
example, to tell readers that police have not yet caught the bearded robber clad in
black. It‘s professional to phrase that important information as forward spin.
Sometimes, speaking realistically, there can be a certain amount of fakery involved.
This is the case with the Toronto Star lead. Is it really news that the Toronto police
are stepping up plans to take down crooks? Or was this just a reporter‘s response to a
demand from management for a second-day lead?
Since the police always intend to round up crooks, I say this second-day lead is a
contrived one. But that, folks, is how the game is played!
Novice newspaper writers should always be able to write a second-day lead when
asked to by their editors.
New journalists should also be familiar with a couple of other variations on the
standard hard-news lead.
The delayed-identification lead is useful when the Who element of your lead is not as
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important as the What element. The story of poor Albert Wells in the previous chapter
contained an example of the delayed identification lead:
struck a telephone pole west of Edmonton.
Albert Wells Jr., 18, of St. Albert was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident
near Spruce Grove at about 11:45 p.m., police said.
The writer identifies the accident victim by more newsworthy qualities in the lead, but
doesn‘t actually provide the details of his name until a later paragraph, delaying the
identification.
Another useful common variant is the impact lead, which attempts to explain in the
lead how readers will be affected by the news being reported. Here‘s one:
The one-per-cent increase in interest rates announced by the Bank of Canada
Thursday is expected to exert significant downward pressure on residential housing
prices nationwide, bank economists agree.
THE SOFT-NEWS LEAD
If the hard-news lead is the essential skill that must be learned by all aspiring news
writers, sooner or later they will all be asked to write a soft news story. What should a
writer do when hard news goes soft?
For starters, of course, a different kind of lead is required.
Indeed, the key difference between hard news and soft news is the approach taken in
the lead.
Soft-news leads are often referred to as ―feature leads‖ or ―delayed leads.‖ These
terms both give important clues about the fundamental problems faced by writers of
soft-news leads.
First, soft-news leads are generally found atop ―feature stories‖ — that is, stories that
in the terminology of the trade are a little longer, more reflective, use more colourful
language, or perhaps probe a little deeper. They are stories that, at least in theory, give
more scope to a writer‘s creativity.
In attempting to begin such a story — which may aim for the heart rather than the
head — the writer ought not to hammer the reader with the most important facts.
Indeed, with the approach typical of soft-news leads, the writer goes nowhere near the
Five Ws in the opening of the story. Instead, she can take a little time to set the tone,
paint the scene, introduce the reader to the atmosphere that surrounds the story —
hence the notion of a delayed lead.
The writer of soft news is allowed to tease the reader at the start of the story, and to
use a more traditional storytelling structure of beginning, build-up, climax and
conclusion.
Thus the writer of a story about riding in a freight train locomotive through the Rocky
Mountains, say, need not start with the most important facts — whatever they may be.
(Maybe, The new General Electric AC4400 heavy haul locomotive can use its 4,500
horsepower diesel engine to haul…) Rather, she can write something like:
This ain‘t the Orient Express, but it‘s still murder!
With a soft-news lead like that, readers will get the point, and will more than likely
stick around to get the story.
In theory, with soft news leads, almost anything goes. But with one important caveat:
It must work! The scope given soft news writers gives us some of the best writing in
the newspaper. Alas, this artistic license also gives us some of the worst.
Typically, however, most successful delayed leads have one thing in common: they
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move from the specific to the general.
So, for example, a feature story might start by describing Farmer John out standing in
his field. The aim, of course, would be to illustrate why John‘s outstanding in his
field.
While writers of soft-news leads are permitted — expected even — to take longer to
get to the point of the story, they need to remember that readers nevertheless want to
get to the point fairly quickly. After all, their objective is the same as that of a writer
of a hard news lead: to hook the reader, and to reel him in!
In an era when tight leads and short stories are in fashion, a key piece of advice to
novice news writers is to keep their soft news fairly hard. A delayed lead is fine, but
not to the point the story becomes tedious.
Moreover, this delayed approach requires the placement of a ―nut graph‖ — a
paragraph that sums up the focus of the story — high in the story. The nut graph,
which we will discuss in more detail in a subsequent chapter, should appear by the
fourth or fifth paragraph of the story.
Writers should also remember that soft news, done properly, still requires plenty of
hard facts. Soft or not, we are writing journalism, not poetry!
Finally, writers need to remember that because of the fashion of the day, their soft
news stories — like hard news stories — will be short and may grow even shorter. In
short, as it were, the scope for delay in a delayed lead is shrinking.
Now, as we noted above, the most common form of the delayed lead moves from the
specific (an example) to the general (a principle). So, for example, on June 4, 2005, a
Toronto Star reporter wrote:
Most Palestinians think Khaled Kasab Mahameed has lost his mind. Two months ago,
the Muslim lawyer from the biblical town of Nazareth took it upon himself to do what
no Arab has ever before dared — he launched a museum dedicated to the memory of
the Holocaust.
A specific example of the action of one person is designed to illustrate the point, as
the Star‘s reporter put it a few lines later, that ―as symbols go, Mahameed's efforts
have been hailed as a watershed moment in Israeli-Arab relations.‖
In addition to moving from specific examples to general principles, most soft-news
leads also tend to be anecdotal, or narrative, in nature. That is, they tell a story rather
that set out a statement of important facts. Here‘s an example of a storytelling lead,
used atop a personality profile of an Ontario politician who attended the 1983
Conservative convention:
Claude Bennett is working the floor, pressing the flesh, touching elbows. He‘s cool.
All around him — pandemonium.
There are almost 10,000 souls crammed into the Ottawa Civic Centre Arena this hot
spring night, come to watch the destruction of some political careers, the flowering of
others. Everyone is here for the show: pinstriped lawyers from un prestigious firms,
bulging and purple-faced but still hungry; lean, shrewd-eyed, sunburned farmers
from
Elk‘s Knuckle, with their plump, honest, ladies‘ auxiliary wives; unwholesomely
svelte young men in silk suits, $60 haircuts and wraparound sunglasses; tight-faced
college keeners shadowing jobs as executive assistants; incredibly beautifully women,
clad in gowns as colourful and splendid as Joseph‘s coat. …
Naturally, journalism professors (having no need to write to deadline), love to classify
this stuff. Since there are plenty of things a writer can do with a soft-news lead that
could never be contemplated in the hard news pages, there‘s lots of scope for creating
lists of categories of soft news leads.
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Of course, there‘s really no end to the number of great ideas — or lame ones — that
can be used for leading soft news stories. Here are just a few:
Teaser leads try to tease the reader to tickle her fancy. Determined to live long and
prosper, a drought-ridden Vulcan, Alta., started the 1990s with a bold move to put
itself on the intergalactic map. And it worked … sort of. The writer hoped readers
would stick with the story to find out that the Southern Alberta town had gone boldly
where no other dust-blown Prairie town had gone before by bringing itself to the
attention of North America‘s legions of Star Trek fans.
Ironic leads try to use the humour in irony to grab readers‘ attention. Here‘s one from
a how-to story, a common type of feature, which tried to teach readers how to tie a
bowtie.
It takes a real man to wear a bowtie. Any sissy can strap on a long tie or wear no tie
at all. But try walking into a room full of grease monkeys in stained coveralls and
asking directions to the foreman‘s office — if you‘re wearing a nice polka-dot bow-
tie, they‘ll know right off who‘s Boss!
Question-mark leads ask a question. They top most journalists‘ leads-to-avoid list.
Why? Because they usually ask questions readers don‘t want answered. Still, done
right, they can work. Is cowboy poetry keeping up with the times? Most of the more
than 90 poets lariat who rode into Pincher Creek from across Western Canada and
the United States this weekend for their seventh annual Canadian gathering say No.
More to the point, they practically shout it: ―NO!‖
List leads reinforce evidence of a trend. General Motors boasts that it makes the most
fuel-efficient large cars on the market. Toyota‘s hybrid cars sell so well that buyers
usually aren‘t able to arrange a test drive. Mercedes is building a two-seater that gets
more than 75 miles per gallon. Suddenly, good mileage is important again.
Great-quote leads build on a quote. Passenger Charlie Powell knew something was
wrong when he heard the bang and felt the wing of the elderly Grumman Goose
seaplane dip. ―I thought, ‗We‘re all gonna die!‘ … And most of us did.‖
Person-centered leads, like the one about the Nazareth lawyer above, try to use a
story about an individual to illustrate a broader situation involving lots of people.
Contrast leads highlight an ironic contrast to make a point. The mild mannered
office clerk who turns out to be a mass murderer and the millionaire pilot who squired
around movie stars then and hides in a hotel room now are all fodder for this
approach.
Play-on-word leads can be sublime, but they carry a high risk. After all, it‘s said the
pun is both the highest and lowest form of humour. A description of a boy and his
grill might work on a summertime story about outdoor cookery. But if you‘re thinking
of linking petunia sales to the sweet smell of success, well, just forget it!
Situational leads describe a situation in hopes of illuminating a bigger point. Ralph
Plotz is exhausted. His complexion is chalky, his five-o`clock shadow positively
Nixonian, his smart blue suit rumpled, and his tummy, a victim of too many quick and
greasy restaurant meals, creeping over his belt. Still, you can sense the little tremor of
anticipation when Plotz — suddenly the ―enfant terrible‖ of Western Canada‘s small-
conservative scene — eases his squat frame up to the podium. But the risk is high that
they can descend into untended hilarity. The old journalist sits at his desk, staring at
his computer, without an idea in his head. As more than one observer has pointed out,
if the most exciting thing someone can do is sit, it‘s time for another subject!
Nightmare leads — It was a nightmare come to life… — and poetic leads are right
up there on most folks‘ Don‘t-Do lists. Still, as in most creative matters, never say
never.
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Done right, almost anything can work! Consider:
They'll be ridin‘From Vancouver,Manitoba,Dawson Creek.
Even oneFrom Lubbock, Texas, Has set outFor Pincher Creek.
It's those drat-blamed Cowboy poets,81 of ‘em In all Comin' for their yearly readin',
roundup, tea party And ball. …
All in all,
- Soft news requires a different approach to lead writing.
- Soft-news leads are also often called delayed leads because they start by telling a
story before getting to the key facts.
- Delayed leads require the use of a ―nut graph‖ — which explains the thesis, or the
main point, of the story.
- The nut graph should be placed high in the story so that the reader does not have to
wait for long to find out what the story is about.
- Most successful delayed leads move from the specific to the general.
- Most soft-news leads tend to be anecdotal, or narrative, in nature — telling a story
rather that setting out a statement of important facts.
More Types of Lead;
• Cartridge Lead: presents the gist of the event in the fewest possible words. It is
usually abrupt and breath taking e.g. Awo is dead.
• The Crowded Lead: This type of lead emphasizes many aspects of an event instead
of concentrating on one. This usually occurs when several aspects/angles (who, what,
when, where, why) are of equal importance.
• The Astonisher Lead: This has to do with the kind of introduction that uses
superlative expressions to break the news e.g. For the first time in its history, the Co-
operative Development Bank of Nigeria declared a profit 700 billion Shillings last
year.
• The Shirt-Tail Lead: This is a lead that is broken into two sentences expressing
two related ideas. It is common to build up such ideas with the use of link words as
―in another development…‖
• Summary Lead: This type summarises the whole story and gives details later. It is
brief and deals with only the key points of the story, e.g. a bank clerk returning home
from work last night was robbed of 10,000/= and his handset while attempting to
board a city bus at Bugembe bus stop.
• Effect Lead: This focuses on the effect/consequences of an event. Leads that
emphasise the effect on readers of an event have a powerful human angle, e.g. you
may have to pay more for bus rides as a result of the increases in the prices of
petroleum products announced by the Government yesterday.
i. Search through your national daily, identify and photocopy examples of the leads
mentioned in this unit.
ii. Write a lead, for each of the mentioned types, using the recent matriculation
ceremony in your campus.
NEWS WRITING STYLE
THE PYRAMID FORMAT

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The pyramid style is a kind of structure in which the least important idea is presented
first to the most important and then followed by others in ascending order of
importance.
The shape itself is pyramidal.
THE INVERTED PYRAMID FORMAT
The inverted pyramid format is a news story writing format used centuries ago;
however, most modern newspapers still use the format because it is the most space-
efficient story form known. It permits writers to deliver the most important
information in a paragraph or two.
This type of news writing format gives the most important information in the news
first in form of a lead and goes on to develop the story in a descending order of
importance. The inverted pyramid story has no conclusion, as many single incident
news stories are presented in this form. The illustration below shows the format.
The purpose of this type of structure is to present the news quickly, clearly and
readably, to help the reader easily understand the content of the story. Its basic logic
grows out of the different ways in which readers approach a news story. Some will be
so interested in the subject that they will read every word the reporter writes,
regardless of how it is written; others read only a few paragraphs; many will only read
the headline and lead.
To provide all these readers with maximum benefit, the reporter arranges the fact in
descending order of importance. The Inverted Pyramid form has a professional
advantage over the conventional method of essay writing. When a news story is very
long and needs cutting, the sub-editor can easily cut from the paragraphs, which
contain the least important details.
The Advantages/Importance of the Inverted Pyramid Format
a. It makes the reader get the gist quickly. b. It helps in headline writing.
c. It facilitates reading. d. It satisfies the curiosity of the
reader.
e. It helps and facilitates page make up. f. It facilitates editing to suit the
news hole.
THE MODIFIED INVERTED PYRAMID

This style of structure is developed from both the pyramid and the inverted pyramid
styles. It is characterised by the presentation of the climax of an event before
unfolding sequentially from the beginning showing how the event led to the climax.
i.e. the result is presented before the steps taken to reach the result are subsequently
reached.
SELF-ASSESSMENT 58
1. Research about the diagrammatical representation of a Modified Inverted Pyramid.
The Five Ws and H + So What?
Now that we have a working definition for ―the news,‖ and now that we understand
the difference between ―hard news‖ and ―soft news,‖ the next step is to think about
the most basic building blocks of any news story.
These are everywhere called the Five Ws (sometimes modified to the Five Ws and the
H) and are well known to virtually everyone. Nevertheless, just because we all know
that Who? What? When? Where? And Why? (Not to mention How?) Comprise the
Five Ws (and the H), it‘s worth thinking about this idea a little more in the context of
writing professionally about news.
Really, the Five Ws are the questions any reader or listener wants answered when he
or she reads or hears any story — whether it is neighbourhood gossip, a fairy tale, a
play by Shakespeare or a good joke. The difference between telling a joke, say, and
writing a news story is just that we instinctively identify the Five Ws in a joke, while
we have to take the time to identify them in a news story.
So the starting point for writing any news story is understanding that the reader needs
to know:
WHAT … happened?
WHO … did it happen to, or who made it happen?
WHEN … did it happen?
WHERE … did it happen?
WHY … did it happen?
HOW … did it happen?
Unlike other forms of storytelling, however, in the traditional news story, we not only
have to make sure that we identify all Five Ws, we have to think carefully about what
order to place them in.
After all, the traditional news lead (that is, the first few lines of the news story), is
very short. There‘s usually not enough room to put all five Ws in the lead.
Furthermore, unlike a joke, the style of news story common to English Language
newspapers starts with the punch line! It doesn't build to a natural climax. So we have
to exercise out news judgment — about which we'll learn in the next chapter — to
determine which Ws belong at the start of the story.
So, let‘s imagine that your university dormitory roommate runs into the room, red
faced and breathless, and shouts: ―You'll never guess what I saw!‖ Your first
question, of course, will be What? Now, let‘s imagine some answers and think about
what you‘d ask next, and why.
―There was a fire!‖ says your roommate. OK, now that you‘ve answered what, your
next likely question is going to be Where? (After all, in a situation like this, you want
to determine if you‘re in any danger, or if anyone else you know may be.) ―In the
cafeteria,‖ gasps your roommate.
The next thing you‘ll likely want to know is When? (This will answer the essential
question, under the circumstances, of ―Is it out?‖ In other words, what's its immediate
impact on me?) So far, you've been exercising something not unlike ―news judgment‖
— a process we'll read more about in the next chapter — by determining the facts
most likely to have an impact on your own survival.
―Just 10 minutes ago, but it's out now,‖ your roommate says, starting to calm down a
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little. At this point, while you may want to review in your mind the location of the fire
exits just in case, your next questions can be a little calmer: ―Anybody hurt? Who
started it?‖ (In other words, Who?) ―I think everyone‘s OK,‖ says your roommate.
―The Fire Department just got here and told everyone they could come back in the
building.‖
The next questions — in storytelling and news writing both, often the hardest to
answer — are the after-the-fact questions. How? How did it happen? (―Some grease
caught fire in a frying pan.‖ Why? (―The cook went out for a smoke and forgot to
turn off the stove.‖)
At this point, we've answered all the basic questions a university dorm resident would
want answered in these circumstances, and in a primitive sort of way we‘ve exercised
our news judgment too.
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? These are the tools used by any
inquiring mind to explain reality. Therefore, these are questions that every news story
must answer.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Justify why you may like to begin your news stories with any of the 5Ws and H.
WRITING „NUT GRAPHS‟
Feature stories need nut graphs for the same reason hard-news stories need summary
leads.
A nut graph is a common newspaper industry term of a paragraph near the top of a
story with a delayed, soft-news lead that sums up the focus, or the main point, of the
story. In other words, it does the same job as the summary lead. It explains the main
point of the story.
Virtually everyone in the newspaper industry, by the way, abbreviates paragraph to
graph. We‘re not talking her about the graphs used to illustrate statistical stories. Like
lead and lead, you‘ll just have to get used to it!
Nut graphs are also sometimes called focus graphs or focus statements, because they
set out the focus or thesis of the story, or bridge paragraphs, because they bridge the
colourful illustrative lead with the rest of the story.
If the soft lead engages the reader‘s imagination or emotion, the nut graph tells him
why it‘s worth continuing to read. Done well, the transition from the lead section to
the meat of the story will be smooth and natural.
Here‘s one example. First the soft-news lead — which described a car accident
experienced years earlier by Alberta‘s premier:
Ralph Klein may have been an inch from death, but at least he wasn't far from an
emergency ward.
The time was 2 p.m., Nov. 5, 1981. The place was a busy downtown intersection in
Calgary. Then-mayor Klein and his faithful sidekick Rod Love were returning from, of
all things, a Calgary General Hospital Board meeting.
Near-disaster for the pair came in the form of a hurtling half-ton pickup, piloted by a
young man from Olds who apparently didn‘t see a light turn red. When the dust
settled,
Love's car was a write-off, the young man faced charges, and Klein was on his way to
the nearby Holy Cross emergency ward.
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That‘s followed by the nut graph, which puts the story in context — that was then, this
is now — and explains why the situation 13 years before was ironic, if not significant:
Thirteen years later, Klein had a new job in Edmonton, and inner-city emergency
wards in Calgary — including the one at the Holy Cross — were on their way into
history as a result of budget cutbacks.
The story then could move naturally to describing the debate over the cutbacks, and
their impact.
Here‘s another example:
Don't ever try to tell Karen and Bob Lyons word-of-mouth advertising doesn't work.
They‘d tell you about the gentleman from Japan who rented a car in New York City
and drove across the continent to Pincher Creek to buy about $100 worth of their
prizewinning honey.
When he got there, he was surprised by how far it was, recalls Bob. But he never gave
up and turned back.
Then the nut graph:
The Lyons‘ visitors‘ book is filled with the names of honey lovers from Japan, Europe,
Australia and almost every corner of Canada and the U.S. The advertising effort that
attracts these sojourners to this community about 150 kilometers south of Calgary is
simple yet effective: word of mouth.
Attribution
The concept of attribution is the fundamental building block of the concept of modern
journalism.
Without attribution, we all now sense, a story is nothing. Or, to put that another way,
without attribution, a story is just your opinion, and who cares what you think? At
least, if you have an opinion, as far as the world of journalism is occurred, you‘d
better be in a position that makes it worth reporting what your opinion is.
Attribution, in other words, is where you tell your reader where you got your
information.
It can be as simple as the words ―he said.‖
The idea of attribution in modern newspaper writing comes from the idea that a
reporter‘s job is not to write his own opinions, but is to provide readers with an
unbiased — or at least a balanced — description of the facts of a story.
Needless to say, inhabiting a real world as we do, it is never really true that a
journalist can provide a strictly objective account of anything. Of course we all bring
our opinions, our faith, our cultural perspective to anything we write about. But that
discussion is for philosophy class, or maybe sociology.
Certainly our personal ambition and our cultural biases may affect the stories we
choose to report, and to some degree the assumptions we bring to reporting them, but
the game of journalism as it has been played in North America for most of the past
century has been at least to write our stories as if we were presenting an unbiased
accounting of the facts.
That means attribution is essential in a news story, hard or soft, because it is important
to show readers where statements come from, who made them, why they made them,
and why readers ought to consider their views.
In other words, it is a basic assumption of modern journalism that readers are entitled
to know the source of the facts, quoted statements and opinions in your story.
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Where to place attribution in a story can be trickier. Normally, reporters are expected
to provide the source of the source of the information in their lead.
This can be phrased specifically: It‘s time for federal legislation to outlaw the
practice of hiring replacement workers during strikes, says Buzz Hargrove, President
of the Canadian Auto Workers union.
Or it can be put more generally: The body of a man found near Fernie, B.C., has been
identified as that of a missing hunter, police say.
Being too detailed and specific with attribution can make a lead cluttered and hard to
follow and should be avoided. That detailed information can come deeper in the story.
Nevertheless, regardless of where it is positioned in the story, every person quoted
and most people referred to in a news story should be fully identified by name, job
and (if only by implication) the reason they are quoted. This is known as setting up
the quote. A quote in which the speaker has not been completely identified has not
been properly set up.
Sometimes attribution may be eliminated from a lead because it is common
knowledge.
Canadians are to vote today in a general election. But be careful, one man‘s common
knowledge is another man‘s opinion. It is usually best to err on the side of providing
attribution.
Likewise, sometimes attribution may be skipped because it is implied. A man was in
custody today in Yorkton, Sask., after an armed standoff following a police chase. It‘s
pretty clear the source of this information was the police, so the ―police said‖ is
implied.
Further, most reporters know by experience that the police may be trusted to provide
trustworthy information on some topics, and perhaps less so on others.
We can be confident, for example, that if the police say they have arrested John
Smith, suspected of a string of bank robberies, that they have done so. Our stories can
safely reflect that. We should be more careful, however, when they imply (as they
often do in such circumstances) that Mr. Smith is obviously guilty of the crime with
which he has been charged.
But even in this case, attribution is soon required. Yorkton RCMP said a man armed
with a shotgun held officers at bay Monday night in a trailer court and threatened to
kill himself.
If we write that the weather tomorrow is expected to be sunny and warm, it‘s pretty
obvious that the source of the information was the weather office. Still, in such an
example, there would be little harm to the lead is saying so.
Attribution can also be skipped in the lead if the facts are easily verified.
struck a telephone pole west of Edmonton. No attribution required in the lead —
although you‘ll want it lower in the story regardless, even if it‘s only a ―police said.‖
But attribution must be placed in the lead if someone is making an accusation, or if
opinion or speculation is involved. Consider this lead:
Mechanical failure may have been involved in the death of an 18-year-old St. Albert
high school student killed late Wednesday when his car struck a telephone pole west
of Edmonton, police said today.
This lead requires attribution because someone (the police) is speculating about the
cause of the crash. Now, look at this one:
Alcohol use is suspected in the death of an 18-year-old St. Albert high school student
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killed late Wednesday when his car struck a telephone pole west of Edmonton, police
say.
This lead requires attribution even more urgently, because it contains an accusation
about the conduct of the crash victim. Even though the victim is dead, fairness obliges
to point out the source of the accusation. If the person accused were still alive,
practical legal considerations — the presumption of innocence, the right of an accused
person to a fair trial — make the need for attribution more pressing.
The next lead would be fine, because it is factual and verifiable:
A seriously injured St. Albert high school student has been charged with driving
drunk after the car he was driving struck a telephone pole west of Edmonton late
Wednesday.
But imagine, instead, that the story went something like this:
Albert Wells Jr. of St. Albert smelled of alcohol and slurred his words as he was cut
from the wreck of his car by rescue workers… Obviously, in this case, attribution
would be essential. …a Spruce Grove fire-rescue specialist testified Tuesday in a
Court of Queen‘s Bench trial.
Whenever you site an accusation in a story, whether it is the police, a neighbour or a
politician making the accusation, you owe a debt of fairness to both the accused
person and the reader to explain who is making the accusation — and possibly to
provide context that could explain their motive for doing so.
Whenever a statement is placed inside quotation marks, implying that that the
statement is someone‘s exact spoken or written words, attribution must be provided.
Finally, attribution is normally placed after the statement for which it is provided,
especially if the information attributed is not earth shaking, or is perhaps not certain to
be true.
If taxes are not raised, the town of Duckville may have to curtail some essential
services by the end of the year, says Town Councillor Ignatius Jones.
The city has no business putting fluoride in Calgarians‘ water, says Ald. Pearl
Flugmann, a candidate for mayor in the Oct. 19 civic election.
But sometimes, the identity or position of the person making the statement is so
newsworthy, that the attribution belongs in front of the information being attributed.
Premier Ralph Klein says he will use the Notwithstanding Clause of the Constitution
to prevent same-sex marriages becoming legal in Alberta.
Or:
The appointed head of the Metro Health Region says board members – including
himself -- should be elected.
Using Quotes in News Stories
Quotes are indispensable to journalism as practiced today. This is because, more often
than not, news is what people say.
Naturally, we all understand that Who says something, and What they say, makes
news.
But remember too that news is often also How they say it, When and Where they say
it, and Why they say it.
Quotes are important because they are the key mechanism of establishing attribution
in journalism. So quotes and attribution go together like fish and water — it‘s
important to establish who said something (attribution), and it‘s important to
accurately establish what was said (quotes).
Quotes lend authenticity to journalistic reports. They put readers in touch with what
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people in the news actually said. At least in theory, they allow readers to judge for
themselves the merits of a speaker‘s arguments. They are used as evidence to back up
the statement you have written in your lead.
For these reasons, whoever is being quoted must be identified clearly. It‘s important
that the reader of a news story is always be able to tell exactly where the information
he is reading comes from. He should never have to guess if it‘s the prime minister
speaking, say, or just the reporter.
In standard journalistic practice, there are two types of quotes: direct quotes and
indirect quotes.
A direct quote is the exact words that were spoken by somebody. Direct quotes are
identified by the use of quotation marks.
Everything inside the quotation marks should be exactly (or very nearly exactly) what
the speaker said. The quotation marks mark off the words actually spoken from all the
other material in the story.
The value of direct quotes is that — again, at least in theory — they tell the reader
precisely what someone said, in their own words. They allow the reader to make her
own judgment about the merits of what the speaker had to say. They provide evidence
that the statement in the lead can be backed up by documentation of something
someone said.
Moreover, direct quotes lend drama to a well-written story. A strong quote, accurately
reported, can be the key to an effective story. The best quotes are entertaining and
succinct.
The problem, of course, is that not all quotes are strong, or even make much sense.
Some direct quotes are pretty blah. Others are confusing. In such cases, an indirect
quote is better.
So, newspaper writers should not fall prey to the common temptation to quote at any
cost.
More often than not, this arises more from the need to show their editors they are
doing a good job than from the actual requirements of their story.
Nevertheless, a direct quote should always be used when the speaker is saying
something controversial, or when he is accusing someone of something.
An indirect quote is a paraphrase — that is, the writer‘s version of what someone
said.
The advantage of indirect quotes is that they can cut through excess verbiage to
express what a speaker means succinctly. They can make a dull quote more lively,
and a confusing quote clear.
The principal difficulty with indirect quotes is that writers don‘t always understand or
interpret correctly what a speaker is saying. So if you‘re going to quote someone
indirectly, you need to be certain that you really understand what they meant when
they spoke and ensure that you paraphrase them accurately
Usually, well-written news stories use a mixture a direct quotes and indirect quotes.
Let‘s consider a couple of examples. Imagine that you‘re covering a civic election in a
big Canadian city. You interview the mayor, and she tells you:
"I believe that I have done a good job and I am confident the citizens of our city share
my view and will return me to office."
This is a quote that‘s on the borderline between being suitable for direct quotation or
indirect quotation. Practically speaking, you might want to use it if it‘s the best
you‘ve got and your story needs to demonstrate that you heard the mayor talking.
Now, you would definitely want to use an indirect quote if the mayor had said
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something like this:
―Speaking confidence-wise, regarding my electibility, notwithstanding the volatility of
the electorate mediated by the popular perception of my past and ongoing
administrative successes, I think it‘s overwhelmingly clear that the citizenry shares
my perception of a positive work-service continuum while in office and the probability
is high that I will be returned with an increased plurality after the cessation of
balloting.‖
A succinct paraphrase along these lines would work better:
The mayor said she was confident the public agrees she has done a good job and will
return her to office on Election Day.
On the other hand, if the mayor said of her chief challenger in the election, ―I‘ll kick
Bobby‘s ass!‖ you‘d definitely want to put that in direct quotes. There‘s just no way
to effectively paraphrase such a sentiment!
Using the same yardstick, in this example the direct quote is clearly superior to the
paraphrase.
Direct quote: ―That jerk is the worst referee I‘ve ever seen! He must be blind!‖
Indirect quote: He criticized the referee‘s abilities.
Returning to the first example, while new reporters are frequently told that editing
quotes is completely unacceptable, it would be permissible to make a few minor
editing changes if she had said:
"I believe, uh, that I have done a, a, a good job and I am, er, confident the citizens of
our city share my view and, uh, will return me to office."
Random ums, uhs, ers and meaningless repetitions may come out of a quote without
harming its integrity or the ethics of the writer. But again, you must be certain that
what you‘re taking out really is only a meaningless sound.
Now, let‘s consider some guidelines for when to quote, and when not to, in news
stories:
If you quote directly, you must quote accurately. Inside quotation marks, you are
pretty much stuck with what the speaker said. There‘s an obvious ethical problem
with revising a direct quote in hopes of improving it. Fixing a minor grammatical
error or editing out a meaningless repetition may be acceptable in many journalistic
circles — but in this age of tape recorders and ever-present microphones, it is
dangerous. Changing words outright or even reorganizing them a little is not
appropriate. When quoting directly, you must strive for technical accuracy.
If you quote directly, you should strive to quote elegantly. Beware the temptation
to break the flow of the quote to include explanatory notes in brackets. Too many of
these stage whispers ruin the quote and disrupt the flow of the story. If you must use
explanations in parentheses, consider a paraphrase instead. Good quotes shouldn‘t
require a lot of explanation.
Ellipses in quotes should be used with care. Ellipses — three dots used to delete
wordy passages from otherwise coherent quotes — can be useful. Say someone said:
―I‘m certain because I‘ve been around Parliament for a long time and really, really
know what‘s going on that we can defeat the government on Tuesday.‖ This could be
usefully shortened to: ―I‘m certain … we can defeat the government on Tuesday.‖
But take care not to change the speaker‘s meaning. Never combine ellipses with
notes, such as explanations in brackets.
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Always fully identify the speaker when you quote directly. If a statement is within
quotation marks in a news story, the person who made the statement must be
identified.
In journalism, this is termed setting up the quote. A quote that suddenly refers to
Smith, instead of Sr. John Smith, Chief of Dentistry at the Nanaimo Clinic, for
example, has not been properly set up.
Usually, when a quote falls below a reasonable standard of pithiness, use a

paraphrase. There is little value in directly quoting the mayor saying something like
―over the past six months, the spouses of city council members have only taken tax
payer financed trips on 16 occasions.‖ Better simply to say, The mayor said spouses
of city council members have only taken taxpayer-financed trips 16 times in the past
six months.
But very important statements require direct quotation, even if they are dull. If
the Prime Minister is giving a speech on, say, the results of Quebec's next
independence referendum, it's advisable to quote him in his own words, even if
they're tedious.
Use fragmentary or one-word quotes sparingly. Fragments and one word quotes
are OK to express doubt — he called the party‘s actions ―criminal.‖ Likewise, they
are acceptable to show someone used a highly charged word — he accused the chief
executive of behaving like a ―Nazi.‖ They can also indicate cultural or ideological
disagreement. However, one-word quotes are not an appropriate remedy for sloppy
note taking.
The context of the quote should always be clear to the reader. Without more
information, this quote is not particularly helpful: ―It‘s all politics,‖ the Liberal
candidate said of the NDP campaign. Say what? Some writers try to solve this
problem by adding afterthoughts: ―It‘s junk,‖ he said of the new Korean-built sedan.
Recast when faced with the need to add afterthoughts.
Quotes should back up the lead, not repeat it. Avoid double attribution. The story‘s
first quote should provide additional information or insight and move the story
forward.
Avoid leads like this. The prime minister was shocked and appalled by the
opposition‘s accusations of corruption. ―I‘m shocked and appalled by the
opposition‘s accusations or corruption,‖ the prime minister said.
Avoid quotes that the speaker didn‟t say. This is a common sin of headline writers.
If you‘re going to say, the critic called it a ‗wonderful‘ movie, make sure she used
that word.
Partial quotes must fit the grammatical structure of the sentence. Avoid
ungrammatical use of partial quotes: The driver admitted he ―don‘t have a chance‖ in
Tuesday‘s race. But also avoid partial quotes that would never have been spoken by
the speaker. The driver admitted he ―doesn‘t have a chance‖ in Tuesday‘s race.
Would he have really said: ―I doesn‘t have a chance‖? In either case, recast.
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Be careful not to alter the meaning of a statement by using partial quotes. This
means one thing: ―There may be times when it makes sense to use chemotherapy to
treat warts, but in 25 years of medical practice I have never encountered one!‖ This
means another: ―There may be times when it makes sense to use chemotherapy to
treat warts.‖
In the second case, the stenography is accurate, the quote is not.
Don‟t attribute more to a quote than it really says. Alberta‘s unemployment rate
declined half a percentage point in June, a powerful indicator that the economy
continues to be strong, a Statistics Canada report revealed today. If the report only
said that the unemployment rate declined, you have gone too far and must recast to
accurately reflect what was said.
Avoid obvious clichés. Yes, avoid them even when they are in direct quotes. ―He‘s
lucky to be alive!‖ ―Something went terribly wrong.‖ ―We went out there and did the
job.‖
None of these should make the cut. However, if a speaker says, ―it sounded like a
nuclear bomb going off,‖ find out if he‘s ever actually heard one. If he hasn‘t, dump
the cliché. If he has, however, write a story about it!
Delete expletives. The question to ask yourself is: Was the profanity relevant to the
story? It rarely is. If a criminal uses profanity during a holdup, that‘s hardly news. If
the prime minister calls the opposition leader a bad word in the House of Commons, it
is. In the extremely rare cases where profanity is in fact news, what was actually said
should be spelled out, not hinted at. Needless to say, profanity when used must be
placed in direct quotes.
In closing, we need to remember that there are grammatical rules and style rules for
the use of quotes in news stories.
One such key rule in use in Canadian newspapers, is that the punctuation mark that
separates the direct quote for the rest of the sentence must be placed inside the
quotation marks. So, for example:
―I am prepared to run again in October,‖ Mayor Bronconnier said.
Double quotation marks are used to set off quotes inside a news story. Single
quotation marks are used to set of quotes within a quote.
―The third time the shark struck the boat, the captain yelled, ‗we‘re all going to
die!‘‖
Attribution can be placed at the beginning of a sentence, in the middle, or at the end
— but in most circumstances where a short quote is used, the end is best.
The defence minister said, ―We‘re going to raise the budget of the budget of the
Armed Forces, and we‘re going to increase manpower through effective recruiting‖
―We‘re going to raise the budget of the budget of the Armed Forces,‖ the defence
minister said, ―and we‘re going to increase manpower through effective recruiting‖
―We‘re going to raise the budget of the budget of the Armed Forces, and we‘re going
to increase manpower through effective recruiting,‖ the defence minister said.
The first example can be useful when a story quotes a variety of sources, and it is
important to make clear who is speaking.
The second can be a useful way to improve readability by breaking up long quotes.
More often than not, however, this technique works better if it is broken into two
sentences with a judicious edit.
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―We‘re going to raise the budget of the budget of the Armed Forces,‖ the defence
minister said. ―We‘re going to increase manpower through effective recruiting‖
Still, in most circumstances the last sentence is the best.
Finally, many words for said are useful when assigning attribution in a news story.
Nevertheless, while a certain amount of elegant variation may help the flow of your
story,a simple ―she said‖ is usually best. So by all means exchange the occasional
said for an observed or a noted, an exclaimed or even an ejaculated.
However, if you intend to have a speaker aver something, or vow something, or
announce it or interject it, be careful that you know what you are saying, for each of
these has a precise meaning and is not a mere synonym for said. If the urge comes
over you to have a speaker bark something, or sniff it, or spit it, or sigh it, well, think
again and have them say it!
Active Voice versus Passive Voice
Most journalists, and most journalism textbooks, say that news stories should be
written in the active voice.
Most of the time they are right.
The active voice describes the action. The passive voice describes the recipient of the
action.
The active voice delivers a clear, strong statement of what happened. From the point
of view of writing news, it moves the story along. This is why it is beloved by
journalists and others who strive to write exciting, engaging prose.
The demonstrators threw rocks at the police.
The passive voice can make an exciting event dull. It is an effective way to hide the
responsibility of an action in an account of that action. This is why is beloved by
government officials, lawyers and academics.
Rocks were thrown at police by demonstrators.
Often the active voice takes fewer words to describe something.
They threw rocks.
Rocks were thrown by them.
Moreover, the passive voice makes it easy not to provide needed information about
who committed an action.
Rocks were thrown at police.
Choosing the active voice over the passive voice can be more than simply recasting
the words in a sentence.
Passive: There was no sign of the sailboat at dawn.
Active: The sailboat disappeared in the night.
A simple way to remember how to write in the active voice is to memorize the order
of subject, verb and object — SVO.
The demonstrators (subject) threw (verb) rocks (object).
Young journalists are encouraged to write in the active voice because it generally
makes for better, more entertaining, clearer news stories. This idea is drummed into
their heads because so many of them have learned to write in the passive style
favoured by government officials, teachers and supervisors.
However, it‘s important to remember that just because something is usually a bad idea
doesn‘t mean it always is. Sometimes when writing news there are sound reasons to
use the passive voice.
Let‘s return to an example of a lead used to illustrate a different point earlier
mentioned.
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A seriously injured St. Albert high school student has been charged with driving
drunk after the car he was driving struck a telephone pole west of Edmonton late
Wednesday.
The passive voice is used in this lead for a good reason. The passive voice is
sometimes necessary, especially in police blotter writing, because it does not carry an
implication of guilt.
If we were to use the active voice and say, for example, that a seriously injured St.
Albert high school student has been charged with driving drunk after he drove his car
into a telephone pole west of Edmonton late Wednesday we would be implying guilt,
which is the job of the courts, not the newspaper.
ESSENTIAL POINTS OF PROFESSIONAL STYLE
Numbers
The greatest, or at least the most commonly occurring, inconsistency in Professional

Press Style is in its treatment of numbers, which naturally crop up in a wide variety of
typical instances.
In general, Professional Style requires you to spell out whole numbers below 10 and
use figures for 10 and above. When they are in a series, there will often be a mixture.
There were three Fords, two Chevrolets, 15 Volkswagens, 22 Chryslers and one
Humber on the car lot, of which 30 had four-cylinder engines, 10 were sixes and three
were eights.
Numerals, however, are used in ages when they stand after a name.
Bruce, 3, had two sisters, five and seven.
Numerals are also used in numbers with fractions and decimals.
He fired a .30-calibre revolver at a target 9.5 centimetres by 7.2 centimetres.
Numerals are also used in decisions, votes and scores…
The Oilers beat Calgary 6-5. The court ruled 5-4.
…and in heights expressed informally.
The robber stood 5-10.
Percentages
Percentages are shown in Professional Style as two words, ―per cent.‖
Two per cent, 12 per cent, 1.3 per cent.
Times
Specific times are shown as numerals. Break minutes from the hour with a semicolon.
2 a.m. (but not 2.00 a.m.), 2:20 a.m., 8 in the evening (but never 8 p.m. in the evening,
which is redundant), 3 o‘clock.
Addresses
Numerals are usually used in specific addresses. Numbered street names nine and
below are spelled out — Fifth Avenue; 123 Fifth Ave. Streets, Avenues and the like
are abbreviated in specific addresses (1406 Ryan St.), but not in general addresses (the
1400 block of Ryan Street). In cities like Calgary that break addresses into quadrants,
Professional style requires that we abbreviate the quadrants with periods.
1352 Norfolk Dr., 10015 85th Ave., 3G St. Albert Rd., 1476 Eighth Ave., in the 1200
block of Whyte Avenue, 2178 Fourth Ave. N.W., the crash took place on Crowfoot
Trail inCalgary‘s northwest.
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Temperatures
Numerals are used, unless Celsius or Fahrenheit are not specified.
5 C, -20 C, eight degrees.
Number Exceptions
Alas, when it comes to recording numbers, there are many exceptions in Professional
Style. Here are two common ones.
Spell out a number above 10 at the start of the sentence.
Thirty to 40 men were waiting when the sun rose.
Spell out numbers in figures of speech.
The Ten Commandments, the Twelve Apostles, the Seven Deadly Sins, a ten-gallon
hat.(But, Professional style insists, it‘s the Gay ‘90s, the Dirty ‘30s and the Roaring
‘20s.)
Months and dates

Months are always written out in full when they are not part of a specific date.
The merry month of May. It was a gloomy November. In September, the kids went
back to school. Christmas will come again next December.
In precise dates, however, these months are always abbreviated, as shown: January
(Jan.),February (Feb.), August (Aug.), September (Sept.), October (Oct.), November
(Nov.) andDecember (Dec.). March, April, May, June and July are never abbreviated.
Jane was born on Nov. 13, 1951. He sister Sally was born on May 11, 1957. Disaster
would strike New York on Sept. 11.
The days of the week are never abbreviated.
The dreadful deed happened on a Saturday. The national holiday will be on Friday,
July 1, 2005.
Money
Use numerals if preceded by a symbol representing a currency, write it out if not. Use
numerals for fractions under 10. Show U.S., Canadian and other dollars using
abbreviations without periods.
$5, five francs, $2 million, a $7-million house, $6.7 million, 2.5 cents, $500 million
US, $2 Cdn, 6 cents.
Capitalization of Job Titles

Capitalize job titles before the name, but not after.
AUPE President Dan MacLennan. Dan MacLennan, president of AUPE.
Prime Minister Paul Martin. Paul Martin, the Canadian prime minister.
Punctuation
Always place periods and commas inside quotation marks.
―There‘s no way we can make the payments on time,‖ she said. ―If we don‘t get
support from the city, we will lose the building.‖ (Not, … ‖we will lose the
building‖.)
Provinces and States
Spell out provinces and states when used in descriptive passages. You may use B.C.,
N.W.T. and P.E.I. in descriptive passages, however. Abbreviate all province and state
names when used after the names of a community. Remember, the Professional Style
abbreviations are not the same as Canada Post‘s — always say Alta. in a news story,
even if you prefer AB on an envelope!
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Professional Style abbreviations for provinces are as follows:
Alta., B.C., Sask., Man., Ont., Que., N.B., N.S., P.E.I., Nfld., and N.W.T. Write out
Yukon and Nunavut.
Similar rules and exceptions apply to U.S. states, all of which may be found in the
Professional Stylebook.
Organizations
Abbreviate the titles of legal corporations in their company names. Spell out in
descriptive passages.
B.C. Ferries Corp., Cargill Inc., Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd., Canadian Pacific
Ltd.,
Sun Microsystems Inc., Smith Bros., General Motors Corp. is one of the largest
corporations in the world, and its Canadian subsidiary is the largest company in
Ontario.
But spell out words like company when they are not part of a corporate entity.
The Canadian Opera Company, the Company of Young Canadians, the Smothers
Brothers.
Abbreviations
Professional Style general policy on abbreviations is that geographical abbreviations
take periods, others do not.
The RCMP have several offices in the N.W.T. HMCS Calgary ran aground on the
south coast of P.E.I.
The United Nations, in Professional Style opinion, is not a geographical entity.
Therefore, it takes no periods.
The U.S. and the U.K. are members of the UN.
Titles such as Dr., Capt., Prof., Lieut. are abbreviated, if they come before names, on
first reference. They are written out in descriptive passages.
Dr. Ron Anderson. Prof. Daniel Van Heyst. Capt. Hiram McMillan.
The professor stood at the front of the class. Sgt. Darcy Henton of the RCMP said the
men were arrested without a struggle. He said one of the men was the captain of the
barge and the other the chief lieutenant to the leader of the smugglers.
Spelling
Professional Style is generally to spell words as they are spelled in the Oxford
Dictionary. However, there are many exceptions, which are set out in Professional
Style Caps and Spelling.
Professional Style now prefers the British –our spelling for worlds like colour, labour
and harbour. It prefers the shortened American program over the British programme,
however.
Professional Style prefers judgment (not judgement) and centre (not center),
kilometers (not kilometers).
If the spelling of a proper name differs from Professional style, however, use the
spelling favoured by the subject.
The U.S. Department of Defense. The American Federation of Labor, centre stage of
the Lincoln Center.
Local preference prevails in the spelling of geographical place names.
Friday Harbor, Wash., in the U.S. San Juan Islands is about 40 kilometres as the
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crow flies from Bedwel l Harbour, B.C., in the Canadian Gulf Islands.
GENDER SPECIFIC GENDER NEUTRAL
Actress Actor
Authoress Author
Fisherman Fisher
Newsman Reporter
Policeman Police Officer, Constable
Stewardess Flight Attendant
If the sex of, say, the police officer you are writing about is part of the story, a gender
specific alternative such as policewoman would be appropriate.
Writers should strive to avoid the hopelessly tortured. Man-eating shark will do,
thank you very much, not person-eating shark!
Write his or her, only if by doing otherwise you would make it appear women would
be excluded from something when they are not. Take care using their as an alternative
that you cast your sentence so as not to torture the grammar of the language.
Finally, never assume that a married women wishes to use her husband‘s name.
Always ask. Indeed, this goes to a broader rule. Never assume anything about
anyone‘s name!
Always ask, and always check the spelling. That way you will offend neither Jon P
smith or his wife, Ms. Jones.
One final note, if your newspaper uses honorifics and titles — Mr., Mrs., Ms. Miss,
Dr., Col. — take care to check which versions are permitted by your publication for
women, and which honorific the woman you are writing about prefers. Never assume
that a high office holder is a man. This is a particular problem for copy editors dealing
with copy from abroad describing people from cultures with which we are not
familiar whose names may not tell us what we need to know about their gender. Take
the time to check.
The alternative is often embarrassing.
1. Write different types of leads corresponding to the story structures.
WRITING THE BASIC NEWS STORY
The writing process
 Lead
The lead is the first sentence(s) in a story. It draws the reader in and lets them know
what the story is about.
 Nutgraph
The lead and the nutgraph are a team. By the time the reader finishes both they should
be able to answer the 5 Ws and the H (who, what, where, when, why, how) about the
story. The nutgraph gives any details that aren‘t in the lead and tells the reader why
they care.If you don‘t tell the reader why they care (from official sources, not in your
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own words), they won‘t continue to read the story.
 Body
The body contains additional details, background information and quotes from
sources. Remember to use one or two great quotes and paraphrase the rest. Also, don‘t
stack quotes on top of one another.
 End/Conclusion
News stories don‘t have real conclusions. When you are finished reporting, just end it.
Remember that the lead and the nutgraph are partners. Neither can work without the
other.
If the lead gives the summary of what the story is about, the nutgraph tells the reader
why they need to know the information. Also remember:
- The lead and the nutgraph should be different.
- The nutgraph shouldn‘t be editorial.
- The nutgraph can be a quote.
Transitional Devices
Most news stories run into several paragraphs and, may develop several ideas and
themes. Transitional words, or phrases are used to achieve a smooth flow through the
different themes. Thus, transitions help stories move in a smooth, logical order from
one field to the next.
Transitional devices that emphasize the time element in the different aspects of an
event are among the most common used. Here are a few: earlier, later, next week, at
the same time, meanwhile, soon after, and many more.
Equally common are transitional words and phrases that highlight the location angle:
in the state capital, at their home, on Main Street, at another point nearby, etc.
Some transitional words suggest the picture of an action. Turning to, suddenly,
grabbing his hand, etc.
Some linkage words emphasize contrasts: However, conversely, but, nevertheless, in

spite of, despite, on the other hand, and many more.
Other kinds of devices for linking ideas or aspects of an idea include. For example,
therefore, likewise, in addition to, namely, whereas, As a result of, etc.
Quotations
Reporters get much information by listening to other persons, and they can convey
such information to readers in the form of:
1. Direct, 2. Partial, or 3. Indirect quotations
Indirect quotations do not use a source‘s words and consequently are not placed inside
quotation marks, instead, reporters use their own words to summarize or ―paraphrase‖
the source‘s remarks. Partial quotations use key phrases from a source‘s statement and 73
quote them directly. Direct quotations present the source‘s exact words and
consequently are placed entirely in quotation marks:
Indirect Quotation
Mrs. Ambrose said journalism students should deal with ideas, not mechanical
techniques.
Partial Quotation
Mrs. Ambrose criticized the ―trade school atmosphere‖ in journalism schools and said
students should study ideas, not mechanical techniques.
Direct Quotation
Mrs. Ambrose said: ―Journalism students should be dealing with ideas of a social,
economic and political nature. There‘s too much of a trade school atmosphere in
journalism schools today. One spends too much time on minor technical and
mechanical things, like learning how to write headlines‖.
Reporters use indirect quotations when their sources have failed to state their idea
effectively. By using indirect quotations, reporters can rephrase their sources‘
remarks, stating them more clearly and concisely. Reporters are free to emphasize the
sources‘ most significant remarks and to reword or eliminate remarks that are unclear,
irrelevant, wordy, libelous or otherwise unprintable.
Reporters use partial and direct quotations for statements that are important and
interesting and that require no rewording. Direct quotations are particularly
appropriate when sources say something controversial or state their ideas in an
unusual or colourful manner. Quotations bring the sources alive reporting their
opinions in their own words, with all their original flavour, emotion, colour and
drama.
Quotations give a sense that readers have talked directly with the sources.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Look at the New Vision and Daily Monitor news papers of today; examine the
stories at the back page of each of the newspapers. Underline the transitional
devices used in the lead stories.
2. Name at least five transitional devices that could be used to join one sentence
to another.
3. Give examples of (a) Direct quotation (b) Indirect quotation
MAIN BODY OF THE STORY
Words are your basic tools. You should use words that say exactly what you mean so
they can be understood by your reader just like a auto mechanic will use the best
spare parts for the repair of a car to the satisfaction of his customer. Every word used 74
in a news story should add to the picture you are building in the minds of your
readers. Just as a picture will not have unnecessary line, your writing also should not
have unnecessary words. Ifyou use an unnecessary, vague or unfamiliar word,
thispicture becomes blurred. If it becomes too blurred, itmay give the reader a
distorted picture of the facts. Thisis a form of inaccuracy that is just as bad as putting
thewrong facts down on paper.It is an axiom of newswriting that words that do
notwork for you, work against you. Consider the following few tips onmaking words
work for you.
Avoid gobbledygook: Gobbledygook is confusing writing, often marked by pseudo

technical language that readers cannot understand. In writing a technical story, do not
parrot the words some technical-minded researcher pours out. Simplify. Ask, ―What
does this mean in everyday English?‖ Fewpeople, for example, know what
―arteriosclerosis‖ means. But when you say ―hardening of the arteries,‖they
immediately understand.
Avoid wordiness: Many inexperienced writers put unnecessary words into their news
copy. Call a spade a spade, not ―a long-handled agriculturalimplement utilized for the
purpose of dislodging theearth‘s crust.‖Short, common words are easy to understand
when, in many cases, long words are not. If you must use a longer word, make sure
you are using it to convey aspecial meaning, not just for the sake of using a bigword.
Why use contribute if give means the samething? This also applies to veracity for
truth, monumental for big, apprehension for fear, canine fordog and countless others.
Practically every part ofspeech contains long words that may be replaced by shorter
and more exact ones.
Be specific: Inexactness is just as bad aswordiness. Readers want to know specific

facts. Consider the following example of this: Vague: Thousands of people were
rendered homeless by rain storm. Specific: Three thousand people were rendered
homeless by rain storm.
Consider the following dignitary or wasteful words:
Accommodate (hold, take), adjacent to (near), approximately (about), at an early date

(soon), at this moment in time (now), concerning (about), declared redundant
(sacked), discontinue (stop), donate (give), extinguish (put out), face up to (face),
centre around (centre on or centre in) etc.
Ability to avoid redundant words or phrase will also enhance the quality of your
work. Some of these redundant words and phrases are:
• Absolutely necessary, advance planning, ask the question, assemble together, at a

later day, at the present time, canceled out, city of Kampala etc.
Avoid Trite or hackneyed expressions: These are the markof either anamateur or a
lazy writer. Some particularly badexamples include the following:
• What is good for the gander, Fatasa pig, Good as gold, Wee hours, Crystal clear,
Bouncing baby boy/girl etc.
Use strong and active verbs: Wheneverpossible, use active voice and the simple past 75
tense. Theuse of these injects life, action and movement into yournews stories. In
using strong verbs, you will find someof the tendency for you to rely on adverbs to do
the workis eliminated. In newswriting, adverbs often do nothingmore than clutter
writing.
Avoid jargon: Some word usage are peculiar to some professions. As a journalist,
you should not assume that such words are generally known. You also do not impress
your readers by using words and phrases they do not understand.
Watch spelling and grammar: A journalistshould have a good spelling ability as

well as a good command of the Englishlanguage as far as correct grammar is
concerned.Therefore, no extensive lesson is given in this area ofstudy. One goal of
every good writer is not to learn to spellperfectly, but to learn to spell well enough so
that amistake can be spotted when words are put on paper.When in doubt, use the
dictionary.
Sentences: The second element of language is the sentence. Thesimple declarative

sentence that consists of subject andverb, or subject, verb and object is the most
commonform in normal, informal conversation. For this reason, it is the best sentence
structure for most newswriting. Observe the following in your sentence construction:
Do not clutter: Never crowd too manydetails into one sentence. Although a
compound orcomplex sentence may contain more than one thought, you should, for
the mostpart, stick to sentences thatexpress one thought clearly and concisely.
Otherwise, the reader is likely to get lost in a mass of clauses anddetails.
Do not repeat: If you say in the lead of yourstory that 50 people were killed in a car
crash, do not mention later in the story that 50 were killed. Ifthe readers forget a fact,
they can look back. Newspaperspace is valuable; do not waste it with
redundancy.Refrain from beginning a sentence with the same wordas the last word in
the previous sentence and avoidbeginning consecutive sentences alike, unless you do
itdeliberately for emphasis.
Paragraphs: The most general guideline for writing paragraphsis that they should be
kept reasonably short. When youuse short paragraphs, you give the reader facts and
ideasin smaller packages that are easier to handle. The mindcan grasp a small unit of
thought more easily than a largeunit. Also, most news copy is set in narrow columns
withonly three to five words per line.Paragraphs should be less than 60 words. Two
orthree sentences per paragraph are just about right, but itis perfectly acceptable to
have a one-sentenceparagraph, or even a one-word paragraph, if it expressesa
complete thought.Yet, a succession of very short paragraphs may givea choppy effect
to the writing. For best effect, alternateparagraphs of short and medium length. Never
beginsucceeding paragraphs with the same words or phrases.This, too, can cause a
monotonous effect that will soondiscourage the reader.
TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENTS (TMA)
1. Find synonyms for the following words to show your mastery of them.
76
� adjacent � aggravate � anticipate � biannual
� at a later day � consensus opinion � conspicuous by their absence
� discontinue � facilitates
EDITING THE COPY
Copy Editing
Copyediting can be variously described. It can be called copyediting, news editing, or

copy reading. They all mean the same thing. But before any meaningful editing can
be achieved, the copy editor must have a good knowledge of the subject. He must be
current as well as be an expert in the language being used.
Furthermore, the editor should be flexible and tolerant. He should be that person who
is capable of appreciating the work of other people. In summary, therefore, a good
editor must be versed in the subject in question, an expert in the language use, and
others liberal arts.
Editing is done to eliminate unnecessary details. It is also done to effect corrections
that are bound to be there. Such editing are often carried out in an editing room, using
a specially designed table known as copy desk, with a slot man at the helm of affairs.
A copy desk is that object around which copy editors sit. The slot man controls the
activities of the team.
Writers of all sorts need editors even when they have had time to go over their own
work. They need editing despite the fact that they took pains to read through such
work. In short, such a writer does not exist whose work cannot be improved by the
constructive vigilance of an editor, who is:
• Versed in what is written about.
• An expert in language use
• A flexible and tolerant person capable of appreciating values in the work of others.
Moreover, news writing has a special need for copy readers because most news
writing is done at high speed. They are often written in haste.
Reporters are usually under severe pressure. Consequently, are prone to mistake or
bound to make slips and need some help in verifying and organising their facts. The
quality of every newspaper is dependent on the array of its copyreaders. The copy
desk is the heart of the newspaper and the character of the newspaper is determined
by its copy desk.
The Copy Desk has three major functions.
• Creative function.
• Managerial function
• Policing function
Creative Function
This function largely centres around the following activities: First, the desk judges the
news of the day and makes decisions about how it shall be presented. Second, it
assembles single stories and spreads from materials originating from a variety of
sources. In this way, the desk editor is said to be creative when he can originate an
idea such as merging two or more stories from different reporters on the same topic or
related topic. Such write-ups carry peculiar phrases like: ―in a similar development
or‖ in another development ―or‖ in another development‖. 77
Creativity also involves assembling and selecting related stories into a single story or
a big spread.
Copy editors write headlines, captions and outlines. Captions are found at the top
making scanty details of the pictures while outlines are found below with more
details. Another area of creativity deals with space management, which is the major
problem of print media as against the problem of time in the electronic media.
Managerial Function
This function consists of the three activities enunciated below. One, the desk directs
the work of the compositors and printers. This they do through marking copy with the
style of type the compositor is expected to set it in. Managerial function can also be
called administrative function. The major divisions of a typical newspaper
organisation are the business, the editorial, and the production divisions. In the
editorial division are the editor, copy desk, editorial writers and photographic section.
Copy desk gives directives to compositors in the production division. This
relationship forms the major link between the two distinct divisions namely the
editorial and production divisions respectively.
Copy desk directs and adjusts stories. They also prepare fillers and time copy. As the
name implies, fillers are ready made stories specially designed to fill up extra spaces
in newspaper. These stories must as a matter of necessity, be fresh and timely. On the
other hand, time copy are those copies that are funny and entertaining, and of general
interest.
Managerial function aims at avoiding waste and instead cries to adjust the volume of
copy to the available space before it is sent to the composing room to be set in type.
This managerial function also strives to meet emergencies with plenty of filler and
time copy on hand at all times. In this way there are hardly open spaces.
Policing Function
The copy desk‘s chief function is the job of policing the content of the paper. It is the
most important of all the functions because it safeguards the paper against errors and
libel. It corrects grammatical errors, crosschecks facts, and marked necessary
interpretation to avoid ambiguity. Sometimes this policing function may slip the copy
desk or it may decide to undermine the consequence in which case the newspaper
may face libelous suits. In the light of the above, the desk checks copy against errors
of facts and interpretation of ambiguous statements.
Secondly, it guides the newspaper‘s position against being sued for libel and other
legal difficulties. Thirdly, it guides public confidence in the paper by ensuring
objectively, fair play and good taste. Finally, it improves the flow and corrections of
language so as to clarify the news and make it more meaningful.
The individual copy editor should have many things in mind as he works on a story.
Among those things he must do are:
• statements, and advertising in disguise as well as old and a He must eliminate errors
of spelling, grammar and sentence structure.
• He must be conscious of taste, style, fact and organisation.
• He must guard against unwarranted reportorial bias, verbosity, repetition,
incongruity, wearisome details, overlooked facts, zealous grinding news.
Copy Editor Tools

78
In a bid to do his work effectively and efficiently, the copy editor needs a set of tools
namely: Physical and Intellectual tools. The physical tools come under specific
headings including equipments, reminders, copy editing symbols, and references.
Equipment
The copy reader‘s obvious physical tools comprise the following:
• A special editing pencil with broad and soft lead and slightly bigger than the normal
ordinary HB pencil.
• A clean eraser for neatly cleansing any wrongly written words or sentences.
• Scissors and paste which are supposed to be used only when necessary
• A typewriter that will be used only when it will do the job quicker than the other
tools.
• A telephone within reach which will be put in use for communication with staff and
non staff members to clarify facts and issues.
Reminder
Besides other physical tools the copy editor has certain reminder within reach. Some
of these include the office style sheet and the headline schedule. Also included is a
detailed headline count system, which serves as a guide for the headline writing.
Copy Editing Symbols

Another aspect of the physical tool available to the copyreader is the shorthand he
uses always to tell the compositor how he wants the original copy changed. The copy
reading symbols vary slightly from newspaper to newspaper and depends on what
each organisation is used to. The symbols are not quite distinct from one another.
Here are some examples adapted from two sources.
Reference
Reference of any kind constitutes yet another set of physical tools always employed
by the copy reader. The extent and appropriateness of reference materials like books
available on the editing desk vary from one desk to another. However a minimum list
of reference necessary in every desk consist of the following:
• An unabridged dictionary • The city Directory
• The State Handbook • City and area telephone director
• Good Atlas • City, country and state maps
• Who is who in Uganda • The world Almanac
• Year Hooks • Roget‘s Thesaurus
• Book of Quotations • Fowler‘s Dictionary of Modern English Usage.
• Webster Dictionary with its rich information • Other general references.
Intellectual Tools
The most important of the copy editor‘s tool are the intellectual tools. It is assumed
and rightly too that the present day copy editor is an educated and literate person
putting all the available tools to work for the purposes of producing an accurate,
dependable, well written and grammatically correct as well as interesting and sound
newspaper. The list of the copy editor‘s intellectual tools is inexhaustible.
In any case, the following may be assumed as the list of intellectual tools a copy
editor often needs.
• Thorough knowledge of English grammar, sentence structure and style.
• Thorough knowledge of the copy desk current routine.
79
• Thorough knowledge of how to use the references available to him.
• Proper knowledge of the community the newspaper is expected to serve.
• Broad general awareness and solid educational background.
• Common sense and even disposition as well as good sense of continuity of news.
The last two are crucial and fundamental as they are real assets to the copyreaders.
Generally, the copyreader must have respect for the viewpoints and special problems,
of his co-workers and the reading public. As a matter of necessity he must have a
feeling for what others can and will read. He should have a sense of balance in all
major decisions he makes. Of course, cool judgement is probably the most important
of all intellectual tools. The phrase ―Sub this story‖ means ―edit the story‖.
Editing Symbols
Typing Errors (known as typos):
• If you wish to capitalise a letter or word, underline it with two parallel lines, thus:
Bob hawke condemned the usa.
• To turn a capital letter (known as an upper case letter) into a noncapital (or lower
case letter), place a small slash mark through the top of the letter, to the bottom thus:
Set this in UPPER CASE
• To delete a word or phrase, draw a horizontal line through it. If, as is usual, you
wish the space thus created to be ignored, place a bridge above and below the line to
signify that you wish the space to be closed, thus:
He says the bomb should not have been dropped.
• To take out a single letter draw the delete line vertically, thus:
Never hand your copy inn before reading it through carefully.
• To insert space between words place an insertion mark, like this between the words.
The Vice Chancellor h s warned students…
• In the print media, to insert a letter, word or phrase an insertion mark (or slash mark)
is placed at the relevant point and the extra materials is written above the type, thus:
―It is not true that I w/rk for Rupert‖. She said.
• In the broadcast media, a single letter must not be inserted. The whole of the
incorrect word should be deleted with a horizontal line and the new word written out
in full above. Also, the insertion mark differs from that used in print, thus:
She said it was true that she wrked for Nupeng.
• In the haste to get a story down on paper journalists sometimes transpose letters,
words or phrases. To correct this typo draw a horizontal S around the offending
materials so that the letter, word or phrase below the S-line is placed before that
above this line, thus:
The man dead is identified as …
(NOTE: Some authorities say the S-line should be reversed e.g. for need then
becomes for need. Others say this reversal should only happen when single letters are
to be transposed. However, the subbing mark in this course will be the one above.)
• Most publications use abbreviations, particularly for titles. Some everyday
abbreviations, however, are often not acceptable in some publications. What is
acceptable and what is not acceptable on a particular publication is part of the
publication‘s house style.
Most publications hand new journalists a style book that contains instructions on what
is, and is not, acceptable.
A journalist, particularly one recently arrived from another publication, can make a
mistake on abbreviations. To correct this, the offending material should be circled, so
80
that a word that has been abbreviated will be spelt out in full, or a word that has been
spelt out in full will be abbreviated, thus:
Col Wale said Tamuno Briggs was a twit.
(NOTE: The rule is that when an abbreviation ends with the same letter as the full
word, then no full stop should be used. If it does not, then use a full stop, thus:
Prof. John Brainstorm criticised Dr. Jane Bookworm).
The use of numbers in copy is also subject to house style. Some have to be typed in
letters, some in figures. If the wrong style has been used, circle the offending
materials, thus:
He accused the 2 teenagers of stealing One hundred thousand shillings worth of
valuables
Punctuation Errors: While typos can be corrected in ink, punctuation corrections

should be made in pencil. This is because the sub-editors may not agree with the
punctuation. If it is in pencil they can rub out the reporter‘s mark.
• To insert a full stop, place an insertion mark in the relevant place in the copy. Above
the mark draw in a dot and circle it, thus:
.
―It is over/‖ he said ―I will go no further‖
Some journalists use a cross in a circle. This is probably because the
Pitman‘s shorthand symbol for a full stop is a cross by itself.
(NOTE: Use the same procedure for a colon, thus:
The University Senate decided the following students: Fortunate, Herbert, Mariam..
• For a comma, place an insertion mark at the relevant place and draw in a comma
above the line, with a small slash above it, thus:
,
―It is over/‖ he said.
(NOTE: To insert a semi-colon, use the same procedure as for a comma.
;
His uncles are/ Baba, Shalolo, Danjuma
• For an apostrophe, use the same procedure as for comma, but place the small slash
below, thus:
,
A journalists/ duty is to be accurate.
• For quotation marks, use the same procedure as for an apostrophe, but reverse the
double commas where necessary, thus:
?
―This is an accurate report/― he said
In some newsrooms the small slash mark under the quotation marks is replaced with
either a V or a Y
• For a hyphen, place an insertion mark at the relevant place and draw above the line a
short horizontal line between the vertical lines, thus:
The prosecutor said that this was not a run of the will case
• Journalists should try to avoid using dashes. If, however, they must insert one, an
insertion mark should be placed at the relevant place and a short vertical line,
followed by two short horizontal lines and another short vertical line should be drawn
above, thus:
Journalists with some exception are good writers.
• Parenthesis, or brackets, should be drawn in at the relevant point, thus:
81
Nigerian reporters (known as pressmen) are among the best in the world.
• Paragraphs should be indicated in a reporter‘s copy by placing a blank line between
each paragraph. Any corrections, such as the breaking up of long paragraphs or the
combining of short paragraphs should be left to the sub-editors.
However, there are exceptions to this rule, so to indicate a new paragraph an L should
be drawn in at the beginning of the first sentence, thus:
―Newspaper reporters who mark the start of paragraphs are bad news‖. Said the sub-
editor.
―They do not realise that paragraphs are sometimes broken up or combined to suit the
design of a page‖.
To combine two paragraphs draw a reversed S from the full stop of the first paragraph
to the beginning of the second, thus:
―Newspaper reporters who mark the start of paragraphs are bad news‖, said the sub-
editor:
―They do not realise that paragraphs are sometimes broken up or combined to suit the
design of the page‖.
Note:
• If your correction is wrong and you have used a pen, or, for any reason, you want
the subbing mark to be ignored, place a row of horizontal dots below the offending
correction, and write STET above the line and circle it, thus:
Journalists who hand in inaccurate copy STET
Will be boiled in oil
Source: University of Southern Queensland Study Book, JRN 1000)
Proof Reading Symbols: Sub-editors are responsible for editing news stories, so
proof readers are responsible for proof-reading typeset stories.
While the sub-editors use editing symbols to edit news stories, proof readers use
proofreading symbols to edit typeset stories.
The sub-editors are free to use pencils to write editing symbols anywhere in the copy.
In the case of proofreading, proofreaders must use pencils to write their proof reading
symbols only in the left and right margins of the proofs.
Some of the common proofreading symbols are:
(1) Use lowercase letter lc
(2) Use capital letter Cap
(3) Transpose
(4) Close u p
(5) Use boldface BF
(6) Insert space # #
(7) Use hyphen (-) here -
(8) Leave it as it was stet
(9) Take it out; delete
(10) Use a dash _ / _ -/-
(11) Use light face If lf
(12) Use question mark - ?/ ?/
(13) Use a comma if it is necessary ,
(14) Use a semi-colon - . ;
(15) Use a colon :/ :/
(16) Use a period - . or x . or x
(17) Use an apostrophe ‗ ‗ ‗‗
(18) ― Use quote marks ― ―― 82
(19) // Begin a paragraph //
(20) No // Do not paragraph. No //
(21) End of story. #/30 #/30
Source: Ogunsiyi (1989:82-83)
Using the editing symbols, edit the following copy provided.

The price of oil in international markets showed signs of stabilizing today, though
they were still sharply lower after a week‘s fall caused by a world surplus of supplies.
At the close of trading on the Mercantile Exchange yesterday, contracts for delivery
of West Taxes Intermediate, the top U. S. crude grade, stood at $19.50 a barrel, down
32 cents from the previous day‘s $19.92. a barrel is the equivalent of 42 gallons,
making the $19.50 price break down to 46.43 cents per gallon of unrefined oil.
Elsewhere, North Sea oil for delivery in April sold for $18.65 a barrel, up 45 cents
from the previous day‘s $18.30. That $18.65 tag was down more than a dollar from
the previous week. The price of heating oil was down again, but gasoline prices rose
slightly.
Although the market had shown signs of settling down recently, prices were still 26
percent less than they were six months ago, when a barrel of West Texas Intermediate
sold for $25.15 and 30 percent less than they were nine months ago when a barrel
cost $31.70. Most of the decline from that $31.70 tag to the $25.15 occurred in 10
days, rather than as a steady slide.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced late in 1985 that it
was giving up attempts to support prices by controlling production. The 12 cartel
members said they would pursue their ―fair market share‖ instead. That meant an
increase in production. Although the world was already awash in oil, supplies
swelled, pushing prices downward amid O. P. E. C. warnings of a price war. The
situation stabilized in the summer of 1986 when OPEC members reached another
agreement. OPEC members are Algeria, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya,
Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and Ecuador.
HEADLINE WRITING
Headline Writing Defined

Any single line or collection of display type that precedes a story and summarizes or
introduces it can be called a headline. Such a headline has the following attributes.
• A headline is a sentence built around action verb. It distinguishes a headline from a
binder or label head. e.g., full text of Presidential broadcast; INEC Boss speaks on
Transition Programme. The first is a label head, the second is a typical headline.
• A headline must be adjusted to a predetermined length and number of sentence and
characters respectively.
• A headline is fashioned to save space. This, the headline writer does by omitting
articles (i.e. the) and other unnecessary encumbrances, thereby leaving room for less
detail in the restricted space.
• A good headline uses a language symbols, singly and in groups, to convey or
maximise meaning. Articles are hardly in use while commas take the place of ―and
―in most cases.
• A headline uses the present tense to convey immediacy and to save space. Often the
present tense is shorter than the past with few exceptions.
The generic term, ‗headline‘ comprises many specified terms including: jump heads,
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kickers and sub- heads. They should not be confused with outlines, captions and
binders. A binder or label head is a display line identifying but not summarizing
special material not handled as a news story.
The binder identifies the content of the material but does not summarize the content
of the message. It also does not tell what the President says or what happens. Binders
are also used over tabular matter accompanying a related news story.
Functions of the Headline

• The headline performs various functions, one of which is to index the news by
stating plainly what the story contains so as to save the reader‘s time in finding the
aspect of the news that interest him most.
• The headline tells the news to the reader by way of conveying mandatorily the
accurate information.
• Again, it conveys the relative significance of the news as expressed in terms of type
display through the use of type size and weight.
• Headline convey to the reader the relative seriousness of the news using type
families such as italics and other decorative typographical devices like dashes, stars,
boxes etc. Some of these are indicative of the fact that certain stories are meant for its
entertainment value rather than its significance.
• The headline beautifies the newspaper and makes it attractive. In all ramifications,
the primary function of any headline is essentially to make room for good and balance
page make –up.
Such headline accompanied with their variety in size and typefaces do a lot to make
modern newspaper pages quite attractive. For instance, a five –column page of solid
body type looks uninterestingly grey and colourless as can easily be seen in the
Ugandan early newspapers and as against the modern newspapers. Present day
headlines introduce contrast by bringing side by side, black type and white space as a
relief to the dull grey of body type. If placed properly, headlines bring about balance,
symmetry, and typographical beauty to a well-planned page.
• Headlines give the newspaper character and stability through consistent use of
familiar headline structure thereby giving a newspaper the relatively familiar and
welcome personality. While some newspapers use screaming headlines, other are
more gentle and less shouting in their use of headlines.
• Headlines to some degree are often employed to sell newspapers on the newsstand.
This is true of catchy headlines.
Headline Schedule/Headline Writing

The headline schedule is a sample of headlines used by a particular newspaper. It
shows the point size, types and typefaces available and the precise form they must
take. Every newspaper has its own headline schedule as distinct from others. It
represents the character of the paper and forms a major distinguishing factor in
comparing various newspapers.
Headline writing does not and should not use a language of its own.
Instead it must use language symbols common to people and which they must
understand. The writer must take into consideration the exact and special meaning
respectively in the light of their immediate meaning.
Some of the basic skills that lead to the success of headline writing are:
• Accurate perception of the story. A headline writer must be able to recognize what
parts of the story are newsworthy, dramatic, and significant.
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• A vocabulary that is both broad and deep is necessary for the headline writer‘s task.
The layman‘s vocabulary is not enough for accomplishing such task. Constructing
sentences for headline writing requires not just a vocabulary of multi meaning that
may or may not be used synonymously. Viewed closely, synonym would imply word
of the same meaning as another in the same language but often with different
implications and associations.
• A sharp sense of sentence structure. The headline writer depends on flexibility not
only in choice of words but also in choice of sentence structure so that the writer can
switch word order quickly without alerting meaning. Sentences take many structures
and headlines are most notable for that.
• A keen eye for ambiguity. The headline writer must review his writing endlessly to
detect ambiguity. He should be able to put himself in the place of many potential
readers. This is because what is meaningful and clear to him may not be clear and
meaningful to others.
Guides for Headline Writing

• Tell the story‘s essentials. In headline writing, the writer is expected to tell the
essentials just as the lead story does since most headlines are based on the lead. This
is however not a rule but merely. The lead of a straight news story often summarizes
the essential facts. Headlines by extension must do the same. The implication
therefore is that the headline writer usually finds his best material on which to peg the
headline at the top of the story otherwise called the lead. The parts of the lead that
suits headline treatment are those that tell the main aspect of the story clearly and
interestingly. It may be noteworthy to point out that in some cases the lead paragraph
may be lacking in substance as the larger story may be buried in the specified details
contained in the body of the story.
• Get the facts straight. Getting at the heart of the story is a not a simple task as most
people would think. Complex news stories bothering on public affairs keep headline
writers constantly on their toes as they struggle to tell the stories in a restricted space
and in an understandable term. Such stories put headline writers on high jump trying
to exempt themselves from the tasks.
• Put the key facts at the top deck. Should the headline be of two desks, the most
important one would be at the top to be followed by the less important headline. This
is done for the purposes of emphasis.
• Marshall the facts in sentence form. The writer can narrow the headline down by
removing non-essential words. The point has since been made that headline are
skeletonized sentences. This suggests dropping articles and sometimes substituting a
comma for ‗and‘. In most cases, it goes to the extent of doing without non essential
modifiers including personal pronouns. Skeletonizing however does not mean merely
assembly unrelated and uncoordinated words that make virtually no meaning.
• Build around a strong verb. Good headline writers choose vigorous, active, positive
as well as colourful words. The writers know that the ideas in the headline are
propelled by the verb.
Though all the words that come from the headline are expectedly selected with care,
the verb is the key to the headline. Rich in vocabulary and an ear for words are
invaluable assets to a headline writer who, as a matter of fact should listen to what he
writes. Crowell (1969:85) provides some of the effective verbal components, thus.
ACCUSE BEAT BELITTLE CHOOSE

allege bow ignore elect
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involve pound malign pick
arraign sink shun select
name spank spurn vote
blame upset shirk name
change win
indict
link
ESCAPE FLOOD AQUTT DAMAGE

elude cover absolve cripple
dodge inundate clear destroy
bolt sink defend harm
flee wash free injure
slip overflow release mar
getaway submerge vindicate wreck
hide deluge uphold ravage
raze
FALL MEETING ARREST DENY

collapse assemble capture disclaim
decline confer catch disown
deflate meet hold refute
depress gather jail renounce
drop unite net retract
reduce rally seize recount
slash unite trap refuse
slump mobilize take withhold
dip reunite roundup reject
• No repetition of words. In headline writing there is no room for repetition or use of

two forms of the same word. Any key word can just be used only once in a given
headline and, in a single form.
• Tell the story in specific terms. It is highly advisable that the headline writer strives
at all times to be specific to avoid ambiguity. He should leave nobody in doubt as to
the meaning of every bit of word contained in the headline. He should always be vivid
and avoid being vague.
Headline Counts
The essence of headline counting is to determine the amount of space to be earmarked
for the headline in page planning. It also helps to determine the length of each deck of
the headline. The decks in the headline should not vary more than two units in length.
Most newspapermen count headline by the unit. Horizontal space in newspaper is
always measured in pica, points and units while depth is measured in inches. To
determine the space for a headline therefore, the counting of the head has to be done
by counting the total number of units for all the letters and space between words in
the headline.
As pointed out by Crowell (1969) the general rule to obtain a dependable line count is
to count the heads as follows:
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LETTERS UNITS
Cap M Q W 2
Cap I J ½ (1)
All other caps 1½
Lower case m w 1½
Lowercase f l i r t j ½
All other lower case letters 1
Figure 1 1
Other figures 1½
Punctuation ½
S#%?& 1½
- (Dash) 2
Space between words ½
It should be pointed out that while some authors say that the unit for uppercase I and
J should be ½ , others say it should be I.
In the headline count, certain basic data are required and must be known by the
person counting the headline before he could arrive at the correct answer. The data
include;
• the maximum unit count per line
• the number of decks in the headline to be cast and
• the type of letters (whether uppercase or lowercase or a combination of both) to be
used in casting the headline.
Whether to cast the headline in uppercase or lowercase or combination of both caps
and lowercase is a decision the headline caster has to make.
The same thing applies to the number of decks the headline must be counted in line
with the units already universally assigned to each letter (or figure, space, symbols or
punctuation marks) whether set in uppercase or lowercase.
The maximum unit count per line could be arrived at by measuring the length of space
or column that the headline would cover in units. That is, if the head is to be placed
on a three column story, the length of the three column measured horizontally in units
would definitely give you the maximum unit count per line for the headline. The
following data of measuring space horizontally in page planning may be used:
1 inch = 72 points
1 pica = 12 points
1 inch = 6 picas
1 unit = 1 9/10 picas (about 2 picas)
The first rule in the headline count is that no line in the headline must exceed the
maximum unit count for the longest deck in the headline.
For example, if the maximum unit for a particular head is 20 (i.e. 20 units), no line in
the headline must exceed 20 units precisely because that is the total length of space
any deck in the headline could go horizontally.
As earlier pointed out, any variation among the decks of the head must not be more
than two units in length. That is, if the maximum unit count per line is 20, any line of
the headline should not be shorter than 18 units. If it is a headline of three decks, the
fist deck could be 20 while the last two could be either 20, 19 ½ or 18 units.
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Typical Assignments on Headline Count with Necessary Data:
(1) Write a headline of 2 – 18 – 1 in lowercase (maximum unit count per line: 21½)
on the lead below:
―Top seed David Imonitie came back from a set down to outstroke rival Abubakar
Sadiq 4 – 6, 6 – 4, 6 – 4 last night to become the new All-Nigeria men‘s Lawn Tennis
singles champion‖.
(a) Answer:
1 m o n i t i e i s n e w
1 1 ½ l I ½ ½ 1½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ l ½
c h a m p i o n
½ l l l 1½ 1½ 1 1 = 21½ Units
1 s N e w
1 1½ 1½ 1 1½ = 6½ Units
P r e s I d e n t
1½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ = 8 Units
(2) Write headline of 2-24-2 in uppercase (maximum unit count per line: 26) on the
lead below:
―The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revealed that various governments
throughout the world are finding it difficult to control their expenses, thereby
recording more deficit‖.
Answer:
W O R L D
2 1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ ½
G O V E R N M E N T S
1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ 2 1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ =25
Units
R E C O R D M O R E
1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ ½ 2 1½ 1½ 1½ ½
D E F I C I T
1½ 1½ 1½ 1 1½ 1 1½ = 26 Units
Experience, people say, is the best teacher. No one can be perfect in headline casting
or headline counting without trial and error as well as many years of practical
experience.
Headline Order and Headline Copy

The headline order is always stated on the headline copy, which is usually a small
clean sheet of paper. Each headline on a page must get its own separate head copy.
The headline order usually tells three things. First, it tells the number of columns in
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which the head is to be set. Second, it tells the size of the head. And thirdly, it tells the
number of lines. e.g. 2-30-2 means two columns of 30 points in two lines while 2-42-
3 means two columns of 42 points in three lines.
Heads to be set in all capitals must be written in all capital letters on the headline copy
while those to be set in capitals and small letters are written in upper case and lower
case. Those to be set in lower case must be written in small letters except the first
letter of the head and the first letter of each proper noun, e.g.
(a)
HEAD COPY
Slug: war Page: 3 Edition: 1
Size: 3-40-2
Size: 3-4-2
Regean Warns Mideast Of General War
(b)
HEAD COPY
Slug: Duty Page: 2 Edition: 2
Size: 2 – 40 – 1
CJ RESUMES DUTY
(c) HEAD COPY

Slug: accident Page: 5 Edition: 2
Size: 2 – 30 – 2
Five girls die in road crash
1. Write a headline of 2-18-1 in lowercase (maximum unit count per line = 26½) on
the lead below: ―Catholic Bishops in Nigeria have sent a congratulatory message to
Pope Benedict 16 who is celebrating his 100 days on the throne of papacy today‖.
2. Write a headline of 2-18-1 in lower and uppercase (Maximum unit count per line:
24 on the lead below: ―Students of the National Open University, Lagos, have
commended Governor JINUBE for slashing the school fees introduced by his
predecessor‖.
3. Write a headline of 4-30-2 in uppercase (maximum unit count per line: 23½ ) on
the lead below: ―The Lagos State University Lagos, has embarked on a new
admission policy. The new admission policy which took effect from this session
exempts candidates seeking admission for both pre-degree and degree program from
written and oral interviews. Before now, candidates were made to sit for interviews in
consonance with the admission policy in operation then‖.
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ESSENTIALS OF JOURNALISTIC STYLE
Style: Meaning and Dimensions
The term ―Style‖ means different things to different people, under different situations,
context or places. Its meaning ranges from the way a man lives to the latest in the
world of fashion. When applied to writing, style refers to anything from the
philosophy and personality of the writer to his choice of words in sentences.
According to McCrimmon (1974), style is a product of all the choice a writer makes
in working out the implication of his purpose. If the choices are consistent, they
reveal:
• His view of the real subject.
• His view of readers.
• His person or personality.
• The kind of material he selects
• The way he structures, restructures and expresses his ideas, including the tone of his
writing. The sum of all these factors make up a style. In essence therefore a
description of any piece of writing is an explanation of the means by which the writer
works out his purpose. So, there is a link between purpose and style.
Purpose controls style while style reveals purpose.
Types of Style
There are basically three types or kinds of style in writing. These are:
Formal, Informal and Colloquial Styles.
The Formal Style
It is often called the academic style. It is characterised by a tone that is high-sounding,

dignified and eloquent. The sentences are usually long, complex and refined in
structure. It adheres to the strict syntactic demands of a particular language. The
vocabulary is usually extensive, largely drawn from foreign and specialized/technical
fields of learning like law, medicine, psychology. Such words are mostly used by
those that are educated, and not by the uneducated. Other characteristics of formal
style include avoidance of contractions (I‘ve, can‘t don‘t) and clipped words like
(exam, auto, ad). The paragraphs too, are usually long; the tone impersonal while the
social distance between the reader and writer is generally official. This kind of style is
not mostly embraced by the journalist or popular in journalism practice.
The Informal Style
This is a style that is multi-dimensional. It can be used for occasions like lectures,
newspaper, broadcast etc. The diction here is a mixture of the formal style and that of
colloquial. So, the popular diction is normally emphasized. By popular diction, one is
referring to words which are used by a wide section of the populace, educated,
uneducated. Compare the following learned and popular words:
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Learned Popular
Abdomen Belly
Capitulate Surrender
Corpulent Fat
Myopic Short sighted
Facilitate Make easy.
Informal style is often more concrete and down to earth than formal ones that may
appear abstract. That is, the diction of the informal style easily allows one to smell,
see, touch or taste the object described.
Sentences here are normally shorter than formal ones. The paragraphs, the tone and
social distance between the writer and the reader is not wide, rather the reader can be
addressed personally by using words such as ‗you‘, ‗me‘. These are not common in
formal style.
The Colloquial Style
This is a style of writing that is basically conversational. It uses the kind of words and
expressions people use when they are together quite informally. Such a style is used
in writing when the writer wants to give the impression of talking directly and
intimately to his reader. When he does, all formal terms would be avoided while
contraction, clipped words and clichés would be generally used. The sentences are
usually very short, mainly the S-V-O (Subject-Verb-Object) sequence. The
paragraphs are also short. This kind of writing is not common in journalism practice,
except for special effect or used by a notable columnist.
ESSENTIALS OF GOOD JOURNALISTIC WRITING
News writing is an art whose skills have to be acquired. Like a sculptor, who has to
chisel out something from the wood using perceived dimensions and procedures, the
journalist employs the necessary tools of words or language in their appropriate
forms, to accomplish his/her task.
It is these forms that are broadly expressed as the ―essentials of good journalistic
writing‖ or, the 9cs and S. They are:
• Clarity • Conciseness • Correctness
• Courteousness • Candidness • Concreteness
• Completeness • Coherence • Concord
• Simplicity
Clarity
Clarity in news writing requires that the reader is left in no doubt as to the meaning of
words in sentences. A word or groups of expression with more than one meaning
should be replaced with a simple and clearer one. The good writer takes great pain of
going an extra mile to ensure that he presents only one possible meaning. A news
story that is open to more than one interpretation is dangerous to the reader, writer or
society, because the multi-phase of such interpretations can lead to a confused
society.
Conciseness
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Conciseness deals with the necessity to be brief. A concise write-up is that which has
to be written in a succinct way, avoiding pointless elaboration, exaggeration,
tautology or circumlocution. A concise writer is one who does not strain after words
or phrases. If he does this, he ends up using unnecessary jargons or clichés. According
to Alexander Dope in one of his literary criticisms, words are like leaves; and where
they are most abound, much fruit is rarely found‖. Conciseness in writing has the
merits of:
(a) Saving space especially in newspaper where available pages are pre-scheduled.
Or, in broadcast where time is the greatest asset and constraint to pointless
elaboration.
(b) It spares much effort and achievement as well as give vigour and directness to
writing.
Correctness
A news report must be correct in all aspects. It is one of the most important
commandments of news writing. It is linked to the question of truthfulness and
credibility. Correctness means checking and crosschecking figures, names of persons,
town/cities, facts, spellings, maps etc. For local or even international names or places,
there is always a stylebook or a resource person(s) who should assist in ensuring that
the facts are made available. The dictionary, in its various forms can also be very
useful in this connection.
Courteousness
Any writer that fails to take into account the sensibility of his readers, in terms of
showing politeness or restraints in the use of language lacks polish and civility. This
attitude readily offends the reader and is sometimes classified as one of the features of
―low-brow journalism‖.
There are a number of words or expressions that are not acceptable in polite writing.
Many of them are those that depict sexual desires, racial slurs or profanities that are
utterly against religious personalities or beliefs.
A polite expression or language as well as the filthy one is determined by the society.
The reporter must therefore empathize with his society and present only those aspects
of language, which his culture does not frown at. For instance, words like: ‗Hell‘,
―shift, Down‖, fuck, ―under below‖ may mean different things to different societies.
Although these words may pass for slang, they are sometimes fuzzy, imprecise and
lack courtesy. Courteousness in writing also includes some standardized and general
reference to personal titles and compliments.
Candidness
Being candid means that a report must be fair, frank, straight-forward, objective, and
sincere in purpose. Although, the doctrine of fairness is often viewed as a threat to
press freedom, it has, nevertheless, endowed the practice of journalism with a certain
level of responsibility and service. This doctrine can also be seen as an aspect of the
social responsibility view of mass media practice.
So, the attribute of candidness demands that publishing one side of a story without a
reasonable effort to get to know and present the other with all sense of frankness is
dishonest and wicked. Thus, it is not enough for a reporter to say ―when I called in his
office to get his side of the story, he was not on seat‖. Since this can alter the charge
of reporters biases or prejudices.
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Concreteness
This concerns writing about actualities or particular events, persons, rather than
generalities or abstractions. The need to write about concrete issues or events is felt
more in the presentation of news and feature columns. Although the writer can report
events in other context or in abstraction, as metaphors for explaining his own
situational problem in the country. This should be done in a manner that the
explanation is not lost in the minds on the readers.
Completeness
This calls for a reporter‘s readiness to present a total picture of an event i.e. the whole
story, complete with all the essential parts. It calls for the inclusion of the necessary
details about an issue in order to add some kind of muscle to the report. This has an
added advantage of making a story clearer and leaving no room for guesses that might
open pathways to misinterpretations. A complete picture is more useful than
individual parts. If stoppages become unavoidable, then a report should be serialised.
Yet, each part of the serial package should be meaningful and complete in relation to
other parts.
Coherence
A report may have unity but lacks coherence. Coherence has to do with the sticking
together, logically, of the parts that make up all story. It means every part in terms of
ideas, facts, or details should have connection with the central idea of the story. Such
a balanced flow in news writing can be achieved through the use of link words like:
but, although, besides, meanwhile, except, however, nevertheless, also, etc.
Concord
Concord ordinarily means ―agreement or harmony‖. Such agreement or harmony is
required in news writing. Although there is no distinct line between what makes
coherence different form concord, it can be said that agreement or concord starts from
the construction of sentences.
How the different parts of sentences are co-ordinate for meaningful interpretation. It
includes the subject-verb agreement or pronoun antecedent agreement. From here, it
gradually joins up with agreement of parts from the introduction through the body to
conclusion.
Simplicity
The purpose of news writing is to communicate meanings through news and not to
confound or confuse. Therefore, a reporter must understand the background of his
audience to enable him choose and use words that are not difficult or cumbersome
enough to leave them searching for a dictionary. A good reporter must always replace
difficult words with simpler ones. Even the technical register of some disciplines or
exclusive slang can be explained or illustrated where necessary.
From what you have understood about eh 9Cs and S, construct a sentence to reflect
your level of understanding.
ELEMENTS OF GOOD NEWS REPORTING
Identification
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Identification in news reporting has to do with the distinctive physical attributes of
persons used or involved in the news, ordinarily, a name is sufficient to distinguish a
person from another. But names, by their very nature of common meaning within a
culture, are no exclusive reserves of any person. Thus, other qualifiers are usually
needed to give concrete and vivid description of the persons involved in the news.
Such other forms of identification include: age, addresses, professions/jobs, titles,
positions of authority. For example:
(a) Edem Musa, a 17-year-old undergraduate of Kano State University. (Age)
(b) Governor Tinuba of Lagos State has declared… (Status)
(c) The defendant, Mr Okonkwo Ifeanyi, of Nos 3 Adebayo
Street was yesterday arraigned before… (Address)
However, it is uncommon to identify a juvenile in a court or police case except when

the crime is serious as in murder, rape, drug pushing. Also uncommon is the
identification of subjects or actors in an event by race or religion; well-known cities
and capitals may not need an added identification. But small unpopular towns will
need to be identified along the nearest big city or capital. For example…‖ the incident
occurred at Obalune, a small town 50 miles from Ikot Ekpene municipal council‖.
Attribution
Attribution in news writing involves the disclosure of the identity of information
source. Attribution functions to give credibility to the news report. It removes doubts
from the readers mind about the authenticity of the report. Reports attributed to
legitimate and credible sources often make such reports reliable. A newspaper may
avoid mentioning the source of its information, if such disclosure may endanger the
source.
And if the report is sourced from documented materials, reporters are expected to
disclose them too.
Capitalisation
To capitalise means to set a word in upper case. The main purpose is to lay emphasis
on what is written. As a rule in English language constructions, all proper nouns, trade
names, names of association, clubs‘ organisation, religious, and their appellations
(e.g. Him, Thou, Lord,), nations, races must be capitalised.
Abbreviation
Abbreviated words are often the shorter versions of their full forms.
They are used because spaces in the newspaper need to be saved, time in the radio and
television need not be wasted. Abbreviation also reduces the cost of production or
reproduction of news items.
It is important to spell out the meaning of abbreviation at their first mention e.g
United Nations (UN). However, most abbreviations are dictated by the nature of a
newspaper‘s stylebook. The tradition for abbreviation of date is that the months of the
year must be abbreviated when they come before the figures except for the months of
March, April, May, June and July, e.g. Jan. 10, 2005 and March 4, 2005. It is wrong
to use ‗st‘ ‗nd‘ or ‗th‘ when writing news. The preferred form is, for example, Feb.2,
2005 or June 12, 2005.
Numbering
This is based on the house style or convenience and space saving purposes. While
some numbers are rounded up for easy reading, some are not spelt out in order to save
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space. Usually, it is expected that figures one to nine (1-9) should be spelt out while
ten and above can be written in figure e.g. 10, 12, 15. Use figures for street number
e.g. 73 Ikpa Road, use figures for scores, telephone numbers, votes, percentages,
prices, degree (900). Avoid beginning a sentence with a figure, if you do, the figure
must be spelt out. E.g. ―Twenty members‖ of, instead of ―20 members of…‖
Punctuation and Word Division

The rules of punctuation are the same as for any other type kind of composition. They
may be used to break or stop sentences etc. As for word division, it is important that
reporters avoid the division of words between lines. Do not divide hyphenated words
except at the syllable where the regular type comes e.g. Mother-in -law. Do not begin
a line with hyphen nor divide words between pages.
Extract a full length and complete story from a current National daily.
From the story, further extract aspects of the report that best exemplify the elements
of good news reporting discussed in this unit.
Research about beat reporting; meaning, areas of reporting etc.
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
What is investigative journalism?
Investigative journalism is finding, reporting and presenting news which other people
try to hide. It is very similar to standard news reporting, except that the people at the
centre of the story will usually not help you and may even try to stop you doing your
job.
The job of journalists is to let people know what is going on in the community, the
society and the world around them. Journalists do this by finding facts and telling
them to their readers or listeners.
In much of their work, the facts are easy to find in such places as the courts and
parliaments, disasters, public meetings, churches and sporting events. People are
usually happy to provide journalists with news. Indeed, in many countries, thousands
of people work full time in public relations, giving statements, comments, press
releases and other forms of information to journalists.
Throughout the world, though, there are still a lot of things happening which people
want to keep secret. In most cases these are private things which have no impact on
other people - such as relations within a family or a bad report from school. These
personal things can remain secret.
In many other cases, governments, companies, organisations and individuals try to
hide decisions or events which affect other people. When a journalist tries to report on
matters which somebody wants to keep secret, this is investigative journalism.
The great British newspaper publisher Lord North cliffe once said: ―News is what
somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.‖
There are several reasons why societies need investigative journalism. They include:
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to know about decisions which may affect them, even if people in power want to keep
them secret.
- whether in government, the world of commerce, or any other
group in society - can abuse that power. They can be corrupt, steal money, break laws
and do all sorts of things which harm other people. They might just be incompetent
and unable to do their job properly. They will usually try to keep this knowledge
secret. Journalists try to expose such abuse.
especially those who have been elected to public office. Journalists should constantly
ask whether such people are keeping their election promises. Politicians and others
who are not keeping their promises may try to hide the fact; journalists should try to
expose it.
Of course, journalists are not the only people in society who should expose
incompetence, corruption, lies and broken promises. We also have parliaments,
councils, courts, commissions, the police and other authorities. The police often take
people to court for breaking laws. But sometimes they do not have the time, staff or
skills to catch and correct every case of abuse. Also, they cannot do anything against
people who behave badly without actually breaking any laws.
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING IN PRACTICE
The task of the investigative reporter may seem full of difficulties, but if you follow
some simple hints it can be quite easy.
Contacts
We cannot stress often enough how important a journalist's contacts are. These are the
people who can give you story ideas, information and tell you when you are on the
wrong track. Make as many contacts as you can - and look after them as you would a
friend.
Good investigative reporters have contacts in the places most likely to provide stories.
Your contacts do not have to be people at the top of departments or companies. In
fact, people down the ladder are often more practical use. Identify people in key
positions within organisations. Good contacts are people like court clerks, council
clerks, company clerks - in fact, clerks almost anywhere. These are the people who
see all sorts of information you might find useful.
Trade union leaders are good contacts in the commercial world, as are accountants or
financial advisers. Because groups such as lawyers, police officers, accountants,
doctors, nurses, delivery drivers and politicians enjoy chatting about people in their
profession, you only have to establish one or two good contacts within any group to
get a lot of information about what is happening within the profession.
Always listen, even if what your contact says is no immediate use. If a contact rings
when you are out, always ring them back, otherwise you may lose them. Protect your
contacts and never reveal them if they ask you not to. Even contacts such as council
clerks who are allowed to give you information openly may not want to seem to be
favouring you, so be discreet.
Make good relations with other people in your news organisation. They will have
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their own contacts who might be useful. It is always good to get to know the people
who sell advertising space in your newspaper, radio or television station. They meet
all sorts of people in their work and always like to talk. They usually love passing
information to their journalists.
Listen
Good journalists know how to listen. Listen to people even if they do not seem to
have any useful information. They may still say something you can use later.
If a contact calls you with information which you do not think you can use, do not tell
them so immediately. Say you will "look into the matter" and the next time you talk to
them, mention that "I couldn't use your information, but thanks anyway". This
approach keeps them feeling important.
Interviewing
You will need to interview people in your search for facts. Never interview the person
at the centre of the investigation first. Always start at the edge and work your way
towards the middle. You must not warn the person under investigation too soon. Also,
you need to gather as many facts as possible.
Investigative reporting, writing techniques

Investigative reporters must take special care when writing a story. This is because
investigative stories usually make someone appear either bad or stupid, accusations
which can lead to legal action against you for defamation. You will probably be safe
if your story is true and in the public interest. But it can lose the protection of the law
if there are serious errors. Someone - probably the people your story exposes as
corrupt, dishonest or simply incompetent - will be looking closely for mistakes to
attack you on. So you must take extra care. (For more on the risks of defamation, see
Chapter 69: Defamation.)
Writing
Writing stories or scripts based on investigative journalism requires all the skills you
need for general journalism. However, given the risks you will face in investigative
journalism, a few of the core rules are worth stressing again here:
Stick to facts
You will be much safer if you stick to facts which you can prove are true. That is why
you check your facts and get confirmation for each one.
As you write, stop at each new important fact and say to yourself: "Is this true?" Then
say: "Have I confirmed it with another source?"
Do not speculate (i.e. write things which might be true, but which you cannot prove).
If you do not have all the facts you would like, you may have to be satisfied with a
lesser story, as long as it makes sense and contains no errors.
Avoid personal comment.
Do not put in your personal opinions. You may be writing a story about someone who
has cheated old people out of their life savings. You may hate this man, but you must
not say it. You might believe he is evil, but you should not say that either. If you show
in your story that you hate this man, that could be seen as malice, which will destroy
your defence against defamation.
Just show your readers and listeners the facts. If the man is bad, the facts will lead
your audience to that conclusion without you telling them what to think.
Keep your language simple
Keep your sentences short and your language simple and concise. Some
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investigations will reveal some very complicated facts, perhaps because the person
under suspicion has tried very cleverly to hide their wrongdoing. You must simplify
this for your readers or listeners, so they get a clear picture of what has happened.
Avoid vague words
Wherever possible, avoid using vague words, such as "a large amount" or "some time
later". Words like this show that you do not have accurate details - otherwise you
would use them.
JOURNALISM/MEDIA LAWS
CONTEMPT OF COURT
Contempt Of Court: What It Entails

Contempt is the law that concerns people who disrupt legal proceedings, insult
judges, disobey court orders, publish written or broadcast material which may
interfere with the outcome of a trial, or – most controversially – try to undermine
public confidence in the judicial system. The enforcement of the law of contempt
involves the delicate balancing of two fundamental social values:
• the right of free speech and a free press, against
• the right of individuals to a fair trial.
Types of Contempt
There are three types of contempt which are of direct concern to the working
journalist. They are:
• Publication of words that tend to ―pollute the stream of justice‖, such as:
- Revealing details of a crime which might influence a potential jury after an arrest
has been made.
- Revealing the accused person‘s previous convictions or outlining his or her
confession.
- Publishing a photograph or likeness of the accused if identification may be an issue
in the trial. In criminal trials, in particular, identification is more often an issue than
not.
- Publishing reports on proceedings in closed courts or where restrictions on
publishing apply.
• Scandalising the courts. This arises if your newspaper unfairly criticises the courts
or the judicial process in a way which might undermine the public‘s faith in the
administration of justice. This is a vague area of law, with a varied case history. It is
vague because judges disagree on what constitutes fair criticism. It should not concern
the novice journalist unless he or she is asked to write an editorial on the miscarriage
of justice in a certain case, or unless he wishes to expose the fraudulent activities of a
judge or magistrate. In any such case, where the courts run even the slightest risk of
being offended by your words, you are strongly urged to seek legal advice on the
firmness of your ground. If you proceed without such advice and you are found guilty
of contempt you may well find yourself behind bars.
• By far the most important form of contempt you may face at this stage of your
career is contempt in the face of the court, because this concerns your behaviour when
in court preparing stories for submission in your court assignments.
In a nutshell, to err on the side of safety, your behaviour in court should be
impeccable. People have been fined and jailed for anything short of the most polite,
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respectful behaviour. Some examples of things which have been found to be contempt
in the face of the court are:
• Smoking, and rolling a cigarette in preparation for smoking.
• Sketching or photographing the judge or any people or scenes in the courtroom
without the permission of the court.
• Reading a newspaper (since people in a court are supposed to give their whole
attention to the proceedings, yes, even during the boring bits).
• Making any sort of noise or disturbance, (I‘ll leave that up to your imaginations),
interjecting, interrupting.
• Walking into or out of the court in anything but the most unobtrusive fashion.
• Being improperly dressed. (In other words, do not cover courts in your thongs and
body hugs).
• Using disrespectful language or a disrespectful tone when addressing the court or
when giving evidence.
• Throwing an egg or stone at the judge. I‘m sure you will certainly not attempt to do
that, but here are other examples of obviously contemptuous behaviour.
- In 1773 a man of ―ferocious and terrible disposition‖ was prosecuted for contempt
because he forced a clerk to eat the court‘s subpoena.
- In 1900 a newspaper description of an English judge as ―the impudent little man in
horsehair, a microcosm of conceit and empty headedness‖ was held in contempt.
- In 1974 a solicitor‘s clerk described the judge as a ―humourless automaton‖. But he
could not be dealt with for contempt because he had already just been sentenced for
the same offence for releasing laughing gas into the air conditioning system of the
court.
Finally, on courtroom behaviour, some word on etiquette. You will probably never be
called upon to address a magistrate or judge. If you must, however, refer to the
magistrate as ―Your worship‖ and to the judge as ―Your Honour‖. Always bow (a
significant nod of the head constitutes a bow these days) as a mark of respect to the
bench (not necessarily to the judge or magistrate) when entering or leaving the
courtroom while in session, and always stand when the magistrate enters or leaves the
room.
Briefly, though, it means you cannot comment on a case while a trial or an appeal is
pending. All you may publish is a strictly factual account of public steps taken
publicly in the litigation. You can report the arrest, but it may be defamatory to give
names at this point. In this area, examples of contempt‘s have been:
• Publication before a hearing of pleadings, interrogations, answers, or evidence.
• Advertising for witnesses on behalf of a party
• Publication of portraits of parties where identification may become an issue.
• Comments suggesting one party is in the right, whether original or quoted from
another source.
• Accounts of police or investigative reporter‘s investigations, theories, etc.,
suggesting the accused is guilty or even innocent.
• Prejudging a trial by a newspaper which will interfere with or obstruct the fair
administration of justice is referred to as facie curiae. The contempt of court
committed here are dealt with summarily by the court i.e. the contemnor need not take
any plea nor be put in the witness box for his defence and cross-examination.
• Disobeying the lawful order, decree, injunction etc. of the court that made an order
is referred to as contempt ex fasciae. Here, the contemnor is allowed to take plea to a
charge preferred against him.
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It is not a contempt to publish a factual, straight account of the pursuit and arrest of an
accused person, unless something suggests in the story that he is guilty or innocent.
Even material seen as being in the public interest in helping police has been found in
contempt.
i What are the types of contempt you know?
ii Without referring to this unit, list the major points that reflect the checklist for
reporting summary trials.
CHECK LIST FOR REPORTING SUMMARY TRIALS
The writer should always read through copy of court reports at least twice before
handing them to the editor to check that the following are included.
1. Exact identification and titles of:
(a) the defendants and their representative if applicable
(b) the magistrates
(c) the prosecutors
(d) the places and days where the proceeding occurred
(e) the witnesses
2. The defendants pleas-guilty or not guilty.
3. The charges. These can be paraphrased, but must be accurate.
4. The results of the proceedings – dismissal, adjournment, or sentence.
5. If there was more than one charge, do the fines, jail terms or community service
orders, on each charge add up to the totals you have reported.
Attend a court session of not less than a Magistrate Court of justice.
Record your observations of the proceedings and reconcile them with the points
contained in this unit.
COURT REPORTING
Court Reporting: General Background Information
As a reporter you have no special rights in a court of law. You are entitled to no more
information than is normally available to members of the public. Any provision of
special seating for the media should be seen as a courtesy of the magistrate or judge
involved – there is no right to such accommodation.
The public can be excluded from a court case only if it can be shown that by nothing
short of their exclusion can justice be done. It clearly shows that a court cannot be
closed just to save witnesses or parties from embarrassment or ridicule.
Of course, as with all principles, there are exceptions to the open justice principle. It
does not apply to matters heard in chambers, which are usually procedural items. It
does not apply to family law and children‘s courts, although some reforms are
underway as outlined earlier, basically allowing the reporting of some family law
cases with identification of parties not allowed.
The judge or magistrate has the power to prohibit publication of all or part of any
proceedings, even if the court is sitting in public. The court will sometimes prohibit
the publication of the names of witnesses or parties where secrecy is paramount. An
example would be the case of someone giving evidence against a blackmailer, who
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may have to outline embarrassing personal details about the substance of the
blackmail. The judge may order the suppression of the witness‘s name to prevent
embarrassment. Otherwise, as you could imagine, there would be few offers to testify
against extortionists for fear of wives or husbands reading about their partner‘s
exploits.
But you need not worry greatly about having to read the judge‘s mind on these things.
For such an order suppressing identity to be binding, it must normally be clearly
expressed by the judge or magistrate, or the judge must be maintaining such an air of
confidentiality in the courtroom that any fool would get the message that it should not
appear on the front page of your paper.
Regardless of how autocratic the judge or magistrate may appear, no matter what he
or she orders you as a reporter to do, by no means argue, or debate the issue. A
challenge to such a restriction can be safely made only from the Bar table, by fully
briefed legal practitioners. As we cannot afford such counsel in this course, I strongly
suggest you politely do what you are told when assigned to court rounds. Your editor
may wish to legally challenge such orders when you are assigned to cover a High
Court Case, but for most provincial and regional cases, it is just as well or error on the
side of courtroom etiquette and to keep on the right side of the judge or magistrate.
After all, he or she could be the very person hearing your plea against a negligent
driving charge the very next week, and it would be unwise to test his or her stringent
independence on such an important guinea pig.
When juries are sent from the courtroom, the court remains open, but publication of
proceedings while they are absent is prohibited, as is any publication, which could
intimidate or ridicule them.
Most permissible reports will consist of summaries of what was actually said in the
proceedings. Even disruptions and incidents may be reported, although these must be
intrinsically connected with the matter at hand.
For example, fathers standing in court and yelling ―dirty murderer‖ or ―hope he
burns‘ at the alleged murder of their children, have been published without problem.
But, for instance, if the murder trial of a rebel cricketer was interrupted by a
demonstrator rising and yelling ―racist pig‖, the publication could prove both
contemptuous and defamatory.
The quote from Lord Diplock about ―fair and accurate reports‖ is crucial to the work
of the court. This was further reinforced by Chief Justice Jordan in Ex parte Terrill,
Re consolidated Press Ltd. He said.
―So long as any account so published is fair and accurate and is published in good
faith and without malice on, one can complain that is publication is defamatory of him
notwithstanding that it may have injured his reputation, and no-one can in general be
heard to say that is a contempt of court notwithstanding that it may in fact be likely to
create prejudice against a party to civil or criminal litigation‖.
But warned, if your report is inaccurate or distorted you leave yourself and your
publication wide open to defamation and /or contempt of court proceedings. For a
report to be protected from defamation or contempt rulings it must be
contemporaneous, which means you cannot dig up reports of old proceedings, which
might prejudice an upcoming trial.
Do not believe for a moment that small, heavily weighted sections of evidence or
judgments can be quoted out of context just because they were said to court. Rebuttals
of such evidence must also be clearly stated in your report. A fair summary of the
proceedings is protected just as much as a verbatim account.
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The report loses protection if it is partial, if it claims something happened when in
fact it did not, or if it withholds facts, which put a different complexion on facts,
which are truly reported. As long as you meet these requirements, you can use all
your skills to find the news angle of the particular case and make it an interesting
news item. You can even highlight some aspect of the case, which was not given
prominence by the judge or magistrate.
Rules of Writing Court Stories
Avoid the formula approach to reporting court stories, unless specifically instructed to
do so by your editor-in chief or editor. You will sometimes find that it is the policy of
a provincial, regional or suburban newspaper to follow such a formula, which was
Fleet Street‘s way of reporting court cases in the 19th century.
In normal circumstances there is no reason to make your story as boring as the
proceedings may seem to be. Of course, that does not mean you invent or exaggerate
sections of proceedings, but it does mean you can highlight certain things, which may
be of interest to your readers, but the magistrate, judge or counsel may have just
skimmed over.
Your readers will not be interested in the 30-minute legal debate between counsels
over whether a generalia specialibus non-derogant applies in that particular instance.
They will be much more interested in the five minutes a witness spends in the stand
describing in detail how she was bashed, robbed or defrauded by the accused. Of
course, you will remember, to outline the defendant‘s rebuttal of the witness‘s
accusations.
It all comes down to that crucial phrase: BE FAIR AND ACCURATE. I would
strongly recommend you write that phrase in capital letters in your study notes and
doubly underline it, because it goes to the heart of good court reporting.
i) Exercise cares at all times and go right to the heart of a case:
At first you may find the legal jargon a little overwhelming.
Refer to the legal glossary in the court booklet provided, or to the glossary in the back
of Professor Sawer‘s book. But as soon as you see through the legal jargon to
understand the issues involved, court reporting can become satisfying and relatively
straightforward. Always rest on the side of caution, and do not let your adjectives and
adverbs run wild with vivid subjective description of parties or events.
ii) Develop a keen sense of news: Ability to seize on a bright story in the middle of
an otherwise dull and involved case in essential.
Of course, a keen sense of news comes naturally to many of you anyway. That is why
you have chosen to become journalists. But again, be cautious, because as you know
news does not necessarily equate with sensationalism, and just because a witness
takes all his clothes off in the particular case does not necessarily make that an
automatic angle on the story. The case might just happen to be the local mayor found
guilty of a 10 million shillings embezzlement, and the strip act might just pale into
insignificance as a side show. In court, as on any round, news is relative. Your news
sense is your ability to prioritise any given set of events.
iii) Take the utmost care with names and addresses: Check them with the official
court papers and never rely on information supplied by court officials or other
reporters. This should probably be at the top of the list, because it is a simple trap for
young players. There are sad examples of journalist who rely on the outside sources
for their stories, with dire consequences. Be sure the information you are being given
is based on official court documentation. Do not trust any information volunteered to
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you by parties outside the court. Only what is read, said or put in evidence, in the
hearing or sight of the reporter, in open court and in the course of the proceedings can
be safely reported. The procedure for your court reporting assignment will be for you
to get all spellings and addresses and other particulars from the police prosecutors,
clerk of the court or other responsible court official. Again, though, it comes down to
the basics of any reporting. You always check and recheck the spelling of someone‘s
name. If you assume the spelling of John Smith as JOHN SMITH, you might find it is
real JON SMYTH. In a normal story such a mistake is bad enough, but in a court
story you can leave yourself wide open to defamatory action by committing such an
error. Even if you get the street name correct, it is not unlikely that there will be a real
John Smith living in the same street, and he is not going to appreciate being mistaken
for the John Smith being convicted of an indecent exposure offence.
At this point it is essential that you get all of the essential information for the case
from the police prosecutor. Your story, when sent to the sub-editors, should include
all the following:
i) The day the case is heard. (Yesterday is not good enough, because the story might
he held over for a day. If you use the word yesterday, always put in brackets
afterwards the date of the actual hearing.) You will find that often newspaper reports
of judicial proceedings are only protected from defamatory action if they are
contemporaneous.
ii) The names of the judge, magistrate, and various counsels of the parties.
iii) A balanced account of any evidence and its rebuttal. When you have written your
story, always take a printout or a photocopy of your original manuscript. This is vital
to protecting your own neck in any future inquisition into an expensive defamation or
contempt action. It is amazing how easily sub-editors ―forget‖ they chopped out or
changed vital information, but if you have your own printout, at least you can argue to
your editor to your own defence. Always read and reread your own stories, and
particularly court ones. A mental block in the pressure of a deadline could have you
spelling names incorrectly, or even mixing up the names of defendants and their
counsel. No matter how pressed you are for deadline, it is better that you miss that
deadline than submit a court story you have not personally checked for corrections.
iv) Always approach a lawyer if in doubt about technical terms.
Again, if in doubt, don‘t leave out-check it with someone who knows. It is your job to
ask questions. You are being grossly negligent and contemptuous by publishing false
or misleading information just because you were too embarrassed to demonstrate your
ignorance of legal term.
v) Similarly, never submit for publication a report, which you yourself do not fully
understand. It is better to miss the story than to play guessing games with points of
law or court procedures. If you do not understand a point after it has been explained to
you, ask for it to be explained again. If you still don‘t understand a point after it has
been explained to you, ask for it to be explained again. If you still don‘t understand,
and you are too embarrassed to say so, then go and ask someone else. But get it right
before you write. When in doubt, find out. If still in doubt, leave out.
vi) Beware of the opening address by counsel in important criminal cases or public
inquiries, such as Economic and Financial Crime Commissions (EFCC). They are
only allegations and may not be subsequently proved in evidence.
vii) Never forget that charges are only allegations until proved by the evidence. The
word ―alleged‖ should always preface the statement of an offence. For instance, it is
dangerous in the early stages of a case to say that an accused had been seen
committing an offence. Such a statement is only alleged.
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viii) Develop good shorthand. It is impossible to cover a superior court adequately
without being able to write shorthand.
ix) Never use an affidavit unless every part has been read in court.
x) Learn to write clearly and accurately about court proceedings without the slightest
tinge of bias.
xi) In industrial courts remember that union officials and employers‘ representatives
may make allegations for political reasons and great care should be taken to see that
they are made in open hearing and are recorded in the official transcript before they
are used in a report.
xii) Never be afraid to ask for information. We have already discussed this.
xiii) Always accede to the direction of the presiding judge or magistrate that certain
facts and allegations must not be published. This action must always be reported to
the news editor.
xiv) If in doubt about some aspect of a court story, always inform the chief sub-editor.
xv) Remember that a misplaced word or name may lead to a writ for libel.
xvi) Always record the adjournment of a case and never leave a case half reported.
The final result be reported in the first available edition. The half you do not report
could be just the half important rebuttal evidence and your readership and jury could
be falsely left with the impression of guilt or innocence.
xvii) Never use the word ―admitted‖ in a court report unless quoting someone during
the court proceedings. Otherwise use ―said‖.
xviii) Check your newspaper‘s policy on the publishing of the street numbers of
people named in court actions. A good rule is to include them in your copy and let the
subs cut them out if they want.
xix) Check carefully any doubtful or vital points in the official depositions of lower
court cases, particularly inquests. A newspaper is liable if it publishes an error in a
court deposition of evidence.
xx) Never, ever, adopt a facetious style to a court report or comment or even hint at
your own opinions on the case, whether by descriptive phrase or even punctuation.
Play a court case straight downs the line. Yes, by all means look for the news, but do
not treat it as a piece of semi-fiction or an exercise in the new journalism. As
Professor Sawer says: ―The newspapers which have made a fashion of slick and
humorous journalese in the reporting of police court cases are able to do so only as a
result of great experience and under constant supervision of legal advisers; for this
style it is also desirable to pick victims who will probably relish such treatment or will
not have the money to take action against it. It would not be possible to defend such
reports as fair and accurate, since they are so obviously intended not for public
information but for public entertainment.‖
xxi) Report with caution the opening addresses of counsel. If they seem to be making
outlandish claims of future evidence or testimonies, it could be that their witnesses
may not swear up to the counsel‘s claims. It is hard then to back down and tell you
readers that evidence, which was promised, has not been forthcoming after all.
Buy a newspaper in your locality. Look for three court reports. Cross check the
principles and rules of court reporting in those reports you have read. Note your
observations and record them for your use.
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Write a full report of an aspect of trial involving well-known public officers in your
state or locality.
DEFAMATION LAW
The Tort of Defamation
Defamation is concerned with injury to reputation resulting from words written or

spoken by others.
A defamatory statement may be defined as one, which tends to:
i) Lower the plaintiff in the estimate of the right thinking members of the society or
ii) To expose him to shame, contempt or ridicule or
iii) To cause other persons to shun or avoid him or
iv) To discredit him in his office, trade or profession
v) To injure his financial credit.
The words contained of, must tend to injure the plaintiff/s reputation in the minds of
right thinking people generally not merely in the minds of a particular section of the
public. Any written or spoken words which fall within one or more of the five
definitions listed above may be defamatory. The following are examples of statements
held defamatory by courts:
i) That a medical practitioner had a fake degree and that he exploited the public.
ii) That a public official was corrupt or had been arrested on suspicion of corrupt
practices.
iii) That a legal practitioner had defrauded his clients.
iv) That a university lecturer had committed adultery with a female student.
v) That a female teacher was a bad woman etc.
It may be noted at this point that there is an initial presumption that a defamatory
statement is untrue; but if the defendant can prove that the statement is substantially
true, it will have a complete defence to an action for defamation. This is the defence
of justification which will be considered later.
• Libel and Slander

There are two types of defamation:
(a) Libel
(b) Slander
• Libel is defamation in a permanent form – the most common being written or

printed words contained in a newspaper, a book, a letter, a notice and etc. Defamation
is also in a permanent form if contained in a painting, a cartoon, a photograph, a
statue or a film.
• Slander is defamation in transients form most often through the medium of spoken
words or gestures. It is sometimes said that libel is addressed to the eye while slander
is addressed to the ear.
The differences between libel and slander is that, whereas libel is always actionable
per say, and that is, without the need to prove actual or special damage Slander is not
actionable per say except in special cases.
Libel Actionable Per Say

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This means that whenever a libel is published, the law will presume that damage has
been caused to the plaintiff‘s reputation and will award him
by way of compensation.
Exceptional Cases in Which Slander is Actionable Per Say
Slander as we have seen is generally not actionable per say. This means that no action
will lie unless the plaintiff can prove that he has suffered some actual loss. For
example that he has been dismissed from his employment as a result of slander.
However, slander is actionable per say in the following cases, and so will have the
same effect as a libel:
i) Imputation of Crime: It is slander actionable per say to allege that the plaintiff has
committed a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment. For e.g. to call the
plaintiff a thief. In the case of AGOAKA VS. EJIOFOR, reported in 1972, 2
ECSNLR, Pg. 109. in that case for instance the defendant falsely accused the plaintiff
in a village gathering of having stolen his coco yams. It was clear from the evidence
that the plaintiff had suffered no actual damage and ANIAGOLU (J) held that the
plaintiff was entitled to recover general damages for slander. Note that to be
actionable per say, there must be a direct assertion of the guilt. A mere allegation of
suspicion is not sufficient and the crime alleged must be punishable corporally i.e. by
imprisonment etc.
ii) Imputation of Certain Disease: it is actionable per say to say that the plaintiff is
infected with certain infectious or contagious disease. Since this will tend to cause
other persons to shun or avoid him.
iii) Imputation of Unchastity or adultery concerning any woman or girl is actionable

per say.
iv) Imputation Affecting Professional or Business Reputation e.g. that a surgeon is

incompetent, a banker is fraudulent, and engineer has no technique, a lawyer knows
no law, a trader is insolent etc.
Special Damage in Slander
In cases of slander, which are not actionable per say, the plaintiff, cannot recover
damages merely on account of his loss or reputation. He will be able to recover only if
he can prove that he has suffered some special or actual damage. Special damage here
means loss of money or of some material or temporal advantage such as loss of
employment, loss of a client, refusal of credit, loss of the hospitality of friends who
had provided material things like food, drinks etc.
It is well established that words spoken as mere vulgar abuse or insult are not
actionable in slander. Whether particular words constitute slander or mere vulgar
abuse depends upon the circumstances in which they are spoken.
What the plaintiff must prove is libel and slander:

i) That the words were defamatory
ii) That the words referred to the plaintiff
iii) That the words were published to at least one person other than the plaintiff
106
The Innuendo
Innuendos in the law of defamation are of two types:
i) The True or Legal Innuendo ii) The False or Popular Innuendo.
i) True or Legal Innuendo: Here, the plaintiff contends that although the words used
are not defamatory on their face, they do convey a defamatory meaning to persons to
whom they are published because of certain special facts or circumstances not set out
in the words themselves but known to those persons.
For instance, a statement that Mr. X was a frequent visitor to a house at No. 10 Main
Street is perfectly innocent as its face, but it connotes other meanings, since it may be
defamatory if it was published to other persons who knew the special facts that No. 10
was the special Headquarters of prostitutes or armed robbers etc.
ii) False or Popular Innuendo: Here the plaintiff contends that the words are
defamatory not because of any special intrinsic facts or circumstances known to those
to whom the words were published but because of some defamatory inference which
reasonable persons generally would draw from the words themselves e.g. in a
caricature, nick name. A false innuendo goes beyond the literal meaning of the word.
DEFENCES TO DEFAMATION
Justification (Truth)
The defendant should not plead justification unless he has good reason to believe he
will succeed as failure to establish the defences will usually inflate damage awarded.
Fair Comment
On a matter of public interest based upon facts truly stated, made honestly, and not
actuated by malice.
Absolute Privilege
This is a complete defence to an action for libel or slander however false or
defamatory the statement may be and however maliciously it may have been made. It
arises in those circumstances such as proceedings in the legislature or in a court of
law. Where public policy demands that persons should be able to speak or write with
absolute freedom without fear or liability for defamation. This includes
communication made by one officer of state to another in the course of his official
duties.
Qualified Privilege
Both absolute and qualified privilege exists for the same fundamental purpose and
that is to give protection to persons who make defamatory statements in
circumstances where the common convenience and welfare of society demands such
protection. But whereas absolute privilege is limited to a few well-defined occasions,
qualified privilege applies to a much wider variety of situations in which it is in the
public interest that persons should be able to state what they honestly believe to be
true without fear of legal liability.
The main difference between the two is that a plea of qualified privilege will be
defeated if the plaintiff proves that the defendant in publishing the words complained
of was actuated by express malice whereas in absolute privilege, the malice of the
defendant is irrelevant.
107
Malice
It destroys qualified privilege.
i. Distinguish ‗defamation‘ from ‗libel and slander‘
ii. What are the three basic essential element of defamation?
iii. Why are there exceptions in slander that is actionable per say?
Comment on the necessity or otherwise of the law of defamation to the practice of journalism in Uganda. Not more
than three pages, typewrite or typeset on an A4 size of a paper.
SOME JOURNALISTIC TERMINOLOGIES
Like all other professions, journalism has certain terminologies that are peculiar to it
and which reporters must acquaint themselves with. This unit introduces you to some
of the terminologies that you will come across in the course of this study.
Journalism has developed a language of its own, like every industry or profession.
Many words have been adopted and given a new or different meaning in both the
print and broadcast media. Below are some of these words.
You may need to read more in any of the recommended books on News writing and
Reporting.
Across the board: Programmes broadcast seven days a week at the same time
Ad: Abbreviation for advertisement
Add: Additional news matter to be added to a news story
Air time: The time at which a programme is broadcast
AM: Amplitude Modulation (Standard radio broadcasting)
Audio: Sound
Background: Information that may be used by a writer entirely on his own
responsibility and cannot be attributed even to a ―reliable source‖. The writer presents
the information as if he had gathered it from original research. Also refers to
information upon which a story develops.
Beat: Area assigned to a reporter for regular coverage: For example, police or airport.
Beeper: A telephone conversation or interview recorded for later playback on air
Body type: The type in which most of the newspaper is set, generally 8 point
Budget: An amount of news copy as in ―the budget for this broadcast‖
Bulletin: News of the day
Byline: A line identifying the author of a story; name of the reporter who wrote the
story.
Caption: Synonymous with cutline. It is the explanatory lines above or below a
newspaper photograph, illustration or diagram
Channel: A radio–spectrum frequency assigned to a radio or television station or
stations
Copy: News manuscript
Continuity: All radio and television script besides commercials
Cue: Noun; a signal to an announcer, a newscaster or production personnel to
participate in a broadcast.
Cover: To gather facts of news story
Cub: A beginning reporter
Deadline: Time by which a reporter, editor or desk must have completed scheduled
work
Dateline: The name of the city or town and date, which are placed at the beginning of
stories not of local origin 108
Credit line: The line that designates, if necessary, the source of a story or cut ―By
BBC.
Dry: A period lacking in news
Exclusive: A story that is printed solely by one newspaper; also called a ―scoop‖
Fade: Either physical or mechanical lowering of a voice or music to smooth a
transition between sounds.
Feature: A story that is timely and interesting but is not strictly news
Feed: A broadcast to a station to be recorded or sent to another station or other
stations
File: To send a story to office usually by wire or telephone or to put news services on
the wire.
FM: Frequency Modulation: A method of radio broadcasting which has several
advantages over standard broadcasting, elimination of static, no fading.
Freelance: An unattached writer, reporter, photojournalist or artist.
HFR: Abbreviation for ―hold for release‖ material that cannot be used until it is
released by the source or at a designated time. Also known as ―embargoed‖.
Kill: To eliminate from copy; to discard type as useless.
Lead story: Major story displayed at the top of page one
Log: Schedule of broadcasting
Make up: The process of preparing a newspaper for publication by placing news
stories and advertisements in appropriate positions in the newspaper.
Masthead: The heading on the editorial page that gives information about the
newspaper.
Must: A designation placed on a copy to indicate that it must be run or published.
More: Designation used at the end of a page of copy to indicate there are one or more
additional pages
Morgue: The newspaper library, where published stories photographs and resource
materials are stored for reference.
Not for attribution: Information that should not be attributed to a specific source but
can be ascribed to one who is identified generally e.g. a reliable source.
Off the record: Information to be held in complete confidence. It is not to be printed
under any circumstances or in any form
PM: Afternoon or evening newspaper
Put to bed: Closing the forms of an edition
30: A designation used to mark the end of a story.
Sacred cow: Slang for a subject or story in which the publishers or editors are
interested and which must be printed
Schedule: The news editor‘s (or city editor‘s) record of assignment; the copy editor‘s
record of the stories he has edited and headlined.
Scoop: See exclusive
Slug: The word or words placed on a copy to designate the story.
Stet: Let it stand, restore
SOF: Sound on Film Recorded simultaneously with the pix
SOT: Sound on Tape. Recorded simultaneously with picture on tape
Tie back: The sentence or sentences relating a story or events covered in previous
stories
V/O: Reporter‘s voice or a picture
VTR: Video Tape Recording
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. List and explain 10 terms mostly used by journalists. 109
1. Formulate news stories and organize them in the right structure.

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NEWS

Good journalism consists of the intelligent assembly of relevant facts.

NOSE FOR NEWS

THE HISTORY OF JOURNALISM

b) Paper and Printing

a) Freedom of the Press

c) The Fourth Estate

SCOPE OF JOURNALISM: FORMS AND FACETS,

 Print; news papers, books, magazines, newsletters etc.

The role of journalism in society

QUALITIES OF A GOOD JOURNALIST

For example, curiosity, objectivity, persistence, knowledgeable

KEY PLAYERS IN THE MEDIA INDUSTRY

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN JOURNALISM

THE JOURNALISM INDUSTRY: KEY STRUCTURAL MAKE UP

Structure of News Industry

The Production Staff 7

The Business Department Staff

The Administrative Adjunct

William S. Maulsbyl defined news thus:

William G. Bleyer defines it like this:

Mitchel Chainley defined news as:

Prof. Charles Coates defined it thus:

Sam Zelman of CNN says:

HARD NEWS AND SOFT NEWS

We need to pause to consider an important distinction that professional journalists

ELEMENTS OF NEWS VALUES

Nearly every story on each of our front pages is a report of conflict.

NEWS VIRTUES/PRINCIPLES OF WRITING NEWS

Balance and Fairness

1. Why do we have many and different definitions of news?

QUALITIES OF A GOOD NEWS STORY

Balance and Fairness

A good news story should be clear, direct, interesting and error-free.

TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT (TMA)

a. Differentiate between Attribution and Identification

News Gathering and Sources

In summary, a reporter gets news by:

HOW TO HANDLE SOURCES

Use Sources as Starting Points for Some Stories

Maintain a Skeptical Attitude

Do not be reluctant to discard sources‘ tips if they cannot be substantiated. It is a

Be Careful with Confidential or Anonymous Sources

Be Aware of Many Editors Attitude and Behaviour

The granting of secrecy to a source is an open invitation to exaggerate, embroider,

Developing Your Sources

Keep a File Box of 3x5 Cards:

Always Review Your Card or Notebook from Time to Time:

ESTABLISHING RAPPORT WITH A SOURCE

Introduction: Sometimes a speaker or source may not want to be quoted at all –

Guidelines for Citing Sources

Not naming sources is dangerous for two important reasons:

1. Discuss the guidelines for citing sources.

TECHNIQUES OF GATHERING NEWS

THE BASIC COMPONENTS OF A NEWS STORY

The Backup Quote.

1. Do not pass a verdict or make a judgment:

Leave editorialising to the editorial writers. News reports must be as straightforward

3. Avoid the use of unfamiliar jargon: