School-based Campus Journalism

Seminar
THEME: “Rekindling the fire of Campus Journalism”
News Writing
Back-to-basic
News Value
is your news story worthy to be published?

 Impact
 Timeliness
 Prominence
 Proximity
 Oddity
 Conflict
News Value

Impact: The number of people

whose lives will be influenced in
some way by the subject of the
story.
News Value

Timeliness: Recent events have

higher news value than earlier
happenings. Of particular value
are stories brought to the public
ahead of the competition.
News Value

 Timeliness: More value is attributed

to stories pertaining to issues or
topics that are in the spotlight of
public concern rather than to issues
or topics about which people care
less. Stories come and stories go.
News Value

Timeliness: Recent events have

higher news value than earlier
happenings. Of particular value
are stories brought to the public
ahead of the competition.
News Value

Prominence: For the same

occurrence, people in the public
eye have higher news value than
obscure people.
News Value

Proximity: Stories about events

and situations in one's home
community are more newsworthy
than events that take place far
away.
News Value

Oddity: Stories about bizzare,

extra-ordinary events.
The structure of news story
The inverted…
Parts of a news story

Lead
Body
The “Tail”
Parts of a news story

Who? When?

What?
Why?

Where? How?
Body

 Expand your lead

Controversy
Story
Issue
Quoted Statements
Details
Background Information
The “tail”

Least important details

Minor points
Tips in writing

1. One sentence, one paragraph.

Tips in writing

2. Brevity. Brevity. Brevity.

Tips in writing

"Firefighters arrived at the blaze

and were able to put it out
within about 30 minutes"
Tips in writing

“Firefighters doused the blaze in

about 30 minutes."
Tips in writing

3. Don’t use first-person “I”, as

if reporting from the scene.
Tips in writing

4. Use past tense.

Tips in writing

5. Avoid the use of too many

adjectives.
Tips in writing

"the white-hot blaze charred the

orphanage into ashes"

"the brutal murder left all

onlookers jaw-dropped."
Tips in writing

6. Don’t give your opinions.

Tips in writing

"thankfully,
everyone
escaped the fire unhurt."
Tips in writing

"thankfully,everyone
escaped the fire unhurt.”
Fortunately, Vergara won the
election.