Download Types of News Stories

Types of News Stories
It is important to distinguish the various types of
news stories because the term “news” is very broad.
In categorizing news, we have to consider news
value and standards of conduct.
Hard News
 Hard News includes two concepts:
 Seriousness: Politics, economics, crime, war, and disasters are
considered serious topics, as are certain aspects of law, science,
and technology.
 Timeliness: Stories that cover current events—the progress of
a war, the results of a vote, the breaking out of a fire, a
significant public statement, the freeing of a prisoner, an
economic report of note, etc.
Soft News
 soft news is sometimes referred to in a derogatory fashion
as infotainment and includes two concepts:
 The least serious subjects: Arts and entertainment,
sports, lifestyles, "human interest", and celebrities.
 Not timely: There is no precipitating event triggering the
story, other than a reporter's curiosity.
 Timely events happen in less serious subjects—sporting
matches, celebrity misadventures, movie releases, art
exhibits, and so on.
News story
 attempts to answer all the basic questions about any
particular event in the first two or three paragraphs
 Who?What? When?Where? andWhy? and occasionally How?
("5 W's").
 Lead and body
 Ends when the writer runs out of material
Inverted Pyramid
 top-loading the essential and most interesting
elements of a story, with supporting
information following in order of lesser
importance.
 Developed during the civil war to insure the
main facts of the story would not be lost
during communication by telegraph.
 Lead and body
Inverted Pyramid cont.
Human interest
These stories have plight of individuals/families, news
that triggers our emotions eg earthquake, a robbery etc
Backgrounders
As the name suggests provides background information
about a particular event, news. E.g. if martial law takes
place in Pakistan, there will be background info included
about the previous martial laws, army chiefs etc
Breaking news and scoops
 These are terms that are commonly used In the media world.
By breaking
 news, we mean a report of any sudden news development
which was not
 known so far and which is of utmost importance to a large
section of society.
 Nowadays, breaking news is a familiar term for those




watching television
channels.
Exclusives or scoops are news reports which are covered by
only one reporter.
Nobody else gets it. It is considered to be a great journalistic
achievement, a
‘score’ of a reporter.
Feature Story
 article in a newspaper, a magazine, or a news website
that is not meant to report breaking news, but to take an
in-depth look at a subject.
 Less urgent, attempts to engage reader
 Narrative structure (beginning, middle, end),expands on
details
 Longer in length, includes personal perspective
 Entertaining, often include pictures
 Hard or Soft?
Editorial
 Short, persuasive essay which usually contains the
writer’s opinion or reaction to a timely news story or
event.
 Influence readers to think or act a certain way
 Written to either inform, promote, praise, or entertain
Column
 Personal observations by the writer about a certain subject
 Includes facts and states a conclusion
 Written on almost anything