Journalism In Practice Week 2: Intros

Course No: MED4005

Dan Davies / Colin Palmer

journalisminpractice@gmail.com

Last Week’s Task

• Did everyone find two examples of same story for assignment?

• What stories did you find?

• Any trouble with Moodle?

• Any other questions about the task?

The Story So Far…

• a news story has to contain new facts that are of interest to your readers

• News outlets have a target audience - choose stories that suit them

• Has to say something new - worth journalistic treatment

• Honesty, balance, truth…

Foxy Knoxy and the #dailyfail

http://bit.ly/tabloidknox

http://bit.ly/colesknox

Session Goals

By the end of this session I would expect you to be able to:

• Recognise a news angle• Write a hard news intro• Write a short, simple news story

This and next week

• How to write a story

• This week concentrate on intros/toplines.

• Next week going into writing the content or “body text” in more details

A Good Intro/Topline

The angle • It needs to focus on the information that is

most interesting and most likely to grab your audiences’ attention.

The intro itself• The way it is written, the way you capture

the important information in a clear, concise and punchy way and get it across to your readers.

Angles

• We are going to think about angles - how do we know which bit of information to put first?

• We need to concentrate on what makes it “Newsworthy”

• We are looking for the newest, most interesting or most important aspect of the story.

• Ask yourself – what will grab people’s attention?

Which do you think is better and why?

“Firefighters have walked out on strike in a dispute over pay”

“A dispute over pay has led to a strike being staged by firefighters”

Which do you think is better and why?

“Councillors have agreed to build a new school in Edgbaston”

“A decision to build a new school in Edgbaston has been taken by councillors”

“A new school is to be built in Edgbaston after a vote by councillors.”

ANGLES exercise

• Discuss the handouts in groups.

• Prioritise the pieces of information

• Write the headline

• Create a billboard / SEO slug to promote the story

• Stick them on the wall

• Feedback

A Billboard

Short, sharp summary of storyLess “punny” than a headline

An Online Slug

• In newspaper editing, a slug is a short name given to an article that is in production.

• Online it is the information in the URL which helps Google - good for SEO

•Like billboard it contains pure information - not descriptive, no quotes, no puns: Nothing that will confuse machines

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045612/New-York-helicopter-crash-Pilot-Paul-Dudleys-chopper-crashed-East-River-killing-Sonia-Marra.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/oct/05/phone-hacking-news-international-60-claims

Feedback Questions

• Does it sound like a good story – would it make you want to buy the paper / would you click on it in Google?

• Can you work out what the story is – does it matter?

• Have they got the right angle?

News Writing General

• More on writing… next week

• Presenting facts in a clear and concise way

• Who, what, where, when, why and how

• Or explain why they do not have the answer.

Intros

Normally answer the questions who and what

The rest can come later

What do we mean by Who?Look at the following intros. In what circumstances would you use

them?

• “A man has died in an explosion at a fireworks factory.” “A Birmingham man has died in an explosion at a fireworks factory.”

• ”Michael Green has died in an explosion at a fireworks factory.”

• “An electrician has died in an explosion in a fireworks factory.”

• “A keen footballer has died in an explosion at a fireworks factory.”

• “A father of three has died in an explosion in a fireworks factory

• “A 43-year-old man has died in an explosion in a fireworks factory.”

• “A man, who built his family business into a multi-million pound export company, has died in an explosion at a fireworks factory.”

• “Michael Green, a 43 year old electrician and father of three from Birmingham, who was a keen footballer, has died in an explosion at a fireworks factory.”

Example Exercise

• Split up into groups• Take a one news paper with you • If you have a tabloid newspaper then look for

a ‘broadsheet’ story online and vice versa• Identify the who and the what• Look at how the story develops (2nd para

leads on from headline etc)• Choose a story to present to the class

Intro writing exercise• Write three intros 3-4 paras (+header and

topline)• Remember – you need to both find a good

news angle and write a simple clear, concise intro.

• If you have time we’ll get into groups, read each others intros and discuss what you think.

This Week’s Assignment

• Four events that have the potential to be news stories

• Rewrite the information to create lively intros for 4 stories

• Assume you are a Birmingham-based regional newspape or website

• 3-4 paras each, 75-80 words in length 350 in total.

• Moodle by next week• Deadline 3pm Friday reading week