News Writing

NEWS WRITING

(NORTH - EAST - WEST - SOUTH)

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = RHEE Fer HORTALEZA

* Media Man of Pangasinan *

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Write to EXPRESS,

not to IMPRESS;

write to INFORM;

not to OVERWHELM!

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NEWS is an inevitable part of a person’s daily life. News is all around him. In fact, at many times in his lifetime, his own life

could be the source of news. News, indeed, is all around us.

WHAT IS ‘NEWS’?

Various writers and authors have come up with different definitions of the NEWS. Invariably, all may be correct; but for an acceptable and easy-to-understand definition of the term, it should be safe to state that NEWS is any event, idea or opinion that is timely, that interests and affects a large number of persons in the community, and that is capable of being understood by them. (M. Lyle Spencer)

Other sources would define NEWS as a break from the normal flow of events, an interruption in the unexpected. Others would opt to state that NEWS is not concerned about the routine; but rather about the unexpected, the unusual or the dramatic. Then, there are those who would simply agree with Mitchell Charnley when he said that NEWS is tomorrow’s history done up in a neat today’s package!

GOOD NEWS IS NO NEWS!

Then, too, there are situations when a newsman is faced with utterly discerning people’s comment that – to journalists or newspapermen – GOOD NEWS IS NO NEWS! Truly, one of the most frequent complaints an editor or a plain newsman hears is: “How come you guys never run any good news?”

While it is true that reporters seek out stories about murders, felonies or anomalies that did happen, not about murders, felonies or anomalies that didn’t, there are times, especially in the current...