Key terms and concepts
Writing for the Mass Media is not meant to be a reporting text. Instead, it seeks to give students information about writing for the mass media and an opportunity to practice writing in the various forms that the mass media require. In doing this, however, students should have some understanding about what kind of information is appropriate for publication in a news story and where that information comes from. They should also understand some of the conditions under which media writers work and the demands that are made on them.
Key terms and concepts
The following are some key terms and concepts that the student should understand.
News values — News values are the concepts used in making judgments about what events are news and what events are not news. The values listed in the chapters are generally accepted by professional journalists and are those that determine what will be included in a newspaper or news broadcast.
Timeliness is the most common news value. It is inherent in most news stories. An event simply is not news unless it has occurred fairly recently.
News events will probably have the element of timeliness, but they are unlikely to contain all of the news values listed in the chapter. Very few news stories do that. (You might ask your class members to try to think of some events that would contain all of the news values listed in the book.) Consequently, editors and news directors must decide whether or not enough news values are present in an event — and if they are present with enough impact — to make that event a news event.
News sources — Information in news stories comes from three sources: personal (people whom a reporter talks with), observational (events that a reporter witnesses), and stored (any documents or records that a reporter can look up). The best news stories are written by reporters who have used all three types of information.
Accuracy — The importance of presenting accurate information is also discussed in this chapter. You will notice that it isn’t the first time that this subject has been introduced. We have discussed accuracy at length in previous chapters and will do so again in the next chapter. This emphasis on accuracy should be pointed out to the students. The need for accuracy is a pervasive one, and that’s why the topic reappears so much in this book. Those who would work in the mass media must develop good habits for obtaining accurate information. They should pay attention to the details of the information they obtain; they must also make sure they understand the significance and meaning of the information they have. Even in the writing assignments that are included in this book, the students must be careful in presenting their information. They must make special efforts to see that the details and the larger ideas are correct.
Students should review the sections of the previous chapters that discuss the importance of accuracy. They might also look at the next chapter’s discussion of accuracy. A short essay or outline putting all of these ideas about accuracy together might be helpful to them in understanding the importance of accuracy and the methods for achieving it.
Deadlines — Every person who writes for the mass media writes under deadlines. Often these deadlines are too short for the writer to feel that he or she has done the best job. Still, the writer must learn to adjust to the deadlines of the organization.
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