Writing for the Mass Media by James Glen Stovall



	Chapter 5 Key terms and concepts
		The news story format is one of the basic forms of writing for the mass media, and students need to have a good grounding in writing the news story before they tackle other forms of writing. Learning to write a basic news story teaches the student the importance of gathering accurate and complete information, making judgments about that information as to what is important and what is not, and writing so that the content and not the writing itself is what makes an impression on the reader. Writing news teaches the student many of the disciplines that he or she will need to be successful in working in the mass media. Students should be reminded that the news story form is one that is used not only in newspapers but in many publications, particularly those produced by public relations departments. The habits that a person gains in writing news will be the habits he or she takes to other forms of writing for the mass media. One of the most difficult concepts to learn about news writing is the manner in which a story should be developed. Students should pay particular attention to the text and examples on pages 168-180. While many students understand the purpose and technique of the lead paragraph, they do not understand how to build a story in the second, third and subsequent paragraphs. Students will write a good lead but then drop into the narrative form in the second graph. They should read and analyze stories in the book -- and better yet, in a local newspaper -- to gain an understand of how an inverted pyramid story should be written. Key terms and concepts The following are some of the key terms and concepts that a student should understand and be able to put into practice by the time he or she has finished this chapter. Inverted pyramid — This is the most common news story structure. A lead paragraph contains the most important information that the writer has to tell the reader, and most of the story should in some way refer to the lead paragraph. A story written in the inverted pyramid form is rarely narrative; instead, the writer must make decisions about what information is most important and what is of lesser importance. A news story should have unity — that is, it should be about one subject — and this unity is gained through a logical and coherent presentation of the information and an effective use of transitions. Attribution — The concept of attribution was introduced in previous chapters, but in this chapter the student will need to understand it well enough to put it into practice. The student should know why attribution is important, when it should be used (and when it is not necessary), and what forms of attribution are acceptable in writing the news story. Direct and indirect quotations — Special attention should be given to making sure that students understand the difference between direct and indirect quotations. If problems develop in this area, one exercise that an instructor might give is to select some direct quotations from the examples in the text or the exercises at the end of the chapter and have students rewrite them as indirect quotations. Accuracy — This subject is again dealt with, as it has been in previous chapters. Students should pay close attention to the details of what they write as well as to the major parts of their story. Feature story — The feature story is something that students should be able to distinguish from the news story.


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