Aim
In order to understand journalistic writing you will give a brief outline of the points below:
Note: Points 1-4 will be and have been explored in more detail – your aim is to summarise and show evidence at this stage.
Objectives
- (All) Understand the significance of ‘news values’ and ‘news sense’
News values, also known as news criteria or news factors, are a set of guide lines that determine how much ‘value’ a news story has, they’re how editors decide what is newsworthy and and why. By using news values, journalists identify specific aspects of stories that will catch the audiences attention, each news value describing a different quality. Typical news values are…
Timeliness– refers to harder-hitting stories and important developments in a story that would lose their newsworthiness if not reported as soon as possible.
Impact-refers to the shock or “wow” factor of a news story and generally requires a story to affect a large group in a large way.
Conflict-refers to conflict between two or more parties. This may include international conflict, political conflict, conflict of opinion, conflict between two sporting teams, or reality TV competitors. Conflict is a prominent news value because it often encourages audiences to take one side, making readers become emotionally invested in the story.
Currency-comes into play when a particular story or theme is already being covered by the media and further developments or side stories are likely to be appreciated.
Unexpectedness-refers to how out of the ordinary the story is. If a story features an uncommon event it is more likely to peak reader interest than something that happens commonly.
Proximity-refers to the physical or emotional closeness of a news story to a media outlet’s audience and helps readers relate to a story on a more personal level.
Human interest-the aspect of a story in the media that interests people because it describes the experiences or emotions of individuals to which others can relate.
Prominent-applies to the people or events a news story is about. If they are well-known, then the news story is deemed newsworthy because of prominence.
The concept of news sense itself is quite hard to define, it is often described as a journalist’s sixth sense and is about their ability to be in tune with their audience and use intuition to know what will engage them. This is done by asking 4 key questions; is the story interesting, is the story important, is the story relevant, is the story new?
2.(All) Understand different target readerships
A target readership is the audience which a specific newspaper or magazine is geared towards. When determining target readership a variety of data variables must be taken in to consideration, for example age, gender, class, education and political standing. Having a specific target readership helps publications to maintain a loyal customer base as people will be more likely to repurchase a publication that’s geared towards them.
Factors which are influenced the target readership of a newspaper include …
Representation – How an audience is represented withing the newspaper by expressing their needs, interests and point of view.
Values – The quality, structure and content of a newspaper is adapted to the needs of the target readership.
Politics-The majority of newspapers have an affiliation to a particular political party, which will play a major role in the type of readership they have. For example the Daily Mirror has a left-wing political stance and there readership is therefore going to be made up of Labour supporters.
Institutions– Newspaper institutions are responsible for the production, publishing and distribution of the paper. The ways in which this is done will be affected by their target readership, for example if a newspaper has a younger target readership then more content is likely to be online rather than in the physical version of the paper.
Language– The language of a paper can vary depending of the target readership, applying semiotics and stereotypes dependent on social class and education when the language is formal or informal.
Ideology– The ideology of a newspaper is it’s set of aims, beliefs and morals which the target readership will normally share.
3. Understand sub-editing
Sub-editing is the process of the writer checking all written text of print content before it’s sent to publishing. Much like a copy editor, a sub-editor verifies any grammar, style, and spelling errors, as well as checks if all information is factually correct.
4.(All) Understand journalistic interviewing techniques
In journalism, interviews are one of the most important methods used to collect information, and present views to an audience.
Types of Interview:
Political interview– Journalists must be vigilant with interviewing politicians, forcing them to answer the question asked, not letting them slip away or change the subject and be prepared to interrupt and bring the interview back to the question at hand.
Accident or incident interview– In the emotional atmosphere of an accident or incident, media might get denied access due to ongoing investigations, however a brief statement to the news media is usually made and journalist are given the opportunity to ask questions. Journalists may reach out to families of the involved , tell the public of heroic acts and express thanks to those individuals or groups involved in rescue, for example fire and police departments. Any questions about accident details will have to be asked with caution as it is a sensitive subject and if the journalist comes in too strong, they run the risk of coming off as offensive or rude and could leave with no information.
General interview– This is a one-on-one interview involving a reporter and an individual involved in a specific event or issue. This type of interview will generally occur on a case-by-case basis, depending on the sensitivity of the issue. The journalist should record the interview to ensure the interviewee isn’t misquoted.
Talk show– Many local television networks have interview shows where current people of interest are interviewed, for example breakfast shows like ‘This Morning’. These are referred to as soft interviews that usually focus on the personality of the interviewee or and human interest stories. Talk show interviews are usually scheduled in advance with the interviewee having the opportunity to preprepare their answers to be able to fit the interview in to a tight time-slot.
Ambush– This type of interview is when the interviewee isn’t anticipating it, it is often referred to as ‘on the run’ interviewing and it usually occurs surrounding a major issue or controversial event. It normally occurs when the interviewee is leaving their home or a courtroom and they are ‘ambushed’ with cameras and questions from all angles. In this circumstance it is important for the journalist to ask reactive questions that will make them stand out in the crowd and have their questions more likely to be answered in a short time frame.
Remote– This is similar to the general interview but involves the interviewee in in a separate location to the journalist, there may also be a third party linked by another remote location or in the television studio. The interviewee uses an ear-piece to hear the questions.
Edited– Any interview,whether it’s print, radio or television, can be edited if it is not done live. The problem with edited interviews is that an answer can be edited out of context.
Techniques:
Prepare – As obvious as it sound it is important for journalists to make sure they’re really well prepared for any interview so that they can ask the most well informed questions and seem more professional. If the interviewee can tell that a journalist has gone through more effort to find out information about them it can can also put them at ease and prompt better responses. It’s impossible to research too much!
Question length – It is important to keep questions short and to the point as you don’t want to confuse the interviewee or dominate the conversation, the less you say then there is more space for them to fill with their answer.
Open and Closed questions- Knowing the difference between these two types of question and how to use them to get the best response is important when interviewing someone. A closed question only has one answer and are usually fact based, yes or no questions. These are best to ask when looking for a definitive answer to something and trying to get to the point quickly. An open questions are more opinion based and require deeper thinking, they are a good tool for opening up discussion or debate on a topic rather than getting to the point.
Hooking and Bridging- These are techniques that will allow the interviewer to regain control of an interview and create an open dialogue. Hooking is a technique that steers the interviewee back in the direction of the topic and forces relevant follow up, when doing this it is useful to have examples that help steer the conversation in the right direction and get the interviewee to comment on that directly. Bridging is when an interviewer frames a question to shift off-topic conversations back to the original point, ‘bridging the gap’ in the conversation, this is an important tool in debate and discussion based interviews.
“In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
5.(All) Source 3 ‘Good News’ stories. You may wish to summarise but can remain as links at this stage
https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/local-news/behind-scenes-huge-effort-food-4011759
Journalism Module - Angel 