There are nine rules of news language which journalist use on a regular basis when constructing articles
KISS-keep it short and simple. Articles usually consist 16-20 words per sentence, everyday language is used to make it quick and easier to explain.
Reading for speed- the use of headlines, crossheads, narrow columns and short words aids the reader reading the article quickly.
Never use three words when one will do- and example of this ‘in the first instance- firstly’
Don’t repeat yourself-don’t use words that mean the same thing e.g. final outcome
Use active verbs- and example of this is ‘burglars took the dog’
Use puns-plays on words keep it interesting and grab the reader’s attentions
Make the story personal-this makes the story more relatable
Categorise people–because it makes it easy to read (stereotypical) and example being ‘The shopaholic 16 year old girl….’When people are wrote about in articles they are usually always stereotyped .This being it is quicker to describe the person as well as helping the audience understand the person’s character better.
Things to avoid
1. Clichés –such as lovechild, it’s a scorcher etc
2. Being too chatty/gossipy
3. Unnecessary foreign phrases
Headline language
What techniques are used in headlines?
Rhyme
Alliteration
Slang
Puns
Abbreviation
Emotive language
Speech
Reportive speech -is not using speech marks telling you what it said
Direct speech- is the use of quotes and speech marks.
In the newspaper they cut down to the only important information by using reportive or direct speech
A mixture of Reportive and Direct speech is always used in a more in depth article. It helps break the text up and gives a more personalised story if there are quotes.
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Monday, 28 June 2010
Analysis of the front page of the Harrogate Advertiser
The tabel above shows detail into the more specific layout of the stories as well as the overall stucture of the articles.
I also found that In the Harrogate Advertiser they have a range of Hard news, Human Interest, Entertainment and sport. Particularly focusing on Hard news .Where as in the Wetherby News they have generally more human interest and Ripon Gazette have equal amount of the range of the four categories. Overall when deeper at local newspapers articles you can see how they use news values to categorise their articles
Local Newspapers:Front page articles
The content of the three main local news papers front pages; Wetherby News, Harrogate Advertiser for Friday June 11th 2010 are listed below in the tables .
Sources of News
Journalist cannot expect stories to land in their lap, meaning they have different sources who they visits on a regular on a regular basis to guarantee stories –such as police, courts, big businesses ,charities and local celebrities .Primary definers are people who witnessed an event first hand e.g. police but could be eye witnessed an event .If they hold creditability the story will get placed on the news agenda .Relationships between journalist and their sources is symbiotic .
News Agenda
The news agenda is to do with priority that different organisations give to stories .If they decide that a story won’t fit their agenda the public won’t hear about it. News values are the same no matter which news institution you work for. Different newspapers place priority on different news values for example The Sun news values might be elite people and personalization.
How my example article matches conventions
Media Students discover the news:
A Level Media students are now being taught behind the scene secrets of the news, making a massive disadvantage to big institutions such as the BBC and ITV, if the secrets are later revealed. The new course is now teaching students what exactly happens in the media world of news risking traditional bulletins being lost for good.
Big executives fear news will now be more popular on new media technologies such as blogging and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Resulting in wiz-tech teenagers taking over the entire industry .Fears have be rising since the course has been introduced, and uncertainties are set to continue as only time will tell, what will happen to the news.
Analysis of example story:
My constructed article is an example of an unambiguity news value because of nature the of simplicity which makes it attractive. The example story was intended to be short as it would only be a small feature of a newspaper as its not necessarily important, and is more of a human interest story.
The establishing sentence is longer than the others in the article because it is trying to get the key facts quickly across to the audience and keep them interested. The establishing sentence is broken down with comers to break up the information and make the information being dispatch more digestible to the reader.
The second sentence goes into more detail about the headline and gives the reader a deeper insight in what the journalist is trying to get across .The article is split into paragraphs to break the information up and to move further on with the story. The second paragraph is not as urgent ads the first and just is giving more background facts to the reader. The fact that the article ends with ‘uncertainties are set to continue as only time will tell’ makes the reader want to know more and gives an advantage of a return reader for further articles.
A Level Media students are now being taught behind the scene secrets of the news, making a massive disadvantage to big institutions such as the BBC and ITV, if the secrets are later revealed. The new course is now teaching students what exactly happens in the media world of news risking traditional bulletins being lost for good.
Big executives fear news will now be more popular on new media technologies such as blogging and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Resulting in wiz-tech teenagers taking over the entire industry .Fears have be rising since the course has been introduced, and uncertainties are set to continue as only time will tell, what will happen to the news.
Analysis of example story:
My constructed article is an example of an unambiguity news value because of nature the of simplicity which makes it attractive. The example story was intended to be short as it would only be a small feature of a newspaper as its not necessarily important, and is more of a human interest story.
The establishing sentence is longer than the others in the article because it is trying to get the key facts quickly across to the audience and keep them interested. The establishing sentence is broken down with comers to break up the information and make the information being dispatch more digestible to the reader.
The second sentence goes into more detail about the headline and gives the reader a deeper insight in what the journalist is trying to get across .The article is split into paragraphs to break the information up and to move further on with the story. The second paragraph is not as urgent ads the first and just is giving more background facts to the reader. The fact that the article ends with ‘uncertainties are set to continue as only time will tell’ makes the reader want to know more and gives an advantage of a return reader for further articles.
News Values Research
News Values area piece of criteria that helps journalists select news that will get featured.A reason for this method is that because there are millions of stories daily there needs to be a strategy which selects the most importance/relevant ones for each area (country/county/town etc)
There are thirteen news values which govern news agenda:
1.Frequency-How quickly to story is broke. An example of this is the recent Cumbria Shootings.
2.Threshold/amplitude/numbers-The size of an event will govern the amount of attention it is given. An example being the World Cup.
3. Unambiguity-The simplicity of the story will also make it more attractive to the media as it will be easier for journalists to investigate, as well as the audience understandability to the story. An example of this is the BP Oil Leak.
4. Meaningfulness-Culturally relevant or culturally proximate events are more likely to make the news. The reason being that the audience are more interested in events which have happened close to home or contain reference to values, beliefs and attitudes that it shares. An example being the election for Prime Minister.
5.Consonance-Events which meet our expectations are more likely to become news. Ascot being an example of this.
6. Unexpectedness/surprise-Events that hold a large element of surprise. The Cumbria Killings can also be an example of this too.
7. Continuity-Events that have initially been defined as news will continue to carry importance in news agenda. The Icelandic eruption being an example.
8. Composition-Many news institutions try to balance there news output,e.g the dead donkey ending things on a more positive note at the end of the news bulletins. An example being the invention of 'Bra Growing'
9.Reference to elite nations-Other major Western nations e.g. USA,Germany,France are more likely to be in the news even if the story is not that significant to the audience e.g. The American Elections
10.Reference to elite persons-Significant people within our nation. An Example would be Prince Harry & William’s tour of Africa.
11. Personalisation-Events which have a personalised twist on them, e.g. large scale NHS story such as the spread of MRSA and through the eyes of someone that has survived it.
12. Negativity-Bad news makes good news! The world cup could again be reported that way.
13. Actuality-If the news station has exclusive interviews or video clips of an event the story is more likely to be reported, where without that they may have less significance with that news bulletin. An example is the amount of attention Sex and the City 2 interviews received.
It is important to note that all news is a construction of choices of image and text
There are thirteen news values which govern news agenda:
1.Frequency-How quickly to story is broke. An example of this is the recent Cumbria Shootings.
2.Threshold/amplitude/numbers-The size of an event will govern the amount of attention it is given. An example being the World Cup.
3. Unambiguity-The simplicity of the story will also make it more attractive to the media as it will be easier for journalists to investigate, as well as the audience understandability to the story. An example of this is the BP Oil Leak.
4. Meaningfulness-Culturally relevant or culturally proximate events are more likely to make the news. The reason being that the audience are more interested in events which have happened close to home or contain reference to values, beliefs and attitudes that it shares. An example being the election for Prime Minister.
5.Consonance-Events which meet our expectations are more likely to become news. Ascot being an example of this.
6. Unexpectedness/surprise-Events that hold a large element of surprise. The Cumbria Killings can also be an example of this too.
7. Continuity-Events that have initially been defined as news will continue to carry importance in news agenda. The Icelandic eruption being an example.
8. Composition-Many news institutions try to balance there news output,e.g the dead donkey ending things on a more positive note at the end of the news bulletins. An example being the invention of 'Bra Growing'
9.Reference to elite nations-Other major Western nations e.g. USA,Germany,France are more likely to be in the news even if the story is not that significant to the audience e.g. The American Elections
10.Reference to elite persons-Significant people within our nation. An Example would be Prince Harry & William’s tour of Africa.
11. Personalisation-Events which have a personalised twist on them, e.g. large scale NHS story such as the spread of MRSA and through the eyes of someone that has survived it.
12. Negativity-Bad news makes good news! The world cup could again be reported that way.
13. Actuality-If the news station has exclusive interviews or video clips of an event the story is more likely to be reported, where without that they may have less significance with that news bulletin. An example is the amount of attention Sex and the City 2 interviews received.
It is important to note that all news is a construction of choices of image and text
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