Newswriting basics

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The fundamentals of news writing, including headline writing, writing leads, and the inverted pyramid style of writing.

News Values: The criteria that determine the importance of a story for the audience.
Identifying Sources: Learning how to find reliable sources for news stories.
Interviewing Techniques: Learning how to ask the right questions, overcome obstacles, and deal with different types of interviewees.
News Gathering and Reporting: Learning how to gather and evaluate information for a news story.
Style and Structure: Learning how to write in a clear, concise and interesting style that engages the reader.
Ethics in Journalism: Understanding the ethical issues that journalists face when reporting news, such as accuracy, fairness, and privacy.
Newsroom Practices and Organization: Understanding the role of a journalist in a newsroom, the importance of collaboration and the structure of the news industry.
Editing and Proofreading: Understanding the importance of editing and proofreading for accuracy and clarity.
Using Social Media in News Writing: Understanding how to employ social media tools to promote the news story.
Writing for Different Platforms: The nuances of writing for online, mobile and print platforms, including headlines, subheads and story length.
Inverted pyramid: This style of writing presents the most important information at the beginning of the article, followed by the supporting details in descending order of importance. It is a concise and clear method of news writing.
Narrative: This style of writing uses storytelling techniques to present information. It frames the news in a coherent and compelling way, emphasizing on descriptions that create an immersive experience for the reader.
Investigative: This style of writing focuses on exposing secrets, scandals, and wrongdoing. It requires deep research and a high level of detail to uncover and report the story.
News feature: This style of writing uses narrative techniques to draw readers in and convey news in a more engaging way. It often explores more personal or human-interest angles to a story.
Opinion/editorial: This type of writing allows journalists to express their personal opinions on a particular topic. It requires persuasive writing and the ability to present a convincing argument.
Press release: This type of writing is written by organizations, companies, or government entities to announce a newsworthy event or product. Press releases follow a specific format and are tailored towards journalists and media outlets.
News analysis: This style of writing provides an in-depth analysis of a particular news event or issue, exploring the context, background, and potential consequences.
Liveblogging: This style of writing provides real-time updates on an event, often in a chronological order. It requires the journalist to be quick and accurate.
Listicle: This style of writing presents information in a list format. It is often used for news that is easy to digest, and readers can skim through the content easily.
Q&A interviews: This style of writing involves asking a set of questions to someone related to a news event or issue. It helps journalists provide context to a story and allows for direct communication with sources.
"The basic codes and canons commonly appear in statements by professional journalism associations and individual print, broadcast, and online news organizations."
"There are around 400 codes covering journalistic work around the world."
"The principles of truthfulness, accuracy and fact-based communications, independence, objectivity, impartiality, fairness, respect for others and public accountability."
"Like many broader ethical systems, the ethics of journalism include the principle of 'limitation of harm'."
"The withholding of certain details from reports, such as the names of minor children, crime victims' names, or information not materially related to the news report where the release of such information might, for example, harm someone's reputation or put them at undue risk."
"There has also been discussion and debate within the journalism community regarding appropriate reporting of suicide and mental health, particularly with regard to verbiage."
"Some journalistic codes of ethics, notably some European codes, also include a concern with discriminatory references in news based on race, religion, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities."
"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe approved (in 1993) Resolution 1003 on the Ethics of Journalism."
"The principles of truthfulness, accuracy and fact-based communications, independence, objectivity, impartiality, fairness, respect for others, and public accountability."
"These apply to the gathering, editing and dissemination of newsworthy information to the public."
"The principles of truthfulness, accuracy and fact-based communications."
"The principles of... independence, objectivity, impartiality, fairness..."
"The principles of... respect for others and public accountability."
"This may involve enhanced respect for vulnerable groups and the withholding of certain details from reports."
"Like many broader ethical systems, the ethics of journalism include the principle of 'limitation of harm'."
"Some journalistic codes of ethics... include a concern with discriminatory references in news based on race, religion, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities."
"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe approved (in 1993) Resolution 1003 on the Ethics of Journalism, which recommends that journalists respect the presumption of innocence, in particular in cases that are still sub judice."
"...where the release of such information might, for example, harm someone's reputation or put them at undue risk."
"There has also been discussion and debate within the journalism community regarding appropriate reporting of suicide and mental health, particularly with regard to verbiage."
"Professional journalism associations and individual print, broadcast, and online news organizations."