HARD NEWS STORY

* Home
* Quick Syllabus
* V for Vendetta: Victory for Muslims in U.K

Posts Tagged HARD NEWS STORY
Covering Hard News

THE HARD NEWS STORY

• A news story is a timely story about an issue, event , person or topic that many people are interested in.

• A news story is designed to inform the reader of something in a crisp, concise, easily-read manner.

• Each paragraph should develop a single thought and one-sentence paragraphs should often be used.

• Generally, keep sentences short, but vary their lengths..

• Check and re-check your facts.

• Always use both a person’s first and second names in the first reference and be absolutely sure of the spelling.

• Where possible, try to use quotes and be sure they are near the top of the story.

• Never use “I” or “we” in a hard news story. Those words belong in columns.

• Be fair and accurate and don’t let your own views creep into the story.

Only columnists and editorials writers are supposed to give opinions.

• Avoid the trap of starting almost every sentence with “The”.

• Avoid clichés like the plague. (Think about that for a moment!)

• Don’t start writing until you’re sure you understand the situation and if you’re

doubt, go back to the source and check.

• Don’t use big words when shorter words will do just as well.

Hard News, Soft News

Hard news, soft news and infotainment

Hard news and soft news are terms for describing a relative difference between poles in a spectrum within the broader news trade—with "hard" journalism at the professional end and "soft" infotainment at the other. Because the term "news" is quite broad, the terms "hard" and "soft" denote both a difference in respective standards for news value, as well as for standards of conduct, relative to the professional ideals of journalistic integrity.

The idea of hard news embodies two orthogonal concepts:

* Seriousness: Politics, economics, crime, war, and disasters are considered serious topics, as are certain aspects of law, science, and technology.
* Timeliness: Stories that cover current events—the progress of a war, the results of a vote, the breaking out of a fire, a significant public statement, the freeing of a prisoner, an economic report of note.

The logical opposite, soft news is sometimes referred to in a derogatory fashion as infotainment. Defining features catching the most criticism include:

* The least serious subjects: Arts and entertainment, sports, lifestyles, "human interest", and celebrities.
* Not timely: There is no precipitating event triggering the story, other than a reporter's curiosity.

Timely events happen in less serious subjects—sporting matches, celebrity misadventures, movie releases, art exhibits, and so on.

There may also be serious reports which are not event-driven—coverage of important social, economic, legal, or technological trends; investigative reports which uncover ongoing corruption, waste, or immorality; or discussion of unsettled political issues without any special reason. Anniversaries, holidays, the end of a year or season, or the end of the first 100 days of an administration, can make some stories time-sensitive, but provide more of an opportunity for reflection and analysis than any actual "news" to report.

The spectrum of "seriousness" and "importance" is not well-defined, and different media organizations make different tradeoffs. "News you can use", a common marketing phrase highlighting a specific genre of journalism, spans the gray area. Gardening tips and hobby "news" pretty clearly fall at the entertainment end. Warnings about imminent natural disasters or acute domestic security threats (such as air raids or terrorist attacks) are considered so important that broadcast media (even non-news channels) usually interrupt other programming to announce them. A medical story about a new treatment for breast cancer, or a report about local ground water pollution might fall in between. So might book reviews, or coverage of religion. On the other hand, people frequently find hobbies and entertainment to be worthwhile parts of their lives and so "importance" on a personal level is rather subjective.

Infotainment

Infotainment, combining information with entertainment , is a fairly recent neologism for a television program, Web site feature, or other presentation that combines information with entertainment. Most of today's popular fact-based television shows, such as those on the Animal Planet channel, could be classed as infotainment.

Serious information publishing sites such as those of TechTarget.com (including whatis.com) provide a limited amount of infotainment in the form of user polls, quizes, and contests.
Infotainment (a portmanteau of information and entertainment) refers to a general type of media broadcast program which provides a combination of current events news and "feature news", or "features stories".

Infotainment also refers to the segments of programming in television news programs which overall consist of both "hard news" segments and interviews, along with celebrity interviews and human drama stories. Critics have claimed the combination of the two aspects is a conflict of interest by corporate news outlets—focusing on marketing, not journalism. The term "infotainment" thus may be a pejorative among those who hold professional journalistic values in esteem. Infotainment should not be confused with documentaries, educational television, or hard news programming. These go more in depth of the subjects they cover and can even provide classroom level instruction in areas such as mathematics, science, biology, or writing, etc.

Infotainment may also be found, not only in broadcast media, but also in retail environments whereby display material containing information about the features and benefits of various products on display is combined with style, color, even sound, to provide a shopping "experience" - such "retail infotainment" is often referred to as retailtainment.

Infotainment usually covers a long-term change or point of interest, or a general trend—an aspect of the zeitgeist. Many such stories as those cover topics such as health tips or gardening tips, exploring television show genres, travel, shopping, yachting or exploring new wines—topics that are not actually "news" at all, in the sense of things that are currently happening. Other stories deal with something that is happening, but is gradual, rather than tied to a single event—a new music genre coming into prominence, a shift in tide in the political views of the nation, a new turn in teen attitudes about sexuality, a commonality among political candidates, the returning appeal of the retro styles and memories of a past decade, crazes like Tamagotchi or Furby, or a common thread among current events that reveals something about the times.