CHAPTER 2 BASIC NEWSWRITING

What elements make a news story and how are they used to construct a story?

If you were to pose these questions to a group of reporters, it is probable that no two of them would give the same responses. However, all would most likely include in their answers a similar list of elements they consider necessary for a story to be newsworthy.

This chapter will include this "list" of sorts and other essentials that will help you be successful in writing the basic news story.

BASIC ELEMENTS OF A NEWS STORY

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Identify the basic elements of a news story.

For the purposes of this TRAMAN, we will use the following 10 categories as those covering the major elements of news:

Immediacy

Proximity

Consequence

Conflict

Oddity Sex Emotion Prominence

Suspense

Progress

If any one of these elements is present, a story has news value, but many stories contain more than one element. Remember this latter fact as you study the material that follows because even though the 10 elements are used as the framework of this discussion, several of the examples given might just as well be discussed under different elements.

Remember, too, that this is just one possible classification; another textbook might have classified

these elements in slightly different categories. Rather than memorizing a set of categories, your chief concern will be to develop your understanding of what constitutes an interesting news story.

IMMEDIACY

A story that has just happened is news; one that happened a few days ago is history. Immediacy is timeliness. Few events of major significance can stand up as news if they fail to meet the test of timeliness. There is no point in submitting a news release on a routine change of command that occurred four days ago; the event is not big enough to overcome the time lag. A newspaper looks foolish if it publishes a news story, and after reading it, a subscriber says, "I heard about that two days ago."

However, an event that occurred sometime ago may still be timely if it has just been revealed. Examples are a newly discovered diary of John Paul Jones or the disclosure of a startling scientific accomplishment that occurred months ago, but has just been declassified. In these cases, the immediacy element revolves around the fact that the news was revealed or disclosed today. An up-to-the-minute touch is provided by words such as "newly disclosed," "revealed," "divulged" or "announced today."

PROXIMITY

Readers are interested in what happens close to them. Proximity is the nearness of an event to the readers or listeners and how closely it touches their lives. People are interested mainly in themselves, their families, their ships or stations, their friends and their home towns. If Capt. Gunn relieves Capt. Stone as commanding officer of Naval Station Annapolis, it is news in the Annapolis, Baltimore and Washington areas and in the two officers' home towns. It is not news in Huntsville, Ala., where no one knows either captain or cares particularly who commands a naval station in Maryland. Improvement or progress stories are important in their degree of proximity.

The Navy's home town news program is based on this element. When Thomas Katt, Seaman Apprentice, USN, reports to USS Pine, it is news for his hometown paper. Back home in Hialeah, Fla., he is not Navy Seaman Apprentice Thomas Katt. He is Mr. Michael Katt's son, Thomas, who used to help his father rebuild homes devastated by Hurricane Andrew. He is someone the readers know. The element of proximity is present to a high degree. Further information on home town news may be frond in Chapter 17.

CONSEQUENCE

News of change or news that affects human relations is news of consequence. The more people affected, the greater the news value. A story on the advancement of 1,500 petty officers has consequence within the Navy, especially to those who took the exams. A congressional act that raises the pay of everyone in the armed forces is of great consequence both to the Navy and to the public, which foots the bill and also benefits from the increased purchasing power of the serviceman or servicewoman.

CONFLICT

Sporting events, wars and revolutions are the most common examples of conflict in the news. Man maybe pitted against man, team against team, nation against nation or man against the natural elements. A story about a pilot struggling to land a crippled plane or a coxswain's heroic efforts to keep his crowded boat from swamping in heavy seas are other examples.

ODDITY

The unusual or strange will help lift a story out of the ordinary. If an ordinary pilot parachuted out of an ordinary plane with an ordinary parachute and makes an ordinary landing, there is no real news value. However, if the aviator has only one leg, this is news; or if the parachute fails to open and the pilot lands safely, this is news. A sailor named B. A. Sailor is a good angle. So is the helicopter that towed a ship, the man that bit his dog or the plane that landed even though the pilot had bailed out.

SEX

Sometimes sex is the biggest single element in news, or at least it appears to be the element that attracts readers the most. Consider all the stories in papers that involve men and women - sports, financial news, society and crime. Sex, in discussing news elements, covers far more than a Hollywood star's impending visit to your command. The element of sex ranges from front-page sensationalism to news involving engagements and marriages.

Stories and accompanying pictures of movie stars or other prominent celebrities visiting your ship or station can be loaded with sex. Nevertheless, any type of news that overemphasizes the "cheesecake" element is considered to be in poor taste for an official Navy release and is to be avoided.

EMOTION

The emotional element, sometimes called the human interest element, covers all the feelings that human beings have, including happiness, sadness, anger, sympathy, ambition, hate, love, envy, generosity and humor. Emotion is comedy; emotion is tragedy; it is the interest man has in mankind. A good human interest story can range from a real "tearjerker" to a rollicking farce.

PROMINENCE

Prominence is a one-word way of saying "names make news." When a person is prominent, like the President of the United States, almost anything he does is newsworthy - even his church attendance. Several hundred civilians may visit your ship or station in the course of a month without raising a stir. Yet, if one happens to be the governor of the state, you have a news story packed with prominence. Prominence is not restricted or reserved for VIPS only. Some places, things and events have prominence. For example, the White House (a place), the Hope Diamond (a thing) and Christmas (an event) all awaken interest.

SUSPENSE

You most often see the suspense element in a day-by-day or hour-by-hour account of a desperate search for a lost submarine, in a story of rescue operations in a mine where workers are trapped or in the efforts made to rescue a Navy diver trapped in the wreckage of a sunken ship. A news story does not build to a climax as a mystery does. Still, putting the most important facts first does not destroy the suspense of many stories because the ultimate outcome is unknown and is usually revealed in progressive, periodic installments.

PROGRESS

In our technologically advanced society, we are interested in space exploration. Therefore, developments of more powerful and advanced rockets to propel manned space flights are of great interest to most Americans.

Progress does not have to be dramatic. For example, an improvement in mooring lines, shoe leather or paper clips can be significant progress. There is a great deal of progress in Navy news stories. The Navy is constantly making progress in seamanship, weapons systems, aeronautics, nuclear propulsion, medicine, habitability, education, human relations, leadership and other fields.