NEWSCAST WRITING TECHNIQUES

PREAMBLE

The golden rule for writing about anything is to know what it is because nobody can write about
what he or she does not know.

Therefore it is necessary to understand what a news story is and identify its features before
attempting to write it. Another equally necessary requirement for good writing is sound command of
the language of instruction, in this case Filipino or English language.

Although one of the papers to be presented in this training programme would deal specifically on
the topic, “What is News”, it will not be out of place to quote some scholarly definitions of the word,
“News”.

For example, Mitchel Charnley defined news as “A timely report of events that holds interest or
importance or both for considerable number of people”. Melvin Mencher said, “News is information
that helps people solve their problems intelligently”. According to Lord Northcliffe, “News is what
somebody, somewhere wants to suppress, all the rest is advertising”. In another context, he also
said, “If a dog bites a man, it is no news, but if a man bites a dog it is news”.

News can also be regarded as an event of the day distilled into few words processed by
mechanisms of communication. In fact, definitions of the word news vary depending on various
perspectives. A news story tells exactly what happened at a recent event. It can be about a person,
place, thing or event.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

News writing differs from creative writing as it deals with facts, especially for radio which
emphasizes on hard, solid facts. Writing for the radio calls for more careful word-choice than either
for television or newspaper. This is because whereas newspaper readers can read over a story as
many times as they like and television viewers have the advantage of watching both still and moving
pictures to aid their understanding, the radio listener can only hear the news story being broadcast
once. If he or she misses a sentence or even a word in a news story there is no way he or she can
hear it again. For this reason, there are some key rules which guide reporters on how to produce
good news stories for broadcast on radio.

Everyone knows that the main objective of communication is the exchange of ideas. But such
exchange cannot take place without proper understanding of the message. If the sender and the
receiver of a message do not have a common ground for understanding the idea being
communicated, then the communication would definitely breakdown. Now, the watch-words to look
out for in news writing for radio broadcast are: simplicity, clarity, accuracy and objectivity.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation [B.B.C.] Style Guide, the key to good writing is
simple thoughts simply expressed. The use of long, difficult and unfamiliar words usually defeat the
 NEWSCAST WRITING TECHNIQUES

essence of communication. Due to the transient nature of radio broadcast, it is always better for
news stories to be as accurate and straight forward as possible.

One of the principles for the practice of good journalism is objectivity. A reporter should not be
subjective, biased or take sides when writing a news story. He or she is expected to be fair in
dealing with both the news makers and the messages at hand.

For the reporter to make his or her news story simple, clear, accurate and balanced, the following
instructions must be observed strictly:

1. Understand the message at hand.

2. Write in the subject – verb – object pattern. The closer the verb is to the subject, the easier
it becomes for the listener to follow the sentence. This calls for the use active voice instead
of passive expressions.
3. Use short words and short sentences.
4. Limit a sentence to one idea.
5. Use present tense verbs where appropriate.
6. Avoid the use of foreign or unfamiliar words and jargons.
7. Figurative expressions like metaphor, simile and alliteration among others should be
avoided as news stories are concerned with facts not fiction.
8. Contractions such as: can’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t and so on should be replaced with cannot,
would not, should not and so on.
9. Cliches, otherwise called worn-out phrases only help to compound the problems of radio
listeners especially when used in news stories. Expressions like: leaves much to be desired,
leave no stone unturned, grind to a halt, combing the area for clues, in the pipe line and
many others may sound familiar, but their use in a news story can fault the need for fairness
and accuracy.
10. Tautology or unnecessary repetition of words in a sentence or similar sentences in a news
story must be avoided.
11. Abbreviation of words are not allowed aside from some familiar titles like Dr. or Mr. Similarly,
titles like Alhaji, President, Governor and Chief among others can be used in a news story.
But such titles should not be over used. For example, it is wrong to use more than one title
on a person at the same time like Alhaji Dr Muhammad Amin.
12. Do not start a news story meant for radio broadcast with asking questions or using
quotations as the listener may not understand where the story was heading to.

Now that we have an idea of what the word news entails and the basic tools of the trade, it is still
necessary for the reporter to know what the news story he or she wants to write is all about. This
 NEWSCAST WRITING TECHNIQUES

means the reporter should understand the central theme or the most important aspect of the news
story. That idea will enable the reporter to decide on the best angle to choose for writing the story.
In other words, the reporter must have gathered enough information from news sources and
analyzed it to determine what should be the main focus of the news story before setting out to write.

As a rule, the introductory paragraph of a news story, popularly known as the lead, is the most
important part of the news. It is suppose to capture the interest of the listener and highlights what
the news story is all about. It is usually brief and straight to the point . Although there are many
types of lead, Summary Lead which summarises the most significant facts of news story is often
used in writing for the broadcast. Descriptive Lead which describes events or unknown central
figures in a news story may also be used in certain instances.

STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY

The most common format for writing news stories is the Inverted Pyramid style. This format
arranges the news story in descending order beginning with the most important facts and ending
with the least significant information. If the story begins with unimportant facts, listeners would lose
interest in it. This format allows for and promotes the use of summary lead. The lead is usually
written in a single sentence of not more than thirty words. When a reporter writes a story using the
inverted pyramid style, he or she makes it easier for the News Editor to edit or cut the story from the
bottom without changing its angle.

Clearly linked or even knit to the inverted pyramid format and the lead or opening paragraph are the
fundamental questions news worthy stories must answer whether partially or completely. The
questions popularly known as the 5 Ws & H ask: WHO did WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? WHEN? and
HOW?

Listeners always want to hear answers to such questions whenever a news story is being cast. A
complete news story structure can be formed by finding answers to the 5Ws & H questions.

Usually more than one of the 5Ws & H are condensed in the opening paragraph, especially the
WHO, WHAT and WHEN elements. So it is common to hear the persons, places, things, events and
time involved in a story combined in the lead.

For example: “The National Assembly today passed a law banning under-age marriage in the
country”.

From the example cited above it can be seen that both the National Assembly {WHO} and the ban
on under-age marriage {WHAT} as well as the time element- today {WHEN} are equally significant
to the value of the news story. That is why those key elements are compressed in the lead while
other details follow in subsequent paragraphs.
 NEWSCAST WRITING TECHNIQUES

However if the WHO is a widely known person, place or thing, it is usually the feature or main focus
in the lead as the name alone attracts attention.

For example: “Governor Ibrahim Saminu Turaki has warned public servants in Jigawa state against
bribery and corruption”.

In situations where the event is more important than the person involved, the lead should be WHAT-
based as in the following example: “An earth quake yesterday wiped off several villages near Tel-
Aviv in Israel”.

Sometimes the WHERE element or the place where something occurs may become more
pronounced and dominates other elements in the news story as can be seen in: “Washington D.C.,
the capital of the United States of America records more cases of violent crimes than any other city
in the world”.

In some instances, the time factor in a story carries more weight than the other factors.

For example: “Two years before the next presidential election, some candidates have already
started campaigning for the number one seat in the country”. – or – “Less than one week after he
won the election, Governor King kong of Damuwa state died”.

Similarly, at times the reason why an event occurred can be the most important aspect of a news
story. This would make it more proper for the cause of the event to come first in the news story.

For example: “Following the recent increase in the price of fuel, the prices of other commodities in
the market have also increased”.

Still in other cases how something happens becomes the central issue in the introductory
paragraph. For that reason, it is given prominence in the lead.

For instance: “After hitting a tree, a vehicle loaded with sugar cane overturned yesterday along Lari
road killing the driver”. – or – “An eighteen-year old girl died today when she was knocked down by
a commercial motor cycle along Suzie way in Domie city”.

As earlier stated, once the lead is constructed the most important part of the story has been
established. But another essential aspect of news writing is attribution. Immediately certain
information is broadcast about some thing or somebody, the listener becomes eager to know the
source of the story attributing a news story to a source makes it sound genuine and believable.
Even in situations where the reporter arrived at a story through exclusive investigation, it should be
made known to the listener.

However in some cases the attribution may only be implied. For example, where a story is obtained
on condition that the identity of the source would not be disclosed, the reporter uses such phrases
as, “from a reliable source”, ”according to a an official source” or “a source that prefers to remain
anonymous disclosed that…” and so on. But in such situations the reporter must make sure that
 NEWSCAST WRITING TECHNIQUES

the integrity of the source is really reliable and the information gathered is authentic.

After ensuring proper attribution which normally appears either in the first or second paragraph, the
next thing is to make sure that the rest of the story is given in descending order of importance. To
that end, connecting or tie-in words like: Then, However, Meanwhile, Therefore, But and so on
should be used to establish sequential flow of the story.

In writing the body of the story, the reporter should be selective in giving details as only essential
facts ought to be written. In building up a news story for radio which is meant to be heard by the
listener, reporters must always restrict themselves to the use of indirect quotation. The reporter
should paraphrase the speaker’s words I reported speech. Direct quotation
must be avoided because it can confuse or mislead the listener.

For example: “The chairman of Kwazazzabo local government council yesterday advised farmers
and nomadic Fulani herdsmen to maintain peaceful relationship among them”.

The above example of reported indirect quotation sounds better to the ear than:
“You should maintain peaceful relationship among you”, the chairman of Kwazazzabo local
government council advised farmers and nomadic Fulani herdsmen in the area”.

One disturbing feature of news stories in both radio and television stations in this part of the country
is the repeated use of the phrase, “He said” in a single story. It is very common to hear such
expressions as, “The chairman said”, “He also said”, “In his response, the state Governor said”.
Well there is nothing wrong with such phrases being used in a news story. In fact, they are
essentially employed to paraphrase the speaker’s words. But there are a number of other words or
synonyms that can replace the word “said” depending on the context of the speech.

Words like: acknowledge, added, admitted, advised, agreed, announced, answered, argued,
asked, assured, began, called, cited, claimed, commented, complained, confessed, concluded,
counseled, cried, debated, decide, denied, described, directed, disclosed, emphasized, enjoined,
estimated, explained, insisted, objected, recited, reminded, replied, rejected, remarked, ruled,
responded, revealed, threatened, warned and so on can be used in various stories as substitute for
the frequently abused word, “said”.

Due to the limited time allotted for this training session and this paper in particular, the presentation
would have to stop here until some other time. But a word of advice here is that no matter how
conversant one may be with the rules guiding news writing, experience remains the best guide. So
reporters should cultivate the habit of writing news stories from different angles and ask questions
on how to improve their skills. As the saying goes-we all learn by doing.