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types of news stories

The Straightforward News Story This is the product of the usual routine reporting. Most of the stories published in our commercial newspapers are straightforward news stories. Such stories are never interpreted, editorialised or laden with reporter’s biases and prejudices. They are stories objectively and anchored on facts. The reporter adds or subtracts nothing from the facts on which the story is based. A straightforward news story may be short or long, but it can hardly be long enough to occupy three-quarters of a page or a whole page. As a rule, its lead must answer to the 5Ws and H and the story, as a whole must leave no questions unanswered. The story must be simple, accurate concise and understandable. As stated earlier, straightforward news story may be subdivided into hard news, soft news and human-interest news.
1  Hard News Hard news stories are stories that deal with government, economic, social and political policies. They are stories with a lot of facts and figures. Stories concerning the annual budget, political and economic programmes are all hard news stories.
 2  Soft News These are stories about trends, fashion, entertainment personalities and lifestyles. The time element is not too emphasised in writing such news stories.
3  Human Interest News These are stories valued more for their emotional impact or oddity. They usually arouse human feelings and conjure up sentiments and emotions in the persons who read them.

 5  Expected News Expected News is anticipated and therefore planned for. It usually flows from events that are scheduled in advance
The Straightforward News Story This is the product of the usual routine reporting. Most of the stories published in our commercial newspapers are straightforward news stories. Such stories are never interpreted, editorialised or laden with reporter’s biases and prejudices. They are stories objectively and anchored on facts. The reporter adds or subtracts nothing from the facts on which the story is based. A straightforward news story may be short or long, but it can hardly be long enough to occupy three-quarters of a page or a whole page. As a rule, its lead must answer to the 5Ws and H and the story, as a whole must leave no questions unanswered. The story must be simple, accurate concise and understandable. As stated earlier, straightforward news story may be subdivided into hard news, soft news and human-interest news.

6  Hard News Hard news stories are stories that deal with government, economic, social and political policies. They are stories with a lot of facts and figures. Stories concerning the annual budget, political and economic programmes are all hard news stories.

7  Soft News These are stories about trends, fashion, entertainment personalities and lifestyles. The time element is not too emphasised in writing such news stories.

8  Human Interest News These are stories valued more for their emotional impact or oddity. They usually arouse human feelings and conjure up sentiments and emotions in the persons who read them.

9  Expected News Expected News is anticipated and therefore planned for. It usually flows from events that are scheduled in advance

Stringer: A correspondent, not a regular staff member of the media organization, who is usually paid per story. Could also be regarded as a freelancer.
• Stet: Let it stand, restore.
• SOF: “Sound on Film recorded” simultaneously with the picture.
 • SOT: “Sound on Tape” recorded simultaneously with picture on tape. • Split page: Front page of an inside section. Also known as the break page, second front page.
• Text: Verbatim report of a speech or public statement.
 • Tip: Information passed to a reporter, often in confidence.
 • Trim: To reduce a news story carefully.
• Update: This is a story that brings the reader up-to-date on a situation already in the news.
• V/O: Reporter’s voice over pictures. Also called “voice over.”
• VTR: Videotape recording.
• Wire services: This is a synonym for press agencies or news agencies. Media organisations usually subscribe to these agencies for news stories, and so on

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Handout: This is the term for written publicity or special interest news sent to a newspaper firm.
• HFR: This abbreviation stands for “Hold for Release” material that cannot be used until it is released by the source or at a designated time. It is also used to tag a story as “embargoed”.
• Jump: This means continuation of a story from page one to another page.
• Kill: This refers to elimination of a news story or refusal to use it because it is not news worthy. This also means to spike a story.
• Log:  This refers to schedule of broadcasting.
• LTK: This abbreviation stands for “lead to come” usually placed after the slug. This means the lead will be supplied later.
• Make up: This is also called layout or design. This is the arrangement of body type, headlines, and illustrations into pages.  
• Masthead: This is refers to the heading on the editorial page that gives information about the newspaper. This is sometimes confused with Flag or Nameplate.
• Must:  This is the designation placed on a copy to indicate that it must be run or published.
• More: This is the designation used at the end of a page of copy to indicate there are one or more additional pages.
• Morgue: This refers to the newspaper library, where published stories photographs and resource materials are stored for reference purposes. • Mix: Combining two or more sound elements into one.
• Montage: This refers to series of brief shots of various subjects to give a single impression or communicate one idea.
• News hole: This refers to a space in a newspaper allotted to news, illustrations and other nonadvertising material.
• O/C: This stands for “On camera.” It used to describe a reporter delivering copy directly to the camera without covering pictures.
• Outtakes: These scenes are discarded for the final story.
 • Op-ed page: Abbreviation for the page opposite the editorial page.
• Precede: A story written prior to an event. It could also be referred to as the section of a story preceding the lead.
• Put to bed: Closing the forms of an edition.
• Rewrite: To write a story a second time to make it better or to condense it.
• Sacred cow: Slang for a subject or story in which the publishers or editors are interested and which must be printed.
• Scoop: See exclusive.
• Slug: The word or words placed on a copy to designate the story. This is usually placed in the top left hand corner of the page

Other terminologies in news room and journalism

Crony Journalism: This kind of reporting and coverage ignores or treats lightly negative news of about friends and acquaintances.
• Continuity: This refers to all radio and television scripts besides commercials
• Cue (Noun): This is a signal to an announcer, a newscaster or production personnel to participate in a broadcast.
• Cub: This term is used to describe a beginning reporter.
• Cutaway: This refers to the transition shot from them to another. It is used to avoid jamb cut.
• Deadline: This refers to the time in which a reporter, editor or desk must have completed scheduled work for the day.
• Dateline: This refers to the name of the city or town and date, which are placed at the beginning of stories not of local origin.
• Credit line: This is line designates, if necessary, the source of a story or cut “By NAN–News Agency of Nigeria”.
• Dry: This refers to a period lacking in news. It is also called a lull period.
• Dolly: This refers to a camera platform.
• Dub: This refers to the transfer of one videotape to another.
• Exclusive: This refers to a story that is printed solely by one newspaper or an individual. This could also be called a “scoop”.
• Edition: This refers to one version of a newspaper per day.
• Editorial material: This means all materials in the newspaper that is advertising related.
• Enterprise copy: This is a story often covered by a reporter. It is like a news story but digs deeper than the usual news story.
• Establishing shot: This is a wide shot used to give the viewer a sense of the scene of action.
• Fade: This refers to either physical or mechanical lowering of a voice or music to smooth a transition between sounds.
• File: To send a story to office usually by wire or telephone or to put news services on the wire.
• Filler: This refers to minor news materials used to fill up spaces in the newspaper. It is also called column closers and shorts.
• Flag: This is the printed title of a newspaper on page 1. It is also called logotype or nameplate.
• Folo: This is a story that follows up a particular theme in a news story format.
• FM: This refers to Frequency Modulation you must be Familia with this one, right?.
• Freelance: This refers to an unattached writer, reporter, photojournalist or columnist who writes for a media organisation for a fee.  • Graf: This is an abbreviation for paragraph

News room/studio terminologies
Most of the definitions provided in this section were compiled from the Press Association, Reporters’ Companion, Mencher (2010), online searches and media related dictionaries.
• Add: Additional news matter to a story already written or is about to be written.
• Assignment: This is an order to a reporter to cover an event. Assignment is the day’s job given to a reporter to cover by his or her news editor or direct boss.
• Attribution: This means the identification of the person being quoted in the reporter’s story. You only attribute a story to a source if he or she gives such information on record
Actuality: This is an on-the-scene report in broadcasting. • Airtime: The time at which a programme is broadcast. • Audio: Sound • Background: Information that may be used by a writer entirely on his own responsibility and cannot be attributed even to a “reliable source”. The reporter can only use information given on background on his or her own risk.  • Banner: These are headlines written across or near the top of most newspaper page. It is also called a Streamer or Streaming headline.
• Beat: This is the area assigned to a reporter for regular coverage. A beat could be a place or a subject. For instance, State House Correspondent has the State House as his/her beat while Energy Correspondent has issues related to energy as his or her beat. In the US, beat could also be regarded as an exclusive story.
• Break: This is when a news development becomes known and available.
• Beeper: A telephone conversation or interview recorded for later playback on air.
• Body type: The type in which most of the newspaper is set, usually 8- or 9-point type.
• Bulletin: News of the day as presented in each of the media organisations.
• By line: This refers to the name of the author of a story or the name of the reporter who wrote a particular story.
• Bulldog: This is an early edition, usually the first of a newspaper’s edition for the day.
• Caps:  This refers to capital letters or uppercase letters.
• Caption: This is synonymous with cutline. It is the explanatory lines above or below a newspaper photograph, illustration or diagram.
• Column: This refers to the vertical division of the news page which is usually divided into about five or more columns. It could also be regarded as a signed article of opinion or strong personal expression by an expert.
• Copy: This refers to the news story or report.
• Copy Flow: This refers to the flow of a news story from the reporter to the news desk and to the editor who makes the final decision as to use the story or not. • CAR: This is an acronym for Computer Assisted Reporting- the use of online databases and other related resources for the of a news story. Some refer to it as Database Journalism while others call it Precision Journalism

The Components of News in writting and reporting

So far, we have been discussing the determinants of news. In this section, we shall be examining the components or the contents of news. A component is a constituent part of something. They tend to have more news values or higher news values than stories that lack them. The more of news components you find in a story, the higher the news worthiness of such a story.  Many items could easily fall into the components of news. However, we shall discuss eight that always sell a story anytime it is a content of such story. The eight components of news are: 1.  Age  
2 Animal    
3.Sex    
4.Conflict  
5.Money  
6.Children  
7.Beauty  
8.Human
 interest News Virtues Now that what news is and what determines readers’ interest in a story have been discussed, reporters should strive to make the news they publish or broadcast win the credibility and confidence of their readers and listeners by adhering firmly to the triple news virtues. These triple news virtues are: Truth All news stories must represent factual events and personalities.  The reporter should also ensure that the facts of the News are truthful to the best of his/her knowledge before publishing or broadcasting such story
Objectivity Objectivity presupposes that the reporter presents the reader with all sides of an issue, presents all the facts and allows the reader to decide what these facts mean.  For a story to be objective, it must be devoid of a reporter’s biases and prejudice.  It must not also be slanted or editorialised. Accuracy This is the last news virtue.  Accuracy is a pillar on which every story rests.  A news story can be regarded as accurate if all names, ages, addresses and direct quotations in the story are accurate or correct. The only way to meet this requirement is for the reporter to check, doublecheck or even triple-check his facts before going to the press.
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