Week 5 - WINOL: Debrief

There is no personality in news, we should be writing like robots. 

The text stories online are very poor this week, as training journalists we need to practise our news writing. We should not rely on the sub editors to completely change the story. Read the papers daily, you need to be aware of the news agenda every day, keeping ourselves briefed on breaking news. Listen to the Today Programme, or local radio stations to keep informed.

Structure:

Headlines: Subject Verb Object

Subject to verb must agree on tense, case, plurals
The subject must be capable of  producing the action in the verb e.g "The cat sat on the mat" - this is a perfect english sentence - 'sat' is the logical verb that the subject 'cat' is capable of.
Passive voice - 'The mat was sat on by the cat" - although still logically correct,  keep to the active voice.

Top line - Who What When Where Why

Mood follows - Why has it happened?

Quotes 

If you lift a quote, you need to attribute the source, e.g 'he said in a statement'

Tip- Verbs of attribution - date the statement, e.g 'said last week', 'said today'. 

Ultimate quotes - 'It's a nightmare' and 'It's a dream come true'

Partial quotes - we don't use ellipsis '...' 'quote,' he said, adding 'quote'

Punctuating your quotes:

He said: "This is a nightmare."

He said it was a "nightmare".

"This is a nightmare," he said. 

"Every time you have a fact you need to diffuse it like a bomb disposal,

if you don't check it [facts], it'll blow up." - Horrie

Comment Vs Fact

Fact - Independently verifiable statement - always in the reporters voice - cross checking, fact checking and research is so crucial, the more facts you have the more valuable your journalism is.

If your facts have not been checked, and you are unsure, either leave it out, or fudge it. You do not have to always be right but you must never be wrong.

Comment - This is everything else - always in the interviewees voice - do not try to pass off comment as fact.

After para 2/3 - people begin to zone out - pack it out with quotes and facts.

To recap:

• Write simple, declarative, active headlines
• Do not comment in your own voice
• Verify your facts, leave it out or fudge it
• Do not lift quotes without attributing the source
• Punctuate your quotes correctly
• Don't wait for editors to sub your grammar

Week 2 - WINOL: News Editor Update

News writing
All reporters need to have a written story up on the website every week - follow this checklist when writing your stories:
1. Headlines - 'subject, verb, object' - do not use adjectives
2. Top line - 5 w's - must begin with people -  banned from starting with a body e.g. Hampshire County Council
3. Main body - facts must always be right, and from original source - 'you don't always have to be right but you must never be wrong'
4. Quotes - essential to bring the story to life
5. Photograph - to illustrate the story, crucial for viewers on the website
6. Figures: above 10 and below 3 include number otherwise write the word e.g. 'five'

Packages
Don't try to be original, this is news do it exactly how its been done before and how you see it on TV. VTs must:
1. Begin with your best pictures - engage the viewer from the start - don't begin with a piece to camera
2. Rich NAT SOT at the start to accompany visual
3. Views must be balanced

Things to think about wh Meadeen filming:
1. Lighting - white balance cameras, check shot is not over exposed, do not film in front of a window or in a really dark room!
2. Framing - rule of thirds, don't be afraid to get in close to your interviewee
3. Audio - radio mic your interviewee, check your sound levels before you interview them it should not be peaking but the green bar should be passed the half way mark, move the channel dials up and make sure you are on manual so that you are in control!
4. Shots - film sequence shots to link into your interviews you need to have lots of rushes and cut aways to cover jump cuts. Editing will be made so much easier if you have a variety of shots, be creative with your angles, hold your shots, zooms and pans are now banned - avoid this my taking varied wide shots and close ups.
5. Interviews - do not introduce the interviewee e.g. "I went down to speak to..." We can see this!

News conference
Reporters this week has the potential to be great, we have a good mix of stories - just need to pull the interviews through and make the calls.

Tom -  Court report - Brilliant text story already up on the website, just get the mug shot up online now to positively identify the defendant. This story has received a lot of press already so I'm really impressed you got this story from court. Try get hold of any photographs from police that can visually boost your package. Aim for 40-60 seconds PTC outside court, speak slowly and clearly to keep viewer engaged.
Lucy - New baby Zebra born in Marwell Zoo - This is going to make a really nice 'and finally' package - keep it simple, lots of quality shots of the zebra and the zoo will bring this story to life, push to get hold of a zoo keeper, but the main focus here is the zebra so think about angles and varied shots. Do your PTC inside the zoo, no guilty signs we know you are there, we want to see something interesting and relevant in the background.
Harvey - Half built hotel on cricket ground - This story is a great local story which will interest our audience, we established Eastleigh Borough Council is investing therefore push to get an interview with a council representative, e.g. Keith House. Well done for getting access into the grounds, film loads of rushes so when it comes to editing you have lots to play with.
Emma - 177,000 6 year olds cannot read or write - I know you're doing your best to contact local schools, keep pushing as visually you want to have the subject straight at the top of your package, without the children baring in mind the legal issues this package has the danger to be visually weak. Contacting the university education department for their view will work well and localise the story.
Nadine - Well done for getting access tomorrow into the announcement of UKIPs regional representatives for the European elections, good work on using your contacts and organising an interview with Diane James, grab as many political figures as you can, with the help of Alex this will be a great political story which you already plan to localise with the south east region representative. Good luck tomorrow, keep me updated. Alex please Tweet as the day goes on with any breaking updates and take some stills so we can use them for text stories.
Ellen - Scientists reveal pollution is destroying bees smell - Great idea to use stock footage and show the clip from 'earlier in the year', this is a good development story, stock footage of the bees will lift the package, be a bonus to get a beekeeper and you doing a PTC in the outfit. I know you've made lots of calls already and you are just waiting to hear back from them, hopefully the scientist and beekeeper will be in touch. 

Zenna - 'Stoptober' awareness -  Fantastic work this week, you had already organised your interviews and have spoken with a nurse already. I know you're in contact with someone who is doing Stoptober, with the case study this piece will be brilliant, get lots of cut aways of cigarettes, smoke and remember what I said about being creative with the scripting and shots, this can be a really visually led story. Well done for taking on board what I said about the lighting and interesting backdrops, from what i've seen already you have listened to what I said.
Calum - Loads of ideas again this week, keep them in the pipeline, the national park story will attract our local audience so I am pleased your running with this one. The others were a bit news weak, but the ACSO story can be developed on when you find a news angle. Good work getting an interview organised with Councillor Mel Kendal, film sequence shots with him to tie into his interview, and avoid pans of the green space, just hold the shots.
Spence - Compass meeting tomorrow - keep in mind that we may need to recycle some of this meeting and put it in to the bulletin. I've seen the coffee house session edit, really well done for all your hard work editing please get it up soon as you can.
Liam - You're working on a feature this week, but good work trying to push for several different news stories this week.

Sport - Tom Baxter - great news to hear you covered the match with three cameras looking forward to seeing the footage. Once I've seen the features I can decide if we need to fill space in the bulletin but we will keep in contact.

Main notes from editors meeting is that we need to continue to boost our public profile online, keep tweeting please its crucial to target relevant audiences. 

We are also looking to produce a 'contact page' online so that people can contact us with ideas they may have.

Good Luck to everyone with their stories, remember we want quality sound and visuals, as well as amazing content!

Brother Brawls with Bouncer

A 22-year-old man has been convicted of affray after he punched a bouncer who was trying to get his brother to leave.

Winchester Crown Court heard that Nicholas Lauro, from Glebe Lane, Hartley Wintney, went out with his brothers to Jaxx nightclub in Fleet, October 2011.

When Nicholas’ brother refused to leave the club, the bouncer pushed him away from the door and forced him to the ground.

It was when other bouncers left the club to help their colleague, who was struggling to keep the brother on the ground, that Nicholas Lauro got involved and punched a bouncer. It was all caught on CCTV.

The judge, Miss Recorder Lamb, sentenced him to 200 hours of unpaid work and fined him £300 for prosecution costs. He was further punished by the Pubwatch scheme that banned him from drinking in the Fleet Area.

News and Features

'People come for the news, but stay for the features" 

News is information that is happening now. It's breaking news and therefore a current discovery. It is about what people are doing, it most certainly is not their opinion.

Features are factual and about news, but not in the sense that it is happening immediately.

Features are important in setting the 'tone' of the newspaper, whereas news is just news the consumer has very little option in choosing between one title and another.

There are several differences between News and Features:
NEWS:
The news agenda is 'events-led'

• Consumer is told about the news in a brief and summarising way
• It is aimed at a wide audience, the whole public
• The length of a news story can vary
• There are defined styles of writing news
• Pictures are useful
• News is published instantly by staff reporters

FEATURES:

Features are production-led (fitting to schedule and structure of magazine or newspaper)

• Consumer sees the feature in a lengthy and detailed format
• It is aimed at a 'niche' readership
• The length is fixed by editorial structure 
• There are many types of styles but also generic styles too
• Pictures and graphics are essential 
• The feature will be published according to schedule by production staff and freelancers

Examples of broadcasts which consist of news, features or both are as follows:

Monthly Magazines > Entirely Features 

Rolling TV or Radio News > Entirely News

Newspapers > Mixture of News and Features 

Scheduled Shows e.g The Today Programme > Mixture of news with mini-features 

Broadsheet Newspapers > Now run feature 'puffs' which are adverts for articles above the titles, so when you see the paper folded in the news agents, it is the 'puffs' which potential purchasers see. 

There are several different formats for features:

1. Confessional Interview - This is when a person is 'confessing' about something in their private lives or telling us about a personal experience, it gains general human interest as people can read and relate to "My True Story..."

Closer Magazine 25 June 2011

2. Photojournalism - This is a key feature in print, the craft of photographic story-telling is vital to capture character and personality of an individual and to help us visualise events. 

3. Profiles - This is when words and facts are used to paint a picture of somebody, essentially a living obituary. 

4. Consumer Reviews/Art Reviews -  Reviews answer two questions; What is it? Is it any good?

5. Comment/Analysis - This is simply what we say

6. News Feature -  These are "wrap-up news articles" which are printed around news pages or during a scheduled news bulletin. 

7. Feature Interview - This is reporter led, the reporter and the interviewee e.g celebrity star in this feature. The whole feature is based around this interview, typical style of interview is based on "Your chance to meet the real...". 

8. Investigations - This is where the journalist initiates the story rather then following what has happened in court, parliament, council or other schedule meetings. It's a story not on the news agenda, it has been discovered and investigated. 

9. Observational - This is where journalists act as a 'fly on the wall' overseeing events and reporting it, it's about painting pictures with words.

10. Reader Response - This used to be where readers would send letters and write in, but now it is more technologically led, e.g internet responses such as emails, twitter and reply forms 'have your say'.

News Writing - Lecture 2

Today was our second news writing session, and we're already topping the BBC's top lines.
Learning from your own and others mistakes is the best way of improving, I can prove that by sharing with you the top three tips I took from today's session:
1. Keep it simple, no one wants to read overly complicated and discombobulating words
e.g Use the word "car" not "vehicle" 
2. Choose language carefully, make sure that what you are writing is not misleading and therefore wrong.
3. Do not put unnecessary words in, avoid baggage and keep words where possible minimal.
e.g Fresh Fish Sold Here - all you need is "Fish"


Here is the article I wrote:

A 13-year-old boy has been confirmed dead after a collision between a Land Rover and pedestrian yesterday afternoon.

Police and emergency services arrived at the scene at 2pm where they found the young boy from Crowsborough suffering from serious injuries. He later died in East Surrey Hospital. The driver and his passengers are uninjured.

A 62-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of careless driving. Further enquires are due to follow but he has been released on bail until January 16th, 2012.

Officers ask anyone with information who witnessed the collision to inform Sussex Police on 101. Please quote Operation Fairlight.

The BBC's version can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-15976552
After re-reading my article, I would remove the last para after it was brought to our attention how silly it is to ask for witnesses. If you happen to be at the scene and are a good citizen, course you would inform someone, you wouldn't walk away and leave it up to a newspaper article to make you realise you should actually let someone know. I hope!

News Writing - Lecture 1

What is news you ask? Well, let me tell you...
"News is about people doing stuff" 
It is current happenings, and therefore is new.

News can be split into two sections:
Hard News = Crime, Politics, Natural Disaster
Soft News = Entertainment, Animals

Here is an example of a soft news story that I wrote in this mornings lecture; It is my first attempt, so any mistakes I'll take as a learning curve:

A Hedgehog was found in a sewer in Christchurch, Bournemouth, he has been released back in to the wild unharmed.

Engineers were equipped with a robotic CCTV camera, to observe the conditions of the pipe when they came across the creature hibinating there. “We were extremely surprised to see the hedgehog” Roz Trotman reports.

Staff encouraged the hedgehog to move along the sewer, in order for it to be resuced from a manhole cover point. Flow surveyor is “thrilled that it is now back on safe ground.”

The hedgehog is now among other animals such as a grass snake and a toad found earlier this year.

When writing news, in its simplest form, we must cover the 5 W's:
WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHY?

The News Pyramid:News stories are split into paras:
Intro - This has to contain the most important and interesting information. 
You begin with a top line,  this must be between 20-25 words, covering the 5 W's above.
Para 2 - Elaborate on important information, include quotes, this adds colour
Para 3 - Chronology, add more detail
Para 4 - More detail, loose ends

Hopefully, the example of my first mini news story above grasps this format, but i'm guessing practice makes perfect :)