BASIC NEWS WRITING Ohlone College（基本的新闻写作表示大学）.pdf

BASIC NEWS WRITING The ABCs of news writing are Accuracy, wouldnt be obvious to the average person. The Brevity and Clarity. more information you gather, the more you have The first and most important is accuracy -- a to sift through to determine what belongs in the story can be creative and compelling, but if it lead. The more you know, the harder it is to tell contains errors, it is worthless. it quick and make it simple. Its only easy if you Actually, it is worse than worthless; a false dont know what youre talking about. No one news story undercuts the public trust necessary said good reporting is easy. for the survival of a free press. Keep in mind that the First Amendment specifically protects the THE GATEKEEPER press from government control so that the public Who decides what stories will be printed in can receive accurate and unbiased information. the Monitor? Who picks the stories for the 10 The public needs unbiased information to make OClock News on Channel 2? Journalists make intelligent choices in the voting booth. This is those decisions, and when they do, they are per- critical to the process of democracy in our coun- forming their gatekeeper function. They decide try. If the public loses faith in the accuracy and which stories to let through the gate and which fairness of the press, loss of faith in democracy to toss into the trash. will soon follow. Journalists decide which stories are impor- Always check numbers, spellings of names, tant enough to run on page one, and which ones who said what, and the other basic facts of any run inside. story. A reporters job is to find out what is going But the gatekeeper function also affects the on, then write a story thats interesting and infor- way we write