Journalists must make significant news interesting and relevant. First, we must consider the differences between storytelling versus information. Storytelling is the art of expression, such as a bedtime story you tell your niece. Information is raw data, such as a sports score.
Journalism is a combination of storytelling and information. The two are not contradictory. Journalism is storytelling with a purpose, and rooted in fact. Our duty is not just to provide information, but to do so in a way people will listen while still adhering to accuracy and truth.
There are various approaches to making important news interesting.Those approaches start with asking yourselves questions, like:
Who is the audience and what do they need to know? What is a given story really about? Let's say you're working for The State News, and you're covering student government. They pass some sort of big budget increase and as part of that budget increase, student fees will go up.What's the main gist of the story, the budget or the fee hike? Which would readers -- in this case, primarily MSU students -- care about most? Which would affect them most directly?
It would be the fee hike, right? So that should be the angle you highlight in how you write the story.
Who is the audience and what to they need to know to make up their own minds about this subject? For example, The State News regularly covers East Lansing City Council meetings. Rather than cover whatever the council considers their biggest actions, reporters look for and concentrate on stories that have the greatest impact or interest to their primary audience -- MSU students -- regardless of how big a part of the meeting those issues were. We're not there to take dictation of the meeting; we're there to highlight what matters most to our audience.
Who has the information? Go to the people most directly involved with the subject matters.
What's the best way to tell this story? For example, on a story about a tuition increase, perhaps you'd want to focus on how the tuition increase will affect the average student by talking to students and asking them how they'll handle the tuition hike.
There are various story styles one can utilize. We'll look at each approach, using examples based on coverage of one of the every-few-years Cedar Fest riotsaround here.
A profile story. Finding people behind a story or the people driving an issue, and focusing on their tale; e.g., a story about someone arrested at Cedar Fest, and what they did/went through/saw.
An explanatory piece. Showing readers why something is happening or how something functions; e.g., how police responded to Cedar Fest.
Issues and trend stories. Looking for a larger picture to explore, that takes evident happenings and puts it into some sort of meaningful context; e.g., MSU has riots every few years; why? (The above-linked Cedar Fest story is an example.)
Investigative stories. Where digging into the story reveals new and telling details.
Narrative stories. A story with a character, scenes and tension. Written in the STYLE of fiction, but ENTIRELY factual.
Descriptive day-in-the-life stories. Focusing on a particular moment, like Cedar Village workers while they were having to clean up after Cedar Fest.
Vignettes. This is where you take short snippets of telling moments and/or quotes and string them together; e.g., a Cedar Fest story with vignettes about a cop waiting for something to happen; a kid setting a dumpster on fire; somebody else complaining that tear gas really stings; ect.
Pictures of the mind. Use words, metaphors, descriptions, quotes to let readers paint a picture in their minds that establishes scene, place and context. Show them, and don't just tell them, what's happening. Of course, make sure everything is factually dead-on, and assume nothing is so until you've confirmed it.
The reveal. Surprise readers with an unexpected twist that reveals a deeper, unexpected theme.
Whatever other technique best tells the context of a story, while staying entirely true to the facts. This is how we're creative; not in making up scenarios, but finding the best ways to represent reality and being there and end result.
Treat every story as unique. Find out what makes each story memorable and genuine. The root of "news" is the word "new." so find what makes the story stand out from others. Let the facts you find suggest story style, by choosing which style best amplifies the most telling and interesting and relevant and useful parts of the story. You choose writing style based on what best tells the facts, and not your own personal preferences.
Also, find the best medium in which to tell the story. Some stories are best told in words, like a complex political story. Others are best told in images, like 9/11.
The great equalizer offered by the Internet is that newspapers are no longer limited by technology to printed words and still pictures, and TV networks are no longer limited to simply broadcasting stories with video. Each can now find the best way to tell a story, instead of simply telling each story in the way the medium has always told it.
So whatever medium is your primary one, don't dismiss text or video or audio or online slideshows of pictures or graphics or online links or a combination of any of that. It's no longer about writing or airing a story; it's about telling a story, in the best ways for that story to be told.
Journalism is a combination of storytelling and information. The two are not contradictory. Journalism is storytelling with a purpose, and rooted in fact. Our duty is not just to provide information, but to do so in a way people will listen while still adhering to accuracy and truth.
There are various approaches to making important news interesting.Those approaches start with asking yourselves questions, like:
Who is the audience and what do they need to know? What is a given story really about? Let's say you're working for The State News, and you're covering student government. They pass some sort of big budget increase and as part of that budget increase, student fees will go up.What's the main gist of the story, the budget or the fee hike? Which would readers -- in this case, primarily MSU students -- care about most? Which would affect them most directly?
It would be the fee hike, right? So that should be the angle you highlight in how you write the story.
Who is the audience and what to they need to know to make up their own minds about this subject? For example, The State News regularly covers East Lansing City Council meetings. Rather than cover whatever the council considers their biggest actions, reporters look for and concentrate on stories that have the greatest impact or interest to their primary audience -- MSU students -- regardless of how big a part of the meeting those issues were. We're not there to take dictation of the meeting; we're there to highlight what matters most to our audience.
Who has the information? Go to the people most directly involved with the subject matters.
What's the best way to tell this story? For example, on a story about a tuition increase, perhaps you'd want to focus on how the tuition increase will affect the average student by talking to students and asking them how they'll handle the tuition hike.
There are various story styles one can utilize. We'll look at each approach, using examples based on coverage of one of the every-few-years Cedar Fest riotsaround here.
A profile story. Finding people behind a story or the people driving an issue, and focusing on their tale; e.g., a story about someone arrested at Cedar Fest, and what they did/went through/saw.
An explanatory piece. Showing readers why something is happening or how something functions; e.g., how police responded to Cedar Fest.
Issues and trend stories. Looking for a larger picture to explore, that takes evident happenings and puts it into some sort of meaningful context; e.g., MSU has riots every few years; why? (The above-linked Cedar Fest story is an example.)
Investigative stories. Where digging into the story reveals new and telling details.
Narrative stories. A story with a character, scenes and tension. Written in the STYLE of fiction, but ENTIRELY factual.
Descriptive day-in-the-life stories. Focusing on a particular moment, like Cedar Village workers while they were having to clean up after Cedar Fest.
Vignettes. This is where you take short snippets of telling moments and/or quotes and string them together; e.g., a Cedar Fest story with vignettes about a cop waiting for something to happen; a kid setting a dumpster on fire; somebody else complaining that tear gas really stings; ect.
Pictures of the mind. Use words, metaphors, descriptions, quotes to let readers paint a picture in their minds that establishes scene, place and context. Show them, and don't just tell them, what's happening. Of course, make sure everything is factually dead-on, and assume nothing is so until you've confirmed it.
The reveal. Surprise readers with an unexpected twist that reveals a deeper, unexpected theme.
Whatever other technique best tells the context of a story, while staying entirely true to the facts. This is how we're creative; not in making up scenarios, but finding the best ways to represent reality and being there and end result.
Treat every story as unique. Find out what makes each story memorable and genuine. The root of "news" is the word "new." so find what makes the story stand out from others. Let the facts you find suggest story style, by choosing which style best amplifies the most telling and interesting and relevant and useful parts of the story. You choose writing style based on what best tells the facts, and not your own personal preferences.
Also, find the best medium in which to tell the story. Some stories are best told in words, like a complex political story. Others are best told in images, like 9/11.
The great equalizer offered by the Internet is that newspapers are no longer limited by technology to printed words and still pictures, and TV networks are no longer limited to simply broadcasting stories with video. Each can now find the best way to tell a story, instead of simply telling each story in the way the medium has always told it.
So whatever medium is your primary one, don't dismiss text or video or audio or online slideshows of pictures or graphics or online links or a combination of any of that. It's no longer about writing or airing a story; it's about telling a story, in the best ways for that story to be told.
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