Name ______Date ______

JournalismPeriod ______

Taking News Writing Beyond the Snore

How can you cover news that seems routine in a way that is not routine? Use the ideas presented below to test your next news story for a fresh angle or enterprise opportunity. Eight ways to go beyond the obvious:

  1. Issue or trend
  • Does the event tie in to something people are talking about that’s bigger and more ongoing?
  • Trends are generally lighter, related to culture.
  • Issues are more serious, about social problems or policies.
  • For example: THE HOMECOMING DANCE
  • Trend: What’s the new dance everyone will be doing?
  • Issues: Will twerking be banned?
  1. Explanatory
  • Can you show how something happens orhow it works?
  • For example: THE HOMECOMING DANCE
  • What’s the purpose or history of homecoming?
  • How did your school’s traditions get started?
  • What preparation is required to build a float, plan the dance, create the ceremony?
  • Who decides and how do they decide which game is the homecoming game?
  1. Profile
  • Who is at the center of this event?Can you use a person or group of people as a“tour guide” to help readers see/understand an issue on a more practical or human level?
  • Is there someone who is more affected by this than others? Why?
  • Profiles are NOT limited to just people. Is there a place or a thing that is associated particularly with this event?
  1. Voices/Perspectives
  • Are there people who can speak to this moment or event in a way thatilluminates it for readers, that provides deeper or more expert layers of understanding, or that connectsreaders to each other?
  • Look for people who are more experts, who can speak about the subject in a different way. Think about who is affected and what they might have to say.
  • For example: THE HOMECOMING DANCE
  • a quote box from alumni about their best homecoming memory
  1. Descriptive
  • Is there a place you can take the reader – or a person you can introduce them to – toshow, in short but intense form, an event or idea? Can you be the readers’ surrogate to show, describe,introduce something or someone they would otherwise not have access to?
  • Can you show or describe a person or place that’s uniquely associated with your event?Can you take your readers somewhere they would never think to go?
  • For example: THE HOMECOMING DANCE
  • the locker room before the football game
  • the planning/prep of the group that always has the most elaborate hall decorations
  • the room and the process of counting votes for homecoming king/queen
  1. Investigative
  • Is there something or someone wrong with this picture?
  • Consider the effects of money, power, and self-interest.
  • For example: THE HOMECOMING DANCE
  • How much does the homecoming game cost the school? (Extra police, sashes, car rentals for the homecoming court, etc.)
  1. Narrative
  • Is there a story to tell behind the event?
  • Does this event or moment lend itself to exploring a beginning-middle-end story with anarrative arc? Does it suggest a story with a central character, plot, action and forward motion, tensionor conflict, resolution?
  • Don’t get stuck trying to tell the entire story from beginning to middle to end. Look for narrative elements:a main character, conflict or tension, action and momentum, resolution
  1. Visual
  • Is there a way to tell the story with few words?
  • Does a story need to be seen to be best understood? Is there an emotional orphysical center to a story that makes it better told primarily through photos, graphics or illustrations,with words as supporting material?
  • Consider use of:
  • a photo essay
  • a chart or graphic
  • a timeline
  • a map
  • some other visual device