As journalism students you want to develop what the oldtimers called a "nose for news," the ability to sniff out a good story as soon as you get a whiff of it. It's more of an instinct than a skill, but it starts with memorizing a list of words.
Here are the words, with a
Impact. How does it affect people? How much? Think of an impacted wisdom tooth. How many? If you can imagine a headline that starts with "Thousands flee ...," you've got a high-impact story. But a story about fluctuating gasoline prices at the pump also has widespread impact.
Timeliness Is it fresh? If it is, it's news. Is it getting stale? If so, it's history.
Prominence. Celebs. High officials. Names make news. So do their hired publicity agents.
Proximity. Is is a local story? Does it have a local angle? Think of Sen. Barak Obama's presidential announcement in Springfield? That one has prominence and proximity. Mayor Davlin's re-election campaign has proximity. When The Anchorage Daily News sends a reporter to Baghdad to cover soldiers from Fort Richardson, that's giving proximity to news of the civil war in Iraq.
Weirdness. Is it bizzare?
Currency. Are people already talking about it? Hard to define, but here's an example. Seems like all of a sudden, celebrities like Lindsay Lohan are all over the news every time they go to an AA meeting. So Newsweek does a snarky little feature on celebrities in rehab. The celebrities are always there (sadly), but the buzz about rehab is an example of currency.
9 comments:
Bush: We Can Compete
Impact- this story affected people in the East Peoria area as I'm sure it was kind of a big deal that the President was coming close to their home
Timeliness- it is a timely story because the visit took place yesterday
Prominence- it is an example of prominence because the story is about the President of the United States
Proximity- yes, it happened close ot home
Weirdness- not really bizarre
Currency- not an example of currency at all
The story of President Bush visiting the Caterpillar plant in Peoria has an impact on me because I have a family member that works at the plant. It is timely because it happened yesterday but at the same time it is getting a little stale by 1 o'clock PM the next day. It is also prominent because it involves the President of our country. The story also has a local angle since it is happening right in Peoria. There is nothing weird about this story. People are somewhat talking about this story since President Bush will be giving his State of the Economy speech tonight and will probably use Caterpillar as an example of how his global economic strategy has worked.
The story I chose is the "Alderman: Add officers, not cars, to force." I think this has an impact of about a 4 on my life because we do need more officers to control the crime in Springfield and surrounding areas since the city is kind of on the decline. I think the timeliness of this issue is ok, but maybe a little late since the big drug bust of all the cocaine with the senators and what not is already over. There is no real promineance so I dont think its that big of a news story. Its is a local news story that wont be heard on MSNBC tonight so Im not going to get too excited about it.
The article about President Bush is both timely and current. It makes for good current news and timely because it is a big issue at the moment. It is titled "Bush: we can compete." It is a good story about local and community-based news. The link is http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/106699.asp
The second article I chose was titled "Obama bill would pull troops out of Iraq." This is a big issue in the United States and it can also be considered somewhat local because O'Bama is a local celebrity around here. It is both timely and local, two good characteristics in news writing. The link is http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/106700.asp.
AJ Sheehan
I read the story about Bush going to the Catepillar factory.
It has some impact because the speech was on the U.S.A. beigna player in the world market, but the speech said little, and the place does not hit close enough to home for Springfieldians.
It is very Timely, he gave the speech tuesday.
It has prominence not only is Bush a huge national name, but Ray LaHood is known in this town, and Caterpillar is known world wide.
Proximity--this happened only about an hour and a half away from springfield, though this is too long of a distance to really be felt by Springfield the topic of heart land jobs is very close to us.
This is kind of wierd. Why is Bush driving a tractor? Why is bush taking credit for the achievements of a private bussiness? Why is Bush in the midwest? Why isn't Bush solving the war?
This is current because people were talking about Bush coming to Peoria.
I read "Alderman: Add officers, not cars, to force" on SJ-R's website. It was published today, Jan. 31st, and it talks about a budget meeting that took place on the 30th. This makes it timely. It has a little prominence because it has Alderman Frank McNeil as the focus, a fairly well-known city official. This story is definitely local, talking about the issues of cars versus cops with the city police. It has no weirdness to it, and people are definitely talking about it. With 24 reader comments, I'd say that qualifies for currency.
Constantly i hear about different stories of children these days being kiddnapped, or even killed by there own family. It has a huge impact on how closely we watch our children these days. Even from the people we think we know best. This is our generation that is doing this. Our parents and grandparents generations did not have to worry as often as we do today. A lot of these incidents happen in very local areas even broad daylight. The situations that these children have to go through before there death is very bizarre. Something that a person at any age should have to go through. Thats why all over now in the United States that they are trying to make it more known when a child is abducted, or anyone that goes missing, with an "Amber Alert." They are trying to make it harder and harder for this to happen to anyone.
Illinois Democrats reply from D.C
Impact: The impact is high. The article speaks of Sen. Dick Durbin explaining how many jobs have been lost in western Illinois since many corporations have moved to Mexico and other foreign countries.
Timeliness: The article was published today,but most already knew about what is happening with job loss. In the light of the aticle itself, it is pretty fresh.
Prominence: Well, it's Bush
Proximity:Yes,The story is local
Weirdness: nah
Curreny: It is talked about,but just in certain parts of Illinois.
Post a Comment