MODUL 4
ENGLISH FOR BROADCAST
Juwarti Hafsah, SS, M.Si
SUBJECT:
SELECTING STORIES AND STARTING TO WRITE
DESCRIPTION: This modul explain about how to write the news text based on the students Choice (surely connected with the hottest news)
GOAL : By learning and understanding modul 4, wish the students can:
1. Decide to choose the most likely news to be written.
2. Understand how to choose the topic.
3. Can make the short news text in English perfectly.
REFERENCES:
1. Broadcast Journalism, written by Andrew Boyd (Focal Press)
2. An Indonesian-English Dictionary, written by John M. Echols and Hasan Shadily (Gramedia)
3. An English-Indonesian Dictionary, written by John M. Echols and Hasal Shadily (Gramedia)
WHAT IS NEWS?
There are some cosiderations about news, such as:
‘Tiding’ new or interesting information fresh event reported (CONCISE OXFORDDICTIONARY)
‘News’ is the first rough draft of history(BEN BRADLEE)
‘News’is the immediate, the important, the things that have impact on our lives (FREDA MORRIS,NBC)
‘When’ a dog bites a man, that is hot news, but when a man bites a dog, that is a news (CHARLES DANA)
‘News’ is anything that makes a reader say “Gee Whiz!” (ARTHUR MCEWEN)
NEWS GATHERING
Whatever news may be, there is more of it about than ever before - on the Net, on the growing myriad TV channels, and squawking out of the tinny speaker in the corner of the kitchen.
Survey after survey finds more people are abandoning their newspapers and turning to TV to find out what is going on in the world. More than 70 per cent now say TV has become their main source of domestic and international news and TV has finally outstripped newspapers as the primary provider of local news.
So broadcast news rules. But what are the rules than govern the news?
Most editors would agree that newsgathering is more of an art than a science. But ask them to agree on today’s top stories and many would come to blows. To select stories to satisfy a given audience you are said to need a ‘nose’ for news.
But if it were all the matter of nature rather than nurture there would be no excuse for a textbook like this. So let’s look at the elements no self-respecting news story can be without. These are the characteristics of news:
1. PROXIMITY
SMALL EARTHQUAKE IN CHILE - NOT MANY DEAD
This headline was a little joke by a Times sub-editor and has all the resounding impact of a damp squib. It was intended to be everything news is not - undramatic, remote and unimportant - though the irony would have lost on anyone living in Chile.
Yet this spoof has something to say about nature of news. For a story to have impact, it has to be relevant. For news to be relevant, it has to have proximity. Huge problems for them are less important than small problems for us.
NOTE:
Dalam bahasa Indonesia, proximity berarti ‘kedekatan’ atau memiliki kedekatan. Jika dalam sebuah teks pemberitaan ingin memunculkan suatu sindiran, maka sang penulis teks dapat menambahkan sindiran-sindiran kecil. Sindiran-sindiran halus atau kecil tidak selalu tanpa makna dan tidak relevan. Terkadang sindiran-sindiran kecil bermakna besar atau dapat memberi dampak besar terhadap sebuah pemberitaan. Kutipan pendek di atas adalah salah satu contohnya.
2. RELEVANCE
Even when the proximity gap is narrowed, a news item may fail to interest different groups within the same country. A surge in the price of coffee might shake up the bussinessmen of Nairobi, but fail to stir the fisherman and woodcarvers of Mombasa. But if the price of coffee crashed, the item would come home to everyone in Kenya - the economy would slump and they would all be affected.
But even when a story contains both touchstones of proximity and relevance, the reaction it provokes in you will depend on your upbringing, environment, education, background, beliefs, and morality. In other words, news values are subjective and newsgathering is an art, rather than a science.
Despite that, every editor would agree that the greater the effect of a story on listeners’ lives, their income and emotions, the more important that item will be. And every editor knows that if a news service is to win and hold an audience, the bulk of its stories must have impact on most of the people most of the time.
3. IMMEDIACY
Yesterday newspaper is used to wrap fish and yesterday broadcast does not exist at all
(MARTIN MAYER)
The strength of radio is its immediacy Exploit that by constantly up-dating stories and keeping them fresh. We’re telling people what is happening now
(MALCOMS SHAW NEWS EDITOR INDEPENDENT RADIO)
Radio news is what happened five minutes ago and its impact on what is going to happen in the next five minutes
(RICHARD BESTIC PARLIAMENTARY CORRESPONDENT)
News is about what is happening now - or the first inkling of something that happened earlier but was hushed up. And nowhere is news more immediate than in the electronic media. ‘You catch it live!’ used to be the catchphrase of one radio station’s sports service. It is a boast the printed word can never match.
To the broadcast journalist, what happened yesterday is dead and burried. There has to be something new to say, some fresh angle. And with hourly headlines, even what went on at 11 will have to be updated for noon.
To put it another way: news is only news while it is now.
4. INTEREST
Journalism largely consists of saying “Lord Jones dead” to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive (G.K. CHESTERTON)
‘Worthy, but dull’ is one of the most damning indictments you could make about a news report. News should make you suck in your breath and exclaim, sit up, take notice and listen.
Broadcast news is often critized for pandering to the popular taste, but by its very nature, broadcasting caters for the mass interest, rather than that of a minority. Stories must have a wide appeal or most of the audience will change channels.
The skill of the newswriter comes in drawing out the relevance of a story and presenting it clearly and factually while making the most of every scrap of interest. This way the newswriter can give the audience what it needs to know - as well as what it wants to know.
The most interesting element in news is often people - showbusiness personalities, celebrities, big-name politicians, royalty - elite people, who we know only from a distance and who interest us out of curiousity, envy, admiration, malice or affection; people through whom we live our lives vicariously, or whose actions and decisions influence and shape our existence.
HOW TO DEAL WITH TIMELINESS
‘Practically everyone works at high speed. Telephones ring, people shout, crises pop up all the time and deadline keep thundering down. It’s not an environment for the weak of heart.
(PHILIP O. KIERSTEAD, ALL NEWS RADIO)
Ask most journalists what they think about their chosen profession and the chances are they will bemoan the anti-social hours, unreasonable stress, flogging to meet constant deadliness, time wasted draped over the telephone, destruction of family life and home existence, but when the griping is over and you ask them what else they would rather do, the chances are they would shrug, smile and tell you, ‘nothing’.
Few professions can match broadcast journalism for its rewards in terms of job satisfaction, interest, variety, sheer challenge - and for the select few - fame and wealth.
So what does it take to become a player in the world of broadcasting?
Employers and training courses alike are looking for special personal qualities from people who think they have what it takes to make a broadcast journalist.
Top of the list is commitment. Reporters must have the stamina to cope with shift work whose varying patterns could take them from three in the morning one day for a 12-hour shift, to from 10 at night a couple of days later.
Some tips to deal with the timeliness, are:
1. Make tight schedule
2. Being consistent to our the made schedule
3. Do the job seriously
4. Be professional
5. Make the working table plan explained about something that have, haven’t done and will be done yet.
6. Make a good network with others who has same profession with us to make easy in sharing about hottest news and information.
SELECTING STORIES AND STARTING TO WRITE
Before learning to write an article, we supposed to know the meaning of article first. The article means a writing comprehension result , such as report or essei in magazine, newspaper and others.
In writing an article for newspaper and the news text, we should know what kind of thing that we will write on for being the article. We have to think about the theme or topic that we will publish.
There are some types of news, such as:
1. Emergencies
The emergency services deal with the high points of human drama - fires, sea or mountain rescues - whenever human life is at risk there is a story.
Accidents are a steady but unpredictable source of news, but the larger the area covered by the news service, the more serious these would have to be the warrant coverage, the otherwise the bulletins would be full of little else, so reporting of accidents is usually confined to death or serious injury.
2. Crime
Rising crime rates offer a steady source of news. The larger the area, the more crime there will be, so only more serious offences are likely to be reported.
Crime stories have many phases, from the actual incident, to the police raid, arrest, and eventual appearance in court.
Crime is still a big one. People love crime stories, they really do no matter where in the world you are people want know about what is happening on the streets, the murder, the rapes, the robberies - that occupies a fairly large chunk of time.
(ANNETTE BOSWORTH, WEEI, BOSTON)
3. Local and National Government
Every action of government - locally or nationally - has a bearing on a potential audience, and whatever affects an audience is news. To prevent bulletins becoming swamped with items from city hall, news policy is usually to report only the stories that have the greatest affect on the largest number of people.
4. Planning and developments
Building developments are news which is emerging before your eyes. Big plans make big news, and news projects, leisure complexes, shopping malls and housing schemes which impact on an area certain to be given the big news treatment in any local newsroom. Nationally, the difference is one of scale. Newsworthy developments would include major road-building schemes, new townships, dams and other large projects.
But the concept of developments as news expands beyond public works to mean any form of major change that is happening or is about to happen that will affect a given audience.
5. Conflict and controversy
Almost inevitably anything that threatens peoples peace, prosperity or well-being is news and likely to make headlines
(ALASTAIR HETHERINGTON)
News is about change - events that shape our society and alter the way we live. Conflict is the essence of drama, and the dramatic makes news.
This can be physical clashes in the streets or a conflict of ideals - a row at the local council or in parliament. Where actions or ideas mean upheavals in society, then that conflict is news. Every issue in the public eye has those who are for it and those who are against it. Broadcast journalism can cover what is happening, stimulate debate, and bring important issues into sharper focus.
6. Pressure Groups
Pressure groups are people who have organized themselves to stir up controversy. They either want change or are opposed to it, so their demands usually make news. Reaction to government policy, events or developments can make an effective follow-up to a story. The reporter seeks out the prayers in the underlying conflict, exposes the points of contention and so uncovers the news.
7. Industry
Employment is a major factor in most people’s lives, so developments in industry make big news. Be they layoffs or job recruitment - either way they will affect the workforce and prosperity of an area.
8. Health
Health makes news, from outbreaks of mad cow disease to a shortage of blood donors.
9. Human Interest
A human interest story may be defined as an extraordinary thing that has happened to an ordinary person. Soft news is lightweight material which people like to gossip about, such as who’s won the pools or discovered a Ming vase in their shed. It is the unusual, ironic, or offbeat; the sort of story that people like to swap in pubs and bars.
10. Personalities
Visiting personalities, royalty or politicians are usually good for a local news item, especially if their visit is linked to a local event or occasion. Nationally, the bigger the name, the more likely it is to make news. The more entertainment a station mixes with its news, the more prominently personalities - especially from showbusiness - are likely to feature.
11. Sport
Many in the audience tolerate the news only because they know if they stay tuned they will get the latest football, cricket or rugby result. Local teams and clubs often feature strongly in regional news, especially if they are doing well or badly in their leagues, and this is reflected at a national level, where news usually focuses on the promotion battles and relegation struggles that mark the changing fortunes of the top and bottom contenders.
12. Seasonal News
Seasonal news includes Christmas shopping, January sales, the first cuckoo, the tourist season, seasonal unemployment.
13. Special local interest
No to areas are the same. Each will throw up stories peculiar to its own geography and make-up. An area with a car factory will create news about recrutment, layoffs, new models and the fortunes of the company. A seaport with a naval base will produce stories of warships stationed there and naval exercises involving local ships and men. A mountainious region will generate items about missing climbers and mountain rescues.
Disthinguishing features give an area its identify. Audience loyalty is built when a station is seen to be providing a truly loval news service.
14. Weather
Weather normally follows the news, but at times of extreme conditions, the weather itself will make headlines. Radio comes into its own when there are flash floods, droughts or serious snowfalls.
Regular weather updates are one of the main features in the local news. TV companies spend a great deal of money providing a high-quality weather service. On the national news satelite pictures are often combined with detailed graphics and elaborate weather maps.
15. Traffic
The first thing many people want to know in the morning is whether to roads will be clear for getting to work. Radio is the only medium motorists can safely take in while driving. In car - orientated societies where large numbers commute to work, traffic and travel news can pick up big audience. These periods are known as drive-time. Radio stations can give up-to-the-minute information on which roads are blocked and where there are traffic jams.
16. Animals
Few items prompt greater reaction from the legions of pet lovers than shaggy dog stories. Men, women and babies may die in fires but fail to provoke a murmur, but if anyone tries to poison a poodle, the switchboards are likely to be jamned with calls.
EXERCISE
Please make the news with the your choosing free topic.
