News gathering & News writing

If a journalist reads an interesting rumour online, they should:

• Write and publish a story about it

• Ignore it

• Find a verifiable source to prove it

What are news stories based on?

• Facts

• Opinions

• Speculation

Before writing a story, you need to find out:

• What your best friend thinks about it

• The 5 Ws and H

• Which page it will be placed on in the newspaper

A vox pop is

• A review of popular music

• An interview with members of the public

• The lead story in a newspaper

The most important thing to do before an interview is

• Choose something smart and professional to wear

• Research the interview topic

• Plan some jokes to put the interviewee at ease

Why is a news story unlike a piece of creative writing?

• Choice of words is unimportant

• Grammar and punctuation has to be correct

• It doesn’t try to build suspense

In a story about a house fire, which of the following sources should be prioritised?

• A statement from the fire brigade

• The school teacher of the child who was rescued in the fire

• A mother whose child nearly died in different fire last year

The inverted pyramid is a good structure to follow because:

• It allows you to include all the relevant information

• It helps editors know where to put the story in a newspaper

• All the important information comes higher up in the story

When using quotations in a story you should:

• Make sure you include everything the person said

• Improve the wording to make it more news-worthy

• Choose the most useful and interesting comments only

In news writing, short words and short sentences are best because:

• They are quicker to write and this helps meet deadlines

• Readers might not have had a university education

• They make stories clear and easy to understand