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WorksheetsOnline Journalism (Midtest)
Total questions: 15
Worksheet time: 1hrs 15mins
A news story is said to possess timeliness if it...
stresses events that have occurred in the last month.
stresses events that occurred today or yesterday.
has been written within the last six hours.
has been read or heard within the last six hours.
In regard to news values, prominence refers to...
the extent to which the story will affect a number of people.
whether the story has one central, or prominent, character.
how well known the people involved in the story are.
the location of the story on the newspaper page or in the news broadcast.
Journalists recognize two types of news stories: hard and soft. In this regard,
“hard news” is about complicated topics, like science and economics, and “soft news” is about things like entertainment and fashion.
“hard news” stories have long, complicated sentences, and “soft news” stories have short, simple sentences.
“hard news” is about serious topics and recent events, and “soft news” refers to human interest stories.
“hard news” stories are always 2,000 words or more, and “soft news” stories never exceed 500 words.
Bias is most likely to appear in a news story when...
the reporter relies on multiple sources and gives abundant time or space to all sides of a controversy.
the reporter’s story is reviewed by a large number of editors and supervisors.
the reporter is writing about people she or he has known for some time.
the reporter relies on one source or gives disproportionate time to space to one side of a controversy.
The concept of proximity suggests that a news organization is likely to carry a story about a murder, if that crime
involved a well-known person.
was committed locally.
occurred within the last 24 hours.
was unusually gruesome.
The central point of a news story is
a justification for running the story on the front page or the beginning of a news broadcast.
the identity of the most important figure of the story.
to get readers to read the rest of the newspaper or viewers to watch the rest of the news broadcast.
a one- or two-sentence summary of what the story is about and why it is newsworthy.
Reporters strive to...
eliminate all long sentences from their writing.
combine short and long sentences in a manner that would be pleasing if read aloud.
keep all sentences to 10 words or fewer.
keep all sentences to 15 words or more.
For journalists, being objective means that the reporter...
remains completely emotionless about all aspects of the story.
incorporates an equal number of quotations from Republicans and Democrats.
makes clear his or her opinion about the events covered.
is not an advocate for a point of view or a participant in the events covered.
The primary advantage of the inverted-pyramid organization is that it...
is a natural way of telling any story.
rarely contains any surprises for the reader.
allows the reader to stop after reading only one or two paragraphs and still get the most important information.
locks reporters into a formula and discourages innovation.
The primary advantage of the narrative organization that it...
is a natural way of telling any story.
rarely contains any surprises for the reader.
allows the reader to stop after reading only one or two paragraphs and still get the most important information.
locks reporters into a formula and discourages innovation.
Which of the following is NOT one of the errors beginning news writers commonly make in the second paragraphs of inverted-pyramid stories?
They emphasize the names of sources for and subjects of the news story.
They put lots of background information in the paragraph.
They name, without elaboration, a person referred to in the lead.
They continue with additional newsworthy information about the topic summarized in the lead.
A news reporter writing a narrative style story writes as a playwright or a novelist would by
making up a story to suit the writer’s purpose.
creating dialogue and attributing it to people.
describing how people interact with each other and their surroundings.
creating characters, events and places.
What do you think is the reason for keeping online media writing
simple?
Why SEO-based writing has become important for online news?
Differentiate between the terms meta tags, key words and description
of a news story?
