A Word's Worth

1. At what educational level of readers should newspapers be aiming? Do you think your main metropolitan newspaper is hitting the mark? Why or why not?
I feel the standard educational level should be set according to the year 10 School Certificate. Not all readers will have completed or be involved in some form of tertiary education, or even completed their HSC. Having said this, it is appropriate for special columns, lift outs or segments of newspapers to assume an extra level of familiarity with the content of that particular article. An example would be the Drive lift out, focusing on cars. When considering the target audience for that lift out, the writers may utilise a particular vernacular and terminology in relation to vehicles and engines that not all may immediately understand.
I feel my metropolitan newspaper is hitting the mark, as it acknowledges the standard of its overall audience while successfully targeting specific demographics. This balance is crucial for the success of any mainstream newspaper.

2. To what extent do you think reporters should be able to interpret news events and inject their thoughts into news stories?
It's hard to give this question a solid answer. It obviously depends on the nature of the article and overall publication. Tabloids do to a very large extent, as they thrive on speculation and personal theories. When I’m reading breaking news on the front page of a broadsheet newspaper, I expect solid facts and credible opinions (if any at all). Furthermore, different articles within those publications would also vary in the extent writers ‘inject’ their own thoughts.

3. English is a growing and ever-changing language as new words evolve and old ones fall into disuse. What then of the idea of a global language? Does it really matter that our language is being tainted with Americanisms and US spellings?
This was something I was contemplating just the other day, and I think this example illustrates my point well. Alanis Morissette has an upcoming album called Flavours of Entanglement, and despite being Canadian there are numerous instances where the American spelling of 'flavors' is employed. As Alanis is a national icon of Canada, her native fans identify with her as a representative of their culture for the world. In this respect I do think there is some importance in maintaining traditional spelling and grammar, despite perhaps being trivial in the grand scheme of things.

4. Based on your own experience and your reading of newspapers, do you think newspapers have a serious commitment to accuracy?
In short, yes. Granted journalists have a reputation for cutting corners and fudging facts, but this in itself serves as a purpose for making integrity and credibility a top priority. I feel that although the journalist 'code of ethics' works according to rules and regulations different to most other professions, the fact that their mistakes and/or lies are published for good for the world to see makes me think there is an added severity to the consequences. As a result, I believe accuracy is generally taken very seriously amongst most newspapers.

5. What would you do if you made a serious mistake in a story you wrote but no one contacted the paper to complain?
This is hard to answer without a specific scenario, but if the mistake is regarded as 'serious' I would make a correction and/or acknowledgement of the error when possible. I would be careful to make the correction quietly though, as to maintain credibility with those who miss it, and to maintain integrity with those who do. If it were a trivial error, I would probably leave it unless someone complained.

Upside-down Pyramids

1. Find an event-based story in a metropolitan newspaper. Analyse and identify its structures and transitions. Does it include a chronology? Does it include important material deep in the story that has not been foreshadowed?
Story: "Tourist hit by chopper blade". (SMH)
The story does have a strong chronology, but there's a fair amount of information that is not foreshadowed in the beginning, such as details of the invesitgation and even location. The intro includes the basis for the story, then it basically elaborates on the details until the end.

2. Analyse and issue-based story in a metropolitan newspaper in the same way.
Story: "Love, sex and 'the one': is it all about timing?" (SMH)
The story has no chronology, and hardly anything is foreshadowed at all. It has a very informal and conversation structure, and the transitions are relatively smooth.

3. Find four newspaper articles which are constructed on the inverted pyramid model and four which are not. List the main news values in each. Which are the clearest and easiest to read? Why?
Similar to the results for questions 1 and 2, event based articles are more commonly based around the inverted pyramid, and issue based articles are not. So, for the 8 articles I took a look at, there was a clear and fine distinction between the news values for those that incorporated the inverted pyramid and those that did not. The 4 I looked at that didn't, were all human-interest stories, issue based and had a more feature article structure. I found the other 4 that were structured with the inverted pyramid were by far the clearest and easiest to read. This was because the feature articles continued to explore more and more tangents as the article progressed, where as the inverted pyramid based articles listed the basis for the entire article within the intro, and stayed within that for the rest of the article. As a result the inverted pyramid articles had more direction and weren't as 'waffly'. (Like this answer!)

4. List the following facts in what you believe should be their order of importance, and then write an intro and second paragraph.

Ranked:

• The train driver was killed instantly
• The semi-trailer driver escaped serious injury
• The accident occured where the train track crosses Skyline Road, five kilometres north of Hillville
• The incident occured at 2:30 this morning
• The semi-trailer, valued at more than $200,000, was destroyed
• 'It appears the semi-trailer misjudged the speed of the train,' Hillville police constable Jed Blaine said. 'It got about halfway across the track before the collision occurred.'
• The semi-trailer was carrying an undisclosed toxic chemical, which spilled across the roadway, forcing the evacuation of six houses in the area
• The train was carrying uranium ore
• The road was closed for six hours while the wreckage was cleared
• Police said that they were still investigating the accident
• The train driver's name is being withheld pending notification of relatives

A train collided with a semi-trailer on Skyline Road at 2:30 this morning, instantly killing the train driver with the driver of the semi-trailer managing to escape serious injury as the vehicle was destroyed.

'It appears the semi-trailer misjudged the speed of the train,' Hillville police constable Jed Blaine said. 'It got about halfway across the track before the collision occurred.'

Thoughts on the reading.

After doing Intro to Professional Writing, I felt relatively familiar with the concept of the inverted pyramid. However, only recently being educated in the realm of professional journalism, I felt especially interested in learning about alternatives to inverted pyramid reporting, and area the chapter covered which seems less frequently explored in class. As a result I found the chapter helpful, in particular the segment that focused on the alternatives as I felt that was where I my knowledge was most limited.

Another aspect of writing covered in the chapter that I felt I had a lot to learn about, was the idea of utilising 'transitional devices'. Employing word bridges and unifying your points, facts, and pars, was something I was obviously aware of but I knew I could certainly improve on my ability. These areas were most intriging for me, and I gave them special focus when reading through the chapter.

The Lead: Will The Reader Follow?

1. Find an example of the following types of news intros:
a/ direct, b/ attribution, c/ delayed, d/ summary, e/ decision.
I gave these examples in my presentation. A couple from the Brag magazine including delayed and attribution, as opposed to some newspaper articles that more often incorporated elements of summary, direct, and occasionally decision.

2. Analyse them and consider whether they do the job of capturing attention and conveying the story's central message.
I thought the approaches to the intro were fairly appropriate. Brag is a music magazine, similar to Reverb. With content such as interviews, character profiles, and reviews, intros with attribution or delayed approaches were appropriate for reviews, and 'behind-the-scenes' style interviews and band profiles.

On the other hand, the ones I included from the newspapers were more often employing styles such as summary and direct, for the sake of updating the public or reporting breaking news. This contrasted with the feature articles included in Brag. Decision was least frequent, at least amongst the various articles I researched.

3. Select five news-story intros at random from a daily newspaper and calculate the average word length. Do a letter count, noting the number of words in each intro with more than eight letters. Rank the intros from most to least readable. Have sentence and word length had an effect on readability?
On the whole, yes. Longer words and verbose sentences were a little more overwhelming when compared to the more concise and succinct writing. Sometimes long words were still easy to read if they were familiar like 'information' etc. The only other exceptions were names that were included. Names eight letters or longer didn't hinder the readability in the same way that other long or unfamiliar words did.

4. Rewrite the following as a concise, one-sentence intro:
Thunderstorms yesterday afternoon blew over powerlines creating blackouts at Broken Hill, snapped limbs from trees throughout the town, including a camphor laurel near the main street, and knocked over numerous wheelie bins, sending rubbish through the area. Power was off in the town for 12 hours before service was restored to the 350 homes affected.
Thunderstorms left destruction in Broken Hill yesterday after knocking over bins, trees, and powerlines, causing blackouts in 350 homes for 12 hours.

5. Identify an important national or international story which is significant enough to be covered by a range of media outlets. Go to Australian newspaper websites and find and print at least two different versions of the same story, each with different intros. Compare the intros and rank them in order from the most informative and appealing to the least.

• ALEXANDER Downer has revealed government MPs considered turfing John Howard as leader but resolved to lock in behind the PM. (Daily Telegraph)
• Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says government MPs have decided to lock in behind John Howard after considering their options. (Sydney Morning Herald)

The Daily Telegraph is obviously more sensationalised, but I feel it intrigued me to read on the most.

6. Write the first two paragraphs of a story based on the following facts:

• Your city's ratepayers' association will hold a meeting at 7:30pm on Tuesday. Association president Helen Rosebury said residents will consider concerns about the city council's new policy of requiring permits for off-street parking in residential areas.
• Your city's mayor will attend the meeting
• The meeting will be held at 10 Bryce Street
• Ms Rosebury said some residents wanted to discuss a strategy to disrupt the next council meeting from the public gallery
• The mayor said he expected the controversy to be resolved on Tuesday night
• The new parking permits will cost $50 per year

The local ratepayers' association will hold a meeting at 7:30pm at 10 Bryce St on Tuesday, to discuss concerns about the council's new policy of requiring permits for off-street parking in residential areas.
Association President Helen Rosebury says some residents want to discuss strategies for these $50 annual permits, and the mayor expects the controversy to be resolved on Tuesday night when he attends.

Thoughts on the reading.

My class presentation was on the art of the intro, and consequently I found this especially important and useful. The 'shock-horror' guide to intros was particuarly informative, as the simple and clear structure of 'top 10 tips' style articles has always appealed to me.

I felt like points such as 1 and 10 were simply givens and therefore didn't teach me anything new, however points like 5, 7, and especially 4 helped me get a better grasp on how to approach a challenging story. The 'over the fence' technique was a strategy I really hadn't considered, and gave me a really different methodology to think about.

Overall the chapter was relatively helpful, not simply for my presentation but additionally because understanding the art of the intro is one of the most fundamental aspects of being a successful journalist.