Everything That Goes Into News Writing

Journalists should amass special skills to write for the media. Aside from being nonpartisan news writers, they must also exercise particular journalist parlance. The use of vocabulary, euphemisms, idioms, and structure are all taken into consideration when writing for the news. This makes journalism one of the many facets of writing that’s substantially challenging yet gratifying because you know you’re writing for an entire nation.

But what is news writing? What makes it unique from other forms of writing? And why do news writers need to be unbiased when writing for the media? Read on to find out. 

What is News Writing?

News writing is a form of writing that’s different from other types of writing. It banks on clarity, succinctness, accuracy, and impartiality. It’s similar to expository writing in the sense that it aims to “expose.” But while other aspects of expository writing are for other literary pieces like essays, encyclopedias, or textbooks, news writing solely focuses on one thing — the news. 

Likewise, writing for the news can be displayed on different channels like newspapers or news websites. Otherwise known as “news style,” it aims to inform people of current news and events that contain the 5Ws — Who, What, When, Where, and Why. This is called the inverted pyramid, which we will explain later in this article. And speaking of structure, the journalistic style follows either the AP Style Manual or the US News Style Book. These writing stylebooks mostly have a more formal tone of writing compared to other writing styles. 

Apart from the unique news style structure, journalism also dwells on objectivity. This type of writing strips the writers off of their subjective comments. While some news channels allow journalists’ commentaries, these comments are sometimes reserved in another section. News writing aims to explain and enlighten and not influence people. 

Although reporters and journalists are protected by the principle, “Freedom of the Press,” there has been debatability about its practice in some countries. These issues result in putting some news agencies under the scrutiny of the government and the entire nation as well. And that’s not the only issue journalists face, More often than not, journalism is also stereotyped with sensationalism — the act of overplaying stories to get more readership.

In fact, around 80 percent of Americans say that journalists sensationalize stories to sell more newspapers. That’s why journalists must adhere to the core journalism ethics, which includes truth and accuracy.

What Makes News Style Different

Now that you know the basics of news writing, let’s understand what makes this writing style different from the others. 

Broader Audience

In marketing, content writers craft pieces for their industry’s particular audience. This requires profiling their target market so they can aptly communicate with them. With the use of analytics and surveys, content writers likely achieve an excellent turnout in terms of readership. 

On the other hand, since writing for the media doesn’t have a particular audience, journalists will have to work their magic to create an accurate, truthful, and objective piece. 

Structure

In bucket brigade, blog writers need to engage the audience by enticing them from start to finish. This would require connecting two sentences with bucket brigade phrases. Although the gist of articles is explained in the first paragraph, articles reveal the juiciest information as you go.

On the contrary, the journalistic style uses the inverted pyramid method. This technique reveals the most newsworthy information down to the least newsworthy information. The best representation of this writing scheme is a triangle. The most relevant information should sit at the top of the triangle, and the importance should be in descending order. Here’s an example of a news article from CNN with an inverted pyramid structure.

Person

While blog writing dwells on a conversational style to connect with readers, writing for the news is entirely different. Unlike the first or second person POV used in blog or article writing, news writing uses the third person POV.

This puts the writers in the median position between the parties involved and the readers. Ultimately, the third person disconnects news writers from subjectivity. Here’s Washington Post’s example using a third-person POV.

Headlines

News headlines, compared to blog headlines, are snappier. Relatively, these headlines are shorter and written in the present and active voice. One can instantly differentiate a news headline from a blog headline because the former has a more serious tone. Here are some things that make news headlines unique than blog headlines or any headline for that matter:

• Should contain five to 10 words
• Shouldn’t start with a verb
• Accurate and specific
• Use infinitive verb forms
• Omit articles (a, an, the)
• Use commas instead of conjunctions (and)
• Use simple, attention-grabbing words
• Contain ledes 

Check this link for some excellent examples of news headlines.

Tone

Marketers aim to resonate to build a relationship or connection with their readers. Therefore, content or blog writers focus on a more personal yet informative tone on their articles. News writing, on the contrary, is devoid of any personal connection. This is to establish authority and impartiality, which are vital for news agencies. 

Why Journalists Should be Unbiased 

A professor of Columbia University Micheal Schudson, once said, “Objectivity, in this sense, means that a person’s statements about the world can be trusted if they are submitted to established rules deemed legitimate by a professional community. Facts here are not aspects of the world, but consensually validated statements about it.”

Schudson’s words define what impartiality should be in news writing. News writers must provide only the facts without involving emotions. This is why detachment or disinterestedness in news writing is crucial. This is to make sure journalists are being neutral and truthful when writing for news publications. 

When a news writer mixes partisanship, a hidden agenda, or emotions, this will possibly distort facts. Journalism should be able to illuminate facts on certain issues and events to people without telling them how to feel or what to do. After reading the news, the audience should be able to decide for themselves based on the information provided. This is the reason why objectivity is one of the main elements of journalism.