1 / 17

MMC 911 Introduction to News Writing

MMC 911 Introduction to News Writing. Spring 2012 February 15, 2012 Dr. Alma Kadragic. Tonight’s program. 6 pm: Reminder about goals in this subject Last chance to sign up for conferences

babu
Download Presentation

MMC 911 Introduction to News Writing

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. MMC 911 Introduction to News Writing Spring 2012 February 15, 2012 Dr. Alma Kadragic

  2. Tonight’s program • 6 pm: Reminder about goals in this subject Last chance to sign up for conferences • 7 pm: Lecture by librarian about finding research materials in the UOWD library and accessing UOW’s holdings as well • 7:50 pm: Move to Block 5 – 121 for writing exercise #1

  3. MMC911 Introduction to News Writing Why it’s important to know news writing: • Writing well as a journalist helps writing in general • Journalistic writing is accurate, clear, pointed • Journalistic skills are useful in media, PR, report writing, and journalism • You have to understand how journalists work and write to deal with them or to be one yourself

  4. Daily MMC911 Students should • Read 2 newspapers in print or online What papers are we reading? • Read in more than 1 language if possible Are we reading in more than 1 language? • Receive news alerts from at least 2 news sites What sites are sending alerts to us?

  5. Daily MMC students should • Identify continuing news and feature stories What stories are we following since MMC began? • Find news about the UAE What are some UAE stories? • Find news about another country What other country are you reading about?

  6. MMC911 Students should consider • Joining Twitter: www.twitter.com • Following me: @almakad • Starting a blog: www.wordpress.com, www.blogspot.com • Joining the MMC blog: coming • Joining YouTube: www.YouTube.com • Starting the MMC newsletter

  7. MMC 911 Students will learn • To work individually • To work in teams as leader and member • To meet deadlines • To organize work • To produce increasingly professional writing • To write for print • To write for online • To work in the field

  8. Introduction to News Writing Program A lot of writing Lectures and guest speakers Team projects Write news stories for print Write news stories for online Field work

  9. Some Basic Principles • Journalism is limited by time and space • Journalism is different in every format • Journalism is affected by culture and politics • Journalism is not always appreciated

  10. What does a journalist look for? A story • How do you find a story? • What is a story? • When would an editor tell a journalist, “That’s not a story? • How do you create a story? • When you find it or invent it, what do you do with it?

  11. Once the story is identified What happens next? Set up a process • What do you need? • What can you get easily? • What takes more time? • How much time do you have? • What’s the deadline? • Is it possible?

  12. How do you start? • Remember the 5 Ws and How • The opening is the most important • Pyramid style – what is it? • Jot down key points • Put them in order • Write simple sentences • Use present tense mainly • Other styles for features, backgrounders

  13. After you’ve written • Read out loud • Change bits that are hard to say • Proofread • Ask another person if text is clear • If not, make changes • Read again • Put away and give yourself a break • Read again • Hand in

  14. What are the limits? • Time • Space • Format • Competition • Cultural/political climate • Ignorance

  15. Writing Exercise #1 Read again Jonathon Savill’s piece on Tony Orsten for background • Take another approach using facts in the story • Write the opening sentence • Write the rest of the paragraph – 3 or 4 sentences total • Read again several times, make changes • Email to me as text: AlmaKadragic@uowdubai.ac.ae • You must complete this during class – I won’t accept late emails

  16. Before Session 3 next week • Prepare by going over Week 1 readings in the Syllabus • Take notes - everything is related to news writing • Save information, references, titles that seem interesting – for presentation, paper, and/or essay • Come to class with comments about your reading • Come to class with observations about what journalism is doing in today’s society • Bring examples of news stories: good ones; bad ones!

  17. MMC911 Introduction to News Writing That’s it for tonight. See you Monday in MMC910. We have a special speaker, who is bringing presents for all! Call, email with questions. Don’t wait till next class to get answers, solve problems. Tomorrow is too late!

More Related