The Complete Reporter Fundamentals of News

Designed to teach how to gather, write, and edit news stories,The Complete Reporter discusses the techniques that are used every day in the news business. Through a combination of descriptive text, examples, demonstrations, and exercises, this book makes fundamental concepts clear while instilling task-specific news and feature story writing skills. Along with introducing students to basic discussions about the field of reporting and basic writing, editing, and design skills, this text provides them with key guidelines and tips for writing general and specialty stories (see Parts IV-VII). Practical exercises throughout each chapter give readers experience with realistic writing situations. Based on actual newspaper articles, the exercises present a series of reporter's notes prepared at the scene of a story. Usable facts, libelous and/or unethical statements, and trivial tidbits are lumped together in order to test and help build judgment skills and abilitities to create tightly woven stories from a jumble of information. For anyone interested in basic news writing and reporting.

All chapters include “Exercises.”

I. REPORTING TODAY.

1. Journalism as a Career.
A Writer on Current Events.
Reporting: Doorway to Many Vocations.
Qualifications of a Reporter.
A Craft or a Profession?

2. The Reporter in the News Organization.
Details of Organization.
The Library/Morgue.
News Channels.
Sources and Beats.
The Story Process.

3. What Is News?
News Values.
Measuring the Importance of News.
Story Types.
News Sources.

4. News Style.
Newspaper English.
The Stylebook.
Spelling.
Punctuation.
Capitalizing.
Abbreviating.
Titles.
Figures.
Miscellaneous Rules.
Preparing Copy.

5. Ethics and Libel.
Codes of Ethics.
The Pitfalls of Libel.
Invasion of the Right of Privacy.
Nontraditional Claims Against the Media.
Other Legal Aspects of Journalism.
Internet Law.

II. WRITING THE NEWS LEAD.

6. The Simple News Lead.
The Five W's.
Playing Up a W.
Complete Reporting.
Testing the Lead.

7. The Complex News Lead.
Emphasizing an Outstanding Feature.
Other Leads.
Identifying the Features.
Combining Stories.

8. Polishing the Lead.
Rhetoric.
Emphasizing News Values.
Novelty Leads.
Complete Reporting.

III. WRITING THE COMPLETE STORY.

9. The Body and the Story.
Developing the Single-Feature Lead.
Developing the Several-Feature Lead.
Chronological Order.
Direct Quotations.
Transitional Devices.
Complete Reporting.

10. Features and Human-Interest Stories.
Sources of Features.
Writing Feature Articles.
Writing Human-Interest Stories.

11. Rewrites and Follow-Ups.
Rewrites.
Press Releases.
Follow-Ups.
The Developing Story.

12. Pictures.
Writing Cutlines.

13. News for Radio and Television.
Writing Newscasts.
Special Devices in Newscasts.
The Extra Job of Television Writers.
Broadcast Copy.

14. Policy in the News.
Devices to Promote Policies.
Slanting the Policy Story.
Justification of Policies in News Stories.

IV. WRITING THE GENERAL STORY.

15. Personals and Briefs.
Personals.
Briefs.
Fillers.

16. Speeches, Publications, Interviews.
Speeches.
The Speech Story Lead.
The Body of the Speech Story.
Publications.
Personal Interviews.

17. Meetings and Special Events.
Types of Meeting Stories.
Conventions.
Special Events.

V. WRITING THE SIMPLE STORY.

18. Illnesses, Deaths, Funerals.
Illnesses.
Deaths.
Funerals.

19. Fires and Accidents.
Facts and Sources.
Story Forms.
Complete Reporting.

20. Seasons, Weather, Natural Disasters.
Weather Stories.
Natural Disasters.
Seasons.

21. Crime.
Crimes.
Rapes.
Suicides.

VI. WRITING THE COMPLEX STORY.

22. Courts, Trials, Lawsuits.
Story Forms.
The Law and the Courts.
Route of a Criminal Case.
Route of a Civil Case.

23. Government and Politics.
Forms of Government.
Specific News Materials.
Elections.
Political Polls.
Meetings.
Budgets.

24. Business, Industry, Agriculture, Labor.
Interpreting the News.
The Reporter's Background.
Complete Reporting.

25. Education, Research, Science, Technology.
Covering Research and Science.
Medicine.
Technology.

26. Religion and Philanthropy.
The Religion Section or Church Page.
Philanthropy.

VII. WRITING THE SPECIAL STORY.

27. “Lifestyle” Section.
Traditional Social News.
Problems of Social-News Sections.
Writing Style.
Engagements and Weddings.
Miscellaneous Stories.
Consumer News.

28. Sports.
News Values of Sports.
Sports Story Leads.
The Body of the Story.

29. The Arts, Entertainment, Criticism.
Reviewing vs. Criticism.
Principles of Criticism.
Subjects of Criticism.

30. Editorials and Columns.
Editorials.
Columns.

VIII. EDITING THE NEWS.

31. Rewriting Faulty Stories.
Serious Errors.

32. Copy Editing.
Electronic Editing.

33. Proofreading.
Using Proofreading Symbols.

34. Headlines.
Trends in Headlines.
Selecting the Headline.
Principles of Headline Writing.

35. Newspaper Design.
Changes in Design.
Design Procedure.
Front-Page Design.
Types of Inside-Page Design.
General Exercises in Headlining and Makeup.

Appendix.
Preparing Copy.
Copyreading Symbols.
Correcting Copy.
Journalistic Terms.

The Internet.
Internet Terms.

Selected Readings.

Index.

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The Complete Reporter Fundamentals of News Gathering, Writing, and Editing

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