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Resources for Newspaper Students

News Stories

Here are some notes about writing news stories and features.

You can, for this assignment, either write a news story or feature, or a news feature. Review the pages in the course packet about how to write news stories and features.

For your news story assignment, do not write a review (e.g., of a performance.) The purpose of the newswriting assignment is to develop your skills in gathering information by interviewing and research. You can either cover an event, or you can do a research-based news story. If you cover an event, review the notes in the course packet on how to cover a lecture or speech story.

Finding Events to Cover
How do you find events to cover? Look on the school bulletin boards, watch your email announcements, look in the Reader, New City, the Friday Chicago Tribune for announcements of events; look in the Sunday Chicago Tribune book section for "literary events" (author appearances).

Research-based Stories
If you do a research-based news story, you may take an issue in the news which is of interest to you and F's readers and write an article about it. Be sure to source your information. The article can take the form of a "background" or "analytical" article, or it can take the form of a feature article. If you write a feature article, try to interview some involved or knowledgeable person (e.g., someone involved in whatever issue it is). Don't write in the first person unless you write a feature article, and then only use first person if it helps the article (i.e., don't use first person out of laziness or thoughtlessness!). So, for example, if you write a feature in which you interview someone in person, you can describe meeting the person (if that will be interesting to the reader).

Sources
If you do research, you must attribute everything you take from your sources--all of the ideas, factual material, even the references. Make clear where you got each point you take from your research sources. Skillful writers manage to put the attribution into the text. In journalism, you don't want to use footnotes or endnotes. For purposes of a class assignment, however, you can use endnotes and a bibliography which gives clear information on author, title, facts of publication or url and name of website and its owner. In fact, you should use endnotes and bibliography on your term paper, if you do a research paper.

Using On-Line Databases
Remember that the library's on-line databases are helpful sources for research-based writing. In particular, use Lexis-Nexis for newspaper, magazine, broadcast sources, and use Ebsco Host for magazines and scholarly journals (though it also has newspaper sources). If you need help learning to use these databases, go to Flaxman's reference desk or telephone the reference librarian. The interfaces are usually fairly intuitive, and if you're patient, you can figure out how to use them.

Subjects
Features and research-based articles can be about issues, events, personalities in the arts, in music, in social or political projects. So, for example, if you're interested in indy music and want to write about the indy-band scene, you can interview an up-and-coming band, or producer or promoter, or owner/programmer of a venue. Or if you write about a political issue or group or movement, you can interview an activist, or, if you go to a demonstration and write about that, interview people there.

An example of a research-based article would be an article on the controversy over genetically modified foods, using as a news peg any pending legislation.

Another possibility.for a research-based news article would be to write a column of short news articles about one subject area or issue. You can, if interested, consider the subject area as a reporter's "beat" and continue to follow it through the semester. Remember that you don't want to reproduce information in the mainstream media, but, rather, bring to people's attention stories they won't have heard about. Some suggestions we talked about on the staff, which we thought interested F readers:

The indy music scene
Big brother watch: censorship, limits on freedom of expression and civil liberties, government spying
Environmental newsHuman rights
Media newsHigher education issues (e.g., financial aid cutbacks)
Art news
Activism
Alternative culture/youth culture.
Technology issues (e.g., copyright wars)
Globalization

You can also use your imagination to make up a subject for a column--or a "beat." For example, the commercialization of practically everything.

If you have ideas, send them to me, and we'll share them with the class and I'll improve my course handouts for the next group of students to take this course.