Usuario:Athina Morrison/Taller

Hard news are reports typically associated with eruptive violence, reversal of fortune and socially significant breaches of the moral order.​ This hard news category includes both those reports which are primarily grounded in a material event such as an accident, natural disaster, riot or terrorist attack, and those grounded in a communicative event such as speech, interview, report or press release.​ Hard news stories are usually described as stories who lack shelf life. In other words the importance and relevance of the story is limited to a certain time frame in which the news remains valuable and relevant for the audience. The idea of hard news embodies two orthogonal concepts:

• Seriousness:

Politics, economics, crime, war, and disasters are considered serious topics, as are certain aspects of law, business, science, and technology.

• Timeliness:

Stories that cover current events—the progress of a war, the results of a vote, the breaking out of a fire, a significant statement, the freeing of a prisoner, an economic report of note.

News values of Hard News

News Values is usually described as the idea that information passes through a prism that filters, through different factors, the prominence of a news story. It generally decides if it can be considered news or not.

• Timeliness: The main objective is to inform people about breaking news. It shows the events that are happening right now. For example: “There’s been an accident on the corner of North Front St. and Bell Blvd. So far no injuries have been confirmed, but lanes will be shut down for the next hour”.​

• Impact: The effect and number of people affected. The larger the impact, the bigger it is. For example: “The Earthquake in Mexico.”

• Proximity: How close the reader’s are physically or emotionally from the event. "News audiences are seeking information about areas of special interests, or niches. Local newspapers and news stations have carved out a well- established niche -their community." ​

• Controversy: Social issues and opinions. It defines how society deals with issues and creates two or more sides. Represents political opinions and divides people to have a clear position.

• Prominence: Newsworthy information. The fame or importance of the news.

• Conflict: News related to a fight, war or political tension.

• Updating: On going situation .

• Human interest: The emotional reaction with the story. As a human, the readers will react to the news. For example: people dying.

• Odd: The strange, unusual or not expected stories. For example: "If the dog bites the man it is not news, but if the man bites the dog, it is.”

Structure of Hard News

The Headline

Conveys the general message in as many words as will fit (usually quite a small space).​ A headline should be informational, and can be clever, as long as the cleverness does not interfere with the information or earn groans from readers.​

The Lead

The lead, or the first sentence of the story, is arguably the most important part of the article.​ Based on the content of that first sentence, a reader will either look deeper into the story, or move on to the next one.​

The 5w’s rule is a key pattern to follow when crafting a lead. The 5w’s stand for: who, what, when, where, why, and lastly, how.

• Who: The person/ political party/government/collective involved.
• What: What is happening.
• When: When the news took place.
• Where: Where, physical location of where the news took place.
• Why: The reason the news happened.
• How: How it happened, the mechanics of the situation. Give details and specify.

The lead should aim to answer the 5 w’s and ‘how’ in one initial sentence. This approach will ensure an audience response, and insight them to read further on. An example of a lead is shown below:

• A 15-minute operation involving a forklift, 20 firefighters, seven police officers and one scared pig ended a two-hour traffic delay on Interstate 94 Sunday morning.​

Experimental leads

If you answer the “5 w’s and one h” on the second or third sentences, you can be more creative with the first. The results can flounder and die, or have a great impact.​

• Tailgate the pig lay snoring in the middle of Interstate 94, oblivious to the fire trucks and squad cars that had gathered around him.​
• Geoffrey Saint never could have imagined what he'd meet in the middle of Interstate 94 during his drive to church Sunday morning.​

Direct Quotes

Quotes breathe life into a story, but can be abused. Don’t quote material that isn’t quoteworthy.​ For instance, if Frank had said, “Officers arrived on the scene at about 9:00 a.m.,” you wouldn’t quote it, considering its relevance.​

If she had said, “That huge pig just sat there with tears running down his face and I thought my heart would burst,” well, that’s far more quoteworthy.​

Paraphrased Quotes

When a source’s words convey dry facts, or if the source’s exact words don’t fit the sentence you want to write, consider paraphrase.​

Officers arrived on the scene around 9:00 a.m., Frank said.​

You are still attributing the source properly, but no quotes are needed.​

The inverted pyramid structure

The inverted pyramid is an ideal structure when writing a Hard News story. This structure is a pattern that follows the order of; the lead, the body (quotes/facts/numbers and nut graph), and the tail (background), to successfully project the importance of the news story.

The lead

The most important information.​ Who?, what?, where?, when?, why? and how? It may include a quote or question.​

The body

The crucial information.​ Argument, controversy, story, issue, evidence, background, details.​

• Quote/facts/numbers: Rather informational than narrative
• Nut Graph (1 paragraph for Hard News stories): paragraph that fits your news story into a nutshell, as much information possible must be provided for an effective nut graph.

The tail

The extra information and extra context.​