Sources of news. From the details of a news story it is almost always possible to infer the sources from which the news was obtained. Public and private records, reports, officials, eye-witnesses, for example, are often cited as authorities for the facts in the story. These sources should be noted carefully, so that they may be drawn upon by the student in his own reporting. In fact, a list of sources compiled from news stories of various kinds, such as those of crime, accidents, fires, etc., will be found helpful to the beginner.
Methods of news gathering. How the details of the news were obtained may also be ascertained from an examination of the story. In the report of an interview, for example, the reporter’s questions may be inferred from the person’s replies. Not infrequently the story shows indirectly the circumstances under which the reporter secured the material. The student will do well to note every such hint and suggestion.
Purpose. Every news story should present the details of the news as accurately as possible and as completely as the significance of the news warrants. The embellishment of news stories with fictitious details to make them more interesting or more entertaining, as well as the distortion and suppression of significant facts of the news in order to accomplish some end, are alike opposed to the fundamental purpose of the newspaper. Besides reporting the news with fairness and accuracy, however, the writer, consciously or unconsciously, may accomplish other ends by the manner in which he presents his material. By giving prominence to certain details and aspects of a piece of news, he may produce one effect upon the reader’s mind; by emphasizing others in the same piece of news, he may produce an entirely different impression. Thus news of accidents, crime, courts, and similar matters can be presented so as to exert either a wholesome or an unwholesome influence on readers; that is, it may be constructive or destructive in its effect. Stories of crime, for example, may be written in a manner that tends to make the wrongdoer more or less of a hero, and hence may encourage others to imitate his career; or they may be written in a way that tends to deter readers from committing similar crimes. Whether wrongdoing is made attractive or unattractive in news stories depends not so much upon giving the facts fully and accurately as upon the reporter’s attitude toward his material.
Some newspapers simply record the news without emphasizing either its constructive or its destructive phases. Newspapers of this type have been likened to mirrors that reflect impartially whatever comes within their range. This policy is expressed in the dictum of a well-known editor when he declared, “Whatever the Divine Providence permitted to occur, I was not too proud to report.” Purely informative news stories and entertaining feature stories in these papers are written without particular regard for their influence on readers.
Other newspapers, not satisfied with reporting the day’s events in an accurate but colorless manner, without any particular consideration for its effect upon their readers, deliberately undertake to give news in such a way that it tends to be helpful and constructive in its influence. They publish not merely the usual details regarding fires and accidents; they emphasize the causes, the responsibility, and the frequency of such occurrences, in order to impress upon readers the importance of taking preventive measures against the recurrence of such disasters. They also recognize the fact that some legitimate news, even when given in what is ordinarily considered an unobjectionable manner, tends to have a bad effect on readers in that it suggests to them ideas and ideals inimical to the best interests of society as a whole. So-called “waves” of crime and suicide they realize are often the result of suggestions given to morally unstable readers by newspaper stories of crimes and suicides. By constructive treatment of such news, they attempt to reduce to a minimum these undesirable suggestions and to substitute for them suggestions that tend to prevent similar criminal and anti-social acts.
Another class of newspapers, apparently disregarding the unwholesome effect upon their readers, give prominence to sensational, ghastly, and scandalous phases of the news because they know that such details appeal to the morbid interest of many readers. The not uncommon explanation made by these newspapers for such treatment of news is that they are giving the public what it wants. Critics of these papers deny the validity of this excuse and point out that it would apply equally to the selling of habit-forming drugs and adulterated food, acts now forbidden by law.
Since the underlying purpose of the writer plays an important part in the selection and the arrangement of material for news stories, as well as in the effect that stories produce upon readers, it deserves careful consideration in the analysis of news stories.
Type of story. There are two general types of news stories: (1) the informative news story, the chief aim of which is to give the facts of the news; and (2) the feature or human interest story, the chief aim of which is to take material of little or no news value and make it interesting. The fundamental difference between these two kinds of stories is the news value of the contents. The presence or absence of so-called “human interest” is not the basis of this classification, for informative news stories may be developed by bringing out the human interest element in the news.
The informative news story may be one of two kinds: (1) the story the chief purpose of which is to record the facts of the news without particular regard to its effect upon the readers; and (2) the story that presents the facts of the news in such a way as to produce a wholesome effect.
The purely informative news story usually presents the facts of the news so that they can be grasped readily in rapid reading. Its length is determined by the value of its news as measured by the ordinary standards of news values. It may be made interesting by bringing out the human interest element and by any literary device that is adapted to the subject. Usually it has a summary lead.