Journalism terms

Factors determining news value Impact: how many readers will be affected Conflict: what is at stake Novelty: how different or unique something is Prominence: name recognition, importance Proximity: how near or close Timeliness: currency, imminence

terms News: straight, factual, informational story Attribution: accurately credits or quotes source Succinct: straight, to the point, concise News Lead: usually 35 words or less; first paragraph of a story usually telling the 5 W’s and H Anecdote: a memorable incident or personal short story that begins an article Soft news: more entertaining then timely Hard news: emphasis on basic facts rather than on emotion Inverted pyramid: facts in descending order of importance Human interest: another name for a feature story

Front page news terms Banner: a wide headline extending across the entire page Broadsheet: a full-sized newspaper, measuring roughly 14 by 23 inches Byline: the reporter’s name, usually at the beginning of an article Dateline: a line located at the beginning of a news story that tells where the story takes place or where it was written Feature: a non-hard news story Flag: the name of a newspaper as it’s displayed on page one; also called the nameplate Four-Color: the printing process that combines cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow, and black to produce full-color photographs and artwork

Headline: large type running above or beside a story to summarize its content; also called a “head” for short Jump: to continue a story on another page; text that’s been continued on another page is called the jump Jump line: type telling the reader that a story is continued from another page Layout: the placement of art and text on a page; to lay out a page is to design it Masthead: a block of information, including staff names and publication data, often printed on the editorial page Sidebar: a small story accompanying a bigger story on the same topic

Lead story: a news story of major importance; usually the largest article written on the front page Dominant photo: a photo that leads the reader to the center of the page; usually in relation to the lead article Nameplate (flag or logo): a stylized signature of a newspaper which appears at the top of page one Index: Table of contents of each paper, usually placed on page one.

Active voice: In active voice the subject (the subject of the verb) performs the action. Active voice puts the person or thing (the subject) doing the action first in the sentence, then the verb.      Active: Jane baked the cookies. (Jane, as the person doing the action, is first in the sentence.)      Passive: The cookies were baked by Jane.