GLOSSARY: terms and phrases

JOUR MO2 GLOSSARY: NEWSROOM TERMS AND EXRESSIONS

NEWS - Events and information of interest or concern to the public. Factors that make something newsworthy include: timeliness, newness, proximity (the closer to the audience, the more newsworthy), public interest, human interest. Basic types of hard news stories include: crime and court stories, politics and policy stories (including local council meetings), weather and disaster stories, accidents and fires, items of local, national or international import.

HARD NEWS STORY - Coverage of timely events or decisions. Best written with a SUMMARY LEAD telling who, what, where, and when at the top. How and why follow quickly. May be written with a FEATURE LEAD as long as the nut graph comes very near the top.

NEWS FEATURE STORY - Can be pegged to a recent or ongoing news event or issue of interest. May also be a human interest feature with no hard news peg.

ANALYSIS - Also known as an insight story, this is one in which the journalist interprets the events on a deeper more comprehensive level. The object is to elaborate on the significance or context of a large news story.

COLUMN - a personal opinion piece. It is usually an ongoing regular in-house column by a staffer, but may be a guest column by a freelancer or community member.

EDITORIAL - the collective opinion of the newspapers editorial board. Although editorials are unsigned, they are the result of a meeting of writer/editors who come to an agreement about what the newspaper is comfortable saying on an issue. The editorial is then assigned to one particular writer to actually compose.

OP-ED/OPINION PIECE - an opinion piece written by somebody from outside the newspaper. Usually appears opposite the editorials that are written by the newspaper's staff writers.

BEAT - a particular subject area that a reporter specializes in. Examples: the education beat, the police beat, the health beat, the science beat.

LEAD (LEDE) - The first sentence of your article.

HOOK - a twist, or snappy opening to hook the reader. Often it is a short sentence before the straight news lead.

ANECDOTAL LEAD - a lead that recreates a setting, event, situation, place or atmosphere as a way into the story. May be from a few sentences to a few paragraphs. Usually requires a nut graph to ground the reader. Also known as a NARRATIVE LEAD.

NUT GRAPH - a paragraph that steps back and lets the reader know the context and importance - some times the hard news aspects - of the issues or events being dealt with in the article.

BODY - the main section of the article, after the lead and before the kicker.

FLOW - how the paragraphs transition from one idea or topic to the next.

BRIDGE - a word, phrase, sentence or written image that logically connects one paragraph or section of the article to the one that immediately follows. Also known as a 'segue' (prounounced segway). A bridge helps the reader's mind make the leap from one thought or concept to another.

POPCORN QUOTE - a partial quotation set off in the middle of a sentence.

TICK TOCK - a story that is mainly a chronology leading up to an important event or decision. Usually written after the fact, it seeks to fill in the details of how we got to the point where the story became news.

KICKER - the ending - usually one that doesn't just trail off, but sums up or closes up the story. Preferably either peppy or poignant, and often with a view to the future.

PROFILE - A feature article about someone.

TAKE-OUT - An in-depth look at a particular subject or event. Comprehensive in scope.

PACKAGE - A collection of stories linked together by a common subject, that appear on the same day as.

SERIES - a collection of stories linked together by a common theme, published on subsequent days or in subsequent editions.

SIDEBAR - A second story, linked in theme or subject to the main story. Usually shorter and more specific than the main.

MAINBAR - The main story which may be supplemented with one or more sidebars. The term is usually used when editors and reporters are preparing a package.

SLUG - the placeholder title of a story that the reporter and editors use internally, as the story makes its way through the computer system. Remember, the actual headline is written by editors toward the end of the process.

TIGHT WRITING - Eliminating excess words. Direct writing with action verbs instead of many adjectives. Usually in the active, rather than passive voice.

ADVANCING THE STORY - going beyond the who-what-where-why-when of the original news event. These used to be second day stories, but are increasingly initial stories, given that the public has already heard the basics on radio or seen the headline news on television or the web.

ADVANCE COPY - Known as "Zed" copy in Britain and Canada, because it is a placeholder copy, in which the body of the story can be written in advance, to be re-topped with the actual news when it happens. Often used for election results on a tight deadline. Obituaries of famous people are also often written in advance and held on hand until the person dies, and those details are put at the top.

SECOND DAY STORY - the second, or follow-up article to the original news event, most often when the subject matter is still developing or still of interest.

REAX/REACTION PIECE - an article base on the response of affected parties to a particular news event or government decision. These used to be second day stories, but are increasingly initial stories, given that the public has already heard the basics on radio or seen the headline news on television or the web.

SATURATION COVERAGE - when a news organization throws many resources at a story so that it is covered from every possible angle, usually in several articles, sometimes over several pages and several days. When a news story is particularly huge (such as the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Center) this approach is common.

MAKING IT SING - writing in such a way that the piece flows effortlessly for the reader, like a piece of music, with each transition automatically taking the reader where his/her curiousity would naturally go.

BUMPF - material handed to the reporter by agencies, institutes organizations, and public relations officers, so the reporter has the background facts and figures at hand.

FLACK - an unflattering nicknamed for public relations professionals and spokespeople who are in charge of dealing with the media for their particular organization or employer.

WRITE-THRU - an edit of a story that is essentially a top-to-bottom rewrite.

COLOR - human interest details and visual descriptions that bring a story to life.

STRINGER - a foreign correspondent who is working as a freelancer rather than a staff writer for a particular news organization.

SAVED STRING - background research material, usually from other publications.

ON SPEC - Usually refers to freelance work. Writing and submitting an article when the editor has not agreed to publish the article. You could either be sending it to the editor 'cold' OR have at least gotten some interest in the idea for the article, and a commitment that the editor will look at what you wrote before deciding whether to buy it.

HARD-NOSE - a tough, hammer-at-the-subject, style of interviewing.

SOFT-TOUCH - a friendlier, chattier interview style. Often can be more effective at drawing out the most sensitive information.

HOLES IN THE STORY - Questions that arise either when writing the story or when the story is edited. The reporter must go back and do extra research to fill in the holes.

A SCOOP - Also known as an exclusive, this is when a news organization is the only one to have the story or break the story at a particular time.

OWNING THE STORY - When a news organization is the one which clearly has the best, most timely information on a given news event or issue, usually because it has decided to commit the most resources to that story.

BYLINE - The name of the reporter or writer that goes on the story.

DATELINE - The name of the place where the story originates: usually written in capitals at the beginning of the story.

HEADLINE - The title on an article. Headlines are written by editors as the page is laid out, not writers. Never withhold information on the assumption it will be covered in the headline.

BLURB - An introductory few sentences that sum up the article. Most often on the web, but increasingly seen in newspapers.

BRIEF - a short synopsis of a story. Often on the web, but also in newspapers. Often briefs are collected in a NEW DIGEST, a column or two of short paragraph news items.