This slideshow is the combination of many sources and books I have learnt at department of media and communication or journalism school. It is helpful for those who want to be great citizen journalists. You can use the tips I share in this slideshow to report or write news on you social media.

1. +
Sarus First Field Trip
(Koh Kong, May 02,03,04,2014)
Prepared by: Heng HuyHuang
Soft News

2. +
What is soft news/feature?
 Features are designed not only to inform readers but
also to make them think more deeply about a
situation, to entertain, to educate.
 Features are more flexible.
 Features are more descriptive, and don’t need to
rush to the main point.
 Features are usually less urgent.
 Features are longer than hot news, normally.

3. +
The Variety of Feature
 News feature: begin with the news of the day and develop it,
either by explaining the meaning of the news or examining its
implications.
 Backgrounder: the news events and issues need to be
explained to the reader because they are inherently
complicated.
 Colour Story: provide the atmosphere or feel of an event by
observing and describing.
 Human Interest Story: people’s emotion
 Dramatic event
 Less dramatic
Lifestyle feature/ service stories: provide entertaining
information about life and how to live it more comfortably.

4. +
Variety of Feature (continue)
 Travel stories: writer’s internal journey, adventure as the
actual trip. It provides the reader about travel destination.
 Interview piece: confined to an interview, often with the
celebrity (Q&A).
 Review: similar to column but do not have the same profile
because reviews don’t exist without something to review. Ex:
Film review
 Profile: mini-biography which provide a range of
perspectives on the subject.
 Seasonal theme: the specific event of the year.
 Ex: Khmer new year

5. +
Feature Structure
Delay lead
Nut Graph: Angle
The body: fact, statistic, background
and context
Ending: conclusion of the story

6. + Delayed lead
 Summary Lead:
capture the key
element of the
story in one
enticing
paragraph.
 Descriptive Lead:
scene-setting lead
 Anecdotal Lead: a
lead tells a mini
story
 Surprise Lead: a
teaser and the
shocker lead
 Quotation Lead:
Lead with the most
important and
attractive quote.
Body
 Nut graph: tell what the story is about
 Background: What caused this
problem? How did it happen?
 Context: How is this specific problem
effecting to people? How many
people are in similar situation?
 Detail information: quote or
paraphrase, statistic…
End
Summarized
Strong quote
Future perspective
The statement that relates to the lead

7. +
Sarus First Field Trip
(Koh Kong, May 02,03,04,2014)
Prepared by: Heng HuyHuang
Hot News

8. +
What is hot news?
 Hot news is written about events that have just
happened and must be reported to readers
immediately.
 Put the most important on the top, and less important
on the bottom.
 Newsworthy:
 Timeliness
 Conflicts and consequences
 Loss of lives and properties
 Proximity
 Prominence
 Novelty

9. + How to write good hot news?
 Have a concrete headline, the heart of the story. Normally,
headline is no longer than 10 words, but it tells main idea of
the news.
 Inverted pyramid theory.
Lead
Body
End
•Support headline
•Summary the whole
story.
•Answer “5Ws and H”
– Who, what, where
when, why and how.
•No more than 20 to 25
words.
•Remind readers what happened similar to this
•If it is a conflict, quote important people for
solutions.
• First sentence
should begin
with quote that
support
information is
lead.
• Give detail of
the story by
adding quotes,
statistic, and
paint color in
news…

10. +
Quotation
 Finding source from 3P: People, Places and Papers
 Use Quotation:
 Use only quotations that summarize a situation well,
contain strong feeling or images, or show something
about a person’s character.
 Put good quotes near the beginning of your story.
 Don’t use quotes that are boring and difficult to
understand.
 Don’t change quotes.
 “Said” is enough.
 Don’t forget quotation marks for direct quotes.