1. News Basics
By Hoem Seiha
H/p: 012‐699‐553
Email: entrepconsulting@gmail.com

2. News –sometimes called “news story” – is mostly published on
newspapers, magazines or other online media. A news story tells you
about something unusual happening around you. Like a news release,
news story has to answer the “5Ws” and the “H”. A good news story
should:
∗ Answer the “5Ws” and the “H”.
∗ Be narrowed down in “inverted pyramid” style
∗ Have a clear angle
∗ Be objective (avoid subject “I”)
∗ Quote human voices
∗ Have supporting elements
∗ Be factual
∗ Be word‐economic
News

3. A good news story should have one or more of the
following characteristics:
∗ Proximity – Nearness to your audience / Are they
directly affected?
∗ Timeliness – Is this something new?
∗ Prominence – Are those involved of importance to
the audience?
∗ Novelty – Is this something unusual, first, largest etc.?
∗ Conflict – Are there competing sides, big or small?
News (Cont.)

4. ∗ Wide Appeal – In many cases local media appeals to an
eighth‐grade reading level and topics that appeal to mass
audiences. Does your story have wide appeal or can you
describe why it should?
News (Cont.)

5. Like a news release, news story has basic elements described
below:
∗ Lead – the first few lines (sometimes only 1 sentence) of
the news story
∗ Body – a block of paragraphs. All the details, usually
written in an inverted pyramid style, are given to support
the lead.
∗ Conclusion – a paragraph. A special message is left for the
readers. Even if this sometimes used by writers, this is not
so important for journalistic writing.
Basics

6. The basic elements of the body of a news story should
have the followings:
∗ The “5Ws” and the “H” – telling about what, where,
when, why, who, and how
∗ Background Information ‐ telling something related
to the main idea of the story
∗ Supporting elements – like details, print or human
quotes, statistics, figures, (sometimes rumors)
Body

7. A paragraph is a block of sentence grouped together to
state a idea or thing. An effective paragraph has the
following characteristics:
∗ Concise but meaningful (not exceed 100 words)
∗ Word‐economy (make every word counts)
∗ Should contain only main idea or point (and followed
by supporting elements).
∗ Appropriate word choices
∗ Should contain no cliché, jargon, or idiom.
Body: Paragraph

8. A supporting element is a sentence or few sentences
that support a certain statement in a paragraph of the
body. Supporting elements can be the followings:
∗ Details
∗ Figures or statistics
∗ Human or print quotes
∗ Rumors (rare case)
Body: Supporting Elements

9. Every year Beeline gives away school materials to
students throughout Cambodia. Last year the company
distributed more than 1,000 school bags, 4,300 books,
4,200 pencils and pens, and over 1,000 t‐shirt printed with
the slogan “Study for a Bright Future” to 1,000 top
students from 23 schools in 20 provinces.
Example 1: Paragraph
Main point
Supporting elements: figures

10. The two paragraphs have different points.
∗ The company is ready to distribute more than 59,000
books and 59,000 pencils and pens that were printed
with the slogan “Study for a Bright Future”.
∗ Ham Phearum said that this year the company gives
away those materials to all young children, unlike the
previous year that the company rewarded the materials
to only top students.
Example 2: Paragraph
Point A
Point B
Human indirect quote

11. Sample: News Story

12. There are basically two types of news—hard and soft
news.
Hard News – Hard news, sometimes called “hot news”
is a type of news of something or event happening
currently.
Soft News – Soft news, sometimes called “feature” is a
type of news story about something or event occurring
at a time around now. It’s usually long, providing in‐
depth views and analyses.
Types of News Stories