This document discusses various types and concepts of journalism that should be avoided by novice journalists, including: - Yellow journalism, which sensationalizes stories and uses eye-catching headlines rather than well-researched news. - Advocacy journalism, which supports a specific viewpoint rather than remaining neutral. - Editorializing, where the reporter gives their own opinion rather than just reporting the facts. It also covers concepts like new journalism, stylistic journalism, and balanced reporting that journalists should be wary of depending on the story and their role. The document provides examples and definitions of different journalism techniques and styles.

1. KILLERS OF BALANCED
REPORTING
There are worthy concepts that novice journalist must be
wary about. Concepts and balanced must be avoided.

2. YELLOW JOURNALISM
• This is simply sensationalizing a story or an
issue. It is the type of journalism that presents
little or no legitimate well-researched news and
instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more
newspapers.
• Techniques may include exaggerations of new
events, scandal-mongering or sensationalism
• Most showbiz stories are grounded on this type of
journalism which appeals to the curiosity of the
readers and viewers

3. NEW JOURNALISM
• They also associated journalism, with fiction
when they described their work with phrases such
as “nonfiction novel” and “narrative techniques of
fiction”. In doing so, they ignited a debate over
how much like a novel or short story a journalistic
piece could be before it began violating
journalism’s commitment to truth and facts.
• This approach represents a return to the roots of
social reporting which was used in Chrale
Dicken’s fictions.

4. ADVOCACY JOURNALISM
• This is the genre of journalism that, unlike
propaganda, is fact-based but supports a specific
point of view on an issue.
• Advocacy journalist are expected to focus on
stories dealing with corporate business practices,
government policies, political corruptions and
social issues. Arguably, advocacy journalist serve
the public interest in a way similar to muckrakers
or whistle blowers

5. STYLISTIC JOURNALISM
• It emphasizes imaginative, stylized writing of
stories and considers newspapers as “the
literature of immediate fact”
EDITORIALIZING
• This is giving the reporter’s opinion rather than
the fact. It may also mean the expanding of news
about an insignificant happening to give publicity
to a subject.

6. WRITING GOOD
JOURNALISTIC STYLE

7. Writing Good Journalistic Style
1. Cut unnecessary fat. Preserve meaning, but
prone ruthlessly.
2. Use simple, clear language. Bring meaning into
focus with concrete examples and vivid writing.
3. Say what you mean.
4. Choose active over passive voice. Replace “to
be” verbs with action words.
5. Craft transition carefully. The most commonly
used transition are chronological. (now, since
then, a few days, later, etc.)

8. Writing Good Journalistic Style
6. Replace clichés and adjectives with nouns and
action verbs focusing on actors and action.
7. Translate jargon by paraphrasing dull, wordy
quotes.
8. Use quotes correctly.

9. FOURTEEN TRAITS OF
GOOD WRITERS

10. Fourteen Traits of Good Writers
TRAIT 1
Good writers see the world as their journalism
laboratory, a storehouse of story ideas. If they can
get out of the room, they can find a story.
TRAIT 2
Good writers prefer to discover and develop their
own story ideas. They have an eye for the off beat
and may find conventional assignments tedious.
 TRAIT 3
 Good writers are voracious collectors of
information. This is usually means that they take
notes like crazy.

11. Fourteen Traits of Good Writers
TRAIT 4
Good writers spend too much time and creative
energy working on their leads. They know that the
lead is the most important part of their work, the
passage that invites the reader into the story and
signal the news.
TRAIT 5
Good writers talk about “immersing themselves”
into the story. They live it, breathe it and dream it.
 TRAIT 6
 Most good writers are bleeders rather than
speeders. When they write, in the words or
sportswriter Red Smith, they “open a vein”

12. Fourteen Traits of Good Writers
TRAIT 7
Good writers understand that an important part of
writing is the mechanical drudgery of organizing
the material, what Saul Pett describes as “donkey
work”
TRAIT 8
Good writers rewrite. They love computer terminals,
which permit maximum playfulness during revision.
 TRAIT 9
 In judging their work, good writers tend to trust
their ears and their feelings more than their
eyes. Editors “look for holes in the story”. Writers
want ‘to make it sing’.

13. Fourteen Traits of Good Writers
TRAIT 10
Good writers want to tell stories. They are
constantly searching for the human side of the news,
for voices that enliven the writing.
TRAIT 11
Good writers write primarily to please themselves
and to meet their own exacting standards, but
they also understand that writing is transaction
between writer and reader.
 TRAIT 12
 Good writers take chances in writing. they love
the surprising and the unconventional approach of
the story.

14. Fourteen Traits of Good Writers
TRAIT 13
Good writers are lifelong readers, mostly novels,
and they like movies. They collect story ideas and
form from other genres.
TRAIT 8
Good writers write too long, and they know it.
They want their stories to be “seamless” or connected
by a single “thread” or “to flow.”

15. NEWS
Is an oral or written report of a past, present, or
future event. It should be factual, accurate,
unbiased and interesting. But what is interesting
to one is not always interesting to others.

16. ELEMENTS OF NEWS

17. CONFLICT
• This may involve physical or mental conflict –
man versus man, man versus animals, man
versus nature, or man versus himself.
Immediacy or Timeliness
• This element emphasizes the newest angle of the
story. The more recent the event, the more
interesting it is to the reader.

18. Proximity or Nearness
• This may refer to geographical nearness as well
as to nearness to kinship or interest.
PROMINENCE
• Some people are more prominent than others by
reason of wealth, social position, or
achievements.

19. NAMES
• Important names makes important news
DRAMA
• This adds color to the story. The more picturesque
the background and the more dramatic the actions,
the more appealing the story is to the reader.

20. Oddity or unusualness
• This refers to strange or unnatural events, objects,
persons and place. An odd story is interesting not
because of its new value but because of the human-
interest side of it.
Romance and Adventure
• “Love makes the world go around” so as song says.
Hence, stories about love including adventure, may
ignite the taste of the reading public. This is also the
reason why showbiz news continuously booms.

21. SEX
• Stories of sex are usually related stories of romance,
marriage, divorce and the varied activities of men and
women. However, this is not always the case.
PROGRESS
• The onward and forward march of civilizations or
the progress of a country is chronicled step by
step in the newspaper.

22. ANIMALS
• Stories of animals, especially those talents are
good reading matter because of their human –
interest value.
NUMBER
• Sweepstakes numbers, vital statistics, election
results, scores in games, casualties, fatalities, price
of goods, and ages of women make good news.

23. EMOTION
• All other elements of news mentioned above
appeal to the emotion. But the term emotion here
includes the various human responses such as
the innate desire for food, clothing, shelter; the
universal interest in children, animals, and nature;
an the natural feeding of love sympathy and
generosity, of fear, hatred, and jealousy.

24. TYPES OF NEWS
STORIES
News stories may fall under any of the following types
according to:

25. 1. Scope or Origin
• Local news – report of events that take place
within the immediate locality.
• National News - News that take place within the
country.
• Foreign News – news that takes place outside
the country.
• Dateline news – news preceded by the date and
place of origin or place where it was written or
filed: Tokyo, Jan. 20 (AP)

26. 2. Chronology or Sequence
• Advanced or anticipated – news published
before its occurrence, sometimes called dope or
prognostication. The reporter foretells events
expected to occur at a definite time in the future.

27. 2. Chronology or Sequence
• News Feature (featurized news distinguished
from a feature article) – it is also based on facts,
but it entertains more than it informs. It uses the
suspended interest structure like the narrative;
thus, it cannot meet the cut-off test. In writing a
news-feature, the writer may give his impression,
may describe or narrate, but without editorializing.
The reporters by-line usually appears with his
story.

28. NEWS FEATURE
Single-feature or one incident
story
• the story deals with an
isolated event. A single
fact is featured in the lead
and is explained further in
the succeeding
paragraphs.
• The story breaks logically
at every paragraph; thus
enabling the reporter to
cut or lengthen it as
spaces dictates
Several-feature, multiple angled,
or composite story
• Several facts are included
in the lead in their order of
importance. These facts
are elaborated one after
the other in the body.
• The several-feature story
aims to draw together two
or more divergent aspects
of related news items
separately; the writer writes
them in one big story.

29. 4. TREATMENT
• Fact Story – This is the plain exposition setting
forth a single situation or a series of closely
related facts that inform. It is written in the
inverted pyramid.
• Action Story – a narrative of actions involving
not merely simple facts but also of dramatic
events, descriptions of persons and events,
perhaps testimony of witnesses, as well as
explanatory data. Sport games, competitions,
accidents, and war reports are examples of action
stories.

30. 4. TREATMENT
• Speech Story – a news story usually written from
a public address, talks, and speeches
• Quote Story – speeches, statements, and letters,
and to some extent, interviews when reported,
are regarded as quote stories. All are based on
recorded information, either written or spoken,
and transcribed by the reporter in the form of
news.

31. 4. TREATMENT
• Interview Story – a news report written from an
interview.
• Hard news – events such as killing, city councils
meetings and speeches by leading government
officials, are timely and are reported almost
automatically by the media.
• Soft News – events, such as a lunch to honor a
retiring school custodian or a boy scouting
jamboree are not usually considered immediately
important or timely to a wide audience.

32. 5. CONTENT
• Routine Story – celebrations, enrollment,
graduation, election stories reported year in and
year out.
• Police reports – accident, fire, calamity, crime
stories, etc.
• Science news
• Developmental news
• Sports stories

33. 6. MINOR FORMS
• News brief – a short item of news interest,
written like brief telegraphic message, giving
mainly the results with details.
• News bulletin – it is similar to the lead of a
straight news story. Its aims is just to give th gist
of the news.
• News-featurette – this is a short news feature
usually used as filters, e.g., “Quirks in the news”
• Flash – a bulletin that conveys the first word of an
event.