News Story Analysis

I’m working on a Communications exercise and need support.

This assignment will help you to understand the processes behind the news you read and influence your own decision-making when writing news stories, as well as help you to understand the requirements for Assignments 2 and 3.

1. Analyse the story’s qualities in a 500-word presentation to class considering the effectiveness of its headline, lead, structure, credibility of sources, and range of voices.

2. Submit a 500-word analysis of the story’s journalistic style and ethics within 24 hours of having given the presentation.

Do NOT simply repeat the exact same information in the oral presentation and written analysis – make the 1000 words count to show your understanding both of the writing hard news style and the journalistic ethical approaches.

Your analysis will examine the following concepts:

Headline:

does it attract attention?

does it tell you what the story is about?

does it entice you to read it?

Lead:

does it tell you exactly and clearly what the story is about in 25 words or less?

does it tell you who, what, when, where, why and how the story happened?

is the language conversational?

is it written in active voice?

Newsworthy:

discuss the news values you identify in your story

Quotes:

how strong are the story’s quotes?

are they lively? Engaging? Informative?

how do the story’s quotes drive the story forward?

Narrative flow:

is the information presented in a logical structure?

do the sentences that follow substantiate the lead?

Reporting:

is the story fair?

accurate?

biased?

does the story present a range of voices?