CHAPTER 2
BASIC NEWSWRITING
What elements make a news story and how are they
used to construct a story?
If you were to pose these questions to a group of
reporters, it is probable that no two of them would give
the same responses. However, all would most likely
include in their answers a similar list of elements they
consider necessary for a story to be newsworthy.
This chapter will include this “list” of sorts and
other essentials that will help you be successful in
writing the basic news story.
BASIC ELEMENTS OF A NEWS STORY
LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Identify the basic
elements of a news story.
For the purposes of this TRAMAN, we will use the
following 10 categories as those covering the major
elements of news:
Immediacy
Proximity
Consequence
Conflict
Oddity
S ex
E m o t i o n
P r o m i n e n ce
S u s p e n s e
P r o g r e s s
If any one of these elements is present, a story has
news value, but many stories contain more than one
element. Remember this latter fact as you study the
material that follows because even though the 10
elements are used as the framework of this discussion,
several of the examples given might just as well be
discussed under different elements.
Remember, too, that this is just one possible
classification; another textbook might have classified
these elements in slightly different categories. Rather
than memorizing a set of categories, your chief concern
will be to develop your understanding of what
constitutes an interesting news story.
IMMEDIACY
A story that has just happened is news; one that
happened a few days ago is history. Immediacy is
timeliness. Few events of major significance can stand
up as news if they fail to meet the test of timeliness.
There is no point in submitting a news release on a
routine change of command that occurred four days ago;
the event is not big enough to overcome the time lag. A
newspaper looks foolish if it publishes a news story, and
after reading it, a subscriber says, “I heard about that
two days ago.”
However, an event that occurred sometime ago may
still be timely if it has just been revealed. Examples are
a newly discovered diary of John Paul Jones or the
disclosure of a startling scientific accomplishment that
occurred months ago, but has just been declassified. In
these cases, the immediacy element revolves around the
fact that the news was revealed or disclosed today. An
up-to-the-minute touch is provided by words such
as “newly disclosed,” “revealed,” “divulged” or
“announced today.”
PROXIMITY
Readers are interested in what happens close to
them. Proximity is the nearness of an event to the readers
or listeners and how closely it touches their lives. People
are interested mainly in themselves, their families, their
ships or stations, their friends and their home towns. If
Capt. Gunn relieves Capt. Stone as commanding officer
of Naval Station Annapolis, it is news in the Annapolis,
Baltimore and Washington areas and in the two officers’
home towns. It is not news in Huntsville, Ala., where no
one knows either captain or cares particularly who
commands a naval station in Maryland. Improvement
or progress stories are important in their degree of
proximity.
The Navy’s home town news program is based on
this element. When Thomas Katt, Seaman Apprentice,
USN, reports to USS Pine, it is news for his hometown
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