كتابة الخبر .. كتاب معلم الصحافة والإنشاء

Writing the news

The journalist can present the news in the first form. He narrates the news as it happened and as it was received with honesty and clarity. The second form is that it is sufficient to narrate the news only or its broad outlines without the details.

And the third image is that he expresses the extent of the impact of the news on his feeling, and the place for that is in the editorial and the article.

It is recognized for simplicity, eloquence, solemnity, clarity and coherence. The main characteristics of the journalistic style when presenting the news. Simplicity alone means presenting ordinary facts. rhetoric alone. Words mean resonant in a beautiful decorated framework. Reverence alone is depressing and boring. But the combination of these three elements results in a simple story that is understood by most people, eloquent, eye-catching, dignified, indicating good taste, and clear that conveys the news quickly and honestly.

The task of the journalist is to take the vague idea or the mixed incidents and present them to the readers in a smooth and easy manner that will arouse their interest and capture their attention. And to present the facts as he sees them, and then let the reader conclude for himself what he wants, because he cannot be an actor on the stage and a spectator at the same time. He writes what he sees, hears and knows, but he is prevented from deducing and voluntarily praising or criticizing in submission to his feelings, emotions and personal opinions, because the reader does not care about the opinion of the writer but only what he sees. The trained informant never forgets that he writes for the fairness of the educated as he writes for the intellectuals. In this sense, Professor Neil says: “In order for the press editor to succeed in writing the internal news, he must first take into account the average reader. Which, for example, is undoubtedly of interest to the average reader. But what really matters to him is his reaction to the incident that he reads, as if he was one of its witnesses, or one of the participants in its occurrence. And only then does the reader imagine himself in this situation, then he accepts reading the incident and continues reading it to the end.” • Professor Rah Fleisch says: “As long as the press directs the news to the democratic classes of the people, and as long as these classes are increasing in every country of the world day after day. One day, there is no escape from the language's complete compliance with these classes ».

As for how does the journalist start writing the news story? And how does it continue? And how does it end? These are matters for which no limited law has been drawn up in the style of journalism, except for the recommendations we have presented. However, it was noticed that most of the news stories in this era follow the so-called (inverted pyramid) method for three reasons:

1- The primary goal of the newspaper is to present news to all people in the shortest possible time, and by the easiest way, especially in countries that know the value of speed and time. Every word, every title, and every story is taken into account when putting these two things in place.

2- The interesting news introduction prompts the reader to continue reading, as he may not care at all about the story itself if the introduction is dry, lifeless and lifeless.

3- The page is too narrow to accommodate. Publication materials, if all did not deviate from everything that was exposed to abbreviation before the topics were sent to the printing press and its letters were collected, as it is difficult to abbreviate anything other than the back of the topic, and that is easier than writing it again.

Achieving this method in news stories is to start with the climax, which is represented by the introduction, or the first and second paragraphs of the story as the base of the inverted pyramid, and then the secondary details follow successively until they reach an end. The introduction here in relation to the topic is the most important part of it, and it is in it that the whole story is concentrated. Whereas it seems quite the opposite in the fictional story, the play, the book and the lecture, where they all start from the beginning, and the writer often begins with an analytical description of a small scene or the atmosphere in which it took place, then he gradually resolves the knot and the scenes follow quickly and the interest in what will happen after that increases until the feelings reach to the peak.

As the introduction. The reader is always the first to see a newspaper, because the way it is presented is the final judgment on the skill or weakness of the writer. And if the five questions (Who? What? When? Where, why?) are considered today as an important rule with which to open the introductions of news stories to satisfy the curiosity of the reader and drag him to read the rest of the story, then the able writer does not fail to invent new ways in which he opens his stories and arouses through them the craving of readers. . He may open his topic with a fiery introduction that inflames the reader's enthusiasm with the first phrase, so that he will devour the rest if this rest is of the same level, as if he says, for example (for heaven's sake - the prince said while reclining on his couch).

And he may draw with his pen a quick, vivid picture of the main person in the news story, so that the reader can imagine the story afterwards, as if he is with you as you see him (he was dark-faced and dead-eyed when S.H. stood in front of the ruler).

He may start with a confrontation between two opposites, and he will arouse the admiration of his readers with the image that he sends to their minds from this interview.

He may start his story with a question that stirs the mind of the reader, and forces him to think with him about the answer (Does the husband have the right to doubt his wife's behavior if she returns home one time alone in the middle of the night?).

He may consider starting his topic by describing the scene in which the accident took place, especially if the talk is about public celebrations, exhibitions, or festivals (fire arrows that catch the eye and draw various forms of lights that people saw on the first night of the opening of the Damascus International Fair). Sometimes a small phrase or a brief sentence appears in a statement or a private conversation, so it becomes the most important point of the introduction, then its explanation and clarification comes after that (I can paralyze the entire factory company if it does not respond to the demands of the workers). This is how the head of the Textile Workers Union declared yesterday in his meeting with the members of the company . Its subject may begin with an exclamatory phrase (How hard is the human heart!) or other methods.

Thus, the able journalist can innovate on every topic and on every occasion a new introduction that contains the element of excitement and suspense, and then brings the facts, arranged according to their importance. Or he puts more than one introduction to the story, and the first includes the most important incident, and the second includes the next incident of importance, and so on... As he moves on to the story, he is keen to find a bridge that connects it with him without fabrication or distortion, and this bridge is often a sentence or two sentences at most.

Perhaps the story that includes one fact, or a group of closely related facts, can be formulated in the inverted pyramid way more than any other way. The parts that make up the story: the first truth, the second truth, the third truth, etc. are like triangles, each getting smaller according to its decreasing importance. The key to success in a novel is appreciation. The value of the information, and then collect it in order of importance. It lags behind the previous story.

As for the story whose topic does not include mere simple facts but rather violent incidents and a description of people, and perhaps a testimonial or memorandum narration, it should start with a full summary of the story in the chapter, then follow a broader one and at the end show the details. and every part of . The triangular design can be likened to a triangle with four sides that narrows from the bottom gradually.

This method enables the journalist to formulate his story in a consistent way, highlighting the facts in the minds of readers.

As for the transmitted hadith, such as sermons, statements, messages, and private conversations, they depend on recording the information that is broadcast, written or oral, and the informant records it in small notes. When writing, it takes the form of large and small rectangles. It can be classified into (what is special and transmitted words. And a summary and transmitted words and so on). Any statement quoted directly from the speaker linked by explanatory paragraphs.

Sometimes we find a news story that contains the three elements: the truth, the incident, and the transfer. Then its design will be more complicated, but in any case it can be placed in any of these three advanced forms, which differ from each other only in a few.

As for reports and human stories, they are formulated in a form completely different from the form in which news is formulated, because it does not deviate from being a fictional story, but its people and places are taken from reality, not from imagination, and the reader's attention is always focused on what will happen, not on what happened. The best way to present it is to write an introduction that arouses the reader's interest, then lists the facts and hides the secret or the surprise, so you only present it at the end to draw him with you to the climax that you are seeking. What happens in the abstract news is that the journalist finds it difficult to write the introduction, but he does not make any effort to narrate the rest of the topic. The opposite happens in the reportage and the human story, as the most difficult paragraph in them is the end. The importance of the introduction cannot be ignored, as it is the one that takes the reader’s hand to the next. Therefore, it should be formulated in an interesting way, even if it does not include important information, as it suffices for it to have a small point of an incident or a glimpse. Of light or a phrase that catches the eye of the reader and arouses his curiosity only. If the writer achieves this, then he has only to keep his reader delving into the subject, and narrates according to the order of its occurrence until it finally reaches the climax that he has stored for him.

As for the complex stories in which many angles meet and deal with two or more incidents, they are similar in their formulation to the system of the continuous story, as both of them need to coordinate many facts. However, they differ in that the continuous story begins with an old incident from which the writer proceeds to the new news, while the compound story includes many units, all of which are new news, and some of them may deal with the future. Publishing each one of them separately results in unwarranted repetition, and a waste of the reader’s time, which he does not need. His interest is not in the events themselves, but in linking them. And many newspapers put constant headlines for complex stories that occur from time to time. For example, all car accidents are written under the heading (speed), political news under the heading (politics), police news under the heading (crime), and so on.

The editor, who receives news from informants, letters from other cities, and clippings from what was published in the evening newspapers, must know the space that should be allocated to the subject in order to begin formulating a complex, comprehensive story. He can begin with one of three premises: A- Concentrating the important points in one comprehensive paragraph, especially when they are equal, B- Choosing the most important point to start with, when one emerges among the many incidents that attracts the attention of the masses. The link between the two parties, that is, the link between the comprehensive statement and the important incident, when the importance of one incident emerges, but its importance does not justify the omission of other facts. Then comes, after testing the introduction, a quick summary of all the angles, then a breakdown of the most important angle, then the details of the other narrations according to their importance. The informant can write down on a paper the most important points in the subject, then he studies them and balances them, then he organizes the information according to his decision on the importance of each one of them and formulates the subject in the way we referred to.