NEWS COVERAGE, WRITING AND EDITING: A LECTURE DELIVERED BY COMRADE FIDELIS EGUGBO, SENIOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT, MEDIA TO THE GOVERNOR OF DELTA STATE AND THE PUBLISHER, NEWSDEN, AT A ONE DAY WORKSHOP FOR STAFF OF THE OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF DELTA, UNIDEL, AGBOR, ON TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2024.
The joy of attending this lecture is that most of you are professionals and want to refresh your memory for you to be better equipped to deliver on your job.
The word news is very common among us. Even to the lay man on the street, it is very common to hear the statement, “that is not news” or the saying, “this is great news.”
So, the question that you have to ask yourself as a professional is, what is news?
Almost all of us have our own definition of what news is. Our mission here is very clear, for us to know how to cover events, write good news stories and be able to edit our works, but we cannot do that without knowing the basic, which is, what news is.
So, from your definitions, we can say that you are all right. This is because of your individual perception of what news is. However, News can be summed up as something new, information about what is happening. Again, this is based on individuals’ view. To some of us who visited this institution few years ago, the relocation of the Vice Chancellor’s Office to a more befitting edifice is news. Also, a lot of roads were recently constructed in the university but have not been reported in any news media, so, the construction of the roads is also, news. Therefore, a news report is a factual account of an event or an occurrence written with the intention of spreading information about what is happening. Note the word, FACTUAL. A news report is not fictitious.
Professionally, there are news determinants which you must look out for when writing your stories;
1. Is it new?
It is only news if it is new. If the Governor of Delta State, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori visits this institution to inaugurate projects, it is news because it is fresh. Few days ago, your Vice Chancellor, Prof. Stella Chinye Chiemeke was at the Unity Hall, Government House, Asaba to deliver the Year 2024 Edition of Maris Annual Public Service Lecture where she spoke on the topic, “Flight of Talents: Navigating Nigeria’s Brain Drain Predicament.” If you are reporting what happened at the lecture now, it is no longer news and will be termed “stale news,” unless you are going to take the story from an angle that no reporter has looked into. But, it will not be stale to write features from the lecture. Again, when we heard that the Asagba of Asaba, Asagba Prof. Chike Edozien was dead, it took some days for the Palace to issue a press release announcing his death, despite the delay, it was newsworthy when the Palace officially announced his passage.
2. Is it unusual?
This is one area most of us are familiar with. “When a dog bites a man, it is not news but when a man bites a dog, this is news.” This popular saying among cub journalists is still a great guide in news coverage and reportage. Like earlier observed, it is not every day that the Vice Chancellor of the University relocates her office, so, her doing so for the first time was unusual, which ordinarily makes for a good story. Why did she relocate from her previous office? Was she threatened? Was the building about to collapse? Was she uncomfortable with the size of the office? Did she move with her staff or she got a new set of workers? If you are to go further, you may even ask the question, since she moved to a new office complex, has her attitude changed towards students and staff of the institution?
At every event, look out for what is unusual, if you are writing your news story from the speech of the Vice Chancellor, look out for what is new, what is unusual, what will catch the attention of the readers, the public. For instance, if the Vice Chancellor comes here to say that President Ahmed Bola Tinubu will be inaugurating projects in this institution, that will be news because, that will be the first time that the President will be visiting Delta State since his inauguration as President and the first point of call is this institution.
So, for you to be a good journalist, look out for something that is unusual, that is having an eye for news.
3. Is it interesting?
This has a lot to do with your audience, your public. So, for you to get it right, you must understand your public and know the story that will be of great interest to your public. For instance, if the Vice Chancellor of the University of Delta, that of Delta State University and the Vice Chancellor of Dennis Osadebay University are addressing students of UNIDEL, what will interest the students of UNIDEL most is the policy statement of your Vice Chancellor.
4. Is it significant?
This is very important to note while writing your story before your story will end up in the trash can and you will complain that your editor is not publishing your story. If the Vice Chancellor is attending an event where the Head of your Department is also attending and both of them make speeches. Naturally, the speech of your Vice Chancellor takes precedence over that of your Head of Department. For instance, if your Vice Chancellor says that every student in the University made Bs in their results and the Head of Department comes out to say all the students made As, of course, the statement of the Vice Chancellor will be taken more seriously than that of the Head of Department and possibly, the Head of Department will not be mentioned at all in the story so that he will not contradict the Vice Chancellor. We will learn more about this when we get to the act of writing news story.
5. Is it about people?
Most news stories are about people, what they do. Even when it involves natural disaster like flooding, earthquake, collapse of building, among others, the first thing that comes to your mind is, how many people lost their lives? How many people were affected? It is also news when it involves natural disaster and no life was lost. The important thing to note in this situation is that there is an unusual occurrence, something that is new has happened and from there, you get your news story.
6. How strong the story?
A story which is new, unusual, interesting, significant and about people is going to be a very good story indeed. Imagine an earthquake happening in an area where something of such was never envisaged.
7. Proximity
If similar events are happening in two different places, the one nearest to you should be of great importance and should take precedence in your reportage over what is happening elsewhere. If there is matriculation in University of Delta and on the same day, there is matriculation taking place at University of Benin. Of course, what happened at the University of Delta should be of greater interest to your public than what happened at the University of Benin. If Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State is visiting University of Delta, Agbor and Governor Godwin Obaseki is visiting Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, of course, you should concentrate more on the activities of Governor Oborevwori at the University of Delta than what Governor Obaseki will do at Ekpoma. Your public, your audience might know the people or places involved so they will be more interested in reading such stories of familiar people and places than about people that they do not know.
8. How do we get news?
Some people will say that all news story must come from the Vice Chancellor’s Office, that is, press release from the Vice Chancellor’s Office but if what you are doing is to project this institution to the world bearing in mind that the world is now a global village, you should be proactive and cover everything that is happening in the institution from the office of the Vice Chancellor to what is happening in the Departments. If the Okada riders reduce their fare, write the story, if food becomes expensive in the school, write your story, if all the students in Mass Communication Department make As, write the story and leave the Editor to make his judgment on what should go into the newspaper.
So, from academic activities to inter-departmental football competitions, religious activities, criminal activities to how the people are reacting to change in weather, what is happening in your health centre to social activities of the students, nature of food you can get in the restaurant, including gossips, write your stories.
NEWS WRITING
In Journalism, when it comes to news writing, there are certain questions that you must ask and answer correctly for you to get a good story. We call it the “5 Ws and a H”
Who – who was involved?
What – what happened?
Where – where did it happen?
Why – why did it happen?
When – when did it happen?
How – how did it happen?
So, to get it right, at every assignment venue, get your facts right; go all out to gather all the materials that you can; if it requires asking questions, please do so.
Avoid what is called fake news by writing stories based on facts; by so doing, you retain your readers because they are confident that any story that is from you is factual.
We have already known what determines news: unusual nature of the events, proximity, prominence, timeliness, human interest, and others; so, having gathered your facts, the next line of action is news writing. This is where the five Ws and H come into serious play as to which among them comes first, that is what leads the story.
The lead or the introductory part of the story is very important; this is what arrests the reader and keeps him or her reading to the last paragraph and, as much as possible, it should not exceed twenty five words in length.
For instance, “The Senior Special Assistant, Media, to the Governor of Delta State, Comrade Fidelis Egugbo, has warned reporters to shun fake news.”
Your story should be written in what is called the inverted pyramid format. We all know what a pyramid is but in this case, the most important aspect of the story must come first followed by other facts in descending order of their significance. With a paragraph of not more than twenty- five words as your lead, as much as possible, your story should not exceed twelve paragraphs if it is a news story, unless it is features material where you are at liberty to exhaust whatever facts and or data you have.
This is because, news story is the summary of what happened at an event and as a follow up to your news story, you write what is called features. So, with the inverted pyramid format, if your reader is not patient enough, with the first few paragraphs, he or she would have gotten what is in the story. For instance, from the example given above, you must have known that the story started with WHO was involved, that is the Senior Special Assistant, Media, to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, and we can follow up the story with another paragraph that answers the question of When and Where:
“Comrade Egugbo made the call on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, while delivering a lecture at a one-day workshop for the staff of Vice Chancellor’s Office, University of Delta, UNIDEL, Agbor.”
Timeliness is very important for a material to be news. With the age of the internet, it is even better to report the event as it is happening, which makes it more current.
Before now, it was only in the electronic media that stories came out as the events unfold, or shortly afterward; the daily newspapers must wait till the following day before coming out with the news, while magazines can be weekly, monthly or quarterly.
But with the internet, even as this lecture is going on, some of you may be streaming it live to your audience, because timeliness has made news to be very competitive among media houses.
With the second paragraph which captured the When and Where the event took place, for the newspaper that is coming out the next day, it can be written, “Comrade Egugbo made the call yesterday while delivering a lecture at a one-day workshop for the staff of Vice Chancellor’s Office, University of Delta, UNIDEL, Agbor.”
The ‘yesterday,’ to the reader, makes it still current; so, as a reporter, endeavor to send out your story as it is happening, try as much as possible for another reporter not to beat your organization in publishing the story.
Note that there is no rigid arrangement when it comes to writing news stories, any of the Ws and H can come anywhere, depending on which of them is of the strategic professional importance. For instance, the lead to the story can be, “Reporters have been charged to shun fake news.”
With a follow-up paragraph as, “the call became necessary following confusion about what is to be believed due to the prevalence of fake news.”
So, while the first paragraph answered the question of what happened, the second paragraph answered why it happened, the third paragraph can now answer who was involved, where and when: “The Senior Special Assistant, Media to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, Comrade Fidelis Egugbo, made the call while delivering a lecture at a one-day workshop for reporters working in the Office of the Vice Chancellor of the Delta State University, UNIDEL, Agbor on Tuesday.”
One key area of news that no reporter or editor can toy with is the headline. The headline must be catchy to arrest the reader. It is often said that the headline sells the newspaper. In respect of the electronic media, to keep the listeners, the newscaster start with what is called the news highlights.
At times, a reporter gets the headline first before writing the story and weaves the story around the headline, but in most cases, a reporter will conclude his or her story before reading through it to get the most catchy headline that will sell the story.
A reporter’s headline can be described as suggestive because, in the newspaper house for instance, there are several sections that the story must pass through before publication and the story can be re-written and the headline changed in the process of going through these sections.
For instance, in our illustrative story, the headline could be, “Egugbo Warns Reporters Against Fake News,” “Oborevwori’s Aide Kicks Against Fake News,” among others. We can even take a softer headline to read, “Why Reporters Must Shun Fake News – Egugbo.”
The body of the story should be such that the paragraphs, as much as possible, should be incisive and short.
Use of direct quotes is also very important because it boosts the credibility of your story.
NEWS EDITING
This is simply the act of reviewing the news stories of other journalists before they are published in newspapers or aired on the electronic media. Editing in journalism is when professional individuals known as editors, look for issues around spelling, grammar, fact-checking and examine the readability of the content of news stories. At times, especially in public newspapers, editing may also be for political correctness.
A news editor may also have to condense a reporter’s story for reason of economy of space or rewrite the story when necessary to rhyme with the house style, which, in a nutshell defines the philosophy underlining an organization’s attitude or position on news value.
At times, the reporter is faced with the onerous task of editing his or her story before sending it to the news editor who will read through, make necessary corrections and send it to the sub-editor or the rewrite desk. This is important because a reporter should be seen as a professional and, after writing a story, he should be able to read, re-read the story and make necessary corrections before forwarding it to the editors for further fine tuning.
From the sub-editor who will again rewrite the story, if such is required to ensure that it is error- free, and cast the headline, the story would be sent to the Deputy Editor who will go through again before he will send it to the title editor and later, the Editor-in-Chief, for final clearance for publication.
In the newspaper house, there are beat editors. For instance, for more than five years, I was the Show Business Editor of The Pointer Newspapers. As the Show Business Editor, every entertainment story was received by me for approval though, subject to the final approval of the Editor-in-Chief. It is worthy to note that within the period, I was also, the Health Correspondent of the newspaper house and as a correspondent, all my news story passed through the normal channel of the News Editor, Sub-Editor, Deputy Editor and Editor-in-Chief.
The act of editing is a thorough process and the Editor must be well educated, have leadership skills to enable him manage the reporters who are in his department, pay attention to details to avoid grammatical errors, ensure that the story meets the house style of the organization, have a strong sense for news so that his organization always beat others to the news and have excellent writing skills. He must be up-to-date, and have the capacity to add value to a reporter’s work.
Fidelis Egugbo is also, a Unionist, author of books, Secretary, Maris Trust Council, organisers of the Maris Annual Public Service Lecture, among others.
