Communication 14: Publication and Editing

LESSON 2: MID TERM

Part II. Inside the Publication

Interviewing

Headline Writing

Covering the Beat

INTERVIEWING

Four principles of interviewing:

1. Prepare carefully, familiarizing yourself with as much background as possible.

2. Establish a relationship with the source conducive to obtaining information.
3. Ask questions that are relevant to the source and that induce the source to talk.
4. Listen and watch attentively.

Types of interviews:

News interview – help to explain the news event.

Profile or personality to interview – focus is a person rather than an event or situation.

Interviewer’s Ground Rules

1. Identify himself/herself at the outset of the interview.

2. State the purpose of the interview.
3. Make clear to those unaccustomed to being interviewed that the material will be used.
4. Tell the source how much time the interview will take.
5. Keep the interview as short as possible.
6. Ask specific questions that the source is competent to answer.
7. Give the source ample time to reply.
8. Ask the source to clarify complex or vague answers.
9. Read back answers if requested or when in doubt about the phrasing of crucial material.
10. Insist on answers if the public has a right to know them.
11. Avoid lecturing the source, arguing or debating.
12. Abide by requests for nonattribution, background only or off-the-record should the source
make this a condition of the interview or of a statement.

The extended news interview can provide readers and listeners with interpretation, background
and explanation – can emphasize an aspect of a continuing story that the reporter considers to
have been overlooked or neglected.

The profile should be seen as a minidrama, blending description, action and dialogue.
Profile consists of:

Person’s background (birth, upbringing, education, occupation)

Anecdotes and incidents involving the subject.

Quotes by the individual relevant to his or her newsworthiness.

The reporter’s observations.

Comments of those who know the interviewee.

A news peg, whenever possible.

Preparations:

1. Do research on the interview topic and the person to be interviewed, not only so you can
ask the right questions and understand the answers but also so you can demonstrate,
clearly but unobtrusively, to the interviewee that you cannot easily be fooled.
2. Devise a tentative theme for your story.
3. List question topics in – advance – as many as you can think of, eventhough you may not
ask all of them and almost certainly will ask others that you do not list.
4. In preparing for interviews on sensitive subjects, theorize about what the person’s attitude
is likely to be toward you and the subject you are asking about.

Research:

Provide resource materials for the purposes of: (1) they give the reporter leads to tentative
themes and to specific questions. (2) they provide the reporter with a feel for the subject. (3) they
provide useful background.

Types of Questions:

Open-ended question – does not require a specific answer

Close-ended question – calls for a brief, pointed reply

SUGGESTIONS:

1. Almost never plunge in with tough questions at the beginning. Instead, break the ice.
Flattery helps.
2. Often the opening question should be an open-ended inquiry that sets the source off on
his/her favorite subject. Set the conversational atmosphere.
3. Watch and listen closely. See his reactions.
4. Start through your questions to lead him along a trail you have picked.
5. Listen for hints that suggest questions you had thought of. Remain flexible.
6. Keep reminding yourself that when you leave, you are going to do a story. As he talks,
ask yourself: What is my lead going to be?
7. Do not forget to ask the key questions – the one your editors sent you to ask, or the one
that will elicit supporting material for your theme.
8. Do not be reluctant to ask an embarrassing question.
9. Do not be afraid to ask naive questions.
 10. Get in the habit of asking treading-water questions, such as “What do you mean?” or
“Why’s that?”
11. Sometimes it helps to change the conversational pace, by backing off a sensitive line of
inquiry, putting your notebook away and suddenly displaying a deep interest in an
irrelevancy. But be sure to return to those sensitive questions later.
12. Do not give up on a question because the subject says “no comment.”
13. Occasionally your best quote or fact comes after the subject thinks the interview’s over.
Be alert.

HEADLINE WRITING

Purposes of News Headline:

Summarizes the story.

Capture reader’s attention.

Maintain the mood of the story.

Help set overall tone of the publication.

Indicate the relative importance of the story.

Add to the attractiveness of the page.

Characteristics of good headlines:

Present-tense headlines give the news immediacy and present-tense verbs are often
shorter than past-tense verbs.

Short length (22.5 units)

Examples:

The Yankees Won American League Eastern Division Pennant

(53.5 units)

Yankees win American League East Division pennant

(46 units)

Yankees win AL East Pennant

(26 units)

Yanks win AL East title

(20.5 units)

Yanks clinch AL East title

(22.5 units)

Descriptions of a Good Headline:


It is accurate in fact, tone, scope and focus, and it emphasizes the main theme of the
story. It is balanced and fair and in good taste.

It is clear, succinct, grammatical, easy to read and easy to understand.

It has vitality, and is strong, active, and bright.

It catches readers’ attention and entices them into the story.

It has freshness and immediacy.

By its size and shape, it accurately grades the news.

How to write headlines?

Usually written after the story has been carefully edited, a process that generally requires
three readings of the story.

Guidelines:

1. Be accurate.
2. Understand the story thoroughly before writing the headlines
3. Avoid “stuttering” by repeating the wording of the lead so that readers read the same
words twice.
4. Focus on the most up-to-date information in a continuing story.

(1st day headline) 20 injured in tornado

(2nd day headline) ‘Sounded like a train,’ tornado survivor says.

5. Write headlines as specifically as possible within space limitations.

No – “Killer storm hits”

Yes – Storm kills four

6. Use attribution in headlines that convey opinion and for direct quotations.

No – “Budget unfair”
Yes – Budget ‘unfair,’ senator says

7. Avoid libelous statements.

8. Respect the rights of criminal defendants

No – “City manager steals from public treasury”

Yes – DA charges city manager with stealing public funds”

9. Avoid headlines with double meanings

10. Don’t repeat words in a headline
11. Tell what happened rather than what did not happen.

Storm topples television tower

Storm rips roofs from homes
 No – “No one dies in storm”

12. Use strong action verbs, preferably in the top-line of a multiple-line headline. Avoid dead
heads.

Council fires city manager

Exceptions:

Where uncertainty Is King and Paradox Shares Throne

Under Press Curb, Bad News Is No News

No – “Mayor says policy fair”

Yes – Mayor says policy is fair
Policy unfair, mayor says

13. Provide a subject for every headline.

14. Use the present tense to indicate both present and past action; use future tense for future
action.

No – “Jones defeated Smith”

Yes – Jones defeats Smith

15. Use the active voice, rather than the passive voice

No – “Walkout staged by nurses”

Yes – Nurses stage walkout

16. Keep thought units together on the same line in multiple-line headlines.

Teachers seek Teachers call New tax revenue

pay increase for pay hike to improve streets

17. Omit the articles a, an, the, as a general rule.

Exceptions:
King takes little liquor is different from the meaning of
King takes a little liquor

Game trophies: What’s good for a Goose Is Bad for a Moose

18. Avoid confusing abbreviations and acronyms in headlines.

Navratilova gets win No. 100

19. Punctuate headlines correctly.

 20. Use the available headlines space to communicate specific facts rather than pad the
headlines merely to fill space.

“Stocks finish ahead, after weak start.”

No - “Stocks finish ahead in trading today.”

21. Check the headline carefully before returning it to the copy desk chief for approval.

Headline Punctuation

1. Comma – used to replace the word and

Wind topples tower, rips roofs from home

President selects Smith, Jones as envoys

2. Semicolons – used to separate independent clauses

Wind topples tower; rain floods city streets

3. Periods – use for some abbreviations

4. Ampersands (&) – should not be used except when they are customary part of a
title/phrase (AT&T).
5. Hyphens – should not be used at the end of line in a headline, because they interfere with
the line-by-line approach that readers use for reading headlines.

Post goes to write- Write-in candidate

in candidate, Jones wins mayor’s race
(rewrite)

6. Exclamation marks – almost never needed in a headline except if there’s a need to

emphasize an unusualness.

O my! 2 no-hitters!!!!!!!

7. Question mark – are rarely effective because a news headline should answer questions
rather than ask them.

Exception:

Fake cheese? No whey?

8. Quotation marks – should be single quotation marks

Senate leader calls tax plan ‘a windfall for big business’

 9. Colons and Dashes – may be used to indicate attribution. Colon after the name of the
person and before opinion. Dash, if opinion comes first.

Sen. Jones: budget ‘unfair’

Budget ‘unfair’ – Sen. Jones

Headline Capitalization

1. All-cap type
2. “False capitalization” or upstyle
3. Downstyle – sentence-style capitalization is used. First word of the headline and proper
nouns are the only ones capitalized. All other words are set in lower case letters.

Stocks finish ahead after weak start

COVERING THE BEAT

(1) LAW ENFORCEMENT / POLICE BEAT

Sources: police blotter, 24-hour logbook, arrest record, court records, case files,
affidavits, search warrants and subpoena.

Medico-legal report – determines the time and cause of death and manner of death
(autopsy), ballistic reports and paraffin tests

(2) THE COURTS

FROM ARREST TO IMPRISONMENT stages

SANDIGANBAYAN – where anti-graft and corruption cases against public officials land
TANODBAYAN
OMBUDSMAN

Quasi-judicial bodies
Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) – land conversion cases
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – cases involving stockholders in
corporations
Shari’a – disputes covered by the Muslim code
Barangay Conciliation Courts – petty conflicts of neighbors.

Regional Trial Court (RTC)

Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC)

Munipal Trial Court Cities (MTCC)

Municipal Trial Court (MTC)

Municipal Circuit Trial Court (MCTC)

(3) THE CONGRESS

Two houses – House of Representative and Senate

THE WAY OF THE LAW stages

Sources of News: Legislators, legislative staff, legislative offices (The Congressional
Planning and Budget Office, The Electoral Tribunal, Committees and their offices),
guests/resource persons in congressional hearings, statements of assets and liabilities.

(4) PRESIDENCY
(5) ECONOMY

TIPS ON COVERING GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMY:

(1) Know the basic laws governing the agencies or sector you’re covering.
(2) Study the processes and procedures in the agency you’re covering.
(3) Develop a working knowledge of the theoretical background or basic principles that underlie
the work of the agency’s you’re assigned to.
(4) Expand your circle of sources.

REMINDERS:

February 3: Completion of Requirements

Exercises 1-4
Assignment on Leads

Long Quiz # 2

*Failure to submit on Feb. 3 would mean “0.”

February 12: Midterm Exam