FROM THE OFFICE AND ON THE BEAT
“Beat reporter move quickly to cover breaking news such as accidents and fires, and they develop feature stories from their beats when they have time.”
The essential elements of many types of stories are described:
- Accident stories focus on the names of the dead and injured.
- Fire stories center on two themes: human casualties and physical damage.
- Crime stories usually are written from police reports. Additional reporting gives these stories human interest. Coverage of the courthouse beat emphasizes large damage suits and trials for major crimes.
- Obituaries give the name, age, address, major accomplishments and survivors of the deceased.
- Sports stories are most effective when the writer knows the sport players and coaches and when the writer makes the action, rather than supercharged language, propel the stories.
- Weather forecasts and stories about unusual or extreme weather include data from official sources and are enhanced by human interest.
Types of writing stories:
- Briefs or shorts includes precedes, or advances, personal and other short items that run no more than five or six sentences.
- Folos are stories that follow up on a theme taken from another story.
- Sidebars emphasize an aspect of the main story printed nearby.
- Roundups combine two or more stories into one by finding a theme common to the stories and using that theme in the lead.
ACCIDENTS
In all accident stories, the names of the dead and injured must be reported. The victims are identified by age, address and occupation. The extent of the injured are also given.
Accident Essentials:
- Names and identification of accident
- Time and location of accident
- Types of vehicles involved
- Cause (quote official sources)
- Source of information
- Names and identification of drivers and of others in vehicles if relevant
- Where dead and injured were taken
- Extent of injuries
- Condition of injured
- Funeral arrangements, if available
- Arrests or citation by officers
If the accident merits a longer story because of its severity, add the following:
- Damage to vehicles
- Speed, origin and destination of vehicles
- Unusual weather or highway conditions
- Accounts of eyewitnesses and investigating officers
Caution: Do not try to fix blame, to give the cause of an accident, or to give information about excessive speed or drinking by a driver unless the information comes from an official source.
FIRES
Stories about fires usually are given good play. Fire stories interest readers, possibly because of our fear of fires. Whatever the reason, the beginner will likely find himself of herself handling a fire story within days, whether it is a farmhouse fire that cause $20,000 in damage or an apartment house fire that kills eight people.
Fire Essentials:
- Death, injuries
- Full identification of victims
- Location
- Types of structure
- Official cause
- Investigation of cause
- Source of information
- How victims were injured or killed
- When and where fire started, and how and when it was brought under control
- Rescue attempts
- Where injured, dead taken
- Extent of injures
- Damage to structure, cost, insurance coverage
- Number of units and firefighters, amount of water used
- Name(s) of fire company(ies) responding
- Quotes of witnesses, firefighters, residents
- Human interest details
- Time of first alarm; who called fire department
When there are several deaths or many injuries the lead usually will focus on this essential. When property is the only loss that usually is the basis of the lead. If possible, try to work into the lead human interest material – a narrow escape, heroism, pathos, coincidence.
CRIME STORIES
The main job of the police reporter is to handle reports of violent and property crimes, investigations and detection, and arrests. The police reporter may also cover the police and municipal or crime report courts to follow up the arrests he or she reports.
Violent Crime: refers to events that may result in injury to a person.
Property Crimes: are unlawful acts with the intent of gaining property that do not involve force or threat of force.
To help clear the way through the flood of police information, the police reporter usually concentrate on violent crimes and spends less time on property crimes.
Violent Crimes Property Crimes
-Murder -Burglary
-Rape -Larceny
-Robbery -Motor vehicle theft
-Aggravated assault
Crime Reports
Few police reporters have ever seen a crime committed. Most of their information comes from crime reports. These are the forms filled out by officers who have investigated the crime. The reporter supplements these reports with interviews with the officers or their superiors and with those who witnessed the crime of were its victims.
Crime Essentials:
- Victim(s), full identification
- Nature of crime
- Date, time, location of crime
- Violent crime: official cause of death or injury; weapon used; motivation; background of victim, if relevant
- Property crime; value of loss; method of theft or enty
- Suspects (no names unless charges filed), clues
- Unusual circumstances
- Quotes of witnesses, victim(s), police
- Source of information
Robbery and Burglary
Beginning reporters sometimes confuse robbery, a violent crime and burglary, a property crime. The difference is this: Robbery is a crime against a person. Burglary is a crime against property.
Robbery involves taking or attempting to take something of value from a person by force or threat of force or violence. The writer approaches robbery stories from two avenues – the value of good stolen and the prominence of the person involved. Usually the value of good taken is the element chosen for the lead, but when a widely known person is robbed, that is the lead, regardless of the amount taken from the person.
Detection
Early information about suspects may compromise not only the investigation but the court case. A reporter must weigh all this before running any but officially sanctioned material.
Detection Essentials:
- Progress of investigation
- Suspects
- Additional clues
- Personnel assigned to case
- Summary of crime
Arrest
Some of the best crime stories are of arrests. Again, the information usually comes from a report, in this case an arrest report, which the reporter examines on his or her rounds of the police department. For arrests in serious crimes, the police or district attorney may call a news conference to make the announcement for all the media.
Arrest: A crime suspect is flushed out of a field by police officers and is handcuffed. Arrests are handled carefully: Names, and addresses are double-checked, and the reporter makes it clear that the person has been arrested in connection with some crime. The reporter avoids any implication that the arrested person is guilty.
Arrest Essentials:
- Name, identification of person arrested
- Crime person is charged with’
- Details of crime, including name and identification of victim
- Circumstances of arrest
- Officers involved in arrest
- Source of information
For serious crime, add these:
- Investigation
- Background of suspect
- Motive
- Circumstances of arrest announcement
- Booking, assignment, any other procedures
The arrest lead: Generally, the lead of arrest story is based on the name and identification of the person arrested and the crime that the person is accused of committing. If the arrest is the result of extraordinary police detection or unusual circumstances, a delayed lead may be put on the story, with the arrest coming as a climax.
Obituaries
Obituaries tell about someone who was died and have interesting story in his or her life. Obituaries are among the most frequently read items in newspaper. A third to a half of the readers regularly read them. Occasionally, obituary is called in by a person identifying himself or herself as a friend or relatives. Be careful. Unless you know the person well, always verify the information.
Obituary Essentials:
- Names, age, address and occupation of the deceased
- Time and place of death
- Cause of death
- Date and place of birth
- Survivors
- Funeral and burial arrangements
These are the bare essentials. For the longer obituary, add:
- Accomplishments and achievements
- Membership in organizations
- Armed forces service
- Anecdotes of friends and relatives
School Sports
A loss in sports is not a tragedy, but players and fans do take it seriously and so the reporter must be careful neither to over dramatize nor understand the loss. The quality of the written story depends on the quality of the reporting. The reporter who knows the players well, who keeps up on the strategy coaches use for different opponents, and who knows the sport he or she is covering, is able to write an interesting story.
Game Story Essentials:
- The score
- Name of the teams, type of sport
- When and where the game took place
- Key incident or play
- Outstanding player(s)
- League
- Scoring
- Effect of game on league standings
- Strategy
- Crowd size, behavior, if a factor
- Statistics
- Injuries
- Winning or losing streaks
- Duration of game
- Record(s) set
- Postgame quotes
Behind the Score.
Scores are remembered for a few hours, says a sport writer. But the emotions endure. By capturing the human element in the game, the writer may tell a story that moves beyond the athletic field.
Be Imaginative
Imagination is vital to the sport story. There are so many sports, such as multitude of games that after the sports pages seem to swim in team names and numbers. Sport is the story of men and women straining mind and body to reach beyond their limits, of unusual people and strange event. The stories should reflect this.
“Writing is simpler that you might expect. Just tell the reader what happened. Who won and who lost? What was the score? Who was the hero or goat? How did the team or individual triumph or lose? Say it simply and you’ll be on your way.”
Structuring the Sports Story
When possible, the sportswriter tries to match the drama of the game with her or his account of it. The difference between the fans’ observation and the sports story is the knowledge that the sportswriter takes to the game. For this reason, sports writer often like to begin their stories with the little thing that are the turning points of the game.
Increasingly, delayed lead are put on sports stories. The first paragraph or two may contain an incident, anecdote, a key play or a strategic move. Then in the second or third paragraph, the writer gives the score. Next, a few paragraphs are devoted to the important points of the game- the scoring, significant substitutions, injuries or changes in the standings.
Tips on Covering Games
1. Baseball lives on numbers and that is where you’ll generally find your lead: a low number (e.g. a one-hitter for a pitcher) or a high number (e.g. four home runs for a batter). Account for all scoring and remember to mention outstanding defensive plays and unusual incidents such as fights or injuries.
2. Basketball is a sport where points come to rapidly to mention all the scoring, so focus on the players with the biggest or most important numbers and key stretches where the game is won or lost.
3. Bowling is an easy sport to describe because it basically involves two plays, a strike and a spare. Total pints and decisive plays, such as missing a key spare or covering a difficult split, are essential to any bowling story.
4. Football stories should begin with a summary, a graf or two that disposes of the most important things that happened in the game. For football (and basketball as well) every lead must have a hero in it. Include anything unusual.
Briefs
The trick to writing briefs is to give the reader the basics. It needs the Five W’s and an H. No more two or three paragraphs.
Precedes
The precedes, or advance, tells people about events they may want to attend or at least want to know about.
Precede Essentials:
- Event or activity planned
- Date, time, place of activity
- Purpose
- Sponsor
- Fee, admission charge, if any
- Background, if a significant event
PersonalS
Names make news. In big cities, the names that make news are those of public figures – television personalities, the wealthy, politician, athletes. These news items are called personals.
Personal Essentials:
- Name, identification
- Newsworthy activity
- Connection of individual(s) to activity
- Special of unusual activities in connection with the event
Personals are usually handled in a straightforward manner. If there is a special of unusual activity connected to the events, that can become the lead.
Localizing the News
The logic of localizing news stories is simple. Readers prefer to read about people and events close them. Proximity is a basic news determinant.
Localizing Essentials:
- Name of local person or situation that justifies localizing
- General situation or background
- Source of information – name of wire service or organization
Follow-up Stories
A folo is a story that follows up on a theme in another story. If a national educational organization reports that a growing percentage of high school graduates is putting off college, the enterprising reporter who sees the wire story hits the telephone to call area high schools, junior colleges and four-year schools. Follows usually run the day after the original story appears.
Folo Essentials:
- Reaction, response, local aspect of an event
- Event or situation that gives the folo its news peg
If the reaction story had appeared the next day, it would have been a folo. But since the reporter was able to report and write the story so quickly the reaction appeared alongside the story about the code. The accompanying story became a sidebar.
Sidebar
A sidebar is a story that emphasizes an aspect of another story that is printed nearby. The essentials for the sidebar are the same as those for the folo. The news peg of the original story and the reaction or response are placed high up and close together.
Roundup Stories
The roundup is frequently used to combine several stories into one. The roundup is based on finding an element common to two or more events and then writing a lead that reflects the common element.
Roundups are frequently used for traffic accident stories. You can spot them after a weekend or a holiday, or when bad weather has caused a number of accidents.
Roundup Essentials:
- Lead focuses on a common element
- Body takes each incident or event and elaborates it in turn
- Causes, consequences, quotes may be inserted high in story they explain the situation.
Weather Stories
Locally, people want to know how the weather affects them – what the forecast is and the full story when there is anything out of the usual. Weather stories are often routinely written but they need not be.
There are two types of weather stories, the daily forecast and the longer piece for unusual or extreme weather. Here are the essentials for both types:
Weather Essentials:
- Forecast for next 24 hours
- Long-range forecast
- Most recent temperatures, humidity and precipitation
- Record highs and lows, if any
When weather is severe, the writes must consider the consequences. The effects are included along with the basics:
- Death, injuries, property damage
- Amount of precipitation (or drought)
- Strength of wind, depth of snowfall and height of drifts
- Any record(s) set
- Predicted duration of severe weather
- Consequences:
Traffic – road, bridges, blocked, accidents
Travel – air, bus, rail, local travel curtailed or stopped
Mail – any delivery or collection changes
Public services – power, water, and telephone outages
Business – crops, tourism affected; business shut down
Schools – closing or changed hours
Aid – declaration of disaster area or aid from government
Writer try to show the consequences of unusual weather by introducing human interest, the effect of the weather on people.
