The need to rewrite a news story arises when the story lacks a clear structure. There is no clear lead; and there is no clear arrangement of facts. You feel baffled and lost when you read the story. Your first step should be to identify the main news point. The news point may be...
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You need no special skills to understand the importance of a time stamp. The time stamp is precise. It gives you the posting date and the time to the last second. The four key elements that make a time stamp are: Month, date, year and time Some newspapers also include the day in the...
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1. Anchor: A soft story used at the base of Page One. The headline of such a story is different to the headlines used for hard news stories. It will be more creative and eye-catching. 2. Banner: Banner is a headline that runs across all eight columns on the top of the page. It...
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The newspaper readers have no formal training in judging news reports. Yet they are able to establish the news value of news reports merely by scanning the page. The four tools that the readers use are: 1. Story positioning: The readers realise that news reports positioned at the top of the page are more...
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Every newspaper has the right to decide its style because it ensures consistency and gives an identity to the product. However, while deciding style the newspaper should keep in mind reader interests too. I have great respect for The Indian Express, and its high editing standards. But I do not understand why it does...
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We grew up counting our currency in rupees and our numbers in lakhs and crores. Our traders know this. They price their products – be it homes or cars in lakhs or crores. Our government officials know this. That is why the budgetary numbers are in lakhs or crores. They are not in millions...
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First published on OCMS on April 28, 2008 In school we learnt that actor is the noun for a male performer, and actress for the female performer. The same definitions you find in dictionaries. Dictionary.com defines an actress as: “A woman who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, television broadcasts, etc., esp. professionally. “...
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