News writing for developing stories

Lex  and students in the background.

A news article can only be written based on the information available. Theoretically, because there is no opinion involved, all you have to go on is the hard facts on the table.

As a story develops, new information comes to light and the article must change to reflect fresh scenarios, updated figures or changing viewpoints of the players, among other factors.

When teaching how to write a news story, sometimes I use information of a story that is at an highly developed stage. So, the other day in my Media Writing Class, I asked students to identify potential angles from a single set of notes.

They did a fine job of extracting angles, some of which were relevant to when the story was at an early stage. However, they struggled when I asked them to tell me what the difference is between two angles, one involving immediate information and the other containing updated material.

All I was looking for was an answer related to time and it was Lex (that's her email  name) who finally managed to get it right after about 15 minutes of probing.

Lex's correct answer helped her to win this week's Cadbury's Fruit & Nut chocolate bar prize. This, by the way, is the best chocolate in the world.