“ANO ang balita?” (What’s the news?)
This is the instinctive question asked of us whenever we meet a friend by chance. We take this to mean that we are all interested in, to quote Mr. Webster, “any information about a recent event in a particular area” – which is what the word news means.
A long time ago after I had enrolled in a four-year course (AB Journalism) at Manuel L. Quezon University (MLQU) in Manila, a short, aging, bald and bespectacled man in polo barong sauntered into our News Writing class and introduced himself as “Professor Angel Anden,” who used to be editor of the defunct This Week magazine.
“If you intend to be a news reporter,” he encouraged us, “you will never run out of materials. Anywhere you go – north, east, west or south – there’s an unfolding event worth writing about.”
There was emphasis in the way he enumerated the four points of the compass: North, East, West or South. What a coincidence! The first letters of the four directions spell “news.”
Obviously, relaying the news to newspaper readers is similar to the verbal answer we get when we ask a friend, “What’s the news?” Like the verbal news bearer, the news writer begins by summarizing what it’s all about, as in, “Well, the news is that, at last, our bachelor President has found a fiancée.”
Anden lectured us on the “inverted pyramid” form of the news, which begins with the most important details and ending with the least important. This format allows the editor to cut the story due to space limitation, or the reader to quit reading without losing the vital details.
The lead – referring to the first paragraph or two – summarizes the whole story in as few words as possible. The conventional or orthodox lead consists of all or most of the five Ws and one H. The Ws answer the questions who, what, when, where and why. The H is for how.
Think about how you tell a story to your friends. You might begin: “You’ll never believe whom I just saw dating!”
We all want to hear about people – and that’s what makes the news worth writing and worth reminiscing much later.
For example, I had just graduated from my course when I qualified as an entertainment beat reporter for the defunct Daily Express in 1971.
My boss, the late entertainment editor Romeo Arceo, asked me to cover a collision of two cars. Wow, I thought, this would be big front-page story because Nora Aunor and Tirso Cruz III – the hottest love team at that time – were the occupants of one of the cars. I caught up with the victims at Sta. Teresita Hospital but they were still at the emergency room and could not be interviewed.
So I rushed to the scene of the crime to interview eyewitnesses instead.
I began my story with this lead:
“Film and recording stars Nora Aunor and Tirso Cruz III sustained serious injuries in a car accident on Hemady St., Quezon City at 6 p.m. yesterday.”
For the first time my story occupied the front page.
However, my boss met me with a sad news – that an executive of a car company had threatened to cancel his ads because the story had mentioned the brand of Nora’s wrecked car, which happened to be the brand the complainant was advertising.
Fortunately for the Daily Express, the car executive did not make good his threat. Perhaps he knew that my story was good enough to motivate the car manufacturer to build tougher models. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
