What is news style?

News is a kind of news style, which is a quick, timely and concise report of new or discovered facts with news value and social significance. Because it is the most frequently used style in news reports, people often call news news. News in a narrow sense refers to news.

Second, the stylistic features of news

As mentioned above, news style has three basic characteristics, namely, fact, authenticity and freshness. As a news body, news naturally has these three characteristics. But in addition to these three points, it also has its own "personality":

(A) speak with facts

Speaking with facts is an important feature of news, a basic method of news writing and a form of objective reporting. Facts are the most convincing and infectious. Only when the facts are objective and the reporting form is objective can news have credibility and give full play to its role.

Of course, news also expresses opinions and tendencies, and news writing is not a purely objective "what you hear and hear must be recorded" without positions and opinions. What is important is that the author indirectly reveals his own views and tendencies through the choice and narration of facts, and embodies his own views in the facts. The main thing is not to reason, but to tell the facts and show the logic of the facts themselves. Therefore, the author should make little or no direct comments. If you want to make comments, it can only be a pen that "cleans up" where necessary.

Novices who write news often ignore this feature. Writing is always eager to stand up, express opinions and comments directly on the people or things written, and clearly reveal their meaning, which leads to more arguments than facts, abstract and empty content, lack of authenticity and unacceptable to the audience.

There are many specific ways to speak with facts, such as using small to contain the big, using contrast to set off, being impartial, reappearing the scene, using details, neutral language without emotion and so on. Here are some common methods.

An excuse to speak. That is to say what you want to say through other people's mouths. This method is often cited, so it is also called citation. There are two specific situations. One is hypocrisy, that is, the author's words are actually the words of reporters. For example, western journalists often say "observers here", and observers are actually journalists themselves. The second is quoting, that is, quoting other people's words. Although the words belong to others, they were chosen by reporters, and the views in other people's words are also the views that reporters want to express.

Overall balance. In other words, it is necessary to report the main facts that constitute news, good, bad, beautiful and ugly. When all walks of life have different opinions on a fact (event), the report should give all opinions equal opportunities to express.

(2) Narration is the main form of expression.

This feature is also related to "speaking with facts". News usually does not describe people's events with great colors and meticulous carving; Because "the reporter's tongue shrinks behind", there is no need for direct discussion and lyricism. Narration is its main form of expression.

(3) Concise and to the point

Telegrams are generally short, tens, hundreds or hundreds of words, so Lenin once called them "telegram style". Especially now, people have a fast pace of life and a strong sense of time, hoping to get as much information as possible in the shortest reading time. Of course, short should be based on reality, long and empty is not good, short and empty is not good, and empty and short is also long.

Many people think that short news can't write a big theme, and short stories are "sleepy" because of conciseness. Therefore, blindly pursuing "length" is not as good as writing a 200-word message theme. Through the "development and excavation" of its "information" level, it is hard to pull out a newsletter of several thousand words. Some authors are short-sighted. A concrete and vivid thing leaves only a few "dead bones" without its "flesh and blood". We should pay attention to these two tendencies.

Writing short messages is an art, and there are many ways to write short messages, such as reporting one thing, concentrating (summarizing) the facts, taking a corner, breaking it into parts (vertical decomposition and horizontal decomposition), changing genres, making continuous reports first and then making details, and so on.

In addition, news has the strongest timeliness among news genres, and has the highest requirement for "new time", which requires racing against time, completing the manuscript quickly and "waiting at once".

Third, the type of information.

There are various types of information, and there are different types from different angles.

According to the event nature of news reports, there are event news and non-event news. Event news is a report on recent events with strong timeliness, such as dynamic news and special news. Non-event news, compared with event news, reports things that develop continuously in a period. Such as comprehensive news, empirical news and critical news.

According to the content of the report, there are political news, economic news, science and technology news, military news, sports news, education news, literature news and social news.

According to the media, there are short messages (newspapers), radio short messages, TV short messages, network short messages and so on.

According to the space, there are long messages (1000 words or so), short messages (about 500 words) and short messages (less than 200 words).

According to the relationship between news and readers, there are hard news and soft news.

At present, it is common in China to classify news according to the characteristics of writing, and divide news into dynamic news (including conference news), comprehensive news, empirical news (typical report), critical news, people news, special news and news briefing. In recent years, explanatory news and predictive news have appeared in news writing.

The following is a brief introduction of several common message types:

(A) dynamic news

Dynamic news is relative to empirical news (typical report), similar to hard news in western press. It reports recent events, large and small, reflecting new situations, new achievements, new problems and new atmosphere, including conference activities. Generally speaking, it takes one place and one thing, one person and one thing as the object, with short space and concise text. As short as dozens or two or three sentences, it is called newsletter or concise news. To sum up, it mainly has the following characteristics: paying attention to the latest changes in things; Value orientation is based on novelty and importance; Taking emergencies as the main report content; Taking objective narration as the basic feature; To come straight to the point and report one thing at a time as the main writing principle; Give people a sense of movement and existence.

(2) Comprehensive news

This is a report that comprehensively reflects the overall situation, trends, achievements and problems. Covering a wide range and imposing manner, it can give people a more complete impression. It is required to have comprehensive, sufficient and typical materials, including the overall situation, achievements and trends, as well as the explanation and analysis of typical cases, emphasizing the combination of point and surface, the unity of views and materials, and being good at combining overview with specific case descriptions, so as to pay equal attention to depth and breadth. To sum up, it also has the following characteristics: the news facts it involves are not as intuitive and obvious as dynamic news, and often have certain concealment; It should express the news theme by synthesizing news facts; Pay attention to the combination of point and surface, and reflect the appearance of objective things and characters from multiple angles; Pay attention to the use of background materials; Pay attention to the explanation of news basis and news source; Pay attention to analysis, but express objectively. The author tries not to comment directly.

(3) Empirical information

It is a news genre that reports typical experiences to promote the overall situation and guide the work. It has both general views and specific practices, and it focuses on explaining the situation, describing practices, reflecting changes and summing up experience. The length is generally longer than other genres, but we should not be greedy for perfection, so we should pay attention to its pertinence. This kind of news is important and typical, and the experience provided is of universal significance. When writing, we should give priority to policies and avoid getting caught up in things and technology.

(4) Comment on news

It is a kind of news that reflects major events at home and abroad by combining narration and discussion. It is characterized by both stating facts and commenting and analyzing; The factual materials should be rich and typical, and the commentary and analysis should be logical and concise; Narration and discussion should be closely combined to prevent comments without comments, comments without comments, and separation from comments. The position and purpose of "commentary" in this kind of news, the requirements for time and article length are different from those of news commentary, so we should pay attention to the difference.

(5) Special news

It is a news genre that reports fragments of people's activities and event scenes in important news events. Its characteristic is to reproduce the process and scene of characters' activities with image language, giving people an immersive feeling. It pays attention to description and demands to grasp the distinctive details. However, its description mostly adopts simple sketching techniques, and it is not about carving, but vivid.

(6) Character information

People's news is people-oriented news, which quickly reflects a certain behavior or a certain aspect of news figures. It requires grasping the essential characteristics of characters and choosing fresh and typical factual materials to express their thoughts and mental outlook. Its characteristics are: short space, single narrative, concentrated content and theme; Strong timeliness, its content must be "present continuous tense" or "present perfect tense", which requires fast writing and reporting; It is required to be handsome by people and show people by things. When writing character messages, you should pay attention to choosing the right news characters, don't be greedy for perfection, and don't write character messages as character newsletters.

(7) Explanatory information

This is a news genre that mainly explains news events. It not only reports the facts, but also focuses on the significance, cause and effect and development trend of the facts. This kind of news is mostly used in the principles and policies of China's economic work and new problems with great influence in social life. Interpretation in explanatory news does not mean the author's direct and clear explanation and analysis, but usually uses background materials, quotes from relevant parties and other methods to express the reporter's views or tendencies in a subtle way. Explanatory messages focus on answering "why" in news events.

(8) Predictive news

It is a kind of news that predicts and looks forward to the possible facts. It requires journalists to make scientific analysis and judgment on a certain job or activity on the basis of interviews and investigations. This kind of news is often used to look forward to the development prospect of market and economic work, and also to predict the results of sports competitions.