NEWS ITEM

News Item


 Social Function    
 To inform readers, listeners or viewers about events of the day which are considered   newsworthy or important.
   
Generic Structure            
Newsworthy events      :  Tell the event in summary form.
Background events       :  Elaborate what happened, to whom, in what circumstances.
Sources                        : Comment by participants in, witnesses to and authorities expert on the events.
   
Language Features          
Information about story captured in headline.
Using action verb.
Using saying verb.
Using adverbs : place, time, manner

Examples of News Item Text

 

Town Contaminated by Nuclear      

• Newsworthy events :   Moscow – A Russian journalist has uncovered evidence of another Soviet nuclear catastrophe , which killed 10 sailors and contaminated an entire town.      

• Background Events  :  Yelena Vazrshavskya is the first journalist to speak to people who witnessed the explosion of a nuclear submarine at the naval base of shkotovo – 22 near Vladivostock.                  The accident, which occurred   13 months before the Chernobyl disaster , spread radioactive fall-out  over the base and nearby town , but was covered  up by officials of the Soviet Union. Residents were told the explosion in the reactor of the Victor-class submarine during a refit  had been a ‘thermal’ and not a nuclear explosion. And those involved in the clean up operation to remove more than 600 tones of contaminated material were sworn to secrecy.      

• Resource of Information  :    A board of investigators was  later to describe it  as the worst accident in the history of the Soviet Navy.