Source 丨New Communication Think Tank Public Account
Author 丨 Liu Baoquan
There are many genres of news in the news media, and news is the most common one. It is known for its shortness, simplicity, informativeness, and rapid accuracy. In the case of newspapers, a newspaper without news cannot be called a newspaper. However, in the selection of previous China Journalism Awards, high-quality news has become a weakness. To enhance the "four forces", messages can no longer be marginalized.
In recent years, the author has been paying attention to the selection of news in the China Journalism Award, and found that the amount of news is small, and there are fewer high-quality news with "dissemination, guidance, influence and credibility" as requested by General Secretary Xi Jinping, and news has become a weak point in the selection of the China Journalism Award. For this question, the author consulted the relevant selection materials of the 1-28 China Journalism Awards and found that this problem has always existed. During the period, a number of judges and people of insight in the press wrote articles calling for the need to attach importance to improving the collection and writing of news, but the response was not great. There are also some news units that have conducted research on news writing and carried out competitions, but their results have been minimal.
The message was awkward
In the article "Judges Have Something to Say - Two Keys to Open the Door of Good News Writing" published by the China Journalist Association Network on January 9, 2018, Qian Liansheng, a judge of the 27th China Journalism Awards, director of the editorial office of the Institute of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and editor, said: "The 'ancestor' of the news family has encountered embarrassment at a time when the means of communication are becoming more and more modern", "Taking the 2017 China Journalism Award as an example, 66 works of text messages were evaluated, and 21 works won awards, with a prize rate of 31.8%. Of the 108 entries in the text communication and in-depth reporting category, 29 works won awards, with a prize rate of only 26.9%, obviously, the number of communication works greatly exceeded the number of news works. However, the judges generally believe that the news works are weak, and there are not many excellent works that make people shine. Even if there are two first-prize news, the United States and China have regrets. He pointed out that the first prize work "Scientific Research Discoveries of 1445 New Viruses" was "not very readable", "There are many technical terms in the article... Such as 'Virology', 'RNA viral circle', 'Host conversion', 'Co-evolution', 'Viral evolutionary history', 'Horizontal gene transfer'... Makes it difficult for the general reader to understand.". Another article, "Folding Wings in the Sky, Life Paves the Way for the Cause of Aircraft Carriers", "The timeliness of the work is not strong - the main pilot of the character in the message, Zhang Chao, died on April 27, 2016 due to mechanical failure of the aircraft, and the work was reported on August 1, 2016", "The aesthetic feeling of the news to the audience is insufficient".
There are many problems with message writing
At present, the news writing in newspapers generally has problems such as the pattern of the title, the bland and rough introduction, the incomplete five elements, the poor timeliness, and the lack of appeal.
On the issue of the timeliness of news, the author made a statistic on the 23 news in the newspaper system in the latest selection of the 28th China Journalism Awards, and the article "Creating the 'Extreme' of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge" in the first prize used "recently" accounted for 50%. The second prize consisted of 8 articles, including the article "Cangnan Called a Halt to the Reclamation Project of Dayuwan Bay", which used "these days"; the article "Adopting a child with cerebral palsy for 14 years, the sanitation worker couple touched everyone", using the article "A day this summer"; "The 8275 students in Funan, Anhui Province " returned to the township school this year" used "a few days ago"; the article "Waiting is not the way, there is hope in the stem", using "today", accounting for more than half. Among the 13 third prizes, 3 used "days ago", 2 used "recently", 1 used "a few days ago", and 1 had no time element, which also accounted for more than half.
We should not use "a few days ago", "recently", "now" and so on to fool the audience, especially as a work of the China Journalism Award, and we should not adopt the word "sloppy eye" to explain the time element of the news. You know, "a few days ago" and "recently" are vague words. Imagine if the reader were to ask: "Recently" is the "recent" of the reporter's publication or the "recent" and "recent" of the reporter's article three or five days ago, or eight or ten days ago? Exactly what year, month and day" refers to what year, month and day. Once the audience doubts the authenticity of the news, the value, authority and dissemination of the news will be greatly reduced.
The problem of irregularities in message writing is also manifested in the absence of "this newspaper news". At the beginning of the message, "this newspaper news" is added, which is a distinctive feature of the message that distinguishes it from other styles. The addition of "this newspaper news" indicates that this is a piece of news, which was written by a reporter or correspondent of this newspaper, and this newspaper is responsible for the authenticity of this news and the consequences of its dissemination.
The author edited the book "Appreciation of China Journalism Awards" published by Xinhua Publishing House, and some readers asked me after reading it: Why some of the news does not have "this newspaper news", and my answer is that because the original text is not, the editor cannot add it casually.
Regarding the use of "this newspaper news", the author consulted 23 news articles in the newspaper system of the 28th China Journalism Awards and found that 1 of the two first-prize works did not have "this newspaper news"; a total of 5 of the 8 second-prize works did not have "this newspaper news"; and 6 of the 13 third-prize works did not have "this newspaper news".
Adding the words "this newspaper" to the head of a message is a serious matter, and it cannot be taken lightly as dispensable. Whether the use of "this newspaper" is correct or not is related to the image of a media and the minimum level of business, and it is also an aspect of conscientiously running a newspaper and winning the trust of readers.
In the eyes of the press peers, this kind of trivial matter is too detrimental to the image of the newspaper. In some newly published newspapers, the qualifications of the practitioners are relatively shallow, and some places in the management of newspapers have yet to be perfected, and this phenomenon is forgivable. However, some old newspapers with a long history often appear in this kind of "layman", which makes people incomprehensible and incredible.
Whether or not the use of "this newspaper" can be standardized is also a test scale. It first tests whether a media outlet itself is formal, has the ability to collect and cover news, and has the qualifications to report news. Second, it tests whether the media respects its readers, takes them seriously, and is able to take serious responsibility for the news it publishes. Again, it tests whether the media's editorial reporters have been professionally learned and taught. As a journalist, you should first learn to use "this newspaper" correctly.
There are four main reasons why messages become weak
There are many reasons why messages have become a weakness in writing and have been marginalized, and I think the important reasons for this are nothing more than the following four aspects.
The first is the impact of online media on paper media. In the 1980s, the rapid development of China's electronic media, coupled with the rapid popularization of radio and television throughout the country, the speed of dissemination of the two far exceeded that of paper media. Now, the popularity of computers and mobile phones, the impact on print media is even more obvious. Often before the newspaper reaches the reader, people can learn the useful information they need from the online media. Among them, the biggest impact is the news that has always been the main genre in newspapers. This should be the main reason why messages are weakened.
Second, the way newspaper news itself is written does not meet the requirements of the development of the times. The leaders of some newspapers and a small number of reporters were influenced by the idea of "gao daquan" and held that writing news could not produce great results, and that it was not as weighty and influential as a long work, so that readers could not get the information they needed from the "short, fast, and new" news, and it was only natural that the news was treated coldly.
Third, some newspapers have defects in their management systems. Some people do not have strict requirements for news writing, and they give the green light to news that is not standardized in news writing and incomplete news elements; some do not discuss prices according to quality in formulating remuneration standards, but simply rely on the number of words, and the more words are paid, the more the manuscript remuneration, resulting in the fact that the manuscript that should not be written should also be lengthened, and some empty words, big words, and clichés are added, so that the news becomes empty and bloated, reducing the readability of the newspaper, and causing readers to be reluctant to read.
Fourth, a small number of reporters do not attach importance to professional study, do not write according to the laws of news, and have lazy thinking, and their work floats. Not going deep into reality, not going deep into the grassroots, relying on telephone interviews, and relying on meeting briefings to write manuscripts, resulting in the same messages written, the content is empty, boring, and the readers have no choice but not to buy it.
The main countermeasure to make the message stronger
In order to make the weak points of the news strong and not to be marginalized; in addition to the fact that the theme is important, the theme is novel, the communication value is high, and the newsworthiness is strong, the main countermeasure is to first change the ideological concept, enhance the understanding of the importance of the news in the news dissemination, break the "scraps" that think that the news is news, and cannot reflect the incorrect understanding of major themes; and break the old concept that the news is "rushed to the chapter" and does not need to be carefully carved Break down the idea that newspaper news is not competitive in the news competition. It should be emphasized that the basic skill of a journalist is to write a message, and a reporter who cannot write a message is not a competent reporter, and it is necessary to use this article to assess the skill of a journalist. Leaders take the lead in writing good news and raising the standard of rewards for good news.
The second is to improve the ability of journalists to discover news. A large number of news practices show that in news gathering, it is more important to find a piece of news than to write this news. As Pan Tanglin, former president of the Changjiang Daily Newspaper Group, said in the book "How to Discover News": "The first skill of a journalist is not to write but to discover." And as the great scientist Albert Einstein said, "It is often more important to ask a problem than to solve it." The great artist Rodin once said, "It is not that there is no beauty in life, but there is a lack of discovery." "The problem of poor timeliness in the aforementioned news writing is caused by the reporter's insufficient ability to discover, and the news facts have already occurred, and the reporter has not been able to find out in time. When I write a message after discovery, I am not good at finding news bases, so I have to take "sloppy eyes" methods such as "a few days ago" and "recent days" to fool readers. It can be seen that the only way to improve the timeliness of news is to make efforts to improve the discovery of news. Only by "going down to the grassroots level, going deep into the frontline, going deep into the masses, understanding first-hand materials", and insisting on "walking around and changing", as General Secretary Xi Jinping demanded in his speech on inspecting the People's Liberation Army Newspaper, can we dedicate the good news to readers with thorns, dewdrops, and steaming.
The third is to improve the way of message writing, innovate the way of writing messages, that is, improve the expressiveness, appeal and readability of messages. As The Judge Qian Liansheng said, "We must not only discover 'beauty', but also perform 'good'". The main methods are:
The message is story-based, that is, there must be a story in the message.
It is necessary to have on-site descriptions and enhance the atmosphere of the news facts.
Exclude elements other than specific news facts, and reject big talk, empty talk, clichés, and show off knowledge.
Write what the reader cares about and is most interested in into the introduction.
Explain the necessary background and use direct quotes to enhance the depth of the message.
Use concise, jumpy, easy-to-understand, vivid language, with more verbs and fewer or no adjectives.
Sentences should be short, a sentence is best not more than 50 words; paragraphs should also be short, generally no more than 200 words a paragraph is better; the message should be short, generally about 600 words is appropriate.
The news of the meeting must bring out the news with the most communication value in the meeting, and it is necessary to jump out of the meeting to write a message.
The fourth is to organize training for young journalists, to take out the praised news products in the China Journalism Awards for evaluation, and to provide examples for everyone to learn. Such as the China Journalism Awards in the fine news "Qinghai-Tibet Railway Full Line Started Construction" (12th), "Witnessing Yang Liwei's Flying Return" (14th), "Seeing a "Cough" to Pay 1500 Yuan" (13th), "7 Years of Appeal Grievances Have Not Been Done" (12th), "Yiwu Migrant Workers Elected as Deputies to the National People's Congress for the First Time" (12th), "Three Gorges Dam Yesterday Under the Gate to Store Water" (14th), "7 Standing Committee Members Visit "Fuxing Road Travel Without Road Closure" (23rd), "Yiwu Migrant Workers Elected as Deputies to the People's Congress for the First Time" (12th), "Three Gorges Dam Yesterday's Gates and Water Storage" (14th), "7 Standing Committee Members Visit "Fuxing Road Travel Without Road Closure" (23rd Session), " The railway station witnessed the economic changes in Lankao (the 23rd session), "35 First Secretaries of Poor Villages Applied for Retention" (28th), etc., are worth learning and learning, and are typical examples for everyone to learn.
As the saying goes: There is nothing difficult in the world, as long as you can climb it. Everyone has one heart, and the loess turns into gold. As long as colleagues in the press work together and work together, I believe that the weak and marginalized situation of the news will be improved. I earnestly hope that this day will come as soon as possible, and finally realize the requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping at the National Ideological Work Conference to "improve the quality and level, grasp the timing, degree and effectiveness, enhance the attractiveness and appeal, let the masses love to listen and love to see, resonate, give full play to the role of positive propaganda in inspiring and inspiring people", "enrich the people's spiritual world, enhance the people's spiritual strength, and meet the people's spiritual needs".
The author, Liu Baoquan, is a researcher at the School of Journalism, Chinese Min University
(This article was originally published in the 21st issue of New Communication, and the original title was: Let the weak points of the news be stronger - and also evaluate some works of the China Journalism Awards.)
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