I. Factors Essential to News - Facts, Interest, and Readers. The basis of all news is fact. The task of the blogger to make facts interesting to the particular readers for whom he is writing. For this reason, a blogger must slant his news stories for his student readers.
A. News muct be factual; it must be based upon actual happenings, situation, thoughts, and ideas.
B. News must be interesting. THe degree and breadth of interst vary. One story may have a high degree of interest for only a small number of readers, while another story may have a great degree of interest for a large number of readers.
C. A number of elements help make facts interesting to people. They are the following.
1. Immediacy or timeliness. A blogger must stress the latest angle of the news story. The words today and tomorrow characterize the most newsworthy words in the lead of a news story. Occasionally, a story happens in the recent past. In this case, the reporter must seek for a today angle of the event. However, since most events actually happened or witnessed before the paper is issued, it is necessary to depend rather heavily on the less time-bound element if the story is to be of interest to a large number of readers.
2. Proximity or timeliness. This element refest not only to geographic nearness but also to interest nearness. A death of a hollywood actor is sinificant in your news and entertainment blog. Therefore, a blogger must emphasize a local angle of a news story whenever possible.
3.Consequence. This element refers to importance or breadth of appeal. A story that affects every reader in the blog will have this huge reader interest. The blogger must emphasize the angle of a story that will interest most of his readers. Occasionally, he will need to interpret the significance of a story for his readers.
4. Prominence. This element includes persons, places, things, and situations known to the public by reason of wealth, social position, achievement, or previous publicity. Always include names of persons, especially those that are well-known, in your new story for names make news. The more prominent a particular name, place, event or sutation, the more interesting it will be in a story.
5. Drama. The element adds vitality and color to a news story. A blogger must try as much as possible to find dramatic action and pictureque backgroun to his story. Myster, suspense and comedy are the chief characteristics of drama.
6. Oddity or Unusualness. This element always helps to make facts interesting to people. The greater the degree of unusualness in a story, the greater its value as news.
7. Conflict. This element is one of the most basic of all the news elements. It involves physical and mental conflict; man vs. man; man vs. animals. It is perhaps the news element that appears most frequently in the daily news.
8. Emotions and Instincts. These elements involve the desire for food, clothing and shelter; the universal interest in children and animals; fear, sympathy, jealousy, and generosity in human affairs. The public enjoys having its emotions appealed to through the press.
9. Progress. This element involves any significant change for the betterment of makind. It may refer to achievement in the laboratory, the observartory, the industrial plant, or around the council table. It may refer to construction of new buildings and highways or improvement of those already in existence.
D. A blogger must develop his "nose for news." A "nose for news" simply means curiosity about people, what they do, and what makes them act as they do.
Up next.. Gathering News..
Source: Principles of Campus Journalism by Elena Q. Tanodra, p.9-11. *Note: Some words are edited on purpose to suit to the blogging needs.
Hi fellas! I'm really excited to share to you what I have just found in our old magazine locker today! I was able to find my long lost campus journalism book which really helped me a lot in writing when I was in my high school years. Now, I would like to share them to you.
By the way, the following posts may be slightly formal, so I advice you to take it seriously.. *LOL* I'm just kidding. I hope the things that I will be posting will help you on your journey to professional blogging.
Some bloggers want to have specific topics posted in their blogs. Toinky.com for example is like an online lifestyle magazine--it provides its readers with the juiciest and hippest trends and home stuffs in town. PinoyTV is all about the different television shows here in the Philippines. Readers can expect TV show reviews at Pinoy TV. Clinicfreak is all about a nursing student's experiences in her hospital exposures, drug/medicine guides, procedures, and all those medical stuffs and terminologies. Hugsmiles is an online self-help book about relationships, so on and so forth.
If you are just about to make a blog, think about the things that you would like to blog about. If you are interested in news, entertainment stuffs such as movies and celebrities, and food, why not choose to stick with just one topic in your blog? The most important thing is, you BLOG. If you would like to learn how to make a news story, read further. The next entries will be on journalism.
1. Take time to update your blog. I'm sure many of your friends want to know the juiciest and the crunchiest updates from you. Do your friends a favor by updating your blog at least twice a week---I'm sure they'll love it!
2. Don't put too many things in your blog. I guess you don't want to make your blog look like a total chaos. Some bloggers get too overwhelmed with all these free stuffs online and tend to place everything (and I mean, everything) inside their blogs. If you want to place an online survey in the side section of your blog,
one survey board is enough. Placing a slideshow of your pictures is
good, but don't make multiples of different slide shows in just one
entry! During your day's browsing in the web, you felt it's good to place an MP3 player with gazillion songs, so you decide to place it the other side bar. Below your MP3 player, you place all the logos of your favorite drink, brands, et cetera. Don't you realize that you're not being good to your friends who's got a Dial-up for an internet connection? Everything you place in your blog affects you and your readers' bandwidth*. Why not just make your blog look simple but nice?
3. Activate your blogroll. Link your friends who also have blogs to yours using the blogroll. In wordpress, motime, bravenet, blog, and blogger, all you have to do is key in the Titles and URLs of the blogs you want to be placed in your blogroll.
4. Care to exchange links. Many bloggers love to blog hop and exchange link with the other bloggers. If some blogger asks you to exchange links, try to look what kind of blogsite he has first. If you think the contents of his blog is okay for you (or maybe related to your blog), why not allow an exchange of links? In this way, you may be able to gain friends (blogging friends) online which will (somehow) help you build your "popularity" in the web.
5. Blog hop. Through blog hopping, you will be able to learn from other bloggers---their style, etc. Also, I personally think it's really fun to blog hop, especially when you drop by your friends' blogs then you get the latest chisms in town!
Don't forget this five essentials of blogging! Enjoy!
There was one time when a friend asked me if it is really necessary to write each entry in english, so I told him what I think is best. As of the recent count, China remains to be the world's most populated country, followed by India, then by the United States of America. If we will base it from the statistics, we may conclude that the universal language should be Mandarin and not English. *winks* However, English also remains to be the world's easiest language to learn that's why it's considered to be the universal tongue.
The problem you have with what language to use in your blogs is just so easy to answer. Go back to the basics.
1. What language or dialect are you most comfortable to use? If you aren't comfortable with using English, then why force yourself to write in English? I know some bloggers who likes to have their blogs in pure Filipino, and I see no problem with that. Actually, I find their blogs really cool and inspires me to write an all-Filipino entry of mine too!
2. Who are your target readers? If you target only a specific group of people, let's say, Filipino literature students and teachers, it will be great if you have your blog in Filipino. If you are a Korean who expects Koreans to visit your blog, have your entries made using Hangul. But if you don't target any specific group of people, I'd say it's better to use the international languange which is English.
3. It all depends on the content. If your blog has this specific genre--- food blog, vlog, all-lyrics blog, artlog, or antivirus/computer stuff blogs, I say it would be better if everything is in English.
If your blog only functions as an online journal, it's better if you just follow #1: Use a language or a dialect of which you are most comfortable to use. Who cares if it's in Filipino, Mandarin, Niponggo, Hangul, Khmer, or Malaysian? It's your blog and you have all the right to use any language that you want. I hope this helps.
I don't know, can you? haha...I'm just kidding! Of course you can! Just turn the "new entry" page into its HTML mode (simply by clicking the HTML). Copy the code of the video or music you want to embed in your entry and publish it!
ABSOLUTELY Yes! Pictures will help you in writing your blog entries. It also helps making your readers understand better in what you are trying to say.... There was one time that I wrote about the albino carabao (water buffalo) that I saw in Matan-ao, Davao del Sur. Most of my friends who have read that entry wouldn't believe of what I saw. So what I did in my next entry is, I placed the picture of that very carabao I saw on my way to Matan-ao. They were all speechless!
I won't deprive you readers about that picture.. so I am posting it also here..
There.. there's my evidence! It's kind of blurry because I was inside our van when I took that picture.
Also, pictures add color and life into your blog. Post some pictures about your recent travel experience, bar hopping sessions, or just another clique bonding--surely, it'll add more excitement into your blog. Trust me.
How to add pictures in your blog entries?
Just click the "add image icon" (usually represented by a small box with a tree or a mountain) and upload your photos. Some blog providers have tools that include resizing and thumbnailing your photos---so just select the one that suits you. If you're using wordpress, just click for the "img" and add the link/URL of the photo if it is anywhere around the web... or simply, click upload photo (and send to editor) after uploading!
I hope this helps. Feel free to drop some questions. Thanks!
Alert: This tip only work for those bloggers who have personal and daily journals.
Since a blog functions like an online journal or a diary, why not start writing about how your day went? It's much easier if you start blogging about the things that occurred to you during the day. Talk about the things that interests you. For me, I love music, TV, food, eavesdropping (haha), and so much more! So what I do is I try to write about my favorite music or songs, TV shows, food, and the things I have heard after my eavesdropping session.
If you are a whiner, you may also use your blog to express yourself! Take a look at this blog. (before clicking the link, prepare yourself for what you are about to read----not so good stuffs are in there..) I'm just showing you how things work in blogs of other people. Some just whine, complain, et cetera--but it's their blog! Take a look at this too. It's one of my friends' blog and one of my favorite blogs to visit, too..
Tip#2 Take time to reflect.
Blogging becomes easier if we take time to reflect about the day's life lessons. It's not wrong if you just stare blanky in front of your computer monitor for like five to ten minutes! Just give yourself time to reflect. If you are working or going to school, you have at least ten long hours of staying outside the home, about two hours spent while waiting for a bus or a jeepney ride and walking home, about an one hour spent in eating dinner, three more hours of just sitting around the couch, and eight hours of sleep. What I am driving at is, there were many things that happened to you and the people around you the entire time, there were lots of things that you have thought about, and several things that you want to talk about that is worth blogging.. so why not place those thoughts in words and write it all in your blog! Be bold! You can even blog about the dreams you had last night. Actually I have a couple of blog entries about my dreams. Check out this link, and this too.
Tip#3 Don't pressure yourself about creating a blog entry every day.
Always put in mind that blogging is supposed to be a fun, good, and stress-releasing activity. Many bloggers tend to "overwork" and pressure themselves into writing at least 10 blog entries per day---believe me, it's true! The result? They only get themselves a headache at the end of the day. Instead of releasing out their stress and excess energy in writing, blogging will already turn out to be the root cause of all problems---and yes, the stressor!
I hope this entry will help you out in your blogging adventure. If you have questions and comments, feel free to drop by my tagboard or the comment box! Thanks!
I think all of the blog providers I have listed in my previous entry are user-friendly. If you want to write an entry, just look for either of the following word(s): "Create", "Compose", "New" "Create an Entry", "New Post", "Write", or "Write a New Entry". Just point and click to any of those words and you will be directed to the "composition box". Usually, composition boxes are empty, so just begin typing whatever you think is okay to write or talk about. Feel free to talk about anything and everything under the sun for it's your own blog anyway! Just be careful of writing commentaries about politicians, your teachers, your boss, or some actors and actresses for legal cases may be filed against you if you'll be guilty of defamation. Again, take responsibility of whatever stuff you write.
To edit an entry, check your list of posts then click either "Edit" or "Edit an Entry", whichever is available.
Just like MS Word, most of the blogs have tools like Bold, Italic, Underline, Link (to link words to other sites), Font: type, color, size, et cetera. So just like a point-and-shoot camera, just click whatever suits you.
To link a word or a group of words, a picture, or a video from your site to another site, only look for the LINK Tool. The link tool is represented by chain icon. To unlink a word or a group of words, etc..just click the unlink icon, represented by a broken link/chain. Some editing boxes require you to highlight the word(s), picture, etc to unlink it. Don't panic. Just highlight it using your mouse pointer then click the broken chain to unlink.
If you have any questions or suggestions...
Feel free to drop by the comment box or the tagboard.. thanks!
You like to start a blog but you don't know how? Read this.
There are hundreds of FREE blogging services available in the internet today so why not grab the unending opportunity? Do yourself a favor and make a blog, NOW!
As I have mentioned earlier, blog servicing websites are sprouting like mushrooms nowadays! Amazingly, they are all for free! There may be some blog servicing sites who requires you to pay $$$ for a subdomain, but what's the point when you can get a space for your written thoughts and pay nothing? I have a short list of websites wherein you can enjoy writing your own blog entries.
To help you out on your blogging, let me just give you an intro of what it is.
The word BLOG is a portmanteau of the words web and log or weblog. It is a website in which entries are arranged in a reverse chronological order. A typical blog combines text, images, videos, link to other blogs and websites related to its topics. The comment box placed in each entry is so much important for both the author and its readers for it provides an area of interaction and communication for both parties. Most of the blogs are in text (such as what I am doing now) though some focus in art (artlog), videos (vlog), photographs (photoblog), etc... Itlog, tapsilog, porsilog, chorilog, and tocilog though considered as portmanteaux is way too different from the web logs that I am talking about.. (lol...im just kidding!) A blog functions in many ways. Some are used to display commentaries and ideas, but typically, blogs function as online journals or diaries. A person who writes in an online journal is called a blogger.
A blogger can own as much as blog accounts as he wants--but he should be sure to update his blog once in a while if he wants people to visit his blog all the time. Another disadvantage of having multiple blogs is that you will be tempted to just create multiple copies of blog entries and paste them in all of your accounts. I tell you, google will either penalize or ban you for creating such a clutter! So, if you want multiple number of blogs, take the responsibility over it.
For more inquiries, don't forget to send me a message in the comment box!
