Every story indicates the evaluation of the news that it presents as made by the reporter or correspondent, and by the editor or the copy-reader. By determining the basis of this evaluation, the student acquires a criterion by which to judge the news value of whatever he is called upon to report.
=Sources of news.= From the details of a news story it is almost always possible to infer the sources from which the news was obtained. Public and private records, reports, officials, eye-witnesses, for example, are often cited as authorities for the facts in the story. These sources should be noted carefully, so that they may be drawn upon by the student in his own reporting. In fact, a list of sources compiled from news stories of various kinds, such as those of crime, accidents, fires, etc., will be found helpful to the beginner.
=Methods of news gathering.= How the details of the news were obtained may also be ascertained from an examination of the story. In the report of an interview, for example, the reporter’s questions may be inferred from the person’s replies. Not infrequently the story shows indirectly the circumstances under which the reporter secured the material. The student will do well to note every such hint and suggestion.
=Purpose.= Every news story should present the details of the news as accurately as possible and as completely as the significance of the news warrants. The embellishment of news stories with fictitious details to make them more interesting or more entertaining, as well as the distortion and suppression of significant facts of the news in order to accomplish some end, are alike opposed to the fundamental purpose of the newspaper. Besides reporting the news with fairness and accuracy, however, the writer, consciously or unconsciously, may accomplish other ends by the manner in which he presents his material. By giving prominence to certain details and aspects of a piece of news, he may produce one effect upon the reader’s mind; by emphasizing others in the same piece of news, he may produce an entirely different impression. Thus news of accidents, crime, courts, and similar matters can be presented so as to exert either a wholesome or an unwholesome influence on readers; that is, it may be constructive or destructive in its effect. Stories of crime, for example, may be written in a manner that tends to make the wrongdoer more or less of a hero, and hence may encourage others to imitate his career; or they may be written in a way that tends to deter readers from committing similar crimes. Whether wrongdoing is made attractive or unattractive in news stories depends not so much upon giving the facts fully and accurately as upon the reporter’s attitude toward his material.