NEWS EDITING

- language that is simple, concise, detached, clear.

-maximum use of active and concrete elements (verbs and nouns).

- vocabulary that is oriented to the masses rather than the experts.

- facts, not opinions (there is place for opinion if it is indicated clearly for what it is).

- credible, accurate, verifiable (beforehand).

ANS

ANS is the Salesian International Information Agency.  It has its own set of rules with regard to information in the Salesian Congregation.

- ANS titles are usually no longer than 55 characters

- ANS correspondents need to send in the news as soon as possible - by email preferably.

- ANS correspondents may often work by phone, especially when they cannot be in the place where the event is occurring.  The call should be transcribed and re-worked as an interview.

- ANS usually likes its information to arrive as RTF attachments.  The correspondent who is writing these words, however, sends his items as already formulated for 'austraLasia', and these are usually accepted as is, via direct email.

- Photographs remain a bane of contention!  ANS prefers its photographs to be sent as conventional photos, by airmail.  However again, this correspondent has emailed digital photos which appear to be jsut as good (and far quicker!).

BASIC NEWS DATA

1.  Fact

2.  Where

3.  When (date, time, hour)

4. Who

5.  How many

6.  What

7.  Why

8.  How

9. Most important items

10. Other interesting elements

11. Problems

12. Possibilities and perspectives

13. Comments (try to avoid inserting author opinion here)

14. Staistics

15. Documents

16. Photos, videos

THE 'TAKE'

Correspondents who submit news to an agency do so by means of 'takes', that is one or more separate pieces of medium length.

- takes are normally no more than 10 lines.

-the first take provides all that is necessary for the main news item to be understood.; further takes provide extra details.

THE TITLE

- identify, announce, summarize.  Usually begins with a key word followed by a colon, then the rest of the headline.  Examples can be found at www.bosconet.aust.com/ozlinkas.htm 

NEWS AND POLICY

Salesian news falls under the Information Policy of the Salesian Congregation.  This is best referred to via the Handbook for Social Communications downloadable from the Social Communications - Documents section of the www.sdb.org website.

NEWS AND IMAGE

Salesian news helps promote the image of the Congregation or Province.  Therefore it is a most important aspect of the Province's operation.  The institutional image of the Congregation offers us guidlines as to the kinds of news we are interested in spreading:

- re the lives of young people

- re the lives of ordinary people

- re cultural, developmental matters

- re the rights of the voiceless and defenseless.

ADVICE FOR THE INTERVIEWER

- prepare questions as a flexible kind of questionnaire, to avoid repetition.

- questions should be brief and direct, and phrased openly, i.e. to avoid 'yes/no' answers.

- sometimes it is good to ask questions based on previous knowledge

- a tape-recorder is almost essential, especially for long conversations.  There is nothing worse than an interviewee aggrieved because words s/he did not use were attributed to him/her.

- the interview is neither a conversation between friends, nor an interrogation.

- transcribed bits need to be done carefully so the reader can follow the conversation clearly.

- the chief purpose of the interview is to discover the views of the interviewee, not those of the interviewer!

PRESS CONFERENCE