1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

114 Journalism Online
a single location reference in the first sentence. Then build from
there, tightening the location focus in succeeding paragraphs.
The essence of your intro could be ‘Firm to build chemical
plant outside Bloggstown’. This immediately gets the attention of
the people of Bloggstown. But it is not very specific. Whereabouts
outside Bloggstown? The general nature of the location
in the intro will potentially engage the interest of all people
living outside the town – north, south, east and west. But
beware of this catchall approach. You will have to be specific
soon in the story and people whose interest/fears have been
aroused, only to find the story has little relevance to them
because they live on the other side of town, will jettison it in
large numbers, feeling slightly duped.
How about ‘Firm plan to build chemical plant next to Bloggstown
beauty spot.’ This is more specific (even if there is more than
one local beauty spot, this can be explained in the next sentence).
So it will definitely attract the geographical community living near
the public open space in question.
But the simple addition of the words ‘beauty spot’ will also
broaden the relevance of the story. It will engage another
community, a community of interest – all those nature lovers who
frequently travel from miles around to visit the beauty spot (and
who may come from a wider geographical area, so broadening the
location relevance beyond ‘outside Bloggstown’).
The additional words also create another news trigger –
arousal. The juxtaposition of chemical plant and beauty spot adds
an element of discord or even drama that increases the trigger
value of the location relevance.
It may seem faintly ridiculous to consider the use of two words
in such depth. But this is what the journalist must do, and
hopefully enjoy. With practice, it will become almost an instinctive
process. But the best journalists still constantly work and rework
their writing, never satisfied with what they’ve produced. The aim
is to make every word in an intro (and everywhere else in your
piece) earn its corn. Each word is there by right. No passengers
allowed. You should always try to reduce the words and yet
maximize the news value whenever writing or editing your own
text.