Part 1
News Writing:
Straight-ahead, factual reporting is what news writing
is all about. News writing is the most practical form of journalistic
writing. The intent is to get the facts out and convey the importance
of a given issue or development.
More often than not, news stories follow an announcement, press conference,
politics, crime, business financial results or some other newsworthy
development and the reporter barely has time to compile and organize
the information into a short news article, free of opinion or analysis.
News writing often tends to be basic reporting because the pressing
time element leaves little room for anything more. Analysis, further
details and counter viewpoints are often left to follow-up stories
for which time constraints are less onerous. For now, the emphasis
is on getting something in the paper fast. You're dealing with time-sensitive,
timely, breaking news. Move fast. Get the rest of the details, reaction
and commentary later.
This is basic, bread-and-butter, meat-and-potatoes reporting - and
it's at the heart and soul of every newspaper. Although news writing
also encompasses investigative and analytical reports, the bulk of
news writing consists of cobbling together a story as quickly as possible
with whatever facts and details are immediately available to meet
a pressing deadline that leaves no scope for anything more elaborate.
With its just-the-facts approach, tight space restrictions and deadline
pressures, news writing is often as much a science as an art.
Indeed, the standard, time-honoured approach to news writing involves
a somewhat scientific, formulaic approach in which the basic questions
- who, what, when, where and why - are all addressed in a lengthy
first paragraph. So, if there isn't much space, the first paragraph
alone can be squeezed into the paper - and the reader gets the basic
story in a nutshell (or news brief to be more precise).
This approach involves providing the big picture while cramming all-important
information at the top of the story, with supportive details and quotes
following further down the article.
Many smaller newspapers still cling to this formulaic approach. Their
small budgets and low pay rates usually leave them with untalented
editors who can't get a job anywhere else. And such editors can often
edit a story for length by cutting from the bottom up, rather than
rephrasing and tightening passages throughout the story to ensure
as much information as possible stays in the shorter story. In essence,
such editors separate the wheat from the chaff - and print the chaff.
Reporters working at such publications are well advised to cram all
the information at the top of their story (and follow with supporting
details) or they may find important elements to their story hacked
out of existence.
Fortunately, most newspapers take a more flexible approach to news
reports and prefer a short, thought-provoking and compelling lead
paragraph to bring the reader into the story.
All of the important information is still near the top of the story,
but it's carried through several paragraphs, not just one. As well,
time permitting, there is more of an effort to incorporate information
- such as interviews, quotes, reaction, counter viewpoints, expert
opinions - that might have, in the past, been left to a follow up
story.
I've found it's possible to bring a fair measure of creativity into
the news writing process.
The stories selected for this chapter should bear this out: The selected
articles include a number of stories that appeared in The Hamilton
Spectator and Toronto Star. A range of articles can be found in this
chapter, such as a story on the impact of low interest rates; a $105-million
upgrade at Stelco; Jumbo Video's decision to be publicly listed on
the stock exchange; Hamilton steelmakers’ strong financial results;
Hotz Environmental's decision to explore markets in Asia; a rise in
profit for the Intermetco firm; consumers winning a food fight as
giant grocery stores duke it out; and, a Toronto Star piece on the
biggest mass poisoning in history – due to the arsenic contamination
in wells in India.
The trick in approaching any news story is to gather all of the pertinent
information and process it in a way that you fully understand so you
can then express in terms the reader will also understand.
Once this important task is achieved, the writing of the piece takes
the field. Certainly a well-written, interesting and provocative news
article has a far greater chance of capturing the reader's attention.
As always, the writing makes the difference. All of the articles you're
about to read involved detailed interviews - asking the right questions
is vital - and solid research. This, combined with engaging writing,
best achieves the goal of communicating with the readers.
Doctor fights “biggest mass poisoning
in history”
Michael B. Davie
Toronto Star
Calling it "the biggest mass poisoning in history," a Toronto
scientist is leading an international effort to protect children from
arsenic-contaminated well water.
“It's estimated at least 5,000 children in Bangladesh alone have
symptoms of arsenic poisoning from the drinking of toxic well water,”
asserts Dr. Bibudhendra (Amu) Sarkar, a senior scientist at The Hospital
for Sick Children specializing in metals-caused diseases.
“And they're among more than 60 million people – half the
population – in Bangladesh, exposed to arsenic poisoning from
hand-pump wells,” adds Sarkar, who is also professor emeritus
of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto.
Sarkar, 66, leader of an international team of scientists investigating
the crisis, notes the source of the problem exists in the 12-million
hand-pump wells that provide drinking water and irrigation to 97 per
cent of the population of Bangladesh.
Ironically, the hand-pump wells were part of a multi-million-dollar
UNICEF program in the 1960s to provide a safe alternative source of
drinking water. It was a response to numerous cases of illnesses developing
from people drinking heavily polluted surface water contaminated with
microbial bacteria and viruses.
Unfortunately, as the wells were drilled, they cut into a strata of
pyrite rock - containing arsenic, iron and sulphur - that was deposited
in the region's deltaic plain subsoil millions of years ago. Arsenic
began leaching into the well water.
In the decades following the digging of the wells, it became increasing
evident that people were suffering from arsenic poisoning.
Symptoms include blackened fingernails and hair follicles, and white
or black scaly patches on the skin. It can also lead to painful skin
lesions, gangrene, skin cancer and death.
Rudimentary well water analysis indicated that the drinking water was
the source of the arsenic, a natural poison that appears as a chalky
white powder when dry but is invisible when dissolved in water.
Although it was known that the well water contained some arsenic, Sarkar
was the first to reveal the staggering extent of the problem; the first
to detect arsenic poisoning in children and pregnant women; and the
first to bring the crisis to the world's attention.
How Sarkar came to play such a central role is a story that goes back
to his childhood. He was born near Calcutta in India in 1935 and the
south Asian region has long been a source of fascination.
He moved to California in 1959 when he was 22 and went on to become
a scientist at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles,
before being recruited by Sick Kids and moving to Toronto in 1964.
During his first year at the hospital, Sarkar discovered a substance
- Copper Histidine amino acid – that would lead to a treatment
for Menkes Disease, a genetic disorder in which babies are unable to
absorb enough copper to sustain life and die by age 3. The treatment
- injections of the Copper Histidine - is now used around the world.
With his reputation as an expert in metals-based diseases firmly established,
Sarkar was a sought after speaker and in 1996, he addressed the Indian
Science Congress on the treatment for Menkes Disease.
During this trip, he was invited to visit Bangladesh.
“What I saw was a complete disaster,” Sarkar recalls. “The
adults all had the classic symptoms of arsenic poisoning – gangrene,
white and black spots, skin cancer.”
“But I was dumbstruck and distraught to see children showing symptoms,”
he adds.
“Arsenic poisons you, it decays you, but it usually happens over
a long period of time, sometimes twenty years, so you don't expect to
see it with children – I’d never seen this before.”
Sarkar then established a volunteer international research team - dubbed
Scientists Without Borders – that also features: environmental
chemist Dr. Seth Frisbie and environmental geologist Donald Maynard,
both from Vermont; and environmental analytical chemist Dr. Richard
Ortega from the University of Bordeaux, in France.
Although much of his work in Bangladesh has been on his own time, Sarkar
credits Sick Kids for providing its labs and its international reputation
that helped secure cooperation from the Bangladesh government.
Sarkar says several factors are believed to be accelerating the degree
of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh, including, levels of arsenic that
are as much as 600 times beyond acceptable levels.
He says another factor is the presence of antimony, which can magnify
arsenic toxicity. There are also other harmful metals present, including:
manganese, a known mutagen associated with neurological damage; plus
lead, nickel, and chromium, which are either known carcinogens or are
suspected of causing cancer.
Sarkar says the severity of chronic arsenic poisoning may be magnified
by a lack of selenium, which prevents the toxic effects of arsenic;
and a lack of zinc, which promotes the repair of tissue damaged by arsenic.
“Malnutrition – widespread in the area – may be another
factor accelerating the harmful effects of arsenic, as a body weakened
by hunger is less resilient to diseases.”
He suspects arsenic contaminated water may also be a problem in other
nearby south Asian nations, including India, Cambodia, Nepal, Myanmar
(Burma) and Thailand.
“I don't know whether digging wells deeper and lining them is
an answer or if sufficient rain water can be collected and stored –
but it is essential that strategies to supply safe drinking water be
developed and quickly implemented to avoid a catastrophic health crisis
in Bangladesh and beyond,” says Sarkar, asserting that a joint
effort is needed to find solutions.
“Our results may allow scientists, policy makers and aid workers
to initiate programs to assist the areas most affected by the toxic
metals.”
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