Add: An addition to a story already written or in the process of
being written.

Assignment: Instruction to a reporter to cover an event.

Attribution: Designation of the person being quoted. Also, the source
of information in a story.

Banner: Headline across or near the top of all or most of a newspaper page. Also called a line, ribbon, streamer, screamer.

B copy: Bottom section of a story written ahead of an event that
will occur too close to deadline for the entire story to be processed.

Beat: Area assigned to a reporter for regular coverage. Also, an
exclusive story.

Break: When a news development becomes known and available.
Also, the point of interruption in a story continued from one page to another.

Bright: Short, amusing story.

Bulldog: Early edition, usually the first of a newspaper.

Byline: Name of the reporter who wrote the story, placed atop the
published article.

Cold type: In composition, type set photographically or by pasting up
letters and pictures on acetate or paper.

Correspondent: Reporter who sends news from outside a newspaper
office.

Crony journalism: Reporting that ignores or treats lightly negative news
about friends of a reporter.

Crop: To cut or mask the unwanted portions, usually of a
photograph.

Cut: Printed picture or illustration. Also, to eliminate material
from a story.

Cutline: Any descriptive or explanatory material under a picture.

Dateline: Name of the city or town and sometimes the date at the
start of a story that is not of local origin.

Enterprise copy: Story, often initiated by a reporter, that digs deeper than the usual news story.

Exclusive: Story a reporter has obtained to the exclusion of the
competition.

News hole: Space in a newspaper allotted to news, illustrations and
other nonadvertising material.

Off-the-record: Describes material offered the reporter in confidence. If the reporter accepts the material with this understanding,it cannot be used except as general background in a later story.

Op-ed page: Abbreviation for the page opposite the editorial page. The page is frequently devoted to opinion columns and related illustrations.

Overnight: Story usually written late at night for the afternoon newspapers of the next day.

Pool: Arrangement whereby limited numbers of reporters and photographers are selected to represent all those assigned to the story.

Press release: Publicity handout, or a story given to the news media for publication.

Puff piece or puffery: Publicity story or a story that contains unwarranted superlatives.

Roundup: A story that joins two or more events with a common
theme, such as traffic accidents, weather, police reports.

Rowback: A story that attempts to correct a previous story without
indicating that the prior story had been in error or without taking responsibility for the error.

Running story: Event that develops and is covered over a period of time.

Sell: Presentation a reporter makes to impress the editor with
the importance of his or her story.

Shirttail: Short, related story added to the end of a longer one.

Sidebar: Story that emphasizes and elaborates on one part of
another nearby story.

Situation: Story that pulls together a continuing event for the reader
who may not have kept track as it unfolded.

Slant: To write a story so as to influence the reader’s thinking.

Source: Person, record, document or event that provides the
information for the story.

Split page: Front page of an inside section.

Stringer: Correspondent, not a regular staff member, who is paid by
the story or by the number of words written.

Feature: Story emphasizing the human or entertaining aspects of a
situation. A news story or other material differentiated from straight news.

File: To send a story to the office usually by wire or telephone
or to put news service stories on the wire.

Fag: Printed title of a newspaper on page one.

Folo: Story that follows up on a theme in a news story.

Futures calendar: Date book in which story ideas, meetings and activities scheduled for a later occurrence are listed.

Graf: Abbreviation for paragraph.

Guild: Newspaper Guild, an international union to which
reporters and other newspaper workers belong.

Handout: Term for written publicity or special-interest news sent to
a newspaper for publication

Hard news: Spot news; live and current news in contrast to features.

HFR: Abbreviation for “hold for release.” Material that cannot
be used until it is released by the source or at a designated time.

Insert: Material placed between copy in a story.

Investigative reporting: Technique use to unearth information that sources often want hidden.

Jump: Continuation of a story from one page to another.

Kill: To delete a section from copy or to discard the entire story.

Lead: First paragraph in a news story.

Localize: To emphasize the names of persons from the local
community who are involved in events outside the city or region.

LTK: Designation on copy for “lead to come.”

Makeup: Layout or design. The arrangement of body type, headlines, and illustrations into pages.

Masthead: Formal statement of newspaper’s name, officers, place of
publication and other descriptive information, usually on the editorial page.

Morgue: Newspaper library

Tight: Refers to a paper so crowded with ads that the news space
must be reduced.

Tip: Information passed to a reporter, often in confidence.

Verification: Determination of the truth of the material the reporter
gathers or is given.

Wire services: Synonym for press associations, the Associated Press and United Press International.

Broadcasting Terms


Close-up: Shot of the face of the subject that dominated the frame
so that little background is visible.

Cover shot: A long shot usually cut in at the beginning of a sequence
to establish place or location.
Cue: A signal in a script or by word or gesture to begin or to stop.

Cutaway: Transition shot - usually short - from one theme to
another; used to avoid jump cut.

Dissolve: Smooth fading of one picture for another.

FI or fade in: A scene that begins without full brilliance and gradually
assumes full brightness.

Lead-in: Introductory statement to film or tape of actual event.

Lead-out: Copy that comes immediately after tape of film of an
actuality.

Long shot: Framing that takes in the scene of the event.

Medium shot: Framing of one person from head to waist or of a small
group seated at a table.

Montage: A series of brief shots to give a single impression or
communicate one idea.

Outtakes: Scenes that are discarded for the final story.

Panning or pan shot: Moving the camera from left to right or right to left.

Remote: A taped or live broadcast from a location outside the studio; also, the unit that originates such a broadcast.

Segue: An uninterrupted transition from one sound to another; a sound dissolve.

Zooming: Use of a variable focus lens to take close-ups and wide
angle shots from a stationary position.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)