Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. 42 Journalism: Publishing Across Media Incorporating News Values into Stories Incorporating News Values into Stories A good journalist and a strong staff, working as a community, often discover ways to incorporate more than one news value into a story. Finding those additional news values is a skill that grows with practice. If a power outage took place a week before you publish (so the story lacks timeliness) or it took place at a neighboring school (so it lacks proximity), the incident can still provide a news peg (a connection to a timely event that justifi es a feature or soft news story) for a human interest story. For example, you might be able to do a story about a classmate from the Middle East whose fi rst eight years of school took place in a village with no electricity for 23 hours each day: “When the October 23 power outage plunged parts of Puente Vista into darkness, Panthers wondered if learning would stop, but for Ali Mohammet, who arrived here in September from Iraq, learning in the dark seems natural.” You could also add impact to the power outage story by researching what would happen to cellphone towers if your area experienced a widespread power outage. Your audience might be surprised to know that their cellphones may not work during such a power outage (Figure 2.9). You may discover you have ham radio operators on your campus who could provide disaster communication in the event of a power outage. That would add human interest or perhaps oddity to your new story. If a student was recently elected president of the campus ham radio club, that news story with very little impact could be “pegged” to the power-outage story and become a story with a high news value. If the National Collegiate Athletic Association is debating changes to the courses it considers college preparatory, you could fi nd a local student whose eligibility to play college ball may be altered by the decision. If a story has impact, a good journalist can fi nd and develop a local angle. World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle is reported to have said, “If you want to tell the story of a war, tell the story of one soldier.” If the citizens who want to preserve the auditorium tower include the governor’s wife, you can add the element of prominence to the story. If the group includes four generations of a family, the youngest of which still attends your school, you may be able to add the element of oddity. The student running his own computer business will experience confl ict as he tries to balance time for homework and a social life. Perhaps a school requirement for fi fteen hours of public service confl icts with the needs of his business. His story may become timelier if the Figure 2.9 A cellphone tower may not be very interesting, but if it is damaged and the students at your school are unable to use their cellphones, you may have a story. Why?