Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast, number 541, Reporting the News.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 541.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode that will help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Reporting the News.
It's going to talk about some common vocabulary and when dealing with the newspaper, we thought we would do something about newspapers before they all disappear.
Let's get started.
I have always wanted to be a news reporter.
When i was about ten years old, I would write my own news stories and publish them in my own newspaper.
In reality, the newspaper was just a piece of paper on which I'd written my stories and drew my pictures.
But it was my first taste of the power of the press.
When I got to college...
I worked on the university newspaper and started out as a copy editor, editing stories and writing headlines.
Then I began to cover news events, getting my first bylines.
I can't tell you how excited I was to see my name in print for the first time.
Since then, I've worked at several newspapers.
I started out at the bottom writing obituaries and news briefs.
Then I got a regular beat and wrote some features and investigative reports.
I've even written the occasional editorial.
What next?
You never know in the newspaper business, but I'm shooting for a Pulitzer.
Our story begins with me saying, I have always wanted to be a news reporter.
A news reporter is a person whose job is to research and describe things that are going on in the world.
For a newspaper, a magazine, perhaps a television news program or a radio news program and, of course nowadays, for a news website.
This is not a true story, I should point out.
I did actually work as a news reporter when I was in college very briefly, and I was the editor of my high school newspaper, but that doesn't really count as being a real news reporter.
But I did consider it in college.
I decided against it.
When I was about 10 years old.
According to the story, I would write my own news stories and publish them in my own newspaper.
To publish means to print and distribute something for other people to read.
In reality, the newspaper was just a.
When we talk about your first taste of something, we mean your first experience with something, the first time that you have done something.
The word press here is used the same as what we would now call the media.
Newspapers magazines, TV and radio stations and websites that report on the news would all be part of the press.
Press has other meanings, however.
For those, take a look at our learning guide for this episode.
My story continues.
When I got to college...
I worked on the university newspaper and started out as a copy editor, editing stories and writing headlines.
A copy editor on a newspaper is the person whose job is to review what other people have written, correct what they've written, maybe improve it by making small changes.
Copy is another word for text, something that you write.
We used to talk about newspapers having good copy, meaning interesting stories.
I continue by saying that as a copy editor, I edited stories and wrote headlines.
To edit means to review, to correct, to improve.
Hence copy editor is someone who reviews, corrects and improves other people's copy, other people's writing.
Headlines are the title of the news articles, usually printed in a larger font, in a bigger size.
I continue, then I began to cover news events.
To cover when we're talking about news means to research, investigate and describe something, one particular topic.
Some newspapers have certain reporters who always cover the economic news or who always cover the sports news.
You might watch a TV newscast and ask your friend about a story.
He may say, oh, the newscast I watched didn't cover that story.
They didn't describe it, didn't talk about it.
A newscast, I should add, is just a news broadcast, a news show.
So I began to cover news events, getting my first bylines.
A byline, B-Y-L-I-N-E, is the line in the newspaper that says, who wrote the story?
This was written by John Smith.
This was written by Carl Bernstein.
That's a byline.
It's a little line below the headline that tells you who wrote this story.
Often, news stories have several reporters working on it.
Sometimes at the end of the news story it will say the following people also contributed or helped write this story.
To be in print means to be published, something that is in a published document, such as a newspaper, a magazine, a book, things that other people can look at.
We call that being in print.
Print, however, has other meanings in English.
You know where to find those in our learning guide.
I continue by saying that since then, since I was in college, I've worked at several newspapers.
I started out at the bottom, meaning in the lowest position of the newspaper.
Writing obituaries and news briefs.
When you go to work for a newspaper, the reporters with the least amount of experience typically the youngest ones, the ones that just started working there are given the job of writing obituaries of famous people even before they die.
The newspaper starts preparing the obituary because, of course, when a person dies, you want to report it in the next edition, the next day typically, of a daily newspaper.
And so you need to have that information prepared.
So, for example, when a famous actor or politician dies, the newspaper already has in its files – it already has written –
The basic obituary, they may add a few things, change a few things to make sure it is up to date.
Obituaries are descriptions of people who have died.
Sometimes we call them obits, O-B-I-T.
An obit is the same as an obituary.
A news brief is a very short, usually one paragraph article about something.
Sometimes in newspapers, they want to report news that isn't necessarily that important.
So they put little one-paragraph descriptions of these news items inside the newspaper somewhere.
And that's what a news brief is.
To be brief means to be short.
So a news brief is a short, very short news article.
That's what a, again, new reporter would start working on in a newspaper.
Then I say I got a regular beat.
A beat is either a general topic that you are always assigned to.
So I mentioned earlier about those who write for the sports section.
Well, some reporters will always write about baseball.
Some reporters will always write about football, others about tennis and so forth, depending on how big the newspaper is.
A beat can also refer to a geographic area.
In a city like Los Angeles, there might be one person that covers the news on the west side, on the west part of the city, someone else who covers the downtown news, someone else who covers the San Fernando Valley and so forth.
These would all be beats.
I say that I also wrote some features and investigative reports.
A feature is short for a feature article.
It's a main story, usually a longer story about some news topic or about some person.
I say also that I've written investigative reports.
Investigative reports are those that require usually a lot of research, sometimes months of research, often related to something that is secret, something perhaps that the government is doing.
Usually only the more experienced news reporters work on investigative pieces or stories.
I say also, I've even written the occasional editorial.
An editorial is an opinion piece.
It's an article in the newspaper that gives your opinion and It's not focused on giving just the facts.
We hope that most newspapers give us in the regular news section the facts and interpretation, not opinion.
That doesn't always happen, however.
Notice here I say the occasional, meaning not very often, every once in a while.
Finally, I say, what next?
You never know in the newspaper business, but I'm shooting for a Pulitzer Prize.
To shoot for something is a phrasal verb meaning to try to do, to try to get, to try to have something.
That is difficult but not impossible.
Denise is studying all the time because she's shooting for a high score in her medical entrance exam.
She wants to become a doctor.
So she's shooting for, she's aiming at, her goal is to get this high score.
I say that I'm aiming or shooting for a Pulitzer Prize award.
The Pulitzer Prize is the award given to news reporting in the United States for those that have the very best news reporters, the very best stories.
These are usually newspapers, at least they have been traditionally.
The best stories are given prizes in different categories.
So it may be the best sports story, it may be the best investigative story, and so forth.
Typically, these awards are won by the large newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, even the St.
Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch.
The Pulitzer is the most prestigious, most sought-after, we could say, award in journalism.
It's like winning an Oscar if you're a movie actor.
I'm not sure what the best award would be for a podcaster.
I'll have to look into that.
Now let's listen to the story, this time at a normal speed.
Editing Stories and Writing Headlines Then, I began to cover news events, getting my first bylines.
I can't tell you how excited I was to see my name in print for the first time.
Since then, I've worked at several newspapers.
I started out at the bottom, writing obituaries and news briefs.
Then I got a regular beat and wrote some features and investigative reports.
I've even written the occasional editorial.
What next?
You never know in the newspaper business, but I'm shooting for a Pulitzer.
The script for this episode was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
