Jump. Continue on next page.

Jargon of the day: jump

Jump is the part of a story that continues on another page. Lets say that a story about a murder is on the front page of the paper. Obviously, there are other stories that made front page, so they cant have the full story on the front page because it would take up too much space. What they do is, put part of the story on the front page and then continue it on another page.

At the bottom of the story on the front page, there will be a little bold line telling you what page the story continues on. This is called the jump line. It gives readers directions as to where the rest of the story is. The jump is also commonly known as a break.

Where's your beat?

Jargon of the day: beat

A beat is a reporters topic area. It might be a section of a town, courts, religion, or some part of the education system. Anytime a story comes up in a reporters beat it is their job to cover that story.

Reporters should get to know people in their beats for contacts. If their beat is an education district, the reporter should get to know the superintendents, teachers, principals or anyone else that might be valuable when covering a story.

Making a list of contacts is important because you can refer to this list when you need people to interview for a story.

Paraphrase. In your own words.

Jargon of the day: Paraphrase

To paraphrase something, is to break it down from its original form, into your own words. Journalists use paraphrasing to break down long quotes they might use for a story. When using quotes, you have two choices -paraphrase and direct quote. Usually, paraphrasing makes more sense if:

• the quotation is long and wordy
• the words in the quotation are not powerful enough
  
• the source of the quotation is unknown
  
• you are capable of making a good paraphrase without making it seem like plagiarism

Using a direct quote means to use the quote word for word as it is. But sometimes, paraphrasing comes in handy.

The two-legged story.

Jargon of the day: leg

No, no. I'm not talking about those two long things that you walk with. I'm talking about a different type of leg. In the wonderful world of newspapers the word leg refers to a column in a story. If the story has one column, it has one leg. If the story has two columns, it has two legs.

Here is a picture of a newspaper article I found on google:


This article has two legs, because there are two columns in the story. A headline that only takes up two columns would be considered a two-legged story.

First reference. The full name.

Jargon of the day: First reference

When someone is first mentioned in a news story, their first and last name should be typed out. From then on, their last name can be used as a reference to that person. When the first and last name of a person is used as the initial reference to that person, this is called first reference.

The purpose of only using the persons last name through out the rest of the story, is to keep the article brief and straight to the point. Lets say the person in question was Joe Smith. It would be repetitive and sort of annoying to write out Joe Smith every time the story referred to that person. Instead, just Smith would be used after the first reference.

Here is an example of a first reference in a recent story from the Pocono Record. The story is about the ending of the TV show ER.

When Dr. Peter Favini started working in the emergency room 23 years ago, he constantly heard the same question.
"Everyone used to ask, 'So when are you leaving (the ER)?'" said Favini, the chief of emergency medicine at Pocono Medical Center in East Stroudsburg. "I kept telling people, 'This is what I do, emergency medicine is what I'm trained in.' People didn't understand that."

Notice how the doctors full name is used the first time his name is mentioned, and the second time, only his last name is used.

Copy boy. The dirty work.

Jargon of the day: Copy boy

Copy boy, is an older term for a man or woman that keeps the newsroom running smoothly by answering phones, tending to office machines, organizing paper work, or running around town to get photos or other material for stories.

Since is sort of, undermining , to call a 45 year old man a "copy boy" the term has transformed into copy aide, or office assistant. These people do lots of jobs. They keep the newsroom from backing up and being unorganized. There might be 3-4 "copy boys" in a newsroom at once. Usually, they are out running errands for the paper, like collecting photos, gathering information or picking up material for stories.

Spread. The package deal

Jargon of the day: Spread

A spread is a big story with accompanying pictures and sidebars (mentioned in previous blog entry) that goes across the crease of two facing pages to combine them. Spreads are commonly found in magazines, but they can also be found in newspapers too.

A common spread that might appear in papers every year would be the day after the super bowl. In the sports section you might find a spread depicting the winning team with a story that covered the game and the big win for whatever team. There would be many pictures that goes along with this story and some sidebars, maybe about the teams stats or bio's on the star players.