Journalism 101 states that in a news story, there are five important elements. They are the answers to five simple words: who, what, when, where, and why. Today, two more elements are added: how and so what. They were added to the mix because the huge amount of news in online and traditional media requires new strategies so readers will stay interested in the story.

1. Who

Important people who are involved in the story should be highlighted. As a journalist, it is your responsibility to identify the major players, stakeholders, and sources in the story. Don’t underestimate the secondary people that support, oppose, or are involved with the primary subjects—they can offer a lot of information.

2. What

What happened? What is going on? You should answer these questions with the key moments in the story. Include the forces that created the issue or fixed the problem.

3. When

Include a clean timeline of events. When did the issue start? When was it solved? Having a timeline is especially helpful and important if you are planning to write future articles on the issue at hand.

4. Where

Where did the action happen? When answering this question, it is not enough to just state the address of the street, name of the mall, or name of the village where the incident happen. Describe what the place looks like as well as the surroundings that can make an impact in the story. It has been said that a good news writers can make the reader “see” the location in his article.

5. Why

This question is more difficult to answer than it looks; there may be lots of factors why the incident happen. Fishing out for more information from your sources and important people can give you a deeper insight on the real causes and circumstances of the issue or incident.

6. How

Readers usually want to find out how the incident happened. Just like answering the why question, answering how takes extra research on your part.

7. So what

This is a recent addition to the elements that make up a news story. With so many news stories that incorporate the usual 5Ws and 1H, you should make it a point that yours should make an impact to the reader. It should have a reason for people to stick around and continue reading. It should make people realize why this story is important to them.

Incorporate these elements to have an interesting, complete, and read-worthy news story to be published on the DatSyn Network – www.datsyn.com