News Item

 

News item is a text which informs readers about events of the day. The events are considered newsworthy or important. It means if there is an important event that should be known by many people, then this event deserves news. Well, the news text is called the news item text.

Definition of News Item

News item is a text which informs readers about events of the day. The events are considered newsworthy or important. It means if there is an important event that should be known by many people, then this event deserves news. Well, the news text is called the news item text. However, if there are events that people do not deserve, then they are not definitely worth to be news.

Generic Structure of News Item

There are three important things in news item text:

# Main Events / Newsworthy event(s): it recounts the event in summary form.
# Elaboration / Background event(s): they elaborate what happened, to whom, in what circumstance
# Resource of Information (Source) : it contains comments by participants in, witnesses to and authorities expert on the event

Language Feature of News Item

– Focusing on circumstances (using a simple language in writing the text)
– Using saying verbs: “….”, She said, informed, told, reported.
– Sometimes at the beginning of news, the scene is mentioned : Jakarta – … .. / Kuala Lumpur – …
– Using Past tense in explaining news events. But if it is a fact that until now still happen or still in the form of fact, then can use simple present tense.
– Short, telegraphic information about story captured in headline
– Using adverbs: time, place and manner.
– Uses of material processes to retell the event

Ecuador jail riot: Anxiety, fear and little information

More than 100 inmates have been killed in a deadly fight inside a prison in the Ecuadorean port city of Guayaquil. It is expected to take days to identify the bodies, leaving relatives of inmates fearing the worst. Journalist Blanca Moncada Pesantes spoke to some of those waiting for news.

Not even at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in March and April 2020, when death was in the air in many neighbourhoods of Guayaquil, had so many relatives ever gathered outside the city's morgue.

When President Guillermo Lasso announced that the death toll had risen, dozens of families rushed to the forensic laboratory where the bodies of the victims were being taken. They want to find out where their loved ones are and, crucially, if they are still alive.

They have yet to get an answer and their anxiety only increased as explosions could again be heard coming from Guayaquil's biggest prison, a sign that the gang war inside - said to be linked to the drugs trade - had not been brought under control.