NEWS ITEM (Learning Materials)

DEFINITION
News Item Text is a text which informs readers about events of the day.



SOCIAL FUNCTION
To inform readers or listeners about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important.



LANGUAGE FEATURES
•Past tense, present perfect tense, future tense
•Passive voices
     (P) A building is renovated by the government
     (A) The government renovated a building
•Direct and indirect speech
     “The meeting is canceled.” said the principal.
     The principal said that the meeting was canceled.
•Article (a, an, the)
•Mechanic



GENERIC STRUCTURE
- Judul (headlines)
- Paragraf pembuka (newsworthy)
- Latar belakang kejadian (background events) berupa rangkaian paragraf yang merinci isi paragaraf pembuka.
- Kutipan (sources)



Headlines
Title of the text.


Newsworthy EventPart of text which tells readers about the main idea or the main topic of the text. It could be a summary of the event.


Background Event
Part of text which tells readers about the background of the event. It consists of the event place, time, people, etc. You can elaborate what, who, when, where, why, how, and in what circumstances the event happened.


Source
Part of text which tells readers about the experts’ or witnesses’ comments of the event.





EXAMPLE 1:

Students' Awareness of Democracy (headlines)

The election of the student council president had been held on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. (newsworthy)

One of the annual programs organized by the school is the election of student council president. But in its implementation, a school teacher said that the election of the student council president was not proceeding as it should. This was caused by the large number of students who did not use their voting rights and made the election results invalid. (background events)

According to a teacher, Mr. Heru, the lack of students' awareness made the election had no major effect. “This event is supposed to be a facility to increase students' sense of democracy. It also provides a chance where students can practice using their votes in the future.” said Mr. Heru. He hoped, more students would participate in the next election. (sources)





EXAMPLE 2:

An Indonesian Student Won the Gold Medal

Putri Mustika, a student from Bantul, won the gold medal at the International Mathematics Contest held in Romania between March 22 to 29, 2020.

Indonesia sent ten students to the competition in Romania. Putri Mustika is not the first Yogyakarta student to win an international science competition. Anggara Kurnia, a student from Sleman, won the gold medal at the International Physics Olympiad in 2006.

Speaking to journalists, Putri said she was glad that she had been able to win the competition, which she said had been very tight. “Thanks Putri, for giving a good name to Indonesia and Bantul on the international stage,” Bantul Regent said.





Is the news newsworthy to be published?
Well, we should choose which issues are newsworthy to be published. It should contain beneficial information to the readers. A journalist does not need to tell everybody that her cat is pregnant, does she?

NOW, BE A JOURNALIST!

Work in pairs. 

Find newsworthy events around your school. Collect information related to those events and make a news item text.

You can collect information through interviews or other data sources.

Examples:

-Healthy Food in Canteen

-Enhancing Reading Interest through School Library
-Students’ Awareness to Keep the School Clean

GOOD LUCK!