NEWS ITEM

    Is a factual text which informs the readers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important.

SOCIAL FUNCTION OF NEWS ITEM IS: 

to inform readers, listeners or viewers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important.

GENERIC STRUCTURE:

• Newsworthy Event(s):  recounts the events in summary form
• Background Event(s):  elaborate what happened, to WHOM, in WHAT circumstances.
• Sources:  comments by participants in, witnesses to, and expert on the event.

SIGNIFICANT GRAMMAR FEATURES:

• Short, telegraphic information about story captured in headline
• Generally using Simple Past Tense
• Use of Material Processes to retell the event
• Using Action Verbs, e.g.: were, run, go, kill, etc.
• Using Saying Verbs, e.g.: say, tell
• Focus on Circumstances
• Use of projecting Verbal Processes in Sources stages

There are some rules that can help to make newspaper headlines more comprehensible.

• The passive voice is used without the appropriate form of “be”.
• EXAMPLE:  

    Town ‘Contaminated’

• COMPLETE SENTENCE:  

    Town is     contaminated.

• It is unusual to find complex forms, generally the simple present form is used

EXAMPLE:  

Fire destroys over 2,511 acres of Forest in 2003-2004

• COMPLETE SENTENCE:  

Fire has destroyed over 2,511 acres of forest in 2003-2004.

 The present progressive tense is used, usually to describe something that is changing or developing, but the auxiliary verb is usually left out.

• EXAMPLE:  

    World Heading for Energy Crisis

• COMPLETE SENTENCE:  

    The world is heading for an energy crisis.

To refer to the future, headlines often use the infinitive.

• EXAMPLE:   

    President Visits Palangakraya.

• COMPLETE SENTENCE:  

    The President is going to visit Palangkaraya.

Headlines are not always complete sentences.

• EXAMPLE:  

    More earthquakes in Japan.

• COMPLETE SENTENCE:

    More earthquakes happened in Japan