NTU MUN 2006 - Press Corps

Team

Director : Ketki Rajiv Madane

Assistant Director : Pramoda Dei Sudarno

Editors : Malvika, Juliana June Rasul

Writers : Sharada Devi, Tanu Sinha, Nur Firdaus Firoz, Mamta Kumar, Nicole van Cuylenburg.

 

What is Press Corps?

Press Corps in NTU is a body of writers and broadcasters who come together and act as the media for the Model United Nations. Our job is to attend council sessions, take notes of what is going on and create a comprehensive publication about the day’s events. Conventionally, press corps only incorporates writers and article editors, but this year, we have added a broadcast team, which will be recording each session and finally producing a final video. Every member of press corps has to remember that he or she must not exhibit passivity and instead, show initiative and the desire to gather statements and information from the various delegates while at the same time, not appearing intimidating. Whether or not you are an aspiring journalist, the opportunity to analyze and report hard and soft stories can be developed through genuine interest, hard work and initiative. At the end of the day, the experience gained is invaluable.

 

Presentation

  1. Every Press Corps delegate must be impeccably attired at all times. Clothes must be completely formal, not semi-formal and definitely not casual. If you need help with wardrobe selection, ask a fashion conscious friend to assist you.
  2. Dark and somber colors are preferred but if you wake up in an unusually cheerful mood on that Saturday morning and feel like wearing something bright, please do not even think about wearing red or yellow. Pink and blue are always welcome, but make sure that the shades are classy. I do not want Press Corps to look like a bunch of aunties at a kitty party with bright and tacky clothes.
  3. If you have a wild mane, please tie up your hair in a bun or a tight ponytail. I do not want to see loose hair sticking out of buns or ponytails and if your hair is still unmanageable, I suggest you carry a bottle of hairspray in your bag.
  4. If your hair is a wild color, I do not really care, just as long as it is neat and presentable.
  5. Make up is mandatory because it contributes to the overall personality. If you have a nice outfit, pretty shoes and no make up, it looks incomplete. Please do not overdo the make up bit – some loose powder, concealer, gloss and liner always does the trick.
  6. If you sport tattoos and are afraid that I might have objections, do not worry. Show them off by all means, just as long as you do not wearing anything too revealing, which means no flashing of the bellybutton, extremely low tops and micromini skirts.
  7. I want the Press Corps to be taken seriously. When you walk up to the delegate to interview him or her, walk confidently with a good posture. Speak clearly! If you are nervous, chew on some gum to control it, but make sure you spit it out before you begin your interview.
  8. Keep breath mints with you at all times. This is an absolute must.

 

WRITERS

What is expected of the Press Corps writing team:

There will always be something to write about. Do not hover about like a headless chicken waiting for instructions from me or one of the editors for what to do next. If you are unsure about which council session you are to be covering, approach us and we will gladly assist you. If you are doing a color story, it is expected of you to show even more initiative in covering it, as well as adding a mildly colloquial tone to give it something extra. Those doing color stories will be required to come up with their own ideas and pitch them a week (no lesser) before Model United Nations commences. Innovativeness is always encouraged, and this can be carried out in the form of anecdotes, wit, jokes and the greatly appreciated – sarcasm.

 

Some things to remember:

 Leads

The most important part of your article is the lead, which is basically, the very first paragraph and a summary of the entire article. Depending on its construction, the reader can choose whether he or she wants to continue reading or not. Remember your 5 Ws and 1 H – Who, What, Why, When, Where and How?

Try to squeeze in at least four of these into your lead.

Although it sounds terribly difficult to fit an entire story into one paragraph, you must remember not to make it too crowded and rather write it in a way that it should tell enough to answer the reader’s major questions in an interesting and efficient manner.

However, there is also the option of a special lead, where you can start your article with an anecdote, a quote or even a question. The anecdotal lead is most popular when writing a feature article because it draws people into the story by starting right where the action is.

 

Some examples of summary leads are as follows:

 

  1. Defeatism may have its partisan uses, but it is not justified by the facts. That was George Bush’s pre-Christmas, message, televised on Sunday December 18 th. “Not only can we win the war in Iraq, we are winning the war in Iraq.” (The Economist, ‘George Bush and the War on Terror’, December 20, 2005)
  2. A surveillance program approved by President Bush to conduct eavesdropping without warrants has captured what are purely domestic communications in some cases, despite a requirement by the White House that one end of the intercepted take place on foreign soil, officials say. (The International Herald Tribune, ‘Spying Program Snared US Calls’, December 21, 2005)
  3. BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday accused the Congress of conspiring to defame the MPs through various sting operations with the aim of diverting peoples’ attention from its own failures. (The Times of India, ‘Cong Trying to Defame MPs: Naqvi’, December 21, 2005)
  4. A ban on bird fairs, sales, pigeon racing and falconry events imposed when avian flu was discovered in Europe has been lifted, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said yesterday. (The Guardian, ‘Ban on Bird Fairs Lifted After Avian Flu Scare’, December 21, 2005)

 

Some examples of special leads are as follows:

 

  1. It is once again that time of the year when leading British actors camp around on stage dressed as bossy old women telling risqué jokes, while leggy actresses wear tights to portray men.(International Herald Tribune, ‘Entr’acte: Want to draw a crowd? Try some tasteless art’, December 21, 2005)
  2. They call it "a photographic conversation," and the result is a book for every fashionista to lust for in her Xmas stocking. "Blahnik by Boman" (Thames & Hudson), with its shoe trailing a peacock tail through a shrubbery or its purple suede boot spilling over with lilac blooms, has an atomic sexual charge and a luscious sense of decoration. (International Herald Tribune, ‘A coffee-table book on Blahnik, a page-turner that makes shoes bloom’, December 19, 2005)
  3. Thin, dark-haired and dressed entirely in black, the Belgian fashion designer ValerieBarkowski cuts a Ninja-like figure against the racks or red-orange-purple ethno-chic garments in her Right Bank boutique, Mia Zia (The New York Times, ‘In the Heart of Paris, an African Beat’, December 18, 2005)
  4. Fatimah Bamun dropped out of Balizenda Primary School in the first grade, more than three years ago, when her father refused to buy her pencils and paper. Only after teachers convinced him that his daughter showed unusual promise did he relent. Today Fatimah, 14, tall and slender, studies math and Amharic, Ethiopia's official language, in a dirt-floored fourth-grade classroom. (The International Herald Tribune, ‘For girls in Africa, education is an uphill fight’, December 22, 2005)

 

 

 

Robert Gunning’s Ten Principles of Clear Writing

  1. Keep sentences short, on the average.
    1. Not every sentence should be either short or long. Keep varying the length of the sentences because you would not want to torture your reader with a constant flow of short sentences as this tends to create a very staccato-ish feel to the article. On the other hand, long sentences will cause the reader to re-read the article so that he or she will be able to digest what is going on.
    2. For example
  1. Prefer simple to the complex.
  1. Prefer the familiar word.
    1. Big words help you organize your thoughts but in putting your message across, you must relate your thoughts to the other fellow’s experience. The short and easy words do the job best.
    2. An example of a lead that carries big words can be, ‘Tempestuous weather spanned the nation Tuesday as record snow and freezing temperatures swept out of the Rockies into the Plains.’
    3. Remember, we are writing for a huge group of people, and not everybody has the same comfort level regarding language. A better lead will be, ‘Winter-like weather spanned the nation Tuesday as record snow and freezing temperatures swept out of the Rockies into the Plains.’
  2. Avoid unnecessary words.
    1. Nobody likes to read long sentences crammed with unnecessary words because it kills the message. Remember, delivery is everything. Read the article over a few times and be your own critic. Try to cut down on any unnecessary words to keep it short and readable.
    2. The following example is ideal of what it should not be. ‘One of the primary aims of the extremely new master’s degree program, which will offer an innovative curriculum not now available to the area’s population, will be to draw them back into postgraduate education to improve their communication skills.’
    3. Cutting down this same sentence can greatly increase relevance, clarity and readability. ‘A primary aim of the new master’s degree program, which will offer a curriculum currently available to area residents, is to improve communication skills.’
  3. Put action into your verbs.
    1. Use active voice instead of passive voice because it is considered more direct and vigorous.
    2. ‘An explosion triggered the avalanche’ holds more oomph than ‘The avalanche was caused by an explosion.’
  4. Write the way you talk.
    1. It will be preferred if you avoid a formal tone because this may create a sense of detachment on behalf of the readers. \
    2. For example, ‘Buddy Wesley grimaced s he looked at the mess the tornado had made of his cherished antebellum home.’
  5. Use terms your reader can picture.
    1. Not everybody is familiar with one particular term you may wish to use and this will generate quite a bit of confusion. The last thing you really want is readers coming up to you and asking you what you exactly meant by a ‘Celtic neodruid pagan’.
    2. Also, try to use words that create a proper picture for the reader instead of leaving them guessing. Ambiguity can lead to misinterpretation, and we do not want to be held liable for any misinformation.
    3. ‘ Nigeria is hot, crowded and noisy. Totems of its culture are hard work and armed robbery, doctorates and tribal hatred, family loyalty and fast cars. Its people heap scorn upon themselves as corrupt, inefficient and self-destructive.’
  6. Tie in with your reader’s experience.
    1. Do not expect too much from the reader and it is entirely up to you to take the story in your hands, put it in a way that a reader will be able to comprehend it and fully understand how he or she is affected by it.
    2. Phrasing the story effectively will also give the readers a clearer picture of what is going on. It is best that we make everything apparent and leave as little to the imagination as possible.
  7. Make full use of variety.
    1. Every article cannot follow one set of rules. Every story is different and it is going to need a writer who exhibits flexibility and a wide vocabulary to do justice to it.
    2. This is where your own style kicks in. It is best that each of you examine your style of writing, see its novel aspects and then decide how you wish to go about writing your articles. You are not in Press Corps for nothing!
  8. Write to express, not to impress.
    1. If you focus too much on impressing your readers, then your attention will shift from trying to express yourself in the required manner. Cases like these involve journalists trying to show off their vocabulary.
    2. Whatever you do, do not ever ever ever leave the readers out in the cold. Make use of principles one to nine and number ten will surface automatically.

Interviewing  

In the case of Press Corps, you may not have enough time to arrange an appointment with the delegate you wish to interview, hence cutting the entire procedure and making things a little inconvenient. But fear not, this guide will be your savior! Even though you are not going to have the appointment making advantage, the next few paragraphs will tell you how to conduct a proper interview.

 

  1. Speak clearly and succinctly. Introduce yourself. State your name, your position in the Press Corps and a brief summary of what you are going after.
  2. Use the inverted funnel method, where you ask key questions immediately. When looking for a comment from a delegate who does not have enough time, approach him or her politely, introduce yourself, give a summary, and jump right into the main stuff. Do not waste any time on pleasantries.
  3. Plan your questions well in advance. When interviewing, ask them according to importance, but then again, do not devote too much attention to your list because that will cause the interviewee to lose interest or simply…address your notebook!
  4. If you want narrow and precise answers, something like, a “yes” or “no”, then you can ask close-ended questions. For example, “Do you agree with 99% of the other countries that the United States is being a pompous ass?” These tend to put the interviewee in a spot and sometimes he or she can become nervous and intimidated, which will not work well towards your advantage.
  5. If you want more in-depth material, then perhaps you can try asking open-ended questions. These are recommended since they reveal more and make the interviewee seem less intimidated. One example can be, “In your opinion, what should the government do to reduce unemployment?”

 

Sources:

Newswriting and Reporting by Bruce D. Itule and Douglas A. Anderson

Writing for the Mass Media by James Glen Stovall

 

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