Inquiry | Article Impact: Sources, Speech and Reporting

This brief article gains impact from the sources, speech and reporting used within it.

The source is given attribution early in the article and his position (Senior Constable from the Crime Prevention Unit) implies the information given is reliable and credible.

The direct speech quote that follows the Senior Constable’s introduction speaks to the local impact this issue has and provides news value in the form of proximity to the local community, Mackay.

The direct quote also encompasses the ‘how’ of the situation and adds information value to the story.  The writer is not simply including quotes because they can, or want to.

The remainder of the article is brief but details where and how fraudsters can obtain your personal details.  In this sense it also provides the audience with a method of protecting themselves from becoming victims of such crimes.

In re-reading the article and completing this analysis I have come to the conclusion that this story was most likely created from a media release issued by the Queensland Police Service.

Senior Constable Steve Smith is regularly featured on local media and is a spokesperson for his organisation.

The article begins with a passive lead ‘Mackay residents are being warned…’ rather than the active, ‘local woman discovers identity stolen while preparing tax return’.  This phrasing makes it sound like the message is coming from someone other than the media outlet.

The piece is very heavily skewed to communicate the key messages of the police: this is happening, it’s happening in our area and unless you are vigilant, it could happen to you.

The reason that ABC most likely published the article, without correction or much amendment, is because it’s a newsworthy piece of information that could very likely impact their audience.

The lack of ‘reporting’ i.e. looking for other angles, trying to frame messages in a different way, providing the opposing view, assists the reader in identifying the key messages and digesting the article.

It is simple, succinct and easy to read and digest.

References

Maddison, M 2015, ‘Identity theft cases in Mackay, Mornabah spark online security warning’, ABC, 07 August, viewed 13 August 2015, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-07/identity-theft-cases-in-mackay-spark-online-security-warning/6679748

Technical: Complete Quiz 5A (reporting Speeck) and Quiz 5B (Figures)

I found this week’s quizzes to be informative, but not overwhelming.

If took me a couple of attempts to get all of the answers correct and this helped to highlight the areas I should focus on.

There is a lot of technical variance when it comes to writing, so I am sure I will be keeping my ‘english for journalists’ very close over the coming weeks as we begin to write our final assessment piece.