A duty nurse said Soviet soldiers broke into a hospital and beat the patients with their fists. The nurse, who refused to give her name, said she
was afraid the soldiers would also shoot her.
b. The Characteristic of News
There are eight indicators or characteristics of the news as noted by Pareno 2003: 6-19, my translation. Firstly, the news is containing reports. The reports
are delivered by the reporters or journalists based on what has been said, seen or done by from informants. Secondly, the news is informative. The information can
be the form of fact gained by reporters that is delivered to the public. Then, the news must be new. A report that is made by the reporters or journalists must be
new, or currently, news that is out of date has been known by the public. Next, the news which is reported must be true. In journalistic, it is important to tell true not
truth, it means that the reporters or journalists must tell the true story based on statements of one or some figures that are admitted as related persons and have
some credible references. The story must be true in the form of fact whether in the existence or the delivery of the fact.
The other characteristic is that the news must be neutral. In order to be neutral, a reporter or a journalist must be justified. Then the report must be
factual. Further more, news must contain the news value. Some of the events that have the news value are often related to the public interest or necessity. Lastly,
news must be attractive to the public. Moreover about the characteristic of news, Miller 1969: 48-48 states that
the language of newspaper must be easy to understand, because it is read by people from any level of education and under conditions that are far from
comfortable and supporting conditions. It is also read more hurried than any other medium of communication. According to Miller 1969: 52, good news writing is
the one that has reporting sentences that go straight to the points.
c. Headline
As cited in www.wikipedia.org, a headline is text at the top of newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article below it. According to Reddick 1941:
250, there are four purposes of the headlines. One purpose of the use of the headlines is to provide a more pleasing appearance by offering a contrast between
headline type and body type. The second purpose is to classify news stories rank of importance. In the front page of the newspaper, the more important stories have
the large headlines while the unimportant stories have small headlines. The third purpose of the headlines is to present in skeleton form the most important facts of
the story. In here, the headlines must summary the important facts of the stories. The last purpose according to Reddick is to advertise the news. A headline is used
to attract our intention, arouse our interest and lead us to read the story. Reddick 1941: 256 also mentions that there are three important rules that
must be followed in writing the headlines. The firs rule is to use the historical present tense instead of the past tense. The using of present tense gives the
impression of action which is taking place now. It emphasizes the element of timeliness. In indicating the future action, the writer should use either the future
tense or and infinitive. For example, “Roosevelt Will Speak in Chicago” or “Roosevelt to Speak in Chicago”. The second rule is every deck of the headline
must have a verb either expressed or implied. And the third rule is the using of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
active voice in preference to the passive. The active voice lends vigor and life to a headline. The exception of this rule should be made only when the person or thing
acted is more important than the agent of the action. Reddick 1941: 260 states that the contents of the headlines should tell the
news as specifically and as definitely as possible, and tell as many important facts as can be jammed into the space without making the headline appears crowded.
The journalists should not editorialize in the headlines and they should write positive instead of negatives heads. And Reddick also states that the journalists
should not repeat the important words. In
the Journalism and the School Paper, Reddick also describes that the
choice of words in the headlines are also important. In the headlines, the journalist should not use the articles such as “a”, “an”, and “the”. The journalists should also
use the only the well-known abbreviations and in the using of the verbs, Reddick mentions that headlines should have a verb expressed or implied in every deck.
The using of active verbs is preferred rather than the passive voice. A headline should not begin with a verb or an infinitive when this form can be avoided and a
headline should use the specific and definite nouns, verbs, and adjectives and never general terms.
d. Headline News
Suhandang 2004: 103 defines news as a report or announcement about every actual event that attract people’s attention. The events involve facts and the
data available in the universe, and what happens must be actual, meaning to say that it has just happened or has just been discussed by public. Moreover,
Suhandang notes that news might be in the form of straight news, and feature news there is also hard news but Suhandang doesn’t mention it in his book.
Headline news, which becomes the main source of this thesis, is categorized as straight news. According to Suhadang, straight news is news that
provides fact straightly or directly to the point 2004: 104. Straight news may be in the form of fact news, which only tells primary fact, action news, which only
tells the action of the events or tells how certain events occur, and quote news, which tells some quotations from what the figures involved in certain events said.
Headline news is always shown in main page of the newspaper because headline news is the most important story of today’s newspaper Reddick, 1941:
250. As the most important story of today’s newspaper, headline news has the largest headline on the page. Based on Reddick, the more important stories have
the large headlines while the unimportant stories have small headlines 1941: 250.
According to Mott 1969: 249 the nature of the modern press, particularly the newspaper, emphasizes certain requisites of illustrative art. Headline news, as
one of the most important story of today’s newspaper, requires a picture as the illustration of the event which is told in the news story and also caption to
describe what the picture is. Mott also noted that the illustration is designed to tell a story. Illustration of any kind fails of its purpose if it doesn’t tell or contribute to
a story. The picture which is used by the press generally deal with incidents, and even an illustration which is reproduced because of its artistic worth should have
story value as well 1969: 249 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
