The Importance of Language in Journalism

The way a reporter uses language has a significant impact on the way that the information is percieved. For example, a reporter for a newspaper. A formal-style of writing would be unneccessary because the goal is to cut out any flowery words and to simply cut to the hard facts. It's best to put yourself in the reader's shoes and think, "What would I want to read?" Many people don't have time in their busy schedules to search through an article for a particular fact, so all important information needs to be clear and accessable.

The best advice I was ever given in journalism was to write as if I were talking to a friend. This "casual" language gets the information across, and builds a sense of trust between the reader and the author. In some cases, there may be a limited amount of room in a newspaper for a story. That space would need to be utilized by cutting to the chase and reporting on only the most important information.

Another important tool in relevance to language, is the inverted pyramid. The inverted pyramid was designed to prioritize vital information of a news story, to keep the interest of the readers. A standard inverted pyramid newspaper should be designed as follows: