News Item Compiled by Wahju Indrawati, Jombang

  NEWS ITEM, Compiled by Wahju Indrawati ,Jombang

   NEWS ITEM

THE GENERIC STRUCTURE OF NEWS ITEM  :

            1.         The main event

2.         Background of the event : further  elaboration about  the events, people who are involved, the place, etc.

3.         The source of information : the witness’s and/or expert’s opinion     toward the event, etc.

THE LANGUAGE FEATURES OF NEWS ITEM :

            1.         Focusing on certain person, animal or thing

            2.         Using action verbs, e.g. eat, run

            3.         Using adverb of time and place

            4.         Using past tense

            5.         Arranging the events in chronological order 

A MODEL OF NEWS ITEM

Town ‘Contaminated’

Moscow – A Russian journalist has uncovered evidence of another Soviet nuclear catastrophe, which killed 10 sailors and contaminated an entire town. (Main Event )

Yelena Vazrshavskya is the first journalist to speak to people who witnessed the explosion of a nuclear submarine at the naval base of shkotovo – 22 near Vladivostock.

The accident, which occurred 13 months before the Chernobyl disaster, spread radioactive fall-out over the base and nearby town, but was covered  up by officials of the then Soviet Union. Residents were told the explosion in the reactor of the Victor-class submarine during a refit had been a ‘thermal’ and not a nuclear explosion. And those involved in the clean up operation to remove more than 600 tones of contaminated material were sworn to secrecy. ( Background of the event )

A board of investigators was later to describe it as the worst accident in the history of the Soviet Navy. ( Source of Information )