Wednesday, June 4, 2014

News jargon, explained



The following is a (rather incomplete) list of  news terms, loosely based on the Newspaper Journalism Glossary, but horribly and/or better explained by yours truly because why not. So without further introduction, here's a bunch of words.

* Agate: A type size that cannot be read by humans.

* All Caps: Website comments' default setting.

* Advertorial: Or Native Advertising online, a form of writing that usually tells people about the awesomeness of Scientology.

* AP: A wire service that moves a story after everyone else is done tweeting about it.



* Background: What a reporter copy-pastes into a new story from his/her previous story.

* Beat: Covering a story enough times that your sources feel very comfortable screaming obscenities at you.

* Bias: A story that's not slanted the way you wanted.

* Blogger: A derogatory term used to insult other journalists.

* Brief: Re-purposed news release.

* Budget: Story ideas. It's not like news organizations have any money.

* Byline: The name of the writer of the story that no reader has noticed.

* Caption: The space under a photo where editors put typos.

* Circulation: An arrow going down.

* Column:  In print, Old people writing things they don't understand; Online: bloggers insulting the olds.

* Conflict of Interest: White House Correspondents Dinner.

* Copy Desk: Fictitious place in a newsroom.

* Cover Story:  The one story that had art.

* Credibility: What journalists are accused of not having.

* Dateline: The location a journalist puts at the beginning of the story even though he/she was not really there.

* Deadline: A specific time where stories are not filed.

* Direct Quote: Misquote.

* Draft: Hieroglyphics.

* Editor: Angry White Man.

* Embargo: Bulls***

* Flash: A link you clicked on that has nothing but what the headline already told you.

* Follow-up:  What should have been done.

* Freelancer: Reporter without health insurance.

* Headline: The main spot to put typos. Usually starts with, 'Your Not Going To Believe What ..'

* Inverted Pyramid: A type of story structure now replaced by listicles.

* Investigative Journalism: HAHAHAHAHAHA you're funny.

* Journalist: Blogger.

* Jump: The part of the story where everyone stops reading.

* Kerning: What editors use to fit 100 words in two lines in a column.

* Kicker: A word or words that usually goes on top of a headline that editors consider utterly unnecessary but it's there by design, so whatchagonnado?

* Kill Fee: What's going to happen to that story you worked so hard on.

* Layout: Something done not in your newsroom anymore.

* Lead or Lede: It's too long. Make it shorter.

* Masthead: The space on the front page where there's a sticker ad.

* Mug: The worst possible photo of a person that will become the only photo that is used for that person.

* Nut Graf: A hastily written sentence that mischaracterizes the story that follows.

* Objectivity: See 'Bias.'

* Off the Record: Everything that's true that's the complete opposite of what they just told you on the record.

* On the Record: "No comment."

* Paraphrase: What a reporter writes when she/he can't decipher his/her own notes.

* Pica pole: Device used by copy-editors to threaten others.

* Pitch: A story idea that will be rejected.

* Proof: Doesn't happen.

* Reefer or Refer: A column by Maureen Dowd.

* Revision: Stories that were corrected but there's no mention of the correction and the editor hopes nobody notices it but people already screen-grabbed it.

* Scoop: Likely inconsequential, if true.

* Sidebar: Information reporters didn't know how to fit in a story, so they wrote another one.

* Skybox: A promo that will look horribly insensitive juxtaposed to the ad next to it.

* Slug: A word used to describe the story that the reporter didn't actually used when filing the story and now nobody can find it in the CMS.

* Source:  Person saying things.

* Subhead: Smaller typos.

* Tip:  Deleted emails.


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