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Social Studies 5: Reporting 101 19 Views
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Description:
Today we'll learn about the five W's and how and how they're important to reporters. Yes, you read that sentence correctly.
Transcript
- 00:04
[Coop and Dino singing]
- 00:13
Anyone who’s ever been in trouble with their parents before should be familiar with the 5Ws and 1H. [Parents lecturing young boy]
- 00:19
Y'know…
- 00:19
"Who ate the entire box of chocolate chip cookies?
- 00:23
What were you thinking when you jumped into the pool from the roof? [Mom shouting at boy in hospital bed]
Full Transcript
- 00:26
Where did you put the remote??
- 00:30
When did I tell you to be home from school? [Boy walks in through front door and Mom shouts]
- 00:32
Why would you eat three tubs of ice cream in one sitting?
- 00:36
And how in the world did you get your head stuck in the railing?"
- 00:39
But the 5Ws and 1H aren't just good for parenting – they're Reporting 101.
- 00:44
Newspaper articles can be written to inform, persuade, or entertain – but our focus today
- 00:49
is on informational writing. [Coop discussing informational writing]
- 00:51
When a journalist is writing an article in order to educate and inform the reader, they're
- 00:55
writing “informational writing.”
- 00:57
Which means that they’ll always start with the same six questions.
- 01:00
First comes who, as in “Who is the story about?” [Man giving speech outside of Congress]
- 01:03
Is it a politician? A citizen? Your kooky aunt Mabel?
- 01:08
Informational articles are often about people and their actions, so knowing who we're talking
- 01:11
about is pretty important. Next comes what. “What happened in this
- 01:16
story?”
- 01:17
Did the politician pass a bill? Did a citizen find something weird in their hamburger? Did [Politician holding a bill and people raise their arms]
- 01:23
Aunt Mabel add a tenth cat to her collection?
- 01:26
If a story was a sandwich, “what” would be the meat. You gotta know what happened.
- 01:31
Next comes where. This one asks where the story takes place.
- 01:35
Where did the politican's bill get passed? Where did they buy the hamburger with a fake
- 01:40
eyeball in it? Where the heck is Mabel going to find space for that darn cat? [Cat sat on a bed and Mabel wonders where to find space]
- 01:45
Where is super important. The reader needs to know if the sinkhole is on the other side
- 01:49
of the world… or in their backyard. After that comes when. [Man falls into sink hole]
- 01:53
Whether you're trying to figure out when the bill comes into effect, when the fake eyeball
- 01:57
could have found its way into the hamburger, or when Mabel found time to buy a new cat [Mabel driving a car]
- 02:01
between taking care of the nine other cats, people need to know if the story is recent
- 02:05
or not.
- 02:05
Who cares if the lottery happened a year ago? We want to know about the one that’s about
- 02:10
to happen and is about to make us billionaires! Next up is “why?” This one is super important,
- 02:16
because it's when the writer explains why something is important to the reader.
- 02:20
Why did the bill get passed and why does it affect everyone? Why did the fake eyeball [A hamburger and a plate of fake eyeballs]
- 02:25
end up there? And why does Mabel need all of those cats, anyway?
- 02:29
So those are our five Ws, which leaves us with our 1H, “How.”
- 02:33
“How” is kind of a catch-all question that allows the writer to cover any other [Coop discussing how]
- 02:37
important details they might have missed.
- 02:39
How did any of this happen? How might it happen to you? How in the world isn't there a law
- 02:44
preventing women named Mabel from owning more than a set number of cats? [Mabel holding a cat and politician holds up a bill]
- 02:49
How allows the reader to go into detail and explain things further, and we all love details…
- 02:54
…almost as much as Mabel loves cats.
- 02:56
So there you have it – the 5Ws and 1H to reporting!
- 02:59
Now if you'll excuse us, we have some kitty litter to change. What a clawful situation. [Kitty litter in a bathroom and Mabel walks in]
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