McDaniel College Budapest
ENG 1103 Introduction to Journalism
Spring 2007

Instructor: Jacob Doyle
Email: Jacob@bbj.hu
Mobile: 06 30 233 5318

Day 5 - Pitches and Angles

1. Considering a pitch

• Finding a topic

• Follow the news in and out of your sector (what’s being covered, what’s not)

• Talk with your sources, talk with your editor (hot topics, available space, etc.)

• Look for leads

• When is a lead ready to become a pitch?

2. Before making a pitch, consider the following:

• What are the unanswered questions? Are there enough to warrant an investigation and a story?

• What are the unanswered questions presented by the news summary below:

Unity government won’t recognize Israel

GAZA (Reuters) - A new Palestinian unity government to be formed after a deal in Mecca between rival Fateh and Hamas factions will not recognize Israel, a political adviser to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Saturday.

Ahmed Youssef said the unity government, which he expected Haniyeh to unveil within 10 days, would 'respect' previous Palestinian peace accords with Israel but would not be committed to them, nor to recognizing the Jewish state.

2.1 Do you have sources and access to find answers in time to assemble a story before deadline?
o Number of potential sources
o Time requirements: interviews, confirmations, writing
o Additional requirements: photos, follow-ups, etc.
o Back-up plan

Tip: Make multiple pitches. If your editor or news-team rejects one, you have others to fall back on.

• Samples:
o A new office building has remained unoccupied for 14 months since its completion. Why? What happened? Who’s responsible? What’s going to happen? Who’s been affected?
o Clothing in Hungary has recently started featuring brighter colors, in particular red and yellow. Do statistics support this? Where are such colorful clothes being sold? What brands and designers are leading this trend? What do consumers think?
o Budapest is home to many foreign embassies, most if not all of which contain commercial sections. What are the main activities of these commercial sections, especially Hungary’s lead trading partners? How do the activities of different embassies compare? Do they ever work together?


3. Developing an angle

Once you have made initial contact with your sources, have your interviews lined up and have done enough background research to formulate a basic plan for the article, you are ready to write an angle.

See diagram at top of entry.

The below incomplete bit of news will be the basis of "angle" that follows it.

It is known that Hamas and Fatah agreed in Mecca to form a unity government, it will grant non-committal “respect” to past pacts with Israel, but will not recognize Israel.

It is unknown what is meant by “respect”, nor is it known whether this “respect” will be enough for Israel to lift blocks on revenue transfers to the Palestine Authority (PA) and other restrictions. Also unknown is whether the government will relinquish Hamas’ charter which includes both the denial of Israel and advocates violent means to undermine Israel. Moreover, the makeup of the new government, e.g. which party will control which ministries, is also unknown.

The article will explore the consequences of the Mecca accord on the PA’s relationship with Israel as well as the eventual structure and character of the new unity government set in motion by the agreement between two Palestinian factions. The content of the article will derive from interviews with PA and Israeli officials and well as independent sources.

In an actual angle, your editor would probably want to know exactly who your planned sources and you would need to know how to contact them.

Construct an angle based on the following news briefs.

Protest against closing of Dist 6 primary school

Some 150 students, parents and teachers held a demonstration yesterday outside the District 6 local council which was about to make a decision on closing the school. The Vörösmarty Primary School was not on the original list of two out of the district's six primary schools to be shut down because of low student numbers, the school's headmaster Orsolya Takács said. "We recently heard rumors that the council has replaced one of the two schools on the list with Vörösmarty," she said. The school was founded by Hungary's 150-year-old Scottish Mission and it runs an enhanced English and Mathematics module, and a specialized program for dyslexic children. It also houses the country’s only Church of Scotland chapel. The school currently has 268 pupils. (Bloomberg)

Shots fired at Budapest Mosque

Unidentified persons fired several shots at the Budapest mosque of the Hungarian Islamic Community. The small-caliber guns broke two windows, but there was nobody in the hall and there was no personal injury. The community had been threatened over the phone several times earlier, and had received a message, written on the door, saying “You shall all die!” (MH 24)


4. Assignment: Develop 1 to 3 pitches for articles to present at the first news-team meeting to be held at the beginning of Wednesday’s class.