Sensationalism vs. Objective Reporting
News writing must present facts neutrally, avoiding drama, hype, or taking sides:
- Emotional Adjectives: Words like horrific, brilliant, or disastrous tell the reader how to feel about a fact, rather than letting the fact speak for itself. Use neutral equivalents like severe, effective, or damaging.
- Exaggerated Verbs: Clickbait sites use words like slams, blasts, or rips to make political disagreements sound like boxing matches. Objective journalism uses precise, descriptive verbs like criticized, rejected, or opposed.
- Unwarranted Absolutes: Words like clearly or obviously imply consensus where none may exist. It is more objective to state the facts directly (e.g. The report states...) rather than telling readers that something is obvious.