30 UMPSA Library staff attended effective news writing techniques session - 4th July 2025
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PEKAN, 4 July 2025 – A total of 30 staff from the Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah (UMPSA) Library participated in the Knowledge Sharing and Practical Session, ‘Program Perkongsian Ilmu dan Praktikal: Berita atau Laporan? Bezakan dan Biasakan yang Betul’ to deepen their effective news writing skills and techniques.
The program organized by the Knowledge Management Unit, UMPSA Library, was held at the Executive Lounge, UMPSA Pekan Library and conducted by the Manager, Corporate Communications Center (PKK), Puan Safriza Baharuddin, who has 25 years of experience in the field of publishing and writing.
According to Puan Safriza, in news writing, the inverted pyramid method is often used because through it the most important information is written first and followed by less important information.
“Information with high news value is placed at the beginning of the news, information with low news value is placed at the end of the news.
“The purpose of structured news writing is to ensure that readers receive information in an organized, fast and indirectly makes it easier for editors to identify less important paragraphs during the news editing process.
“News headlines need to be short, interesting, clear and able to attract the reader’s attention,” she said.
She added that news writing also needs to answer the questions of the 5W + 1H elements - What, Where, When, Why, Who and How, to further streamline the news content so that it is complete and concise.
“The language used should also be easy to understand, concise and avoid using long and rambling sentences,” she said.
Safriza said, AI (Artificial Intelligence) news is not real journalism. “I do not deny that the use of AI in the world of journalism has many benefits such as fast information searches, interview transcripts and so on.
“However, my concern is that if it is used excessively, it can cause the loss of the human touch in news writing.
“It is like there is no soul and the news will have no authenticity and creativity,” she stressed.
She said, AI technology should be seen as a complement to help us find information and not a substitute for the journalistic profession.
Throughout the session, she also shared news writing based on the main elements, namely types of news, writing structure, specific terms and also common mistakes that often occur in news writing.
According to UMPSA Deputy Chief Librarian, Noorul Farina Arifin, this program is beneficial for the staff and it is encouraged for all participants, especially Assistant Librarians, to learn how to write news correctly.
Meanwhile, Assistant Librarian, Wan Rosnur Irma Wan Mohamad said that this session was very good as it clearly showed the correct technique of writing news and ways to process it effectively.
“I hope to be able to write news more effectively and with more impact after completing this session,” she said.
The half-day program continued with the presentation of the results of each group’s discussion with reviews and comments from the speakers.
Head of the Knowledge Management Unit, UMPSA Library and program manager, Amelia Hasan hoped that this session could improve the writing style of library staff to university level with a professional writing style.
Original source
Original source
Translated by:
Cik Ratna Wilis Haryati Mustapa,
Pembantu Pustakawan Kanan Tertinggi