Terms That You Only Hear in the Newsroom
When I first got a cellphone in middle school, our teachers and parents were very adamant that we practice proper grammar rules, not only on our English papers, but when we sent a text message as well. But just like every other teenager, I got into the habit of abbreviating almost everything. This was a time when we had flip phones so no qwerty keyboard.
Now I find myself using abbreviations and acronyms and is acceptable in the working world to do so. From measuring and tracking your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) until the COB (Close of Business), these terms seem to be used across a vast majority of industries.
Within each industry there is a certain amount of technical jargon that only make sense to those that work in that field. Some of the coolest terms, in my opinion, come from the journalism industry.
Here are a few cool terms that only make sense in the newsroom:
- Head – Short for headline which is the title of a story
- Deck – This one is less obvious, but it is the sub-heading
- Lede – The opening sentence or paragraph of an article
- Graf – Or maybe you have heard it as nut graf which is a paragraph or section of a story
- Slug – A line in the beginning of a story that states the main key points of the article
- Copy – A noun (not a verb) for the content of a news article
- Beat – Specific topics that reporters cover
- Dateline – No, not the TV show. The date and city where the news is taking place or being reported
- Byline – The author of the post. Not to be confused with a bylined article.
- AP – AP Style which is basically the bible for journalists. This guidebook is used to keep copy clear and consistent across news platforms.
