Wikinews:Story preparation
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READERS BEWARE: All stories below are possibly false, unverified or incorrect - this is a development area for news events that have not yet occurred. |
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Many major events are expected, e.g.: the launch of a new product/film/book, a major sporting event, a court case, an election, or the death of a notable person. The stories we publish at these events are often made up largely of background information that is available before the event. Examples include:
- German Cardinal Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI
- Future British monarch Prince Charles marries Camilla Parker Bowles
- Pope John Paul II dies
- Results of 2005 United Kingdom General Election
- Results of 2005 British Columbia, Canada General Election
- Wikipedia founder embroiled in affair and financial allegations
- Media reports exaggerate cell phone cancer risk
- Soyuz TMA-12 launches
- NHL: Detroit wins the 2008 Stanley Cup
Story preparation is a common practice in news media and quite essential to ensure rapid delivery of the story. However there have been mistakes in the past by major media (notably with US presidential election results. Example: DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN)
We also have prewritten obituaries to enable a quick reaction when notable persons pass away. While it may appear tasteless it too is common practice in the news media and because of Wikinews' open editing nature you are able to see them.
Story preparation helps to eliminate duplication of effort. Editors can collaborate on a single, common, prepared story rather than working separately on multiple, private, prepared stories.
Story preparation allows quick response. In the event of a story having two possible outcomes - e.g. a football match or election - writers can prepare two stories for the event.
Before participating in story preparation please note:
- No story developed here is to be published until an official announcement has been made by the parties involved/or a respectable source is found.
- Please affix the {{prepare}} tag to the top of any prepared stories.
- When adding categories, please place a colon (:) before the word Category, we don't want readers to come across the story when checking looking through the categories. Remove this when actually publishing.
- When creating a story please develop it as a subpage to this page e.g. Wikinews:Story preparation/European Constitution Referendum in Portugal.
- When adding to the list, specific events happening sooner go near the top, under the Specific events section (except for obituaries). For obituaries or non-specific events, such as eyewitness reports, place them into the correct section, or create a new one for it.
- When publishing a story, rename the article to the main article namespace. Don't copy&paste it. This is important, because renaming a page conserves its history.
[edit] Specific events
- /Mayan "Doomsday" passes without ill effect
- /Last U.S. World War One Veteran Dies
- /Osama Bin Laden sentenced to death
- /Wikinews turns 5 -- November 8, 2009
- /2009 AFL Grand Final
- /British soap opera Coronation Street celebrates 50 years on air -- December 10, 2010
- /US Supreme Court hears Bilski patent case (November 9, 2009)
[edit] Interview preparations
Please see WN:SOON for the stories we're preparing for the upcoming week.
[edit] Pending sources
For when the sources has not yet been printed/published/shown/released.
[edit] Article templates
- Tropical Storm X forms over Y: Template for next storm upgrade.
[edit] Obituaries
- See subpage Obituaries
