The process of writing institutional website content cannot go through an instant process. It must be preceded by the mechanism of extracting and checking facts in the style of journalistic practice. This process is also known as the reporting process.
Reportage is the backbone of making news by collecting, digging, and seeking information. The information sought must be based on the facts of the event. “The condition for information to be considered news is when the facts extracted can be proven to be true,” said Rifqi Sasmita, Public Relations staff of the Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) in the Website Management Workshop “Website Content Updating” on Thursday, August 5, 2021.
The workshop held by UII Public Relations was originally carried out for the launch of UWA (UII Website Appreciation) 2021 and the preparation of websites within UII.
Rifqi Sasmita said that all information that will be written into the news must be checked for the truth. This is done by verifying and testing the information with the main questions of journalism in the 5W+1H questions.
Before checking facts, gathering facts must also be done in three ways. First, the observations of journalists who were present directly in the event. Everything obtained by the five senses can be observed. It can be seen, heard, touched, felt, and tasted.
The second way of gathering facts is by interviewing. This is done if you want to know the background of the story, the causes of events, and the plot that cannot be obtained from observation. “While the last one is collecting facts from written documents or also known as documentation research,” said Rifqi.
If all the facts and data have been collected, news writing can be done. News writers should avoid the repetition of words and compound sentence structures. “Paragraphs should also not be too long and do not include personal opinions,” concluded Rifqi.