FBLA JOURNALISM EXAMINATION TEST 2025/2026
QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS MARKED A+
✔✔Read-Back - ✔✔The repetition of a message one has received, in order to
acknowledge it (ex: The reading aloud by a court reporter or stenographer of testimony
previously taken down in stenographic dictation, usually at the request of the presiding
judge or parties involved in a deposition)
✔✔Central Point - ✔✔What the story is really about, what question or questions the
story will answer to be worthwhile,
why people need or will want to know about it,
if it reflects a larger trend or theme, etc.
✔✔Wire Service - ✔✔a news agency that supplies syndicated news by wire to
newspapers, radio, and television stations
✔✔Linotype - ✔✔a composing machine producing lines of words as single strips of
metal, used chiefly for newspapers; now rarely used
✔✔AP Style - ✔✔Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law - an English
Stylebook (grammar style and usage guide) created by American journalists connected
with the Associated Press in order to achieve a way to standardize mass
communications; published in 1953, updated biennally over the next 20 years; its
simplified rules of grammar (dropping Oxford comma and using figures for all numbers
above 9) have caused corporate marketing and public relations departments to also
adopt it
✔✔Narrative Style - ✔✔used to captivate readers by drawing them into a story with
greater detail than is found in traditional news stories; is a popular format for magazines
such as The New Yorker and can be difficult to define and write
✔✔Hourglass Style - ✔✔a combination of inverted pyramid and narrative structures.
The author begins with key details (who, what, when, where, and why), and adds details
in the inverted pyramid structure; story then abruptly "turns," requiring a clear transition,
to focus on a narrative, such as the story of a specific eyewitness or party, which
addresses finer details and implications, before making its final conclusion
✔✔Focus Style - ✔✔lead (which can run for 3-5 paragraphs), anecdotal soft lead (starts
out with a small story about a person, place, or situation that exemplifies the larger
theme), the nut graf (central point of story - key theme - and how lead illustrates that
point), body (further explains central point), conclusion (wraps up story by linking insight
to focus lead)
✔✔Kicker - ✔✔A short, catchy word or phrase over a major headline
, ✔✔Content Editor - ✔✔(also called developmental editing or substantive editing), as the
name implies, involves checking the content
✔✔Managing Editor - ✔✔a senior member of a publication's management team;
typically, the managing editor (ME) reports directly to the Editor in Chief and oversees
all aspects of the publication
✔✔Executive Editor - ✔✔responsible for developing a product for its final release; the
smaller the publication, the more these roles overlap; top editor at many publications
may be known as the chief editor, executive editor, or simply the editor
✔✔News Meeting - ✔✔news conference or press conference is a media event in which
newsmakers invite journalists to hear them speak and, most often, ask questions
✔✔Direct Quotation - ✔✔in which you copy an author's words directly from the text and
use that exact wording in your essay
✔✔Indirect Quotation - ✔✔An indirect quotation is when the meaning but not the exact
words of something someone spoke is referred to - NO quotation marks; paraphrasing
✔✔Partial Quotation - ✔✔use of a direct quotation in which a middle section of the
quote has been removed; the text that has been directly quoted must be enclosed in
quotation marks and the source must be cited
✔✔Sound Bite - ✔✔a short extract from a recorded interview, chosen for its pungency
or appropriateness
✔✔Dialogue - ✔✔conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book,
play, or movie
✔✔Attribution - ✔✔to show or indicate where information in a news story comes from
✔✔In-depth Reporting - ✔✔usually refers to taking a closer look at a news event,
person or issue; would involve more than the typical number of interviews than for a
breaking news story, a deeper level of background research and might result in a longer
story that explores different aspects of the subject in greater levels of detail
✔✔FOIA - ✔✔Freedom of Information Act - a United States federal law that grants the
public access to information possessed by government agencies; government officials
are required to disclose data unless it falls under one of the nine exceptions:
Classified information - damages national security
Internal information involving personnel rules and agency practices
Material specifically shielded from disclosure by another law
Confidential commercial or financial data (trade secrets)
Records that would be privileged in litigation
QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS MARKED A+
✔✔Read-Back - ✔✔The repetition of a message one has received, in order to
acknowledge it (ex: The reading aloud by a court reporter or stenographer of testimony
previously taken down in stenographic dictation, usually at the request of the presiding
judge or parties involved in a deposition)
✔✔Central Point - ✔✔What the story is really about, what question or questions the
story will answer to be worthwhile,
why people need or will want to know about it,
if it reflects a larger trend or theme, etc.
✔✔Wire Service - ✔✔a news agency that supplies syndicated news by wire to
newspapers, radio, and television stations
✔✔Linotype - ✔✔a composing machine producing lines of words as single strips of
metal, used chiefly for newspapers; now rarely used
✔✔AP Style - ✔✔Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law - an English
Stylebook (grammar style and usage guide) created by American journalists connected
with the Associated Press in order to achieve a way to standardize mass
communications; published in 1953, updated biennally over the next 20 years; its
simplified rules of grammar (dropping Oxford comma and using figures for all numbers
above 9) have caused corporate marketing and public relations departments to also
adopt it
✔✔Narrative Style - ✔✔used to captivate readers by drawing them into a story with
greater detail than is found in traditional news stories; is a popular format for magazines
such as The New Yorker and can be difficult to define and write
✔✔Hourglass Style - ✔✔a combination of inverted pyramid and narrative structures.
The author begins with key details (who, what, when, where, and why), and adds details
in the inverted pyramid structure; story then abruptly "turns," requiring a clear transition,
to focus on a narrative, such as the story of a specific eyewitness or party, which
addresses finer details and implications, before making its final conclusion
✔✔Focus Style - ✔✔lead (which can run for 3-5 paragraphs), anecdotal soft lead (starts
out with a small story about a person, place, or situation that exemplifies the larger
theme), the nut graf (central point of story - key theme - and how lead illustrates that
point), body (further explains central point), conclusion (wraps up story by linking insight
to focus lead)
✔✔Kicker - ✔✔A short, catchy word or phrase over a major headline
, ✔✔Content Editor - ✔✔(also called developmental editing or substantive editing), as the
name implies, involves checking the content
✔✔Managing Editor - ✔✔a senior member of a publication's management team;
typically, the managing editor (ME) reports directly to the Editor in Chief and oversees
all aspects of the publication
✔✔Executive Editor - ✔✔responsible for developing a product for its final release; the
smaller the publication, the more these roles overlap; top editor at many publications
may be known as the chief editor, executive editor, or simply the editor
✔✔News Meeting - ✔✔news conference or press conference is a media event in which
newsmakers invite journalists to hear them speak and, most often, ask questions
✔✔Direct Quotation - ✔✔in which you copy an author's words directly from the text and
use that exact wording in your essay
✔✔Indirect Quotation - ✔✔An indirect quotation is when the meaning but not the exact
words of something someone spoke is referred to - NO quotation marks; paraphrasing
✔✔Partial Quotation - ✔✔use of a direct quotation in which a middle section of the
quote has been removed; the text that has been directly quoted must be enclosed in
quotation marks and the source must be cited
✔✔Sound Bite - ✔✔a short extract from a recorded interview, chosen for its pungency
or appropriateness
✔✔Dialogue - ✔✔conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book,
play, or movie
✔✔Attribution - ✔✔to show or indicate where information in a news story comes from
✔✔In-depth Reporting - ✔✔usually refers to taking a closer look at a news event,
person or issue; would involve more than the typical number of interviews than for a
breaking news story, a deeper level of background research and might result in a longer
story that explores different aspects of the subject in greater levels of detail
✔✔FOIA - ✔✔Freedom of Information Act - a United States federal law that grants the
public access to information possessed by government agencies; government officials
are required to disclose data unless it falls under one of the nine exceptions:
Classified information - damages national security
Internal information involving personnel rules and agency practices
Material specifically shielded from disclosure by another law
Confidential commercial or financial data (trade secrets)
Records that would be privileged in litigation
