The document discusses the key components of writing a news lead or introduction paragraph. It defines the lead as the opening paragraph that summarizes the main facts of the news story. It then differentiates two main categories for classifying different types of leads - the 5Ws and 1H approach as well as single element and summary leads. The document emphasizes that journalists should think carefully about how to present the most important facts of a news story in the lead in order to capture readers' attention.
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The document discusses the key components of writing a news lead or introduction paragraph. It defines the lead as the opening paragraph that summarizes the main facts of the news story. It then differentiates two main categories for classifying different types of leads - the 5Ws and 1H approach as well as single element and summary leads. The document emphasizes that journalists should think carefully about how to present the most important facts of a news story in the lead in order to capture readers' attention.
The document discusses the key components of writing a news lead or introduction paragraph. It defines the lead as the opening paragraph that summarizes the main facts of the news story. It then differentiates two main categories for classifying different types of leads - the 5Ws and 1H approach as well as single element and summary leads. The document emphasizes that journalists should think carefully about how to present the most important facts of a news story in the lead in order to capture readers' attention.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
The document discusses the key components of writing a news lead or introduction paragraph. It defines the lead as the opening paragraph that summarizes the main facts of the news story. It then differentiates two main categories for classifying different types of leads - the 5Ws and 1H approach as well as single element and summary leads. The document emphasizes that journalists should think carefully about how to present the most important facts of a news story in the lead in order to capture readers' attention.
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BASIC JOURNALISM
Topic 4 News Lead
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
Define what is a lead;
Differentiate the various types of lead; and
Explain the various ways to write a lead.
INTRODUCTION In journalism terms, the first paragraph of a news story is called the lead (pronounced as leed).
The lead is also called the intro. The
purpose of the lead is to reveal the content of the news to the readers as quickly as possible.
The lead has to entice the readers to
continue reading the story until the end. The lead or the intro refers to the first paragraph in a news story.
Itis the most important component of a
news story.
The lead is defined as the opening
paragraph of a news item.
InNews stories, the lead summarises the
main facts.
4.1 THE LEAD
The lead summarises the news story.
The lead answers a basic question: What is
the story all about? Most news stories that appear in the media are written in this way. The second paragraph of the news story explains further the subject matter that is raised in the first paragraph. The lead refers not only to the first paragraph but it can be used to denote other things to journalists.
The lead in this instance is also used to
refer to the main idea of a story. Because of this you will find that an editor will often ask the question: “What is the lead of the story?” The editor is expecting that you will give a quick summary of the story. The word lead can be used as an idea for a news story.
You would use the word to ask your source:
“Do you have a lead for a news story?” You are expecting the source to convey something new that can be explored further as news. Dateline The dateline usually consists of two pieces of information: -the name of a town or city; and -a date (In some newspapers, the date is replaced by a day in a week).
To journalists on the ground, the dateline
informs the editor where and when the story was filed. To mass media audience, the dateline serves to tell where and when an event took place.
4.2 THE DATELINE
Determining the name of the town in the Dateline. In determining the name of the town to be included in the dateline, there are three guidelines you should used as follows:
Choose a town or city that is easily recognisable
KOTA BARU, Tues. – Police have detained a couple
in connection with the death of a 14-month-old infant believed to have been a victim of child abuse.
(New Straits Times, January 29, 2003)
Similar name of major towns. You will notice that the names of some of the major towns in Malaysia are used in two states, for example Kepala Batas is found in Penang and Kedah. Serdang is another name that is also found in Selangor and Kedah. Under such circumstances, you should use the name of the town followed by the name of the state in the dateline.
The dateline will be written as follows:
KEPALA BATAS, Kedah or KEPALA BATAS, Penang Exception to the rule for United Nations The name of the state is written in the dateline so as not to confuse the audience about the geographical location of the event. There is however an exception to the rule for using the name of a major town or city in the lead. The exception is for United Nations. You know that the United Nations is seated in New York, but New York is never used as the dateline for news originating from the offices of the United Nations. You would use United Nations as the dateline. Any stories originating outside the offices of the United Nations in New York shall use New York as its dateline. Each newspaper uses a specific style of writing the dateline to differentiate itself from the other newspapers. The following are the different styles of writing datelines for the various newspapers:
Journalists visualise and think how to
present a news story before even going to the scene. They would have thought of how to present the facts of the story in the most interesting manner.
4.2.1 Style of Writing Dateline
-The various categories of leads are devised just for the purpose of educating students who wish to become a journalist.
-Essentially, there are two categories for classifying the various
types of leads. They are:
-The 5Ws and 1H is proposed as one of the categories in cataloguing
news lead because it allows student to appreciate the different types of lead used.
4.3 TYPES OF LEADS
This is the first of the two types of category for classifying leads.
This method of classification categorizes
various types of leads according to each of the questions in 5Ws or 1H: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.
4.3.1 5Ws and 1H
This is a simplified method of classifying the various types of leads. -single element lead; and -summary lead.
The single element lead is the most common
type of lead used by journalists. All the six types of leads classified according to the various questions are actually single element lead.
4.3.2 Single Element and
Summary Lead Single element lead
- The single element lead is actually the
work horse of journalism. -The lead contains only one important highlighted fact. The reporter chooses to highlight a particular fact because it represents the most important fact. -The use of one important element in the lead allows a reporter write news item quickly. -The remaining paragraphs in a news item will elaborate further the material that is presented in the lead. Summary lead The summary lead is used when there are several important events that occurred at the same time. In this case, the reporter covering the news will opt for a lead that summarises the various things that are happening simultaneously.
The single element lead is the most common
type of lead used by journalists. All the six types of leads classified according to the various questions are actually single element lead. A lot of thinking would have taken place before you begin to write the opening paragraph of a piece of news. The thinking process depends on whether you have gathered all the relevant information of any event.
In order to find an appropriate lead, you should ask
yourself the following questions: These questions are designed to: -prompt you on an appropriate lead or opening paragraph for your news; focus on the essence of any given event; and check and weigh all your gathered facts. The collated facts should guide you on how to start off the story.