JOURN 2100 1st Edition Lecture 2 Outline of Last Lecture I What is news II Elements of news III What makes a good story Outline of Current Lecture I Hard news leads II Soft news leads III Hybrid leads IV News alerts V Should you identify the subject immediately VI Inverted pyramids VII Nut grafs Current Lecture I Hard news leads a They must be used for breaking news There must be a time element story must be timely b It is easy to write very formulaic c Easy to read 25 words or less d Answer the important aspects of the 5 W s Who what when where why and H how Stress the who what and when typically e Should be intuitive in this era of the smart phone These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute f It is breaking news even if it happened days ago if it has just been confirmed g Use the past tense in these leads h Leads should be complete sentences with articles II Soft news leads a Typically used in i Magazines ii Long form stories iii In depth or analysis stories iv Feature stories v Stories that don t contain breaking news b These leads are harder to write i Avoid starting with quotations clich s or questions III Hybrid leads a These combine soft news leads and hard news leads b Can still be used for breaking news c Time element plus creative element in order to engage the reader IV News alerts a These are similar to summary leads or hard news leads b In this you get readers what they want to read as soon as possible c To turn it into a lead expand but still keep lead close to 25 words Therefore the news alert should be less than 25 words d Keep it concise this will give it clarity e If you try to answer all five W s and one H you will have a suitcase lead i Suitcase lead Too much information packed into one sentence f V Seconds count when people are reading In print people will typically give you three seconds to decide if they want to read a story it is even less if the story is online Should you identify the subject immediately a Depends on the who i If the name attracts readers like a celebrity holds prominent position immediately identify the subject ii If the name doesn t attract readers delay it till the next paragraph iii When deciding if the who is prominent it depends on what the audience of this publication is If it is local people may care more about the who VI Inverted pyramids a The most important information goes at the top b Use a hard news lead The inverted pyramid is good for breaking news c These are very common on the Internet d Saves everybody time i Editors when cutting down stories ii Writers because they have an easier time knowing what information they need to gather and they write faster because there is a formula iii Readers because they can tell if they want to read the story quickly and get the gist of it immediately e Do i Use strong verbs ii Use active voice Subject verb object iii Place attributions at the end iv Place the time element after the verb f Don t i Use dependent clauses in introduction sentences ii Use prepositional phrases iii Use participle phrases VII Nut grafs Tell readers what writer is up to It delivers a promise of a story s content message It contains the kernel essential theme of the story a If the nut graf is the first graf of a story than it is a summary or hard news lead b Nut graf may also follow an anecdotal narrative or a descriptive lead soft news lead