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Reporting & Editing/Structure of a News Story

LEAD

The lead paragraph, lead or lede, is the first paragraph and the first sentence in the news story. A good lead generally will contain atleast three of the five W’s and H. The lead of the news article should contain the most critical information. The lead should capture the essence of the situation clearly. By reading just the lead part the reader should be able to gauge what the article content is about.

CATCHALL PARAGRAPHS

The catchall paragraphs elaborates the lead. This paragraph is where the readers gain detailed knowledge about the situation or incident that has taken place. It should mention where it happened, why it happened, what exactly has happened and how it happened. This provides necessary details. It also acts as a amplifying material to the news story.

Example : If there is a accident that has taken place, the catchall paragraphs must carry the essential details such as who/what caused the accident, what is the condition of the injured and how it happened

SALES MESSAGE

If the news article carries something related to the sales, there must be a sales message present. Some appealing quote or the statement of an event or situation must be mentioned to attract the readers only when the placement of such message is appropriate. It can be conveyed in a proper way with some interpretations of the message

Example : When the petrol price raises, that is intolerable for a common man. Bus Fare too are likely to rise.

TRANSITION TO THE DETAILS

News gets down to the transition to details. It contains details regarding the particular news. The major and the minor details that are necessary for the better understanding of the news is mentioned.

Example : If there is a accident that has occurred, then when did it occur?

If there is a pandemonium in the Parliament, then when did it occur?

DETAILS NEEDED TO COMPLETE THE STORY

The conclusion part of the news article stars from here. This is also called as the secondary material. It describes about the background of the news. The complex the story is, the more the blocks it gets. This follows the Inverted pyramid style that can be clearly seen through the descending importance of the messages. Stories are also classified on the basis of elements, they are

  1. Single element story
  2. Double element story
  3. Triple element story  

WHO,WHAT,WHERE,WHEN,WHY & HOW

These questions are answered in the news article in this structure.

Writing begins & ends with thinking.

Submitted by Dhanasree Sivaraj ( 22MMC010) on October 16, 2022 with inputs from DR. Jayaprakash. C.R

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