Chapter 9 - The Body of a News Story

What is the “body” of a news story?

It contains the information a reporter believes the public needs to know. This information can be presented in several styles.

Inverted Pyramid

These types of stories arrange the information in descending order of importance or newsworthiness.

Structure:

1. The Lead - (Top): The opening statement that delivers the core facts immediately.

2. The Body - (Middle): Supporting arguments, context, and quotes that explain the lead.

3. The Tail - (Bottom): Minor details and extra background info.

Advantage: It allows someone to leave a story after only one or two paragraphs yet still learn the most important facts.

Disadvantage: Because the lead summarizes facts that later paragraphs discuss in greater detail, some may be repeated in the body.

Hourglass

The hourglass story has three parts:

1. An inverted pyramid top that summarizes the most newsworthy information.

   1. This gives the audience the most newsworthy information quickly.

2. A turn (or pivot) paragraph.

   1. A quick, one-sentence transition that shifts the article into storytelling mode (e.g., "The incident began two hours earlier, when...").

3. A narrative.

   1. This is a step-by-step, chronological retelling of the event from start to finish, ending with a strong kicker.

• The hourglass style will not work for stories that have no meaningful chronology.

Focus

The Wall Street Journal’s front-page feature stories usually employ the focus style. The focus story has four parts:

1. The Lead:

   1. Unlike the hard news lead, the focus lead describes a person, place, situation or event that may not be newsworthy by itself but exemplifies a larger problem that is newsworthy.

2. Nut Graph:

   1. States the central point of the story and how the lead illustrates that point. It focuses on the same thing the summary lead does for an inverted-pyramid story.

3. Body:

   1. Develops the central point in detail.

4. One-, two-, or three-paragraph close kicker:

   1. Concludes the story.

Narrative

A narrative has two components:

1. A story

2. A storyteller

   1. Writes as a playwright or novelist would, depicting people interacting with other people and within their surroundings.

• To write in the narrative style, a reporter must find people who are crucial to the story and record their actions. It requires observation.

What is the term “kicker?”

It should provide a strong, memorable conclusion that leaves the reader with a final impact.

Avoid These Things

1. Journalists often introduce an individual in their lead and begin their second paragraph with a name. However, many fail to say clearly that both refer to the same person. The audience is forced to guess. This is called: “leapfrogging.”

• To avoid it, provide a one- or two-word transition from the lead to the name in the second paragraph.

2. Avoid placing too much emphasis on a sources’ identity. This can result in a failure to convey information of interest.

3. Avoid devoting the entire second paragraph to background information.

Extra

• Journalists often use lists in news stories that involve several ideas, subtopics or examples.

  • Reporters also use lists to summarize less important details placed at the end of news stories.

    • Lists are particularly useful when the details are minor and concern several diverse topics that would be difficult to organize in any other manner.

• Reporters should avoid words that are not used in everyday conversation.

  • When an unfamiliar word is necessary, journalists must immediately define it.

• Examples make stories more interesting, personalize them and help audience members understand them more easily.

• Descriptions, like quotations, make stories more interesting and help people visualize scenes.