News Reporting & Writing
The Nature of News,
and How to Write a Lede
Gerry Doyle
What is News?
A ‘Good’ Story
!   Many journalists would say that an
important or “good” story is simply one
that people want to read or watch… or
feel that they have to.
!   “Good” stories are good because they are
important; they have value to readers and
viewers.
What is News?
“Good” stories are
many things, such as
Wai Sze Lee of Hong
Kong winning a
bronze medal in
track cycling at the
2012 Olympics.
What is News?
“Good” stories are
also often about
tragedies, such as the
deadly ferry collision
near Lamma Island.
Types of ‘Good’ Stories
Two types of good stories:
!   Well-reported, well-written or produced
accounts of things that happen.
!   Well-reported, well-written or produced
accounts of things the reporter develops
in a unique way.
The Elements of News
The ferry collision story had all the elements that
journalists think of when they consider, “What
makes news?” and “What makes a good story?”
--Timeliness
--Conflict
--Importance
--Prominence
--Proximity
--Unusualness
And plenty of this: Human Interest
The Elements of News
!   Timeliness: Fresh and recent.
!   Importance: Impact and consequence.
!   Proximity: Relevant to us.
!   Conflict: News that is dramatic.
The Elements of News
!   Prominence: People whose names we
recognize.
!   Unusualness: News that is abnormal.
!   Human Interest: News is life, and all of
the emotions – joy, love, despair – that
life’s events we humans can cause.
Characteristics of News
!   News is contextual: it depends on your
audience, what happened before, what
people care about
!   News is about people: What they do, the
joys and sadness they experience
Is this news?
U.S. President Barack Obama Unveils
US$450 Billion Jobs Package
Is this news?
Earthquake in Haiti Kills Thousands
Is this news?
Stock Market Plunges 3 Percent
Is this news?
Deanie Ip Tak-han Named Best Actress
at Venice Film Festival
Is this news?
Japan Trade Minister Makes Joke
About Radiation During Informal
News Conference
Is this news?
Fred the Blogger Calls On Hu Jintao
To Resign
Is this news?
HKU Student Detained by Police
Is this news?
Chicken Found Dead
Is this news?
Chicken Found Dead Had Avian
Influenza, Scientists Say
7 Questions
!   Is it “new”? Recent?
!   Does it affect many people?
!   Does it affect many people in my
intended audience?
!   Does it involve well-known people,
places or institutions?
7 Questions
!   Does it involve conflict or struggle?
!   Is it unique or rare?
!   Do you think it’s important? Is there
something that connects with
people?
Challenges
!   Keeping the story accurate and
balanced:
!   Being accurate is difficult
!   What is balanced?
Challenges
!   Timeliness – trying to be first can
create its own set of problems
Challenges
!   Journalists have to verify all
information: The “three-source rule”
Challenges
!   Relying on sources when you were
not at the scene
Challenges
Even when journalists witness events,
challenges remain:
!   Notice the details
!   Ask the right questions
!   Get people to talk to you
!   Double-check all information
The Lead
!   Plato in The Republic: “The beginning
is the most important part of the work.”
“Hard” news v. “soft”
news
Hard news
Soft news
!   A single event or
happening
!   Breaking news: what
is happening now
!   New developments
relating to a previous
event
!   A new trend
!   A broad theme
!   A profile of a person
!   Anything that is not
“hard” news
!
Structuring the News
Story
The basic structure for a
news story for print and the
Web is often called the
“inverted pyramid.”
!   The emphasis is on the
most newsworthy items in
your reporting.
!   The story trails off with less
important facts.
Hard news: a story breaks
A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of
7.9 rocked northern Japan on Friday,
measuring the highest level of 7 on the
Japanese seismic scale, in Miyagi Prefecture,
the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Source: Kyodo News, March 11, 2011
Hard news: developments
A massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit
Japan on Friday, unleashing a monster 10metre high tsunami that sent ships crashing
into the shore and carried cars through the
streets of coastal towns.
Source: Agence France-Presse, March 11, 2011
Hard news: a local angle
An Australian search and rescue team is due
to make a difficult journey to areas badly hit
by Friday's devastating earthquake and
tsunami in Japan.
Source: ABC News (Australia), March 16, 2011
The Lead
!   Direct (hard news) leads usually
summarize only the most important parts of
a story.
The details are left for later.
!   Sometimes, direct or hard-news leads may
hint at important or intriguing contents to
come in the story.
The Lead
!   The good hard-news lead meets two
requirements:
!   1) It captures the essence of the event.
!   2) It invites the reader into the story.
!   Think of leads as “bait” that determines
whether readers stay with the story.
The Lead
!   Leads are worth your time; reporters will try
several different drafts until they get the one
that seems perfect.
!   Reporters will be thinking of their lead as they
report the story.
The Lead
Good reporting helps produce good news writing,
especially leads. Consider this lead:
!   A late-morning fire in the upper floors of
an 18-story housing estate in Pokfulam
killed three people yesterday.
It is perfectly OK, and quite common.
The Lead
But another reporter asked a fire official to
describe what the fire was like, and the official
used the word “blowtorch.”
!   A fire roared like a “blowtorch” through
the upper floors of a Pokfulam housing
estate yesterday, killing three people.
Stronger, visual, same number of words.
Direct Lead
The direct lead is the workhorse of journalism. To
decide what is the most important part of the
story, ask six questions:
!   Who was involved: Who did it or said it?
!   What was the most unique or the most
important or unusual thing that happened?
!   When did the event occur?
Direct Lead
!   Where did the event occur?
!   Why did the event occur?
!   How did the event occur?
The 5 “W”s and 1 “H”
!   Who
!   What
!   When
!   Where
!   Why
!   How
The Lead
Typically, but not always, the direct lead contains
four essentials:
!   It says something specific.
!   It says when the event or action happened.
!   It gives the source (without necessarily
identifying it in full).
!   It gives the place of the action (as concisely as
possible).
The Lead
Other points to remember:
!   Attribution can wait, sometimes.
!   Avoid long subsidiary clauses or titles.
!   Banish jargon and legalese.
!   Use a direct structure: S-V-O. Subject, verb and
object. (Wong [subject] hit [verb] the man
[object].)
!   Time element usually goes after verb.
The Lead - Length
The Associated Press tells its reporters to
start cutting if their leads run beyond 35
words. To find places to cut, begin with:
!   Unnecessary attribution.
!   Compound sentences joined by but and and.
!   Exact dates and times unless essential.
!   Long titles.
Good Direct Lead
!   Four men convicted of murdering a German
family of four in a frenzied knife attack were
executed in China yesterday despite pleas for
clemency from the victims’ relatives.
The what was different. Concrete,
dramatic, specific language. Time. S-V-O.
structure.
Good Direct Lead
!   Jewelry tycoon Tse Sui-luen’s rags-to-riches
story entered its darkest chapter yesterday
when a High Court judge declared the selfmade company chairman bankrupt.
Who was important. Place was important.
Imagery (a bit of a cliché, but sometimes it
can work). Time element. S-V-O. structure.
Reworking Leads
!   Apprentice jockey Philip Cheng Cheung-tat
died at the Prince of Wales Hospital last night,
72 hours after suffering massive injuries in a
race fall at Sha Tin racecourse.
Does the job, but what about this:
Reworking Leads
!   After clinging to life for three days, an
apprentice jockey whose horse fell and rolled
over him during a race at Sha Tin died last
night.
Visual; introductory phrase OK in this
instance; trims details not needed in the
lead.
A Lead Contest
Which one is better?
!   The Airport Authority’s acting chief executive
was axed yesterday to make way for new
blood after he failed to win an internal
struggle to retain his position.
A Lead Contest
!   The Airport Authority has appointed a
businessman with no airport management
experience as its next chief executive officer.
He will replace Bill Lam Chung-lun, who was
seconded from the Government by Chief
Secretary for Administration Anson Chan
Fang On-Sang in January 1998.
A Lead Contest
No contest:
!   The Airport Authority’s acting chief executive
was axed yesterday to make way for new
blood after he failed to win an internal
struggle to retain his position.
Summing it up
A direct hard news lead is:
!   A lead that gives the most important point.
!   A lead that is concrete, specific, concise,
active and visual.
!   A lead that is accurate, honest and readable.
!   A lead that takes you into the story.
Assignment
1)  Read pages 43-59 in “English-Language
News Writing” (this week, posted on
“Class Resources” page on course
website.)
Assignment
2) Write a short article – no more than 300
words – about something you observe. It
could be a person, an event, a building.
Anything other than yourself. Use today’s
lessons to guide you, and remember: Show,
don’t tell. Due Monday (Feb. 4) at noon.