Chapter III

Different Styles ofWriting News

Headline, Lead andBody

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Chapter 3

DIFFERENT STYLES OF WRITING NEWS, HEADLINES,LEAD AND BODY

Journalism historian Slosson (1910)1 in his book “Great American

Universities” says that a genuine newspaper must come out at least weekly; it must be

printed “to distinguish it from the handwritten ‘newsletters”, anyone willing to pay

the price must have access to it; all material must be “of interest to a general public, as

contrasted with religious and business publications”, it must have appeal to average

citizens; “it must be timely”, and it must be stable. The newspaper files reveal how

improvements can cross national frontiers, while for a time worthwhile new ideas are

held back by domestic barriers of competitive jealousy and snobbery; how

innovations develop into tendencies and tendencies into conventions; and how what is

frequently thought to be sanctified by tradition has comparatively shallow roots. Type

revolving presses used in the 1840s and 1850s, for instances required the type to be

locked into the forms by wedge- shaped column rules. For the type to stay in place

column rules had to run from the top of the forme to the bottom and so headlines

running across more than one column were impossible. The rotary press and the

curved stereotype plate made a horizontal layout- feasible, but vertical layout

persisted.

Maitlan Graves (1941)2, give a detailed study in his book “The Art of Color

and Design” that newspapers at the commencement of the nineteenth century made

no effort, in their vertical display, to put a headline over the main story or to make

sure that the main story began at the top of a page. Early American and Canadian

colonial newspapers (such as Quebec’s Morning Chronicle of 1847) were copies of

English papers but, with the war against Mexico and the Gold rush, American display

began to respond with bigger headlines and more of them a single column.

A newspaper, as a well-known and often respected institution, can influence

what a community thinks and does and it’s what Walter Lippmann describes “putting

pictures in our heads.” By directing thinking on matters of public concern, the

newspaper often influences what the community considers important (Waldrop,

1967)3.

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The newspaper may influence how members of the community think about a

specific matter, such as a new candidate in the race. The way it deals with subjects-

the selection of which candidates to write about, the angle or approach in treating

subjects, the paper’s stated editorial views, and the frequency of stories may affect

community response.

Researcher F.J. Mansfield (1936)4, in his work “The Complete Journalists”

talked about the power of media to mobilize public response during a political

campaign. The modern newspaper is also bigger, with substantial increases in

pagination reflecting, in part, the emergence of Sunday supplements pioneered by the

Times of India in the mid-1980s. The Hindustan Times, The Hindu and the Indian

Express are also the main newspapers in India, included supplements focused on

work, family, sport, money, travel and the book review, in the Sunday colour

supplement.

The contemporary newspaper is incalculably larger than its predecessor of

even a decade ago because all Indian newspapers have developed an online presence

which offers readers an almost endless supply of news and comment, archives and

database. Newspapers, moreover, have long since extended their interactivity beyond

reader’s letters with innovations to post a comment online, which constructs a

continuously expansive discussion and debate that makes the task of reading a modern

newspaper somewhat akin to painting the fourth pillar. This shifting, as well as

constant, elements in the understanding of what constitutes a newspaper signal

continuity rather than any rupture with the past, and they will inform the discussion

and analysis here. This introduction offers an overview of recent trends and

developments in Indian newspapers and assesses the evidence that informs the

occasional gloom speculations about newspapers in the Indian.

The squabble unravels that a business strategy designed to maintain

profitability by minimizing costs by reducing numbers of journalists necessarily

creates a growing reliance on public relations materials and agency copy to fill the

expensive news hole (Allan, 2006). Such a strategy also reduces journalists to

processors rather than originators of news – as in the case of Google news mentioned

above – and thereby reduces newspapers’ claims to that title by diminishing their

newsgathering activities. The introduction is in three sections. The first looks at

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newspapers as a business, examining recent changes in the number of published titles,

circulations, advertising revenues, and profitability. The second explores newspapers

shifting editorial priorities alongside changes in journalists working practices

reflecting a growing prominence for public relations and news agency copy in

newspapers editorial page (Flesh, 1974)5.

The term ‘Newszak’, originally coined by journalist Malcolm Muggeridge,

has been used previously to capture and describe these changes in newspapers’

editorial formats (Franklin 1997)6. So what is Newszak and why has it emerged?

(McDougall, 1972)7. The spat concerning Newszak suggests that across the last two

decades newspapers have increasingly tended: to retreat from investigative journalism

and hard news to the preferred territory of ‘softer’ or ‘lighter’ stories (Rivers, 1984)8.

Entertainment has superseded the provision of information; human interest has

supplanted the public interest; measured judgment has succumbed to sensationalism;

the trivial has triumphed over the weighty; the intimate relationships of celebrities

from soap operas, the world of sport or the royal family are judged more

‘newsworthy’ than the reporting of significant issues and events of international

consequence. Traditional news values have been undermined by new values;

infotainment is rampant. Journalists more concerned to report stories which interest

the public rather than stories which are in the public interest (Berelson, 1952)9 .

3.1 Writing news

The news is one of the best-known commodities in today’s world. Everybody

who understands a language and has access to mass media recognizes it (Ghiglione,

1982)10. The concept of news must have existed even before the beginning of the era

of mass media. One may find relics of a primitive system in remote tribal areas where

people exchange local news during weekly markets just by talking to one another.

When two friends meet after some time they exchange information which can be

called personal news (Machin & Niblock, 2006)11.

Everybody will agree that death makes the news. If a person dies of a disease

or an accident it makes the news. The importance of this news is related to the

importance of the person and/or deadliness of the disease (Julian Harris, Kelly Leiter

and, & Stanley Johnson, 1977)12.

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Mrs. Indira Gandhi was assassinated. It was big news. If she had died of a

heart attack or in an accident, even then it would have been big news. That news was

important because of the importance of Mrs. Gandhi, other factors were there, but the

biggest news value of that event was the person involved.

The four letters of the word news have been described as representing the four

directions-North, East, West and South. News can come from any of these directions.

But as we see every day all events do not make the news. Only important and

interesting events make the news. Further, an event itself is not news- it becomes

news when its account is available (Hutt & James, 1989)13 .

Writing for the news media is about bringing certain facts before the public in

a manner that capture and retains attention, describes events and personalities, and

clarifies issues and analyses them in order to inform people and aid their

understanding of political, civil, economic and social processes (Bogart, 1982)14.

Other forms of writing too have a purpose that could be either strategic or personal,

but they tend to represent the point of view of the organization to achieve a specific

goal (as in marketing communications, or public relations), to construct an argument

or purpose a theory based on evidence (as in academic writing), or to express the

ideas and imagination of an individual (as in fiction and poetry) (Kaplan, 2003)15.

3.2 The process of writing news

Despite the differences in the product, most writing follows a similar process,

though the stages may vary in importance and time taken. Writing can be seen as a

four-stage process, beginning with idea generation (conception), to gathering

information (collection), to planning an outline and filling it in (construction), and

finally, editing and polishing the work (correction). While each of the four ‘C’s is a

distinct phase with specific goals to be met, each builds upon what has been done in

the previous phase (Ray, 2006)16.

3.3 The basic news story- the classic inverted pyramid

Research has shown that most people spend less than three seconds on

scanning a news article and deciding whether to read it or not. These three seconds are

barely enough to take in the headline and the first few lines, and perhaps a photograph

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if there is one (Brill, 2006)17. Writers must keep this in mind as they build stories-

how does one capture reader interest and provide the main thrust of the story in less

than three seconds? By structuring stories so that those three seconds are utilized to

provide the meat of a story. The basic structure of the news story is the inverted

pyramid- as the name suggests, this is a ‘top-heavy’ format, beginning with the most

important facts and progressing towards the least important ones (Fig 1.1) (Evans H. ,

1976)18.

The inverted pyramid owes its origins to the early days of the telegraph when

reporters wired in stories from remote locations over undependable lines. Before that,

reporters were less direct and used narrative storytelling techniques. But ones the

telegraph introduced the idea of speedy information transmission; the culture of

Figure 1

reporting underwent a significant change. The telegraph made it possible to transmit

information as soon as it was received by the reporter, shortening the news cycle

considerably and making it possible for news to travel almost instantaneously from

the place it was generated to where it was to be read. However, the telegraph was not

always reliable lines were often unclear and discontinuous (Craig, 1971)19. It was

important that reporters got the most important information before the line broke, and

gradually this structure came to stay, as it also made editing easy- copy editors could

Most important facts

Elaboration oflead

Details indecreasing

order ofimportance

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simply chop off the last few lines or paragraphs of a story if they did not fit the space

(Flesh, 1974)20.

William L. Rivers (1984)21, in his book “News in Print: Writing and

Reporting” suggests that the first paragraph of the story- or lead (spelled ‘lede’ in the

early days) - contained the gist of the story in a way that sparked interest and drew in

readers. The paragraph following the lead provided important background or

contextual information, and this was sometimes referred to as the elaboration of lead (

nut graf the paragraph containing the nuts and bolts).the inverted pyramid format

ensures that even those who simply skim or scan the paper get the important details

upper front, and others can read further for more information .

The inverted pyramid offers the writers a way of quickly and efficiently

putting the story together, keeping in mind the main news values that make the story

news. If it is a breaking story, the lead will focus on the main points of interest to the

audience, sometimes linking the story to other events that may help place it in

perspective. In all these stories, apart from beginning with a clear statement of what

the story is about and what makes it news, there is a quick follow-through with just

enough detail to keep the reader going (Rivers, 1984)22.

Despite its efficiency, however, the inverted pyramid format does have some

disadvantages (Summer, 2004)23. Since the main summary is provided right at the top,

it does not encourage readers to go through the entire text, and we know from

experience that this what readers do-they quickly scan the first few sentences and go

on to the next story (Taylor, 2000)24. There is no suspense and stories tend to simply

‘stop’ rather than end in an elegant fashion. Nevertheless, over 80 per cent of all

newspaper stories still uses the inverted pyramid because there is simply no better

way to provide information quickly, clearly, and directly (Machin & Niblock, 2006)25.

3.4 Linked boxes structure for news

In this form news structure, each of the points in the story has an equal or

similar impact, so they could conceivably go in any order without affecting the

narrative. Each is complete in itself, with its own analysis (Cutlip & Allen H, 1971)26.

This is what the structure looks like (Fig 2).

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Each of the boxes represents a paragraph, which deals with a particular detail

or idea in the story, and the boxes are linked by transmissions (connecting phrases and

words) that indicate that they are different aspects of the same story (Cutlip & Allen

H, 1971)27.

This structure is used when there is an event or an issue with multiple points

of focus where the traditional inverted pyramid is not suitable. Sometimes the two

structures are combined in a story, with the beginning written like an inverted

pyramid followed by a detailed analysis written in the linked boxes form. This is used

when there is a development in an on-going issue, which is dealt with in the inverted

pyramid lead and back-up paragraphs and the background is given in the linked boxes

form (Picard, 2002)28. Whether it is the inverted pyramid or a variation of it, or the

linked boxes structure, the main objective of the news story is to give information

quickly, losing as little time as possible, in as clear a manner as possible. There is no

room here for teasing and intrigue- it is all about the ‘bare facts’ (Rich, 2010)29.

3.5 Feature story structures

Feature stories use a less formal structure, as they tend to be longer and more

reflective, and are aimed at a readership that has more time to spend with the

newspaper. Features can also use a wider range of writing styles, from narrative to

descriptive to interpretive, depending on the subject matter and the tone they wish to

adopt. One of the most popular feature structures has come to be known as the ‘Wall

Street Journal Formula’, (Kamhawi & Weaver, 2003)30, referred to by some authors

as the ‘neck-of-the-vase’ story. Here the writer begins with an anecdote or a narrative

describing a specific context. This is then related to a larger issue, an issue that this

instance illustrates or illumines. In other words, the writer proceeds from the specific

(an individual story) to the general (the larger issue at hand) (McBurney, 1990)31.

Figure 2

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However serious or weighty an issue, it is bound to have some connection

with everyday human life. During the second half of 2008, for instance, one of the big

stories worlds over was the economic downslide (Kim, 2012)32. Almost every day the

papers carried stories of large financial firms lying off employees, staving off

bankruptcy, and the impact of these events on other parts of the economy. The

financial and business pages stuck to the bare details, but there were several stories on

other pages that looked at how the crisis had impacted families and individuals, taking

a more anecdotal or story-telling approach (Currah, 2009)33.

The neck-of-the-vase approach begins with a human interest angle but very

quickly moves to the ‘hard facts’, plunging into the core issue at hand. If you have a

compelling human story that needs more time and space, you might take a slightly

different approach, using what might be called the ‘focus-on-a-person’ technique,

where the whole story is told through the experience or a single person or a group of

people. Here, the generalities are woven through the example and the quotes, rather

than being separated from them. For instance, if you wish to explain the impact of

introducing genetically modified cotton into the agriculture of the state, you might

trace it through the story of a single farmer or a single village which illustrates very

clearly how the introduction happened, what it meant to the farmer from season to

season, in terms of cost of planting, maintaining, and harvesting his crop, and the

outcomes. With each stage, you could step back just a little to compare his experience

with the bigger picture, alternating personal details with facts and figures. Many

magazine stories use this approach in complex feature stories, and while it takes some

practice and skill to weave together the disparate elements of such a story, the result is

satisfying and helps bring an issue home to the reader in a way simply presented facts

or anecdotes alone could not (Herd, 1952)34.

Some features begin like an inverted pyramid and then go on to a narrative

form, taking on a structure rather like an hourglass (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

This kind of a structure might be used when a breaking news story must first

give all the main details to satisfy the requirements of immediacy and then get into the

human aspect of the issue. For instance, a news report of a train accident might start

off with the main facts- where, when, and how it happened, how many people have

been affected, and what is being done to handle the emergency. The story might then

lead to personal accounts, first-hand experiences, which serve to recreate the human

story. Readers who need a quick recounting of facts get that upper front, while those

who would like to know the build-up to the event can read on to get that part (Herd,

1952)35.

3.6 Three other forms of newspaper news

News events are straightforward; they are usually ambiguous and reflect

different histories and competing for spatial stories and are reported from a particular

perspective. Perspective is a way of interpreting the news based upon the claim to

both represent and speak for their readers whose worldview that they have adopted or

try to anticipate.

With regards to the news in the UK, there are two dominant versions of the

readers’ worldview adopted by newspapers. First, a Burkean kind of perspective,

Transition

The first half iswritten like a

classic invertedpyramid.

The second halffollows a narrative

structure, like astory

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which consists of a worldview based on a belief in contractual politics and civic

mindedness, combined with a sense of activism and protest. It is in accordance to

either one of these worldviews that newspapers, to borrow a phrase from Hayek,

judge their readers’ concern for issues of law, legislation, and liberty’ in the context of

a particular news event. This is not a simple right/left distinction, as recent political

history shows, but is essentially how newspapers judge a particular news event and its

subsequent relevance to its readers’ interests. Because of the diversity of the UK press

no on news event is reported exclusively or independently according to one

worldview (Havick, 1997)36.

3.6.1 The discursive form of news

Discursive news reports are often concerned with a critical relationship to

political authority. It is also this form of news, referring to the continuing

contemporary use of the phrase ‘Fourth Estate’ and which originally Carlyle,

following Burke, found so admirable. Discursive news tends to describe itself as

covering a hard news agenda that includes as its staple national and international

political and economic affairs. It is historically grounded in a tradition of such

coverage since The Times, originally called The Daily Universal Register, was

established in 1788 (Baskette F. K., 1982)37. Also, it is a news form which is

comfortable with the intellectual or technical issues and is written for a readership

perceived to be capable of understanding and following an argument. A readership,

therefore, assumed to be intelligent and educated, people who do not require that

everything is explained to them (Allen, Livingstone, & Reiner, 1997)38.

3.6.2 The descriptive form of news

B.R.P. Bhaskar (2005), in his book “Flourishing Papers, Floundering Craft:

The Press and the Law”, quoted C.P. Scott’s ‘The neutral descriptive form of news.

The descriptive form of news is in one instance neutral and in another reflects and

displays support for one of the two worldviews outlined above: to take them in order’.

Dictum, ‘Comment is free, but facts are sacred’, a view that only makes sense

alongside the requirement to be able to obtain the facts and then in a clear and

intelligible way report them. Thus according to the descriptive and neutral form of

news, the most complex events are expressed in terms of a deliberate reductionism, of

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complexity to simplicity, achieved by a process of paring down a news event to its

core or essential facts. With the neutral descriptive news form news journalism seeks

to be reporting without comment or opinion. In this way news, journalism achieves

one of its most valuable functions, to simply describe events as they are and not as

one would like them to be or approve of. In this the opposite of tendentious news and

is profoundly antithetical to propaganda (Bhaskar, 2005)39.

The neutral descriptive news form is usually short, derived as it forms a

bulletin style of expression. Sometimes it is referred to as news in brief (nibs), one

paragraph long, or it consists of no more than a few paragraphs (Bilton, 2007)40. At its

best, the neutral descriptive news is instructive. In essence, short, neutral descriptive

news bulletins of events are used when the reader is perceived as requiring no more

than a minimum report or accurate summary, or when an event is deemed less

important than others (Gunther, 1968)41.

Newspapers use neutral descriptive news of the shorter kind to a lesser or

greater extent. For example, the ‘World Bulletin’ in the Daily Telegraph and the

‘Briefing’ or ‘World News Digest’ in the Financial Times. This does not mean that

the descriptive news form (especially in its longer version) is always neutral. Letting

the facts speak for themselves also produces news reports which are evaluated and

judgemental. As noted above, newspapers in the UK claim to represent and speak for

their readers in accordance with either a Burkean or Locean perspective (Flesh,

1974)42.

3.6.3 The tendentious form of news

The movement away from the descriptive forms of news is most clearly

manifest when news becomes the direct advocacy of a specific cause (to be

distinguished from the consistent interpretation of news from a certain perspective

and subsequent worldview), or offers to explain events in terms solely of the personal,

so called human interest stories. These promote the view that to show people as they

are in their personal lives is to reveal the true motives or causes for events being as

they are.

Tendentious news based upon the direct advocacy of a specific cause adopts a

campaigning and universalistic style- it is aimed at persuading everyone. Thus, the

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Daily Express ran a campaign entitled ‘New Inheritance Tax Crusade’. A crusading

style is one that at one time or another is taken up by almost all newspapers.

When a newspaper campaigns it is obvious: the cause is clearly and stridently

announced, the paper seeks to actively elicit support, devotes prominent positions in

the paper to its advocacy and opts for a didactic tone. Tendentious news based upon

human interest stories marks the point where, for some, news today concentrates on

the extremes of human behavior and experience (Field, 1974)43. As such the

tendentious form of news is becoming more and more sensational, wrapped in

entertainment values, or just ridiculously trivial and is increasingly defined through

prurience, salaciousness, voyeurism, and celebrity. It adopts an overtly sensational

style and is usually associated (though not exclusively) with those newspapers which

are positioned down market and are known as a tabloid or red tops (Chakravarty S. ,

2007)44.

When a newspaper deals in human interest stories in a tendentious way it

often relies on ‘emotive language, the bizarre, the lewd, sex, suppression fees, cheque

book journalism, gossip, police news, marriage and divorce, royal news, celebrities,

political bias and any form of prurience which can be included under the general

heading of human interest’ (Arnold & Howard, 1968)45 and one could also add,

unlawful attempts at phone tapping, entrapment and ‘stings’.

News in the form of human interest stories requires of the reader nothing more

than a response of moral approval or moral disapproval. This successful commercial

formula has led to charges of increasing trivialisation and ‘tabloidization’, and a way

of speaking to the reader as someone who should be engaged solely at the emotive

level (Evans H. , 1976)46. The end result is called ‘junk food news’ (i.e. of no value

whatsoever). The fact that this form of tendentious news is a commercial success has

ensured its continued promotion and any talk of ‘drinking at the last chance saloon

now seems risible (Evans H. , 1976)47.

3.7 Writing headlines

One of the key tasks of the copy desk is to put in headlines for stories. It

occupies an important role in attracting readers to the page, and ultimately, to an

article. Although the copy desk is responsible for generating headlines, it helps if

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writers can suggest a headline that captures the essence of a story, as they know it

‘from inside out’. Copy editors usually read no more than a couple of sentences

before they write a headline – this is as much the style of the copy desk as it is the

demand to meet very tight deadlines (Kepes, 1949)48.

The headline should be as specific as possible not only in the identification of

the subject but also in other matters as well. One should be specific about the main

newsprint and a headline should tell as much as possible, it does not, however, mean

that ‘where’ of the story should always be included. One should test by examining the

headline whether the addition of a place name adds significance. It is sufficient to say

‘Barnala condemned terrorism at a Chandigarh press conference’. Further place

name comes to the first thing after the headline as a part of the dateline. But in stories

where the place is important, it must be there in a headline. For example, Earthquake

rocks Shimla’.

The language of the headline should be positive. Some stories must be

negative but the headline writer should avoid using ‘no or ‘not’ and try to express the

same thing in different words. Short and simple words should be used for longer ones.

For example, talks can be used for ‘negotiations’ and ‘goods’ for ‘commodities’.

• A headline should speak. It should say something which educates and entertains

the reader.

• A headline should be sharp and convey the essence of a story.

• A headline should stimulate the readership, and lead you to read the story under

it.

• Use commonly-known abbreviations.

• Help contribute to the overall tone of the publication.

• The headline should be active and positive.

• Serve as a visual element on the page.

Some of these have to do with the words in the headline; others have to do

with the design, typography, and layout of the page. Every morning, when a reader

looks for something interesting in a newspaper, it is the heading which catches his

eyes. After scanning the headings, he settles down to read the story in detail.

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A story, however well-edited, would no attract him unless it is given a heading

or headline, the most vulnerable spot in a newspaper. The headline attracts the reader

to go through the story. It tells him what the story is about. Thus, a headline sells the

story. Besides, a headline serves the reader in several ways. The size of the headline

determines the importance of a story: the larger or bolder the headline, the most

important is the news story. Writing a headline is like applying the finishing polish on

a well-crafted piece of furniture.

3.8 Choosing and designing news headlines

According to Floyd K. Baskette “every headline is written in a separate folio.

The headline should be written clearly in capitals if necessary. The letter which needs

capitalization should be double ticked. Edition and page mark go on the top left-hand

corner and the catch line on top right-hand corner. It also carries instructions

regarding the type and the columns over which the headline will be spread and the

headline style. If the normal headline style is set left in that case it need not be

specified in the instructions. However, it is essential that the style breaking headlines

should be marked with words and symbols” (Baskette F. K., 1982)49.

3.8.1 Kicker

The kicker is another conventional headline, usually a one-line heading with a

second line (Kicker) above it in a different style and half the type size. It extends no

more than midway above the main line (Bush, 1970)50. Kicker headlines are used to

dress up a page by lending variety. Kicker headline is a short line of display type,

usually no larger than half the point size of the main headline and placed over the

main part of the headline. On some papers, the kicker is termed the eyebrow or tagline

(Eisentein, 1983)51.

A kicker is a line of type placed immediately above the main headline. The

purpose is to summarize quickly some outstanding feature of the story below, even as

the main head underneath also provides additional summary (Baskette F. K., 1982)52.

A principle of setting kickers is that they should be one-half the point size of the

headline below. If the headline below is 48 point, the kicker should be about 24

points. Also, the kicker line should be at least half the width of the line below. If it is

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too short, it will create an ugly gap of white space at the right side of the headline. If it

is too long, it will detract from the headline below.

A hammer head is a one or two-word kicker that is set in very large type to

attract attention to the story. Hammerheads stand out easily on a page. Hammer heads

are sometimes called wickets (also called a reverse kicker) also is a kicker that is set

larger than the line below it.

In using a kicker, hammerhead, or wicket, the disadvantages may outweigh the

advantages. The danger is that these devices may call too much attention to

themselves, primarily because they are attention getting devices. If more than one of

these are used on a page, the effect may be a series of white holes that tend to destroy

the harmony of page unity (Baskette F. K., 1982)53.

3.8.2 Hammer

Hammer is the reverse of the kicker, but usually, in all capital letters. The big

type is the kicker and the smaller type the main headline. One word or two at the most

will suffice of the hammer. By virtue of their size, hammers impress the readers with

their importance. But too many hammers on one page may dilute that significance,

and destroy the look of the page (Arnold E. G., 1969)54.

Headlines are means to attract the readers towards the news items. For a page

designer, each headline is a new and unique challenge. For him/her, the headlines of

the news are much more than just a set of words. It is the responsibility of the page-

designer to make each headline as distinctive as possible within the given newspaper

format and its policies with regard to the use of typefaces and type sizes. These

policies evolve over a period of time. The task of the page designer or make-up

person is to decide whether he/she wants to give more news and shorter coverage of

each or fewer news items and emphasize them with greater details (Allen,

Livingstone, & Reiner, 1997)55.

A headline can be made bold (big typeface), a single line and run horizontally

across columns, or short with width: small typeface, two lines, and one column.

Carefully notice these variations in the headlines. Each page designer uses his/her

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own experience and creative genius to make the page attractive and give each news an

appropriate placement on the page (Allen, Livingstone, & Reiner, 1997)56.

Headlines are given generally by the sub-editors/copy editors. The page make-

up person cannot change them, but he/she can increase or decrease the display value,

readability or importance of the news by using different techniques at his/her disposal

such as type face and size, placement, making it run horizontally across more columns

or less. Most newspapers every day give a four or five column bottom-spread on their

front page; it is down to give a solid base to the whole page.

3.8.3 Vertical headlines

Vertical headlines are set in the width of the basic single-column grid and the

text runs single column (Baskette F. K., 1982)57. This oldest style has a limited range

of news value expression. Though it is visually depressing, a maximum number of

stories can be given above the fold (Flesh, 1974)58.

When headlines side by side are the same size and style the result is called

‘tombstoning’. This is a major problem of the vertical layout; it can be overcome with

alteration of color along a horizontal line. Colour here means blocks, grays and white

and with modern display type adjacent heads can be varied to express different news

values or tone. The headings can be set left in the white to avoid a clash of headlines.

Another way is to vary the width of the headline grid. For example, a two column

head is used to express more important news. The width of text setting can also vary

to avoid the monotony of tombstoning (Arnold E. G., 1969)59.

3.8.4 Horizontal headlines

This is another style of headline with more capacity for emphasis. It is

modular with text squared up under multi-columns heads to create a horizontal unit.

The page is then made up of these units lying flat on each other.

In this layout, a long story seems shorter. Complete stories can be read with

page-folded at the natural mid-page fold and without the reader having to shuffle the

paper up and down, headlines are separated from each other by text thus each

headline retains its emphasis. In horizontal layout full use of the width of the page is

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possible for display. However, there are only a few stories above the midfield which

can be seen at retail outlets.

Horizontal makeup is distinguished by the fact that stories are continued into

three or more adjacent columns and the shape of such stories is horizontal. Although a

story may be continued into the next adjacent column, this does not necessarily

produce horizontal makeup because the shape of the story may be vertical. Another

distinguishing feature of horizontal makeup is that stories are squared off at the

bottom. This means that the depth of each column where the story is continued is the

same. However, a page using horizontally shaped stories exclusively may be as

monotonous as one where all stories are vertically shaped (Baskette F. K., 1982)60.

3.8.5 Banner headline

The first headlines were a single column. Now they can be spread over the

entire column in the newspaper. Newspapers today use the opportunities for display

by mixing single column and multi-column headline depending on the importance of

the news.

The banner headline should not be in lower case because lower case letters

across such a wide measure look straggly. Moreover, headlines should be crisp and

lower case headline will be unduly wordy. There is a wide range of possibilities

regarding arrangements of the headline. A newspaper may standardize on one form,

such as the centered head, or it can mix them between headlines. But much depends

on the skill of the page planers and the ideas they try to communicate. The basic

typographic arrangements are flush left, centered, stepped, flush right and hanging

indention (Baskette F. K., 1982)61.

3.8.6 Flush left

The flush left heading has one or more lines which are set to the left. This

should not touch the column rule. The flush left headline is a two or three line

headline with each line set flush-left. The lines do not have to be equal in width or set

full. The white space at the right is considered enhancing because it allows “air” into

the otherwise stuffy column spaces. The flush left is the most commonly used

headline today. The flush left headlines to look better when each line is indented on

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the column rule leaving 6 points or half an 11 cm space on an 11 cm column (Evans,

1976)62.

3.8.7 Flush right

Each line is pushed against the right-hand margin to create a stepped effect on

the left. It has even more limited application than the stepped headline. It may be

occasional variant in a newspaper but it cannot be recommended as a regular style. It

is shown to set and difficult to read.

3.8.8 Drop heads

Drop heads are also called a dropout headline or a deck. A drop head is

another headline below the main headline that gives additional information. It should

stand alone as a secondary, but related, headline (Baskette F. K., 1982)63.

3.8.9 Centered

In this type of arrangement, each line of headline type is centered on the white

of the column. The well-constructed, centered heading, whether of a multi-line or a

multi-deck has its own symmetry and it is neatly framed in white. The patterns

created by this need slightly more attention than the patterns the flush left heading

creates, but neither needs as much attention as some other patterns. If one is writing

multi-deck headlines they should be centered where they look best. The common

double column headline is a single deck of two lines with centered headings. The

second line should always be shorter than the first at least by two units (Baskette F.

K., 1982)64.

3.8.10 Stepped

In this arrangement the first line is set to flush left and the last flush right and

the middle lines centered. Each line has to be about the same length, and they look

like steps. To achieve a smooth step requires great care in headline writing. This style

is discouraged by modern experts of readability. However, the greatest difficulty is

that the stepped style depends too much on a precise count and any failure can lead to

ugly results (Garcia, 1993)65.

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3.8.11 Quotes

Quotes are one of the devices for dealing with strong opinions in headlining

speeches or political party resolutions. One may put the name of the speaker or party

in the headline. Headlines entirely in quotes are usually weak and should always be

avoided. It is better to use single quotes for the part of headline which really needs

them (Entman, R. M. 2004)66. When the headline is in decks often the attribution is

given in the second deck. It is a bad practice. A headline with opinion and without

quotes cannot be made acceptable by putting an attribution in the second deck.

Attributions must be contained in the same deck as assertions; otherwise, the

statement in the first deck seems to have the authority of the newspaper for it.

3.9 Verbs in headlines

There should always be a verb in the headline. The news is activity and verbs

bring activity and life to headline. In a normal headline, there should be no room for

adjectives. Its color and spice must come from a rich verb. One should avoid using

parts of weak verb ‘to be’ or ‘to have’ as the main verb in the headline. The verbs ‘to

be’ or ‘to have’ are not needed even as auxiliaries. For example “Justice Ganguli

arrested” is better than “Justice Ganguli is arrested”.

The headlines have been using the present tense to describe events that have

already happened. The argument in support of this phenomenon is that the present

tense is active; it puts the reader in the middle of the action and gives him a feeling of

participation. The event described in the present tense in the headline may be passed,

but it is recent past and the reader is learning about it now. He also understands the

convention and will imply that in the present tense his morning newspaper’s headline

is giving the news of yesterday.

Passive voice has been major culprint in headline writing. A verb should be

used in active voice as far as possible. At least before using the passive voice the sub-

editor should himself try the active voice and should explain to himself the reason for

not using active voice. Passive voice normally breeds extra words and burdens a

headline.

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3.10 Punctuation

A full point is not used in headlines. The last word is the end of a though and

therefore no need to put a full stop. When two thoughts are joined together in a deck

they should be separated by a colon. The use of semi-colon should be avoided for

simplicity and typographic neatness for easy reading. Exclamation and question

marks should be rarely used. The comma should be used to separate clauses and

sometimes used to indicate the omission of ‘and’. While using comma care should be

taken to ensure right meaning. Quotation marks are used to indicate external authority

for a statement and also to indicate about an assertion.

The headline gives emphasis to a few words in bold types. Hence every word

should be weighed. Accuracy, intelligibility, and vigor are the requirements and any

newspaper which is careless with its headlines is careless about its own purpose and

vitality. Wordy and vague headlines leave a newspaper reader confused and irritate

him. Where every headline goes to the print with precision or wit, the whole

newspaper comes alive.

Headline writing is art and craft at the same time. The art is in imagination and

vocabulary and the craft lies in the accuracy of content, the attractiveness of

appearance and practicality.

3.11 Counting the headline

During the course of study, researcher found that many newspapers now have

a computer system that allows the copyeditor to press a button and determine almost

instantly whether a headline will fit. This is possible when computers are programmed

with the width value of each character available in the typeface. At split-second speed

the computer can add the width values of the characters the copyeditor has assembled

on the VDT screen and determine whether that total exceeds the maximum width

value of the line in the specified typeface, size and column width. The availability of

this feature simplifies the copyeditor’s work. If it is not available, the copyeditor turns

to time-tested manual methods of calculation.

Eminent scholar Floyd K. Baskette suggest in his very famous book “The Art

of Editing” (Baskette F. K., 1982)67 ‘the easiest way to count a headline manually is

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with the typewriter system one letter for all letters, figures, punctuation, and space

between words. If a line has a maximum of 18 units as specified by the newspaper’s

headline schedule and the head has 15 counts, it will fit, unless it contains several fat

letters (such as M and W). In that case, the headline writer recounts the line using the

popular standard method:

Lowercase letter 1 unit

Uppercase letters 1 ½ units

Because of the variation in the widths of letters in different families of type or

even within the same family, the standard method is not always correct. The letter I,

for example, usually is thinner than the lowercase t. and in some faces, r is thinner

than d or g and a string of zeroes will likely make the line too long. That reality led

journalism professors at the University of Missouri to develop a more accurate

method of counting that has been adopted by many newspapers. If it is used, no

headline will be too long, regardless of the type family used. The counts:

Lowercase letters 1 unit

Uppercase letters 1 ½ units

Lowercase i, 1 ½ unit

Lowercase m, w 1 ½ units

Uppercase I and numeral 1 ½ unit

Uppercase M and W 2 units

Numerals (except 1) 1 ½ units

Comma, Quotation mark ½ unit

Dollar sign, percentage symbol,

Dash and question mark 1 ½ units

All headline writers are expected to keep within the maximum count

allowable. It is costly and time-consuming to have heads reset. If it appears that the

desired head slightly exceeds the maximum count, the writer may provide an optional

word as a substitute for a long word. The compositor then can try to fit the head as

originally written. If it won’t fit, the optional word can be used’.

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3.12 Writing news Leads

Today there is common confusion among readers about the role of news and

the role of opinion in all media. It is not that anyone holds that editorializing should

be part of the news – that opinions, normally found on the editorial page, should be

mingled with news reports. For example, a beginning student was writing his story in

two paragraphs about a young woman, Kempis Smith, who was going to college. He

rounded it off with: “Good Luck, Kempie.” However trivial that statement is, it is an

opinion.

A century ago the news was usually filtered deliberately through the biases of

the newspaper that carried it. A political figure whom the paper opposed could not

expect a true report of his actions, but he probably had on his side another paper that

exaggerated his good qualities as much as the opposition paper exaggerated his

failings. It was understood that this kind of bias existed, and newspapers were read in

this light.

The growth and power of the wire services and press associations brought an

exchange of news in the early years of this century, and some of the dissatisfaction

with the old standard was magnified. A wire service that served newspapers of

differing persuasions found it impossible to prepare a story to suit all its clients. A

paper that belonged to a cooperative like the Associated Press might exchange news

with a paper of another persuasion. These problems, along with the growing

dissatisfaction with “slanted news,” led to the separation of news and opinion. Thus

developed the standard or straight news story, which called for the chronicling of

sheer fact: objective, factual reporting, dispassionately setting forth a series or group

of facts with all the sources noted.

3.13 Kinds of leads

If beginning reporters are unsure about how to start writing news stories, they

should always begin by thinking of the five Ws and the one H. It is almost inevitable

that they will write one of that they will one of these kinds of leads:

3.13.1 The summary lead

This is the most common and widely used lead especially in newspapers and

most of us have come across these while browsing stories with the morning cuppa

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(Baskette F. K., 1982)68. These are straight leads that just state the facts and include:

who, where, what, when, why and sometimes even the how of the event or happening.

Traditionally, summary leads have been used to report breaking news or a developing

story. Of late, most breaking news reaches us through electronic media or mobile

much before the print form, so even if you apply the summary to your lead, it makes

better sense to start with the why, what and the how rather than the who, when and

where (Warren, 1959)69. A lead is the opening of a news story, and frequently it is

only one paragraph long. Twenty-five years ago, many reporters’ chief aim was to

summarize the entire story in the first sentence. This practice led to the notion of the

five Ws: who, what, when, where, and why. Sometimes how was also included in the

summary lead. All this information in one sentence tended to choke the reader’s

understanding of the event in question (Cutlip & Allen H, 1971)70.

The absurdity of expecting a reader to comprehend everything in such a fact

choked sentence is obvious. Most reporters now prefer short opening sentences that

give the point of the story in about 25 words. Information that is not needed

immediately is placed in subsequent sentences. This technique is known as delayed

identification: If the exact name of the subject of a news story in not important, the

identification of the subject may be delayed for one or two sentences. The same

applies to the identification of the precise location of the event, the exact time, and so

on (Beam, 2003)71.

Emphasis on the appropriate elements is a sign of professionalism in

journalism. Here is a lead that emphasizes that what of the story:

William L. Rivers in his book “News in Print: Writing and Reporting”

(Rivers, 1984)72, cited this example: ‘BEIRUT, Lebanon- An American marine was

killed and three others wounded as they were trying to defuse a piece of ordnance at

Beirut’s international airport Thursday. The exact time of the incident and the names

of the marines were omitted from the lead because they were not as important as the

nature of the event itself- the what of the story’.

A slight modification of the lead emphasizes the when of the story as well:

BEIRUT, Lebanon- An American marine was killed and three others wounded as they

were trying to defuse a piece of ordnance at Beirut’s international airport Thursday,

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one day after they had arrived as part of the multinational peacekeeping force in

Lebanon.

In this second version, the timing of the event- only a day after the marines

had arrived to restore peace- adds a bit of irony the story. Sometimes, the who of a

news story deserved the emphasis usually when the person is famous?

The most common of leads- the one we see every day on many pages of the

newspaper- is the news summary lead. It caters to readers who want their news fast

and short. Here is a lead reported by a daily newspaper:

Three youths (who), who apparently wanted a train (why), took a four- car

Boston & Maine freight (what) from the B&M’s yards (where) early Tuesday (when).

The remainder of the story featured the how of the train’s capture down the track two

hours later by a posse of an iron horse and five crewmen.

3.13.2 Cartridge lead

Cartridge lead is another variation of summary lead. This lead is brief and

contains one single news incident, to be expanded later in the story. Its impact makes

it a lead to reserve for important stories (Baskette F. K., 1982)73. Besides being a

straight lead, this lead brings in action and color, and makes the lead on a spot story

fast moving. Not always a lead has to a straight lead. Despite its usefulness, the

inverted pyramid lead is not suitable or desirable for all news situations. The cartridge

lead is abbreviated. Because the first line is short, it must lead readers to discover

what the reporter is talking about (Baskette & Jack, 1977)74. For example: Not in your

life! That sums up the attitudes of four out of five readers who replied to the question:

“Should the death penalty be abolished?”

3.13.3 Striking statement lead/novelty lead

A striking statement is a dramatic version of the simple statement. If reporters

can legitimately try to perplex, startle, or shock the reader, they should do it (Cutlip &

Allen H, 1971)75. For example, in a Chicago daily attempting to awaken readers to the

threat of atomic war, the writer began this lead as: “In the gray damp of early

morning, the first screaming bomb hurtled down on Chicago’s North Side. At 2500

feet, the atomic projectile burst, scattering death and devastation. It was 6:26 A.M”.

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3.13.4 Question lead

The question lead serves best when a problem with reader appeal or public

interest is the central point of the story. Unfortunately, this type lead is used far too

often as a crutch by a reporter who will not take the time to work on another more

effective approach (Baskette F. K., 1982)76. Some editors put a limit on the number of

question leads that can be used. Many editors dislike question lead on the basis that

people read newspapers to get answers, and not to be asked questions. But if the

question is provocative, it may be used as a lead. In a few cases, a simple question

lead will be approved by the editor. For example:

“Volleyball is a contact sport. Right?”

If there’s any doubt, ask Flo Hyman, Debbie Green, or Pat Dowdell. They

spend more hours than the rest of the story. In many cases, however, reporters will

find a question lead inadequate. In some cases, they will have to combine the question

lead with the 1-2-3-4 lead, like this: Just how serious is the reported decline of basic

reading, writing, and math skills among American Schoolchildren?

“A threat to the democracy,” says one successful educational consultant.

“Grossly exaggerated,” says another expert, who has held high-level U.S. educational

posts in the past 20 years.

Although reporters may be able to quote five or six additional speakers, they

can go on quoting them only as long as they say something important and different

from the statements of the people already quoted (Baskette & Jack, 1977)77.

3.13.5 Narrative lead/staccato lead

Julian Harris (1977)78, in his book “Fundamentals of News Gathering and

Editing” suggest that the staccato lead consists of short, clipped words, phrases,

sentences, sometimes separated by dashes or dots, to help create a certain mood for

the story. It usually is descriptive in nature and should not be used if facts of the story

do not justify it. If reporters adopt this lead, they use the storytelling art of fiction

writers. Although reporters must stick to the facts, consider the lure of the following

lead written by a Wall Street Journal reporter.

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“On a dark night six months ago, a shadowy figure stood before a

dilapidated abandoned apartment building on Manhattan’s west side. Lifting a

crowbar, he wrenched loose the sheet metal nailed over the door of the dingy

building. Then he ushered his wife and five children inside. That’s how Jose Rivera

found a home”.

3.13.6 Anecdote lead

To make newspapers more interesting, editors are more likely to approve news

leads that use anecdotes. The anecdotal lead is used when the anecdote is bright and

applicable and not too wasteful of space. It brings the reader quickly into a news

situation that might not attract his attention if it were routinely written. Here is one

that began a series on divorce in the U.S (Baskette F. K., 1982)79. For example:

“As darkness fell Thursday, Adriana Gianturco’s pet rock, a slipping 100-

ton boulder, was still poised precariously on a steep hillside 186 feet above

oceanfront homes in Malibu despite an all-out effort to lower it safely.”

This one begins, as is obvious, with an anecdote. Often, an interesting

anecdote can pull in the readers’ attention like no amount of statistics and straight

narration of facts can. This kind of lead is rarely used for breaking news but works

well for both soft stories and news-based features. But a word of caution, don’t get

carried away with the anecdote and make a mess of the broader point that one want to

talk about. Another attempt to bring the rock down to Pacific Coast Highway was to

be made at first light today, and officials said they hoped they would succeed by 8

A.M.

Because anecdotes are so important in the newspaper, consider using an

anecdote that actually is not told as an anecdote, but merely tells readers that

something happened.

3.13.7 Descriptive lead

As the name suggests, this type of lead goes into great detail to describe the

scene or person that makes up the subject of the story (Neal, 1949)80. The idea is to

create visual impact. So if you are writing a news report about a high-profile murder,

instead of using a boring summary lead informing who was murdered and why you

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could make the piece more impactful by graphically describing the crime scene. A

descriptive lead describes how an event happened rather than simply telling what the

event is about. Eyewitness accounts can provide the background for writing lucid

descriptions which help the reader to visualize a news situation (Harriss, 1977)81.

Although many old-fashioned editors will object to a descriptive lead, more and more

of the younger editors will welcome this kind of lead:

KUNEITRA, Syria- On a wind-swept volcanic plateau where the kings of

Damascus once battled the kings of Biblical Israel, there is a grim monument to a new

and more devastating kind of warfare. The silent ruins of Kuneitra, once a thriving

farming community and summer resort of 52,000 people, epitomize the continuing

tragedy of the present Arab-Israeli conflict (Rivers, 1984)82.

3.13.8 Quotation lead

When a reporter attempts to begin a story by quoting a story by quoting the

speaker in a full sentence or more, the editor will probably pause over that lead and

try to reduce it to a tighter paragraph. Nonetheless, some veteran reporters still write

long leads like this one, which was published in the respected Christian Science

Monitor: “I am so glad your organization exists. Nobody has wanted to listen to my

plight as a woman on the job who is pestered by the sexual advances of male co-

workers. My problem has been treated as a joke, or with unbelief. Even my husband

doesn’t take it seriously. I’m grateful there is finally a place to turn, and that someone

is doing something about it.” (Rivers, 1984)83.

Quotes frequently are the essential documentation for a lead and should be

used immediately after a paraphrase that summarizes them. Here paraphrasing the

verbatim quotation permits the removal of unnecessary words. But if a verbatim

quotation itself is very important or interesting, it can be the lead itself. This lead

would add an element of interest such as drama, pathos, humor, astonishment, or

some other factor that will reach out to the reader (Cutlip & Allen H, 1971)84.

In a few cases, editors will approve of reporters writing the lead in this

fashion. But most editors prefer reporters to write a lead in this fashion. But most

editors prefer reporters to write a lead that carries an orphan quotation, also known as

a broken quotation. Note the crispness of the following lead:

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TEHRAN, Iran- the United States said Thursday it “can’t protect American

lives” in Iran any longer and ordered an emergency evacuation plan into effect for all

U.S. citizens still here.

3.13.9 The suitcase lead

Some lead sounds like the whole story is being thrown in one long breath,

with no pauses. Such leads try to fit all the facts into a short paragraph, putting in the

entire who-what-when-where-why, often at the cost of clarity. Details such as names

of people not instantly recognizable, contextual information that does not aid

understanding of the story can be confusing when provided right at the start (Baskette

F. K., 1982)85. This outcome from the inability to identify the main thrust of the story

and the question to ask oneself is: ‘if I had to tell someone, in a single sentence, the

main point of the story, what would I say? ’

3.13.9 Static lead

The static lead tells you something while also providing descriptive detail. It is

important that there is movement in the lead, that even when you are trying to set the

scene, you give the reader something to hold on to and make progress into the story

with. Similar to this is what some writers call ‘chair sitter’ leads (Baskette & Jack,

1977)86.

The point here is, a led must have something strong to say about the subject at

hand; it should take the story forward, and it should draw the reader into the story

with a strong pull (Schramm, 1957)87. Even in feature stories where the reader might

have more time and inclination to be led gently into the topic, only a strong lead can

stir enough interest to keep the reader there for more than a couple of seconds .

3.14 The body of the story

How one approaches a story depends on the story. For a feature, you may want

to pick the best theme or “news peg” and select additional material that ties in best

with that emphasis. Then you can work in background fact along the way, and use the

less interesting important facts towards the end. For a hard news breaking story, first,

decide what the key action as and simply say it. For the rest of article merely add

information in descending order of importance, using the inverted pyramid pattern.

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No one formula provides total organization. Of course, article must hold together and

move along logically, from the first statement of fact or theme to the last item of

information (Fink, 2008)88.

3.15 Selecting the information for a story

If one has been working on a story on the growth of corporate hospitals and

the changes that have taken place in the health sector in the past decade. One has to

gather all the relevant and essential information pertaining to that story like and also

talked to patients in both types of hospitals, government hospitals, and private

hospitals. One has to done the research on the health sector and have information on

usage, costs, and growth. If one work for a daily newspaper, this will be one story that

is no longer than 750 or 1000 words. The fifty pages of notes need to be sifted

through and you have to decide what to retain and what to leave out. Omit all the

information that does not directly relate to the article, to begin with. Generally, a story

needs the following three kinds of information (Lee-Wright, 2012)89.

• Facts- The five W’s and one H of the event or issue

• Observations- The ‘look and feel’ of the site of action

• Opinions- What key sources have to say about the event or issue.

The three types of information complement each other. For instance, one may

use a source to narrate the key facts or state them hurry, simply acknowledging the

source. The descriptive information too could be provided through an interviewee’s

anecdotes or narrative. It is important to balance straightforward factual statements

with quotes from interviewees and descriptive or analytical narration, particularly in a

feature (Alessio & Allen, 2000).90 The information one chooses to include must be

closely related to the points made in your outline. Many of the sources may have

given the same kind of information or expressed similar opinions. This needs to

include one sample quote that stands perhaps for several people’s opinions- including

every single statement, simply to show that one have interviewed so many sources

does not really illuminate the issue further and instead makes the article unnecessarily

long (Herd, 1952)91.

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Michael L. Johnson (1971)92, in his book “The New Journalism” stated that ‘it

is important, however, to include a range of sources, at different points in the story, so

that by the time you reach the end, you have represented a wide range of people

expressing their opinions on all the issues raised. In the story on corporate hospitals,

for instance, each of the medical professionals was called upon to comment on a

particular aspect, or to express a contrary viewpoint, so that in sum, the range of ideas

and opinions expressed is as varied as the number or people have spoken to’.

3.16 Choosing a narrative structure

When one writes the lead and creates an outline, and also setting the tone of

the story and deciding how it should be told- in other words, creating a frame for the

story. A ‘frame’ provides the readers a way to understand the story, a conceptual

window through which look into the issue or at the event (Summer, 2004)93. Just like

a television producer decides to place his or her camera at a particular point in relation

to the scene, a writer also chooses a vantage point from which to tell the story. Of

course, depending on the number of sources and sites of action and introduce the story

that having multiple frames (just as a television story has multiple camera angles), but

the beginning of the story generally sets the dominant frame (Lowenthal, 1984)94. For

complex stories, one needs to be careful about the frame selection. What sorts of a

narrative are going to build up? To begin with a focus-on-a-person lead, one has to

take the reader close to the issue, while to begin with an abstract summary lead or a

problem-solution lead, it takes a longer shot. Which of these approaches makes the

issues easier to understand and more interesting? (Koopmans, 2004)95

Think of the narrative frame as the style of storytelling. In a straight news

story that strictly follows the inverted pyramid structure, the narrative will be (like the

first Satyam story) straightforward, indicating very clearly the main news value and

using one or more of the five Ws or one H as a key element in the lead (Baskette F.

K., 1982)96. Even here, one can choose either an analytical narrative or a factual one,

and again, the lead is what sets the tone. It is important to intersperse evidence with

analysis and quotes, description with the presentation of research facts, and

viewpoints from key sources. Except in very short stories, one will find that

journalistic stories vary in the kind of information they present from one paragraph to

the next, sometimes even within paragraphs. It is necessary to keep all these elements

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connected and to ensure that they work together to form a coherent whole. This done

by applying a variety of linguistic devices- through the structure of the piece, by the

way, sentences and paragraphs are connected, and in the manner, the story lies it all

together through the beginning, middle, and end (Reddick, 1969)97.

3.17 Transitions

One of the big challenges in writing a story is to signal shifts clearly- shifts in

time or place, voice, subject/topic, or point of view. A very short story that provides

an update or a report of an event may restrict itself to one locus of action, a single

place, and a few sources all speaking from within the context of the event at the same

time (McDougall, 1972)98. Even in such cases, to using more than one source (as most

stories should), one needs to move from the opinions and the facts given by one

person to those provided by the next person, along with own observations or other

background information. So there is no getting away from such shifts; to tell even the

simplest of stories, one needs to move across time, place, and source, verbal

transitions- words that mark such shifts- are like the glue that holds ideas together,

and writing does not flow smoothly unless the transitions work well (Chalaby,

1998)99.

When a story plays itself out and visualizes the way it moves. In much the

same way as a camera moves across a scene, or an editor cut to a different frame, one

can imagine the thread of the story moving from one paragraph to the next. A visual

medium has the advantage of showing these transitions. When a television reporter

speaks to different people, the camera moves with him, so one can see and hear the

different voices and see the physical movement with words so that a reader can move

along with the pictures and voices (Nash W. , 2005)100.

Transitions are like signposts that guide readers through the maze of

information and organize it in such a way that they understand the story. Just adding a

word here, a phrase there, can make a dense sentence much clearer. Look at the two

examples below and see how the addition of a few transitional devices helps the

information flow. Transitions are generally used to move across time, location, or

source, or to introduce new ideas or opinions, or sometimes to indicate a shift in

theme or aspect of discussion (Stepp, Reader Friendly: Their Futures Uncertain, News

85

Papers are Undergoing a Profound Change in the Way they Carry out their Missions,

2000)101.

3.18 Chronology

J. Elliott (2005)102, in his paper “Using narrative in social research:

Qualitative and quantitative approaches” described to ‘recounting an event in

chronological fashion, tell it in a simple straightforward manner, beginning with a

summary of the most significant details and moving either backwards or forwards in a

linear fashion to explain the rest of the story’. When a person describing a single

event, it may be necessary to move to another point of action within the same time

frame. Often a story will involve incidents that occurred at different points in time, all

of which have to be brought together to create a coherent narration that allows the

reader to understand how such events to each other.

3.19 Changing context and place

In complex stories, we take the reader through several contexts and different

places- a source may be interviewed across contexts (home, office, at a conference),

or the story may follow an investigation across several locations, or you may be

describing a physical journey over distances (Bush, 1970)103.

As William L. Rivers (1984)104, in his book “News in Print: Writing and

Reporting” suggests that the story is organized in a linear fashion such that the

geographical contexts overlap with the chronological ones, then it can be simple- just

move in time and space together. However, to jump back and forth between contexts,

a clear transition is necessary for the reader to understand. It is to bring in a new set of

facts, or is it simply to add a new dimension to the story?

3.20 Multiple source and points of view

Gyorgy Kepes (1949), in his work “Fiction of Modern Design” stated that

‘one of the biggest challenges in journalistic writing is keeping the sources straight,

and ensuring the attributes of information correctly. Thus it is important to mark

clearly when to move from one source to the next, especially if one is presenting

several opinions in quick succession’ (Kepes, 1949)105.

86

Bogart L. (1982), in his paper titled “Newspapers in transition” (p.p58-70)

described the simplest way of doing this is to preface every quote with ‘X said’, but

this may not always be the best way to write, and it certainly does make the writing a

little stilted. Instead, it helps to shift sources when there is a new point of view, or

additional information provided by the next source. In such cases, one can use

transitions that mark such shifts: on the other hand, in contrast, in addition, however,

etc. (Bogart, 1982)106.

3.21 Middles and endings of the story

As a move through the story, then build a certain rhythm, balancing fact and

opinion, observation and research, and quotes from all the sources. Depending on the

structure of the story and middle of the story is heavy on fact, description, or

viewpoints from different people. If the story has begun with a summary lead to an

inverted pyramid story, the middle of the story will contain the background

information that explains the climax, leading down to the least important details

(Pietilä, V. 1992)107. For other story structures, the information that comes in the

middle usually depends on how the lead from one point of discussion to the next.

Pacing a story is very important; it gives the reader time to assimilate complex

information while being taken through ‘lighter’ points in the story. Pacing is about

spreading out the complex material in such a way that you do not burden a reader with

too much at one go (Machin & Niblock, 2006)108. Mixing and varying the pace of the

story, ensuring that spread out the facts in a manner that makes them easily

understood, and packaging them in a way that holds the reader’s interest can be quite

a job, but it makes the story that much more captivating (Thussu, 2007)109.

3.22 Strong conclusions of the story

Just as leads offer a way to hook a reader and bring him into an article,

conclusions are a means to leave the reader with something to think about. Even with

the inverted pyramid, which evolved to facilitate editing an article from the bottom

up, so that the most important details could be retained and the least important

removed if space constraints demanded, the ending should be well considered.

However, given that readers are in a hurry, and that news stories and features are not

read in the same way as literary texts, the ending should be efficient and crisp (Dennis

87

& William, 1974)110. The ending wraps up the article neatly- perhaps not conclusive

in term of the issue itself, but marking a logical end to this particular discussion of it.

For a writer who has engaged with a topic, spent several days researching and

documenting it, talking to people about it and finally distilling it all in the form of an

article, endings can be literally the ‘last straw’ and the temptation is to just wind up

and go home. But it is worth spending a few moments longer to craft an ending that is

just as well written as the rest of the article (Rusbridger, 2009)111.

3.23 Keep the reader’s interest

A reader will stay with a short news story from beginning to end without

turning the page; it is not easy to keep someone interested in an article that is longer

than 1thousand words. Therefore, it is important to uses a range of story structures

and styles, trying to pack a mix of topics and themes and even points of view within

an article (Ward, M. 2002)112. Not too much, of course, because that would then end

up sounding choppy and confused. As mentioned earlier the variety takes the form of

including different types and styles of information- straight facts based on research

and observation, quotes, description, and narration. Each of these must be used in

moderation and judiciously, as demanded by the specific story and the possibilities

dictated by deadline, and allocated space (Whitaker, 2008)113.

88

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