D5: Leads & Storytelling

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The first challenge in news writing is recognizing the story within a set of facts. That’s a different way of reading agency reports and weighing at information. It’s all about putting what your readers want or need to know first. (Give this video time to load)

The last few weeks we’ve been practicing how to sift the facts for news. YOU NEED TO RECOGNIZE WHAT READERS WII CARE ABOUT OR NEED TO KNOW. That’s first. Then you can decide on the best way to tell that story. If you have space limitations, a hard news lead, followed by supporting details of lesser significance— what we call inverted pyramid structure– is a safe bet.

That’s not the most satisfying way to tell a story.  When you have information from a number of sources and an important story to tell, a feature topped by a soft news lead yields a more satisfying read. I’ll discuss the difference drawing on versions of two of our exercises this semester. 

We practice this with reports from troopers and other agencies, in part because each reflects organizational priorities that don’t always have much to do with the news. Identifying the story your readers will care about– in other words, applying news judgment is a crucial first step.

If the video doesn’t automatically load, click here.

For this weeks discussion post a link to a story topped by a “soft” lead you found interesting. Among the signature elements: a lead that pulls you in without giving the full story, and a nut-graph, generally two of three paragraphs later, which clarifies what the story covers. For discussion: CUT AND PASTE THAT NUT GRAPH UNDER YOUR LINK
-O’D

About Brian ODonoghue

Alaska journalist. Accidental professor. Muckraker. Recovering dog musher. Proud pop of Rory, Robin & Rachel.

28 Replies to “D5: Leads & Storytelling”

  2. https://www.thedodo.com/close-to-home/rottweiler-dog-guards-bread
    soft lead: Some pups make excellent guard dogs – but this 6-year-old dog named Jakey uses her skills to protect something a bit unusual.

    nut graf: While most dogs stand watch over the house, Jakey sets a more reasonable goal. She watches over her family’s bread when they’re away. “She started this four years ago when we moved to our farm,” Katrina Frank, Jakey’s mom, told The Dodo. “Every time we would leave she would hide the bread.”

  3. Soft Lead: Alaska residents may change their flight itinerary due to the coronavirus.

    Nut Graf: On Tuesday evening, Alaska Airlines has sent out a notification that stating that people are able to change their flight itinerary due to the coronavirus scare. It encouraged to limit travel even within the US.

  4. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/sports/coronavirus-sports.html

    Soft Lead: With the death toll from the coronavirus surpassing 3,000 worldwide, the ramifications have spread to nearly every aspect of life, with sports no exception.

    Nut Graph: For now, it’s all systems go, officials say. At a news conference on Wednesday, Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said that at a recent meeting of the executive committee, “Neither the word ‘cancellation’ nor the word ‘postponement’ was even mentioned.”

    • #1 A bit too detailed for a soft lead. Plus the death toll number is such a moving target it undercuts the story’s currency. Better bet: Ramifications of the coronavirus threat are spreading to nearly every aspect of life, with sports no exception.
      To make the point about soft leads being a tease. The first sentence of #2 here would serve as a soft news lead.
      #2 And yes, this lead, with or without the first sentence IS as Hard news:. For now, it’s all systems go, officials say. At a news conference on Wednesday, Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said that at a recent meeting of the executive committee, “Neither the word ‘cancellation’ nor the word ‘postponement’ was even mentioned.”

  5. https://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/spooky-blood-snow-invades-antarctic-island-n1145256

    That blood (or “jam” as the researchers whimsically call it) is actually a type of red-pigmented alga called Chlamydomonas Chlamydomonas nivalis, which hides in snowfields and mountains worldwide. The algae thrive in freezing water and spend winters lying dormant in snow and ice; when summer comes and the snow melts, the algae bloom, spreading red, flower-like spores.

    • Soft lead all the way.
      How to tell? This wonderfully descriptive passage does not clearly establish what the full story story that follows will cover. The writer could shift to nearly any aspect of the unfolding threat or virus science in general.

  6. https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/28/health/coronavirus-uncounted-cases-community-spread/index.html

    Soft Lead: If you show up at NYU Langone Health in New York City with a fever and a cough, they’re going to assume you have the novel coronavirus.

    Nut graf:

    The New York University doctors and other experts are convinced there could be more novel coronavirus cases in the United States than have been officially announced. More than 60 cases have been identified in the US.

    • This isn’t just great, it’s a perfect demonstration of how a soft lead works in tandem with a nut graph.
      For storytelling purposes, the writer could insert a suggestive quote between the pair. As a reader, I absolutely want to hear a quoted comment following the the nutgraph.

    • Chilling nut graph, indeed, Jade, all the more for the perp’s confessional comment captured in the video.

      Truth is stranger than anything can make up. See Harrower page 102 for three hard-edged soft leads by police beat legend Edna Buchanan.

  9. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/world/asia/coronavirus-treament-recovery.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage&login=smartlock&auth=login-smartlock

    nut graf:
    Of the 44,672 coronavirus cases that were confirmed in China by Feb. 11, more than 36,000 – or 81 percent – were mild, according to a study published recently by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases were considered mild if they did not involve pneumonia, defined as infection of the lungs, or involved only mild pneumonia, the authors wrote in the study, which is among the largest to date of the new coronavirus.

    • The offers data, offering perspective on what appears to be a section of a larger article. That link opens on a page which, in my opinion, offers this second-graph nut.
      ” But government officials and medical experts, in their warnings about the epidemic, have also sounded a note of reassurance: Though the virus can be deadly, the vast majority of those infected so far have only mild symptoms and make full recoveries.”

  10. How the Coronavirus Revealed Authoritarianism’s Fatal Flaw

    https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/02/coronavirus-and-blindness-authoritarianism/606922/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

    How did Xi Jinping–the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, who has been consolidating his power since taking over the post in 2012–let things get to this point? It might be that he didn’t fully know what was happening in his own country until it was too late. Xi would be far from the first authoritarian to have been blindsided. Ironically, for all the talk of the technological side of Chinese authoritarianism, China’s use of technology to ratchet up surveillance and censorship may have made things worse, by making it less likely that Xi would even know what was going on in his own country.

    • This is an interesting one, demonstrating that a nut doesn’t summarize the story. It prepares the reader for that the story will address. That’s particularly important with complex that will cover a lot of ground.

  11. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/he-was-found-dead-in-a-lake-from-a-benadryl-overdose-now-his-wife-has-been-charged-with-murder/ar-BB10r4UH?ocid=spartandhp

    He Was Found Dead in a Lake From a Benadryl Overdose. Now His Wife Has Been Charged With Murder.

    (nut graf)

    For two years, the drowning was believed to be the result of a tragic accident–but Idaho authorities now believe that his wife, a convicted embezzler, murdered Larry Isenberg, who was discovered in the lake with a lethal amount of Benadryl in his system.

    • Gotta admit! This one had me reeled in! I was living in CDA, at the time this happened. North Idaho College sits on the bank of Lake Coeur d’Alene. However, I don’t recall hearing about this. Lake CDA is a pretty big lake, so I’m not surprised she thought she’d get away with it. Crazy!