a/ direct, b/ attribution, c/ delayed, d/ summary, e/ decision.
I gave these examples in my presentation. A couple from the Brag magazine including delayed and attribution, as opposed to some newspaper articles that more often incorporated elements of summary, direct, and occasionally decision.
2. Analyse them and consider whether they do the job of capturing attention and conveying the story's central message.
I thought the approaches to the intro were fairly appropriate. Brag is a music magazine, similar to Reverb. With content such as interviews, character profiles, and reviews, intros with attribution or delayed approaches were appropriate for reviews, and 'behind-the-scenes' style interviews and band profiles.
On the other hand, the ones I included from the newspapers were more often employing styles such as summary and direct, for the sake of updating the public or reporting breaking news. This contrasted with the feature articles included in Brag. Decision was least frequent, at least amongst the various articles I researched.
3. Select five news-story intros at random from a daily newspaper and calculate the average word length. Do a letter count, noting the number of words in each intro with more than eight letters. Rank the intros from most to least readable. Have sentence and word length had an effect on readability?
On the whole, yes. Longer words and verbose sentences were a little more overwhelming when compared to the more concise and succinct writing. Sometimes long words were still easy to read if they were familiar like 'information' etc. The only other exceptions were names that were included. Names eight letters or longer didn't hinder the readability in the same way that other long or unfamiliar words did.
4. Rewrite the following as a concise, one-sentence intro:
Thunderstorms yesterday afternoon blew over powerlines creating blackouts at Broken Hill, snapped limbs from trees throughout the town, including a camphor laurel near the main street, and knocked over numerous wheelie bins, sending rubbish through the area. Power was off in the town for 12 hours before service was restored to the 350 homes affected.
Thunderstorms left destruction in Broken Hill yesterday after knocking over bins, trees, and powerlines, causing blackouts in 350 homes for 12 hours.
5. Identify an important national or international story which is significant enough to be covered by a range of media outlets. Go to Australian newspaper websites and find and print at least two different versions of the same story, each with different intros. Compare the intros and rank them in order from the most informative and appealing to the least.
- ALEXANDER Downer has revealed government MPs considered turfing John Howard as leader but resolved to lock in behind the PM. (Daily Telegraph)
- Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says government MPs have decided to lock in behind John Howard after considering their options. (Sydney Morning Herald)
The Daily Telegraph is obviously more sensationalised, but I feel it intrigued me to read on the most.
6. Write the first two paragraphs of a story based on the following facts:
- Your city's ratepayers' association will hold a meeting at 7:30pm on Tuesday. Association president Helen Rosebury said residents will consider concerns about the city council's new policy of requiring permits for off-street parking in residential areas.
- Your city's mayor will attend the meeting
- The meeting will be held at 10 Bryce Street
- Ms Rosebury said some residents wanted to discuss a strategy to disrupt the next council meeting from the public gallery
- The mayor said he expected the controversy to be resolved on Tuesday night
- The new parking permits will cost $50 per year
The local ratepayers' association will hold a meeting at 7:30pm at 10 Bryce St on Tuesday, to discuss concerns about the council's new policy of requiring permits for off-street parking in residential areas.
Association President Helen Rosebury says some residents want to discuss strategies for these $50 annual permits, and the mayor expects the controversy to be resolved on Tuesday night when he attends.
Thoughts on the reading.
My class presentation was on the art of the intro, and consequently I found this especially important and useful. The 'shock-horror' guide to intros was particuarly informative, as the simple and clear structure of 'top 10 tips' style articles has always appealed to me.
I felt like points such as 1 and 10 were simply givens and therefore didn't teach me anything new, however points like 5, 7, and especially 4 helped me get a better grasp on how to approach a challenging story. The 'over the fence' technique was a strategy I really hadn't considered, and gave me a really different methodology to think about.
Overall the chapter was relatively helpful, not simply for my presentation but additionally because understanding the art of the intro is one of the most fundamental aspects of being a successful journalist.
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