Journalism
154 flashcards by MentisLibrary
Reporting and writing the news: story structures and ledes, sourcing and verification, interviewing, editing and headlines, media law from libel to shield laws, ethics, and how broadcast and digital formats differ.
- Inverted pyramid
- A story structure that puts the most newsworthy facts in the first paragraph and arranges the rest in descending order of importance.
- Lede
- The opening sentence or paragraph of a story, carrying its most important news. The spelling 'lede' is newsroom jargon; 'lead' is also correct.
- What are the five Ws and the H?
- Who, what, when, where, why and how: the questions a complete news story answers.
- Summary lede
- A lede that states the core facts of the news directly in one short sentence, the default for hard news.
- Delayed lede
- A lede that opens with a scene, anecdote or person and holds the main point for a later paragraph.
- Nut graf
- The paragraph, usually within the first few, that states what the story is about and why it matters. The name is short for 'nutshell paragraph'.
- Burying the lede
- Placing the most newsworthy fact deep in the story instead of at the top.
- Kicker
- The final line of a story, often a quote or image that closes it with a snap. In headline layout the same word means a short line set above the main headline.
- Wall Street Journal formula
- A feature structure: an anecdotal lede about one person, a nut graf that widens to the trend, a body that develops it, and a kicker that returns to the opening.
- Hourglass structure
- A story that begins as an inverted pyramid, then turns with a line such as 'Police gave this account:' into a chronological narrative. Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute named it.
- Attribution
- Naming the source of a fact or quote so readers know where it came from.
- Why do journalists prefer 'said' over 'stated' or 'exclaimed'?
- 'Said' is neutral and nearly invisible, so it reports what was spoken without characterizing the speaker's tone or intent.
- Partial quote
- A fragment of what someone said, set in quotation marks inside a paraphrased sentence.
- When may you alter a direct quote?
- Almost never. You may drop filler such as 'um' and fix an obvious slip of the tongue, but the words inside quotation marks must be what the person said.
- Time element
- The 'when' of a story, usually a day of the week, placed after the verb rather than at the start of the lede.
- Dateline
- The place name at the start of a story, in capitals, marking where the reporter reported from.
- Byline
- The line naming the author of a story.
- Slug
- A one- or two-word internal label used to track a story through the editing process.
- Graf
- Newsroom shorthand for a paragraph.
- TK
- A placeholder meaning 'to come', marking a fact, name or figure still to be filled in.
- -30-
- The traditional mark typed at the end of a newspaper story to tell editors and typesetters the copy is complete.
- Second-day story
- A follow-up that advances a story with new information, reaction or context after the initial report. Also called a folo.
- Localizing a story
- Reframing a national or wire story around its effect on the outlet's own audience.
- Enterprise story
- A story the reporter originates through digging, curiosity or observation rather than one driven by an event or a press release.
- Spot news
- Unscheduled breaking events, such as fires, crashes and crimes, covered as they happen.
- Hard news vs soft news
- Hard news is timely reporting on events of public importance; soft news is feature, lifestyle and entertainment material with less urgency.
- Feature story
- A story that explores a subject through people, scenes and detail rather than reporting a single timely event.
- Profile
- A feature that portrays one person through reporting, observation and interviews with people who know them.
- Sidebar
- A shorter companion piece that runs beside a main story to cover one angle in depth.
- Evergreen
- A story that is not tied to a date and can run at any time.