Inverted pyramid. The important stuff first

Jargon of the day: Inverted pyramid


The inverted pyramid is a form of news story where the important facts of the story are listed first and then the smaller details follow. This method is used so that people get the heart of the story right off the bat. After someone has read all the important information in the story, they will most likely keep on reading all the smaller, less important bits of information.

The most important thing to remember when writing a news article is that you want to keep your readers attention. By using the inverted pyramid, your readers are engaged from the beginning.

Check out this story on the Pocono Record that uses the inverted pyramid style of writing to talk about a protest on the campus of ESU.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090226/NEWS/90226013/-1/NEWS

Check out the "mug" on this one

Jargon of the Day: Mug

If someone in a newsroom says "get me a mug" they don't mean a cup of coffee. A mug is a mugshot or a small photo of someone. These small photos help illustrate the story.

Typically, these "mugs" accompany stories where someone was arrested, or someone was charged with a crime. Their picture will usually run along with the story to show who the person in question is.

Everyone knows Lindsay Lohan right? Last July, Lohan was arrested for drunk driving and cocaine possession. The actress, 21, was driving at high speeds down a highway in Santa Monica. When she was pulled over she failed a field sobriety test and was found with cocaine in her pants.

This mug shot surfaced and accompanied almost every article that covered this story.

Photos like these help capture the essence of the story. The picture allows the reader to see that Lohan was less then "together" at the time of her arrest.

As "a-matter" of fact ...

Jargon of the day: A-matter

When the background of a story is outlined without having specific or important details about the story, that's called a-matter. It is also sometimes called a b-copy. It is useful to have the basics of a story outlined before your write it because 1) you have something to work with before you start writing and 2) it saves time when your working on a deadline.

The a-matter is basically the who, what, when, where and why of the story. After you have this information, the rest of the details will come later to make a complete story.


In the case of the 14-year old chimp who Mauled a woman in Connecticut, the a-matter of the story would be:
- where this took place: Connecticut, at the home of the chimps owners
- Who was involved: the victim Charla Nash and the owner of the chimp
- When it happend: Monday, Feb. 16th
- Why: reasons unknown

Basically, this chimp who was trained to do very human-like things attacked a friend of its owner out of no where and bruatally mauled her. This is why I dont have pets.

Teaser. Want to know more?

Jargon of the day: teaser

Have you ever read the news paper and noticed a brief line or two that mentions something about a story inside the paper? That is called a teaser.

These little two liners are usually found in the corner of the paper somewhere, and they would say something like "sex scandal questions need answers see A2"

If you were to find this interesting, you might open up the paper and flip to A2 and see what this article is all about. Those two little lines can be more intriguing then the photos on the front page. This my friends, is how they lure you into reading the rest of the paper. Because once you find that article interesting, you might read on some more.

Dateline. Where did that happen again?

Jargon of the Day: Dateline

Dateline, is the location a story happened, usually found in the beginning of an article in all caps. It gives the readers a sense of location when they are reading the story.

A recent story from the Pocono Record started off this way ...
"RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) -- A Long Island woman who ran over and killed her husband with a sport-utility vehicle while she was drunk has been sentenced to prison."

Riverhead NY would be the dateline in this case. Now the reader can continue to read the article, knowing that this crazy woman was from Riverhead. Apparently the woman was drunk and arguing with her husband. When he tried to stop her from leaving the parking lot, she ran him over crushing his chest. Talk about tough love.

Inside. Phelps reaches new high?

Jargon of the day: inside.

Meaning, maybe we shouldn't run this story about Michael Phelps smoking from a marijuana pipe at a house party on the front page. Let's run the story inside.

Yes, its true. Mighty Mike was photographed inhaling from a marijuana pipe at a house party while visiting the University of South Carolina. His proud sponsors, Speedo and Swiss watch maker Omega, are letting this "little" incident slide since he openly and sincerely apologized for his actions.

If I were the editor of a news paper, I would not run this story on the front page of the paper. I would throw it on the inside of the sports section. I mean, so what- the Olympic hero smoked a little grass, I'm not going to exploit the poor guy.

When it comes to newspapers, editors have to be very selective on what they choose to put on the front page and what they choose to run inside. The day after the superbowl, a photo of the winning team is always on the front page of the papers, because that's what people care about, thats the big news of the day. I don't think people care as much for Mr. Phelps and his frat party slip up. Well leave that up to the Enquirer to tackle.