With week 3 of classes come and gone, in
JOUR1111 we began to look at the importance of text and it’s role in
journalistic writing. With the inverted pyramid first and foremost on
everyone’s mind, we delved into particulars on how text appeals to a reader
and, most importantly, what parts of text.
The ‘four W’s and H” constructing a central
base for the story and base of our pyramid, it becomes the priority of the
story. We discovered that by leading in with the necessities of the story while
following with the less significant particulars and information, allows the
article to be adapted to many different media forms.
We then moved on to the role of the Poynter
Eye track to justify the way text is positioned. The Poynter Eye Track thrives
of the fact that western readers read from top to bottom, left to right. With
this information put to use, it makes the top left-hand corner the most
valuable part of the page. Therefore journalist keep the writing in that part
as the ‘hook’: the Headline or statement with reels the readers in.
The headline is possibly the most important part of an article. It is what invites the reader in and essentially entices them to read. The other day I came across an article in the Brisbane Times titled Guns, Drugs, a Knife and Two Snakes: now if that’s not great headline, then I don’t know what is! I was immediately intrigued, however what if the article was simply called “Man’s House Raided”, would I have still read the article? The use of shocking words such as these or puns and alliterations appeal to readers and this title holds none of those literary tools; it holds no intrigue or mystery. The text does not capture my attention and if I’ve learnt anything from this week, it’s that the ability to capture a reader's attention is the most coveted tool in the world of journalism.
Photo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid
No comments:
Post a Comment