The inverted pyramid style of writing news articles has been a staple of print journalism. How does the style translate to online news? I investigated and found three articles which I think are representative of current use of the inverted pyramid. Two of the three articles I read made good use of the inverted pyramid. One did not.
I first read a short article about South Dakota Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin’s announcement that she is going to run for re-election to the United States House of Representatives in 2010. The first paragraph stated this who-what-when. The second paragraph quoted Sandlin and included her reasons for running again. Thus the reader had the important information in very few words. The article then included a small amount of information on her present duties and concluded with some family information, all secondary to the main point of the article.
The next article was about President Obama’s statement that a second stimulus bill might be needed. The theme of the article was readily apparent as the reaction by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was a sub-heading, then was repeated in the second paragraph. He is strongly against another bill. The rest of the article included quotations from the president, along with more negative coverage on the proposal. The writers used the inverted pyramid to highligh Reid’s position. The president’s position was included, but not until later paragraphs. I do not agree with the writers that Reid’s reaction was the most important way to present the story. Although I agree with his opinion, I think the article should have focused more on the president’s statement and reasons.
The third article I read used the inverted pyramid poorly. The article was about a project to renovate an old building in a small town in South Dakota. First of all, the lead was confusing.
“A wind power wunderkind is waking up the echoes again on a dormant and decaying campus that once gave vision to the blind.”
What did he say? It wasn’t until the third paragraph that the reader could read the who-what-where-when. The article continued by giving the history of the building. Then it returned to the renovation process and the owner’s restoration of a nearby lake. I would have liked all of the information on the renovation and restoration closer to the beginning of the article. The writer’s theme became evident, the history of the building as well as the renovation, however, the article seemed disjointed.
