inverted_pyramid
Table of Contents
Inverted pyramid
The inverted pyramid, or summary news lead, is a common article structure in journalism where the vital information is addressed first. It acknowledges the average reader's attention span, and tendency to latch onto a headline. It's also called a BLUF (bottom line, up front).
Analyzing the structure
| Article structure | Expected retention and other details |
|---|---|
| Eye-catching headline An important, brief sentence that determines how many eyes your article will receive. | The most important part of an article, especially once this gets shipped to social media. Of course, an issue with social media is that you will have smart-asses who only read the headline and post a knee-jerk reply without reading, thus where all the “opinion manipulation” bots make bank. |
| Need-to-know information The most vital details of the story, which usually takes up the first 1–3 paragraphs. | The reader may be rewarded with information about the headline. This is more of an achievement on the internet since the relationship between digital readers and journalists have somewhat deteriorated, so people are hesitant to give clicks or wait to be spoon-fed a summary. |
| Digital cut-off (optional) Some outlets will cut off how much you can view without an account or subscription. | The internet once had unlimited free articles, but journalism costs money and tech-savvy users are on the rise, thus the aggression. If this exists, the reader will either: buy a subscription, stop reading, or fight the paywall using a workaround (e.g. archives, AMP versions, extensions, etc.). |
| Additional, lesser details Details of lesser importance. By this point, you've reached a third or half of the article. | By this point, the reader may choose to stop reading, which can either be a lack of attention span or they've reached the point in the article where their mind realizes “Oh, I believe I already know everything else about this, so I don't need to read any further”, which is the intention. |
| General background info Bonus section for curious readers who never heard of anything about the story. | If the reader is still sticking around by this point, they will usually receive a recap of everything so far or details which had led up to the event. If it's about an on-the-spot report, some news outlets will just write less words or paragraphs by this point, which can sometimes be amusing to see. |
External links
- Inverted pyramid (journalism) on Wikipedia
inverted_pyramid.txt · Last modified: 2024-09-23 00:24:07 by 127.0.0.1