Page 83 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

Traditional News Writing and the Web

The easiest way to make a story interesting, even a brief and to-the-
point Web story, is to give it a voice. The voice a Web writer wants to
give a story is the voice of the people making the news, not his or her
own voice as a writer. In print, it is often considered a virtue for the
reporter to develop a distinct voice. For the Web, you want to go back
to basics and stick with a recounting of the most valuable facts.
Quotes are the key to giving a Web news story personality without
taking the time to impose your own writing voice on the story. The
second or third paragraph of a story should ideally be a quote from
someone who can support the facts of the lead with the pop of emo-
tion or the weight of experience. A good quote will make the reader
interested in the story, even if the facts in the lead failed to produce
much of a response.
Once the news has been delivered in the lead and the human factor
has been established in the supporting quote, it’s time for the “nut
graph.”

Nut Graph
The “nut graph” is a paragraph high up in the story, usually the fourth 73
or fifth paragraph, that explains why the story is important. It gives the
story context, and it is just another element of the way news stories
have been written for years.
The headline and lead deliver the news. The first supporting quote
makes you care about the story. The job of the nut graph is to tell
you why you should care or why it’s an important story. Again, strong
similarities exist between writing for the Web and writing for print
except that Web writing should be more direct and lean than writing
you might find in print.
The nut graph is often used as a way to recap a long-running story
like a trial. The story of the day might be that a judge has unexpectedly
declared a mistrial. The lead and the quote will capture the facts and
drama of the moment. The nut graph follows up the news with a brief
explanation of why there was even a trial in the first place.
Once the nut graph has let the reader know that, for example,
the mayor was on trial for embezzling $10 million in city funds over
6 years, you can move on to the body of the story.

Body
The body of any story is just gravy. The reader should have all of the
basic facts about a story by the fourth or fifth paragraph. After that