Straight News

News stories are carefully constructed to enlighten audiences and to uphold journalism's civic function as society's Fourth Estate or “watchdog.” Generally, journalists choose one of three presentation forms when constructing news: straight (hard, spot) news, feature (soft) news, and editorial/opinion. Each category is distinctive in its purpose and process. Some reporters lament, however, that these traditional boundaries are evaporating in the wake of changing economics of the news business, new technologies, and growth of celebrity journalism.

Basically, straight news satisfies the public's “need to know” what happened or what was disclosed within the previous 24 hours. These are timely reports of local, national, and international events told with a sense of urgency. In a newspaper, the first page and front section generally run only straight news stories—issues in debate or events filled with conflict and action. In television news programs, the lead stories usually are straight news. Objectivity, fairness, and balance are hallmarks of straight news. It is intended simply to inform, whereas feature news entertains, and editorials and opinion columns offer analysis and point of view.

As for process, straight news is characteristically defined by universal journalistic conventions. First, the inverted pyramid style is the standard for straight news. This means that the first sentence of a newspaper straight news story is the most important part and the last sentence the least important. The inverted pyramid format is designed to help readers decide early on whether they have the time or inclination to read all the way through to the end. A well-written straight news story enables a reader to stop reading at any time after the first paragraph and still come away with a story's main point.

This preconception influences a reporter's selection of details to include in a straight news story, how points are organized within the story's body, and the tone used to tell the story. Journalists are trained to use the inverted pyramid as a template for writing straight news—and do so automatically without even thinking about it. Editors may confidently cut stories from the bottom up to make room on a page for breaking news. Furthermore, copy editors know to write straightforward, subject-verb headlines using traditional, conservative fonts for straight news stories. Creative imagery and clever wordplay generally are reserved for feature story headlines.

Second, straight news also is distinguished by use of a summary lead (or lede)—the first, fact-packed sentence that identifies the five W's and H (who, what, when, where, why, and how). Journalism scholar James Carey has suggested that all too often news stories fall short when it comes to the “why” and “how” because these story components usually require deeper explanation than space or time—both expensive commodities in journalism—will allow. By contrast, features usually begin with a delayed (or blind) lead in order to pique readers' curiosity.

Based on one fact set, the following are examples of three varieties of leads.