The types and functions of News Leads

侯志文

Abstract： News leads are playing a very important role in setting the mood for this news story. How to make the leads more interesting is of signifance. This article is discussing about the types and functions of leads.

Key words： news leads， types， features

一、Types of Lead

There are various kinds of news. It is natural that the different corresponding leads are applied in different news. How can we understand these leads？ It is necessary to have an overview of the classification of the lead. According to different standards there are many types of lead. As far as the nature of the story are concerned， leads can fall into two categories： “hard” leads and “soft” leads. A hard lead is suited for an urgent， breaking event， while a soft lead is more indirect and suited to feature writing. In terms of the number of paragraphs ， it can be classified as direct lead and delayed lead. As for the usage or purpose， it includes contrast lead， question lead， quotation lead， label lead， combined lead， descriptive lead， anecdotal lead， etc. However， leads with different characteristics can be classified into two main kinds： direct lead and delayed lead. Now we will mainly discuss the direct lead， the delayed lead.

（一） Direct Lead/Summary Lead.

A direct lead tells readers the most important aspects of the story in a direct and straightforward way， and is often used in news reporting. This type of lead is used more than any other one. It is no more than a simple declarative sentence that says what happened. It is kept short， to the point， and does not concern itself with anything but the most basic of facts. On the Web-sites of newspapers and online news services， journalists usually use the direct lead in order to save time and space by omitting some unimportant factors. It is the mainstay of stories.

For the young generations， we are used to reading news on the internet. So the traditional newspaper begins to show its weak points. The direct lead is used in most stories. Here is an examples taken from the internet which are direct leads.

Eg.7：

Washington—The U.S. economy added 192，000 jobs in February， in line with expectations， the fastest job growth since last spring. The rate of unemployment ticked down to 8.9 percent.

（ Newyork times， March 5， 2011）

From the above examples above， we can see that a lead is the minature of the news story， giving readers the storys most important facts. In other words， the direct lead concentrates on all the essentials or elements of the report in the first paragraph.

（二） The Delayed Lead

The Delayed Lead generally consists of more than one paragraph， we may call it multi-paragraph lead. When a news writer of the lead considers his lead a unit of thought， he may try to sum up the facts in several paragraphs or in the second or the third paragraph but not the first one. This kind of leads inform readers of the the content of the story indirectly. Unlike summary lead， delayed lead does not require important facts to be put at the very beginning of the news story， but at the later part of the lead. Here is an example of delayed lead.

Eg.8：

ROME—In response to the murderous tactics of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafis militias against unarmed protesters， the United States and the European Union have announced steps to freeze the regimes assets. The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into Libyas possible crimes against humanity.

（ Newyork times， March 2， 2011）

This is a typical delayed leads. We can see that the main fact is not told at the beginning， but lies in the second， third even fourth paragraphs because the journalists want the readers continue their reading. So they must suspend their curiosity. It is worth mentioning that there are no absolute rules about when the direct or the delayed lead should be used. The lines between these two kinds of lead tend to blur. Generally speaking， the direct lead used on hard news and the delayed lead used on soft news.

二、Functions of Lead

As we have discussed in the above parts， writing leads often is the most challenging part of putting together a good news or a feature story. In general， news editors write soft news with soft leads， hard news with hard leads. In other words， the type of lead is determined by the type of story. Hard news usually refers to up-to-the-minute news and events that are reported immediately. Timeliness and on-the-spot are very important features of hard new while soft news mainly means feature or human-interest stories whose purpose is not to just let people know something， but also to entertain， educate or advise the readers or listeners. Lets give attention to the functions of the lead and analyse them in depth. A lead generally performs two main functions：

（一）Sum Up the News.

The sum up of a news is very cruicial to judge whether a lead is a success or not since it is so effective that a good lead can be regarded as a one-sentence story. Of course it is not perform this function， reporters must try to tell the most important points in a limited place and summarize the story in the most suitable and refined words. A good lead makes a clear statement of the essential news point and when possible includes a detail that distinguishes the story from others of its kind. Some journalists even maximize it into a single sentence； some news agencies limit the number of words in the lead. Lets take a look at the following example：

Eg.9：

BEIJING - Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday unfolded the road map for Chinas social and economic development during the next five years， setting targets for the quality and efficiency of economic growth and speaking about the transformation of the growth mode and economic restructuring. （ China daily， March 6， 2011）

The above lead is taken from the news about Premier Wen Jiabao who delivers his government work report during the opening ceremony of the National Peoples Congress （NPC） at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing March 5， 2011.

From the example above， we can conclude that a good lead can be limited into one sentence. This example is a perfect one to show that reporters must try to tell the most important points in a limited place and summarize the story in the most suitable and refined words.

（二） Set the Tone.

The mood of a whole story is often fixed with an effective lead， so it is easy to go on organizing the rest of the story after the lead. Begin with any of several leads， all of which create a mood for readers. The lead should not only tell the readers the essence of the event， but also to set the tone of the news. The following example can provide us with the inspiration for how to write a lead aimed to set the tone of the news story.

Eg.10：

BEIJING - The Chinese government will firmly curb the excessively rapid rise of housing prices in some cities this year， Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday， voicing the determination to cool the red-hot property market.

The government aims to“genuinely stabilize housing prices and meet the reasonable demands of residents for housing”， Wen said when delivering a government report to open annual session of the National People's Congress （NPC）， the top legislature.

（China daily， March 6， 2011）

It goes without saying that the first paragraph have set the tone for the whole news， the second paragraphs is trying to explain or give more details about how to cool the red-hot housing market. So the first paragraph， or we may say， the lead is of great significance in setting the mood for this news story.