Effective Lead Analysis

A story was posted on the Miami Herald website on Wed, Mar. 28, 2007. This was the title:

Botched robbery leads to chaos at Miami Beach bank

The lead was as follows:

"A mysterious caller played a ''cat-and-mouse'' game with police Tuesday, threatening to open fire on a busy Miami Beach street if they did not release a bank robbery suspect."

This is a salient feature lead. It only highlights one outstanding aspect of the story: the fact that an anonymous caller was threatening to pick off good, law-abiding Miamians in the middle of rush hour. This wasn't the main focus of the story and the lead certainly doesn't encompass all the facts of the story: the actual bank robbery, apprehension of the suspect, etc.

The reason why this lead is so effective is that it's exciting. It pulls the reader into the story with the promise of the gritty, cop-drama action television has familiarized him with that he loves so very much. Any good high school English teacher will tell you that the key to a good story, the way to get your reader to actually read it, is to have an attention-grabbing first paragraph and better yet, to have a scintillating first line. Once the reader sees this, his attention will be suficiently grabbed and he will be interested to read more. This is the same strategy employed in this story. The idea of a man threatening to open fire on Miami commuters unless police release a bank robbery suspect is eye-catching; it encourages the target audience to read on and it is quite effective.

Absence of Malice Review

Absence of Malice brought up some very interesting journalistic issues concerning responsibility, accuracy and truth in reporting. The most provocative question the movie posed was if "truth" is really true. Most individuals in professions in which the "truth" is a pivotal and necessary aspect rarely consider what truth is exactly or what constitutes it.

This is especially pertinent in journalism.

Few journalists take the time to "stop scribbling, put the ballpoint pen down" and think about the effects of their actions and whether or not what they're reporting is fact or opinion. They strive to be objective which is defined in many journalists' minds as reporting "THE TRUTH." However, what most reporters fail to realize is that the meaning of the word, "truth," is subjective.

The word, truth, is all too often overused and under-interpreted nowadays. As it is used and overused, the real meaning and force behind this magnificent word becomes bastardized and trite. Oftentimes journalists hide behind the word. As Sally Field espoused in Absence of Malice when Paul Newman accused her story as the reason behind his sister's suicide, "I was just reporting the truth."

The truth indeed; in this age of uncertainty not only journalists but all of us must take more stock in what we talk about and say of others. We must think before we act; thinking about the consequences of our words and our doings. Only then can we become more responsible and sympathetic people.