Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Inverted Pyramid
Again with the inverted pyramid. There really needs to be more to journalism education that the idea that we need to cover broad information first then slowly specialize. I understand the importance of it and I am not saying we should go over it, it is just that I feel that is all I've learned in classes. when I went to D.C, the inverted pyramid was not what helped me, getting out there and learning how things went and who you needed to talk to when was so much more important. It showed me what kind of beat I may like and how I should go about building sources for a story and really never to trust the government to call you back, much less any major organization. Inverted pyramid is the holy grail of journalism, I am just saying that the holy grail isn't going save me from a bad source. XP is what counts.
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Yes, again with the inverted pyramid. As you know, I don't even like the metaphor. For me it's a triangle in which I have to fit the most important stuff in the tip. Maybe it will help to think of the information you need at the top not as broad information but as important information. What does "important" mean? The who, what, when, why, how of the news (what is new? what fits the news values listed on pages 5 and 6 of your textbook.
As for this being all you've learned in classes, it's true that we come back again and again to the craft -- throughout our careers, actually. And I think you're absolutely right that what changes is the reporting and the content itself.
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