National Institute of Mass Communication & Journalism, Ahmedabad

 

Journalism is a complicated job because journalists need to project information, which causes the expected impact on the readers. At the same time, the news should not sound repetitive or miss any important fact or mould it otherwise.

For effective writing in journalism, the inverted pyramid is a really popular style. All popular journalism and mass communication colleges in India cover this style of writing in detail. To make it easy to understand for you, we will briefly explain what the inverted pyramid is in journalism.

This writing technique follows a downward order of its significance. Moreover, it focuses on 5 Ws and 1 H:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

According to popular journalism and mass communication colleges in India when journalists use the inverted pyramid technique to write the news, they segment it into three different layers and write it accordingly.

These three layers are explained briefly hereunder:

Lead

• The first part of the inverted pyramid is called a lead.
• This segment contains all the important information, which makes the news read worthy.
• A journalist need to mention all significant information covering 5 Ws and 1H in this section:
  • Who did it and who will be affected?
  • What actually happened?
  • When did it happen?
  • Where the incident took place?
  • Why this happened?
  • How all this happened?
• According to leading journalism and mass communication colleges in India this section should be at the top of the news and disseminate all significant details about the news. If the reader skips reading after the first layer of the pyramid, still he should hold the knowledge of the complete news.

Body

• The middle part of the inverted pyramid is known as the body.
• As the name suggests, this part is the body of the news and that is why it will contain more details about the news.
• The relevant video clips, photos, etc. will be shown in this section.
• It will also share the statements released by the parties or officials on the incident under discussion.
• All detailed facts, evidence, etc. will be shown on this stage of the inverted pyramid.
• The best journalism and mass communication colleges in India share that this part of the pyramid must shed light on the whole incident from the beginning to end in detail along with talking about the untangled strings related to the incident.

Tail

• The last stage of the pyramid is the tail.
• The conclusion of the news will be covered in this layer of the pyramid.
• Along with the concluding notes, it may also cover other incidents taking place or possibly take place in accordance with the incident that has happened.
• This section may also refer to similar incidents that had happened in the past.

The field of journalism is vast and lucrative. To become a successful journalist, one must join NIMCJ, which is one of the best journalism and mass communication colleges in India.

---

---