Leads

In this post I would like to discuss the importance of a good lead. I personally dislike boring ones that get straight to the point in normal journalists' stories. I appreciate the ones that keep you reading through the first paragraph and continue to engage you throughout the peice. One article that I believe does this very well is published by the New York Times. the article is called, "More Wander Off in Fog of Age". The introduction can be found here. I like that it doesn't give it the entire story away in the first sentence. One thing that gets me about leads in journalism is that they often have to follow rules and be so precise, but my favorite are when these rules are not followed, as shown in the example from above.

Another thing, besides just the lead, that I enjoyed about this article was the multimedia packaging that was concurrent with the story. It help give the story an emotional appeal which is much needed when discussing a topic such as dementia. Without this intriguing lead and multimedia packaging, the emotional appeal would not be attached.

Another emotional appeal that is attached to this publication is the quotes. I had discussed good quotes in one of my previous posts, but here is an excellent one that makes you aware of the immediacy of such a problem...

"We've had them die in as little as seven hours because they just kept going and don't realize they're getting dehydrated," Mr. Langston said.