News: Lead-ins

Fig.1 BBC iPlayer: BBC News at 6 (2018)

What makes a good lead-in?

BBC news at 6 (25/09/2018)

In broadcast journalism, the lead of a story is the opening words the reporter (see fig.1) uses to set the stage for the story (White, and Barnas, 2013). Therefore, it needs to grab the audience's attention by being concise, as well as creative and conversational. For example, in tonight's BBC news at 6, one of the best lead-ins was 'If you're a woman living in the United Kingdom, your average life expectancy is 82.9 years' (BBC News at 6, 2018).

This is because it was written in the present tense giving it an active voice, which makes it immediate to viewers -- something which will impact their lives now. This was important as it is a current story -- the statistics were released today (Office for National Statistics, 2018). Using the person pronoun of 'you' heightened the relevance of the story to the audience, since it connected them to it by making them believe the story could be about them.

This lead-in also had a narrative, giving the audience more information as the reporter walked them through the basic facts. The narrative was constructed through connectives, such as 'but', which signified a turn in the narrative, allowing viewers to follow. Pictures on the screen behind the anchor showing a map, some people, and also a title for the story, made the information clear even for casual viewers who may have just tuned in or were watching without sound.

The fact of this being the life expectancy for women in the U.K. was also correct, as it has been also recently stated in The Sun (Harrison, 2018) -- 'life expectancy at... 82.9 years for women' -- as well as released by the Office for National Statistics (2018) -- 'Life expectancy at birth in the UK did not improve in 2015 to 2017 and remained at 79.2 years for males and 82.9 years for females.' This made the report objective since it was based on this fact.
However, it was also balanced, since the reporter talked about both women and men, as well as gave the good news about the life expectancy rates in the U.K., along with the bad.

Overall, these aspects made this lead-in attention grabbing because of the relevance the story had for the audience being about everyone who lives in the U.K., as well as the personal, conversational tone  added by the pronoun. 

This made a good lead-in because it gave enough information to explain the story, but it wasn't overloaded as the reporter led viewers into the story, using the pictures behind her to back up and make clearer the points she made.

List of Illustrations:

Figure 1. BBC News at 6 (2018) [BBC iPlayer webpage] At: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bkf221/bbc-news-at-six-25092018 (Accessed on 25 September 2018)

Bibliography:

BBC News at 6 (2018) [television programme online] Pres. Sophie Raworth. BBC iPlayer At: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bkf221/bbc-news-at-six-25092018 (Accessed on 25 September 2018)

Harrison, G. (2018) 'DYING TO KNOW? What is average life expectancy for men and women in the UK - and where in the world can you expect to live longest?' In: TheSun [online] At: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4042243/life-expectancy-uk-men-women/ (Accessed on 25 September 2018)

Office for National Statistics (2018) National Life Tables, UK: 2015 to 2017 [online] At: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/bulletins/nationallifetablesunitedkingdom/2015to2017 (Accessed on 25 September 2018).

White, T. and Barnas, F. (2013) Broadcast News Writing, Reporting, and Producing. Oxon: Focal Press.