The 5W’s and H

News Writing

WhoWhatWhenWhereWhy

Swimming was prohibited at Sunny Isles Beach Monday after a dangerous amount of bacteria was found in the water last week. Miami-Dade County health officials declared the Atlantic Ocean off limits because ingesting the water can make people, particularly children, sick.

Who did what?When did they do it?

Where did it happen?How did it happen?Why did they do it?

If you answer these questions completely, you will have a well-reported news story.

The basic news lead

A 16-year-old was arrested in the robbery and beating death of an 88-year-old veteran from Spokane, Wash., who survived being wounded in World War II.

• Who: A 16-year-old

• What: Was arrested

• When: ??• Where: Spokane,

Wash.• Why: robbing

and beating an 88-year-old veteran to death

• How: ??

The second paragraph

A second male teen was still being sought in the murder of Delbert "Shorty" Belton, a retired aluminum company worker who was brutally attacked in the parking lot of his lodge Wednesday night and died the following morning.

• Who: a second teen

• What: being sought

• When: Wednesday

• Where: in the parking lot of Delbert “Shorty” Belton’s lodge

• Why: murder • How: a brutal

attack

The third paragraph

“These are two individuals who for whatever reason went out on a given night to rob someone,” Spokane Police Chief Frank Straub said. “They robbed him, they beat him and they killed him.”

• This is an emphasis paragraph. It uses a quote to introduce the emotion of the event.

The fourth paragraph

Charges of first-degree murder and first-degree robbery were pending against the suspect in custody. Straub said police were closing in on the second and urged him to surrender.

• Additional information is provided in descending order of importance. This is called the “inverted pyramid” style of news writing.

The follow-up story

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who pleaded guilty to slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians inside their homes, will spend the rest of his life in prison, a military jury decided on Friday.

• Who: A military jury

• What: decided on life in prison

• When: Friday• Where: ???• Why: Sgt. Bales

pleaded guilty to slaughtering Afghan civilians

• How: ? (deliberations)

What’s most important?

• Start with the most important thing in the story.

• Usually that’s the WHO or the WHAT.• Rarely – almost never – is it the

WHERE or the WHEN.• Sometimes, particularly in follow-up

stories, the WHY or the HOW may be the most important way to start.

Please don’t start like this:

At 1:15 p.m. Wednesday in the gym at Sun Valley Vista High School in Westchester, Ariz., five students were seriously injured when a jump shot by Brandon McGee shattered the backboard, causing glass to rain down on the unsuspecting teens.

How many things can you find wrong with this lead?

How about this instead?

Five students were hurt when star basketball player Brandon McGee slammed the backboard during fifth period on Wednesday, causing it to shatter before the students could move out of the way.

Find some tweets

Twitter teasers often use the 5W’s effectively.

• Use Twitter to follow several news organizations such as local media, CNN, The New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, Al-Jazeera, Huffington Post.• Choose three tweets from news organizations about today’s news that you think use the 5W’s effectively.

Your assignment

• Write the three tweets you chose.• For each one, complete this list:

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

• Answer: How many of the 5W’s and H did the tweets contain? Which of the 5W’s came first most often?