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Contrast the vivid storytelling here with the modern approach taken to JFK's assassination, which begins: "President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot and kille

by drb311 11y ago

Contrast the vivid storytelling here with the modern approach taken to JFK's assassination, which begins: "President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin today. "He died of a wound in the brain caused by a rifle bullet that was fired at him as he was riding through downtown Dallas in a motorcade. "Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was riding in the third car behind Mr. Kennedy's, was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States 99 minutes after Mr. Kennedy's death." http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1122.html http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1122.h... The JFK story gets us to the facts but quickly bores. Lincoln's takes a while to get going but holds attention right to the end. Masterful.

sosuke 11y ago
I was struck by the same feeling, that this piece was a gripping read on what was already a gripping story to tell. His "brain was oozing out" was a point I stopped and read again. What changed the style of reporting I wonder?
- Zikes 11y ago
  Most likely the decreasing relevance of printed news. Most major events were soon known more quickly thanks to radio, then television, then internet.
- drb311 11y ago
  I googled the question. Weirdly, the answer uses Lincoln's assassination as an example. It was the fulcrum event between new and old. Here's how the inverted pyramid report of his death began: "This evening at about 9:30 p.m. at Ford’s Theatre, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Harris and Major Rathburn, was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the President. "The assassin then leaped upon the stage, brandishing a large dagger or knife, and made his escape in the rear of the theatre. "The pistol ball entered the back of the President’s head and penetrated nearly through the head. The wound is mortal." http://www.poynter.org/news/media-innovation/12755/birth-of-the-inverted-pyramid-a-child-of-technology-commerce-and-history/ http://www.poynter.org/news/media-innovation/12755/birth-of-... The technological driver wasn't the addition of new media but the telegraph, which meant news stories took on a new urgency -- and editors had to make quick cuts to stories close to print time as they decided which stories deserved most column inches. Will the Internet kill the inverted pyramid approach? There is no longer any cost associated with column inches printed or characters transmitted.
  - moioci 11y ago
    The cost is measured also in reader's attention. The implicit contract with the reader is that if you just read the first paragraph, you won't miss the essential fact in para 5.
jordanb 11y ago
Probably because everyone who was reading about JFK's assassination in the paper already knew about it. The emotional storytelling (Cronkite crying and all that) was on Television. The purpose of the newspaper was to record what happened more than report it.
pitt1980 11y ago
I don't know why, (probably mostly because I'm accustomed to modern new reports) but that strikes me as a sort of absurd way to learn that the President was dead
- lkbm 11y ago
  It lacks an urgency of information. Presumably the headline mentions it, but that the body gets around to mentioning he was shot in the third paragraph and that he died...well, it's hinted at in the seventh.

by drb311 11y ago

sosuke 11y ago

I was struck by the same feeling, that this piece was a gripping read on what was already a gripping story to tell. His "brain was oozing out" was a point I stopped and read again. What changed the style of reporting I wonder?

Zikes 11y ago
Most likely the decreasing relevance of printed news. Most major events were soon known more quickly thanks to radio, then television, then internet.
drb311 11y ago
I googled the question. Weirdly, the answer uses Lincoln's assassination as an example. It was the fulcrum event between new and old. Here's how the inverted pyramid report of his death began: "This evening at about 9:30 p.m. at Ford’s Theatre, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Harris and Major Rathburn, was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the President. "The assassin then leaped upon the stage, brandishing a large dagger or knife, and made his escape in the rear of the theatre. "The pistol ball entered the back of the President’s head and penetrated nearly through the head. The wound is mortal." http://www.poynter.org/news/media-innovation/12755/birth-of-the-inverted-pyramid-a-child-of-technology-commerce-and-history/ http://www.poynter.org/news/media-innovation/12755/birth-of-... The technological driver wasn't the addition of new media but the telegraph, which meant news stories took on a new urgency -- and editors had to make quick cuts to stories close to print time as they decided which stories deserved most column inches. Will the Internet kill the inverted pyramid approach? There is no longer any cost associated with column inches printed or characters transmitted.
- moioci 11y ago
  The cost is measured also in reader's attention. The implicit contract with the reader is that if you just read the first paragraph, you won't miss the essential fact in para 5.

jordanb 11y ago

Probably because everyone who was reading about JFK's assassination in the paper already knew about it. The emotional storytelling (Cronkite crying and all that) was on Television. The purpose of the newspaper was to record what happened more than report it.

pitt1980 11y ago

I don't know why, (probably mostly because I'm accustomed to modern new reports) but that strikes me as a sort of absurd way to learn that the President was dead

lkbm 11y ago
It lacks an urgency of information. Presumably the headline mentions it, but that the body gets around to mentioning he was shot in the third paragraph and that he died...well, it's hinted at in the seventh.