Leads (and a little bit about false news)

Here are the the leads I chosen for the good/bad lead examples:

Effective Lead

Sleep does not come easy for Hajar Hamzah, who lives at the corner of Perdana Rd 6/7 and 6/12 in Pandan Glades Garden, Ampang, where the land is slowly sinking.

Reasons:

1. It captured the woman's worries well.

2. Provided a human angle instead of starting the story with a direct lead - "A piece of land in Ampang is slowly sinking."

The original story's here. (Note: I have changed certain Malay words to English in the example above.)

Ineffective Lead

The rain failed to dampen the spirits of the crowd at the sixth and final installment of The Star's People's Voice - You've Got the Power Carnival that was held last Saturday at Country Heights, Kajang.

Reasons:

1. Too cliche to start with weather.

2. Lead doesn't tell much about the event, apart from the fact that it rained.

3. Too much information squeezed into the lead, e.g. sixth and final installment & the lengthy name of the carnival. Suggest to bring in some of the details later.

Extra

(I wasn't sure if it was an effective or ineffective lead.)

The country's first astrophysicist will soon become Earth's first official point-of-contact with aliens if they come a-calling.

This lead is simple and direct, and I am sure that the readers want to read further to find out more. But, do they want to read on just because the topic (aliens) is unusual and interesting? I would assume that if the writer had chosen another lead, the story would generate as much interest from the readers.

The original story's here. Some of you laughed when it was read out in the class by Jeremy. :) However, I have to clarify that this news was proven to be a hoax. The Sunday Times of Britain ran the news claiming that the astrophysicist, Othman, would be appointed by the UN to take on the aforementioned role, and the story was instantly picked up by media worldwide. But UN dismissed the appointment as "nonsense" later.

I went to The Sunday Times website, but it's only available by subscription. So I googled "aliens site:thesundaytimes.co.uk" and there was only one result:

"The UN is set to appoint a Malaysian astrophysicist to act as Earth's first contact for any aliens that come a-knocking."

(Yes, I noticed the similarity between come a-knocking and come a-calling :) )

I was also wondering: did The Sunday Times carry the clarification (or another article to prove that the appointment is NOT a rumor)? However, there wasn't any other results from the search.

Anyway, I found The Sunday Times article on an Australian website and I love its lead. It's catchy and it drew the readers in.

When aliens arrive on Earth, they will no longer have to worry about who will greet time.

Reading on, I wanted to to find out what prompted The Sunday Times to report that UN has appointed the Malaysian astrophysicist as the "alien ambassador". But there was no official source or quote. The article only said that Othman was to "describe her potential new role at a scientific conference", and would tell delegates that "UN must be ready to co-ordinate humanity's response to any 'first contact'".

It was also reported that The Sunday Times had obtained a recording of Othman's recent talk, in which she said, "... When we do, we should have in place a co-ordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism for such co-ordination."

I am really curious about what The Sunday Times will (or will not) do as follow-up. I will blog about it should I chance upon any updates.

And lastly, I know we were supposed to be talking about leads, but I really like the ending of this blog post on the Guardian! (It makes fun of The Sunday Times' report and it's quite sarcastic.)

Finally an email from Othman herself would have prompted our Martian to trudge back to his spaceship. "It sounds really cool but I have to deny it," she said of the story. She will be attending a conference next week, but she'll be talking about how the world deals with "near-Earth objects".

Our alien will just have to try someone else, or stop reading the Sunday Times.

The blog post came with one noticeable line: This article is the subject of a legal complaint made by Jonathan Leake, science editor of The Sunday Times. Ops.