英语新闻的结构特征

新闻写作由于记者写作风格不同，文体结构无定格。但大体上说新闻文体的主体结构是由标题、导语、

正文三部分组成。

标题（headline）：浓缩概括全文的中心实质问题。

导语（1ead or introduction）：通常为文章的第一段。文章的第一段提供主要话题和最主要的事

实。

正文（body）：在导语的基础上，引入更多的与主题相关的事实，使之更加详实、具体，并展开评论，

进而得出结论。

在此我们以消息为例，详细分析一下它的基本结构。消息类新闻属于“硬新闻”，是广泛采用的的一种

新闻体裁。消息报道中的导语十分重要，它位于第一段或第一、二段。通过它点出新闻的主题，这是消

息这种新闻文体区别于其它文体的一个重要特征。五个w和一个h（when？where？who？what？why？和

how？）是构成一则完整的消息不可缺少的要素。直接的消息报道或纯消息报道一般采用“倒金字塔形

式”（the inverted pyramid form），其特点是按新闻报道最重要的五个w和一个h头重脚轻地安排材

料，把新闻的高潮和结论放在最前面的导语里，然后以事实的重要性递减的顺序来安排（in the

order of descending importance）材料。

在报纸、广播、电视等新闻媒体每天刊载和播发的新闻中，百分之九十是用倒金字塔结构写成的。

对于报纸来说，倒金字塔结构的新闻有自己的优势。主要是可以使读者很快得到新闻的精华部分；在生

活节奏越来越快的今天，一般读者很少把一条新闻从头到尾读完，他们可能随时放下报纸，因此，报纸

有必要让读者首先读到最重要的新闻内容。

为了帮助读者了解这种倒金字塔式结构，请见西方新闻学著作中的图表说明：

the inverted pyramid form

introduction containing most important or most interesting

information

more facts 更多的事实材料

supporting information or background 辅助性消息或背景材料

quotes or more facts of lesser importance引语或次要的事实材料

minor details 细节材料

least significant information

为了说明“倒金字塔结构”的新闻文体特点，现举美联社2001年11月22

日的一篇报道为例：

november 22，19：43est，2001

28 killed in colombia landslide

by juan pablo toro

associated press writer

filadelfia colom bia（ap）—rain-softened walls of a condemned strip mine crashed down on

scores of gold miners in western colom- bia thursday，killingat least 28 and leaving 40

others missing，authorities said．

the victims were said to be poor people who ignored government warnings that erosion had

made the mine unsafe．it appeared both the illegal digging and recent heavy rains were to

blame for the accident．

survivors said two separate mudslides occurred at the site in filadelfia，a small town

120 miles west of bogotá．the second avalanche buried miners who were trying to rescue friends who had been engulfed in the first avalanche．

rescuers shoveled furiously for hours in hopes of finding som- ebody alive，butonly recovered bodies．

as night fell thursday，national disaster chief eduardo jose gonzalez said hopes of finding anyone alive waned as crews prepared to suspend operations．the search was to resume friday．

gonzalez said 28bodies had been recovered，and at least 40 people were missing． thirty-two miners were reported injured and taken to hospitals．

hundreds of people had gathered at the scene，many of them anguished and weepingrelatives．

emergency crews from the red cross and

the civil defense forces were using heavy machinery to remove the thick mud spread over

from a river running up to the hillside—used by the miners to rinse gold particles from

dirt．

survivors said the earth crashed down without warning on a group of about 200 people trying to scrape gold from the well-worn hill-side．the workers were toiling with shovels

and picks inside a deep hole they had carved into the hill．the cavern had no structural supports．

many workers managed to scramble out of the way or crawl out from beneath the mud．others were not so lucky．

“we heard a very loud sound and the hill suddenly fell down upon us，”said 20-year-old manuel loaiza．“i was trapped up to my knees but some of the others dragged me out．”loaiza said he made less than ＄9a day at the crude mine．his 39-year-old uncle is still missing under the mud．

according to julian arboleda，an aide to caldas state governor luis alfonso arias，of- ficials ordered the mine closed several months ago．but residents thrown out of workby colom bia''s econom- ic downturn took the risk of working there anyway，arboleda said．

according to the government''s disaster relief agency，nearly 200 people died in a poor neighborhood in the city of medellinwhen a 1987 landslide buried their houses．landslides buried 150 dam workers in 1983 and a rescue team sent on their behalf．