HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A dateline is a brief piece of text included in
news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
articles that describes where and when the story was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from
wire service A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, ...
s, the distributing organization is also included (though the originating one is not). Datelines are traditionally placed on the first line of the text of the article, before the first sentence.


Format

The location appears first, usually starting with the
city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
in which the
reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
has written or dispatched the report. City names are usually printed in uppercase, though this can vary from one publication to another. The
political division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
and/or
nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
the city is in may follow, but they may be dropped if the city name is widely recognizable due to its size or political importance (a national
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
, for instance). The date of the report comes after, followed by an
em dash The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
surrounded by spaces, and then the article. A typical newspaper dateline might read: :BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 2 — The outlook was uncertain today as ... The same story, if pulled from the
United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...
wire, might appear with the UPI identifier as: :BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 2 (UPI) — The outlook was uncertain today as ... Datelines can take on some unusual forms. When reporters collaborate on a story, two different locations might be listed. UPI and the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
omit a dateline "when a story has been assembled from sources in widely separate areas." In other cases, the exact location may be unknown or intentionally imprecise, such as when covering
military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
operations while on a
ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...
at sea or following an invasion force, or when covering a press conference aboard an airplane.


Other media

The concept of a dateline has been adapted to
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
. Reporters on news programs might have their location mentioned in an introduction from the
news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
: :"Here now from Albuquerque, New Mexico, is reporter Nigel Culpepper" A field reporter might also end his stories by combining the location from where he filed the report with a "lockout" (the last thing a reporter says in the report, and includes his name and station ID, in addition to a news branding such as '' Eyewitness News''); especially if the segment is recorded and not live. For example, the last bit of a report could sound like: :"... prompting an investigation into the matter. Richard Morris, BBC News, London." A number of current affairs TV shows have ''
dateline A dateline is a brief piece of text included in news articles that describes where and when the story was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from wire services, the distributing organization i ...
'' as part of their name.


See also

*
Byline The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably ''Reader's D ...


References

{{Reflist Newspaper terminology