Journal 3: The 5 W's (and H)

Thursday 6th October

The Irish Independent

The 5 W's (being Who, What, Where, When, and Why?) and H (How?) are the topic of discussion this week. The Indo today runs a story on Brian Lenihan not forcing "banks to pass on cut", referring to the European Central Banks's 0.5pc cut in interest rates to mortgage holders.

This is an immediate identification introduction, where the government and the European Central Bank (and later the Irish banks and the Financial Regulator) are immediately mentioned in the opening sentences of the article. There is only one quote used in the front page of the article. Each small paragraph is only made up of one sentence, making the article seem very precise.

Who: The second word in the first line, the government, is here clearly stated (in case you didn't know who Brian Lenihan was in the headline). "Irish banks" and "European Central Bank" are both mentioned in the first paragraph.

What: The story is mentioned straight away, in the headline: "Lenihan won't force banks to pass on cut" and in the first paragraph this is stated again but with more detail.

Where: This is an Irish story making the headlines of an Irish newspaper, concerning the Irish government, so the story is... Irish, probably Dublin-based, with a small sentence at the end of the first page article concerning US and European based banks.

When: This general news story about the economy is making front page news everywhere so any story will be as up-to-date as possible. It does refer to the €400bn bank bailout of last week, however.

Why: The economy has gone up in smoke, therefore this will be the main headline, for a few days to come at least! Also, everyone is looking to the government for answers.

How: The government in this instance is the instigator of this article, by not forcing the banks to pass on the cut in interest rates to their customers.

The main point of this article is clearly to inform the public (many of whom have mortgages) that this cut of interest rates may or may not be passed on to them, depending on the whim of their particular bank. It informs the public that the government will not take action on this, by quoting a 'spokesman': "At present, the department does not give instructions to the banks." It would seem to me that the Irish Independent is basing its story on a single quote from a spokesperson...