Progression of Information

The story I chose to analyze was published by the Star Tribune and I found it online.  The article is a description of the opening ceremony, and the events that led up to it, of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver of British Columbia, Canada.  Overall, the article gives a good description of all the events that happened in the opening ceremony on Friday Feb. 12, but the organization of the article down to to the lead of the article seems to confuse me.

First of all, the lead of the news article is quite poor.  It does not grab interest and does not connect with the rest of the article very well, in my opinion.  The lead talks about the anxiety that the CEO of the organizer of the Olympic games is feeling prior to the ceremony on Friday is similar to that the athletes are feeling now before they perform in next few weeks of the games.  The next two paragraphs talk not about what the ceremony consisted of and how it underwent, but about how Vancouver has worked hard for years preparing for this night.  For an article that has focus on the opening ceremony, I believe it would have been more effective to have a different lead and have the first two paragraphs include descriptions of the ceremony.  Then after some description, the writer could bring in information on how Vancouver has prepared for the Olympics for the past few years.

Something that the writer did do well in placement, was mentioning the fallen Olympian that lost his life earlier Friday before the ceremony in luge accident.  This was placed in the third paragraph of the article among, what I believe, is a poor beginning to an article due to its organization and lead.

The information that the writer chose to use within the entire article, however, is very descriptive and used well.  It gives the details about how Canada has taken pride in their natives for the ceremony and both the urban city in which the ceremony took place.  The information in the middle and the end of the article is also placed well.  The writer talks about those who oppose the Olympic games and how protesters had attempted to block streets during the torches journey to Vancouver.  There is also a small part of the article that talks about the speech at that IOC president gave during the ceremony which I believe was placed well in the article, towards the last few paragraphs.

Other than the first four paragraphs, the article is effective in giving description and informing readers of the events that took place on Feb. 12 in the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics.  I believe the article would have been more grabbing by a different lead talking about the a single part of the opening ceremony.  Also having more description at the beginning would give the reader a better understanding of what the article was going to contain.