What is "dateline"

1880, imaginary line down the Pacific Ocean on which the calendar day begins and ends, from date (n.1) + line (n.). Meaning "line of text that tells the date and place of origin of a newspaper, article, telegram, etc." is from 1888.

n. (context journalism English) A line at the beginning of a document (such as a newspaper article) stating the date and place of origin. vb. To attach a #Noun to a particular document

1. n. an imaginary line on the surface of the earth following (approximately) the 180th meridian [syn: date line, International Date Line]

2. a line at the beginning of a news article giving the date and place of origin of the news dispatch

3. v. mark with a date and place; "dateline a newspaper article" [syn: datemark, date-mark]

A dateline is a brief piece of text included in news articles that describes where and when the story occurred, or was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from wire services, 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. The location appears first, usually starting with the city in which the reporter 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 and/or nation 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, for instance). The date of the report comes after, followed by an em dash surrounded by spaces, and then the article.

A typical newspaper dateline might read

The same story if pulled from the Associated Press (AP) wire might appear as

Datelines can take on some unusual forms. When reporters collaborate on a story, two different locations might be listed. The Associated Press omits 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 operations while on a ship at sea or following an invasion force.

In journalism, a dateline describes the date when and location where a news article originated.

Dateline may also refer to:

• International Date Line, an imaginary line near the 180° line of longitude that demarcates the change of one calendar day to the next

Dateline is an Australian television public affairs program broadcast on SBS One. Since its debut at on Friday 19 October 1984, it has focused largely on international events, often in developing or warring nations. Since 2000, Dateline reporters have travelled by themselves without a camera crew or sound engineers. It remains the longest-running international current affairs program in Australia.

Dateline (French Je me souviens) is a Canadian historical drama television series which aired on CBC Television and Radio-Canada television from 1955 to 1956.