Journalism Today Chapter 10 Writing Feature Stories Feature

Journalism Today! Chapter 10 Writing Feature Stories

Feature Stories – Humanizing the News Feature Vs. News Story n Lighter n More human n Can be funnier n Often not related to any current event n Often not written in inverted pyramid n Can be about anything, anybody

Timelessness n Many features are evergreens n n Online habits Unusual hobbies Personality profiles “News-Feature” – connected to a specific item of current news (these stories have a “news peg”; often published as color sidebar)

Creative Style n n Feature writers have more freedom with language! (voice, tone) More opportunity to be creative, clever, colorful with language (not so boring, dry as news stories)

Creative Style n n n Still – NO opinion or speculation! Fanciness beware! Writers (esp. beginners) can kill features if too creative – style/voice/cleverness overpowers the content of the feature itself. . .

Subject Matter n n n No subject matter limit Can be historical – throw new light on old subject or review a past event Remote places, remarkable or obscure people Can be written in first person Above all, subject must interest people!

The Personality Feature n n n All people are possible subjects for feature stories Incident, idea, problem, thought, opinion, hobby that will make an interesting reading Students or teachers at school and their special accomplishments

The Personality Feature n n Lots of stories include published quotes about principal, superintendent, class president, etc. But. . . Usually no personality feature Most students probably don’t really know anything about these people Senior Athlete, Senior Standout, Spotlight of the month, Rookie of the issue, Teacher of the issue

The Personality Feature n n n “Who is this person anyway? ” “What does Dr. Rauscher/Mr. Berferschmidt do on the weekends? ” If you ask enough questions, you’re bound to get something for a feature story THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE for the hard work of digging for facts!!!

Finding subjects. . . n n Gather ideas from your own experiences or the experiences of relatives/close friends – these are the best places to find ideas for features (the human interest elements) Never stop thinking of ideas for features/evergreens!