Unit 2 – Journalism (FeatureWriting ,LeadWriting)

 Hello friends!!

This blog is about Lead Writing and Feature Writing. First of all let’s see in journalism's blog.

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

                                    —Thomas Jefferson

Journalism examines the skills needed to work as a journalist in newspapers, television, radio, and online. ... It offers a wide range of comments and tips on the best way to approach stories and includes interviews with journalists working on a variety of news outlets, from the BBC to weekly newspapers.

WHAT A FEATURE STORY IS...

It is simply not a news story The differences being: 

1. Treatment of issue (news have no room for opinions, feature stories can be opinionated);

2. The depth of research (news are somewhat shallow, features go in-depth) 

3. The style of writing (news are formal, features can be flashy, informal) 

4. Structure of the piece (inverted pyramid for news, normal pyramid for features)

What is a feature article? 

~Offers insights about people, places, things or events that we encounter daily but to which we pay little attention.

~Often exposes human emotion or feelings.

~Focuses on the most interesting, not necessarily the most important, part of a story.

Feature Writing:-

Features are human interest stories that speak of people, places, and situations. They tend to be descriptive and original in ideas and writing skills. But they can go beyond description.

•Key function is to humanize, to add colour, to educate, to entertain, to illuminate.

•A feature story may or may not tied to a current even

•Will often be longer in size than a traditional news story

•Use ‘features’ when you want to..

 Feature types are...

1) New behind the new story

2) personality sketch/ profile

3) science and Technologies stories

4) Human appeal stories

5) Historical and cultural features

6) How to end what to do features

7) business and development features

8) life style features

9) Entertainment features

10) Hobby features

11) Career features

12) Seasonal themes

13) Travel features

14) Insider features

Lead Writing:-

In news articles, the lead is a summary of what the whole thing is about answering the questions Who? What? Where? When? Why?

Journalism leads are like first impressions. You want to make sure they're good. The way journalists report the news may be changing, but having a strong story opening remains as important as ever. 

Short, Sharp Summary of things, readers are curious to read. There is a hard lead and a soft lead… Hard Lead gives a comprehensive view of entire event, while soft lead gives a short account of that event with catchy title.s a short account of that event with catchy title.

The lead, or opening paragraph, is the most important part of a news story. With so many sources of information – newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and the internet – audiences simply are not willing to read beyond the first paragraph (and even sentence) of a story unless it grabs their interest.

Type of lead writing:

Journalistic leads emphasize grabbing the attention of the reader.