TYPES OF FEATURES IN JOURNALISM
While the hard news, or the straight news, is basically concerned with timely or important events, the feature story, also called soft news, is more concerned with human interest.
The aim of a good feature is to give the readers pleasure and entertainment in addition to information. Figuratively, therefore, while the straight news appeals to the physical, the feature story appeals to the soul or the emotion.
Types of Features
The more common types of features are as follows:
- Personality profile - A personality profile is written to give the reader an insight into a person's character and traits. This is usually done through research and actual interview with the person. Another term for this kind of writing is personal sketch.
- Human interest stories - A human interest story is written to show the subject's oddity, or its practical, emotional, or entertainment value.
- Trend stories - A trend story examines people, things or organizations that are having an impact on society. Trend stories are popular because people are interested in reading about the latest fads.
- In-depth stories - These are stories written from extensive research and interviews. These give detailed accounts of basic news stories or other features.
- Backgrounders - A backgrounder is also called an analysis piece since this adds meaning to current issues in the news by explaining them further. These articles bring an audience up-to-date, explaining why the tragedy happened, who are to be blamed, and what are the repercussions or the after effects.
- Newsfeature - This is usually based on a recent event but written in a more relaxed style, using literary devices.
- Humorous feature - If one of the important functions of a feature story is to entertain, then nothing entertains more than a story with wit and humor.
- Personal experience - This is an unusual experience, usually written in the first person.
- How-to feature article - The purpose of this kind of feature is to explain a process or a method. This is usually accompanied with illustrations or photos.
- Analytical Essay - An essay is a distinct genre in literature. Today, however, there are a lot of essays written in the journalistic style. These are witty, sometimes funny, account of anything, from the mundane to the serious.