Types of Newspaper Articles

Newspaper Articles include News Articles, Features, Editorials, Columns and Opinions. For instance, The Tribune, India has the Op-Ed Section that includes Editorials, Middle and Articles.

News Articles: These are impersonal, objective, informative and mainly categorized as ‘hard’ news and ‘soft’ news based on immediacy and significance of the event or incident. News that creates concern falls under the former category. In the latter, human interest surpasses the immediate impact.

News Articles are written in inverted pyramid style with most important facts written first. The Lead includes 5Ws and 1 H: from who, what, when, where, why to how of the news are covered in the first paragraph. The next paragraph reinforces the lead. All the other paragraphs add detail. The last paragraph is usually open-ended hinting at further developments.

So, ‘hard news’ may be about militant attack at Uri headquarters of the army in J& K on September 18, 2016, while ‘soft news’ would be an item like the news about the German army training Eagles to intercept drones in revival of old practice of falconry, again published in the same week , same month in 2016.

Good news is distinguished for accuracy, balance, fairness- these help build credibility. Also important are brevity, clarity and readability as these help sustain interest. Human interest is self-explanatory. Above all, sharp observation makes the news distinctive as it adds details and may even help investigation or evoke the right questions.

But though ‘treatment’ of the content should be excellent to produce a well-crafted news story, the identification of newsworthy subject is of still greater importance.

The news value is suggested by possession of: Timeliness, Proximity, Prominence, Conflict, Future Impact or Consequence, Human Interest and Unusualness/Bizarre or Shock value.

Depending upon the importance, the news will be placed on the first page or subsequent pages.

News reporting may be Investigative, Interpretive, Event Reporting, Political Reporting, Parliamentary, Reporting, Legal Reporting, Business Reporting, Science & Technology Reporting, Sports Reporting and Development reporting.

Features: Features have a broad rubric. They are based on people, places and situations but go beyond.They are subjective and pivoted on the author’s perspective of things. They are descriptive but may also be quirky.

These include News Features and Timeless Features.

News Features are topical and express a take or opinion on latest news. They are timely and as they are connected to the ‘news peg’ they are based on, they are temporal-limited and governed by time.

Timeless Features have a long shelf life- they remain fresh perennially and in fact, may remain evergreen due to sustained human interest.

Editorials: These express the opinion of the newspaper. They are usually unsigned and views expressed in the editorial section are generally those to which the media group subscribes. In HT often editorials furnish news analysis while the editorial space is taken by an article by a prominent journalist with a disclaimer.

Opinions: Opinions, usually, expressed by experts in a particular field. These are informed observations of experts and may guide the readers’ opinion.

Middle: These relate anecdotes and episodes. The author shares his observations on life, language, life-style through personal anecdotes and observations. These are written by lay persons and are distinguished by quirky writing style, wit or humour.

Columns: Columns are published regularly or periodically. The reader may be hooked on to the outlook or writing style of a particular columnist or feature writer whose features regularly appear in a particular newspaper having a space dedicated to it. There is Poonam Saxena writing for Brunch magazine writing on TV serials and soaps.Rajiv Makhani writes ‘Technilicious’, again a popular column on gadgets. But the frontrunners are perhaps the likes of Karan Thapar whose articles and columns are pegged on imperial legacy and contrast Indian behavior with the British sense of propriety.Vir sanghvi writes ‘Rude Food’ for ‘Brunch’, a Hindustan Times magazine supplement.

References:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/creativewriting/commissionsrev6.shtml

Think it over:

According to BBC, most writing is pivoted on genre, audience, purpose and style (GAPS).