Dear Students,
I agree with most of the suggestions that you have made. I would like to add that we can also look at some of the stories linked to Corona as well to explain it further- specially features with a humanitarian angle.
Also, in this section- Language- Feature articles can be about anything.
We should write that feature articles can pick up varied issues. They are beyond restrictive boundaries and are open for experimentation.
There are several important differences between feature articles and traditional news articles. A journalist should know how to always approach different events with a different writing approach. This skill requires a basic understanding of the technicalities that separate these writing styles. The variables that play a decisive role in this are timing, relevance and readership preferences. In this article, we will be discussing their definitions and distinctions.
Here are the critical differences between a feature story and a news article-
1. Timing-
The major difference between a news article and a feature story is that a news article is time-sensitive and of immediate interest. The election results, an accident, a robbery report, a product launch, a court verdict, a medical report release, a set of basketball game scores are examples of a news article. Media outlets want to publish news stories as quickly as possible after an event occurs. Feature stories, however, are not as time-dependent and contain no urgent content. You can write one anytime after an event occurs. Its content is often evergreen or at least lasting.
2. Style–
The writing styles of a news story and a feature are different. In a news story, the emphasis is on content rather than form. News articles go straight to the point, using simple and effective words to deliver the facts quickly. Feature stories are often more wordy and they have a creative structure. News articles answer who, what, when, where, why and how. This means that the article answers the question: What happened, when the event occurred, where the event happened, why the event happened, how the event occurred, and who was involved. A feature article is a human interest story about a person, event, or place. Rather than simply summarizing the subject, a feature article highlights one aspect or significance of the story. Its less formal style may take an odd twist or heartwarming angle. The feature article focuses on particular people, places, and events.
3. Beginning and ending–
A news article and a feature story have different types of beginnings and endings. News articles tell what the news is upfront and then give the most important details in the first paragraph or two. The beginning – or lead – of a feature story, on the other hand, doesn’t give the news straightaway. Instead, it hooks readers and keeps them reading until the end. A news article can end anywhere after you’ve described the most important facts, whereas a feature story ends with readers feeling satisfied that they gained some value from reading the story.
4. Language–
Feature articles can be about anything. They can have a narrower target audience than newspaper articles. Feature articles are often emotive and subjective. They can entertain and persuade as well as inform. They can go beyond the information provided by newspaper articles and take on a particular side. Feature articles don’t go out of date as quickly as most newspaper articles. Newspaper articles serve the purpose of informing the audience of a particular event or issue. Yes, the language is often formal, simple and factual.
5. Content-
A newspaper article is where you discuss about what happened and what people said and then you add a conclusion, while a feature article has a cover story and then follows on in the magazine. It has quotes and endures picture and a big heading, so get artistic and make it flashy and noticeable. A news reporter lays out the facts of what happened and sometimes includes reactions from affected parties.
The feature writer is more forensic in nature. They probe deeper, spending more time on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of what happened. If they fail to go beyond the facts reported in news (and sometimes this is very difficult) they probably haven’t succeeded and probably won’t be published.
6. Length–
News articles are short, averaging 100-400 words depending upon the type of news and where it is placed in the publication. They are meant to be digested quickly. Feature stories are longer and dig more deeply into the topic. Length varies for each publication, but a typical feature word count runs between 1,000 – 2,000 words.
7. Structure–
References:
– Anushree Mukherjee
Department of JournalismLSR, Batch of 2022
Disclaimer: Shared in the interest of the student community during Covid-19. Views expressed are personal.
28 Responses
This writeup is really good. I think the second paragraph can be started with the word meaning of article and features.
Example:-
As nouns the difference between feature and article is that feature is (label) one's structure or make-up; form, shape, bodily proportions while article is a part or segment of something joined to other parts, or, in combination, forming a structured set.
As verbs the difference between feature and article is that feature is to ascribe the greatest importance to something within a certain context while article is to bind by articles of apprenticeship.
Arya Krishnan
Department of journalism
LSR, Batch of 2022
The article is well written, accurate and precise . It would have been better if more information about articles and features would have been written before heading towards differentiation . It would give readers clearer idea and knowledge abour the two topics
– Drishti Hajong
The article is well written , accurate and precise. It would have been better if more information about articles and features would have been given before heading towards the differentiation. It would give the readers clearer idea about the two topics .
It's very well and clearly explained, Anushree! It can become even more simplified if this difference is laid out in a tabular format. I also think that more information regarding types of features and articles can be included, and newspapers giving more space to each of the two can be mentioned.
Very useful content!!
Helped a lot.
This article is very informative and precise. It covers broadly all the points that are required for a 25 marks answer on the same topic.
Few additions from my side for this article:
1. Traditional news are written in Inverted Pyramid format, whereas features are written in the Upright Pyramid format. In this case, it contains a hook, the leading paragraph that grabs your attention, but it is not top-heavy. As you read through the article, it is an unravelling argument, building and growing, until you get to the wide pyramid base which sums up and concludes and contains the link back to your leading statement.
2. It’s important to note that feature writing is different from opinion pieces or editorials, which are the personal opinions of the author — something a feature story will not contain. They can contain statistics, or refer to studies, but they don’t usually include primary sources such as interviews. An op-ed is an opinion piece (usually in a newspaper) that a freelance writer may need to write on behalf of a client, such as a non-profit or business. The op-ed is a chance for the organization to garner positive publicity for themselves and to perhaps sway public opinion about an important issue. Op-ed includes guest columnists or submitted opinion pieces, on the other hand features are written by experienced journalists.
Articles often depend on the targetted readers and the issue which will be more popular and attract more number of readers which is one of the main reasons for sensationalism
This article is very well-structured. I'd like to suggest that the difference between the two can be elucidated upon by giving a mention to pivotal articles and feature stories and the impact they've left. For instance, news articles published during prominent world events, such the front-page articles published a day after 26/11, as differentiated from in-depth analyses done few days later as feature stories. We can also include how feature stories have brought to light those realities of a socio-economic set-up which haven't generally been possible due to the temporal and substantial constraints of ordinary news reports/articles, such as one of the features in 2014 that brought global attention to Edward Snowden's objective of whistle blowing, as opposed to what was published from the government's standpoint in news articles.
Also attaching a link for further ideation:
https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/how-moving-away-old-model-journalism-led-revelatory-stories-out-india
This article is very well-structured. I'd like to suggest that the difference between the two can be elucidated upon by giving a mention to pivotal articles and feature stories and the impact they've left. For instance, news articles published during prominent world events, such the front-page articles published a day after 26/11, as differentiated from in-depth analyses done few days later as feature stories. We can also include how feature stories have brought to light those realities of a socio-economic set-up which haven't generally been possible due to the temporal and substantial constraints of ordinary news reports/articles, such as one of the features in 2014 that brought global attention to Edward Snowden's objective of whistle blowing, as opposed to what was published from the government's standpoint in news articles.
Also attaching a link for further ideation:
https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/how-moving-away-old-model-journalism-led-revelatory-stories-out-india
Very well coherently explained!
Does writing a blog about any issue or event also comes under featured stories?It is written that featured stories can be written any time after the event takes place and contains no urgent content. So does it also includes blogs also?
This article is so informative, it will definitely help me in my exams. However, I would like to suggest some points.
A news article makes use of the concept of 5W's and 1H.
News articles answer who, what, when, where, why and how. This means that the article answers the question:
1. Who was involved.
2. What happened.
3. When the event occurred.
4. Where the event happened.
5. Why the event happened.
6. How the event occurred.
A feature article is much more creative. It also tells about a
news event, however at the beginning of the article there is a
smaller creative story leading into the main story that the article addresses.
This article is so informative and it will definitely help me in my exams. However, I would also like to mention some points.
The article makes use of 5W's and 1H concept.
News articles answer who, what, when, where, why and how.
This means that the article answers the question:
1. Who was involved.
2. What happened.
3. When the event occurred.
4. Where the event happened.
5. Why the event happened.
6. How the event occurred.
A feature article is much more creative. It also tells about a
news event, however at the beginning of the article there is a
smaller creative story leading into the main story that article addresses.
I am glad to see your posts and commens here. Afer getting reviews from wach one of you, I would reques Anushree o make relevant changes so that it can be posted again as a revised documents which sudents can use. Also, look at the portals as well which are provided by MHRD for online research and tutorials. You will find ha chart on this blog also. I was posted two days ago. Please continue this process of learning.
All tbe best
Thank you for this, Anushree! This is well written- precise and detailed where it has to be.
I’d just like to add, to simplify things for the readers a li’l more, feature is usually a combination of more than one article (sometimes just one long article) that is in-depth, interpretative, analytical etc., with accompanying visual elements like photos, graphs, quotes, caricatures, tables, etc.
-Apurva
I really like the way the difference between news articles and stories and feature pieces has been highlighted. The compartmentalisation of the differences aides in ease of understanding. This has been really helpful as on the face value, we all know the basic difference but it is these little points that we forget to factor in. Personally speaking, I prefer reading differences in a paragraph format rather than a tabular one. Maybe the point that feature pieces are fairly subjective and news stories fairly objective could have been highlighted a bit more but at the same time, that's implied so it is understood either way.The article is very well researched so it will be very helpful not just for our department, but maybe also for some other people who are researching on the same. Thank you for sharing this.
The article is well researched and provides considerable information related to feature and traditional news articles.It makes the differentiation between the two easy. However, the content related to the purpose of writing the two and difference between them can also be included.
Here's the link: https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/stratcommwriting/chapter/traditional-news-writing-vs-feature-writing/
References of some more examples can make the essay more comprehensive. I'm sharing a link for the reference of examples:
http://leavingcertenglish.net/2015/08/feature-article-example/
Hope it helps!
Thank You
– Deepika Saini
-Department Of Journalism
-Lady Shree Ram College
Does writing a blog about any issue or event also comes under featured stories?It is written that featured stories can be written any time after the event takes place and contains no urgent content. So does it also includes blogs also?
An excellent article written by my friend Anushree!
There is no major changes I'd like to see on it although it could be more informative and easier to grasp if the examples chosen should be from the National Dailies like Hindustan Times, The Hindu or Times of India, with emphasis on which news story is an article or a feature respectively. Moreover, some light could be thrown on the writing pattern of both.
-Agrima Gulati
I found this article to be very informative and I am sure that it will be instrumental while preparing for my examinations. Few suggestions from my side are:
1.The definition about both an article and a feature can be more descriptive as individual topics for better understanding, rather than just curving out the differences between them.
2.The differences in style can be broken down into points for effortless understanding.
3.The differences in language can be explained in more convincing way.
I also believe adding example between text could enhance the experience of learning.
I like how this article talks about every little thing that is relevant to the topic and is adding more meaning to it. The article is well-structured, well-researched, precise and at the same time very helpful for preparing for exams. I feel,to make the article more informative, more details about the article and features should be given, apart from the comparison. Also i would like to mention different types of features stories:
1.News Feature
2.Informative Feature
3.Personality Sketches
4.Personal Experience Story
5.Human Interest Feature Story
6.Historical Feature
To read more
http://studylecturenotes.com/types-of-feature-stories-in-journalism/
The article is quite helpful. It helps to improve writing skills. Easy to understand. It helps a person to improve themselves. It is easy to implement. The comparison is done in a very easy manner which could be understood by everyone. I personally prefer tabular once but this highlights each and every point which makes it easier.
Monika Bhandari
The article is quite helpful. It helps to improve writing skills. Easy to understand. It helps a person to improve themselves. It is easy to implement. The comparison is done in a very easy manner which could be understood by everyone. I personally prefer tabular once but this highlights each and every point which makes it easier.
Monika Bhandari
The article is well researched and written. It would be more easier to understand if it was in tabular form.
I just want to add few more things about news stories.
Otherwise I get everything from this article.
News stories or articles have certain "rules" that govern their format.
1. News stories give mostly factual information, but not the writer's opinion.
2. News stories are written in third person voice, never first or second.
3.News articles include many direct quotations from people the reporter interviewed in order to get facts. See the sample story to understand how to put these quotations in the story. A direct quotation should be used by the fourth paragraph.
4.When a quotation is used, begin a new paragraph. Use the word "said" when you add a person's name for a quotation. The quotation comes first and is given in quotation marks. Then, the person's name comes next (full name on first reference, meaning the first time you use that person's name, and last name only each time you quote that person following the first time), then said. For example: "It was the most amazing thing I ever saw," Ron Weasley said. It's also good to include information about the person, like their job title or organization affiliation. See the sample story.
5.News paragraphs are short, usually one or two sentences at most. They are not constructed like typical essay paragraphs.
6.news writer never concludes the news story with a personal comment at the end. A reporter's opinion is not to be included in the news story. Articles that allow for opinion are editorials, columns, or even letters to the editor.
7.News stories have headlines that summarize the main idea of the story. There may be a subhead that gives more details. The reporter's name is given in a byline: by your name (remember, no last names on your web page).
8.News stories are printed in columns. See your local newspaper to see the format but also to read the stories to use as further examples.
Komal singh
I really like the way the difference between news articles and stories and feature pieces has been highlighted. The compartmentalisation of the differences aides in ease of understanding. This has been really helpful as on the face value, we all know the basic difference but it is these little points that we forget to factor in. Personally speaking, I prefer reading differences in a paragraph format rather than a tabular one. Maybe the point that feature pieces are fairly subjective and news stories fairly objective could have been highlighted a bit more but at the same time, that's implied so it is understood either way.The article is very well researched so it will be very helpful not just for our department, but maybe also for some other people who are researching on the same. Thank you for sharing this.
Vasudha Raina
Department of Journalism
Well, I believe, yes. A blog can definitely be a feature or an article as well. However, there are some differences in terms of the writing style used, expression of personal opinions, etc., when writing for a news paper or a personal blog.