Types of News Stories
It is important to distinguish the
various types of news stories
because the term “news” is very
broad. In categorizing news, we
have to consider news value and
standards of conduct.
News story
 attempts to answer all the basic questions
about any particular event in the first two or
three paragraphs

Who? What? When? Where? and Why? and
occasionally How? ("5 W's").
 Lead and body
 Ends when the writer runs out of material
Inverted Pyramid
top-loading the essential and most interesting
elements of a story, with supporting information
following in order of lesser importance.
 Developed during the civil war to insure the
main facts of the story would not be lost during
communication by telegraph.
 Lead and body

Inverted Pyramid cont.
Hard News
 Hard News includes two concepts:
 Seriousness: Politics, economics, crime, war, and
disasters are considered serious topics, as are
certain aspects of law, science, and technology.
 Timeliness: Stories that cover current events—
the progress of a war, the results of a vote, the
breaking out of a fire, a significant public
statement, the freeing of a prisoner, an economic
report of note, etc.
Soft News
 soft news is sometimes referred to in a
derogatory fashion as infotainment and
includes two concepts:


The least serious subjects: Arts and
entertainment, sports, lifestyles, "human interest",
and celebrities.
Not timely: There is no precipitating event
triggering the story, other than a reporter's
curiosity.

Timely events happen in less serious subjects—sporting
matches, celebrity misadventures, movie releases, art
exhibits, and so on.
Hard or Soft?
 Gardening tips and hobby "news"
 Warnings about natural disasters
 domestic security threats
 A medical story about a new treatment for
breast cancer
 Owen Wilson’s suicide attempt
 Sports statistics and game results
 Investigative reporting (muckrakers)?
Feature Story
 article in a newspaper, a magazine, or a





news website that is not meant to report
breaking news, but to take an in-depth look at
a subject.
Less urgent, attempts to engage reader
Narrative structure (beginning, middle,
end),expands on details
Longer in length, includes personal
perspective
Entertaining, often include pictures
Hard or Soft?
Feature story cont.
 Needs a neat ending that wraps up the
story (conclusion)
Editorial
 Short, persuasive essay which usually
contains the writer’s opinion or reaction to a
timely news story or event.
 Influence readers to think or act a certain way
 Written to either inform, promote, praise, or
entertain
Column
 Personal observations by the writer
about a certain subject
 Includes facts and states a conclusion
 Written on almost anything