Journalism : Features Writing, Lead Writing

 

   Journalism :  Features Writing Lead Writing.

          Introduction :

     Journalism is generally defined as the production and distribution of reports on recent events, but in the 21st century, is that really all there is to this time-honored profession? Are there multiple types of journalism? Is journalism confined to one medium?

In fact, that purpose was so sacred, a journalist had to be a very educated person, with a background in literature, history, and mass communication. Journalists were also expected to have a sense of social responsibility and strictly adhere to ethical standards.

   Lead  Writing 

A feature article opens the gates of ingenuity inside the journalist’s mind; they unleash their creative monster onto the papers to really get into the depths of whatever topic they’re covering. Put simply, a lead sentence is a sentence that opens and summarizes an essay, a section of an essay, or a paragraph perfectly. I'd like to give you three examples of lead sentences – one for an entire essay, one for a section, and one for a paragraph.

The Five W's and H. Before writing a lead, you need to ask the fundamental questions of newswriting; who, what, when, where, why, and how. Be sure to answer these questions in your lead and leave the less important information for later in your article. Remember the inverted pyramid.

Keep it Simple: The best lead is one that is concise and clear. Think about your story and then write a simple but powerful way to reflect it. Don't bog your reader down with overly complicated language or extra words. You must be clear and concise.

Honesty: A lead is an implicit promise to your readers. You must be able to deliver what you promise in your lead.

  Features Writing

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. A good lead does just that. It gives readers the most important information in a clear, concise and interesting manner. It also establishes the voice and direction of an article.

     A feature is a longer piece of writing than a news story. Features come in many different types and are widely used in magazines, newspapers and online. A feature will often cover an issue in greater depth than a news story would do; or it might look at an ongoing story from a different angle

A feature should be fact-based, objective and accurate, but the genre also allows for more creative expression than a news article. While containing elements of news, feature writing provides scope, depth, and interpretation of trends, events, topics or people. 

Examples of feature stories include news features, profiles, spot features, trend stories, and live-ins. Feature stories can be found in the main news section of a newspaper, especially if they profile a person or group currently in the news.

Writing a Feature 

 A  feature is a longer piece of writing than a news story. Features come in many different types and are widely used in magazines, newspapers and online.

A feature will often cover an issue in greater depth than a news story would do; or it might look at an ongoing story from a different angle.

Some point are ......

Cover the essential elements of who, what, when, where, how and why.

• Put the most important things at the beginning, preferably in the first paragraph

• Plan out what you are going to say beforehand.

  for example, a recent news item can be covered in a news feature. Or a news article can abandon the inverted pyramid structure to cover a human interest story using more detail and emotion.