Feature story
Encyclopedia

Published Features & news

While the distinction between published features and news is often clear, when approached conceptually there are few hard boundaries between the two. It is quite possible to write a feature in the style of a news story, for instance. Nevertheless features do tend to take a more narrative approach, perhaps using opening paragraphs as scene-setting narrative hook
Narrative hook
A narrative hook is a literary technique in the opening of a story that "hooks" the reader's attention so that he or she will keep on reading...

s instead of the delivery of the most important facts.

Types

In The Universal Journalist, David Randall
David Randall
David Randall is a British journalist and author of The Universal Journalist, a textbook on journalism.Randall was born in Norwich and studied Economics at Clare College, Cambridge. He was recruited to write for the student newspaper Varsity by then editor Jeremy Paxman...

 suggests the following categories of feature:

Color piece
Describing a scene and throw light on its theme(s).

Fly on the wall
see Fly on the wall
Fly on the wall
Fly on the wall is a style of documentary-making used in filmmaking and television production. The name derived from the idea that events are seen candidly, as a fly on a wall might see them...

.

Behind the scenes
Similar to the above, but with the journalist a part of events.

In disguise
Pretending to be another person (see Ryan Parry).

Interview
See interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...

.

Profile
An examination of a particular person. Will often include an interview.

Factbox / Chronology
A simple list of facts, perhaps in date order.

Backgrounder / A history of
An extended factbox.

Full texts
Extracts from books or transcripts of interviews.

My testimony
A first-person
First-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...

 report of some kind.

Analysis
An examination of the reasons behind an event.

Vox pop / Expert roundup
A selection of views from members of the public or experts.

Opinion poll
See opinion poll
Opinion poll
An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...

.

Review
See review
Review
A review is an evaluation of a publication, a product or a service, such as a movie , video game, musical composition , book ; a piece of hardware like a car, home appliance, or computer; or an event or performance, such as a live music concert, a play, musical theater show or dance show...

.

Usage by the press

As the print media faces ever stiffer competition from other sources of news, feature stories are becoming more common as they can be more engaging to read. At many newspapers, news stories are sometimes written in "feature style," adopting some of the conventions of feature writing while still covering breaking events. Wire services such as the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

, which previously made a point of distributing only news, now also include feature stories.

The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing
The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing has been awarded since 1979 for a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to high literary quality and originality. The Pulitzer Committee issues an official citation explaining the reasons for the award.-List of winners and their...

is awarded annually for a distinguished example of feature writing in an American newspaper or magazine, giving prime consideration to high literary quality and originality.
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