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.