Feature Story

A feature story is to a journalist, what a profile is to a creative writer.  A feature story focuses on a single person, and a particular aspect about his or her life.  Although most features stories utilize quotes not only from the main person, but also people he or she has a relationship with.  It's a good idea to select a few people.  Outside sources will shape the story better and give a greater amount of depth.  A story may be about one person, but other people are always affected.  A friend or family member's comment can help the audience connect to the main person better.  Information from a written source can also help enhance a story.  For example, if I was writing a story about someone who was struck by lightening.  It would be helpful to tell the some facts about how often lightening strikes, and how many people are struck each year.  This would give individuality and lend a more interesting story to the person.  Feature stories are great because it gives the writer a greater opportunity to get to know the person in greater depth.

Campus Story

For this assignment, I covered an event held on the BYU–Idaho campus.  Through doing this assignment, I know that I don't want to do broadcasting.  But I do like covering events.  I liked talking to the woman about her accomplishment and the challenges that accompanied it.  I liked writing about the story and also the challenges she experienced.  I have been able to meet so many people through journalism.  This event wasn't extremely difficult.  I think the hardest part for me was writing the broadcast script.

I've also realized this is why I want to do journalism.  There are people doing great things in the world; and I want to write about them.  There is always a story behind every event, every tragedy, every struggle.  It's not just words on a page.  I love to talk, probably more than I should since I am a terrible interrupter (which I'm trying to be better at).  But I like to tell other people about other things; I like to inform people.  This is why I know that even if I just freelance it on a blog, or get an actual job at a paper, I will always like writing and journalism.

In-Depth Stories

An In-Depth Story focuses on a certain topic.  It utilizes experts and uses a profile as a way to introduce the topic.  Let's say, hypothetically, I was writing about a movement that believes kumquats have major health benefits and they want to make a law that everyone has to eat at least 3 a day.  If I were to write said story, I would first want to go to a nutrition expert that specializes in kumquats (there has been research done on kumquats people).  I would interview the expert and use quotes from him or her for the bulk of my paper.  I would also search for a profile; such as someone who has used kumquats to cure a disease, or who is a firm believer in the power of kumquats.  Interviewing their relatives is also an invaluable resource.  I would start off introducing my profile, and then introduce my expert.  I think it's much more interesting if you weave quotes from the profile and their family, and the expert together in the body of the article.  It gives a relatable aspect to all the statistics and data given by the expert; the reader is able to relate to the article much easier with having the profile referred to often.  The ending should wrap up the story and either prove or disprove the helpfulness of kumquats.

Attending Meetings

If you ever write for a small paper, you will write a story about a meeting occurring in town.  These meeting can be discussing anything, and can sometimes be relatively dull.  Here's an example.  Now I recognize that this is not a real town meeting, but the thing is it will be hard to find a story from a town meeting that would be relevant to the entire town (which the example was obviously not).  When I wrote a story about a meeting for my class I was lucky that there was proposal that (if approved) might affect the entire town.  But that will not always be the case.  If you have trouble finding stories or gathering sufficient information from meeting to write a story, here's a few things you can do:

1.) Bring a Recorder

You should probably have one so you can interview anyone at the drop of a hatch anyway.  But if's always good to have a recorder.  If you can't figure out what to write about initially, listen to the meeting again and you might have a better chance of coming up with an angle.  If you forget a recorder, meetings usually have a scribe and you can ask them to send you a copy or ask where you can get a copy of the script.

2.) Ask Questions

If you have no idea about why part of the agenda is important, ask.  Find the person in charge of the meeting or someone who appeared to know what was going on, and ask about an issue.  A simple, "Why does it matter if Mrs. Finalon grows durian in the community garden?" Can clear up the matter.  Someone who is in charge would know why people would have a problem.  Turns out, Durian smells really foul, even when the skin hasn't been penetrated.  This could cause a rift among neighbors and upset the balance of the town.

3.) Research

Research before you go.  Town meetings usually have agendas, and sometimes they will be posted before the meeting actually happens.  Reading the agenda will help you brainstorm for a potential interesting story.  Overall, research helps you look and be more prepared.  Just replace interview with meeting, and read this post.

Rexburg Campus Concealed Carry

I use to write as a volunteer for BYU–Idaho's newspaper Scroll.  However, I've since moved on to bigger and better things.  I was hired just two days ago as the Arts and Entertainment Assistant Editor of Scroll.  I'm moving up in the world!
But when I was just a humble writer, I wrote a story about Facebook group called Rexburg Campus Concealed Carry.  Their aim is to allow students to carry concealed weapons on campuses in Rexburg.  My story made the front page of Scroll, although it was more than likely because of the subject matter rather than my actual ability as a writer.  All stories written in Scroll are posted online, for all the world to view.  If I was to take my story one step further on the Internet, there are two things I could do to help make the experience a little less "meh" and a little more "Bam!" (For those of you old enough to remember Emerald, that was for him).

1.) A Quick Stats Feed
For articles of controversy, a quick stats feed is a great way to give quick facts to readers.  Quick facts help engage readers and they are most likely to read the entire article.  Especially for my article, I think it would be cool to also have a map that showed how each state would be expected to vote in the event of a federal gun law.

2.) Poll
Everyone likes to have their voice heard right? A simple pole to the right of my article would make the article more interesting.  Most people who read Scroll attend BYU–I or live around the school.  A poll would be a way to record what the majority of the community thinks about this issue.  It can be applied to any article though.  It's not just for controversial articles.  For example, an article about teeth sensitivity could have a poll about how prevalent teeth sensitivity in the area, what kind of sensitivity is most common, or how victims deal with living without smoothies and/or hot chocolate.

In case you haven't noticed, the new age is a digital age.  Newspapers are disappearing all over the place.  In 2008, Pew Research released a study about the Internet taking over print news.  They found that 2008 was the first year people choose online over print newspapers.  In fact, one of the oldest newspapers, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, became an online-only newspaper in 2009 after 149 years.  Print newspapers is becoming a thing of the past, and it's important to utilize all resources available to make articles as visually pleasing to audiences as possible.

Sensationalism

Sensationalism is a real problem in the news writing.  Sensationalism is when an article or video, any kind of media, appeals to the audience's senses, rather than using information.  This is evident in every article about celebrities.  The latest news about celebrities is always posted.  The article will discuss what the celebrity has over the weekend.  Very often, it is something negative; which always provokes emotions in readers.  For example Justin Bieber.  Bieber, most famous for his song "Baby".  The music video obtained over 1 million hits on Youtube.  Bieber received a DUI while driving a rented car.  You can find an article by CNN here.  Unfortunately for Bieber, his popularity ensured a uproar when the public caught wind of it.  However, DUI is not uncommon.  In fact, about 10,000 people die each year due to drunk driving, or about 27 people everyday.  So if this is such a prevalent problem, why did the public start a petition to deport the Canadian superstar back to his homeland?  The answer is sensationalism.  Sensationalism made a spectacle out of a lesson.  Instead of doubling efforts to prevent drunk driving, the public decided to focus their efforts on deporting one out of (at least) 10,000 adults.  E for effort guys, E for effort.  I am confident that the longer newspapers insist on reporting things of little significance, the less people will care about significant things.

Interviewing

Can an article exist without an interview? The answer: No.  Plain and simple.  Journalists get a large majority of their articles from the interview.  An article adorned with information dense quotes will be more interesting and relevant to the audience.  Preparing for the interview can be equally or more important than the interview itself.  Research is an essential pre-interviewing step.  By researching, a journalist can come up with relevant questions.  A teacher once recommended to come up with a total of 50 questions; because there's nothing more embarrassing than a 30 second pause when the journalist tries to think of a question he or she didn't come up with.  Writing questions before hand is important because it means the conversation will constantly be moving and engaging.  The person being interviewed is more likely to open up if the journalist communicates through words, actions and/or gestures that he or she is important.  Interviewing is what the entire article is, so it's important to do a good job and ask thoughtful questions.