The Live-In

The Trend Story

The Spot Feature

Spot features are feature stories produced on deadline that focus on a breaking news event. Often news features are used as sidebars to the mainbar, the main deadline news story about an event.

Let’s say a tornado hits your town. Your mainbar will focus on the five W’s (Who? When? Where? What? Why?) and the H (How?) of the story — the number of casualties, the extent of the damage, the rescue efforts involved, and so on.

But with the mainbar you could have any number of sidebars focusing on certain aspects of the event. One story might describe the scene at an emergency shelter where displaced residents are housed. Another might reflect on past tornadoes in your town. Yet another might examine the weather conditions that led to the destructive storm.

Literally dozens of different sidebars could be done in this case, and more often than not they would be written in a feature style.

Is there a cool new look in women’s fall fashions? A website or tech gadget that everyone’s going nuts over? An indy band that’s attracted a cult following? A show on an obscure cable channel that’s suddenly hot? These are the kinds of things that trend stories zero in on.

Trend stories take the pulse of the culture at the moment, looking at what’s new, fresh and exciting in the world of art, fashion, film, music, high-technology and so on. The emphasis in trend stories is usually on light, quick, easy-to-read pieces that capture the spirit of whatever new trend is being discussed. In other words, if you’re writing a trend story, have fun with it.

The live-in is an in-depth, often magazine-length article that paints a picture of a particular place and the people who work or live there. Live-ins have been done on homeless shelters, emergency rooms, battlefield encampments, cancer hospices, public schools and police precincts, among other locales. The idea is to give readers a look at a place they probably wouldn’t normally encounter.

Reporters doing live-ins must spend a fair bit of time in the places they’re writing about. That’s how they get a real sense of the place’s rhythm and atmosphere. Reporters have spent days, weeks and even months doing live-ins (some have been turned into books). The live-in is really the ultimate example of the reporter immersing him or herself in the story.

What Kind of Article Is It?	The article deals with… The article presents the general picture of… The purpose of the article is to discuss/show/analyze/ask…
What Is the Article About?	As it is reported from… The article touches upon/gives the facts…
What May People Do in the Article?	To discuss a wide range of problems. To reach an agreement. To approve/disapprove smth. To establish (diplomatic) relations. To solve a problem. To make a statement.
Author’s Point of View	The author comes to the conclusion that… The key-note of the article is… We can draw the conclusion that…

Task 12. Fill in the gap (1–7) with the correct form of the verb.

What’s the Difference Between Broadsheet Newspapers and Tabloids?

You may have heard the terms ‘broadsheet’ and ‘tabloid’ (1) _______________ (to be) thrown around to describe different kinds of newspapers. So what’s the difference?

Broadsheet refers to the most common newspaper format, which is typically 11*12 inches wide and 20 or more inches long. Many of the USA’s most (2) _______________ (to respect) newspapers — ‘The New York Times’, ‘The Washington Post’, ‘The Wall St. Journal’, and so on — are broadsheet papers. Broadsheet papers are usually six columns across.

Beyond their size, broadsheet papers tend to employ a traditional approach to news that emphasizes in-depth coverage and a sober tone in articles and editorials. Broadsheet readers often tend to be fairly affluent and educated, with many of them (3) _______________ (to live) in the suburbs.

In the technical sense, tabloid refers to a type of newspaper that typically measures 11*17 inches and is five columns across, narrower than a broadsheet newspaper. Since tabloids are smaller, their stories tend to be shorter than those (4) _______________ (to find) in broadsheets.

And while broadsheet readers tend to be upscale suburbanites, tabloid readers are often (5) _______________ (to work) class residents of big cities. Indeed, many city dwellers prefer tabloids because they are easy to carry and read on the subway or bus.

Tabloids also tend to be more irreverent and slangy in their writing style than their more serious broadsheet brothers. In a crime story, a broadsheet refers to a police officer, while the tabloid calls him a cop. And while a broadsheet might spend dozens of column inches on ‘serious’ news — say, a major bill (6) _______________ (to be) debated in Congress — a tabloid is more likely to zero in on a heinous sensational crime story or celebrity gossip.

In fact, the word tabloid (7) _______________ (to come) to be associated with the kind of supermarket checkout aisle papers — such as the ‘National Enquirer’ — that focus exclusively on splashy, lurid stories about celebrities.

But there’s an important distinction to be made here. True, there are the over-the-top tabloids like the ‘Enquirer’, but there are also the so-called respectable tabloids — such as the ‘New York Daily News’, the ‘Chicago Sun-Times’, the ‘Boston Herald’ and so on — that do serious, hard-hitting journalism. In fact, the ‘New York Daily News’ has won 10 Pulitzer Prizes, print journalism’s highest honour.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-08