Although hard news stories do not allow much room for journalists to write creatively or insert their own personal style into their writing, they are an essential part of journalism. The front pages of the news paper as what many people wake up to, the first chance they have to find out what is news. For me, it is in the 5 minutes whilst I wait for my coffee at the cafe below my work that I get a chance to read the paper. And this is exactly what I am looking for, a quick overview of what is news today. If there is anything that interests me, I will take the time to linger and finish the article or perhaps look it up on my computer when I get upstairs (don’t tell my boss that one).
The first article “RBA’s Stevens warns against housing speculation” is a fairly straight forward hard news story, appropriate to the subject matter where readers with personal interests will be wanting to read the article to gain facts about the situation.
I found the second article ‘Push to end under quoting as market stays hot’ much more engaging than the first. I am not a home owner and so whilst I am aware how rate rises affect others, it doesn’t mean a great deal to me. It is the kind of article I would read the title and maybe the first line before moving on. However the story about underquoting was a more engaging story to read and I am not looking to buy a house any time soon so this lead me to look at what the journalist did to create a deeper and more engaging story. The first article, really only focused on one interview with an expert but the second article spoke to more sources to give a more rounded overall picture – Consumer Affairs Victoria, Real Estate Agent, and a potential buyer all had a voice within the story. I think the personal perspective helped to lift this story to a more engaging level .
Next came the soft news story about Vindaloo against Violence. By using a softer news style, it gives this article and the writer a little more room to breathe. You can hear the journalist’s voice coming through and the article finishes with a conclusion in her opinion. Without using a bit of creative license, this story would be a very straight story about what Vindaoloo against Violence is and the pros and cons. The softer news style allows for some ‘discussion’ to be raised in the article and also gets the reader thinking about the issue by raising questions and bringing you different points of view.
I didn’t love her approach to the story and the introduction to the story didn’t grab me instantly, in fact I actually found the metaphor she used a bit confusing. I felt as though she was trying to be a bit clever and wanted her to get to the story quicker. So whilst I like the way a soft news story gives the journalist a little more freedom and creative licence, I was not a big fan of her approach to this story.
‘Flying in the face of Convention’ was a different style of soft news story, more of an interview/profile piece on the film director Francois Ozon. The newsworthy element of the story is that he is an interesting character who produces films which are unconventional. Therefore the article uses a lot of quotes from the interview to tell the story from his perspective and convey his personality. A hard news style would not be appropriate in this instance as the story is in the detail not the facts.
The article is long in the length but it is a more niche topic, being about a french film director and his latest movie. It is not the kind of article that would suit a hard news style and appear on the front page of the paper. If you are interested in french films or have seen any of his films, then the article will be of interest to readers which means that the journalist can delay writing the most important facts straight away (details about the new films release) and focus on profiling the film director and his previous work before telling the audience about his latest film release.
The final article is a different form of soft news writing altogether, it is written in the first person and details her time at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival media launch lunch. Although the writer uses less of the traditional news writing techniques as found in the previous articles, it is a very personal and relaxed writing style which takes the reader chronologically through the event. It might not make it into a newspaper in it’s current form but the freedom of a blog allows the author to write in her own way and include numerous photos which are a great inclusion in this story
