Chapter 14 Week 9

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2. I believe people read newspapers primarily for information. Although newspapers are also a form of entertainment, i think their main purpose is to inform to public of events occuring in their world. My opinion of this issue therefore, makes me think that newspapers should focus more on publishing news stories rather than feature articles, which provide a more entertaining purpose. If the readers of newspapers are getting their information in a clear enough way, i don't think increasing the amount of features will increase sales, especially when in today's society people are wanting communication to be more efficient etc.

3. Ideally it would be better for Australia if newspapers increased the amount of Australian writers and Australian news included in them, however, the current content of newspapers is mainly determined by the demand of the public and it seems the public are interested in foreign stories and writers. So until Australians can demand Australian made news, newspapers will continue to provide them with the news that sells papers.

4. I would like to be a full-time feature writer because I enjoy adding flair to my writing, which newspaper reporting does not really allow.

5. Feature writers write in a literary voice, being descriptive, emotive and appealing to the senses while informing about the subject. Journalists must write in a factual, subjective voice, clear of bias language, emotion and descriptive language.


Points of Interest

- There are a number of introductions writers use for their features such as anecdotal, descriptive, situation, essay, chronological, summary, narrative, shocker, ironic and a teaser.

- There are also a number of 'closers' which journalists use to end their stories including circular, summary, poetic, looking ahead, 'that's that' and 'see what I mean'.

- When I was waiting for one of my first communications classes I started talking to a mature age student whose daughter had done the same degree as me and had become a writer of travel features... after talking to this lady about her daughter's experiences I decided that that was what I wanted to do. In the text book it says that travel features involve a great eye for detail, careful listening and the ability to explain things in an interesting way. The text book also mentioned as part of the AJA Code of Ethics, that a travel writer must tell readers of any freebies or deals which make their trip cheaper etc.