Feature Writing 101. Blech!
Feature stories are to be immediately distinguishable from hard news stores by
their soft and squishy ledes. Heaven forfend that the writer spill some actual
details of the story in the lede. No, the writer must entice the reader into
the story by teasing him, tickling his fancy, as it were, and drawing him in to
the mushy, gushy details to follow. All written in a light and breezy style,
which again clues readers that they aren't reading real news, but made up news
of the "Hey! Check this out!" variety.
The other entrance into feature that I hate with a passion that waxes purple is
the anecdotal lede, which features more puff pastry before getting down to
facts. "Chris Barker always starts his day at the kitchen expresso machine
before sitting down at the breakfast nook with . . ." blah, blah, blah!
Sigh. Perhaps that's why I don't read as much news as I used to. The news
itself is depressing enough, never mind the squishy still with which it is
presented. (And don't get me started on hard news, where the purpose of the
lede now appears to be to share the unholy crap out of the reader, even if
there's nothing to be afraid of.
Journalist No More Bob
On Jan 13, 2013, at 7:12 AM, Chris Barker wrote:
> But that article: who teaches American journalists to use that awful and
> hackneyed device to start a story? It's prevalent on the TV as well as in
> (virtual) print and I find it depressing. Worse than that, it's coming Over
> Here . . .
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