How to Identify Different Types of Journalism

In the past, most people got their news from the daily newspaper and the nightly news. But now, more people draw their news from varied sources. There are so many types of journalism from so many sources that it can be difficult to determine to classify what's what. You can present information in different ways to achieve specific types of journalism goals.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Consider the source. Read a traditionally hard news source with a reputation for factual information such as the "Wall Street Journal" differently than a blog. The source can often tell you what angle the story is pushing. Hard-news sources are there to break news and to further the paper's reputation.
2. Read a softer news source such as a magazine, blog or column knowing that it's there to present one person's viewpoint. Magazine stories are usually written with a high degree of human interest and a softer, more descriptive style than articles in a newspaper.
3. Understand that editorials are opinion pieces covering just one side of the story. An editorial is there simply as one person's opinion, and usually provokes a response from the reader.
4. Look at the top of a page if you're unsure about the news content. Look for a disclaimer that says it's an advertisement or a sponsored story.
5. Notice the feature stories, which are in special-feature sections. However, they are on the front page as well. A feature story is a softer news story that usually profiles one person, a company or an event with an emotional aspect. Feature stories usually come with photographs.
6. Think about the effect the story has on you, whether you are entertained, enraged or amused. Look more closely at the types of journalism stories that have these effects, and you may see that they are entertainment pieces, or features, rather than harder news.
7. Search for stories that have some pieces of information that are useful to the community. This is investigative journalism. This type of story often takes longer to produce than the other news stories, with journalists working on uncovering information for weeks or even months. These stories tend to be on the front page or elsewhere in the front section.

Tips & Warnings

• You can find disclaimers in magazines and in the rear pages of magazines, where sponsored stories are common. Newspapers sometimes print these advertisements in a news-story format, but there's always a disclaimer at the top to distinguish it from the rest of the newspaper's content.