ZQMS-ARC-REC-002

ASSIGNMENT COVER

REGION: MATABELELAND SOUTH

PROGRAM: BACHELOR OF ARTS AND MEDIA STUDIES INTAKE: 14

FULL NAME OF STUDENT: NQOBILE MPOFU PIN: P1139827C

MAILING ADDRESS: 1253 DULIBAVHADZIMO, BEITBRIDGE

CONTACT TELEPHONE/CELL: 0774010725 ID. NO.: 02-050604R 02

COURSE NAME: NEWS GATHERING AND WRITING

COURSE CODE: BAMS214i

ASSIGNMENT NO. e.g. 1 or 2: 1 DUE DATE: 09/09/2018

ASSIGNMENT TITLE: ‘Straight/ hard news and feature articles are the same.’ Discuss the
authenticity of this statement citing relevant examples.

MARKER’S COMMENTS: ______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

OVERALL MARK: _____________ MARKER’S NAME: ________________________

MARKER’S SIGNATURE:_______________________________ DATE: ___________

Communication has greatly developed from different
researches done by numerous scholars in the past decades
.This is where the birth of the two types of news came about
,the hard and soft news .The use of the two terms goes along
with what was classified in journalism and how the media
functions in the demographic societies .Classification of the two
has become a norm in the news industry in spite of the
different levels of understanding .It is far from being resolved
as to how to differentiate between straight and feature articles.
The outcomes of the various studies that have been compiled
are very difficult to compare even though they show attributes
that are similar .In most studies straight hard news and feature
articles are not described in separation but in a combined sense
.Most of the scholars understand soft and hard news in
different angles and only show a few indications that show as
two different types of news .
So as to give the impression of the differences in definitions ,
Cohen and Shoemaker (2006) defined hard / straight news and
soft /feature news as “Hard news are items of urgent
occurrences that needs to be reported right away because they
become obsolete very quickly. These items must be truly new ,
soft news items are usually based on non-scheduled events
.The reporter has no pressure to public the news at a certain
date or time”.The above is straight forward because it used a
single angle to show the differences between the two types of
news .Patterson (2000,3) defined straight /hard news as “ the
coverage of breaking events involving life and peoples’ lives
,safety and surroundings ,top leadership ,major issues or
significant disruptions in the routines of daily lives such as
earthquakes or airline disasters “.This type of information is
presumed important to citizens so that they understand and
respond to the world of public affairs ,Patterson (2000,3)
continues to define soft news as “news that typically is more
personality centered ,less time bound ,more practical and more
incident based than other news “.Soft news has been described
as a change in the vocabulary of news as it is described as more
personal and familiar in its form and also less distant.According
to Muchena ( 2002,78 ) cited in the ZOU module defined hard
news as” unexpected and can happen anytime .”And according
to Knight (2003) “Its what you see on the front page of a
newspaper.”For example war, politics, business and crime .
Muchena (2002, 78) defined soft news as “just about anything
that is not hard news.”
Hard news has always been identified and characterized in
many ways .It mostly entails political economic ,or social topics
and it also demands immediate reporting pushed by ,the news
importance and short lifespan .Soft news then has little or no
social or international importance that is why it is said that it
can be reported anytime thus having no lifespan like hard news,
for example ,a story like “fuel in extinction in Zimbabwe , can
be classified as hard news and a story like ‘Zimbabwean wins
MISS Universe’ is classified as soft news.”Usually it is not only
the topic that determines or separates hard from soft news ,it’s
the way they are written .
Hard news remain significant or news worthy for a certain
period of time and enables the reader the pleasure of
accompanying commentary and analysis whereas soft news
involve gossip ,local scandal and stories of human interest with
little or no complexity beyond their immediate circle
.Whetmore (1987) makes an emphasis on the factual nature of
hard news as it comparison of soft news with a character of
being subjective , colorful , soft news give out a character of
being sensational because Patterson( 2000) gives a character
that soft news has a sensational elements that regards
celebrities nun- connected to any social trend .For example ,the
hard news may say ‘train kills hundreds .”And soft news say
“band members cheat death as train derails.”
Even though it is clear that hard and soft news seem to be both
objective ,feminists look at it with the angle of gender.Woman
are asked to report more on soft news as it is considered less
challenging and less professional and the male counterparts
more on hard news .Topics like Politics , crime ,economics and
education and the female topics to be , culture , consumerism
and societal policies .Males in journalism tend to think that
woman are better in reporting things that include human
interests.
Hard news and soft news (features) are tamed the two major
types of news. News and events that need immediate reporting
are said to be hard news whilst soft or features are considered
background information. What defines hard news is not always
considered through the subject matter, especially ,if the story is
written heavily but the subject matter is considered soft like
the fashion industry. In many instances we see stories that are
both hard and soft, for example, for example a business mogul
in the arms of another woman.
The tone of a story tells whether it is a feature or hard ,hard
usually take on a factual approach which usually answers the
who , what ,when ,how .It usually has clean straight to the
point writing that usually starts with a summery which is brief
and simple .Features or soft news are not necessarily time
conscious ,they include things like profiles of people and
programs. They take a laid back approach.
Hard news are accounts of incidents that have just happened or
which are about to happen ,take for instance fires or
environmental crisis like earthquarkes .These stories develop
overnight or the same day .They are given special attention to
the extent that they come in between programs ,for example a
story on the death of a president ,whereas soft news or
features have less immediacy than hard news and they aim at
the reader or listeners emotions and interlect.For example
‘Oliver Mtukudzi buys a private jet for his wife’.
Hard news stories mostly give emphasis to facts , not opinion or
analysis .They usually contains highly descriptive passage and
language with emphasis put on the bare ,known provable facts.
Soft news on the other hand places little emphasis on the facts
though at times it will be wrong to suggest that features should
not have a factual foundation even though their aim is
entertainment and informing the public with great emphasis on
human interest, novelty and colorful writing with less facts and
immediate events Climenhaga,D,J (2009 )
In some cases its not always the subject matter that determines
whether a story is hard or soft news,some might get the
impression that its hard news because of the way it would be
heavily reported even when the subject matter is considered
soft for instance intertainment.It is possible that some stories
are both soft and hard news because features of both will be
there .Scholars ,through research have asserted that the
difference between features and hard news is of
temporality.According to Tuchman (1978,51) “the structuring
of time in the newsroom influences the assortment of
occurances as news events”.With the above we notice that
there is a distinctive trait that newsmakers cause in hard news
in order to understand that they must communicate about a
certain event within the news circle there are working on ,or as
Tuchman said “urgency of dissemination .”In contrast soft news
do not need to be timely because soft news is seen as open to
communication in various news circles without any disturbance
to their newsworthiness. These are just temporary patterns
that are made by people on whether and how to treat an
event, as hard or soft news. Again it depends on how the
coverage is framed in relation to the set up frameworks in their
work practices. Looking at the history of news ,it is noted that a
coverage can move from soft to hard news and hard to soft
news by simply changing the urgency of the news.
Features and hard news can be considered as a set of shared
practices and principles that can cut across all kinds of news
.This can be because soft news has been declared as of cultural
and not political significance. This being that, examining the
extent to which soft news programming conveys hard news
content .In exploring the importance of the way the content is
narrated in hard and soft news alike and also the marginal
forms of content production utilize symbolic and behavioral
repertoires of both.
There is a time when scholars questioned the notion that
because hard news has serious political and cultural content,
soft news has not much more than intertainment value Curren
et al (1980 ,15)says “we must understand the importance of
human interest stories in shaping what we generally think of as
hard news .”They then conclude according to the British Press
saying “its apparently diverse and apolitical human interest
content which represent reality in a form that powerfully
reinforces and complements the dominant consensus
articulated in its current affairs coverage.”Looking at this gives
the idea that the differences between hard and soft news,their
disseminations shares certain kinds of important societal
consequences.
Writers in politics have addressed a turnaway from hard news
and trended torwards a soft approach in the reporting of hard
news .This came about when it was realized that hard news did
not have much public support as soft news .In a media
environment ,people who are not interested in public affairs
stories can easily avoid them ,that is why gorvenment and
political conflicts end up as hard news .Baums( 2002,91) argues
that “due to selective political coverage by the intertainment
soft news media ,may otherwise politically inactive individuals
are exposed to information about high profile political issues
……as a by product seeking intertainment.”This then can tell us
that in soft news one can also consume hard news.
One can find common attributes between features/ soft and
hard news.Bird et al (1988,69) say that “the distinction has
hindered us from seeing news as a unified body that exhibits
clear themes and patterns that have little to do with splits .He
goes on to say “and blinded us to the way the narrative devices
are used in all news media .”Some media organizations have
since took scandal issues which are supposed to be soft news in
a way that will appear as hard news .
There is a challenge between the two types of news .By looking
at the traits ,not just between the two but by also implicating
generated images between them.In talk shows and tabloid
publications it shows that there is a repeat of both hard and
news .Bird (1992,97) states that the creation compared tabloid
and mainsteam publications and concluded that “the process of
creating stories is structurally very similar in both kinds of
publications.”Grindsstaff (2002,82) said ,through research
found that “the publication of shows is organized behind the
scenes much like any other news production”. The hard and
soft news distinction is just between heavy and light ,similar to
the one stated by Tuchman1978,51 when he said “ because soft
news is seen as open to communication in various news circles
without any disturbance in their newsworthiness.”This means
that the difference between hard and soft news rests on its
commonalities.
Another difference or to say similarity between hard and soft
news rests again in its commonalities is that of the degree but
not of kind .This is the context of political communication
research .Baum (2002,92) stated in a view that “at least in
some instances the difference between soft and hard news is
one of degree other than kind .”And again Zelizer( 2004,131)
gives an analysis of hard and soft news as “how all kinds of
journalism were all part of the same family and the differences
between them were differences of degree other than kind
.”This shows that there are just temporary differences and not
permanent.
As we all know that readers will not find the idea of hard and
soft news represented in the concept we propose. Some will
try to stick with the easier concept only with the focus on one
dimension or sticking with the other.Hard and soft news as we
have witnessed describes the set of characteristics represented
in news items .Based on a set of indicatorsproposed in this
write up groups of news can now be catagorised in the
different media systems.
REFERENCES

 Baum , M (2003) Hard and soft news , Int Schaefer and

T.Burkland ( EDS)Encyclopedia of media and politics ,
Washington D.C CQ Press.
 Grandstaff , L (2002) The money shot ,Chicago University
Press.
 Muchena E and Malleus ,R News gathering and writing
Module BAMS 214 ,Mount Pleasant , Harare.
 Schiller , D .(1981)Objectivity and the news , Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania Press.
 Schoemaker , D and Cohen ,A( Eds) News around the
world.
 Zelizer ,B .(2004) Taking journalism seriously, Thousand
aoks , C A , Sage.