Everyone likes to read news and it seems that more people enjoy reading articles, watching news programs, and listening to radio shows based around current events. But what exactly is news? And how does it differ from regular “hard” news? The following are some common ideas about the difference and how it can be used.
Hard news, as opposed to “soft” news, is the type of news that the public generally reacts to more eagerly than any other type because it contains more factual detail and less creative writing. A feature article is much more detailed than a conventional hard news piece and makes use of the typical types of visual storytelling devices that you may find in novels instead. Feature stories, which are generally considered good news stories, do not focus solely on the facts and instead focus on an interesting or important individual or occurrence. Because of this, they are often read first by ordinary citizens who then pass along their reactions to the information to friends or other readers who might be interested in the same thing.
The difference between hard and soft news, then, lies in the way that news organizations plan and present their information. While hard news stories contain the expected facts and/or event, news reporters make use of their imagination in reporting the information so that they create an unexpected element for the audience. For example, a recent piece about a newly discovered virus that was deadly to humans was promptly passed around by various news channels within hours of its being made public. This was undoubtedly a big surprise to the individuals who discovered it. While the virus was deadly to humans, it was not expected by the general public and this was seen as an unexpected element in the reporting of the story – one that created a stir in the media and among the general public.
