A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.

Monday, March 29, 2010

COMM 209: Define difference between news and features

Be clever. (See paragraph on page 116 [112] in the book.)

Post your definitions as comments to this post.

12 comments:

Pete said...

News: Thirteen students were rushed to the emergency room Monday when they fell asleep in a journalism class and fell out of a second-floor window at Benedictine University.

Feature(s): A first-person account "I woke up, and there I was in the flowerbed ...," timely tips for staying awake in classes, a trend story on other classes to take.

Anonymous said...

news is what happens. features are who or what happens, happens to happen to and stories related or accounts...

News: A professor put thirteen kids in the hospital when he caused them to fall asleep in his class. They fell out of a window on the second story of a building.

Feature: I woke up in a flowerbed and was told I was sleep walking from being put in a daze from the lull of the class.

smcpherson said...

News: Squirrel learns to water-ski

Features: Great areas for watersking, where to buy waterskiing equipment, and where to find waterskiing instructors.

Christina Ushman said...

NEWS has to deal with things happening right now or things that are going to happen. FEATURES are more special news details.
I think of a features being something separate than what has just happened in the news today. FEATURES give people more details on what really did happen on past events. NEWS is more current and does not have the full details like FEATURES.

Quinton said...

News refers to the subject matter, topic, and whats happening in a story, while features include things about the news story, such as witnesses, opinions, quotes and other things that help shape the news into a story.

Cait131 said...

News: The stories on news usually focus on events that are known to be both timely and public. Ex: crime, disasters and government. News stories tell you what happened. News article: article published in a print or Internet news medium such as a newspaper, newsletter, news magazine, news-oriented website, or article directory that discusses current or recent news of either general interest.

Features: The stories on features usually focus on issues that are known to be less public. They are more personal. Ex: relationships, entertainment and trends. Feature stories offer you advice, make you laugh and cry, and explore ideas. Features are different from news stories due to them including topics, styles, structures and treatments that you would not find in news stories. Feature articles: nonfiction articles that intend to inform, teach or amuse the reader on a topic. The topic centers around human interests.

carolyn said...

the news: well the news part is more of what has happened the details of the breaking news story, and feature is current and what is currently happenning while its still be breaking news.

Kyle K. said...

news: something that happens that people care about paying attention to.
feature: something that can draw a certain crowd to paying attention

Tom said...

News is the events that are happening or have happened. Features are who or what it happens to.
News: At Benedictine University thirteen students were rushed to the hospital when a professor bored them to sleep and they fell out of a second floor window
Feature: After waking up in a flower bed i was told i was sleep walking from being put to sleep in a boring class

rachel said...

A feature story is looked at in a in-depth fashion, focusing on one topic and researching it vigorously before writing about it. A feature is normally longer than a news story and sometimes involves the writers opinion intertwined with hard facts.

A news story usually answers specific questions about the topic like who, what, when, where, why, and how? A news story normally has a structured outline to the story as well.

Jared K said...

News is what happens or happened. Features are who or what something happened to.

News: Thirteen students were rushed to the hospital after they were bored to death in a Benedictine University at Springfield class.

Feature: How to stay awake in class and tips on which classes to take at Benedictine University at Springfield.

Andrew said...

News is anything that has to deal with timeliness, proximity, conflict, impact, significance, prominence, interest.

Feature is more of an interview or somebody's opinion about a topic

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About Me

Springfield (Ill.), United States
I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.