Dear Dr. Ink:
We've
defined news. What is 'features'?
Lisa Scheid
Reading, Pennsylvania
Answer: Let's begin with the most famous definition of news: Man bites dog. What then would constitute a feature?
Several men bite several dogs.
Several men bite the same dog.
Why are men biting dogs?
What makes dogs bite?
Fred the Letter Carrier holds city record for being bitten by dogs. (Has never bitten back.)
Diablo and Spike: Why owners give docile dogs vicious names.
How to protect children from dangerous dogs.
Martha the vet cares for good dogs bitten by bad dogs.
Nature or nurture? What makes good dogs turn bad?
Why we love vets and hate dog catchers.
The hero dogs of September 11.
Keep an eye on kids who mistreat dogs.
How dogs help cancer patients.
The Doc could go on and on, but he has made his point. The feature story stands on the edge of news, or moves off the news. In practical terms, news and features overlap. News reporters use a variety of writing techniques to render news events, including some written in "feature style." Feature writers often spin off from a core of news events and values.
Much of what the Doc has learned about features comes from an essay published in 1940. "From Politics to Human Interest" is the first chapter of a book written by Helen MacGill Hughes. She debunks the idea that the human interest story was always central to American journalism. Quite the contrary. It was created to make and meet a market. First came newspapers that published bulletins about commercial and political events. From these evolved some newspapers that served as editorial arms of political parties. It was only later in the mid 1800's that newspaper editors began to realize that stories about gossip, celebrity, scandal, first-hand accounts of the quirky and bizarre, could attract a much larger audience to newspapers. In so doing, editors created the commercial and political clout that turned 20th Century news organizations into pillars of profit and power.
To use Hughes's distinction, we've been arguing for more than a century now as to whether the newspaper should be "something important" or "something interesting." As readers might expect, Doc rejects this false dichotomy. Writers in antiquity knew that great literature must "instruct and delight." In the same way, journalists have a duty to uncover what is most important in society, and to make it interesting.
