10.1 Identifying and Developing Feature Story Ideas
2 min read•august 9, 2024
Feature writing is all about finding compelling angles that resonate with readers. From emotional human interest stories to timely trend pieces, journalists must tap into what makes a story unique and engaging.
Developing strong feature ideas requires a mix of creativity and news sense. Writers need to assess newsworthiness factors like and while also crafting narratives that connect on a personal level through vivid storytelling techniques.
Story Angles
Emotional and Human Interest Elements
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- Human interest stories focus on personal experiences and struggles of individuals or groups
- engages readers by evoking feelings (empathy, joy, sadness)
- highlights uncommon or extraordinary aspects of a situation or person
- often combine multiple angles to create a well-rounded story
- Writers use and vivid details to bring stories to life
Techniques for Developing Story Angles
- Conduct to uncover and perspectives
- Research to add depth to current events
- Explore of traditions or practices
- Analyze of individual actions or decisions
- Identify that resonate with a broad audience
Newsworthiness Factors
Timeliness and Relevance
- Timeliness refers to the immediacy or currency of a story
- Recent events or developments often have higher news value
- Relevance connects the story to readers' interests, concerns, or daily lives
- link feature stories to current events or trending topics
- can make stories timely (holiday traditions, back-to-school)
Assessing and Enhancing Newsworthiness
- Monitor current events and social media trends for potential story ideas
- Identify of significant historical events as news pegs
- Analyze local impacts of national or global issues to increase relevance
- Consider the 's demographics and interests
- Look for on popular topics to stand out from other coverage
Types of Feature Stories
Trend and Seasonal Stories
- examine emerging patterns or shifts in society, culture, or technology
- Writers research statistics, expert opinions, and real-life examples to support trend analysis
- focus on recurring events or themes tied to specific times of year
- Holiday traditions, annual festivals, and sports seasons often inspire seasonal features
- Both trend and seasonal stories require thorough research and multiple sources
Evergreen Content and Long-Form Features
- remains relevant and interesting over extended periods
- Topics include timeless human experiences, historical events, or enduring cultural phenomena
- provide in-depth exploration of complex subjects
- Writers often combine multiple storytelling techniques in long-form pieces
- , interviews, and are crucial for comprehensive features
Key Terms to Review (25)
Anniversaries: Anniversaries are significant dates that commemorate events or milestones, often marking the passage of time since a particular occurrence. These occasions can serve as powerful storytelling opportunities, allowing journalists to reflect on past events while connecting them to current issues, cultural shifts, or societal changes. They can be celebrated annually, highlighting personal, historical, or cultural relevance, and often prompt deeper exploration into the event's impact and legacy.
Compelling narratives: Compelling narratives are engaging and persuasive stories that captivate the audience, drawing them into the subject matter through vivid details, relatable characters, and emotional connections. These narratives are crucial in journalism as they transform raw information into a powerful storytelling experience that resonates with readers, making complex issues more accessible and relatable.
Cultural Significance: Cultural significance refers to the importance or value that a particular cultural practice, artifact, or event holds within a community or society. This concept is crucial in understanding how stories resonate with audiences, as it shapes the context and meaning behind the narratives, helping to highlight shared experiences and collective identity.
Descriptive language: Descriptive language refers to the use of vivid and detailed words to create images in the reader's mind, enhancing the overall storytelling experience. It plays a crucial role in engaging readers by appealing to their senses and emotions, thereby enriching narratives and making them more relatable. This technique is especially important in soft news and feature writing, where the goal is often to evoke feelings and paint a picture of the story rather than just report facts.
Emotional appeal: Emotional appeal refers to a persuasive technique that aims to evoke an emotional response from the audience, influencing their attitudes and behaviors. By connecting with readers on an emotional level, writers can enhance engagement and make their messages more impactful, often leading to a stronger connection with the audience. This approach is especially effective in storytelling, where the emotional journey can captivate readers and create lasting impressions.
Evergreen content: Evergreen content refers to material that remains relevant and valuable to readers over time, regardless of current events or trends. This type of content often addresses universal topics that do not become outdated, such as how-to guides, tutorials, or fundamental concepts. By producing evergreen content, creators can ensure a steady stream of traffic and engagement long after it is published.
Extensive research: Extensive research refers to the thorough and in-depth investigation of a topic, gathering a wide range of information from various sources to develop a comprehensive understanding. This process is critical for feature story development, as it helps to uncover unique angles, validate facts, and enhance storytelling by providing rich context and details that engage the audience.
Fact-checking: Fact-checking is the process of verifying the accuracy of information before it is published or broadcasted, ensuring that claims made in journalism are supported by reliable evidence. This practice is essential for maintaining credibility, fostering trust with audiences, and upholding ethical standards within the field.
Historical Context: Historical context refers to the circumstances, events, and conditions that surround a particular situation, idea, or narrative, providing essential background for understanding its significance. This concept is crucial for analyzing how societal norms, cultural dynamics, and key events influence storytelling and the perception of events or subjects over time.
Human interest story: A human interest story is a type of news article that focuses on personal experiences and emotional appeal, highlighting the human side of a broader issue or event. These stories often aim to evoke empathy and connect with readers on an emotional level, making them memorable and impactful. By focusing on individuals and their unique circumstances, human interest stories can shed light on societal issues while engaging audiences more deeply than traditional reporting.
In-depth interviews: In-depth interviews are qualitative research methods used to gather detailed information through direct conversation with individuals. These interviews provide an opportunity to explore participants' thoughts, feelings, and experiences in a comprehensive way, making them valuable for developing feature story ideas that resonate deeply with audiences.
Long-form features: Long-form features are in-depth articles or stories that typically exceed 1,500 words, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of a subject, character, or event. These pieces often blend narrative storytelling with thorough research, providing readers with a detailed perspective that short articles cannot achieve. They engage readers through compelling narratives, vivid details, and nuanced analysis.
Monitoring trends: Monitoring trends refers to the ongoing process of observing and analyzing changes in various areas such as culture, technology, politics, and social behavior over time. This practice is crucial for journalists as it helps them identify emerging topics and issues that resonate with audiences, ensuring that their stories are relevant and timely. By keeping an eye on trends, journalists can develop feature story ideas that capture the essence of current events and societal shifts.
News pegs: A news peg is a relevant and timely angle that gives a story its hook, making it more appealing and newsworthy to audiences. It connects the feature story idea to current events, trends, or issues, ensuring that the content resonates with readers by providing context or urgency. News pegs help journalists elevate their stories by framing them within the broader narrative of what is happening in the world.
Personal anecdotes: Personal anecdotes are brief, engaging stories drawn from an individual's own experiences, often used to illustrate a point or evoke emotion. They can enhance storytelling by providing relatable and human elements that draw readers in, making complex topics more accessible and memorable.
Relevance: Relevance refers to the significance or importance of a story idea in relation to the audience's interests, needs, and current events. It helps determine what information will engage readers or viewers and what will resonate with their experiences. Identifying relevance in feature story ideas ensures that the content is not only informative but also meaningful and timely, allowing for a deeper connection between the storyteller and the audience.
Seasonal stories: Seasonal stories are feature articles that focus on events, themes, or activities related to specific times of the year, such as holidays, seasons, or annual celebrations. These stories often highlight cultural traditions, community events, or seasonal trends that resonate with audiences during particular periods, making them timely and relevant.
Seasonal Themes: Seasonal themes refer to the recurring concepts, ideas, or motifs that align with specific times of the year, such as holidays, weather changes, and cultural traditions. These themes provide a rich source of inspiration for storytelling and feature articles, allowing writers to connect with audiences through relatable experiences and seasonal events.
Societal impacts: Societal impacts refer to the effects that an event, action, or trend has on the structures, relationships, and overall functioning of a community or society. This concept encompasses changes in social norms, behaviors, and cultural dynamics that can result from various factors, including media coverage and storytelling. Understanding societal impacts helps in recognizing the broader consequences of feature stories and their role in shaping public perception and awareness.
Target audience: The target audience refers to a specific group of people identified as the intended recipients of a communication, such as news articles, advertising, or feature stories. Understanding the target audience is crucial for journalists and content creators, as it influences the tone, style, and content of the information being shared, ensuring it resonates with those who are most likely to engage with it.
Timeliness: Timeliness refers to the importance of reporting news while it is still relevant and fresh, ensuring that audiences receive information that is current and impactful. It highlights the urgency with which certain events must be reported to capture public interest and provide context to ongoing situations. This concept plays a crucial role in journalism, influencing how stories are prioritized and presented to the audience.
Trend stories: Trend stories are a type of feature journalism that focuses on analyzing and reporting on current patterns or emerging movements within society. These stories often highlight social, cultural, economic, or technological shifts and provide insights into how these trends affect people's lives. By examining the broader implications of a trend, journalists can connect personal anecdotes to larger societal changes, making the narrative relatable and impactful.
Unique angles: Unique angles refer to distinct and original perspectives or approaches taken in storytelling that make a feature story stand out. These angles are crucial in capturing readers' interest and can be derived from personal experiences, unusual facts, or unexpected twists related to the main theme of the story. They help journalists provide fresh insights and engage audiences by presenting familiar topics in new ways.
Uniqueness: Uniqueness refers to the distinct characteristics or qualities that set a story apart from others, making it original and compelling. In journalism, especially in feature writing, uniqueness is essential as it helps capture readers' attention and provides them with fresh perspectives on familiar topics. It encompasses originality in storytelling, approach, and angle, ensuring that the story resonates with its audience while standing out in a crowded media landscape.
Universal Themes: Universal themes are the underlying messages or ideas that resonate across cultures and time periods, reflecting common human experiences, emotions, and concerns. These themes connect with readers on a deeper level, making stories relatable and impactful, regardless of their specific context or setting.