From Learning to Experiencing

How has learning about newsworthiness and types of news articles (straight news articles and feature articles in different sections of the newspaper) affected the way you read newspapers?

Learning about the different types of articles and newspapers has led me to be more critical about what I read. For example, when reading a tabloid, I now know that I have to be more critical of what it says. Tabloids tend to report on more sensational news, thus they may leave out some important information in order to make the article more interesting. Thus, when reading tabloids, when has to be more critical of its information and not believe everything it says. However, when one is looking for a light an interesting read, and just wants to de-stress, one can try reading tabloids. When reading straight news articles, it is much more believable, however, the news may not be as sensational. Even if the news has some sensational factor, the factual tone will make someone looking for a light read bored rather easily. When reading a straight news article, one truly has to be interested in the topic. If the particular topic is given extensive coverage, many details will be often repeated, which puts off disinterested readers. Thus, one truly has to be interested in the topic before reading the news article. The main focus of feature articles is not really about current events. Instead, it is about interesting topics which have become more important over the ages, or it may also be a commemoration for an important event’s anniversary. Feature articles will appeal to a wider range of readers, due to its storytelling style, which usually induces a certain sense of suspense. Feature articles also usually talk about topics which are extremely relevant to people’s daily lives, such as prejudice. Even topics such as a country’s 100^th anniversary will be a break from all the other articles which are almost similar every day, that it will be a welcome break for disinterested readers.

Learning about newsworthiness has also made me realise that events are reported due to their importance, as well as due to how interesting the event reported is. Thus, I have realised that it is important to truly read a newspaper instead of just skimming over it. Previously, I had thought that half the articles in a newspaper were uninteresting, while the other half was of no relevance to me. However, after learning about newsworthiness, I have realised that many articles inside are actually very relevant to my daily life, and the only reason why they are uninteresting is because they have to be factual in order to get their message to readers clearly.