An introduction to features

JN800 week 8

Why features?• News reactive features give more depth and understanding to news

stories• Eg the news story: sharp rise in cases of children being diagnosed

with ADHD• The feature: interview with parents about living with a child with

ADHD• Weekend/non-news focussed features cater for interests not

covered by hard news – ie gardening, food, family life etc• Eg – autumn is the mushroom season; Radio 4’s Farming Today,

BBC’s Countryfile and various weekend newspaper supplements have all carried features on mushroom hunting, the vogue for wild food, how to spot a poisonous mushroom, recipes for wild mushrooms

Telling a feature story

• Unlike a news story, which has a very stylised way of presenting information, the feature is a narrative and tells a story which has more in common with fiction than news. Often the introduction has no relation to the main angle and is used as a scene setter to entice the reader in.

• Handout: Midwife press release

If you were writing a news story on this, you may begin:

• Mothers going into labour will be increasingly at risk from life-threatening complications unless the numbers of midwives are significantly increased, a Midwifery body has warned.

The news reactive feature

• News reactive features take pieces of news, such as this one, and, with interviews, case studies and extra information, turn them into longer, more human interest pieces.

• Helps audience understand what a piece of news, no matter how statistical or apparently dry, can affect ordinary people

• (Midwifery news reactive feature handout)

Another example

• ‘Where the wild things are’• Press release from the London Wetland Centre

promoting a series of after-dark nature walks for children.

• Without a feature treatment, the news information would be a dry short para such as:

• ‘The London Wetland Centre is hosting a series of after-dark nature walks for children this autumn. For more details see….’

Example• Press release. If you were to write a news story based on this release,

for a Hampshire publication, you might write:• A Hampshire couple has made it to the shortlist of Britain’s

architecture ‘Oscars’ – the Grand Design Awards.• Tim and Carolyn Elster, from Norton Bavant took five years to restore

a dilapidated Edwardian ‘kit house’ to its former glory and now stand to win the coveted award at a ceremony to be held in London’s Dorchester Hotel…

• But: how might you approach it if you were going to write it as a feature?

• Handout quotes• Think about: How might you begin the piece? What proportion will

be direct and indirect quotes? How will you weave in the facts?

News reactive features• Story 1) ‘Children of working mothers eat more crisps and chocolate between meals and

watch more TV than children of full time mothers.’• Poss angle 1) Why are we always demonising working mothers? Other studies show positive

benefits: daughters of working mothers are more likely to do better at school, university and their careers than daughters of stay-at-home mums.

• Interviews with: A couple of psychologists specialising in research into work and families, sourced from the British Psychological Society press office; pressure groups representing working mothers such as Gingerbread/One Parent Families; feminist commentators such as Sarah Dunant/Melissa Benn/Natasha Walter

• Poss angle 2) The difficulties of juggling home and working life, as told by three/four working mothers

• Interviews with: ask three or four friends/colleagues to give me 20-minute interviews; pick the three best/most controversial/emotive

• Poss angle 3) The ‘controversialist’ angle: ‘Why I gave up my successful career to look after my children full time’ – Ask one or two people I know for an interview. If not, go via Mums at Home – charity supporting mothers who choose to stay at home or National Childbirth Trust – charity/pressure group supporting new parents; source contacts by posting on mumsnet; search blogging mums to contact.

News Reactive Feature 2• News story Two: 2013 set to be the best-ever year for UK grape harvest• Poss angle 1) How the British wine industry is expecting a bumper vintage this year; charting the rise and rise

of the British vintage• Interviews with: Kent and Sussex vineyards about their grapes/varieties/vintages; track the steady rise of

British wine in acceptability in the wine making world; case study : Ridgeview vineyard, Sussex’s sparkling wine won best sparkling wine award in recent international competition; visit local Kent vineyard; as a fun side bar conduct a blind taste testing, comparing French champagne with two or three British sparkling wines to see what comes out top.

• Poss angle 2) While British grape growers may be happy, more traditional British farmers, particularly in the south east are suffering their worst drought for decades due to climate change: what this means for the wheat crop and bread prices; other countries like India and Australia are suffering recurrent, ongoing droughts

• Interviews with: local Kent farmers, farmers sourced from the National Farmers Union press office; Association of Master Bread makers about possible hike in bread prices;

• Poss angle 3) How climate change is changing the face of British agriculture: fields in the south east of England these days are as likely to be growing lavender, sunflowers, sweetcorn and chillies as the more traiditionl,, rain-needy wheat, turnips and broccoli.

• Interview with: agriculture specialist about south and south east of England may have to change traditional wheat crops for those tolerating drier conditions such as – sunflowers/sweetcorn?; Kent/Sussex/Dorset lavender/chillie/sunflower growers. Maybe visit a Kentish lavender farm ie Castle Farm, Shoreham, near Sevenoaks

News reactive Feature 3• News story three: Massive 18-car pile-up, 7 dead on M1• Angle one: Government’s proposals to raise speed limit to 80 mph: are they barmy in the

light of what has happened?• Interviews with: RAC, AA, Rospa,Road Traffic Police; Highways Agency; a surgeon who deals

with road traffic injuries; someone who has been involved with a crash; motor insurers• Angle two: Despite crash, Britain is one of the the safest places to drive in Europe.

Compared to Greece, Spain and even Germany, we have a great safety record. It’s all about national character.

• Interviews with: Above, plus Greek, Spanish and German road safety campaigners. Psychologists, anthropologists; ‘experts’ in national character

• Angle Three: A more discursive, informative piece: Britain’s safest, and most dangerous roads: Some roads have accidents all the time; others have none. Why is this? Layout? Location? The A14 is the most accident-prone in the country; it goes from Harwich to the Midlands and is full of lorries…the A6 in Cumbria although a major north-south trunk road, with lots of dips and bumps, is one of the safest in the country…

• interviews with regular users of the road; A14 drivers’ club; A6 fan club; interview with a white van driver/long distance hauliers about what their favourite stretch of road is.

Your turn

• Suggest three angles, and possible interviewees for news reactive features for each of the following three news stories

• Story One: One in ten trainee teachers fail basic maths and literacy tests

• Story two: Intelligent women have to ‘act dumb’ to attract a man who wants to marry them

• Story three: Report suggests that the far right is on the rise in Europe, particularly Germany, Greece, Italy, Scandinavia and Holland

• In each case, outline your angle, groups or individuals you want to speak to and the kind of outlet you would do it for.

Non news-angled features• Newspapers, magazines, radio programmes, television channels

and internet news providers all provide features content as well as news.

• Much of it is consumer-oriented: at the moment features on how to reduce your fuel needs in the wake of energy bill rises

• Much of it seasonal: getting your garden ready for winter; late raspberries; lose weight for Christmas etc

• While news pages/programmes often carry more prestige amongst the media hierarchy, readers and listeners often prefer features/magazine shows. Radio Four’s You and Yours, for example is one of its most listened-to programmes. Features pages in newspapers are often read for longer have a longer shelf-life than the news pages. Magazines are often kept for years.

Softer features

• Work up a seasonal or soft feature idea for either• A) Broadsheet weekend features supplement

(property/gardening/food/parenting/outdoor)• B) 3 – 6 minute slot on BBC television’s Countryfile• C) 10 – 15 minute feature either for Radio Four’s

Woman’s Hour, You and Yours (consumer programme), Moneybox (personal finance) or Farming Today (rural/farming/outdoors)

Homework

• Between now and week 10, come up with an idea for your portfolio feature. It needs to have a really strong, interesting angle; you need to think about who you will interview. I would like to see your feature proposals by week 10, so you can spend the last two weeks of term, and the holidays, working on your feature for handing in at the beginning of the spring term.

Feature Treatment Example

• Proposal: ‘What the Greenham Women did next’• Outline: During the 1980s and 1990s, a group of women started a ‘peace’ camp outisde the US

Airforce base at Greenham Common, Berkshire. They were continuosly harried by the security services, several were arrested, but they became a symbol of resistance against the Government’s apparently uncritical acceptance of having a foreign power’s nuclear weapons stationed on British soil.

• With the departure of the US weapons in the mid nineties, the peace camp disbanded and the women went on their ways; many had been involved in other demonstrations since the 60s including womens rights. Now in their 60s and 70s the Greenham women, far from retiring to quiet old age, are leading local protests in their home towns up and down the country, using tactics learned at Greenham to help locals tackle issues such as what company collects the bins, should Network Rail chop down trees, and protests about Tesco.

• I have identified four ex-Greenham women in Whitstable, Kent, Suffolk, Cumbria and Wales, all of whom are leading local protests. This will be a look at the nature of protest, the generation of Greenham; it will ask whether younger generations lack the stomach for fight of older generations.

• I envisage a 2,000 – 2,500 word feature, based on the four interviews, but including interviews with other protestors in the women’s communities. It will include plenty of colour observation as well as a historical look-back to the days of the Greenham protests.