Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Journalistic Style

 Journalistic style is the way in which journalists write and report their article. Whilst writing, they take in to account things like; vocabulary, sentencing, the information given and the tone in which they write to make sure it's suitable for their audience. They also use the 5 W's when writing; Who, What, Where, When, Why and also How.
 A magazine artical will always consist of this sentencing structure;
  • Heading. The headline is usually short and sweet and an incomplete sentence- for example "Obama Seizes Historic Win"
  • A subheading. A sentence or two giving a short teaser about the artical.
  • The story. The artical usually starts with what is called a "lead" or "intro". It is the very first sentence in an article and it is used to sum up the whole of the article. There are two types of leads. First there is a "hard lead". Where they write a comprehensive thesis, which tells the reader what the article will cover. Or there is a "soft lead", which is a more creative way of starting the sentence. If the writer uses a "soft lead" then they will usually follow this by using a "nut graph" which is facts. Once they have written their lead, they then go on to the rest of the artical. The lead is important because it is what grabs the readers attention and gets them to carry on reading.
  Before writing an article, the journalist must determin what is the most important thing to say first, and what is the least important which may be left to last or scrapped all together. The thing that they see as most important is "the hook" and is what draws people in to that artical. If they don't get the right "hook" then they may lose the readers attention and they may not bother reading the article.

 This is an album review of Kanye West's new album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" from the website of Billboard Magazine.  The review isn't very long, as this keeps the attention of the readers. This review uses a "soft lead" to open the review up. It starts with the line; "Fresh off his media-storm-induced hiatus that followed his now-infamous hijacking of Taylor Swift's acceptance speech..." It starts with something that is irrelevant to his album, but something that will catch the readers attention. When Kanye West  interrupted Taylor Swift at the MTV awards in 2009, people will always refer Kanye to this incident. Therefore, journalists start an artical mentioning this and automatically the reader reads on.
 The tone of voice used in the text is friendly, like the writer is talking to you personally. And also the words used aren't too hard to understand. This is because of the audience it is aimed at. It is aimed at teenagers and early 20's, so they have written it like you are being spoken too by the writer personally because this appeals to them the most.
 No article is ever random there is always a point behind it. The point of this article was to review Kanye Wests new album, drawing attention to it, and in this case, it was good attention.
 There is also no spelling or grammar mistakes in this article, which is very important. This is because they get editors to check the article before it is printed or published.
 This has helped me when writing my own article, I will make sure I get straight to the point so the audience know what and who I am talking about. I will try and get the right tone of voice for my audiece, so it appeals to them and that they'll want to read it etc. Also, I will make sure someone proof reads my article to make sure there is no spelling or grammar mistakes.

1 comment:

  1. Some really good research here, phoebe, maybe you could add a little more based on some of the ideas I discussed in class on Friday? Also, at the end, comment on what this has taught you for your own writing. Check the spelling of the word "article".

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