[ Another in our “Notes From…” series - short notes by volunteers summarizing various events around the school, to help those of us who didn’t/couldn’t attend. Watch for several other “Notes From…” throughout the year. If you have one, send it in! Or let us know in advance that you’d like to do one; or after the event, too. ]
Below, notes from an all-class lecture by Prof. Paula Span about the art of feature writing. Many thanks to volunteer notes-taker Jennifer Redfearn, J2007. Feel free to drop her note or post a comment below (free, one-time registration required).
Notes From… Paula Span’s lecture: “The Long & Short of Feature Writing”
By Jennifer Redfearn
E-mail: jtr2113[at]columbia.edu
Paula Span is one of the best-known teachers of feature writing in the country and one of the most popular professors at the Columbia J-school, where she teaches Techniques of feature Writing, among other courses. A former NY correspondent for the Style section of the The Washington Post and staff writer for The Washington Post Magazine, she is now a contributing writer to the magazine. [See her bio.] On Friday, Sept. 1, she gave an all-class lecture for new M.S. and M.A. journalism students - and several professors - about the art of feature writing.
Listen to audio recording here:
http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/students/class_lectures.asp
General Thoughts on Feature Writing
1. Feature writing at its best is transporting. It takes you out of your own existence. Away from the breakfast table. Away from the car. Away from the subway. It takes you some place you can’t go yourself.
2. Feature writing is becoming evermore respected and important.
3. It wasn’t until 1979 that a Pulitzer was given for feature writing.
4. It is the future of print and an essential part of the skills that you need as a reporter.
5. We’ve become a more visual culture. We’ve been trained to want to see things not just hear about them through a mediator.
Function of Feature Writing
1. We still convey information, but it’s a different style of story telling.
2. It fills the gap between headlines and what else people want to know.
3. The writer takes the audience to the story.
4. It can be varying lengths and media.
5. Feature writing is less concerned with what happened but why it happened- what is smelled like, what it looked like, who it happened to, why it matters that it happened.
6. Sometimes it’s even about what you think about what happened. Shhh.
Trends of Feature Writing
1. Study results of 20 newspapers by Professor Michele Weldon of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University: In 2001 the percentage of hard news on the front page was 65 % of the entire content, and in 2004 the percentage of hard news stories on the cover dropped to 50%. In 2001, 35% of stories on the cover were features stories and in 2004 features made up 50% of the stories on the cover.
2. This trend is filtering out into the entire MSM. Not just a NYT phenomenon.
3. In most cases, news magazines survive because of analyzing and contextualizing stories.
4. People (readers/audience) want to be behind the scenes and experience things directly.
5. There will always be a need for straight news stories and investigative reporting but we should prepare for more feature stories.
What Counts as a Feature
1. Length doesn’t necessarily define a feature story.
2. They have scenes that tell you what is happening in a place on a particular day.
3. Profiles of people or spotlights of organizations and communities.
4. “Not stories that break but stories that creep,” said legendary editor Eugene Roberts, who was specifically talking about trend stories.
5. Issue, disputes, controversies can be presented in a feature style.
6. Essays are features if they are reported.
7. Memoirs are features if they are reported and factual.
What Distinguishes a Feature
1. Observational, descriptive, they take you there, cinematic, reporting with your senses.
2. Good feature writing borrows fictional techniques.
3. They have scenes like a play or novel.
4. They usually have characters with dialogue. The people in the story are not just talking to you but talking to each other in a way they would do if the reporter was not there.
5. They have action—not just talking heads like Ken Burns’ documentaries.
6. They incorporate narrative.
7. They are vivid and transporting.
8. They have narrative elements that move the story forward.
9. The intent remains journalistic even if the style is different (comic, stylistic)
10. The intent is still to convey information, maybe a different kind of information, but the journalistic values apply- balance, fairness, and accuracy.
Opportunities for Feature Writing at J-School
1. Feature Writing
2. Magazine Writing
3. Narrative Writing
4. Art of the Profile
5. Literary Journalism
6. Personal and Professional Style
7. Book Seminar
8. Science Narratives
9. TV & Radio documentary
10. Photo Curriculum
[Dean Sreenivasan adds: New Media Workshop;
Prof. Solway adds: Cultural Affairs Reporting & Writing]
Downside to Feature Revolution
1. If 50% of stories on front page are bad features then there is no gain for the feature revolution. In some ways, features have to justify themselves more than a straight news story.
2. There is the risk of embroidery. There is a temptation to insert details where they don’t exist. Don’t do it.
3. There is the risk of cliché. We all to work at ways to keep our writing fresh, simple and engaging.
4. Feature writing infiltrated by blogosphere voice.
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