What freedom is exercised by writing a newspaper article?
A newspaper article is a report or story written for a local, national or international audience. They are a popular form of news and often have several sections that cover different topics. They can be about current affairs and events, sport or celebrity news etc. They are generally written in a formal and professional manner.
The primary aim of a newspaper article is to inform and educate readers about an event or issue. They should be unbiased and based on sound research.
An article should also be well structured to hold the attention of the reader and give them enough information about the issue/event. This is achieved through a similar structure to a magazine article (columns, kicker paragraphs and quotes).
They should use appropriate language and include supporting evidence and references for credibility and accuracy. They should be written with care and should not contain errors in spelling or grammar.
Newspapers are popular, with nearly 105 million people reading them in print and online on any given day in the UK alone. It is important to remember that newspaper articles are organised in an inverted pyramid style, with the most important information at the top of the story and less important information towards the end. This is to help ensure that editors can cut the most important details should space allow for it.
A newspaper article should also have a headline and a dateline, which will tell you where the author was when they filed the story with the paper. This can help you decide how close to the event they were and what they may have had access to.
It should also have a good conclusion and be written with a formal and professional tone. This will round off the article and make it easy for your readers to read.
The headline will usually be supported by a large image, this will then support the subheading or kicker paragraph at the start of the article and it can then lead on to one or two other images related to the story. This is designed to keep the reader’s interest and will help with the circulation of the paper as a whole.
The writer can choose to include quotations from people in the event they are reporting, this can help to add to the credibility of their report and will make it more interesting to read. This can be done by adding speech marks to the quotes they are using.
