Disucs Significance of Features Story in Newspaper
Likes and dislikes of people can’t be ignored now a day. And these likes and dislikes are often guided by feature Story. A News feature role is so vital in modern Journalism that a good feature story is regarded as a symbol of success for a newspaper or a journal
A feature story is a colorful and pictorial piece of composition which gives stability to constructive public opinion.
According to a writer, News Feature is more effective than editorial, more interesting than a column in and more informative than news. Feature writer enjoys a sort of fame which no reporter, journalist or columnist can get, because readers of all communities read features very keenly. It helps a reader to arrive at a certain conclusion and also provides him possible solutions of a problem. It is such a virtuous force before which all powers of evil bow.
Daniel R Wilson writes about significance of feature.
“Feature has become an integral part of newspapers in their combat with electronic media”.
W.R. Peterson says. The dramatic style or writing a feature gives it an edge over other items of the paper and when a reader the stories of life around him in a dramatic style he enjoys them very much.
News Feature Story is a colourful and enchanting report, whereas news is a dull one. News accompanies only one picture but many sketches and pictures are given with a feature. The reason of pictorial nature of a news feature is the fact that no aspect of the matter is remained unanswered.
There is no set pattern of writing a feature. Whatever point the feature writer considers more important is given before others and much stressed is laid upon it.
News tells the facts of an incident. But a feature answers how’s and whys of the said incident. News is the off spring of an incident, but a It takes its life from news. And features, unlike columns, are neither written under permanent captions nor are these published at fixed places. Features also contain less material as compared to columns. There is no headline in column but a feature contains many of those. And, unlike a column, a feature contains many pictures.
A writer can pen down a literary essay without consulting facts, but a feature needs thorough research. Moreover, an essay can be published in many episodes. But a feature is never published in parts.
Now we compare feature with editorial. An editorial is always written on an important contemporary issue. But a feature can be written on any topic. The objective of the editorial is to propagate the newspaper policy. While the feature writer does not feel oblige to follow such things.
Therefore, a feature bears far more importance than column, editorial, short story and reportage. In the beginning, articles were published abruptly in the newspapers. People did not want abrupt pieces of information. Then feature was introduced in the early years of the 20th century. Urdu journalism has always been under the influence of English journalism.
