Saturday, March 24, 2018
What is hard news and what is news features? Some beginner writers will ask questions about the significant difference between hard news and news features. Is news features also written based on facts or can be fictions? This sort of question might come to some beginner writers' just learnt journalistics subject at school. So, let's find out what actually news features is.
What is news features compared to hard news?
News features is one of journalistic type of writing which focuses on reporting hard news topic using flowery language. It is different from straight news or also known as hard news. Hard news is a report that mainly focused its writing based on showing factual evidence in a concise language; whereas features is softer trying to capture the human interest, history, biography, traveling story, and such. The objective of writing news feature is to humanize, to educate, to illustrate, to entertain readers about another side of fact. Therefore, this style of writing is timeless compared to hard news which has time-bound in its element.
Hard News and Its Element
Hard news is a time pace news which shows in the headlines of news papers, commonly will capture the news around politics, economy, international news, and so forth. Here are some elements to write hard news:
1. Inverted Pyramid
Often hard news is written in inverted pyramid for two main reasons. First, news readers are busy people, so most of the time they will scan only the important issue. Therefore, the most important part of the news must be written in the very first paragraph. Second, space in the newspaper is limited--there is a process of cutting words to fit the space. Consequently, to avoid the cutting process, the most important aspect of the hard news must be written in the beginning of hards news paragraph.
2. 5W + 1H
This 5W + 1H is popular among writers. In the very first paragraph of hard news, writer need to write the summary of news or then called as news lead. There are many kind of lead, but the most common one is written using 5W +1H news lead.
3. Timely
Hard news is time-bound news. The issue that occurs today must be reported exactly real time. Otherwise, it will be outdated. For this reason, many news agencies are in competition to sell the news--the earlier the news appear on publication, the winner.
Example of News Features Capturing the Effort of UMM to Gain International Recognition:
Thai and Chinese Students at UMM, A Growth-driver for International Recognition
Striving to
achieve recognition as World-Class University, the University of Muhammadiyah
Malang (UMM) has been collaborated with many universities throughout the world.
For instance, the partnership with Erasmus Mundus (Europe), Peace Corps
Training Service (America), and ACICIS (Australia). However, it is not always
western countries collaboration that is prominent, UMM has now broadened the
partnership with Asian countries such as Thailand and China. Let’s now take a
deep look on how the program was initiated and what the Thai and Chinese
students feel like living here in UMM.
The
scholarship given by Muhammadiyah to Thai students is the end product of a
visit done by the Chairman of Central Board of Muhammadiyah, Din Syamsuddin to
Pattani South Thailand in 2008. “In regard to the widely known issue occurred
in the country, there was a discussion between Din Syamsuddin and the King of
Thailand at that time. In its final turn, the King put his trust on
Muhammadiyah, as one of the biggest Islamic organizations in Indonesia, to take
a real concern on his people—Muslims in South Thailand,” explained Abdul Haris,
the Head of International Relation Office (IRO) UMM.
Furthermore,
Haris explains as the organization concerning hugely on education, Muhammadiyah
takes its role by giving academic support to Thai high school graduates through
scholarship. Then, Muhammadiyah designs a concept that the scholarship will be
given in a four-year program. However, it is partially funded, Muhammadiyah
only covers the tuition fee, excluding the living allowance. Thus, UMM is
chosen as one of Muhammadiyah universities to run this project.
The selection
process itself focus mainly on candidates’ academic performance and English
skill. “To run this, we are assisted by Thailand government through SBPAC
(Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre) and also by Thailand Muslim
organization,” Haris who also a lecturer at Islamic Studies School of UMM elaborated.
Thai students
enrol in different majors at UMM, some studying social and others are
interested in sciences. For example, Faisol Longji, a sophomore student
majoring in Arabic who currently studies English for Islamic Studies at UMM declares his goal learning at UMM. “Knowing this
program, I was interested to apply for it soon finishing my high school.
Learning Arabic at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, I believe this would help me
to succeed. In the near future, I want to be a translator. I am very passionate
to have the ability of translating the authentic books of Islam—which are extensively
written in Arabic—into Thai. I want me myself and my people to learn this
religion from the first-hand source,” said Faisol.
Likewise,
Sirilak Prasetdam, familiarly addressed as Salma, says a similar reason. She is
interested in applying for the scholarship at UMM mainly because she wants to be
involved with more Muslims. “I have always wanted to get gather with Muslims in
Indonesia as this country has the biggest Muslim number in the world. I want to
get the feeling of being a real Muslim. Having been staying here for couple of
months, I feel that vibes. I can now see the difference between Muslim in my
home country and here. This experience is worth to share to my relatives and
friends later,” said Salma, a freshman student majoring in English.
Other than
Thailand, UMM has also successfully signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
with Tongren University China. It is a credit transfer program which requires
students from both universities to take number of courses for one semester. In
the previous semester, there were two lecturers and 9 students from English
Department UMM visited Tongren University; while 26 Tongren students learned
English at UMM. This semester is the second round for the running partnership
and there are 21 Chinese students studying English at the moment.
The
collaboration itself is central to improve the quality of English Department
UMM. Puji Sumarsono, the Secretary of English Department UMM, stated that, “It
is now the era of collaboration, not competition. We are projecting that our
students will be more literate toward international collaboration, so that they
are familiar with this kind of international atmosphere.” He further targets
joint research collaboration for lecturers from both universities in the
foreseeable future.
Apart form
cultural awareness, language skill improvement comes as the ultimate goal of
the collaboration. The local students of English Department will force
themselves speaking English in and outside the classroom. “As the captain of
the class, I must interact often with other classmates, including the Chinese
students. Speaking English is the only way I can do to know them in person,”
Sabbit Ali Ma’dun, the freshmen students of UMM declared his effort.
After all,
this also has benefited the Chinese students. Zhang Mei, a student of
Secretarial Science learning English at UMM, is excited about the program. “I
am here to feel the different culture, the world is so big, I want to see. In
the future, I want to be a foreign secretary so that learning English is my
first step. After I came here, I found that I could not imagine the city in the
same way. Not feeling the same life is the most important. In this different
country, I will force myself to study hard. Malang is very good city. If I have
a chance, maybe I will choose to be here again,” she admitted.
What to Recap from the Example of News Features above?
So readers, there are points to note from the example of news features above: