Dedication
For Jeremy and Charlie - Everything I do is for you. Everything I am is because of you.
Feature Writing and Reporting
Journalism in the Digital Age
Jennifer Brannock Cox
Salisbury University
Los Angeles
London
New Delhi
Singapore
Washington DC
Melbourne
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Copyright © 2021 by SAGE Publications, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cox, Jennifer B., author.
Title: Feature writing and reporting : journalism in the digital age / Jennifer B. Cox.
Description: First edition. | Los Angeles : SAGE, [2021] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020008411 | ISBN 9781544354927 (paperback) | ISBN 9781544354965 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781544354934 (epub) | ISBN 9781544354941 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Online journalism—Textbooks. | Reporters and reporting—Textbooks. | Digital media—Editing—Textbooks.
Classification: LCC PN4784.O62 C667 2020 | DDC 808.06/607—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020008411
Preface
My first job in a newsroom was not glamorous. I worked for a major metropolitan newspaper, where I answered phone calls from irate subscribers and stained my clothes with fresh ink every night while collecting papers hot off the press to distribute to the “real reporters” in the newsroom. I slowly earned my opportunity to build clips by sifting through the journalists’ mail as I sorted it daily, scouring press releases and letters from readers for freelance stories they didn’t want. As a recent college graduate, I was a nobody, paying my dues until I gathered enough experience for my voice to matter.
The scene for journalists entering newsrooms today is dramatically different. The old gatekeeper and agenda-setting roles journalists once occupied are long gone, and the industry is experiencing a time of great upheaval as news organizations look for ways not only to prosper but also to stay afloat. Because of buyouts and slimmer employee rosters, newsroom managers are leaning more heavily on fledgling reporters to help them navigate this period of vast change. From chaos comes opportunity. Today’s graduates have an unprecedented path to becoming the leaders who determine the future of journalism for us all.
The purpose of this book is to provide you with a solid foundation for feature writing based on traditional practices as well as emerging and audience-centered storytelling strategies. In the Digital Age, the audience is no longer merely a passive consumer of news. Our readers and viewers crave content that is engaging, interactive and geared toward managing their daily lives and appealing to their interests. Feature storytelling can help reporters satisfy these needs, creating loyal, active audiences that can sustain news organizations for years to come.
This book will explain the opportunities and challenges media practitioners face today as they strive to connect with and stay relevant to a digital audience. You will also learn traditional feature techniques to help you tell stories with impact and appeal. Additionally, you will learn to adapt to evolving audience needs and expectations with new methods of storytelling that blend meaningful and engaging reporting (the old school) with multimedia and social features (the new school). Journalists need all these ingredients to be successful in the field today. Each chapter of this book is aimed at furnishing tools for your journalistic toolbox that will enable you to adapt and succeed as a storyteller in this ever-evolving Digital Age.
Incorporating the Past Into the Future
The concept of journalism is changing rapidly. Audiences will not be told what news to consume and how they should get it. They seek information on their own, Googling key words, scanning news sites for appealing content and subscribing to online newsletters packed with niche content appealing specifically to their interests. They also consume news passively, scrolling through social media and responding to push notifications containing breaking news on their phones.
These changes in news consumption have also altered what it means to be a journalist. Students who leave college with journalistic ambitions may not follow a traditional path leading them to work for a newspaper or magazine. Instead, many parlay their skills into other types of storytelling ventures, including online niche publications, social media management, nonprofit work and many other opportunities. Journalism as we have known it has transformed, and the way it is taught needs to evolve too.
The goal of this book is not to abandon the past. Rather, it is to incorporate tried-and-true storytelling techniques into new strategies for telling stories in the Digital Age. Emerging storytellers need both time-tested feature reporting and writing skills and knowledge of more immersive and interactive techniques to help them navigate a variety of news-sharing platforms. That is why this book goes beyond basic feature writing and reporting components covered in other texts to highlight journalism