"Journalism is merely History's First draft."(Geoffrey C. Ward)
Journalism is all about distributing a quick and instant report of the events which are happening in our surroundings. But the most important thing which needs to be taken into consideration is Journalism puts an emphasis on Factuality and Authenticity of its reports. So, Journalism presents reports on the basis of truth which have proofs and evidence.
"Journalism is Literature
in a hurry."
(Matthew Arnold)
As the above statement suggests, Journalism can also be incorporated into a wide area of Literature. Because Literature contains Fiction as well as Non-fiction writing. Journalism is a type of Nonfiction writing which demonstrates truth and real facts regarding ongoing events and situations. So, What Matthew Arnold says about Journalism is that 'Literature in Hurry' is an appropriate definition for Journalism.
Journalism can be divided broadly into two major categories on the basis of information it provides…
- Hard News
- Soft News
Hard News comprises news which are more serious and presents factual stories on the grounds of evidence. While compared to Hard News, soft news is less serious which also includes ideas and opinions. Hard News is majorly informative in nature while Soft News is different from Traditional Journalism which is straightforward. It indulges into Human Interest and Emotions and is presented in Narrative technique.
As a part of Academic study a task was assigned by Miss Vaidehi Hariyani to write a blog on Feature Writing. So, first let's see some background information about what exactly Feature Writing means...
What is Feature Writing?
Feature Articles tell you what you want to know, they take you behind the headlines, behind the scenes and deal with the subject in greater depth and usually at greater length where the News Reports gives you a snapshot, while the features aims to give you a fuller portrait, often an immersive one which speaks to your head, heart and senses to give you a sense that you are right there where the action is and experiencing it for yourself and also getting bird's eye view, understanding of things.
(Andre Wiesner, Head Tutor of the UCT online short course in Feature Journalism)
So, This definition gives an overview of Feature Journalism in a very lucid and succinct manner. From that a conclusion can be drawn that Feature Writing is different from Straight News or What we say Hard News, which are written in a to-the-point-of-view or direct way. Feature Journalism allows writers to incorporate their own creativity, Narrative Technique, Unique Styles and inventiveness. There are different sub-topics in Feature Journalism like…
- Human Interest Feature Writing
- Personality Feature Writing
- Features on Unusual people
- Travel Features
- Interpretative Features
- Science Features
Basic Format of Feature Writing
The format of Feature Writing is slightly different from Traditional News Report Writing. News Writing includes only two which are The Lead and The body. While a third we element included in Feature Writing. So, the process of Feature Writing includes…
- The Lead
- The Body
- The Conclusion
The Lead is all about providing an introduction at the beginning of Lead which helps readers to decide whether this feature is going to be interesting or not? Lead is a very crucial and important part of Feature Writing. Keep your lead catchy and attractive which will help to grab reader's attention.
The Body of Feature Writing should be a descriptive and elaborative one which also includes Unity, coherence, in depth analysis, smooth flaw of thoughts with logical and rational arguments.
Third and the most important part of Feature Writing which differentiate it from other Journalistic Writing is The Conclusion. The Conclusion is about summing up your idea or opinion at the end which you want to display through the respective Feature Story.
Here is my attempt to write a 'Feature Writing' and for that I have selected a topic Literature. This feature story displays the quest of the writer to find a definition and find a metaphor for Literature.
What is Literature: A quest for Definition
Have you ever wondered about the world? Like the World is So, Dynamic. Here and there you meet various people from different societies having diversified culture and unique behavioral patterns. And If you take a project to understand this weird, eccentric World, Then I bet you, You will end up plunging into a deep, horrific blackhole. So, the question is: What could be a better way to understand society?
Literature? Well… Maybe Yes. Literature can be the best way to understand the world. Because as many critics define literature as a 'Mirror of Society,' Literature is an 'X-ray image of the world.' Manier time literature is also depicted as Window of the World. Or if we put in the words of Matthew Arnold then 'Poetry is a Criticism of Life.'
Do you think these definitions of Literature are enough to make sense of What exactly Literature is? Let's see some more definitions of Literature that show how time and again various Scholars define literature.
In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Literature is the record of the best thoughts." So, Literature according to Emerson is a bunch of good thoughts and experiences which are helpful to other people in understanding their meaning of life.
Now, Thomas DeQuincy goes more deeper and unfolds another hidden layer of literature by describing it as following..
"All that is literature seeks to communicate power; all that is not literature to communicate knowledge"
Winchester argues that "Literature is criticism of life or, perhaps better, an expression and interpretation of life." The definition of Julian Barnes almost covers most of the parts of Literature. He says in 'Sense of an Ending'...
The things Literature was all about: love, sex, morality, friendship, happiness, suffering, betrayal, adultery, good and evil, heroes and villains, guilt and innocence, ambition, power, justice, revolution, war, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, the individual against society, success and failure, murder, suicide, death, God. And barn owls. Of course, there were other sorts of literature—theoretical, self-referential, lachrymosely autobiographical—but they were just dry wanks.
So, These are some of the definitions through which we can make sense of What exactly Literature is? But are these definitions able to display the height of Literature? Perhaps not. Because as Derrida says text is "Free play of meaning" and Literature is a bunch of texts so if we narrow down at several definitions for Literature then it might be unfair.
Literature is not exact or accurate Science, which can be framed in certain definitions. Literature is an Art and Art can never be confined within the walls of Language, Because Human Imagination and Creative Skills always transcends beyond Imagination. And Human Imagination cannot be expressed in words.
So, In a way every definition of Literature is true and we cannot define Literature wholly in one definition. Because the current understanding of Literature is different from the etymological meaning of Literature. And our current understanding is constantly changing with the passage of time. So, Literature is all about how individuals are persuasive towards Literature.
Now, Coming down to my point of view about Literature. What does Literature mean to me? Well...First of all as we have seen above that Literature is multidimensional and cannot be confined into a single cage. But Still I will try to define Literature by giving a metaphor. Because metaphor gives multiple meanings to a single word. So, For me Literature is Telescope. How and Why will be answered further.
Telescope is an instrument which is used to get a better sky view at night. Similarly Literature helps people to understand the meaning of life. Telescopes provide a wider view of the sky which we are not able to see through our naked eye. As human beings we are also not able to travel through the whole world but Literature by providing a telescoping view of Society creates a multifaceted view of the world which gives an individual a better understanding of Society.
Telescopes allow you to peer into the vast unknown stars, planets and galaxies of the universe which we are not able to see through our open eyes. In the similar manner Literature also provides a kaleidoscopic view of the individual which urges an individual to look inside, look within self and give an opportunity to explore the unconscious self of the human mind. Unexplored parts of Human consciousness can be explored by reading great serious Literature like 'Sense of an Ending.' Which asks individuals to doubt their own memory and history because as Tony Webster says, "What you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed."
There are mainly two types of Telescope: One is Reflectors which uses a mirror to collect light and used to look at deeper sky objects. Second one is Refractors which uses lenses and is useful for planetary observation. Now Literature can also be divided into two parts like Classical Literature and Popular Literature. Classical literature deals with some abstract questions which have no answers at all. It goes deeper and deeper and explores the darker side of human existence which requires implicit reading of the text. So, Like reflectors Classical literature collects all lights surrounding the world and gives a more clear and ideational picture of human existence which demand as Matthew Arnold says 'high seriousness and sincerity' of readers, critics as well as of writers. So, Classical literature raises philosophical questions. Now contrary to this, Refractors are used for planetary observation which can be seen parallel to Popular Literature which are not raising deep questions to some extent but also lack high seriousness in its subject matter. That doesn't mean that Popular Literature is not worthy at all. Of Course they are valuable but it is more superficial and explicit in comparison to classical literature.
So, This is how we can give a metaphor of the Telescope to Literature. Telescope's light gathering ability gives a better and clear picture of the universe, same with Literature which gives us a Telescopic view of Society and Individual Self. Telescopes are also capable of magnifying the distance elements which will give a larger view of objects. Same with Literature which transcends beyond the text and develops a more critical and rational perspective of looking at self as well as others. Let's end this write up by one poem written by me. This poem is a collage of various lines taken from great Literature and here I tried to give order to these lines so it can become meaningful poetry.
What does Literature
Mean to me?
Literature is 'In such apt and gracious words
That aged ears play truant at his tales,'
Literature is to delight under which
I built my soul a lordly pleasure house.
Literature? Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?
Myself an Hell,
Terror made me cruel,
You are your best thing,
But, I don't want to be Michel Obi here..
So, Do you think something called Literature actually exists?
Yes may exist for the curious explorer of the soul.
It is a far far better thing that I do, than I have ever done,
It is a far far better rest I go to than I have ever known..
You were looking for the key for years
But the door was always open!
He closed the book.
"That's called poetry."
(Asha Dhedhi)
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