Parts A & B
Article 1:
Title: The couple who met at the top of the Eiffel Tower
Type: Informative / Human Story
Date Published: 23rd February 2022
Author: Francesca Street
Narrative construction:
With reference to the inverted pyramid structure of news writing, it is observable that this article is quite lacking in terms of construction. Such factor may be justified by the fact that this specific article follows more the style of a story, rather than a news item.
Furthermore, while the title of this article gives a clear indication of what is to be expected, the article does not have any kind of key sentences at the very beginning. In fact the article heads on to the very beginning of the story, without setting the scene, or giving a brief summary of the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where and why). Such lacking may demotivate the reader from continuing to read such article. However, as one continues reading throughout this article, it is noticeable that the article gives importance to detail, explaining each and every detail of how things happened, even quoting some conversations to add to such detail. This makes the article take more of a narrative structure, since the reporter is acting more like a narrator, narrating the story to the viewers.
Treatment:
This article, as the title suggests, is a narrative about a married couple who met literally at the top of the Eiffel tower, in Paris, France. Dan was an American on his last day of a school trip to the French capital, while Esther was a pre-school teacher visiting from Switzerland.
This report gives a very detailed narration on the first encounter of this couple, and keeps moving on this timeline until these very days, where the couple had revisited this place, this time together with their children, to renew such beautiful memories.
Quality and depth of subject matter:
In terms of both quality and depth of the subject, in this case how this couple met, is very detailed. I have observed myself, that at times, there could have been some details in which the journalist could have not elaborated as much as she did, since such details may have added length to the article, without contributing as much to the reader’s experience. Personally, as I was reading the article myself, I got distracted at times, mainly due to these extra details. I do understand that for the couple, a feature article like this is of an extremely personal and high value, but it has to be considered that such work is published, and therefore it has to be of high value, satisfying the public as well.
The roles of the presenter/interviewer:
Throughout this feature article, it is observable that the interviewer assumed the role of the narrator, which lets the people themselves tell the story, adding some details there and then to connect the story together. It is also noticeable the sub-titles that the interviewer added in this article to divide it in pieces, whilst trying to maintain the reader’s interest.
The interviewee as a character in the story:
Undoubtly, the interwiewees, in this case, are given the absolute importance in this article, which mostly quotes them directly, letting them tell the story themselves.
Technical Elements:
Looking at this article, from the technical perspective, undoubtely, the journalist gave importance to providing visuals which complement almost everything that is being talked about. It is noticeable that for almost every occasion that the couple met, especially the ones of the beginning, there is a photo attached beneath the paragraph. Such visuals give the audience an element of authenticity, since they prove what the couple is saying throughout the interview. Furthermore, it should also be appreciated that back in the 1990’s, it was not that easy to have a camera at hand and take a photo of what is going on at that very moment. Therefore, these photos of their beginning have an extra value, which in result enrich the article even further.
The reports’ cultural context:
Contextually, we live in a society where it is more common to hear negative news, and such story manages to break this “normality” by sharing a positive love story which happened in reality, and not a film.
The intentions of the presenter’s telling of the story:
By writing this article, Street aims to share a human story which one may think that it is a film, or something that did not happen in reality, however she managed to find this couple who had such story to share. By this element of “too good to be true”, she managed to make this article distinct from the ones that we see day-to day on the online news portals, or any other sources which feed us with what is going on around us.
Article 2:
Title: Meet the Nepali teenagers raising awareness on human trafficking
Type: Informative/Educational
Date Updated: 7th March 2022
Author: Rosie-Lyse Thompson & Suraj Kashyap
Journalist: Nazneen Zahan
Narrative construction:
In terms of construction, this article is relatively well structured. It is evident, that in each paragraph, the authors give a clear indication of the 5W’s that they are talking about. Furthermore, when someone is mentioned in the article, they also immediately describe their role, and what makes them relevant to this article. Furthermore, what I have also observed through this article was the approach of the narrative, where it does not just highlight the issues that is being faced in Nepal, but also shows what is being done, and other further solutions that are planned to be implemented. It is also noticeable at the beginning of the article, the paragraph which is in bold, which gives a 2-sentence taster which makes the reader want to know more about what is to follow in the article itself.
Treatment:
This feature article aims to address a human issue which is faced throughout the world, but focusing on Nepal. Furthermore, the writers aim to give exposure to SCENES (an organisation).
Quality and depth of subject matter:
This article dives into good detail about the subject in question, giving statistics and also including some personal experiences, to sustain even further.
The roles of the presenter/interviewer:
In this article, the journalists/writers take the role of explainers, by writing the story and describing their findings and quoting what they have heard. The article feels unbiased by the opinions of the writers/journalist, since it is more of a factual form.
The interviewee as a character in the story:
The interviewees were essential in this story, since some of them have experienced such experiences almost at first hand.
Technical Elements:
This article is quite good in terms of visuals, giving photos of the people that it was referring to. As an observation of my own, whilst it was positive to add a video of the actual people speaking about the matter, I believe that it could have been distracting that the video was completely in a foregin language and subtitled only, since English speaking readers had to read the whole feature’s subtitles. Whilst understanding that the video was not the production of the journalists, it still could have helped to translate some parts of the speech itself to improve the readers’ experience.
The reports’ cultural context:
Living in this society where lots of people are busy, it is often the case where these cases in places like Nepal end up forgotten. Given such cultural context, this article gives space to such forgotten cases.
The intentions of the presenter’s telling of the story:
As previousely mentioned, the presenter aims to raise more knowledge about cases which often end up being forgotten, making the work of such voluntary organisations even harder because people end up lacking knowledge about such issues.
Part C: Analysis on Article 2
For my detailed analysis, I will be analysing the second article that I have discussed earlier on. First of all, since this is not a traditional news article, but rather a feature, this is more of an awerness making one, hence it is less unlikely to be unauthentic.
A good featured story has to be heavily supported with evidence, which can take different forms, such as quotes and interviews. The more close the evidence is (for example, an interview with a victim), the better such an article will be (MasterClass staff, 24th November 2021). Looking at the article being analysed, it relies heavily on such evidence, by interviewing Neelisha Giri, amongst others is this evidence which enrich further this article, by not simply lining up “facts”, or rather, opinions.
Furthermore, having an author’s name embedded to the article is another useful process which is important when it comes to verifying the authenticity of such article. It is also something useful looking up the author’s name to see whether there are other works by the same person, or any reviews/criticsm towards such work. In my case, I looked the name on Google Scholar, which filters content strictly to academic level, and also on places such as LinkedIn, which may help identify contextual background, and interests of the given author. Such research may also help in identifying any political/non-political agenda of such author, which can make its content biased towards such agenda. According togoogle scholar, Rosie-Lyse wrote about refugees in the journal of contemporary Archeology, back in 2016. She has also contributed in the Journal of Palestine studies, in 2017.
Knowing the author/s behind the article is in fact one of the 5W’s method to analyse published work. In fact these are who (the author), what (is the purpose of this work), where (the content comes from/the publisher), why (the purpose of this content) and how does this source do when compared to other sources about the same subject. Answering the third w, the article originates from Euronews, which is a European newsroom, based in France, with one of the biggest reaches within Europe. Then, there is the purpose, which is to create awareness about this sensitive matter, whilst giving exposure to SCENES, which is an organisation.
Furthermore, this article has a number of photos and a video, which are copywrited by Creative Nepal Films, although there is not a clear reference to where the photos came from, which may limit to what extent they can be verified.
In conclusion, with regards to agenda, this report is relatively open about raising awareness, and I do observe that such agenda is quite explicit.
Bibliography
MasterClass staff, 24th November 2021. 5 Tips for Writing a Captivating Feature Article, s.l.: Master Class.
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