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What Is Feature Journalism? | FAQs
Wondering what Feature Journalism is? Feature Journalism is creative journalism. It escapes the hard-news format allowing the creative writers among us to write feature articles in an inventive and compelling way.
Unlike short and to-the-point news articles, feature articles deal with a subject in greater depth and, usually, at greater length.
In this one minute video, Andre Wiesner, Head Tutor of the UCT online short course in Feature Journalism, gives you a succinct overview of what this mode of journalism entails.
Watch to find out more about this exciting industry and the experts within it, and learn about the creative writing skills required to write a killer feature article.
Ready to bridge the gap between journalism and creative writing?
Up your innovation and get your feature Journalism skills recognised with the UCT Feature Journalism online short course.
Transcription
You’ve heard perhaps of Hunter S. Thompson, the madman of American letters? He was a feature writer. Feature Journalism is a branch of journalism. If you look at a newspaper or magazine, you’ll see that it’s made up of many different kinds of writing – short pieces, long pieces, reviews, opinion and analysis, list, snippets, Garfield cartoons … news reports are a major element in this mix. In a short, crisp and matter-of-fact of way, they keep you up to date and tell you what you need to know. Feature articles tell you what you want to know. They take you behind the headlines, behind the scenes, and deal with a subject in greater depth and, usually, at greater length. Where the news report gives you a snapshot, the feature aims to give a fuller portrait – often an immersive one that speaks to your head, heart and senses to give you a sense that you’re right there where the action is, experiencing it for yourself and also getting a bird’s-eye- view understanding of things.