A news feature is a longer piece of radio or television news, often with a human interest angle. It’s the chance for the journalist to step back and view a topic from a social and historical perspective and to relate current events to that wider picture. It’s also an opportunity to present good news as well as bad.
As with all news, the audience should be at the centre of any news feature planning and production. They must come first when deciding on the topic, interviewing people and choosing talent and then should be at the forefront of the mind throughout the planning and recording process.
Even seemingly straightforward topics can have many news angles, and you should always explore the possibilities for each one. If there is an airline crash for example, the news angle could be how many people survived, or it might be that the captain pulled off a miracle landing.
Using the technique of “show, don’t tell” can make your news feature more interesting to listeners. It’s a lot more effective to describe how a person feels or what they think than simply telling them what happened.
Unlike hard news, there is more scope in a news feature for the writing style of the journalist to show through. However, this should never get in the way of the content.