Writing styles in the media

Day in and day out we are bombarded with articles, notifications, messages, and stories telling us a plethora of things. Some articles tell us about what is going on in the world around us, others walk us through events, people and their stories, and some are just for fun. The possibilities for the types of writing we see each day are endless.

With newspapers such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the most popular form of writing has always been news writing, and it may always be so. This type of writing walks you through the 5 W’s and the H: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Another type of article that can be frequently found in the news is feature writing. This is the type of writing when someone or something is the center of the article, and it is known to be longer and more informative than a typical news article.

In recent times, more laid back, informal, ‘click bait’ writing has become popular. This can in part be contributed to the fact that a lot of writing outlets and writing based companies have moved primarily online. These pieces are written with one goal in mind: get people to click on the articles and read them.

When reading articles and stories on different mediums and outlets, it is hard to ignore how different some can sound, even if they are on the same topic.

The writing style is only one part of the puzzle that contributes to the overall voice of a piece of news. Other key factors include the outlet it is coming from, the author who is writing it, and the story itself.

Some topics will naturally have a lighter, more relaxed style, while some topics will be heavier and require much more attention when writing and reading the story.

Stories can be found everywhere, and once you start to pay attention to how different outlets choose to write their stories, you may notice a difference in not only the writing styles, but the overall feel of most of the pieces they put out.