Other feature story types

Week 7

Examining Other Feature Types

Trend Stories, Rule of 3, How to Identify

IT WASN’T SO long ago that big news meant Great Men and Major Events. IKE INVADES NORMANDY. DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. Big news was concrete. It was dramatic. It involved action and information—who? what? where? etc.—and if the reporting was wrong or incomplete, as it sometimes clearly was, the story remained moored to events. Big news, in other words, did not entertain or indulge our modern concept of social "trends." There was simply no room or imagination for exposition along the lines of, Lately there is a vague sense that more and more people seem to be doing or thinking or buying something or other that might possibly reflect the mood or psyche or spirit of the nation as a whole. That wasn't news; it was small talk. 

- Daniel Radosh, writer

Trend Stories:

Frivolous Fun and Hard-Hitting Narrative. Readers like them. Others love to pick them apart.

What is a trend story?

Making sense of a disordered world. Imposing order. Multiple examples/anecdotes tied to a common cause. Cause and effect relationship. Address big themes like "How we live now."


The Brookyln Beard Goes Mainstream 


Trend is something along the continuum of cause-and-effect.

Trend line: More popular? Less popular? Movement is a trend.

Examples:  Growth in Hybrid Cars. Going Green.
   Consumers paying down debt, switching from plastic to cash.


Important question: A trend or anomaly? Outlier or member of the group? Isolated or outbreak?

Nothing exists in a bubble: Signs of something larger?

Is 1 enough? No. Three is magic number. (Slightly tongue-in-cheek.)

An old newsroom joke is that three examples make a trend.
-- Gail Collins, NYT columnist, making a different point.

You see one pair of Ugg boots. Trend? You see every fourth student in them. Trend?
      
A mix of real people and experts/studies.

Stock phrases: many, most, few, increasing/decreasing, growing, more.
Find folks involved in the trend.

"Growing number...." and "Growing...."
"Shrinking number..."
Turning out and probing trends. Turning a trend inside. Telling the story behind a trend.

How to write:
    * Show trend in action. Single scene or multiple listings.

    * State trend explicitly. Explain it.

    * Evidence supporting that this is new/change. (Single expert)

    * More color from trend.

    * How people are affected by trend.

    * What trend is in reaction to? A celeb is doing it too. Money is tight. Experts say....

    * More color. 

     * Get out with insight color.