Types of news sources
There are different types of news sources you can find news from, including:
- Local newspapers (e.g. Bozeman Chronicle, Livingston Enterprise)
- National Newspapers (e.g. New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian (UK))
- News magazines (e.g. The Atlantic, Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker)
- News monitoring services & news feeds
Types of News Articles
Subcategories of News and Opinion Articles from News or Opinion by Christine Photinos (permission to use via Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
News: The writer reports the news.
People’s opinions may appear as part of that reporting (“According to Mr. Smith…”), but the writer does not explicitly present his/her own views.
- News Article: An article written to inform readers about recent events. The author reports essential information (who/what/where/when/why/how).
- News Analysis: An article written to inform readers about recent events. The author reports and attempts to deepen understanding of recent events—for example, by providing background information and other kinds of additional context.
- Feature Article: Compared with news articles, feature articles are often more creative or exploratory and less focused on efficient delivery of essential information.
- For example, while a news article may detail the most recent revelations about a politician’s extramarital affair, a feature article may offer in-depth reporting on a single aspect of the revelations, or the revelations may function as a “news peg” for the feature article’s more general exploration of infidelity.
- Other types of news content that are generally categorized as “feature” writing include how-to-do-it articles (for example, how to shop for a new phone) and profiles (for example, an article about a movie actor starring in a recently-released film).
- Investigative Article: Reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, and may spend months or years researching and preparing a report.
Opinion: The writer shares his or her own views and explicitly seeks to persuade readers to adopt those views as their own.
- Editorial: An unsigned opinion piece that represents the views of the news organization’s editorial staff.
- Opinion piece: An opinion article by a staff columnist or guest columnist. (If a guest columnist, the writer’s credentials will almost always be identified.)
- Review: An evaluation of a book, movie, album, live performance, etc.