Structuring News Stories

On the Guardian homepage
11 news stories were serious reportage
2 news stories were general interest

Mode of address means how a media text communicates with or addresses the audience. It is expressed in three words:
Either direct or indirect
Either formal or informal
A third adjective:
Another word to describe how the text 'talk' to the audience. It might be aggressive, friendly, hostile, humorous, serious, sensationalist... or any other descriptive word.
Sensationalist- controversial and stirs up interest

Purpose- what is the intention of the story and how does that impact the structure? Is it to give an overview of a story, to tackle it in depth, to give an opinion, to provide a balanced viewpoint, to introduce it?
Audience- who is the story for? Particularly in terms of age, socio-economic group, interests and level of education? How does that impact the complexity, content and length of the story?
Context- what has happened previously in the story and around the key people in the story? Is it the beginning of a news arc (i.e. the first event for example the reporting of a murder), the end (i.e. the last event for example the killer finally being released from jail), somewhere in the middle or an overview of.
Use of speech- how is speech used in the article? Is it a key component of the story> Is it directly quoted or paraphrased?
Paragraphing and sentence structure- how complex and long are paragraphs and sentences? Do thet challenge the reader or are they easy to understand? How does the focus change between sentences? Does each paragraph have a different focus?

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