• Information about recent events deemed to be interesting, important, or unusual enough to be newsworthy
• Presents factual material journalist has observed or gathered from people, documents, etc.
• Sources are sometimes, but not always, attributed in the story

Source:

Dance, S. (2022, October 12). Mississippi River levels are dropping too low for barges to float. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/12/mississippi-river-drought-low-levels-agriculture/

Harcup, T. (2014). A dictionary of journalism. Oxford University Press.

Editorials

• Written by the editorial board of a news publication
• Gives opinions on current issues and events

Opinion pieces

• State the opinions of their named writers
• Often in personal feature stories or columns

Source:

Harcup, T. (2014). A dictionary of journalism. Oxford University Press.

The racism at the heart of Flint’s crisis [Editorial]. (2016, March 25). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/opinion/the-racism-at-the-heart-of-flints-crisis.html

Reporting that sets out to discover something that "powerful individuals and institutions" (Sterling, 2009, p. 788) wish to remain a secret, often an alleged wrongdoing.

Some methods of investigative journalism:

• Meticulous searching and cross-referencing of documents and databases in the public domain
• Use of Freedom of Information laws to place more material in the public domain
• Receiving leaks of secret information; persuading people to talk either on or off the record
• Secret filming and/or recording, and using subterfuge to obtain evidence of wrongdoing

Sources:

Chariton, J., & Dize, J. (2021, July 21). Inside the Flint water crisis cover-up: Top officials’ missing phone messages and Rick Snyder’s legal war against prosecutors. Detroit Metro Times. https://www.metrotimes.com/news/inside-the-flint-water-crisis-cover-up-top-officials-missing-phone-messages-and-rick-snyders-legal-war-against-prosecutors-27619097

Harcup, T. (2014). A dictionary of journalism. Oxford University Press.

Feldstein, M. (2009). "Investigative journalism." In C. H. Sterling (Ed), Encyclopedia of journalism (p.788). Sage Reference.

Which of the following is a news article? Which is an opinion piece? Which is an editorial?

SOURCE A

SOURCE B

SOURCE C

The following is a letter to the editor. Can you think of a statement that you could make citing this source as evidence?

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Material on this page is from social sciences librarian Carrie Leatherman’s 2021 slide set for ENVS2050. It is gratefully being used with her permission.