WHAT THE FEATURE STORY IS NOT
What the feature story is can be indicated by showing what it is not. In the first place, it is not a skeletonized recital of bare facts. This was amusingly brought out by the New York Sun in reply to the statement of a college professor that the journalism of the future would be “wholly without decorative effects.” The Sun gave half a dozen examples of what might be expected from a journalism of that type. Here is the Sun’s “Report of a Suicide”:
The body of a young woman was removed from the river at the foot of 309th street by the harbor police yesterday afternoon.
Pinned to her dress was a note stating that she purposed committing suicide, signed Edith G. Wannaquit.
The young woman was about twenty-six years of age. She was not at all beautiful. She was, in fact, noticeably plain of feature.
Her fingers were not covered with magnificent diamonds. She wore no rings at all. Her clothing was of the most inexpensive material.
There is no mystery whatever connected with the case, nor have the police authorities the slightest idea that she was the victim of foul play.
It is deemed positive from her appearance that she did not belong to some distinguished family of this community. The young woman simply had become tired of living and she jumped into the river—that is all. The case is wholly lacking in any element or feature of a sensational character. The names of the Wannaquit family appear in the city directory but no inquiries were made of any members of the family, the case not being deemed of sufficient importance.
It must not be inferred that the feature story, or any other kind of news story, should distort the facts. The writer in the Sun has merely attempted to reduce to the absurd the theory that journalism should put aside attractiveness in writing for a bare summary of facts. The modern newspaper, while its main purpose is still to inform, is coming more and more to be a source of entertainment also. It aims to instruct, but in such a manner that the reader will not be bored.