Every morning, more than 800 newspapers from around the world submit
their front pages to the Newseum via the Internet to be part of Today's
Front Pages.
1. Have students compare and contrast the front pages of various papers ( local, regional, international),to the suit the topic of study.
2. Is the news hard or soft?
3. Why did the editor choose these news topics to feature?
4. Is there a difference between papers covering the same story (in bias, depth of coverage or political leaning? or style: staid conservative or sensational coverage)?
5. Besides news, what else is on the front page? Images, advertising? Why were these items chosen? ( e.g. to sell the paper; promote reader loyalty)
Hard News
* Serious: politics, economics, crime, war, and disasters are considered serious topics, as are certain aspects of law, science, and technology.
* Urgent: Stories that cover current events—the progress of a war, the results of a vote, the breaking out of a fire, a significant public statement, the freeing of a prisoner, an economic report of note, etc.
Soft News
Sometimes referred to as infotainment
*Not timely: There is no precipitating event triggering the story, other than a reporter's curiosity.
* Timely events happen in less serious subjects—sporting matches, celebrity misadventures, movie releases, art exhibits, and so on.
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