Human-interest story
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Illustration: Pollice Verso by Jean-Léon Gérôme
Illustration: The Heart Has its Reasons (c. 1887) by Odilon Redon
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"Time hangs heavily on their hands , what with only an occasional dance , and up till recently the public hanging was a spectacle of human interest , not to say humour . The chief actor wears white , and when he has made his way through ..."-- Unknown Liberia (1936) by Harry James Greenwall, Roland Wild. "Choose a day on which to represent the most sublime and affecting tragedy we have; appoint the most favorite actors; spare no cost upon the scenes and decorations; unite the greatest efforts of poetry, painting, and music; and when you have collected your audience, just at the moment when their minds are erect with expectation, let it be reported that a state criminal of high rank is on the point of being executed in the adjoining square; in a moment the emptiness of the theatre would demonstrate the comparative weakness of the imitative arts."--A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) by Edmund Burke |
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In journalism, a human-interest story is a feature story that discusses a person, or people, or a pet in an emotional way. It presents people and their problems, concerns, or achievements in a way that brings about interest, sympathy or motivation in the reader or viewer. Human-interest stories are a type of soft news.
Human-interest stories may be "the story behind the story" about an event, organization, or otherwise faceless historical happening, such as about the life of an individual soldier during wartime, an interview with a survivor of a natural disaster, a random act of kindness, or profile of someone known for a career achievement. A study published in the American Behavioral Scientist illustrates that human-interest stories are furthermore often used in the news coverage of irregular immigration, although the frequency differs from country to country. Human-interest features are frequently evergreen content, easily recorded well in advance and/or rerun during holidays or slow news days.
The popularity of the human-interest format derives from the stories’ ability to put the consumer at the heart of a current event or personal story through making its content relatable to the viewer in order to draw their interest. Human-interest stories also have the role of diverting consumers from ‘hard news’ as they often are used to amuse consumers and leave them with a light-hearted story.
Human-interest stories are sometimes criticized as "soft" news, or manipulative, sensationalistic programming. Human-interest stories have been labelled as fictitious news reporting, used in an attempt to make certain content appear relevant to the viewer or reader. Human-interest stories are regarded by some scholars as a form of journalistic manipulation or propaganda, often published with the intention of boosting viewership ratings or attracting higher amounts of sales and revenue. Major human-interest stories are presented with a view to entertain the readers or viewers while informing them. Terry Morris, an early proponent of the genre, said she took "considerable license with the facts that are given to me."
The content of a human-interest story is not just limited to the reporting of one individual person, as they may feature a group of people, a specific culture, a pet or animal, a part of nature or an object. These reports may celebrate the successes of the person/ topic in focus, or explore their troubles, hardships. The human-interest story is usually positive in nature, although they are also used to showcase opinions and concerns, as well sometimes being exposés or confrontational pieces.
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