{"id":2317,"date":"2026-03-26T13:33:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/?page_id=2317"},"modified":"2026-03-26T13:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:35:20","slug":"basic-types-of-journalism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/basic-types-of-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Basic types of journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Types of writing and useful lead structures\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong> There are\u00a0 four basic types of writing that apply to journalism:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Expository &#8212; Transmits facts, for example, hard news<\/li>\r\n<li>Narrative &#8212; Tells a story<\/li>\r\n<li>Descriptive &#8212; Uses imagery to describe a place or person<\/li>\r\n<li>Persuasive &#8212; Editorials and op-eds<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Consider how feature articles use these basic types <strong>Expository Contrast:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Ten years ago, Jake Smith spent his days underground, digging coal.\u00a0 &#8220;It was a hard life,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but one my father and grandfather had lived.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0Today he is in graduate school, looking for ways to bring change to Appalachia and new jobs to those who &#8212; like him &#8212; can no longer work in the mines.<\/p>\r\n<div><strong>Narrative sequence:\u00a0<\/strong> The day begins at 4 am. Hopefully there is coffee and a clean pair of coveralls waiting.\u00a0 Its hell going down into the mine without coffee, even worse in a wet pair of coveralls.<\/div>\r\n<div>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Jake Smith remembers those days &#8230;<\/div>\r\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div><strong>Descriptive\/ expository:<\/strong>\u00a0 Appalachian coal mining has fallen off by half in the past decade, and the economic and demographic trends of the region show\u00a0 America&#8217;s changing energy mix.<\/div>\r\n<div>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Jake Smith, a former coal miner, talks about the human impacts of these trends.<\/div>\r\n<div>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 &#8220;There is a buttload of desperation in the coal fields,&#8221; Smith said.<\/div>\r\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div><strong>Descriptive approach with the human element first:\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\r\n<div>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0When Jake Smith left coal mining ten years ago, it seemed as if the industry would go on forever. That year the Appalachian mines churned out\u00a0 over 400 million tons of coal, and he contributed his share. But now,\u00a0 coal production has been cut by\u00a0 almost half.\u00a0 \u00a0What Smith and other Appalachian residents can do about the decline in the coal industry is not clear, but they are determined to find a way forward.<\/div>\r\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div><strong>Narrative contrast (cliche):\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\r\n<div>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Jake Smith was looking for lunch, and not looking to become it.<\/div>\r\n<div>Last week, when he took a break at his temp job in Florida, he stumbled into a drainage ditch where he found a large alligator lurking. The creature bit into his leg and held on.<\/div>\r\n<div>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Passers-by heard his calls for help and the rescue squad arrived in time to save Jake &#8212; but not his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.<\/div>\r\n<div>&#8220;I think the gator got it,&#8221; he said.\u00a0 &#8220;Im just glad it didn&#8217;t get me.&#8221;<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Types of writing and useful lead structures\u00a0\u00a0 There are\u00a0 four basic types of writing that apply to journalism: Expository &#8212; Transmits facts, for example, hard news Narrative &#8212; Tells a story Descriptive &#8212; Uses imagery to describe a place or &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/basic-types-of-journalism\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2317","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2322,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2317\/revisions\/2322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}