Picture and news link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/18/publishing-jkrowling?INTCMP=SRCH
This is a news story of the Guardian about the world’s best-paid writer this year. The name of it is ‘James Patterson brand makes him world’s best-paid writer’. To me, this news article works well because of the angle and news value lie in it.
The content of the news story can trigger audience’s curiosity and make them keep reading. As you can see it, this article is written according to a recent report of Forbes magazine. This report is about which writer earned the most around the world this year. In fact, the author of the news article doesn’t have the need to do any extra work to dig truth or clarify opinion like she did in other current news article. The Forbes magazine’s report itself has enough news value since the public is always interested in something extreme like “the most” “the richest” “the biggest” etc. Also this report involves prominences such as James Patterson, JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer. Therefore here I consider this news article as human interest article which involves prominence people.
The structure of this news article works well according to its news values. Since James Patterson is listed as the best-paid writer on Forbes magazine’s report, the audience would sure want to know the detail information about him such as how much he earned, which book of him earned the most and also why he can make such a fortune when compared with his peers. Except the above, the audience may also care about questions like other writers listed in the report especially these prominent ones such as Harry Porter’s author JK Rowling and author of Twilight Stephenie Meyer. Therefore according to the public interests, the author of this news story uses the first two paragraphs to give out some details about James Patterson. And then talk about the works of other famous writers who are also listed on the report.
In one word, this news article works well because of the news value and way of organizing.
I agree with your view that people tend to be attracted by something extreme frequently and this news story has caught the eye of reader successfully.Furthermore,the comparison of the bestsellers as well as best-selling authors in the world has the character of prominence and proximity.
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