Journalistic Genres: Information, Interpretation, and Opinion
Kinds of Information and Interpretation
These elements combine informative journalistic genres with the author’s personal assessment:
- Chronicle: Refers to events in one day, although it often seeks information about consequences.
- Background: Appears linked to the interpretation of the journalist.
- Interpretative Reportage: Distinguished from a chronicle in that it covers events occurring at different times and related to each other.
- Assessment: Differentiates it from an informative news report.
- Profile Interview: Includes statements of the interviewed character, description, biographical data, and comments or explanations of the journalist.
Journalistic Genres of Opinion
These texts reflect the opinion of the newspaper and the writers on current affairs. Except for editorials, all are signed and respond to the style and personality of their author:
- Editorial: Expresses the views of the newspaper on an event or a situation.
- Glosses: A variety of short extensions that reflect on current issues.
- Criticism: Analyzes and discusses an artistic or cultural event and includes information on it.
- Article: Presents personal views on reality. Several subtypes differ: column, open forum, article-essay, and comment.
Opinion makers also observe common stylistic features, including:
- References to the issuer through the forms of first-person pronouns or verbal inflections.
- Dominated by adjectives, adverbs, and cherished constructions.
- Revilers use nouns or verbs that are declarative.
- Prefer to include certain expressive resources.
Opinion Piece
It is a text that manifests opinions about certain facts or situations. The quoted author is responsible for their assessments, and with them, they aim to influence their readers. Opinion articles can address the most diverse issues and be of different types:
- Column: A brief text characterized by a general lack of depth. The author shares the ideology of the newspaper.
- Open Forum: Expresses the opinion of people and specialists in various fields outside the wording of the newspaper.
- Comment: Usually addresses issues of national politics.
- Article-Essay: Offers a reasoned reflection, although it does not necessarily have to deal with issues related to current affairs. Recognized personalities in the field belong to this modality. Within this modality, we may include usual items, in which reality is criticized, sometimes ironically. Today, the most prestigious writers and intellectuals are frequent collaborators in different periods.
Textual Features of Opinion Articles
In general, the articles combine exposure (with which the facts are explained) and arguments (with which they defend or refute opinions expressed in others). Therefore, they present linguistic characteristics of these two modes themselves. There are instances, especially recently, of narrative texts: instead of expressing an opinion, a story is told. Some articles approach literature, either because they present a careful artistic elaboration or because of their style and fictional character, they constitute true literary texts.