Journalistic Genres: Information, Opinion, and Mixed Styles
Journalistic Genres
There are three main journalistic genres, categorized by their primary function:
- Information Genres: (News, reports, and interviews) Primarily focused on conveying information.
- Opinion Genres: (Editorials, articles, and letters to the editor) Primarily focused on expressing opinions.
- Mixed Genres: (Chronicles and criticism) Combining information and opinion.
Information Genres
The news story is defined as an objective, impersonal account of newsworthy events, free from the reporter’s personal comments or intervention.
It typically answers six fundamental questions: What? Who? Where? When? How? and Why? The content is organized into paragraphs presenting information in descending order of importance, with the most significant details appearing first.
The report is a more extensive informative journalistic account than a news story. It provides more complete and in-depth information, requiring the journalist to conduct thorough investigations, including discovering new information, interviewing relevant individuals, and consulting various sources. It is considered a quintessential journalistic genre.
The interview is an expository text presenting a dialogue between a journalist and a subject, aiming to reveal their thoughts or actions.
Interviews are usually structured in three parts:
- An introduction, where the journalist introduces the interviewee, describes the setting, and provides background information.
- The body of the interview, consisting of questions and answers. In longer interviews, the reporter may also include observations about the respondent’s reactions, gestures, and demeanor.
- A closing section, where the journalist summarizes key points or highlights a particularly relevant issue.
Opinion Genres
The editorial expresses the opinion of the publishing organization on current events of significance.
Editorials are typically unsigned and lack a fixed structure, although they often begin with a statement of facts to be assessed and conclude with a closing statement. The argumentative development is flexible, and the structure and style are often personalized.
A special sub-genre within opinion pieces is the column, which shares general features with editorials but is shorter and appears regularly in the same location within the newspaper.
Examples of well-known columnists include Francisco Umbral and Juan José Millás.
Letters to the editor are brief texts in which readers express their opinions on current topics, respond to previously published information or opinions, or correct inaccuracies.
Mixed Genres
The chronicle is an informative text written by a fixed correspondent or a special envoy from the scene. It provides an account of a current event, presenting a major development that includes antecedents, consequences, testimonies, and documentary data.
A chronicle is considered a hybrid genre because the journalist not only reports on events but also interprets them, makes assessments, and offers insights. Chronicles are always signed and cover a wide range of subjects, including contemporary events, war, parliamentary proceedings, bullfighting, and sports.
Criticism is a specialized genre of cultural information, typically written by an expert. It serves a dual purpose: to inform about cultural events (such as book releases, movie premieres, plays, and concerts) and to provide commentary on these events, offering a well-reasoned judgment to guide the reader.