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Distinguishing News from Opinion

The document discusses the importance of distinguishing between news, advertisements, and opinion in newspapers. News articles contain factual information verified by journalists, while advertisements can say anything without fact-checking. Opinion pieces supplement the news and allow an exchange of ideas, including editorials representing the newspaper's view and op-eds by guest writers. Newspapers use techniques like bylines, labels, personal language, and formatting to help readers identify opinion content. Being able to tell the difference is important so readers can assess information appropriately.

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Marijoy Gupaal
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496 views3 pages

Distinguishing News from Opinion

The document discusses the importance of distinguishing between news, advertisements, and opinion in newspapers. News articles contain factual information verified by journalists, while advertisements can say anything without fact-checking. Opinion pieces supplement the news and allow an exchange of ideas, including editorials representing the newspaper's view and op-eds by guest writers. Newspapers use techniques like bylines, labels, personal language, and formatting to help readers identify opinion content. Being able to tell the difference is important so readers can assess information appropriately.

Uploaded by

Marijoy Gupaal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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News vs.

opinion: The
difference matters
Movers & Shakers
 By Kirsten Faurie Oct 2, 2018

 
It is almost every month someone approaches me to talk about a piece
they read in the paper only to realize what they thought was a news article
was actually an advertisement.

While it may seem like an innocent mistake, the inability of readers to


distinguish between advertisements, news articles and opinion articles has
some rather negative consequences. Mistaking opinion or ads for fact can
affect whether or not our society is truly informed and adequately prepared
to make decisions in their community.

As a general rule, news contains factual information reported by journalists.


If they are responsible, well-trained journalists, they would have done
research, verified facts, revealed the sources of their information and
identified statements of opinion from those sources. With some legal or
policy exceptions, advertisements can say pretty much whatever they want
to and do not undergo independent fact-checking. Sometimes, in hopes of
increasing credibility, ads are deliberately disguised to look like something
produced by the news staff.

Opinion is meant to supplement the news portion and provide for an


exchange of ideas. There are typically two types of opinion published in a
newspaper. One is “editorial” which are statements made on behalf of the
newspaper itself.
What you are reading now is editorial.

The other type of opinion is called “Op-ed” which stands for “opposite
editorial.” It is named this because it would traditionally appear on the
opposite side of the editorial page.

Op-ed includes guest columnists or submitted opinion pieces.

Newspapers don’t want their readers to be confused about what is news


and what is opinion.

There are a couple tricks they use to help make opinion pieces
distinguishable from news. Look for these hints that mark an opinion piece
as you read this week’s issue:

• The article includes a column logo or a photo of the writer (just like this
piece)

• The page or piece is labeled with words like: opinion, editorial, reporter’s
notebook, review or analysis

• The text makes first-person statements like “I” and may follow it up with
“believe” or “think”

• The tone is more personal, maybe with some sarcasm, exaggerations or


personal anecdotes

• Many newspapers use what is called a “drop-cap” to signify an opinion


piece. A “drop-cap” means the first capital letter of the story is extra large
and “drops” into other lines of text below it.
• The piece has a tagline at the end that provides information about who
the author is and what authority or expertise they may have to address
certain topics.

With this in mind, I hope our readers are better able to differentiate the
texts they may read in a newspaper and that they may let this knowledge
influence the degree to which they trust or scrutinize the content they
consume.

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