HARD NEWS:

News may be broadly divided into hard news and soft news.

News that has great importance and impact on the life of a nation or people or news that has great significance or affects life of many people is termed hard news.

The swearing-in of a President or Prime Minister, the presentation of the national budget, the passing of an important Bill in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, the assassination of a Prime Minister or a President, a major earthquake, plane crash, etc. are examples of hard news.

News, which is of immediate importance, is called hard news. It must be brought to the notice of the audience as soon as possible. For a newspaper the waiting period is time of publication of the next issue. In radio and television the first new bulletin after the information about an event reaches the newsroom must carry the hard news. With the advent of twenty four hour news channels, the waiting period for the hard news is almost zero. It is told instantaneously.

Examples:

Election results, accidents, swearing–in of a government, fall of a government, budget announcements, removing of a Vice Chancellor, murder, rape, dacoity, theft, marriage or divorce of a celebrity, death of a public figure etc.

SOFT NEWS:                                                                                          

News that interests people but has less significance is called soft news.

The wedding of a film actor, the birthday party of a celebrity, a rock show, a beauty contest, or a campus festival are examples of soft news.

There are many news stories that contain any information that needs to be disseminated urgently. They have the news values, which will not be reduced with the passage of time. Such news stories are called soft news.

Soft news stories can wait for publication or broadcast. Soft news is sometimes sensational in nature. Soft news is on the priority list of the news desk. Soft news is also generally first to be ‘killed’ (rejected) when due to the shortage of space or time only some stories have to be included.

Newspapers are meant for hard news. But every newspaper carries a mix of hard news and soft news daily. This is because the changing tastes of the news audience.

With a high level of entertainment content on most media including TV, radio, magazines and the Internet; even newspapers have started giving more space to entertainment. This is reflected in the increased coverage of sports activities and the entertainment world.

Also in addition to short stories, poetry, satire and other such write ups, newspapers have started giving more of soft news.

This is not a new phenomenon. The very first newspaper of India- ‘Hicky’s Gazette’ was full of such soft stories like who arrived back from England, Who had a fight with whom, Who had a romantic liaison with whom, etc.

A newspaper, a news program, or a news bulletin normally contains a judicious mix of hard news and soft news but hard news always gets higher priority in terms of selection and placement. Soft news is also used to break the monotony of bunch of hard news items in newspapers.

Examples:

Voters’ perception about contesting candidates, release of a book, seminars and workshops, peoples reaction about budget proposals, lifestyle stories, follow-up stories etc.

BREAKING NEWS:

Events have the habit of happening unexpectedly without any prior intimation. Not only nature behaves without any warning, human behavior is also quite unpredictable. When hard news is flashed immediately on the radio and television it is called breaking news.

Breaking news means releasing news stories while the event is still taking place or it has just happened. Such news stories are of immense consequence and are flashed on television and radio even when other scheduled programs are being broadcast.

There is intense competition amongst different news channels and broadcasting media to be the first to break news stories.

In-fact, breaking news is the measure of efficiency of the news gathering network of a news- system. Channels take great pride in breaking news and use such achievements as selling points. In some cases news channels have been found bragging about breaking a particular story for months.

Sometimes it so happens that a major story breaks when the newspaper is about to be sent for printing or is being printed. Under such situations the printing job is stopped for a short while and a brief news item is inserted under the heading ‘stop press’ (chhapte-chhapte in Hindi).