What is a feature article?
A newspaper or magazine article that delves deeply into one topic or story. They tend to be quite sensationalist, and often emphasise how that topic/person is part of a story or narrative. Instead of reporting on overall trends or public figures, it zooms right into relevant
How do they engage the reader?
Essentially, they make the reader have an emotional connection with a central character(s). With the story that I read articles about, the “main character”‘s negative actions were minimised or summarised, whereas their personal development and justifications of why they did the bad thing were made. This makes us sympathise and more accepting of the narrative. Those articles also used quotes, ambiguous subheadings (such as the BBC’s usage of the quote “fractured skull” for a serious of paragraph of how the main character eventually got involved in gang violence), and photographs (photos or diagrams illustrating problems, selected pictures of the person, etc.) to make the story seem grandiose – like a film with orchestral music to appear impactful. Often the article will emphasise how it is a story, and that it is one that others go through too, or has an impact on other people. A lot of the time there will also be a continuous element or moral, or call to action.
Comparisons between three examples:
Even though all three of the articles I looked at have the same goal in describing the same story, they differ in how they approach it. There are differences in what is detailed most, as well as in what order the main character’s life story is told. For example, whereas the BBC tells the story chronologically and with emphasis on the person’s internal growth, Al Jazeera and NBC focus more on the effects that this change has had on other people, and his efforts to help others who were in his situation. This effect is exemplified by the Al Jazeera article beginning with a mini overview of the positives after he turned his life around, with an explanation of the “before” all coming after. The NBC also focused more on the practicalities of turning his life around – thus indirectly emphasising how he found better communities to be a part of.
More info, from my research document that has more analysis / observations
The original articles: