Hard news vs Soft news

 

Hard news: ‘Catastrophic injuries’: Swimmer dies after shark attack at Sydney beach- the age

We can see that this is hard news because it reports on the first fatal shark attack in a long time in Sydney, which will have an impact on a large group of people and is needed to be reported urgently. The writing style is strictly objective and includes a lot of information since it is a concerning event open to analysis. The interviewees in this article are ambulances and witnesses and the images presented are of the surrounding area, not the incident itself. Another way to identify that it is hard news is by the headline “Catastrophic injuries”, we can clearly see that it is a heavy/serious topic and would be considered important to the majority of the audiences.

 

Soft news: Euphoria's Sydney Sweeney recalls a casting director telling her she would 'never be on a TV' because she did not have the 'right look'- Dailymail 

We can tell that this is soft news because it is about celebs/entertainment which would only interest a small portion of the public. Meaning less people will classify this news as relevant since they do not deal with serious subjects. The site has many advertisements and the formatting of the article is more hip than formal. It is filled with relating pictures and the writing style is much more casual and subjective.