News can be defined as hard or soft.

• Hard news is significant to a large number of readers; it is timely; and it is serious. Hard news is often about topics like government, politics, religion, the courts, or financial markets.
• Soft news often entertains or informs. Soft news appeals to the emotions.

Part of the fun of exploring the news is discovering that hard news can soften and soft news can harden. How? It depends on the angle. A journalist’s angle is the approach he takes when he writes a news story. A news angle goes hand in hand with the writer’s purpose. Should the article inform, entertain, persuade, or create a narrative? Once the journalist figures out the why of the article, he can focus on how best to deliver the story. That how is his angle!