Maverick Indonesia

The ‘Fall’ of Hardnews and The ‘Rise’ of Feature

“Probably it has something to do with post-journalism; but nowadays, the line that separates hardnews from feature has become thinner. And then there’s this tendency where hardnews writing is tinted with more and more feature characteristics. This includes the choice of headlines and the style of writing,” said communication expert Effendi Gazali, during Anugerah Adiwarta Sampoerna AAS) 2007’s final judging process.

The final meeting that lasted from 2 pm to 7 pm yesterday was rich with discussions, debates, and arguments to determine three nominees and one winner from the total of 18 categories in AAS 2007. These include hardnews, feature, and photo categories in art & culture, economy & business, sport, social, politic, and law.

Most of the final judges agreed that the quality of feature articles were improving significantly this year; especially in art & culture category. Bens Leo, senior music journalist who serves as one of the final judge in this particular category was dazzled by this. “Compared to last year’s feature articles, this year’s features are a lot better, especially in terms of depth,” said Bens.

Unfortunately, the opposite happened to hardnews category, where most of the jugdes felt that there are no significant improvement compared to last year’s results. Therefore, the judging process for this category became even harder.

However, Harkristuti Harkrisnowo and the rest of final judges were totally impressed with one journalist in hardnews-law category who had produced such a balance, accurate, and comprehensive reporting towards an issue.

Since the judging process was done anonymously to maintain objectivity, the final judges didn’t know (yet) the name of AAS 2007’s winners and nominees, and from which media they come from. However, of course, in Maverick we’ve had the results and have started contacting all nominees to the Awarding Night on Dec 7, 2007.

It was quite surprising and exciting to know that both the nominees and the winners are coming from a wide variety of media; including some new media and regional ones.

Mmm, curious to find out? Don’t worry. We will publish the complete list of AAS 2007’s nominees here by the end of this week. Join the fun and guess who are the winner from each category ;p

Let’s see if your vote is similar to the judges’!

by: Hanny