Meaning & use
hard news
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Meaning
noununcountable
Reports about serious and urgent events, such as politics, crime, disasters and economics, presented factually and quickly.
Grammar: Uncountable and takes a singular verb: hard news is reported first.
Patterns
- hard news about something
- a hard-news story
The paper focuses on hard news such as elections and court cases.
Hard news is usually written in a short, factual style.
Viewers who want hard news switch to the evening bulletin.
Common combinations
- report hard news
- Local reporters mainly report hard news.
- hard news story
- The editor wanted a hard news story on the flood.
- hard news and features
- The magazine balances hard news and features.
- cover hard news
- She left sports to cover hard news.
- hard news coverage
- The channel is known for its hard news coverage.
Synonyms and how they differ
- breaking news
- Breaking news is a story that has just happened and is still developing, while hard news is a type of serious coverage whether fresh or not.
- straight news
- Straight news stresses plain, factual reporting without opinion, and is nearly the same thing as hard news in practice.
- current affairs
- Current affairs refers to political and social topics, often with analysis, while hard news focuses on reporting events.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: hard news or soft news?
hard news vs soft news
Soft news covers lifestyle, celebrity and human-interest topics, while hard news covers serious, time-sensitive events.
Practice
Which story would most likely count as hard news?
Choose one answer.
Hard news covers serious and timely events such as new laws. The other items are features, columns and reviews, which are softer or opinion-based.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hard news”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.