Feature

Christian Gilbert

Journalism

1 May 2014

Action Movies

                The article I chose to review for my feature is a flowchart on CollegeHumor created by Nathan Yaffe. The style of this feature is the same as the one I plan to do. It is a flowchart with graphics titled “Who Should Star In Your Action Movie” and the reader answers a series of questions that tell which popular action movie star should star in their action movie. Depending on the reader’s choices, they get a specific person.

                This is a good style for an article like this because it is interactive, which is a big draw with a feature. Interactive pieces like this are more appealing to a reader and can draw a bigger crowd. You can also go through mulitple times and keep getting different answers. Another big appeal for this style article is it is lite on the reading, which makes it a quick, easy, fun piece to go over.

                Maneuvering the written road map is made pretty simplistic with easy to follow paths and clear to read text. A place where the article may fall short is it seems to be lacking enough content in certain areas, mostly the answers. It could use some narrative as to why this person is good for a certain role. Another short coming is the answers you are provided seem a bit too forced, but all in all, these minor issues are not a critical miss. For the light-hearted nature of the piece, it works nicely.

                The style and graphics used in the piece lend themselves to the overall theme of the flowchart, looking gritty and exciting, very much like an action movie. The complete look of the article tells the reader immediately that this is just for fun, something to get a quick laugh out of. It’s something that catches your attention and begs you to read through.

                This fun, simplistic questionnaire gives readers something to do to pass the time and appreciate. It is just easy and short enough to keep attention on itself until it has been thoroughly completed. It does well in the areas that an feature like this should focus on. It is quick, clever, simple to follow, fun to do, and appealing to look at. Overall, it is a great example of a flowchart style feature.