Difference b/w a sidebar and a feature

I hope I don't get blasted for this... but is a sidebar basically a short feature? This is a serious question and I hope my naivety doesn't sound so stupid.

 

If you're majoring in journalism or communications, I'd ask for a refund of your tuition.

 

Thanks, but we run a weekly paper, so we do mainly features... but thanks for that useless response

 

I guess you could look at like that. But a sider has to be more focused than a general feature.

You aren't telling somebody's life story with it, usually you're only writing about what happened in that specific game ... or even on a specific play within that one game.

 

can you give me just a random example, inky?

 

http://journalism.about.com/od/journalismglossary/g/glside.htm

 

Doodah,
Say you're writing the sidebar on a state championship football game that is tremendously well played, except Home Team sucks at special teams all game and looks like its going to bite them in the ass until one of their kids follows Visitin Team's go-ahead score by returning a kick for a touchdown.
While the main story will incorporate the kick return in the story, a sidebar would talk specifically about the special teams' problems and how they got fixed at just the right time. Then in turn someone would have a notebook and maybe another sidebar and the section would be sick, especially considering it's a one-school paper and you're a weekly and this is going to make your life easier.
Or you just half-ass the work and ruin a championship section by running photos way to big and doing a half-assed story and running a sidebar and ignoring the fact you could do an informative follow the following week to make up for your laziness.

 

Sidebars can be short features (say on the dad watching his kid play college ball for the first time when the kid hits the game-winning 3) or could be more newsy (a short story looking at a particular play or series in a game or a certain player's performance -- the guy who ran back three punts for TDs or such). It all depends on the situation. They are, as the definition TSP posted says, a more focused look at a certain aspect of an event.

 

ok, what's a notebook?

 

Oh, shut up already.

 

I'm just inquiring... no need to be harsh

 

It's called Google. And IF you're a senior in college and don't know what a notebook, sidebar and feature are, then you definitely aren't ready for any of the beats on the jobs board you're being such a doosh about.