Opinion Article: We explain what an opinion article is and what its general characteristics are. Also, how is its structure and classification
An opinion article belongs to the journalistic genre and consists of a text that expresses the author's opinion on a current topic , after being interpreted and analyzed in a meticulous way. An opinion piece is usually published in a newspaper or magazine and differs from an editorial article because it bears the author's signature. The author's ideas may not be strictly aligned with the editorial profile of the newspaper in which the article is published. The public interested in opinion articles is usually the one who seeks different points of view based on solid arguments, about the journalistic news of the moment. These articles seek to awaken in their readers a critical feeling about the subject, highlighting aspects and considerations to limit the debate to their point of view. To do this they usually make use of narratives , comparisons and even a certain degree of poetic writing . Opinion articles tend to reinforce the editorial line of the medium in which they are published. They constitute one of the most read sections of a journalistic publication since personalities from the political, cultural or media world are usually summoned to share their point of view and opinion.
An opinion piece is characterized by:
Although an opinion piece usually has a variable structure or with enough freedom to diagram it, it usually consists of four main parts:
An essay is characterized by being a writing that does not necessarily address a current topic. It is based on a rigorous scientific analysis (the author must be very informed and have verifiable sources), while the opinion article can offer conclusions and points of view based on valid reasoning and arguments devised by the author, without having evidence scientific.
Throughout more than two hundred years of industrialization, humanity has contracted a debt with the environment that gave birth to it: we have taken materials and substances at will, we have modified them and then thrown away without caring how or how long it takes the nature to regain its balance, nor what may be the long-term consequences of our production models. And as everyone knows by now, the payment date may be near.
Extinction, as we know, is a very common and frequent phenomenon in nature. We have seen its traces in the fossil record that geography reveals to us: in very ancient times there were cataclysmic events that, by radically changing the environment, pushed towards the disappearance of a large percentage of the species that existed at a certain time. And we have also seen it happen, on a much smaller scale, in our days: numerous species have disappeared due to the effect of the dominant species on the planet, humanity.
You don't have to be a genius to realize the transcendental impact that the emergence of social networks has on the contemporary world. In little more than a decade of existence, these virtual spaces have gone from being a youthful eccentricity and a useful tool for contacting old friends, to being the quintessential place where transactions of all kinds take place: from purchases and sales of products , and publication of advertisements for goods and services , to falling in love and the dissemination of personal content. Everything is centralized in their digital pages, to the point that it is rare to ask someone for their phone number, because in reality we want their authorization to join their vast network of contacts.
Many anthropologists agree that telling ourselves stories is one of the most humane gestures there is, something we have done since ancient times, when we sat by the fireside listening to tales of terrible gods and mythological hunts from tribal elders. A role that, over the years, has been performed by countless human inventions, ranging from books and magazines to movies, television and, in more recent times, video games.
An important debate has taken place within the Covid19 pandemic and has to do with distance education or virtual education. It is an idea that has many detractors as well as many promoters, although in reality those who defend it, for the most part, consider it little more than a necessary evil. Does that mean that when the pandemic is eventually over, everything will go back to the way it was before? It is very unlikely.
More than 40 years have passed since the feminist Marilyn Loden denounced in a speech the existence of a "glass ceiling" that prevents the professional advancement of women in the workplace, and that continues to be a reality for millions of women in the West, especially in the countries of the so-called “third world”.
The internet at home stopped working, a serious thing in these times of "home office". The provider company told me that the modem needed replacing, so the next day they sent a technician to do the job: a talkative, friendly guy, who for the forty-five minutes of his visit couldn't get his mask on properly ( left his nose out), and that in the face of my clear discomfort about it, he insisted that there was no need to worry: Covid-19 did not really exist. It was all a media fabrication, a front to try to implement a new world order.
Mahatma Gandhi stated that "the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats animals", meaning that the way we relate to other species is a reflection of the degree of cultural refinement of our societies. And although in principle it is easy to agree with the Indian leader, it is not so easy when it implies a radical change in our life habits, such as food, entertainment or consumption.
Few countries lack specific environmental legislation, but even fewer enforce it to the fullest extent of the law . The environmental crime, apparently, constitutes for the majority of our societies a minor crime, without mourners, excusable above all if the person who commits it is a powerful transnational corporation or, worse still, a company belonging to the same State.