Is it just me, or do a lot of Japanese articles repeat themselves.

[Zgarbas]

News usually does. There's only so much that is news-worthy.

Well, a lot of Japanese news is done in a format where first the whole article is summarized in a paragraph or two, followed by a more in-depth version of the article. So that's probably what you mean. Once you get used to the format it doesn't seem so weird.

I've read hundreds of news articles. I just thought about the format of it yesterday though. Usually they seem to switch up a word or two when repeating, but yesterday it was so blatant in the repeating that it prompted me to ask.

I've noticed this, there are times on NHK and things where it seems to repeat the exact same sentence almost word for word 2-3 times. Maybe once in the title, then again in the first paragraph, and then again a bit later too.

Honestly I completely don't get it and still find it weird.

Yeh. Im used to do the news doing it via video. But never saw it done with writing before I started Japanese.

[Zgarbas]

Ah, I misunderstood.

The title has the main information that is bound to be repeated within the article, usually in the first paragraph. The first paragraph repeats the info with Who, where, when, what, etc. Normally, that information is expanded throughout the rest of the article, but in the case of short articles (like most NHK news) it means that it is pretty much just repeated with some extra info.

Also, in order to get the main point across to casual readers (who are only skimming, or listening passively to the radio) it's recommended to repeat the news a few times. Since NHK is generally directed towards casual readers (it's not specialized material, and people will usually read/watch it to pass the time) it probably focuses on this. Not sure why they do it in writing instead of simply audio/video, but it probably has something to do with that.

It can also be that the normal reader will see "title, main info, main info", but since you're reading it more closely for language purposes you're noticing the details more than the average joe.

NHK is a broadcasting corporation, their written 'articles' are really just transcripts or near-transcripts of the audio. (even if you can't click on the audio, it was probably read on the air at some point). I don't think articles written primarily for print are as repetitive.

A Mainichi Shimbun article like this one for example, http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20130710k...0000c.html (カナダ列車事故:死者１３人に　急増する原油輸送を懸念)

Although it repeats most of the headline in the first paragraph, expanded into full sentences, otherwise there's little repetition.