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Study Material for Students

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN MEDIA WORLD

Mass communication and Journalism is institutionalized and source specific. It functions through well-organized professionals and has an ever increasing interlace. Mass media has a global availability and it has converted the whole world in to a global village. A qualified journalism professional can take up a job of educating, entertaining, informing, persuading, interpreting, and guiding. Working in print media offers the opportunities to be a news reporter, news presenter, an editor, a feature writer, a photojournalist, etc. Electronic media offers great opportunities of being a news reporter, news editor, newsreader, programme host, interviewer, cameraman, producer, director, etc.

Other titles of Mass Communication and Journalism professionals are script writer, production assistant, technical director, floor manager, lighting director, scenic director, coordinator, creative director, advertiser, media planner, media consultant, public relation officer, counselor, front office executive, event manager and others.

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: Reporting Techniques & Skills

INTRODUCTION

The book deals with techniques of reporting. The students will learn the skills of gathering news and reporter’s art of writing the news. The book explains the basic formula of writing the news and the kinds of leads. Students will also learn different types of reporting and the importance of clarity and accuracy in writing news. The book also deals with the art of writing Articles, Editorials, Middle, Profiles, and Letters to the Editor, Book Reviews, Film Review and Sports Reviews. At the end of the book, students will learn about Photojournalism.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

INDEX Reporting Techniques & Skills 1. The Business of Mass Media & Reporter. 10-14 2. Gathering the News: 14- 24 2.1 Reporting & Reporters 2.2 Training & Qualifications to be a reporter 2.3 Where reporter works 2.4 Reporting for Newspapers 14. 2.5 Taking Notes 2.6. Interviews 2.7 Types of interviews 23 2.8. News Reporting 2.8.1 Investigative or Interpretative Reporting 2.9 A nose for News. 29 2.10. Organizing the information 2.10.1 Writing and Editing 2.10.2. The main elements of News 2.10.3. Functions of News 2.10.4. News Sources 3. Skills for Writing News: 25-60 3.1 The basic formula 3.2. Structure for news story 3.2.1. The Inverted Pyramid 3.3 Writing the Lead 3.4 Types of Leads 3.5 Headlines 3.5.1. The Types of leads – 3.5.2.Four functions of a headline: 3.6 Types of News Writing 3.7 Organization of Topic of Newspaper 3.8 Types of Reporting 3.9 Writing the Story 4. Types of Reporting: 60-79 4.1. Crime Reporting 4.2. Court Reporting 4.3. Health Reporting 4.4. Civic Reporting 4.5. Political Reporting 4.6. Business Reporting 4.7. Science & Technology Reporting 4.8. Sport Reporting 4.9. Culture Reporting 4.10. Civil Administration Reporting 4.11.Education Reporting

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

4.12.Development Reporting 5. Writing the Story: 80- 96 5.1 Magazine Writing 5.2. How to write an Obituary? 5.2.1. Article Writing 5.3. Editorial Writing guidelines 5.4.. Writing Letter to Editor 5.5. Writing Film Review 5.6.Writing Book Review 5.7. New paradigm features 6. Photo Journalism: 97- 117 6.1 . Photojournalism 6.2. What is a photojournalist? 6.3 photojournalist different from a photographer 6.4. Uses of Photography 6.4.1 Elements of Photography 6.4.2. Point of Interest 6.5. Role of Visualizations 6.6. Photo Editing in newspaper 6.7. India's Top Cartoonists 6.8. Cartooning Glossary of journalism terms 118-124

Summery 125 Questions for practice 127

Suggested reading 128

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

SYLLABUS

Reporting Techniques & Skills

UNIT 1. The Business of Mass Media & Reporter. UNIT 2. Gathering the News: Reporting & Reporters - Training & Qualifications to be a reporter - Where reporter works - Reporting for Newspapers - Reporting the expected & unexpected - Made news – What reporters do - Reporting skills - A nose for News. Observation listening & seeing, Taking notes, finding, checking, verifying, analyzing & interpreting information - Interviewing -Asking questions - Types of interviews - Interviewing techniques. UNIT 3. Skills for Writing News: The basic formula - The Inverted Pyramid: advantages & disadvantages. Writing the Lead - Kinds of Leads - The summary Lead - Thinking through the Lead - Finding the appropriate verb - No news Lead - Organizing the facts - Time elements - Variations on the summary Lead - Some other aspects of the Lead - Datelines, Credit Lines, Bylines -Checklist for the standard of the news story. UNIT 4. Types of Reporting: Objective, Interpretative, Investigative, Legal, Developmental. Political. Sports, Crime, Economic & Commercial, Technical & Science Reporting & the rest. UNIT 5. Writing the Story: Single - Incident Story - Attribution - Identification - Time and Timeliness – The Stylebook. UNIT 6. Photo Journalism: How is News Photography different from the rest - Analyzing the camera angle Action photography - Choosing the right - pix - India's Top Photo Journalists. Cartooning: The Craftsmanship, India's Top Cartoonists UNIT 7. Glossary of Newspaper terminology

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

REPORTING TECHNIQUES & SKILLS

OBJECTIVES

 To understand the techniques of reporting  To know the skills of gathering news and art of writing the news  To understand the importance of clarity and accuracy in writing news  To study the types of reporting  To learn the art of writing Articles, Editorials, Middle, Profiles, and Letters to the Editor, Book Reviews, Film Review and Sports Reviews  The know about photojournalism

INTRODUCTION

Part – I Mass Media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. It was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines, although mass media was present centuries before the term became common. The term public media has a similar meaning: it is the sum of the public mass distributors of news and entertainment across mediums such as newspapers, television, radio, broadcasting, which require union membership in large markets such as Newspaper Guild and & text publishers. The concept of mass media is complicated in some internet media as now individuals have a means of potential exposure on a scale comparable to what was previously restricted to select group of mass media producers. These internet media can include personal web pages and blogs.

UNIT 1. THE BUSINESS OF MASS MEDIA & REPORTER

Journalism is not a profession that is founded on starry-eyed optimism. It scorns the up lifter as much as it suspects the reformers, having had grievous experience with both in the course of its daily dealings with human affairs. In fact, it cries woe knows full well that such an automatic reflex action has a better chance of being right or wrong.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

Today, Progressive Journalists have realized that there are both civic and national responsibilities that come ahead of their normal professional duties. Merely telling and printing the news is not enough, nor is it sufficient to keep chanting a litany about interpreting the news without finding better people, better ways, more space, and more time to do it before a crisis makes it imperative. The reporter or the journalist is no longer justifies in wrapping himself in the guise of a philosophical anarchist and pretending that he is someone set apart with a mission beyond that of ordinary men. For the fact is that he no longer is mere news gatherer, often, in the act of gathering news, he makes it and even influences the course of events. Surely, the time has come for him to recognize it. He is not part of the gigantic shadow play, he is one of the principal actors, and what he says and does can have a substantial influence on its outcome. He must face up to his responsibilities as a good citizen first, a good reporter second.

The Press is independent of government. Governments are composed of human beings, and human beings can and do commit wrongs. The press and government should not become institutional partners. They are natural adversaries with different functions, and each must respect the role of the other. Sometimes a free press can be a distinct annoyance and an embarrassment to a particular government, but that is one of the prices of liberty. A free press is responsible to its readers and to them alone.

Independence is at the very heart of any statement of ethical principles respecting the conduct of the press. The proprietors of a newspaper may choose to ally it with a particular political party or interest, but an increasing number of newspapers and journals are politically independent as well as independent of government. This means not that they refrain from endorsing a certain political party or a candidate for public office, but rather that they owe no prior allegiance and that they make the endorsement voluntarily, as an exercise of their independence.

From this it follows that an independent press must cherish that role by resisting pressures of all kinds - from local as well as national government, from special interest groups in the community, from powerful individuals, from advertisers. This is a noble standard that is sometimes more difficult to follow in a small community than in a large one. It may be relatively easy for a large, well-financed newspaper to risk the displeasure of a particular interest group or advertiser. But on a small paper, where the support of such an advertiser or interest has a direct bearing on the ability of management to meet the payroll, it takes courage to resist pressure.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

From this also flows the point that the newspaper and its staff should exemplify independence in their actions. Not only should they be independent in fact, but also they must be seen to be independent. A newspaper that rewards its friends with unwarranted, flattering stories or fawning editorials will not long be respected. A newspaper whose reporters also are on the payroll of a special interest group or who accept free trips or lavish gifts will find it hard to be convincing in its criticisms of corruption or other unethical practices in government.

Occasionally, newspapers attempt to justify the acceptance of gifts or services. A reliable reporter will hardly be corrupt. Admittedly, in small communities, journalists sometimes may encounter problems in maintaining an independent role. There are pressures to participate in volunteer services, in clubs and business associations, and even in local government. Conflicts of interest may arise frequently.

Journalists cannot expect to be walled apart from the community in which they live. But neither can they serve two masters with opposing interests. A diligent editor or reporter will at least be aware of the conflicts and keep his or her professional responsibilities foremost in mind.

A newspaper has the right to be captious, or partisan, or untruthful, or bigoted, or whatever else its conscience allows it to be. And although newspapers are answerable to the laws of libel, within a very large compass they continue to set their own responsibilities. The underlying idea is that, from the clash of opinions and ideas presented by a free press, ultimately something resembling truth emerges.

In practice, however, truth does not always emerge unless someone digs it out. And there is no single patented version of what constitutes truth. In a community where only one newspaper exists, a reader may not encounter differing opinions unless the newspaper chooses to present them. Radio and television are not always effective substitutes.

Recognition, of the importance of fair and balanced reporting, in which opinions that differ from those of the writer, or the newspaper, or a government official are nevertheless accurately portrayed. News stories and analysis are presented on the news pages, with their origins and sources identified wherever possible. The newspaper's own opinions are presented on the editorial page, which may also carry signed columns from syndicated writers or staff members of the newspaper itself.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

News Reporting needs to guard against undue intrusions on the privacy of persons about whom they are reporting. A photograph of a person jumping off a building or plunging into a fire may be dramatic, but editors ought to debate long and hard over whether they are violating someone's rights or dignity by publishing it. Does the publication serve a defensible purpose, one that will be understood by readers? Or is it using an indignity to pander to curiosity?

Reporters enjoy no special rights beyond those of other citizens. They must be aggressive in pursuing facts. Indeed, one of the most important functions of a free press is to serve as a watchdog. But its staff members have no dispensation to be rude or discourteous. Television has many sins of its own, but one thing it purveys very quickly to viewers is whether reporters at a news conference are behaving arrogantly or with unnecessary brusqueness.

A Reporter is a type of journalist who researches and presents information in certain types of mass media.

Reporters gather their information in a variety of ways, including tips, press releases, and witnessing events. They perform research through interviews, public records, and other sources. The information-gathering part of the job is sometimes called "reporting" as distinct from the production part of the job, such as writing articles. Reporters generally split their time between working in a newsroom and going out to witness events or interview people.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

Most reporters working for major news media outlets are assigned an area to focus on called a beat or patch. They are encouraged to cultivate sources to improve their information gathering.

Reporters working for major Western news media usually have a university or college degree. The degree is sometimes in journalism, but in most countries, that is generally not a requirement. When hiring reporters, editors tend to give much weight to the reporter's previous work such as newspaper clippings, even when written for a student newspaper or as part of an internship.

Reporting skills can be learned, just like any other skill. The entire reporting process involves setting objectives, through data gathering and analysis tools, to planning, drafting, editing and designing the report.

Set evaluation goals- know what you are doing from the start Select data gathering methods - select the best way to get breadth and depth of information Analyze quantitative and qualitative data - really understand what your data is telling you Plan the report-put your ideas into a structure that works. Write more clearly and organize your ideas and analysis effectively - getting to the point in a powerful, persuasive style

UNIT 2. GATHERING THE NEWS

2.1. Training & Qualifications to be a Reporter

News reporters, correspondents, and analysts gather and prepare useful information for local and nationwide audiences. They inform society on current events and the actions of public, corporate, and special interest figures.

News analysts, or newscasters or news anchors, harness and interpret news to be broadcast. They present on-air videotapes, stories, or live transmissions from correspondents outside of the studio. Some newscasters specialize in either weather or sports, and hence receive the titles of weathercasters and sportscaster. They gather and deliver information relating to these areas of interest. Some weathercasters are actual meteorologists who make their own weather forecasts.

Reporters are heavily involved with all phases of news gathering, organizing, shooting, and delivering. They often interview individuals with cameras and later

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Reporting Techniques & Skills edit the material for presentation. Often this information will be sent via electronic transmission to news writers who write about the material. Television and radio reporters may submit material live from a news source. They usually record an introduction to their story to be presented. Commentators and columnists are journalists who provide readers and listeners with their own personal opinions. Reports write on assigned topics of relative importance, such as political or company events, accidents, or celebrity visits. Some reporters will be assigned special interest stories such as “police beats.” Still others specialize in unique fields of interest, such as sports, politics, health, consumer affairs, science, religion, entertainment, and others. Investigative journalists may spend days to weeks at a time working on stories. Teams that include reporters, photographers, graphic artists, and editors are often gathered to report on particular events or stories.

News correspondents cover news stories in regional stationed areas. Reporters that work with smaller publications involve themselves with all phases of gathering and presenting news, from taking photographs to laying out pages and editing final transcriptions. They may also sell advertising and do some office work.

News reporters, correspondents, and analysts should anticipate busy schedules and pressure deadlines. They may have to rush to broadcast a story by a certain time. Work environments vary from comfortable offices to rooms full of technical equipment and other workers. Outside field reporters may find the environment of an event to be extremely hectic and even dangerous.

Work schedules vary. While print reporters typically work in the late hours of the day until midnight, television, radio, and magazine reporters usually have day schedules with some evening work.

In order to meet a deadline, reporters may have to adjust their schedule or work overtime. This is especially so as many stations have 24 hour broadcast schedules. Travel may also be necessary for breaking news events.

2.3. Where Reporters work?

Reporters gather information and write news stories. These stories appear in newspapers and magazines. Some reporters appear on television and radio. To get information, reporters look at documents. They also observe the scene and interview people. Reporters write about events. These include things such as an accident, a rally, or a company going out of business.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

Radio and television reporters often report "live" from the scene. News correspondents mostly work in large cities. Some report from foreign cities covering the events in the city.

Reporters must meet deadlines. Some work in private offices, while others often work in large rooms with other reporters. Television and radio reporters may encounter curious onlookers, police, or other emergency workers.

Reporters work long hours and sometimes have odd schedules. They may have to travel. At morning newspapers, reporters might work from late afternoon until midnight. At evening or afternoon papers, they may work from early morning until afternoon. Radio and television reporters work day or evening shifts. Magazine reporters generally work during the day. Reporters may have to work extra hours to meet deadlines. They may have to change their work hours to follow a story.

A college degree in journalism is preferred. Some employers hire graduates with other majors. Working at school newspapers or broadcasting stations is good experience. Internships with news organizations may also help when seeking a job as a reporter.

Reporters must write clearly and effectively. They also need word processing, computer graphics, and desktop publishing skills. Speaking a second language is necessary for some jobs. In high school; you should take courses in English, journalism, and social studies, with an emphasis on writing.

Employment of news analysts, reporters, and correspondents is expected to decline moderately. Still, some job openings will occur in newer media areas, such as magazines and newspapers on the Internet. It is difficult to get a job at newspapers and broadcast stations in large cities. The best chances for a first job are on small town and suburban newspapers.

2.4.Reporting for Newspapers

Our newspapers must present a balanced view of the community, state, nation and the world beyond our borders. To do so it requires a certain amount of skill, patience and understanding. Therefore, a reporter must have a nose for news. We talk of news of reader interest.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

Generally the following will interest the reader: 1. Unusual events 2. Mysteries and the unknown 3. Prominent people, places and the things 4. Whatever people are talking about 5. Statements by persons in authority 6. All events that affects readers’ lives 7. Trends or continuing events that grasp the imagination of readers over a period of time 8. New ideas-anything that is likely to be new to the general reader 9. Conflict between man and man; between man and nature 10.Natural phenomenon; violence, calamities and disaster 11.Tragedies and comedies that appeal to the human emotion 12.The why of news; why things happen, what makes them happen, who pulls the strings 13.Topics of health 14.The environment 15.Fashion and entertainment

2.5. Taking notes in Reporting is very important!

You must be able to provide evidence of everything you include in an article or news report. Therefore, it is vital that you keep adequate notes, and include everything you can, including for example) transcripts of interviews and e -mails. When taking notes, you might try making your own shorthand. Evidence which is of unknown source is not evidence.

How to Take Notes?

1. In preparation for writing a piece of work, your notes might come from a number of different sources: course materials, set texts, secondary reading, interviews, or government sources and common people. You might gather information from radio or television broadcasts, or from experiments and research projects.

2. The notes you gather in preparation for writing will normally provide detailed evidence to back up any arguments you wish to make. They might also be used as illustrative material. They might include such things as the quotations and page

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Reporting Techniques & Skills references you plan to use in an essay. Your ultimate objective in planning will be to produce a one or two page outline of the topics you intend to cover.

3. Be prepared for the fact that you might take many more notes than you will ever use. This is perfectly normal. At the note-taking stage you might not be sure exactly what evidence you will need. In addition, the information-gathering stage should also be one of digesting and refining your ideas.

4. Don't feel disappointed if you only use a quarter or even a tenth of your materials. The proportion you finally use might vary from one subject to another, as well as depending on your own particular writing strategy. Just because some material is not used, don't imagine that your efforts have been wasted.

5. When taking notes from any source, keep in mind that you are attempting to make a compressed and accurate record of information, other people's opinions, and possibly your own observations on the subject in question.

6. Your objective whilst taking the notes is to distinguish the more important from the less important points being made. Record the main issues, not the details. You might write down a few words of the original if you think they may be used in a quotation. Keep these extracts as short as possible unless you will be discussing a longer passage in some detail.

7. Don't try to write down every word of a lecture - or copy out long extracts from books. One of the important features of note taking is that you are making a digest of the originals, and translating the information into your own words.

8. Some people take so many notes that they don't know which to use when it's time to do the writing. They feel that they are drowning in a sea of information.

9. This problem is usually caused by two common weaknesses in note-taking technique:

 Transcribing too much of the original  Being unselective in the choice of topics

10. There are two possible solutions to this problem:

 Select only those few words of the source material, which will be of use. Avoid being descriptive. Think more, and write less. Be rigorously selective.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

 Keep the project topic or the essay question more clearly in mind. Take notes only on those issues which are directly relevant to the subject in question.

11. Even though the notes you take are only for your own use, they will be more effective if they are recorded clearly and neatly. Good layout of the notes will help you to recall and assess the material more readily. If in doubt use the following general guidelines.

 Before you even start, make a note of your source(s. If this is a book, an article, or a journal, write the following information at the head of your notes: Author, title, publisher, publication date, and edition of book.  Use loose-leaf A4 paper. This is now the international standard for almost all printed matter. Don't use small notepads. You will find it easier to keep track of your notes if they fit easily alongside your other study materials.  Write clearly and leave a space between each note. Don't try to cram as much as possible onto one page. Keeping the items separate will make them easier to recall. The act of laying out information in this way will cause you to assess the importance of each detail.  Use some system of tabulation as being done in these notes. This will help to keep the items separate from each other. Even if the progression of numbers doesn't mean a great deal, it will help you to keep the items distinct.  Don't attempt to write continuous prose. Notes should be abbreviated and compressed. Full grammatical sentences are not necessary. Use abbreviations, initials, and shortened forms of commonly used terms.  Don't string the points together continuously, one after the other on the page. You will find it very difficult to untangle these items from each other after some time has passed.  Devise a logical and a memorable layout. Use lettering, numbering, and indentation for sections and for sub-sections. Use headings and subheadings. Good layout will help you to absorb and recall information. Some people use colored inks and highlighters to assist this process of identification.  Use a new page for each set of notes. This will help you to store and identify them later. Keep topics separate, and have them clearly titled and labeled to facilitate easy recall.  Write on one side of the page only. Number these pages. Leave the blank sides free for possible future additions, and for any details, which may be needed later.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

Notebook of a Reporter

Every interview has a common problem; how is it to be recorded? The sight of a notebook on the knee of a reporter sometimes has a paralyzing and tongue-tying effect on the person whose views are being sought, unless such happenings are a common occurrence for him and he is perfectly used to them, the best way is to make your entrance apparently devoid of all the tools of your trade and to listen intently for a minute or two. Then you can quietly produce your pen and a piece of folded paper and make a few notes, if possible, while still watching the speaker. Never look away from him for longer than you can help, make him feel that he, and not your note-taking has more attention.

Another way is to wait until the speaker has made a point or half given a string of figures, then, producing your paper and pen, ask: may I quote that? And as you make your note, allow him to prompt you on the words to be used, if he wishes. Then look up at him again, put a question, or allow him to continue talking. Later you can make another note or two, perhaps with increasing frequency as the sight of your slip of paper becomes familiar, but watch him as much as you can and appear interested.

Checking, verifying, analyzing & interpreting information is extremely important for a reporter.

Fairness is the foundation of good journalism. Fairness and balance is giving both sides of the picture, while fairness is not taking sides. It also means not providing support to political parties, institutions, communities or individuals, etc through the columns of the newspaper. It is the attribute of a professional reporter and the duty of a sub editor to implement it.

This one is as difficult, in practice, as accuracy is simple. Fairness is often in the eye of the beholder. Fairness means, among other things, listening to different viewpoints, and incorporating them into the journalism. It does not mean parroting lies or distortions to achieve that lazy equivalence that leads some journalists to get opposing quotes when the facts overwhelmingly support one side. Fairness is also about letting people respond when they believe you are wrong. Again, this is much easier online than in a print publication, much less in a broadcast.

Ultimately, fairness emerges from a state of mind. We should be aware of what drives us, and always willing to listen to those who disagree. The first rule of

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Reporting Techniques & Skills having a conversation is to listen - learn more from people who think we are wrong than from those who agree with us.

Journalists might see themselves as satisfying their professional commitment by taking the following steps before publishing a story:

 Looking at both sides of a story  Assessing conflicting claims  Assessing the credibility of sources  Looking for evidences  Not publishing anything believed to be untrue  See if the story stands up

Analyzing Quantitative and Qualitative data is often the topic of advanced research and evaluation methods courses. However, there are certain basics, which can help to make sense of reams of data.

When analyzing data whe ther from questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, or whatever, always start from review of your research goals, i.e., the reason you undertook the news-story in the first place. This will help you organize your data and focus your analysis. For example, if you wanted to improve a program by identifying its strengths and weaknesses, you can organize data into program strengths, weaknesses and suggestions to improve the program

 Read through all the data in your news story.  Organize comments into similar categories, e.g., concerns, suggestions, strengths, weaknesses, similar experiences, program inputs, recommendations, outputs, outcome indicators, etc.  Label the categories or themes, e.g., concerns, suggestions, etc.

2.6. INTERVIEWS

Planning and Conducting Interviews

Before meeting for an interview, both the interviewer and the interviewee have to make planning and preparation. Many job interviews are failures because either the applicants or the interviewer lack the skills of planning for them. The interviewer must have clear and detailed information about the post for which the candidates are to be interviewed. He should be in a position to tell the candidate the working conditions, details of job operations and other responsibilities. He has to make

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Reporting Techniques & Skills proper seating arrangement for the candidates in such a way that they may feel relaxed in the waiting room before facing the interviewer. He should know what type of candidate is required for the job. He must have the bio-data of all the candidates who might attend the interview.

Similarly, the applicants too must prepare themselves for the interview situation. He has to know his own abilities in carrying out the responsibilities of the post for which he applies. He has to ask himself whether he really desires to do that work and if it is suitable for his talents. Secondly, he has to know the organization in which he seeks the job. He has also to prepare himself for the probable questions, which would be asked in the interview.

The winning grace of Interviewing

The precise nature of the questions you ask will be determined initially by the purpose and the research you have done, but it is important that you listen to people’s answer s and adjusts your line of questioning. Though, there is plenty of often quite prescriptive advice available on interviewing techniques, but trial and error is the way most trainee journalists feel their way through their first interviews. Experiment with different approaches and see what works for you in different circumstances. Journalists have to be comfortable speaking to all sorts of people from millionaires to the homeless. So the main asset of a journalist during interviews are being curious about people and allowing enough time.

Conversation is the key to good interviewing. Even the briefest interview should involve the techniques of conversation: listening as well as talking, engaging with what is being said rather than just waiting for a gap to fill with your next question, making eye contact in face to face interviews, and encouraging the interviewee through sounds and gestures.

Interviewing celebrities and famous personalities require much tactics and careful preparations. Unless you are accusing the interviewee of wrongdoing, you need to establish a rapport between him and yourself. First impressions are important so don’t be late and dress appropriately. Nonverbal communication is important, so show interest by making eye contact without staring or nodding. Give verbal reassurance that the interviewee is not speaking into a vacuum-laugh at their jokes, sympathies with their troubles and use phrases like ‘really’? But don’t over do it.

Learn to listen; interrupting their flow only if they are digressing too much and you are on deadline. Keep your eyes as well as your ears open because you might

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Reporting Techniques & Skills discover a visual clue to the interviewee’s character or a visual prompt for an unusual question. Clothes, hair, tattoos, pictures on the wall, books on the shelves, an unusual plant, and the view from the window-all might spark off a question and lead to the discovery of a different angle.

2.7 .Different Types of Interviews

Written Interview: The written interview, where a person writes answers to a series of questions sent to him, is now seldom employed. Perhaps this is as well, for it is never wholly satisfactory. For one thing, a ‘follow up’ question can never be asked, and it may so happen that a written answer almost demands further questions in order to elucidate a point. In addition, it lacks the personal touch that is so essential. Avoid it as much as you can.

Telephonic Interview: the telephonic interview has been found a useful way of getting the views of local people when you are very near press time, which perhaps accounts for the extension in its use. For instance, suppose some restrictions on a commodity were suddenly lifted, and you were told to get interviews for a local- angle story: you would need to contact the president or secretary of the association concerned, one or two leading people and a house-wife. From them you should obtain a pretty good variety of views some of them welcoming it, other fearing, that the sudden lifting of the regulations would cause such a run on it that the commodity would be virtually unobtainable and so on.

Thus, before ringing up these people, try to put yourself in their position: if you were contacted by the ringing of a bell and asked for your views, would you have able to give them on the spur of the moment? Even if you could, would you be prepared to do so, knowing that whatever you said would be made public in the four corners of your locality? Would you not prefer to have a few minutes in which to give a little thought to the matter? These are points, which the thoughtful reporter will bear in mind, and it may well be, as a result, that he will first ring up his people and ask them if they would give their views when he rings up again in ten minutes time. Many people are only too willing to assist, but they like to have a brief period for reflection before committing themselves and they appreciate the friendly tip that you want them to do so.

Specialized Interviews: in the case of important individual interviews only a senior reporter is generally given the assignment well in advance. He spends a few days in studying the career of the great personality to be interviewed and frames the questions to which he wants an answer. If the interview is to deal with a

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Reporting Techniques & Skills specific subject and is not intended to be a general survey of the world or of the locality in which the newspaper is published, the reporter must make certain that he has at least rudimentary ideas of the matters which he wishes his personality to talk about. It is no good being ushered into the great man’s presence and then writing for something to turn up.

The reporter would be well advised to utilize the resource fullness of the office librarian, who can generally provide a host of ideas and cuttings, when he is told the name of the man to be interviewed. The reporter is sometimes asked by the personality to submit the receipt of the interview report and if time permits, he should comply with the request and make the stipulation that when it is returned the words ‘O.K.’ should appear on every sheet. There can then be no post-mortem either on the interview or the reporter. But it must be made clear that the general sense of the interview must not be altered and that in agreeing to the request for a script, the desire is that the interview should be rounded off and that occasional words should be altered if they do not entirely convey the intended meaning.

Press Conference Interviews: there are frequently occasions for Press Conferences at which ministers or leading figures in the world of ‘industry’ science, entertainment, or sport wish to inform the newspapers of latest developments. Is such cases, the editor of the newspaper gives instructions to the Public Relations Officer to get the journalists together and hear the pronouncements if any. It is generally left for the PRO or the news editor to decide whether he will make it a ‘free for all’ conference or a gathering limited for specialists or experts because he realizes that knowledgeable and sensible questions will be put to him. There are sometimes Press Conferences and interviews ‘which is simply a waste of time, where the information could have been issued by the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry concerned in the form of a ‘handout’.

In a news conference, one or more speakers may make a statement, which may be followed by questions from reporters. Sometimes only questioning occurs; sometimes there is a statement with no questions permitted.

A government may wish to open their proceedings for the media to witness events, such as the passing of a piece of legislation from the government in parliament to the senate, via media availability.

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Television stations and networks especially value news conferences: because today's TV news programs air for hours at a time, or even continuously, assignment editors have a steady appetite for ever-larger quantities of footage. News conferences are often held by politicians; by sports teams; by celebrities or film studios; by commercial organizations to promote products; by attorneys to promote lawsuits; and by almost anyone who finds benefit in the free publicity afforded by media coverage. Some people, including many police chiefs, hold news conferences reluctantly in order to avoid dealing with reporters individually.

A news conference is often announced by sending an advisory or news release to assignment editors, preferably well in advance. Sometimes they are held spontaneously when several reporters gather around a newsmaker. News conferences can be held just about anywhere, in settings as formal or as informal as the street in front of a crime scene. Hotel conference rooms and courthouses are often used for news conferences.

Interviews of Eminent Persons: one type of interview prevalent in a democratic country like India or the United States is that with the President or the Prime Minister or a foreign head of states visiting the country. The procedure here is that written questions are submitted in advance to the PRO of the authority concerned,

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Reporting Techniques & Skills and when the dignitary replies to them, he would indicate whether he could be quoted for the information he was imparting or whether he is not to be quoted as the source of the news, or whether he is speaking entirely off the record. If this eminent personality has a particularly important statement to make, he will generally issue copies of it at the close of the conference.

2.8. NEWS REPORTING

News reports are classified into two broad types: 1. Straight news reports 2. Investigative or interpretative reports

Straight news reports present what has happened in a straightforward, factual and clear manner. They draw no conclusions, nor offer any opinions. There is no attempt to probe deeper than the surface happenings, or they provide elaborate background information, or even to examine claims made. The main sources are: Government officials, elite groups, news agencies, eminent people, businessmen and others.

Both these types of news stories merely present the claims, without in any way trying to question or rebut, or ask why. Investigative reports, on the other hand, would make an effort to go behind the claims and see how valid they are. They report happenings in depth, present fairly all sides of the picture in the context of the situation, and generally, put some meaning into the news so that the reader is better able to understand and analyze the event.

Disaster stories e.g. famines and floods get pride of place in the daily press, and these provide many ‘human interest’ stories. Developments in science, industry and agriculture are increasingly coming to be considered as interesting news, as also the exposure of corruption in high places, the exploitation of the lower classes and workers, and social injustice and inequalities resulting from the social, economic and political structures. Of course, all the news reported is not news of the highest interest to everybody. Politics interest some, sports others, crime still others. However, it is rare that newspapers touch in the information needs and interests of the poorer sections of the society.

2.8.1. Investigative or Interpretative Reporting

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Investigative journalism is a kind of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or some other scandal.

Investigative and interpretative reporting is not necessarily getting ‘scoops’ and sensationalizing them but rather ‘situation reporting’ in place of event or personality reporting. It is indeed a calm, restrained and detached manner of arriving at conclusions. In short interpretive reporting is when a reporter, who is an expert in a particular area, say finance and economics, gives meaning and relevancy for the reader to information he has researched and gathered on a particular topic. This will usually include some relevant history, interviews with experts, interviews with those of opposing views, and an informed opinion about implications and trends.

An investigative report begins with a hunch that there is something more than meets the eye. Many newspapers have carried investigative news reports like the Indian Express carried four investigative reports in 1979 about the inside of Tihar jail. Also news magazines like India Today, Outlook, Sunday and The Week have exposed the Bhagalpur blinding, and other police atrocities in many parts of the country.

An investigative journalist may spend a considerable period researching and preparing a report, sometimes months or years, whereas a typical daily or weekly news reporter writes items concerning immediately available news. Most investigative journalism is done by newspapers, wire services and freelance journalists. An investigative journalist's final report may take the form of an exposé.

The investigation will often require an extensive number of interviews and travel; other instances might call for the reporter to make use of activities such as surveillance techniques, tedious analysis of documents, investigations of the performance of any kind of equipment involved in an accident, patent medicine, scientific analysis, social and legal issues, and the like. In short, investigative journalism requires a lot of scrutiny of details, fact-finding, and physical effort. An investigative journalist must have an analytical and incisive mind with strong self- motivation to carry on when all doors are closed, when facts are being covered up or falsified and so on.

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Some of the means reporters can use for their fact-finding:

 studying neglected sources, such as archives, phone records, address books, tax records and license records  anonymous sources  going undercover

Newspapers and news magazines are turning more and more to investigative and interpretative reporting, as television, radio and the internet have a clear edge over them in giving up-to-the minute development in news around the world. The morning papers of course provide news in much greater detail, but it is all the same yesterday’s news, which is in fact stale news. However, TV and radio cannot match the press in in-depth reporting and critical analyses.

Investigative stories have to be done with the active support of the editor; else they may be ‘killed’ at the last minute. That is because such stories could tread on many toes, especially governmental and business. They often demand months of tedious work, and when finally published can have dramatic effects. An offshoot of investigative reporting is consumer reporting, which exposes business practices that exploit consumers. Our newspapers have yet to take on big business in a big way. Occasional reports have focused on drug and soft-drink companies, but without much dramatic impact. The findings of consumer organizations and Consumer Redressal Courts are rarely given wide publicity and ‘complaints’ columns in the press so not follow-up the complaints made.

The daily newspaper is the result of a glorious team effort. The members of the team are often a restless lot getting on each other’s nerves. But they share the ‘values’ of the same profession and belong to a team. Reporters, sub-editors, news editors, assistant editors and editors belong to the editorial department of the newspaper. Compositions, makeup men and printers form the printing or mechanical department. Thus, the editorial team is the creative organ of the newspaper.

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2.9. A Nose for News

Newsgathering

 Begin collecting articles on your subject.  Talk to friends and associates about the subject.  Contact any agencies or associations with interest or professional knowledge in the area.  Create a list of people you want to interview; cover both sides of the story by interviewing people on both sides of the issue.  Collect government statistics and reports on the subject get old press releases or reports to use as background.

Interviewing do's and don'ts

 Be polite.  Explain the ground rules of the interview to people unfamiliar with how the media works - this means that you tell them the information they give you can and will be published. If they do not want any part of what they say published, they need to tell you it is "off the record."  Tape the interview so if anyone comes back at you, you have the proof of what was said.  Build a relationship with the person being interviewed.  Start with easy questions; end with difficult questions.  Read the body language of the person you're interviewing and if they get defensive, back away from the question you are asking and return later.  Don't attack the source.  Keep control of the interview; don't let the subject ramble or stray from the subject.  On the other hand, don't let your "opinion" of what the story should be color the interview. Always remember that the person you are talking with knows more about the subject than you do.

2.10. Organizing the information

 Gather your notes, interviews and research into a file.  Review your notes.  Look for a common theme.  Search your notes for good quotes or interesting facts.  Develop a focus.

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 Write the focus of the article down in two or three sentences.

2.10.1 Writing and Editing

 Remember you are the narrator, the storyteller.  Don't be afraid to rewrite.  Be as clear and concise in the writing as possible.  Avoid run-on sentences.  Be direct.  Tell a good story.  Tell the reader what you think they want to know.  Always ask yourself what the story is about.  Read the story out loud; listen carefully.

2.10.2. The main elements of News are:

Elements of news are what determine a story’s “newsworthiness”. There are 10 elements of news; however, a story only needs to have a few of these elements.

Oddity-Strange incidents are news. News stories with an element of surprise will create curiosity and will be in news. This is where the ‘man bites dog’ stories come in along with other surprising, shocking or unusual events.

Emotion-How do people feel about it? These news stories will be both bad news and good news. Death, tragedy, is example of bad news. Positive news stories are far more prevalent than is suggested by the cynical claim that only good news is bad news.

Consequence -What is the effect on the reader? News stories about issues, groups and nations are perceived to be of relevance to the audience.

Proximity- Where is the story from? What happens in and around your city interests you more than what happened in a far-flung region. Therefore, newspapers allocate greater space for local news coverage because of the proximity factor.

Drama-Dramatic Events of any kind would be an ideal subject for an interesting news story.

Human Interest-People doing interesting things or incidents having an emotional element. These kind of stories covers all the feelings that human 27 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills beings have including sympathy, happiness, sadness, anger, ambition, love, hate, etc. News stories concerning entertainment, showbiz, drama, humorous treatment, witty headlines, entertaining photographs will be of interest to most of the people.

Prominence-Famous people make news! Virtually every action of famous people is considered to be newsworthy. Stories concerning the elite, powerful individuals, organizations or institutions are enough to create a news story. Celebrities are always a subject for news and their every action is under the observation of the media.

Progress-Technological advance and new discoveries will always be the subject for discussion and a readable news story.

Conflicts-Man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. machine, man vs. himself. Conflict has an element of drama that gets attention and hence serves as a criterion for news selection.

Timeliness-Its new so will be in news! Timeliness is the essence of news and is understandably a criterion for news selection. An event that has just happened makes a good news story, while events happened a few days ago are history.

2.10.3. Functions of News

News contains much that is new. ‘News is anything out of the ordinary.’ ‘News is anything published in a newspaper which interests a large number of people’. The main functions of news are:

1. News informs people about anything unusual that take place in the society. Mysteries, small or big, interest people and so mysteries are news. Events that affect people’s lives are news, the more people affected the bigger the news. 2. People learn something new everyday through news they get from newspaper or television. They read about things they have heard about and also would like to read about. 3. News affects people and is capable of stirring widespread awareness. News touches the deepest emotion of the people and appeals somehow to everyone. Thus news affects the government as well as the common people.

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4. Important messages and decisions of the government are conveyed to the people through the medium of news. News broadcast carry important statements by persons in authority to the people. 5. Conflicts between man to man and also between man and environment are carried out as news. These affect us in one-way or other. Natural phenomena like violence, calamities and disasters make us aware of the present situations and keep a check on growing violence in our society. 6. New trends, events and ideas are the focus of soft news and thus grasp the imagination of people in the society. This further brings about change and progress for the country. 7. News focus on the economic, political and cultural aspects of a nation and people throughout the world learn about other nation through news only. News forms an image of a nation to the outside world. 8. Journalist may predict that something will happen thus forming a mental image of an event and thus increase the curiosity of the audience making the news more and more relevant. 9. Reference to persons in news makes them more popular and famous. Elite personalities crave to remain in news to keep up with their image though negative publicity too these days is seen as a medium of becoming famous. 10.Stories and pictures with the capacity to entertain or amuse an audience is always the main function of news. Entertainment through news is done by carrying stories relating to showbiz, drama, sex, and humorous treatment by use of photographs or witty headlines.

Extracting Stories from outside copies

2.10.4. News Sources

‘One study after another comes up with essentially the same observation….the story of journalism, on a day-to-day basis, is the story of the interaction of reporters and officials.’- Michael Schudson

‘Sources of news are everywhere’. A journalist is surrounded by sources of potential news stories ore features. A conversation with a friend, a poster on a wall, an unexpected juxtaposition-all might result in a story if you keep your eyes, ears and mind open. Some sources will be routine points of contact for journalists while others may be one-offs, some will be proactive, approaching journalists because they want news access for their views or events, while other sources may not even be aware that they are sources. A journalist should maintain a contact book having

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Reporting Techniques & Skills list of people categorized and carrying vital information. Sources of news can be listless, some sources are:

1. Academic journals- Research by academics, published in journals is a frequent source of news stories. Here the journalist job is to spot a potential story among qualifications and to render the story intelligibly to the readers. 2. Armed forces- in peacetime the armed forces can generate stories through mysterious deaths or cases of bullying that comes to light. During times of conflict military briefings become events in their own right. 3. Art groups- apart from providing information about forthcoming events, art groups can generate rows about funding or controversial subject matter. 4. Campaigns- campaigners who want to influence public opinion on subjects ranging from animal rights to environment are likely to come up with opinions or events that might generate news stories. 5. Commerce & Trade- business organizations can be useful source of news stories or comments about anything from interest rates, shares to shopping. Also, consumer stories are a valuable source of information for evaluating the image of an organization. 6. Council press offices- local authorities employ teams of press officers. They react to journalists’ queries, coming up with information, quotes and contacts while acting as buffer between decision makers and journalists. Council press officers with an eye for a good story should be able to get daily page leads in local evening newspaper because they know what turns on the common people. 7. Court hearings- court reporters dip in and out of several courtrooms looking for cases that fit the news values. Hence, the importance of good contacts with court staff, police, solicitors and others should be realized. Some reporters will also go after background material like quotes from victims and their relatives. 8. Entertainment industry- it is an increasingly important source for today’s media and celebrities gain immensely because of popularity through media coverage. Films, serials and various other programmes gain only if media has been highlighting them. 9. Government News Network- the government news network produces vast numbers of news release on behalf of the government departments and agencies on a regional and national basis. It also handles ministerial and royal visits. 10.Health authorities & hospitals- outbreak of serious disease, funding crisis, hospital closures and health promotion are all examples of news stories that arise from health authorities. Hospitals are source of good news stories 30 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

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carrying news about cures, new treatments and general triumph-over- tragedy. 11.Libraries- though it is hard to believe but the truth is that not everything is available on the Internet. Libraries retain a useful role in providing access to reference books, company reports, local history achieves, indexes of local societies, community notice boards and so on. 12.News Agencies- they are the foot soldiers of journalism at a national and international level, allowing media organizations to cover stories in areas where they have few or no staff. Agencies keep a check on offices and local bodies and look out for news stories here. Newspapers, radio, television, big news media houses, depend largely on the news agencies for general news coverage. Some famous news agencies are AP Associated press of America print, Reuters UK, PTI Press Trust of Ind ia, etc. 13.News Releases- news or press releases are point of reference for the journalists while covering an event. Badly written press releases can be waste of time both for the journalist as well as for the organization. 14.Notice boards- Notices in shops, offices, libraries, colleges and elsewhere may also become a source of news. 15.Other media- newspaper monitors other papers plus TV, radio, news sites on the web. And, in turn, each medium monitors other media. 16.People- potential stories can be suggested by people you meet while at work, rest and play. This can range from somebody mentioning that they have just seen a police car parked in their street to other substantial information provided by the common people. 17.Political parties- contacts within parties can be a fruitful source of stories about rows and splits, while party spokespeople will be keener to let you know about the selection of candidates or launch of policy initiatives. 18.PR companies- this industry provides the journalists and us a peek into the media world everyday. So it is a major source for the journalists. 19.Press conferences- press conferences are likely to be held to announce the results of official inquiries or to unveil new appointments. Fewer press conferences take place these days, as most journalists are too busy to go and collect information that could be faxed or emailed. 20.Universities- universities are a source of a huge range of stories, whether it is ground breaking research, an unusual degree scheme or an ethical argument. They are also where you will find experts in everything from aeronautics to the zodiac.

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Part - II

UNIT 3. SKILLS FOR WRITING NEWS

What is News?

‘News is anything that makes a reader say “Gee whiz”! Arthur Mac Ewen. As the word implies, news contain much that is new, informing people about something that has just happened. But this is not happening always as some stories run for decades and others are recycled with a gloss of newness supplied to it.

News is, anything out of the ordinary, it is the current happenings. It is anything that makes the reader surprised and curious. News is anything that will make people talk. News is the issue for discussions and debates. Any event, which affects most of the people, interest most of the audiences and involves most of the people, is news. Thus, news can be called an account of the events written for the people who were unable to witness it.

‘News’ is the written, audio, or visual construction of an event or happening or an incident. The news is constantly in search of action, movements, new developments, surprises, and sudden reversals, ups and downs of fate and facts and follies of the mankind.

3.1. Writing a News Story

1. What can I write about? What is news?

On the surface, defining news is a simple task. News is an account of what is happening around us. It may involve current events, new initiatives or ongoing projects or issues. But a newspaper does not only print news of the day. It also prints background analysis, opinions, and human-interest stories.

Choosing what news is can be hard!

The reporter chooses stories from the flood of information and events happening in the world and in their community. Stories are normally selected because of their importance, emotion, impact, timeliness and interest. Note: all these factors do not have to coincide in each and every story!

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Kinds of News Stories

Hard news +/ - 600 words: This is how journalists refer to news of the day. It is a chronicle of current events/incidents and is the most common news style on the front page of your typical newspaper.

It starts with a summary lead. What happened? Where? When? To/by whom? Why? The journalist's 5 W's. It must be kept brief and simple, because the purpose of the rest of the story will be to elaborate on this lead.

Keep the writing clean and uncluttered. Most important, give the readers the information they need. If the federal government announced a new major youth initiative yesterday, that's today's hard news.

Hard news stories make up the bulk of news reporting. Hard news consists of basic facts. It is news of important public events, international happenings, social conditions, economy, crime, etc. thus, most of the material found in daily papers, especially from page items or news casts, deal in the hard news category. The main aim of the hard news is to inform.

Soft news +/ -600 words: This is a term for all the news that isn't time-sensitive. Soft news includes profiles of people, programs or organizations. As we discussed earlier, the "lead" is more literary. Most of news content is soft news.

Soft news, if cleverly written and carefully targeted can offer an alternative. Soft news can cover business or social trends. Typically, soft stories have a human interest, entertainment focus or a statistical and survey approach. This is your chance to be creative and have fun with the news.

One major advantage of softer news is that many of the stories have a longer shelf life: they can be used at any time the practitioner or reporter deems appropriate.

Feature +/ -1500 words: A news feature takes one step back from the headlines. It explores an issue. News features are less time-sensitive than hard news but no less newsworthy. They can be an effective way to write about complex issues too large for the terse style of a hard news item. Street kids are a perfect example. The stories of their individual lives are full of complexities, which can be reflected, in a longer piece.

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Features are journalism's shopping center. They're full of interesting people, ideas, color, lights, action and energy. Storytelling at its height! A good feature is about the people in your community and their struggles, victories and defeats. A feature takes a certain angle i.e. Black youth returning to church and explores it by interviewing the people involved and drawing conclusions from that information. The writer takes an important issue of the day and explains it to the reader through comments from people involved in the story.

Hint: Remember to "balance" your story. Present the opinions of people on both sides of an issue and let the readers make their own decision on who to believe. No personal opinions are allowed. The quotes from the people you interview make up the story. You are the narrator.

Editorial: The editorial expresses an opinion. The editorial page of the newspaper lets the writer comment on issues in the news. All editorials are personal but the topics must still be relevant to the reader. Editorials try to persuade the readers. Its goal is to move the readers to some specific action, to get them to agree with the writer, to support or denounce a cause, etc. it is considered to be the most difficult writing among all the newspaper types of writing. Editorials are also important as they interpret and analyze issues for the readers.

Two types of editorials can be recognized:

Youth beat +/ - 700 words: Youth beats are journalist’s editorial bread and butter. It's your story, from your point of view. Tell it like it is. Youth beats usually but not always combine personal experience(s with opinion/analysis. Essentially, you establish your credibility by speaking from experience.

My Word! +/ -600 words: An opinion piece. Short, sweet and to the point. Not as likely to be a personal narrative. Christmas "spirit" bugs you? Say why. Had an encounter with a cop that left you sour? Same deal. Be strong. If you don't like something, don't beat around the bush. This is a space for you to rant and roll with as much emotive power as possible.

Writing The Story: Attribution, Identification, Time and Timeliness, The Stylebook: -

Writing the story: There is no substitute for the direct style of sentence and story construction. When you have the story in mind, tell it in a straightforward way. Avoid putting participial phrases or dependent clauses at the beginning of

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Reporting Techniques & Skills sentences. If the main element is qualified by some ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ present the main element first and then get into the qualifications.

The lead should call attention to the main element of the story and should not be crowded with too many facts. Don’t try to cram all five Ws and the H into the lead. You’ll lose the listener or reader’s attention. Avoid leading with direct quotes or questions. A direct quote may make the listener wonder for a moment or two. Make your points one at a time. Wrap up one aspect of a story before going to the next. Don’t jump back and forth from one to another.

Names and Identifications: don’t lead with unfamiliar names. They’re too easy to miss. Set the listener up for them by leading with identifying information about the person, it’s all right to lead with a familiar name like President’s name or Governor’s name. Middle initials of most newsmakers are omitted for broadcast. Indeed, if a person is very well known, first name is usually skipped. If you’re sure most members of the audience know the first name, omit it. Otherwise, include it. The middle initial should be included if it appears needed for exact identification, as with an accident victim or a suspect in a crime.

The newspaper form for ages- Mary Jones, 30- should usually be avoided. The standard broadcast approach for years has been 30-year old Mary Jones. If –in doubt, use this style. But now and then it’s good to hear someone break the monotony of the standard treatment of ages.

Attribution and Quotes: attribution should be made clear and should be placed before what the person said. This is part of direct oral expression: who said-what. As noted at the start, the dangling attributions so common in newspaper stories make for unnatural speech patterns. Do not use them. Use quote sparingly! The paraphrase or indirect quotes is usually preferable. You can often say it more concisely than the news source, and the exact words are seldom so important that you gain by presenting them as such. If a diary spokesman tells you that ‘the price of milk is going up’ and those are the words you use in the story, the fact that they happen to be exactly the ones the spokesman used is too trivial to justify making them stand out as a direct quote. Such quotes only clutter your news copy. If the exact words are so colorful, meaningful or controversial that you feel you should make them stand out as a direct quote-do just that.

Time & timeliness: listeners or readers expect the news to be up to date. Without misleading, your writing can make it sound fresh and current even if it’s getting a little older than you’d like at times- as in the early morning when most of the file is 35 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills what happened yesterday. Ask yourself what the current situation is and use the most appropriate tense, which may well be different from the past tense rigidly used by newspapers. Using present and continuing tense helps you avoid constantly repeating the words ‘yesterday’ and ‘today’ in the many items, which make up a newscast.

For the matter, ‘yesterday’ is implied for many stories in the early morning newscast- congress, speeches, news conferences, etc. and on a late afternoon or evening newscast, ‘today’ maybe assumed for most of them. When there’s danger of having the listener think a yesterday story happened today, include the time element. Never use a story that has been out more than 24 hours. It’s no longer news. You waist the time of listeners or viewers when your 10 p.m. newscast includes stories they read several hours earlier in the morning newspaper. This happens quite often where some of the newspersons apparently don’t bother to read the morning paper. The wire-service rewrites the story from the morning paper and sends it over in present perfect tense. Since all these writers or editors know is what they read on the radio wire, they assume that it is fresh news. Never assume that a wire story written in present perfect tense is a today story.

Stylebook: Each newspaper has its set of rules that generally are strictly enforced. These are contained in something called a stylebook. At some smaller newspapers, this may be no more than a sheet of paper. At larger newspapers, the stylebook may consist of up to two hundred pages and resemble a dictionary. The chief keepers of the stylebook rules are the newspaper’s copy editors.

3.2. STRUCTURE FOR NEWS STORY

Story structure

You have several options when it comes to the structure of your story. You can choose a chronological order, where you present the key events in your story as they occurred. It is more likely, though, that you will use one of the three traditional news forms: the inverted pyramid, the narrative or the hourglass.

The most popular structure for news stories is the inverted pyramid. In the inverted pyramid, the information is arranged in descending order of importance. The most important material is placed at the beginning of the story, and less important material follows. Succeeding paragraphs explain and support the lead.

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The inverted pyramid is popular because it still serves readers well. It tells them quickly what they want to know. It also serves the reporter by forcing her to sharpen her news judgment, to identify and rank the most important elements of the story.

But the inverted pyramid has big disadvantages. Although it delivers the most important news first, it does not encourage good writing. Many times stories do not have an ending crafted by the writer; they simply end. There is no suspense. Reporters tend to lose interest, time and energy. Writing in the second half of the story is casual at best, and poor at worst.

One alternative to the inverted pyramid is narration or storytelling. Narration uses scenes, anecdotes and dialogue to build to a climax. People are prominent in the story, and they are responsible for the action. The story has a beginning, middle and end. Quotations sound like real speech. The words and actions of the characters reveal motives.

A third story structure, the hourglass, combines some of the best elements of both the inverted pyramid and the narrative. It consists of three parts: a top, which tells the news quickly; the turn, a nimble transition; and the narrative, a chronological retelling of events. The hourglass works well with police stories, courtroom dramas and other incidents that lend themselves to chronological narration. The hourglass has several advantages: Readers get the news high in the story; the writer gets to use storytelling techniques; and it encourages a real ending.

The structure of a news story hard & soft news & features is simple: a lead and the body.

The Lead One of the most important elements of news writing is the opening paragraph or two of the story. Journalists refer to this as the "lead," and its function is to summarize the story and/or to draw the reader in depending on whether it is a "hard" or "soft" news story - See below for the difference between these two genres of news stories.

In a hard news story, the lead should be a full summary of what is to follow. It should incorporate as many of the 5 "W's" of journalism who, what, where, when and why as possible. e.g. "Homeless youth marched down Subhash Street in downtown Delhi Wednesday afternoon demanding the municipal government

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Reporting Techniques & Skills provides emergency shelter during the winter months." - Can you identify the 5 W's in this lead?)

In a Soft news story, the lead should present the subject of the story by allusion. This type of opening is somewhat literary. Like a novelist, the role of the writer is to grab the attention of the reader. e.g. "Until four y ears ago, Raju slept on railway tracks." Once the reader is drawn in, the 5 "W's" should be incorporated into the body of the story, but not necessarily at the very top.

The Body The body of the story involves combining the opinions of the people you interview, some factual data, and a narrative, which helps the story flow. A word of caution! In this style of writing, you are not allowed to "editorialize" state your own opinion in any way.

Remember:

The role of a reporter is to find out what people are thinking of an issue and to report the opinions of different stakeholders of an issue. These comments make up the bulk of the story. The narrative helps to weave the comments into a coherent whole. Hint: Stick to one particular theme throughout the story. You can put in different details but they all have to relate to the original idea of the piece. e.g. If your story is about black youth and their relationship with the police you do not want to go into details about the life of any one particular youth.

As a reporter, you are the eyes and ears for the readers. You should try to provide some visual details to bring the story to life this is difficult if you have conducted only phone interviews, which is why face-to-face is best. You should also try to get a feel for the story. Having a feel means getting some understanding of the emotional background of the piece and the people involved in it. Try to get a sense of the characters involved and why they feel the way they do.

Further Tips for News Writing

Finding story ideas:-

 Keep your eyes and ears open; listen to what your friends are talking about.  Read everything you can get your hands on; get story ideas from other newspapers and magazines.  Think of a youth angle to a current news story.

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 Research a subject that interests you ask yourself what you would like to know more about.  Talk to people in a specific field to find out what is important to them.

Structure and scope of News Reports

‘Always grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph, sink your thumbs into his windpipe in the second and hold him against the wall until the tag line.’- Paul O’Neill.

News report writing always starts with the most important fact. When you report on a football game, you do not start with the kick-off; you begin with the final score. A news report has a beginning, middle and an end. News stories in contrast to this will blurt out something and then explain themselves. News reports are mostly active rather than in passive voice and are written in concise language. Paragraphs are short so as to set in newspaper columns. Shorter paragraphs are more likely to keep the attention of readers. Attribution meaning ‘somebody saying something’ is used in the news- reports to present a range of views over which the reporters can appear to remain neutral.

Most news reports follow the ‘Kiss and tell’ formula- Kiss standing either for ‘keep it short and simple’ or ‘keep it simple, stupid.’ Complexity, abstract notions, ambiguity and unanswered questions tend to be frowned upon and deleted out of news copy. News reports structure should have-

 Stories should have the main idea given to the journalist for covering of an incident.  Content of the news report should be comprehensive and balanced.  The intro should contain the main point of the story and should be clearly developed with the most important information coming early in the story, followed by a coherent, logical and readable structure.  Personal comments should be avoided.  Facts should be presented logically.  The style, context and facts should be accurate.

The news reports aim is to meet the requirements of everyday life as lived by everyday readers. So it largely depends on elements like directness, pace, variety and information. It aims to state the facts quickly and clearly. A news report has three parts:

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1. The headline 2. The first paragraph 3. The remainder of the news story

The Headline first attracts us. It stands out in bold black type. It message is abrupt and often startling. It makes us stop and look. It tells us quickly what the story covers. Its function is to attract our attention. Though, the headline writing belongs to the copyreader’s province and not to the reporter’s.

The lead remains the primary concern of the news writer. As the present day reader is the man who both runs and reads, present day newspapers seek to facilitate his getting the information quickly. The convention has developed of telling the main facts of a news story in its first lead paragraph. Writing this lead also involves answering the questions, which would occur to any normal person when confronted with the announcement of a news story. These questions, called the five W’s are:

Where? Who? What? When? Why?

Suppose the news story concerns a fire. In writing the lead-the reporter would answer the questions, ‘What?’ “Fire broke out,” he would write. He would answer the question, ‘Who?’ and ‘Where?’ by telling whose premises were burnt and giving their location. He would answer “When” by telling the time the fire broke out and how long it lasted. ‘Why?’-in this case the cause the usual carelessly tossed cigarette butt. The reporter can also answer the ‘How’ in this story in several ways by describing the type of fire, or by answering ‘How much’? Here, he would estimate the probable lost and find out if premises had been covered by insurance and if so by what amount.

The lead forms the springboard for the reporter’s leap into the story. The journalist should keep in mind the elements of a good lead as he may flop sadly if the lead turns out to be defective. The best way to gain journalistic facility is to practice the writing of leads.

The end is the conclusion of the news reports. From the headline and the lead one comes to the rest of the story. The reporter constructs the model news story after 40 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills this pattern. He selects the most important incident or fact for his lead. Then he proceeds by selecting the next most important incident, fact or detail, the next most important after that, and so on till he reaches least important phase of all. Guided by his idea of news importance, the story assumes graphically the shape of an 3.2.1. inverted pyramid. The end will be at the peak of the inverted pyramid with the facts or incidents of least value. When writing a news story for an organization you should always retain the idea that your text is to be read and understood by others. Thus a story is like building blocks, which should be linked logically to each other. Therefore, there should be continuity between the intro, the lead and the end of the news story.

Thus, the most popular format of news writing is the Inverted Pyramid:

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This is the most widely used approach in news writing. The information is given in the descending order of importance. Thus, it has three parts:

 Lead –introduction paragraph  Support and supplement to the lead  Details on descending order of importance

3.3. Leads

The opening paragraph of the introduction paragraph of the news story is called the ‘lead’. Though in journalistic practice we also use this word for biggest headline on the front page of newspaper, calling it the ‘lead story’.

The main purpose of the intro or the lead is to make the reader want to read on, motivate them to move further into the news story and state the important facts first.

Lead to a story "grabs the reader, informs the reader, and teaches the reader how to read the rest of the story." John Mc Phee says the lead is the "flashlight that shines into a story.” A newspaper reader is likely to spend only a few seconds deciding whether to read a story. If the lead does not grab the reader, the writer's work is in vain.

The lead establishes the direction your writing will take. A good lead grabs your reader's attention and refuses to let go. In other words, it hooks the reader. Not every type of lead will work for every writer or for every piece of writing and one has to experiment with them. For writing a good news story, be sure to have at least three sentences in your lead, whatever type it may be.

Below are some ideas on how to write an interesting lead:

Question Open with an interesting question that relates to the main idea.

Example: Have you ever wondered how you would survive if you found yourself alone in the wilderness? How would you defend yourself against predators? What would you eat? Where would you find water?

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Riddle Open with a riddle that the reader can solve by reading further. You may want to give the answer right away or save it for the conclusion.

Example: What textbook has no pages, is miles wide, and smells like a creek? It's been around for millions of years. That's right-Outdoor School

Announcement Open with an announcement about what is to come. However, do not insult the reader by saying something like, "I am going to tell you about..." The reader should be able to figure out what you are writing about. If not, there is something wrong with what you have written, not with the reader.

Example: The trait of voice is very important in writing. However, it is difficult to teach and even more difficult to learn. It is similar to athletic ability because it is more like a talent than a skill.

Bold and Challenging Statement A bold and challenging statement is similar to an announcement, but is meant to cause some people to disagree with what you say. It's like one side of an argument. It can be an opinion, but don't immediately state that it is your opinion.

Example: Using horses and cattle in the sport of rodeo is animal abuse. What makes it more aggravating is that it is legal. According to the law, there is nothing wrong with chasing an animal down, tightening a rope around its neck, knocking it to the ground, and tying its legs together so it cannot move.

Definition Open with a definition of the term you are discussing. It can be your own or come from a dictionary or textbook. If you take it from a dictionary or textbook, be sure to use quotation marks and give credit to the source.

Example: According to Webster's Dictionary, a government is the authority that serves the people and acts on their behalf. How can the government know what the people want if the people do not vote? If we do not vote, the government may act on its own behalf instead of on the behalf of the people.

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Opinion Open with your opinion about the topic. This is similar to a bold and challenging statement, but you let the reader know that it is your opinion right away.

Example: In my opinion, the driving age should be lowered to fourteen. Most teenagers are more responsible than adults give us credit for being. Just because we are teenagers does not mean we are irresponsible and dangerous.

Well Known Quotation or Quotation from a Famous Person Open with a quotation that is well known or from a famous person. Be sure to put quotations around the quotation and give credit to the person who said it. Of course, the quotation must be directly related to your topic. A good source is a book of quotations. Look in the library or ask your teacher.

Example: President John F. Kennedy once said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, and ask what you can do for your country." I think today's Americans have forgotten Kennedy's message. We expect our country to take care of us, but we are not taking care of our country.

Quotation Not from a Famous Person Open with a quotation from a person that is not famous. It could be a character from the story or someone you know personally. You still must put it in quotation marks and give credit to the person who said it.

Example: When I was a child, I was given the "mother's curse" by my mom. Oh, it is not anything mean or evil. She just said, "When you have children, they will act just like you." I laughed. Well, now that I have children of my own, I am not laughing anymore. The "mother's curse" really works!

Personal Experience Open with something that has happened to you, or a personal experience. It could be a part of the story, or it could be something that is not a part of what you are writing about but still relates to the topic.

Example: Although I did later in my room, I never cried at my grandfather's funeral. I guess that is why I felt so sad for the little girl standing next to her grandma's coffin. She looked so lost and afraid.

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Figurative Language Begin with a simile comparison using like or as, metaphor comparison saying one thing is another thing, personification giving something nonhuman human qualities, or hyperbole exaggeration. The figurative language must relate directly to your topic.

Example: The pencil sharpener was always hungry. It ate my pencil every time I went to sharpen it. It never seemed to do this to anyone's pencil but mine. What was so special about my pencils?

Enumerated General Statement Begin with a general statement containing three or so ideas about your topic. The information given in the lead is general, not specific. The specific details that support the general statement will appear later in the paper.

Example: There are many characteristics that a good teacher possesses. However, the three most important characteristics include being a good listener, being knowledgeable about the subject, and having a kind heart. All of the teachers who positively influenced me had all three of those characteristics in common.

3.4. Types of Leads

Hard/Direct/Summary Leads: This kind of lead is mostly used in news stories because of the fact that news stories need to be concise, to the point and put the most information into the least amount of words. That's why with summary leads you summarize the entire article in the lead, or in other words, put the most important piece of information into the first sentence and go from there. Here's an example of a summary lead:

President Bush was aiming to rally U.S. forces encountering tougher resistance in Iraq and warn Americans anew of a potentially long conflict when he was to visit the headquarters of Central Command on Wednesday. The president was getting a pair of briefings from Central Command brass and having lunch with troops. At the Tampa, Fla., facility, he also was to give a speech in which he was reminding military personnel that the United States leads a large coalition in the war to unseat Saddam Hussein, White House spokesman Fleischer said.

Blind Leads: This is a lead where you start off the article by summarizing but leaving out one essential detail; this is done to catch the interest of the reader. As journalists you want people to read and be interested in your work, and in feature 45 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills writing especially confusing the reader in the beginning is sometimes a very good way to catch their interest. Right after a blind lead you have to clarify the missing piece of info though. Here's an example:

It was like the scene from the movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," only for a wireless generation.

Elena Brooks was incredulous when a pizza deliveryman arrived at Bethel High School one day last spring with an order for a student who was in class.

Finding the culprit was simple enough. "Go into the room, tell everyone to turn their cell phones on and find out which phone has the number stored for the pizza place," said Ms. Brooks, the principal of Bethel High, in Hampton. When identified, the student said he had ordered the pizza because he had missed lunch. "He didn't see anything wrong with it at all, which was amazing," she said.

Narrative Leads: These leads are another feature type that actually takes you into the mind of the main person in an article. Narrative leads tell a story from a person's specific perspective; it's the most classic and in some instances most effective way to start out a feature. Pick a person and start your article out with their story and tie it into the main point. Here's an example:

Joe Darnaby had his heart set on going to college out East next year. But since Sept. 11, his parents have laid down a new rule: no school more than five hours' drive from home in Deerfield, Ill.

"Part of me says that he has to follow his dreams," says his mother, Maureen, who wants her son to be able to get home in an emergency. "But there must be another place closer to home where he can do that."

Quote Leads: This is a lead where you start off the article with a quote that expresses the idea you want to get across well. In some newsrooms quote leads are banned because finding the perfect quote for an article is a very challenging task that most newspapers don't have the time for. Articles are written fast and frequently, and finding a good lead is essential and needs to sometimes be done very quickly. But if you have the time quote leads are very effective if done right.

Question Leads: These are leads use the first sentence of an article to answer one of the "w" questions in journalism, who, what, when, where and why. Another

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Reporting Techniques & Skills question is how, and question leads can use this too. Basically you use the lead to answer one question to make the reader wonder the answers to the rest.

Direct Appeal Lead: This type of lead addresses the reader directly or by implication as ‘you’. It has the effect of making the reader, a collaborator, and partner, in what follows.

Circumstantial Lead: Here the beginning stresses on the circumstance of the news.

3.5. HEADLINE

A headline grabs the reader's attention, targets him or her by saying something meaningful, and creates some curiosity in the reader. It can make a promise for some big benefit, it can make an offer, it can challenge the reader in some way, it can introduce some really compelling concept or idea, or it can be something newsworthy.

A headline is a ‘window’ to the news story. Thus, a heading must fit, must tell the story, must confirm to newspaper’s standard, must not just be a label, must be safe and must not commit the paper to an opinion. A good headline is one that in less than a dozen words summarizes what a reporter has said.

The earliest newspapers had no headlines on the front page, which was devoted entirely to advertisements, and the headlines inside did no more than announce the subject of the report. Today, every newspaper has its own style of headlining a story. Some newspaper give straight hard headings, while some other prefer to give exciting and sensational headings. It normally depends on the policy of the newspaper.

It has been found that all daily newspapers in standard size generally prefer to give straight headlines and tabloid newspaper throughout the world give sensational headlines.

3.5.1. Type of Headline

Banner Headline: A newspaper headline written in large letters across the width of the page. When the heading is given below the nameplate of the newspaper and covers all columns from left to right, it is called banner headline. Some may call

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Reporting Techniques & Skills it streamer, which also covers the entire column but is normally given on the inside page. Sometimes the streamer may leave one column.

Skyline: for very exceptional and exclusive events, the headline of the story is some times given over the nameplate of the newspaper. It means that the event is even more important than the authority of the newspaper.

Rectangle: in such headings, all the lines are equal from left to right. Normally, it is of three lines but sometimes it can be of 2 to 4 lines too.

Hanging indentation: right justification the heading with more than two or more lines which are justified on the right side and unjustified on the left are called hanging indentation.

Waist: this is of three lines where the first and the third line cover the column but the centerline is smaller and placed centrally.

Full one/one line: the headline is normally single line heading covering all the columns of the story

Crosser/highlighter: crosser are normally one line headline which is given in the middle of the story. Sometimes in the story, a few important points are highlighted in the middle of the story. They are also included in this category.

Flash: a recent development in the newspaper is to highlight the stories of inside pages on the first page, just below the flag. Flag The Times of India).

Over line: this is also called the eyebrow or strap line. This is normally given over the main heading.

Oval: in such headlines, middle line is longer than the above and below lines. This is normally of three lines.

Multi deck headings: the descending lines get smaller in size, after the main heading

Sub-heading: these are the small subsidiary headings in the body of the story

Symbolic headline: this headline will show the special effects of the story

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Left step: here the lines of the headline are justified on the left and unjustified on the right.

Step line: the headline with two or more lines, displayed so as to give an effect of a stair. Ladder)

Inverted pyramid: in this heading, there are three or more than three lines which are centrally set from large to small. In some cases, there could be two lines only, set in such a fashion.

The headline is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make on a prospective reader. Without a headline, the rest of your words may as well not even exist. But a headline can do more than simply grab attention. A great headline can also communicate a full message to its intended audience, and it absolutely must lure the reader into your body text. At its essence, a compelling headline must promise some kind of benefit or reward for the reader, in trade for the valuable time it takes to read more.

The one thing that can make or break a newspaper article is the headline. A good newspaper headline is concise, informative and, at times, entertaining. When you write a newspaper headline, your goal is to hook the reader into reading the article. Writing a headline for your article is easy, if you follow these steps.

 Reread your article; identify the underlying theme.  Express the theme in an active voice using as few words as possible. Active verbs lend immediacy to a story. If a reader sees a headline written in a passive voice, he or she might glance right over it.  Keep your headline in present tense.  Keep it simple. A headline is a short, direct sentence without extra adjectives or adverbs.  Provide enough information in the headline to give the casual reader an impression of the entire story.

3.5.2.Four functions of a headline:

 It gets the reader's attention.  It summarizes or tells about the article.  It helps organize the news on the page.  It indicates the relative importance of a story.

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A good headline should be accurate, clear, grammatically correct, strong, active, fresh and immediate. It should catch the reader's attention.

The two most basic rules for headlines:

 They must be accurate.  They must fit the available space.

For headlines to be accurate the headline writer must understand the article thoroughly before writing the headline; the copy editor who doesn't have a good view of what the article says isn't likely to write a headline that communicates clearly and accurately.

Accuracy tips:

 Spell check after writing the display type.  In particular, double-check any proper names or any numbers.

 The headline should sell the article to the reader. Tell readers why they should be interested.

 Every news story headline should have an active Verb. Headlines on feature stories can be more creative. But aim for complete thoughts. Tell the story, but avoid the "clears hurdle" or "man dies" phenomena. Get the most important element first, the least important head element last.

 Attribute heads that convey opinion. If the lead needs attribution, chances are the headline will, too. Most times, attribution will go at the end of the headline.

 Headlines should be accurate in Tone: Don't put a light headline on a serious story. Be careful not to put a first-day head on a second-day story. Match the tone of the story. Be original and creative, but not trite and cliché. If you do employ word play on an idiom or common phrase, be sure the meter is exactly the same. The headline will ring falsely otherwise. If you use a pun, be honest with yourself. Will it make the reader smile, or groan?

 Don't repeat the lead in a headline. Write a better headline than the lead. And don't give away the punch line of a feature story that has a surprise ending.

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 Be aware of any unintended double meanings. Real-life examples of some headlines that were published: Old man winter sticks icy finger into Virginia. Teens indicted for drowning in lake; FBI ordered to assist Atlanta in child slayings.

 Avoid Bad Breaks at the end of lines, such as dangling prepositions or conjunctions.

 Avoid weaklings: Words such as mull, eye, rap, hit, slam, vie, assail, and seen and bid are headline weaklings. Alter your approach to get away from them. Look for a fresh approach.

 Don't go for the obvious. On fire-related stories, for example, stay away from verbs such as spark and snuff; on storm stories, stay away from verbs such as spawn, dump, blow, churn. In articles, hurricanes always seem to churn, and tornadoes are always spawned.

3.6. Types of News writing

Every news story has to have a focus, which could be a person or an event. The story emerges sharper when the focus is clear and blurred when the focus is unclear. A news story is built on a central idea theme), sometimes on two or three central ideas. So it is called as single element story or two-element story or three- element story depending on the number of themes it has.

Journalists use many different kinds of frameworks for organizing stories. Journalists may tell some stories chronologically. Other stories may read like a good suspense novel that culminates with the revelation of some dramatic piece of information at the end. Still other stories will start in the present, then flashback to the past to fill in details important to a fuller understanding of the story. All are good approaches under particular circumstances.

Inverted pyramid: By far the simplest and most common story structure is one called the "inverted pyramid." To understand what the "inverted pyramid" name means, picture an upside-down triangle one with the narrow tip pointing downward and the broad base pointing upward. The broad base represents the most newsworthy information in the news story, and the narrow tip represents the least newsworthy information in the news story. When you write a story in inverted pyramid format, you put the most newsworthy information at the beginning of the story and the least newsworthy information at the end.

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Before computers, newspaper copy was cut with scissors to fit a space on the news page. Editors cut the copy from the bottom up, chopping off the least important information that reporters put on the ends of their stories. These days, with so much competition from TV, radio, and the Internet, reporters tend to cover their pyramids with cake frosting. They want to hook even the most distracted readers. So they write a lead, statement, before the main news story. A good lead gives readers the feeling that they have a front seat for the action and provides a reason to keep reading.

Story telling style: this approach to news writing is used mostly in magazines. It is a style that is very familiar to all of us. News stories are told in the order in which they happened, i.e., what happened first, what happened second, etc. This is known as telling a story in chronological order. This style is used to hold the reader’s interest and stimulate some imagination to see, feel, and understand the news. This is also called narrative approach.

Personalized approach: This style is rarely used in the newspaper stories. This is the first person approach and the reporter gives a personal account of the incident, which took place on the spot where he/she was present personally. The reporter on the television and radio will mostly use this approach to news reporting and not the newspaper news reports.

Chronological news writing: In this type of writing, the information is given in a chronological order instead of information given in descending order of importance as in inverted pyramid.

Clarity and Accuracy

Writing is a process that has to be mixed with your own individual style, thoughts and methods, and with the subject and a form of writing. To produce a good write-up, you have to learn to combine all these. Also remember that writing is hard work. Most people give up writing as soon as they can, because it is such hard work. It is physically, mentally and emotionally demanding. Good writing does not happen all of a sudden. The writing process is often slow, at times tedious and even frustrating. Thus, a good writing does not happen all at once, and it is the result of sweat and blood-in a literal sense.

Context & background, technical terms, obscure details, Jargons & unanswered questions are the things that one has to look up to in a news story or a write-up.

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Some suggestions that can improve your writing and tie-up your news stories together are:

Write simply: simplicity is the best way to achieve clarity. Gifted writers take to this method to convey their message. A student, a beginner in the profession of writing, will also find it easy to write in a simple manner.

Use simple words: many people think big or complicated words will impress the reader. In fact it has the opposite effect. ‘To write clearly, not only the most expressive but the plainest words should be chosen’, Benjamin Franklin once wrote. It is better to write ease instead of facilitate, many instead of numerous and use instead of utilize.

Economize on words: mostly writers use too many words in their drafts. A careful editor deletes these at the time of editing. There is no substitute for simple, straightforward prose. One should not try to use one word more than necessary. Be on the look out for phrases, words and sentences that do not add substantially to the content of what you are writing. You should also guard against those fancy phrases which draw attention to the writing and the writer-and take away the content. Do not boast while writing.

Use simple sentences: it is easier to write five simple sentences than one complex or compound sentence. So why not write simple sentences as long winding sentences only distract the reader.

Do not use Jargons: each group of people has a technical language of their own. This is called jargon. You may be using certain abbreviations or names in your schools, sports field or in an office. Scientists do so in their labs, and these are the jargons. Only the selected groups understand them. As a writer, you should not use these. You should rather explain the jargon if you have to use it. Your aim should be to make your message clear to the people who have no direct relationship to such groups. Your writings should not cut people off from receiving your ideas by a language that they cannot understand.

Avoid using overused words or phrases. These are called clichés. A write-up with clichés is not considered good writing. Clichés are so overused that they become tiresome and bereft of any meaning. Some columnists have a tendency to use such clichés and that is why you call their writing boring.

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Euphemism is the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt. It is an act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive. In writing, readers would repel from such words or phrases used in your writing.

Tie together- quite often one might have heard that writing must be well knit. For this it is required to not only knit the words alone but the thoughts as well. Readers should be able to read through a piece of writing without stops and surprises. While introducing a new idea or piece of information, do not do so without tying it to other parts of a story. Springing up with sudden thoughts jolts a reader, and like a sudden jerk on a smooth road, he is thrown off balance.

Connect any new information in a story to information already introduced. You have to develop a mental discipline and read your copy with discerning eyes. Expect your reader to condemn you for any folly you make in the copy. For a reader, your name is immaterial. For him, you are either a good or a bad writer.

Avoid Adjectives: adjectives and adverbs are often superfluous. You should build up your sentences around nouns and verbs. Usage of adjectives often weakens your message. It is suggested that you write two simple sentences than use an adjective, which more often is unnecessary if your description are clear and vivid. You should select good active verbs to enliven your copy. A good verb denotes action and a better verb denotes action and description. So choose your verb carefully. It will reverberate and rejuvenate your copy. Remember, adverbs and adjectives modify limit and verbs expand your thoughts and thus the writing.

Be specific: brevity is the soul of wit. Just as you try to avoid someone who talks too much, so do readers about writings, which-have too many superfluous or high sounding words or pilings of phrases or long-winding sentences that have run out of thoughts. Eliminate all that which you have said once. You have to have accuracy and clarity. But never try to sacrifice these for the sake of brevity. If facts need explanation do not economize on sentences. Instead of one long sentence, it is better to explain it in five sentences. To be specific, get to the point, sometimes, it is certainly a difficult task. Decide on the theme of the write-up and weave your story around it.

Cut out unnecessary words: quite often one is in habit of writing words like ‘really’, ‘actually’, ‘very’, ‘in fact’ and similar others. These words do not tell much to the readers. Rather they tell nothing, so cut these out. This will also help

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Reporting Techniques & Skills in keeping your story trim and fit it into the limited space of a magazine or a newspaper.

Avoid repetition and redundancies: both these traits show lack of discipline on the part of the writer. Sometimes facts need to be repeated but that is not the case very often.

Datelines, Credit Lines, Bylines

A dateline is a brief piece of text included in news articles that describes where and when the story occurred, or was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from wire services, the distributing organization is also included though the originating one is not. Datelines are traditionally placed on the first line of the text of the article, before the first sentence. The location appears first, usually starting with the city in which the reporter has written or dispatched the report. City names are usually printed in uppercase, though this can vary from one publication to another. The division and/or nation the city is in may follow, but they may be dropped if the city name is widely recognizable due to its size or political importance a national capital, for instance).

Datelines can take on some unusual forms. When reporters collaborate on a story, two different locations might be listed. In other cases, the exact location may be unknown or intentionally imprecise, such as when covering military operations while on a ship at sea or following an invasion force.

Credit line- also called as photo credit. A photographer's byline. The name of the person or organization responsible for making or distributing a photograph, usually appearing small type under the reproduced picture.

The byline on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name, and often the position, of the writer of the article. Bylines are traditionally placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines notably Reader's Digest place bylines at the bottom of the page, to leave more room for graphical elements around the headline.

A typical newspaper byline might read Rima Seth Staff writer

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A byline can also include a brief article summary, introducing the writer by name. Magazine bylines, and bylines on opinion pieces, often include biographical information on their subjects. A typical biographical byline on a piece of creative nonfiction might read. Most modern newspapers and magazines attribute their articles to individual editors, or to wire services.

3.7. Organization of a typical Newspaper

Organization of Newspaper o news stories o feature stories o business section . news stories . feature stories . the stock market report . exchange rates for foreign currency o sports section . news stories . feature stories o columns o editorials o Letters to the editor o reviews o schedules o cultural events o other . comics . classified advertisements . weather reports 2. Headlines o one- or two-sentence summaries of the article o Deletion of short words articles, "be" verbs, etc. o verb tenses different from ordinary use) o abbreviations o short words instead of common longer words 3. Organization of News Stories o bylines, credit lines, and datelines o arrangement of news articles inverted pyramid o leads 4. Grammar of Newspaper Articles 56 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

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o shorter sentences o omitting relative clauses o using more noun phrases o avoiding using "of" forms and prepositional phrases 5. Specifying the Source of Information 6. Objective; Avoiding Writer's Opinions

Part 4

UNIt 4..TYPES OF REPORTING

4.1. Crime Reporting

There are tremendous public interests in crime stories and no newspaper can afford to ignore them without damage to circulation and credibility. Crime is a part of life and it is newspaper’s duty to inform the readers of what crimes are going on in their city, state or country. However, crime reporting should not aim at satisfying morbid curiosity or sensation mongering.

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Although crime reporting is usually assigned to one of the junior reporters in a newspaper, it is a highly responsible and specialized job. The reporter should not only have the ability to sift the grain from the chaff, and the truth from lies, he should also have good contacts in the police and other departments of the administration as well as working knowledge of the penal codes and law on libel and other relevant matters.

Besides, he must observe a code of honor. He should be as objective and as humanly as possible so as to avoid resorting to sensationalism or cheap gimmicks to catch the attention of the readers or the viewers. He should not suppress news of public interest. Nor should he seek to settle personal scores with police officers or lawyers or judges. And he must be careful that in the course of his work, he does not unnecessarily invade a citizen’s privacy.

There has been much criticism of press reporting of crime and not all of it is baseless. Some reporters have been found guilty of unethical standards, thus causing much pain and sorrow to their victims or their families and friends.

Crime Reporters try to glorify the activities of criminals or sometimes make heroes of them. This practice should be discouraged as much as a resort to sensationalism. The crime reporter much never violates standards of decency and good news taste.

There are several types of crime news-murders, fires, accidents, robberies, burglaries, fraud, blackmail, kidnapping, rape, etc.

Fires The reporter must get his facts correct about the essential elements of a fire story the number of persons killed or injured, the extent of damage to property, the loss of valuables, etc. he must also find out if the fire brigade responded in time or was guilty of delaying the fire-operations through sheer lethargy or incompetence or lack of water supply. He should question eyewitnesses about any acts of bravery or cowardice. All these are essential ingredients of a fire story.

The lead in a fire story would normally suggest itself. If, for instance, lives have been lost, it needs highlighting in the lead. If possible, the reporter must list the names of the dead and the injured.

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Homicides In cases of a major murder, the reporter should rush to the scene as soon as possible after receiving a tip and gather all the relevant facts. In nine cases out of ten, crime reporters, say, in Delhi depend on police information about murders and there is a time lapse before they can begin their investigations. This often hampers their search for the truth. The reporter must, in any case, exercise great care in how he handles the story. Otherwise, he runs the risk of causing offence.

In reporting dowry deaths or alleged dowry deaths, the reporter must refrain from leveling uncorroborated statements by one party or the other. He must therefore get his facts correct by talking to the investigation police officer, the girl’s in laws and her parents, and, if possible, with the neighbors.

Accidents Most accidents are reported on the basis of police bulletins or information supplied ‘by police spokesmen’. However, wherever possible the crime reporter must rush to the scene of a major accident to give authenticity to his story.

Arrests It is a serious matter to report that a person has been placed under arrest. When such a report is made, the exact charge against the arrested person could be given and it should be documented by either a record or attribution to a responsible official. If such documentation cannot be obtained, the reporter has better to check the facts. The person in question may not have been under arrest at all. In many states an arrest is not formally accomplished until a prisoner is booked. The news, in any case, must be handled with care.

Accusations It is commonly written that someone is being sought for robbery, suspected of arson or tried for murder. This is journalistic shorthand, which has gained acceptance through usage, but it is neither precise nor correct.

Persons are sought in connection with a robbery, unless a charge has actually been made, in which case they are charged with robbery. Persons under suspicion are not necessarily going to be charged with a crime and it is generally not privileged matter to indicate that suspicion is attached to any individual by name. Where the police suspect someone, but lack proof, that person may be held as material witness- that is far different from being accused of as a criminal. Therefore, cases of suspicion are not usually given too extensive and detailed news treatment if no 59 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills privileged material is available for use. The practice of reporting that a defendant is being ‘tried for murder’, while widely used, is obviously prejudicial and could be more accurately, if less drama stated, as ‘being tried as a charge of murder’. Confessions The use of the word ‘confession’ to describe statements made by a person to the police or the prosecuting authorities is dangerous when it is not a matter of public record. The fact that a police chief or a prosecutor has claimed to have a confession, except in open court, may be used only at the risk of the news organization. Most press-bar voluntary agreements forbid the use of confessions until they are admitted in open court. The records are full of supposed confessions that backfired later for a variety of reasons and of persons who admitted crimes they could not possibly have committed. Unless and until it is established in fact that a person has confessed, approved procedure for reporters is to use such terms as ‘statement’, ‘admission’, ‘description’ or ‘explanation’. They convey the shade of meaning that is warranted by circumstances and do not subject the news organization to unnecessary risks.

There are a few fundamental precautions which a crime reporter must take account of:

 The first is that the police and prosecutors rarely will give them information on a silver platter. That means, a tremendous amount of interviewing and research must be done in a very short time so that a coherent story may be written  There is no guarantee of police accuracy; and therefore police versions of names, addresses and other facts must be checked  Police and journalistic terminology are not identical. The legal term for a slaying is a homicide, but many news organizations loosely and incorrectly refer to such crimes automatically as murder.

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4.2. Court Reporting

Even the big newspapers of India do not have the resources to cover all the courts of their main circulation area, the reason being that there are too many courts. Newspapers neither have the time nor the space to cover everything that happens in the courts. Paper covers only those stories in which their readers are interested. A country governed by laws needs many courts, each with a different jurisdiction. The emphasis of the news media is on criminal courts, High courts, and the Supreme Court. The media are less interested in covering Civil Courts. One of the reasons for this lack of interest may be that the Civil Courts are jammed with cases, the suits remain pending there for several years and it is assumed that in the mean time, members of the public would lose whatever interest they may have showed initially. If we go through the old files of a newspaper, we will find that the volume of court reporting has increased in recent years. One of the reasons for the increase may be the courts are now getting more active in the field of social justice. Public interest litigations are also increasing. As the number of petitions increase, one notices a corresponding increase in the coverage of courts and the judgments they deliver. Many of the stringers are professional advocates. Many part-timers also cover stories in their respective areas and come from teaching, law and other professions. A newspaper, which does not have a full time law reporter, may send its regular staff correspondent to cover an important court story.

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The first time that one covers the court beat as a court reporter; one usually feels amidst the technicalities and complex language. A trainee reporter aiming to be a future court reporter must at first acquire some understanding of the court jurisdictions, its procedures and its hierarchy. At the apex we have the Supreme Court of India. Then there are the High Courts, Session Courts, Magistrate Courts, etc.

If the reporter is acquainted with the jurisdiction of different courts, then one can easily locate the specific court for a particular matter. Similarly, if one is familiar with the hierarchy in the courts; one can easily guess where the appeal would be filed.

Much of a reporter’s success in the coverage of the courts depends on one’s contact and sources, and one’s ability to gain access quickly to records. For a reporter, the key person in a court is the clerk of the court. A court clerk prepares and keeps the records. He can make available copies of transcript for a fee. Court reporting involves diligent checking of records. The judge who presides a trial is seldom one’s source. But a reporter should, as soon as possible, introduce oneself in person to the judge. A court reporter should also have good contacts with the lawyers working on a case and if possible with the respective parties. Where a case attracts much public attention, reporters may be under pressure from rival lawyers for a more favorable description of their individual positions. The reporter must then ensure impartial reportage in all fairness to the proceedings in court.

Court reporters must understand the judicial process from beginning to end. They should know what happens when a suspect is arrested, charged, arraigned, tried, and sentenced or released. Experienced reporters say the best way to learn the process is to spend time at the courthouse. As stated before, begin with the court clerks, who keep track — the list of cases — and the calendar. Find out how to get copies of the court record, filings, and testimony. Read the case files — including motions and pleadings before the trial — and keep track of what's reported about the case if you can't be in court every day, which frequently happens.

Defense attorneys are some of the best sources of information on the justice beat. They often are more willing than prosecutors to talk with reporters about cases on which they are working. Do your best to understand legal jargon, but avoid using it in your stories. If you don't know what something means, ask the person you're interviewing to explain it.

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4.3. Health Reporting

Health reporter usually informs the public about major epidemics, diseases and their cures, new medical discoveries, medical irregularities, etc. they are either specialized in their field of medical of take the assistance of doctors, medical practitioner, etc. the common man cannot understand most of the medical terms so it is the duty of the health reporter to explain these terms and present the report which is easily understood by the common man.

Every change of season witness some major breakouts of epidemics and thus the people must be informed about these diseases and the necessary measures to be taken to avoid the occurrence of these diseases. The health reporter in no way should frighten the common man but present remedies and cures for the diseases. Crosschecking is extremely necessary if the reporter is not specialized in the medical field. Therefore, most of the newspaper relies of medical practitioner, doctors, scientist, and others to present the articles or features for the newspaper. The health reporter is supposed to cover researches, developments in the field of medicine and pharmaceuticals and new experiments in medicine and medical surgery. He collects this information from different departments of medical fraternity.

Many well-known health and medical science reporters writing in a few major newspapers have become the primary source for secondary pick-ups by many radio, newspaper, and television reporters. Thus, a small handful of powerful, skilled writers wield an enormous amount of influence in this field. These days, most of the health reporting also covers fitness tips given out by experts in the field of yoga, acupuncture, meditation, and others.

The public is poorly served by the coverage of medical science in the general press. Scientists and physicians blame the press, claiming that journalists are careless in their reporting, subject to competitive pressures, and ignorant of the scientific process. Journalists accuse the medical community of limiting access to information and erecting barriers to the public dissemination of medical research. In many areas of health news reporting, the underlying problem is an interactive dynamic that involves scientists and journalists. Both parties share the responsibility for accurate communication to the public.

Health Reporters usually deliver medical news as if they are reporting on a hostage crisis. Information is delivered rapidly, but little time is taken to provide a context for the story. Instead, the reporting is sensationalized: The journalist overstates a

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Reporting Techniques & Skills scientific finding and, as a result, the public is misled about the implications of that finding. This sort of reporting has its roots in newsroom pressures to dramatize stories by sounding alarms.

To avoid inaccurate stories, health reporters need to examine the credibility and biases of scientific sources. Such examination is often not done, however, possibly because reporters are misled when the public relations efforts of scientists, institutions. The major sources for a health reporter are the doctors or medical officers.

A journalist's audience should be told explicitly whether the journalist's source of information could benefit financially from the media attention or whether the source is funded or employed by an institution that will benefit. However, such conflicts of interest are often not apparent to reporters or their audiences.

The public is generally unaware of the scientific process and is therefore likely to give more importance to awareness and full details of diseases and remedies by a renowned medical practitioner. This follow-up should be done, because journalists themselves may not completely know the complete medical process works. Certain medical terms are likely to be misinterpreted and thus it is the duty of the health reporter to clarify such doubts. The health science community should promote contact with the media when confirmatory or no confirmatory studies emerge in an area that has already received attention from the press. General assignment reporters typically wrote medical news stories and Reporters who specifically cover medicines are now commonly found at many major news organizations. Thus, those who understand the complexities of newsworthy issues in medicine and public health should

Examining the media's coverage of medicine seems to show that medical news reporting is less than ideal. Medical scientists and journalists share the responsibility for this problem. Thus, the medical science community can encourage accurate medical reporting and reporters will also have to take active measures to improve the situation.

Health Reporters should be able to assume that press releases are accurate, findings are not overstated, and conflicts of interest are acknowledged. The health reporter should deal with failures to be accurate, to identify vested interests, to follow up on stories, and to cover important health issues as the patients are the ones who stand to suffer the most. The health reporter must remember that it is the public that

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Reporting Techniques & Skills ultimately benefits from medical scientists' contributions to improved media coverage.

4.4. Civic Reporting

Newspapers have traditionally been the most community oriented of mass media. Newspapers have been given a good deal of credit for building the democratic community life cities and towns. These days, however, the media and their audiences have been so thoroughly fragmented that the newspaper seems on the verge of becoming just another specialized commercial product for a niche market.

Together, the people and the journalists work on efforts to fight attempts to weaken the civil justice system, to protect the rights of all to the right to trial by jury, and to force government and businesses to make human health and safety the top priority.

Public Citizen is very interested to report the news reporters for information in a variety of cases: products liability, medical malpractice, cases involving children, cases involving drugs or medical devices for women, cases where punitive damages were awarded, cases where defendants withheld documents or engaged in other types of abuse or misconduct, and cases where discovery documents or testimony revealed a company decision to risk foreseeable injuries or deaths in order to save money or increase profits.

Reporters around the country are increasingly turning to civic journalism to find better stories and report them in ways that re-establish a bond with readers, viewers and listeners. They do so to:

 Tackle tough issues.  Discover new local stories.  Interact with readers and viewers in new ways.  Use the web to improve reporting.

Mostly two or three junior reporters, supervised by a senior one is appointed to cover local news, administration problems and important judgments of the district courts. A senior reporter assigns the coverage among the junior reporters who actually go into the field and bring news of local interest. There may be a fire or theft or important crime to report like a murder or dacoity. Then there may be court proceedings of a sensational nature wherein important crime cases are heard and adjudged upon. These reporters are called district reporters. Each reporter has an area assigned to him, which may include one or more large towns with the addition of smaller towns and larger villages. In some cases, a district office is established 65 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills in prominent towns to enable the reporters to cover the ground with a senior reporter in charge. The senior man also acts as the manager of the office, who keeps the accounts and is responsible for the advertisement and other revenue, which is received.

The Civic reporters have considerable responsibility as an important link in the chain of news collection of interest to the newspaper. The senior as well as the junior reporters keep their respective diary of engagements and see that nothing is missed which may give the lead to other newspapers. If the locality or the town is large one, the reporter may find himself, with a full diary of routine engagements every day.

The civic reporter needs to be active men who have the opportunity of making a wide circle of friends. They develop influence in the local administration and can dig their news ahead of other contemporaries representing other newspapers. One important qualification of a local or civic reporter is knowledge of law so that he does not commit any errors leading to libel. He must be above board and not have extreme likes and dislikes of individuals, businessmen or influential personalities in the area.

The telephone is a very important means of receiving and collecting information about any event-taking place in the area. A civic reporter has his link with police officers and corporation administrators who inform him of anything important taking place around. However, it is not advisable to simply depend on one or the other individual source for making the story.

Immediately on receiving the hint of an important event, the civic reporter is supposed to either rush himself or send his juniors, depending on the importance of the news, to cover it. If necessary, a photographer may also be taken along although many newspapers prefer junior reporters to know as to how to handle the camera and have working knowledge of photography. In the case of important news, even movie cameras are sometimes maintained by newspapers to obtain TV films for supply to the TV Organizations on specific charges.

4.5. Political Reporting

Political reporters in a democracy have one central mission: to provide citizens with the information they need to make an informed choice between the candidates for elective office. To do that, journalists need to examine the candidates' backgrounds and qualifications, their positions on the key issues, and what the

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Reporting Techniques & Skills candidates are saying in campaign appearances and advertising. Reporters who cover politics look at the candidates' supporters, too, since their interests can often shed light on what a politician will do if elected.

A political reporter should have intelligence, instinctive perception of ground realities, good judgment of people and a strong historic sense. Since politics is the main focus of newspapers, too many new entrances would like to be political reporters hoping that it would be a ladder to the coveted office of the editor. But the fact remains that there is a dearth of good political reporting in India who have the skills to report insight, and do reporting that captures in flesh and blood of the players in the political field. A skilled political reporter is able to expose the naked ambitions of political leaders and the hypocrisy of political parties. Politics is the game for power, a game for supremacy and ironically this game is played in the name of the people for evoking national greatness. The majority of politicians in India have acquired office because they were misfits everywhere else and are driven by a desire to make up for their past failures and frustrations. Thus, the sad thing about Indian democracy is that it is these politicians who guide the destiny of some 900 million people. Bereft of ideas, intelligence and character, they exploit caste, religion and language to stay in power and the country slip from crisis to crisis. Therefore, it is the duty of the political reporter to never glorify a minister or a politician but truthfully present their achievements and failures. Programmes of political parties should be critically evaluated and the flaws commented upon, so that the people are not carried away by their patriotic portrayal. The performance of government needs constant review and herein is the wisdom and maturity of the political reporter set on a national spectacle. A lot of things are happening behind the scene in politics. Diplomacy, lobbying, image-building and hatching conspiracies are only few of them. Nothing much is visible to the outside world but the tip of an iceberg. The real challenge of political reporting is in unmasking these happenings in the political world. Connections and inside sources are the strengths of a politics reporter. Party conferences, campaigns and rallies and press conferences are normal reporting events. But to add news value to these the reporter should have ‘inside’ information or exclusive stories. The best selling newspapers in any country are those with a strong political bureau satisfying the political curiosity of the readers. Inadequate political coverage usually judged by the quality of reporting, brings down the circulation of a newspaper. The honest and well-meaning politician

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Reporting Techniques & Skills deserves the support of the reporter and the people’s support. One of the basic duties of political reporting is to bring to national focus such deserving leaders and to warn the nation against criminals in political garment. The political reporter must have a sound knowledge of history and the ability to see the chain of events before it happened and the wisdom to translate the thoughts into memorable words.

4.6. Business Reporting

The focus of business reporting is the state of business, depending on the country’s economic climate. The stock market, capital market, the wholesale and consumer price, metals and gold prices, industries and agricultural production, consumer behavior, inflation, money supply foreign and Indian investments, unemployment, wages and labor, all are areas of interest to the business reporter.

The economy operates in a cycle of expansion and contraction known as boom and bust. The markets hit a low during bust, characterized by low demand, piling up of goods product and at worst people are thrown out of employment.

At boom, the demand picks up, entrepreneurs invest, employment is generated, there is more cash flow and happier times return as the economy operates at its peak. After a few years, the economy goes back to bust to repeat its business cycle. Low employment speaks of the ill health of the economy and the need for optimum level of investment. The developing nations, called the Third World, need massive investments to generate employment and they also need the latest technology to catch up with the developed world.

Business, industry and agriculture, year after year, look to the finance minister’s presentation of the union Budget that could change the business climate. Tax incentives to industry and agriculture can boost production, and surplus production can lead to export and prosperity. Exporting nations like Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore in Asia enjoy a higher standard of living than many economic laggards of the continent, some of whom face miserable living conditions. The budget is a powerful instrument of transformation in the hands of an able finance minister.

A business reporter should have a masterly understanding of economic at the macro and micro levels to interpret economic data and tell how they are going to affect business. He should sound an alarm when the economy is heading for a slump or recession.

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Also, when the economic outlook is bright, he should bring cheer to industry. But he should desist from creating a panic in the stock market where people have invested their life savings. To command respect in financial and business circles, you must be knowledgeable, credible and insightful.

To do so, the business reporter must be in contact with some of the best economic brains of the country that may be in the finance ministry, universities, research organizations and even corporate houses. The reporter should watch out for corporate newsmakers. Entrepreneurs are of two kinds, those with a broad vision and those with a tunnel vision. The former think laterally and are a creative lot, bringing new products, new designs, new models and new ideas that can transform the way people live, work and spend their leisure.

Another breed of newsmakers is the corporate raider who buys the shares of companies in bulk and tries to dislodge the existing families out of their business. Majority of the shareholders are innocent of their rights, and easily manipulated by holding meetings at sites most of them cannot reach or by deliberately delaying the intimation letters for such meetings.

Market-linked technology watch may signal the arrival of new products, impending competition and phasing out of old models. Computer and car markets are changing dramatically and will keep changing in the years ahead. Exposing business frauds and manipulators is the high calling of business journalism, but favoring them for a pittance could tarnish the image of the profession.

Keep a tab on major stock market players, chairman of blue chip companies and CEOs who could always spring a surprise. PROs of business houses and private secretaries of market players could be of help in getting the lead for a story, but these stories must be properly filtered for news.

Like the politician who generates political news, the corporate houses generate most of the business news. And the finance and commerce ministries, the RBI, SEBI, FICCI, Assocham and Indo-American, Indo-British, Indo-German, Indo- French, and Indo-Japanese joint trade organizations keep the business reporters very busy.

4.7. Science & Technology Reporting

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The age of science is the age of reason, and it is by reasoning that human beings have unlocked the secrets of nature. Science reporters are driven by a curiosity and governed by scientific temper. The first step to becoming a science reporter is to develop well-grounded awareness of science by reading good popular science books and journals. Keep watching popular science programmes on foreign and Indian television channels.

Half-truths, bluffs and blisters are not part of science reporting, which is based on verifiable technological facts. Verify your facts from other sources, reference books and journals before you report. Credibility and clarity are the catchwords in science reporting.

Specialists speak in technical language popularly called jargons. Befriend the leading scientist and engineers of your town and ask them about the latest development in their fields-inventions, applications and research. Attend seminars and conferences regularly and write interpretative reports for the knowledge – hungry readers. Publishing interviews of eminent scientists not only enhances the prestige of the newspaper/magazine but also promotes science awareness in society.

Age of computers is rapidly changing the way we live computers are installed in banks, railway stations, airports, operation theatres of hospitals, public health, and water supply and electricity departments and real estate agencies. Creating environmental awareness is one of the duties of the science reporter. Crusading for a better environment is the hallmark of dedicated science reporter.

Science reporting calls for greater precision and logical progression of ideas. The popular science writers have amazing clarity of thought and expression and an irresistibly fascinating manner of presentation. Exaggeration and sensationalism do not belong to science reporting which is basically an exercise in precision writing.

4.8. Sport Reporting

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Sport reporting demands for an exceptional interest in the field of sports and a good writing style. Sports reporters are conversant with the rules of the game and have good relations with players and coaches. They are also knowledgeable about the lives of top players to dish out interesting anecdotes in sports features.

Sport reporters write to appeal to a class of readers who eat, drink and sleep sports. Sports writing are as competitive as the game itself. Like all reporters, the sport reporter too works under pressure, but there is too much action in succession for him to recapitulate that it makes his job uniquely challenging. So, to become a successful sports reporter, one should keep a sports diary. Renowned sports journalists have the habit of jotting down every idea or scrap of information, which they later skillfully weave into their reports and columns.

Keep a clipping library of reports and articles of special interest to you, which you have come across in newspapers and magazines. This could be a ready reference library for facts and figures and back grounders. Classify under different names of games like ‘cricket’, ‘hockey’, ‘athletics’, etc to make it handy. The reporter must make his report descriptive enough for those who have not seen the match and analytical enough for those who have seen it on television but are 71 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills seeking something more to it. Develop a racy style that befits the game, recapturing the players in their best action, which is the difference between a good report and a bad report.

Sports reporting differ from general reporting in that sports reporters enjoy greater freedom for self-expression, which includes the use of superlatives. The famous among them do enjoy special privileges in keeping with their professional status. Sport reporting provides details on the fitness of players, points of play, individual performances, tactics and strategies adopted in the contest and crowd reaction.

4.9. Culture Reporting

The term “The Culture Beat” refers to the way a newspaper will assign reporters to cover various sites where news originates-city hall, the police reports, sports, entertainment, local, etc.

Culture reporting is characterized by its punchy style, rough language, and ostensible disregard for conventional journalistic writing forms and customs. The reporter attempts to present a multi-disciplinary perspective on a particular story, drawing from popular culture, sports, political, philosophical and literary sources. It is styled eclectic or untraditional. Culture reporting remains a feature of popular magazines. It has a good deal of entertainment value.

Culture reporting also focuses on the personal lives of people, primarily celebrities, including movie and stage actors, musical artists, models and photographers, other notable people in the entertainment industry, as well as people who seek attention, such as politicians, and people thrust into the attention of the public, such as people who do something newsworthy.

Culture reporting today is the province of newspaper gossip columnists and gossip magazines and has become the focus of national tabloid newspapers like the National Enquirer, magazines like People and Us Weekly, syndicated television shows like Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, The Insider, Access Hollywood, and Extra, cable networks like E! and numerous other television productions.

It differs from feature writing in that it focuses on people who are either already famous or are especially attractive, and in that it often covers celebrities obsessively, to the point of these journalists behaving unethically in order to provide coverage. Paparazzi, photographers who would follow celebrities

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: Reporting Techniques & Skills incessantly to obtain potentially embarrassing photographs, have come to characterize celebrity journalism.

It is the most common kind of reporting where reporters are placed at the most strategic news-breaking points like hospitals, courtrooms, police headquaters, airports, railway stations, universities, government and corporate offices and health and recration centers. Unlike editorial writing, the culture reporting is impersonal.

A culture reporter is should essentially be an honest storyteller, who should rise above his prejudices and subjectivity. He should be fair and impartial and present in all aspects of the story. Complete objectivity may be required as the primary job of a reporter in any beat is to tell the truth.

4.10. Civil Administration Reporting

The government establishes the civil administration and the area concerned are the local, municipal, social and national levels of the society. Civil administration reporting will thus carry news stories relating to all these sections of a country. Civil administration of a country exercise certain authority normally in the function of the local government; or hostile territory. It exercises executive, legislative, and judicial authority.

Civil administration reporters thus have to work with civil authorities and civilian populations in the area of operations.

Civil administration reporters are the specialists who can quickly and systematically identify critical requirements needed by local citizens in bad situations. They can also locate civil resources to support help operations, help support national assistance activities. The reporters report on the plan to establish and maintain liaison or dialogue with civilians and private organizations.

The civil administration reporters provide a prime source of nation-building skills. Their prime focus of reporting is in the fields of public administration, public safety, public health, legal systems, labor management, public welfare, public finance, public education, civil defense, public works and utilities, public communications, public transportation, logistics, food and agricultural services, economics, property control, cultural affairs, civil information, and managing dislocated persons.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills with the duties to keep a check on the society. Reporting police news is difficult and potentially dangerous. But if reporters and editors are properly prepared and sufficiently cautious, mistakes will be held to a minimum. Police news tells us about ourselves, and how we handle police news tells us something about our journalistic ability. Ideally, police news is used to inform the public, not to aid directly in conviction. Keeping this perspective is important in handling police news effectively.

Police reporters need to know exactly how crimes are defined in the community they cover. In the United States, for example, a "burglary" and a "robbery" are not the same thing. Burglary involves breaking into a building to commit a crime. Robbery is stealing money or property by force. Developing a glossary of essential terms can prevent embarrassing mistakes. A police press release may provide the basic facts about a crime, but good reporters dig deeper. They go to the scene to look for details and to talk with neighbors or eyewitnesses, whenever possible.

The coverage of civil disorder imposed major responsibilities on the reporters. On the one hand, they must expose themselves to danger if necessary to determine the magnitude of any street incident. But whatever they do, they must always be conscious that careless reporting or the provocative appearance of still or television cameras can cause untold harm in a tense situation, particularly in the crowded inner cores of many cities and towns.

4.11.Education Reporting

As Education, is the organized teaching and training of students, the reporter’s job will revolve around these areas. Education is a body of theoretical and applied research relating to teaching and learning. Thus, the reporter has to focus on these both areas of education. The education reporter works in different areas or disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, sociology and anthropology

The education reporter focus on the education systems as these can be used to promote doctrines or ideals as well as knowledge, and this can lead to abuse of the system. These days, the education reporters focus on adult education as they have become widespread in many countries. However, education is still seen by many as something aimed at children, and adult education is often branded as adult learning or lifelong learning.

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Adult education takes on many forms, from formal class-based learning to self- directed learning. Lending libraries provide inexpensive informal access to books and other self-instructional materials. Many adults have also taken advantage of the rise in computer ownership and internet access to further their informal education.

The reporter has to report about the Education reforms. Educational reforms are plans, programs, or movements which attempts to bring about a systematic change in educational theory or practice across a community or society. As the public attention focuses on standards based education reform in response to the high expense and poor outcomes of education, it is the duty of the reporter to bring forth such informations.

The teaching method must be teachable! Many educators now believe that anything that more precisely meets the needs of the child will work better. Programs that test individual learning, and teach to mastery of a subject have been proven to be far more effective than group instruction with compromise schedules.

Philosophers identify independent, logical reasoning as a precondition to most western science, engineering, economic and political theory. Therefore, every educational program that desires to improve students' outcomes in political, health and economic behavior should include a Socratically-taught set of classes to teach logic and critical thinking. Substantial resources and time can be saved by permitting students to test out of classes. This also increases motivation, directs individual study, and reduces boredom and disciplinary problems.

To support inexpensive continuing education a community needs a free public library. It can start modestly as shelves in an attended shop or government building, with donated books. New programs based on modern learning theories should be quantitatively investigated for effectiveness.

The education reporter has to report education plans, durations, costs, and scholarships of various educational programs started by national and international universities. Thus much research with educationists, institutions and expertise is required to prepare the report. As always, crosschecking of facts is important. Also, the education reporter has to present counseling help to the students as they often get confused because today we have so many options available in the education and vocational fields.

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Thus, the education reporter must be aware with different departments of education, have good contacts with colleges and universities and get an insight into the psyche of the students’ about their preferences and choices. These reporters have to regularly attend functions like convocations, academic events of colleges and universities to know the progress and the launch of new educational programs.

4.12.Development Reporting

Development reporting creates an awareness of the rapid transformation of the society from a poor economy to a highly developed economy by informing the people of the various programmes of development charted out by the government and development agencies and to bring to the notices of the government the problems some of these poorly implemented schemes create so that it can be considered for remedial measures.

It is through people’s participation that food production is raised, new roads, railways and houses are constructed, and amenities of safe drinking water, electricity and communication are provided. Sometimes, development has disastrous consequences too: air and water pollution, soil degradation and deforestation. This led to rethinking on what constitutes development and after much deliberation; ecology too came under its preview. The most important quality to be inculcated is to have development perspective based on ground realities and sharpened by a global vision.

A telling tale that is apt to awaken a slumbering government to action and a style that also spreads awakening among the masses are expected of a development communicator.

Reporting success stories do motivate people and even the failures teach precious lessons on how to avoid the mistakes made by others. Development reporters should not be biased like a section of western media, which sees only the negative side of India’s achievements. There a hundreds of development stories lying buried to be discovered by a good development reporter. Government departments and ministries dole out press releases, newsletters and annual reports, which could give the lead for a story.

Sustainable development, therefore, represents an opportunity for humanity to correct a historical error and develop a gentler, more balanced, and stable relationship with the natural world.

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5. WRITING THE STORY

5.1. Magazine Writing

Most magazines you see on newsstands every day rely on freelance writers for their content. From fillers to features, most parts of a publication are fair game for writers hoping to break in. No, you don't have to have a cousin in the publishing world to see your name in print. You just have to follow the rules like every other journalist until, one day, the editors start calling you.

As you write for magazines, it will give you increased confidence that you can write for publication, meet word limits and deadlines. There are many benefits from writing for magazines.

Some basics to get started while writing for magazines:

Decide on your genre If all matters foodie particularly drives you, consider being a recipe writer and food journalist. Or perhaps a reporter on traditional dishes from the four corners of the earth. Maybe even a critique for restaurants and hotels in your area. There are too many avenues to begin to list them all, but bear in mind there are very few magazines and journals that don’t have a recipe in there somewhere and everybody has to eat… Choose a subject that rings your bell. One that you have good background knowledge of already will be second nature to start writing about. Once you have made a start, you will find it is easy to expand to other topics.

Find your angle Where are you coming from? Are you going to report on the subject or be innovative and tell others about your ideas? Would you prefer something along a fictional line? Maybe Q and A and FAQ’s is your bag. Don’t rule anything out, but get acquainted with a comfortable angle by trying lots of different types of writing on your chosen subject. The more relaxed you are, the better your quality of work will be, because it will flow more naturally.

Research your subject Once you have a focus, look into that field in great depth. See what is available and topical at the moment, on paper and on the Internet. It will help to know what people are reading and interested in, before you put pen to paper. Do you feel your line of thought has not been covered yet? Perhaps that could be a door of opportunity opening for you. Websites are not difficult to get up and running these

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Reporting Techniques & Skills days – consider setting one up for your chosen subject, with the possibility of an accompanying newsletter.

Research Research is, without a doubt, one of the biggest bugbears, but if you are committed to a career in writing, you might as well make it your best friend, because you are going to be doing an awful lot of it!

Writer’s guidelines Your piece might be amazing, with bells on, but if you don’t comply with the subject line or the addressee; it will more than likely end up in the recycle bin! It is a laborious task going through them and doing as you are told, especially when your piece is clearly the hottest thing on the market. Remember, if it were that easy, everybody would be doing it and besides, there has to be some fun in the chase.

Keep track of your work Keep a log of your submissions, query letters and published pieces. Create an address book of all the editors, fellow writers and useful contacts you make. Don’t be put off by the response times either. Make up files that allow you to review what you have sent to whom and keep on top of it.

Remember, a writer must write something every single day, without fail! It keeps your hand in and makes you look at new angles and ways of self-expression. You have to be topical, expressive, interesting and informative. It is a big old reading world out there, don’t be daunted, be focused, be clever and most of all, have fun!

An Anecdote is a short tale narrating an interesting or amusing biographical incident. An anecdote is usually based on real life, an incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, in real places. However, over time, modification in reuse may convert a particular anecdote to a fictional piece, one that is retold but is "too good to be true". Sometimes humorous, anecdotes are not jokes, because their primary purpose is not simply to evoke laughter, but to reveal a truth more general than the brief tale itself, or to delineate a character trait or the workings of an institution in such a light that it strikes in a flash of insight to their very essence. A brief monologue beginning "A man pops in a bar..." will be a joke. A brief monologue beginning "Once J. Edgar Hoover popped in a bar..." will be an anecdote. An anecdote thus is closer to the tradition of the parable than the patently invented fable with its animal characters and generic human figures— but it is distinct from the parable in the historical specificity which it claims. An anecdote

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Reporting Techniques & Skills is not a metaphor nor does it bear a moral, a necessity in both parable and fable, merely an illustrative incident that is in some way an epitome.

Note that in the context of Lithuanian, Bulgarian and Russian humor anecdote refers to any short humorous story without the need of factual or biographical origins.

5.2. How to write an Obituary?

An obituary can be as basic as containing only public facts about a person's life, their birth, family tree, and their death. Also relates to your thoughts, experiences and memories with them.

It can also be a very personal look at a life. Not only a summation of the public facts, but a glimpse of the uniqueness; that, when combined with those "facts," created a personality. Written by someone who is close to you, an obituary becomes an intimate view of what made you memorable to others. Written by you, it becomes your personal life's story.

As much as you love someone, recalling the details of their life at the time of their death is an overwhelming responsibility. Having the obituary already written and on file with your funeral provider is not as difficult to do as you may think. Think about your life and what you would most like remembered.

Preparing Tributes & Obituaries

Obituaries usually come in one of two forms: a short notice; common in local and regional newspapers and the longer style, more common in national newspapers giving a detailed history of the person’s life achievements.

Here is a useful guide regarding what to include for you or the person writing the obituary.  Check with the newspaper you are going to publish in to see if they have any length restrictions and what the cost of insertion will be. Make sure you place the obituary a few days before the funeral.  Write the full name of the deceased person.  Write the date and place of death.  Write down when and where the funeral etc will take place.  Detail the main life events beginning with the date and place of birth.

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 Include pertinent information relating to education, universities attended and notable employment.  Write down any hobbies and involvement with community, charities or other organisations.  Include any major achievements.  Write down the names of those surviving including partners, parents and children. You can also mention siblings, grandparents and those who have also died before the deceased.  Mention where flowers and contributions should be sent to and give the funeral directors name if relevant.

As a friend or family member you may be asked to give a tribute or eulogy at the funeral. This is your opportunity to say a very personal goodbye and reflect what you and others thought of them. It can be quite difficult to write something that is so emotional, here are some guidelines:

 As a starting point think about what you loved about that person, how you met them, how your relationship developed and what you will miss about them.  Remember this is your personal goodbye and should come from the heart, not everyone may agree with every sentiment but they will appreciate that you have taken the time to write and deliver something at a very hard time.  You don’t have to deliver the most amazing piece of perfect prose – it is a tribute to someone you love and you can expect to cry when you speak the words. No one will think badly of you for this.  Use the people around you to collect information, anecdotes and stories to include.  Be honest. It may be a tribute but make sure you speak of someone you all knew, not an idealised version.  However, remember this isn’t the time to voice disagreements or vent anger.  Make sure you write down the eulogy or tribute – you won’t remember it on the day.

Writing an obituary or eulogy for someone can be your final gift to them – a way to remember them through your eyes and a gift for everyone else who has suffered the same loss.

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5.2.1. Article Writing

An article will analyze and interpret and provide arguments and counter- arguments. An article will go to the root cause of an event or happening and provide background information. Then it describes the present situation and finally peeps into the future prospects too. Though it is not necessary that an article will follow the past-present-future course. An article may start with an insight into the future and then cover the past and present. It may start with the present situation, go to the past and then look into the future. Also, it may not be necessary that an article should always deal with the past or predict the future.

Articles are written on all kinds of topics and many kinds of subjects are dealt with in an article. They are also written about the past, present and the future. There is no bar or restrictions on the nature of the topic or issue chosen to write an article. Articles in a newspaper will mostly follow the various purposes like:

 To analyze the present  To provide some important information  To predict the future prospects of an issue  To present a point of view about a topic  To interpret a trend

Articles are not written in newspapers as to serve only one selected purpose but may fulfill more than one purposes mentioned above.

Articles writers’ intentions are to analyze, interpret and rationalize and thus there is no place for humor, satire and other such emotions in an article. The contents and treatment of an article is sober and serious. The basics of newspaper writing like Consistency, conciseness, completeness; continuity, etc also apply to article writing. These basics will be applicable to any piece of writing like the editorial, feature or a news story.

An element that is absolutely necessary for articles is credibility. Thus, usually, only the experts will write articles. In fact, such established writers regularly write columns and are free to write only one subject or a variety of subjects. The readers rarely doubt the creditability of such renowned writers and the articles gets a good response.

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Guidelines for Article Writing

The topic for an article is mostly selected on the basis of how much interest it can generate among the readers. Highly interesting topics and issues will generate interest and curiosity by the readers. The selected topics must be concrete and bring in the details. These details should be dealt in an interesting manner to provide all the relevant information in a concrete and complete manner.

An article must be believable and relevant facts should be presented. There should be source credibility, authentic research, original quotes and accuracy in the articles to make it believable to the newspaper readers. An article writer will try to cover all aspects of the topic and provide more and more support material as proof to substantiate the points they are presenting in the article.

Ten Steps to Writing an Article:

1. Realize that writing is a process, not a short burst of frantic activity. The usual steps are planning, research, writing a rough draft, editing, and then writing a final draft.

2. Planning an article involves discussing why it is important and what you want to include. If you decide about length, scope and focus in advance, it will save you time and effort later.

3. Good articles are descriptive. Draw on your own experience and talk to those who have more experience or different experience than you.

4. The best articles help readers solve problems, save time, avoid mishaps and do their jobs more effectively. You can’t assume that the reader shares your perception of a problem; you may have to sell them the problem before you sell them a solution.

5. Write your draft the way you would tell the story to one of your friends. It should be informal and clear. Short words and short sentences are fine.

6. Readers want articles about things they can actually control and problems they can solve. Writing an article about a huge problem that is too large or too expensive merely raises the reader’s anxiety.

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7. Tell real stories. Use actual examples. Readers want to hear about things that happened. They aren’t interested in platitudes, clichés, lectures, or slogans. Readers want reality, not theory.

8. Magazines are a clutch plate between the way things are and the way they should be. Ideally, everyone follows all the rules all the time, and no mishaps ever happen. In reality, people cut corners, take chances, stop paying attention, fall asleep in class, drive drunk, ignore their supervisor, take the easy way out, and get in a hurry, resist learning, and on and on.

9. A magazine article doesn’t repeat official procedures or rules. Readers have plenty of those things already; the problem is that they don’t follow them. Simply repeating the procedures avoids the real problem.

10. "Why" is more interesting than "what”? Defining a problem or a hazard is only the starting point.

Structure of an Article

An article has a definite beginning lead or introduction, a body, and an end conclusion. The basic format used for articles are:

 The chronological format, past -present-future),  The reverse chronological format future -present-past,  And the flashback format where the article may start in the present, go back to the past and then go to the future).

The lead or the introduction, introduces the topic to the readers, arouses and sustains their interest. It could be a direct lead where information is given in a straightforward manner. Articles can also start with a statement or quotation to provide interest. A statement or a quotation also helps in telling something about the topic of the article.

Some times statistics or numerical data are used in the lead to startle the readers. Articles can begin with a question. Some times writers use a number of questions also. Questions arouse curiosity in the minds of the readers and they read further to find answer to the questions.

Thy body takes up about three quarters of the total space of an article. Here the writer tries to answer the questions put in the lead. The claims made in the lead are substantiated. The statements and quotations made are elaborated. So explanation, 83 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

reeporting Techniques & Skills description, elaboration, substantiation, etc are what the body of an article is all about.

Writers provide details, statistics, claims and counterclaims in the body to present, project and promote their point of views. The body of an article is where claims are supposed and defended, while opposing viewpoints are attacked. The conclusion portion simply closes the argument and is often brief stating the gist of the whole article.

An Editorial is a statement or article by a news organization, newspaper or magazine that expresses the opinion of the editor, editorial board, or publisher. An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite editorial due to the tradition of newspapers placing such materials on the page opposite the editorial page, is similar in form and content to an editorial, but represents the opinion of an individual contributor, who is sometimes but not always affiliated with the publication. These two terms are sometimes used interchangeably by the public, although it is important to understand that they have different definitions and characteristics.

5.3.. Editorial Writing guidelines

Editorials are generally printed either on their own page of a newspaper or in a clearly marked-off column, and are always labeled as editorials to avoid confusion with news coverage. They often address current events or public controversies.

Generally, editorials fall into four broad types: news, policy, social, and special. When covering controversial topics such as election issues, some opinion page editors will run "dueling" editorials, with each staking out a respective side of the issue.

Many magazines also feature editorials, mainly by the editor or publisher of the publication. Additionally, most print publications feature an editorial, or letter from the editor, followed by a Letters to the Editor section. The American Society of Magazine Editors has developed a list of editorial guidelines, to which a majority of magazine editors commonly adhere.

Most editorial pieces take the form of an essay or thesis, using arguments to promote a point of view. Newspapers often publish editorial pieces that are in line with their editorial slants, though dissenting opinions are often given space to promote balance and discussion. Requirements for article length varies according to each publication's guidelines, as do a number of other factors such as style and topic. An average editorial is 750 words or less. 84 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

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An editorial is an article that presents the newspaper's opinion on an issue. It reflects the majority vote of the editorial board, the governing body of the newspaper made up of editors and business managers. It is usually unsigned. Much in the same manner of a lawyer, editorial writers build on an argument and try to persuade readers to think the same way they do. Editorials are meant to influence public opinion, promote critical thinking, and sometimes cause people to take action on an issue. In essence, an editorial is an opinionated news story.

Editorials usually have:

 Introduction, body and conclusion like other news stories  An objective explanation of the issue, especially complex issues  A timely news angle  Opinions from the opposing viewpoint that refute directly the same issue the writer addresses  The opinions of the writer delivered in a professional manner. Good editorials engage issues, not personalities and refrain from name-calling or other petty tactics of persuasion.  Alternative solutions to the problem or issue being criticized. Anyone can gripe about a problem, but a good editorial should take a pro-active approach to making the situation better by using constructive criticism and giving solutions.  A solid and concise conclusion that powerfully summarizes the writer's opinion. Give it some punch.

Functions of Editorials will be:

Explain or interpret: Editors often use these editorials to explain the way the newspaper covered a sensitive or controversial subject. School newspapers may explain new school rules or a particular student-body effort like a food drive

Criticize: These editorials constructively criticize actions, decisions or situations while providing solutions to the problem identified. Immediate purpose is to get readers to see the problem, not the solution.

Persuade: Editorials of persuasion aim to immediately see the solution, not the problem. From the first paragraph, readers will be encouraged to take a specific, positive action. Political endorsements are good examples of editorials of persuasion.

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Praise: These editorials commend people and organizations for something done well. They are not as common as the other three.

Things that could go into the five-paragraph editorial:

1. A personal experience, the thesis statement 2. Explanation of the other side of the issue 3. Examples to support your point of view 4. Reasons for your point of view 5. The last paragraph should restate your thesis statement and end on a positive note

5.4. Writing Letter to Editor

In writing a letter to the editor, you have a unique opportunity to discuss issues or frame the debate on an issue in your own words. For every comment a news outlet receives, they assume there are hundreds, if not thousands of readers, who feel the same way. A few quality letters can carry real weight and make a critical difference. Readers of newspaper editorials and opinion pieces tend to be decision makers sensitive to public opinion. Presenting information and ideas to them in a coherent written form helps reach important and influential audiences.

1. Go to your local newspaper’s web site or call for information on how and where to submit a letter to the editor. Most letters can be e-mailed. 2. Be sure to include your name, email and phone number with the letter to allow the editorial staff to contact you if they have questions. 3. Do not exceed your newspaper’s word count. Most letters to the editor are about 200 words, but can vary. Edit the provided template as necessary. 4. Without exceeding the word count, try to personalize the attached sample letter with a particular comment based upon your area of expertise or personal experience. 5. Make sure that any additions to the provided template are specific, concise, and to the point.

Many letters to editors are badly presented, in spite of being written with an eye to publication. Even if an assistant deals with the letter section, the editor should read all the letters, either before or after the assistant has worked on the selection to be published. Most journals that publish correspondence point out that the editor reserves the right to reject, shorten, excerpt or edit the letters for publication. Editing should, however, be restricted to removing intemperate statements or examples of

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Reporting Techniques & Skills bad taste. Spelling mistakes should be corrected but the grammar should not be changed unless the writer’s point is unclear. Letters should be published as soon as possible after receipt and, except in rare cases, they should be signed. Letters to the editor rarely need to be refereed. Any letters criticizing a previously published article should be shown to the author of the article, whose reply should preferably be published in the same issue as the critical letter.

5.5.. Writing Film Review

Film review writing is not an easy job as many would think. You need patience to watch a film with a critical eye, perceive all the information about it and then write a detailed film review. A good review is not just a summary of a film, but a critical analysis that examines why and how a movie works and whether the film succeeds in its presentation.

When writing a film review, always consider who the intended audience is for the film and the audience you are writing for. You should remember that your writing is intended to be persuasive. Additionally, it should demonstrate clearly that you not only viewed the movie, but also read the novel or play which formed the basis of the film.

You should focus your review around a larger argument, such as why the film works or fails to work and what are both the successful and unsuccessful elements. Make sure that you have a major thesis and a set of supporting arguments. A good film review uses scenes and dialogue from the film to support its larger argument. Moreover, a good review focuses on whether and how a movie works and whether the reviewer recommends it. Finally, a good reviewer shows how a film works both psychologically, emotionally, intellectually, and even spiritually.

“Anyone can be a film critic,” French director Francois Truffaut writes in his book “The Films in My Life.” Whether you watch movies as soon as they arrive at your local theatre or wait for the video or cable version, your number one reason for being a critic must be your love of movies. If you’re a real film buff, chances are you’ll like all types from Hollywood blockbusters to subtitled films with no special effects.

Be objective: When watching a movie, be it a cartoon or an epic, remain objective. Don’t be swayed by who’s in it. Pay no attention to the director. Ignore any stories or rumors you might have heard about the filming of it. Be completely absorbed in the movie, concentrating on the events unfolding onscreen. If you’re launching a

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: Reporting Techniques & Skills career as a film critic and want to use the first person, then use it right from the start. Make your opinions count and do so in a way that’s forceful. Be stern and unwavering! Or be funny. Just make sure you can handle being the “I” behind all your opinions. You’ll gain many admirers and detractors, but if you’ve comfortable with writing in the first person then go ahead—you’re the critic!

Comparing movies: To compare the current movie you’re reviewing to one that is already on video/cable or has been around for dozens of years is a very common practice. This shows that A you know about movies and B) allows people who have seen the earlier movie to know what you’re writing about.

Assume nothing: Depending on your audience, whether it’s a college newspaper, a local daily, weekly or monthly publication or an Internet website, use your clearest style of writing. You never know who’ll happen to read your review. That person might be the president of a movie studio or a grade-schooler. If you’re doing a comparison, be precise but not overly so. Not everyone in the world has seen the movie “Psycho” so should you use this movie as an example, you might want to preface it with: “classic horror film” or “director Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 movie starring Anthony Perkins,” etc. Add a few words to introduce a new reader or refresh an older reader’s memory.

The story: What is this movie about? After assigning a category such as drama, action/adventure, horror, comedy, etc., you must give a synopsis of the tale. Is it a man vs. man saga? Man vs. nature: “The Perfect Storm.” Man vs. the supernatural? “The Haunting” and any horror flick

The actors & actresses: Without them, we wouldn’t have a movie—or much of one! Don’t get their personal lives mixed up with what they do onscreen. Analyze their performance in relation to the story. Mention past films if appropriate, as this gives the reader an opportunity to explore their earlier works. Respect the thespian for what they’ve done, but not excessively. If an actor has destroyed an otherwise good film due to many situations such as being inappropriately cast, wavering accent[s], wrong age/size for the part, etc. point it out in a diplomatic way. Not every actor/actress is cast in the right part!

If the actor/actress steals the movie, please indicate this. If you should favor one actor over another personally, don’t allow this to ruin a critique. Stay rational! You may think a certain performer is wonderful, that they can do no wrong. They’re still just human beings! Keep your perspective. You’re writing a review, not a love letter!

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The Director: The leader behind the movie, this person has enormous responsibilities and can range from being invisible to being in the movie. Directors can also be hyphenates such as director-producer, actor-director, director- screenwriter, etc. Analyze the hyphenate the same way you would the average one- titled director. Keep in mind that this person has a huge undertaking but oftentimes not the complete power over the project that he/she would like to have. Things to watch for: how the director interprets the story. Are there lots of close-ups or is the camera kept at a distance? Is the film in color or black and white – or both? If color, does one color stand out? Does the camera move around or remain stationery? If the movie takes place in an earlier time period, do you feel like you’ve stepped backwards through a time machine? In science fiction, do you get a sense of a future world that’s very different from our 21st century? If this is a contemporary story, do you feel as though everything’s accurate?

The screenwriter: More invisible than the director and usually under-appreciated, the writer is finally getting a little more recognition for their screenplays. When watching opening credits, you’ll notice that [since 1998] the screenwriter gets credit just before the director, rather than before the producer. Think of famous movies from any decade -- whether it’s an epic like “Gone With the Wind” or a comedy like “Groundhog Day.” Every movie originates with the writer. Not only must a writer be able to describe the action you see on screen, it must be done succinctly as the powers that be [producers, agents, directors] like to read scripts that are preferably under 130 pages. The screenwriter has to be able to write dialogue that moves the story along and also sounds realistic.

The Producer: This is the persons who gets the movie made, has all the money contacts and ranges from hands off to being involved in all facets from pre- production to post-production and even publicity.

Some common terms: Genre: action/adventure, comedy, drama, horror, romantic comedy, science fiction, tragedy, religious, historical, documentary, thriller, western, war, martial arts, teen or musical.

Others: Long shot, Flashback, Narration, Cinematography, Editing Montage, Lighting and composition, Close-up, Tracking shot

3 Types of movies: 1.Foreign. Always mention whether it’s sub-titled or dubbed. 2. Mainstream: Big budget Hollywood. 3. Independent a/k/a/ India: Low budget.

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Your rating system: You’ve seen those number ratings, the stars, and the thumbs up or down, letter grades. You need to come up with something unique— something that represents your love of movies as well as your own style.

Some reviewers highlight a movie’s rating and the amount of violence/bad language/sex or adult situations it contains. Other reviewers don’t care to do this; they’re only interested in reviewing the movie.

5.6.Writing Book Review

Every newspaper has a panel of book reviewers, usually specialists on the subjects, to do book reviewing for their book review feature. The most important qualification of a book reviewer is knowledge on the subject and general ability to assess the utility of the book from the reader’s point of view. The reviewer conveys the comments about the book in a readable and acceptable manner.

A small review of a book is generally of three to five paragraphs. The review usually starts with the name of the book, the name of the publisher, the number of pages and the price.

Following tips about book reviewing are important:

i A brief description of the objectives of the book ii Something about the author if the work involves original research or the author has a standing and status iii A brief account of what the book tries to highlight iv A comparison of the book with other important books in the same field v An appraisal preferably indirect through description and exposition in terms of the aims and purposes of the author

The book reviewer’s function is to tell the readers succinctly and readably whether book is worth reading and if so, why. This is an expert’s job and is done by an authority on the subject matter of the book. Since the review may make or mar the popularity of the book the reviewer has on him a serious responsibility to discharge with due consideration while giving him comments without fear or favour. He must take an unbiased view and guide the readers about the utility or otherwise of the book. One important task of the book reviewer is to bring out the main points of the book in a few sentences and apprise the readers of what the author has tried to say and bring out in this respect the reviewer analysis can be a brief capsule of the book, making the review self sufficient by way of its giving a brief summary both of the contents and argument contained in the book. 90 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

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The skills of the reviewer lies in his ability to hit off his points in a pithy, arresting opening sentence or paragraph which at once sums up the objectives of the book and give a glimpse of the nature and content of the publication. A good review is generally self-contained and takes the reader along on the journey through the book. By reading the review the reader should get to know what the book is about, what is new or innovating in it, what is the quality of the writing and such other details.

An ideal reviewer should convey to its readers a sense of what the book is about, its plot, characters, whether or not the author has accomplished what he intended to and some evaluation based upon the reviewer’s standard of writing, taste and experience. The reviewer’s task is to give the reader enough information to enable him to decide whether or not he wants to read the volume under discussion.

Writing Sport Review

Anybody who undertakes to write about sports must have an intimate knowledge of the assignment. The three greatest necessities are accuracy, restraint and decent respect for the language. Sports reviewers invariably pride themselves on being experts. They like to hear and rear about ‘inside’ strategy, just as the literacy gossips endlessly about the famous people on whom characters in a sensational new novel are supposedly patterned. Some games are easier to describe than others- and that depends on the patterns of the sports.

An essentially simple game like baseball is easy to be reviewed. The games play by- play, the result and the reasons for it can be quickly summarized and then documented with a description of the key players. A few other details and the account are complete enough for a post game electronic round up. But the written sports must be different and it must have more details.

Boxing and horse riding have essentially simple patterns and need not be told in too complicated fashion. What matters particularly is the detail that makes the tiny images- blow up. It is clear, therefore, that the patterns of sport reviewing have much to do with the pattern of sports journalism. The big-money sports such as hours racing, boxing, baseball, and football are the ones with the most public appeal in general, professional sports have the widest following, but college sports also attracts millions of followers.

Clarity and Accuracy

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Some principles of news writing you must apply every time you attempt to put words on paper include accuracy, brevity, clarity, coherence, emphasis, objectivity and unity. Accuracy If a writer has to pick one principle that should never be violated, this should be the one. To fall down in this area is to discredit your entire writing effort. As a reporter, you will be working with facts. These facts will involve persons, places and things. They will involve names, ages, titles, rank or ratings, addresses and descriptions. You will work with facts that are both familiar and unfamiliar to you. You cannot afford to be casual in your approach to facts.

Your readers will often judge on what you say and how you say it. An easy way to lose the public’s respect and confidence is by being careless in your handling of facts. When you send a story to a newspaper, the editor depends on you for accuracy in every fact. The news release heading that appears on every story you distribute means the information it contains is reliable and has been approved officially by the source. A mistake in a news story implies that the source is careless and undependable. Datelines tell when and where the story is written and should appear on all stories written for release. In the text of the story, when and where may refer to the dateline. Attribution relates to accuracy. It means that you name the person who makes any statement that may be challenged.

Good quotations liven a story, give it color and aid in development of coherence. Attribution also ensures that the reader does not get the impression the statement is the writer’s personal opinion. However, attribution should never be used in a story merely to flatter a person by publicizing his or her name. Brevity- The question is often asked, “Should I be brief in my writing or complete?” By all means, be brief, but not at the expense of completeness. The key is to boil down your writing and eliminate garbage. A compact piece of writing is frequently much stronger than a lengthy story. Clarity- Nothing is more discouraging than reading an article and then realizing that you do not know what you read. A similar frustration arises when you are trying to follow directions on assembling a toy, particularly when the instructions read, “...even a 5-year-old can assemble this toy,” and you cannot do it, because the directions read as if they were written in a foreign language. Assume that if there is any chance of misunderstanding, readers will misunderstand. Reread what you have written looking for points that could lead to readers’ misunderstanding.

Credibility is indeed the very life-blood of the press, no matter which government is in power. Journalism is an awesome responsibility, which rests on the shoulders of journalists because in the final analysis they are the custodians of the freedom of 92 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

: Reporting Techniques & Skills press. If they prefer careerism to standing up for their rights, they are letting down their profession. Unfortunately, journalists are inclined to accept many favors from government and therefore, their news stories will ultimately favor that particular government.

5.7. New paradigm features

 Journalism, have a role in society to link the individual to the world. The journalists need to give the audience a sense of what it is to be in the place they are reporting and connected to the world.  Our audience is diverse and complex. So there needs to be a consciousness of diversity: not just in terms of race and gender but also class, rural/urban and youth/aged.  Journalism must emphasize context; interpretation; research; investigation; complete reporting and analysis.  The journalists must foreground the storyteller the individual and the media organization.  They should respect the audiences and engage in dialogue.  In our use of sources the journalists should move beyond “the authorities”. Audiences are also sources. They must remember to foreground and situate who the sources are.  Ownership: symbolically the audience needs to feel they “own” the medium.  Ownership: economic -this needs to be diverse and needs participation by all stakeholders in media.  Control and structures within media organizations – there should be respect for storytellers and storytelling and these should be given status and compensation. From this we drafted the policy statement which reads: “In recognition of our role in society as storytellers; as the link between citizens and the world; we strive to promote:  Stories, told in a multiplicity of voices that are well researched; conceptualized; analytical; interpretive; in dialogue with, are considered respectful.

Part – III

6.1. Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images,

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: Reporting Techniques & Skills and in some cases to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography such as documentary photography, street photography or celebrity photography by the qualities of:

Timeliness — the images have meaning in the context of a published chronological record of events. Objectivity — the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict. Narrative — the images combine with other news elements, to inform and give insight to the viewer or reader.

Photojournalists must make decisions instantly and carry photographic equipment, often while exposed to the same risks war, rioting, etc. that are faced by text -only journalists. The fact that they rarely have the option to stand back or wait until the dangerous parts of an event are over means they may take even more risks.

Photojournalism as a descriptive term often implies the use of a certain bluntness of style or approach to image-making. The photojournalist approach to candid photography is becoming popular as a unique style of commercial photography. For example, many weddings today are shot in photojournalism style resulting in candid images that chronicle the events of the wedding day.

Sometimes a photograph says what an entire news report cannot. Whether it's a riot-stricken city or people displaced by natural calamities, it is often the photojournalist who braves his surroundings for that perfect frame.

A great journalist cares about people and an ideal world. A great journalist can approach a topic as vast as the universe and make it simple and interesting to both Einstein and the new immigrant, who is trying to learn the language.

The written word has power. With skill, reporters can expose the dark deeds of the world and bring them into the light. However, journalism is limited to non- apathetic, monolinguistic people with some time to kill and a few neurons still firing. Enter photojournalism. It destroys almost all barriers. Justice can draw its sword in the time it takes an eye to scan an image. An image has no age, language or intelligence limits.

6.2. What is a photojournalist?

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A journalist tells stories. A photographer takes pictures of nouns people, places and things. A photojournalist takes the best of both and locks it into the most powerful medium available - a single frozen image.

Photojournalists capture "verbs." This sounds simple, but a room of professional photographers was dumbfounded by this realization. Even after a full-length lecture with documentation and visual evidence, half of the photographers still had no clue what the difference was."So, what's the difference between photography and photojournalism?" "Verbs!"

Although photojournalists can take properly exposed and well composed photographs all day long, they hunt verbs. They hunt them, shoot them and show them to their readers. Then, they hunt more.

A photojournalist has thousands of pairs of eyes looking over his shoulder constantly. The readers are insistent: "What are they doing?" "What did you see?" and "What happened?"

To tell a story, a sentence needs a subject, a verb and a direct object. News photos need the same construction. Photojournalists tell stories with their images. Also, words are always used in conjunction with photojournalist's images.

The words below a photo are called a cutline. One has to write the cutlines that go with most of my images. At many newspapers, photographers provide names and nothing else. They don't write cutlines because they sometimes can't write a lead for a story. To be a photojournalist, we must understand the relationship between the image and these basic elements of language.

The girl hits or misses the ball.

There are no other options. The girl is easy to photograph. The ball is easy to photograph. The verb is the hard part.

As a servant of the citizens, it's the photojournalist's OBLIGATION to capture the entire sentence involved in EVERY event. There are no excuses. It's hit or missed. Some photographers don't care. They have a picture of the bat. "Hey, that's what tried to hit the ball." They just don't get it.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills reporters. This responsibility is paramount to a photojournalist. At all times, we have many thousands of people seeing through our eyes and expecting to see the truth. Most people immediately understand an image.

In today's world of grocery store tabloids and digital manipulation of images, the photojournalist must still tell the truth. The photojournalist constantly hunts for the images or verbs, which tell of the day -to-day struggles and accomplishments of his community. These occurrences happen naturally. There is no need to "set up" reality. There is no need to lie to a community that bestows its trust.

The photojournalist simply wants to hang around, be forgotten and wait for the right moment. Then, the hunt begins anew. Like the police officer or firefighter, the photojournalist's concern is his community even if that means sacrificing comfort or life. Many photojournalists die every year in the process of collecting visual information, which lets the public know of atrocities, dangers and the mundane.

6.3. What makes a photojournalist different from a photographer?

Photographers take pictures of nouns people, places and things. Photojournalists shoot action verbs "kicks," "ex plodes," "cries," etc.. Photojournalists do shoot some nouns. These nouns can be standard photos of people portraits, places proposed zoning areas or construction sites and things name it. However, the nouns we seek still must tell a story.

Assignments and image holes

Assignments are honored on a first-come basis with exceptions. Once a section has its initial image quota, priority shifts to another section until each section is "safe." Then additional images are collected for future issues. Primarily, editorial news judgment is applied to image priority murder is more important than other planned occurrences. However, unlike text -based reporters, visual reporters must be on location when events occur. Therefore, events with flexible times fall lower on a fixed priority scale, but have a greater overall editorial priority and may bump other items under time restrictions.

Additionally, anything with front page potential usually has priority over section front and inside images.

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In a newspaper, the loose shooting priorities may be as follows:  Breaking news murders, hostages, natural disasters, major wrecks, etc.  General news funerals, courts, perp walks, dignitary visits, etc.  Photo essays  Major feature events  Sporting events  Festivals  Educational events  Feature photos  Advertising non -spec.  Illustrations  Mug shots  Spec. items  "Photo ops" and other garbage to make a singular reader happy. Consequently, additional enthusiasm and effort goes toward potentially competitive images more than non-competitive images.

Photography is the process of making pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium, such as a sensor or film. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed exposure. The most common process is done through mechanical, chemical or digital devices known as cameras.

The word comes from the Greek words phos "light", and graphis "stylus", "paintbrush" or "re presentation by means of lines" or "drawing", together meaning "drawing with light." Traditionally the product of photography has been called a photograph. The term photo is an abbreviation; many people also call them pictures. In digital photography, the term image has begun to replace photograph the term image is traditional in geometric optics.

6.4. Uses of Photography

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Photography gained the interest of many scientists and artists from its inception. Scientists have used photography to record and study movements, such as Eadweard Muybridge's study of human and animal locomotion in 1887. Artists are equally interested by these aspects but also try to explore avenues other than the photo-mechanical representation of reality, such as the pictorialist movement. Military, police and security forces use photography for surveillance, recognition and data storage. Photography is used to preserve memories of favorites and as a source of entertainment.

In its simplest definition, a composition is a combination, or arrangement, of elements. A photographic composition is the arrangement of visual elements and as such is the product of a photographer's vision and their skill in seeing, identifying, arranging, and framing the finished image. This is a clearly distinct skill from those necessary to successfully operate a camera or calculate exposure.

In general, good pictures result from careful attention to some basic elements of composition, together with appropriate lighting and an interesting subject. There is, however, no "right" way to take a picture. Three photographers recording the same scene may create equally appealing photographs with entirely different composition.

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Reporting Techniques & Skills for advertising, illustration, display, and record-keeping. Press photography is for newspaper and magazine illustrations of topical events and objects. Photography is used at several levels in the graphic arts to convert original photographs or other illustrations into printing plates for high-quality reproduction in quantity. Industrial photography includes the generation and reproduction of engineering drawings, high-speed photography, and many other forms of technical photography, which can aid in the development, design, and manufacture of various products. Aerial photography is used for military investigation and mapping, civilian mapping, urban and highway planning, and surveys of material resources. Biomedical photography is used to reveal or record biological structures, often of significance in medical research, diagnosis, or treatment. Photography is widely applied to preparing projection slides and other displays for teaching through visual education.

Photography is one of the most important tools in scientific and technical fields. It extends the range of vision, allowing records to be made of things or events which are difficult or impossible to see because they are too faint, too brief, too small, or too distant, or associated with radiation to which the eye is insensitive. Technical photographs can be studied at leisure, measured, and stored for reference or security. The acquisition and interpretation of images in scientific and technical photography usually requires direct participation by the scientist or skilled technicians.

6.4.1 Elements of Photography

Photography gained the interest of many scientists and artists from its inception. Scientists have used photography to record and study movements, such as Eadweard Muybridge's study of human and animal locomotion in 1887. Artists are equally interested by these aspects but also try to explore avenues other than the photo-mechanical representation of reality, such as the pictorialist movement. Military, police and security forces use photography for surveillance, recognition and data storage. Photography is used to preserve memories of favorites and as a source of entertainment.

In its simplest definition, a composition is a combination, or arrangement, of elements. A photographic composition is the arrangement of visual elements and as such is the product of a photographer's vision and their skill in seeing, identifying, arranging, and framing the finished image. This is a clearly distinct skill from those necessary to successfully operate a camera or calculate exposure.

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In general, good pictures result from careful attention to some basic elements of composition, together with appropriate lighting and an interesting subject. There is, however, no "right" way to take a picture. Three photographers recording the same scene may create equally appealing photographs with entirely different composition.

6.4.2. Point of Interest

Identify a primary point of interest before taking the picture. When you’ve determined which area is the most important to you, you can compose to emphasize it. Studying advertising photographs is a good way to get acquainted with emphasis in composition.

Simplicity Be sure that only the things you want the viewer to see appear in the picture. If there are numerous objects cluttering up the background, your message will be lost. If you can’t find an angle or framing to isolate your subject, consider using depth of field control to keep the background out of focus.

Contrast A light subject will have more impact if placed against a dark background and vice versa. Contrasting colors may be used for emphasis, but can become distracting if not considered carefully.

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Balance Generally, asymmetric or informal balance is considered more pleasing in a photograph than symmetric formal balance. In other words, placing the main subject off-center and balancing the "weight" with other objects smaller or lower impact will be more effective than placing the subject in the center.

Framing A "frame" in a photograph is something in the foreground that leads you into the picture or gives you a sense of where the viewer is. For example, a branch and some leaves framing a shot of rolling hills and a valley, or the edge of an imposing rock face leading into a shot of a canyon. Framing can usually improve a picture. The "frame" doesn’t need to be sharply focused. In fact if it is too sharply detailed, it could be a distraction.

Viewpoint You can often change a picture dramatically by moving the camera up or down or, stepping to one side. One of the best ways to come up with a prize-winning photograph is to find an "unusual" point of view.

Direction of Movement When the subject is capable of movement, such as an animal or person, it is best to leave space in front of the subject so it appears to be moving into, rather than out of, the photograph.

Diagonals Linear elements such as roads, waterways, and fences placed diagonally are generally perceived as more dynamic than horizontals.

Rule of Thirds Last, but not least, is something called the "rule of thirds." This is a principle taught in graphic design and photography and is based on the theory that the eye goes naturally to a point about two-thirds up the page. Also, by visually dividing the image into thirds either vertically or horizontally you achieve the informal or asymmetric balance mentioned above.

Although there are many ways a photograph can be composed effectively by basing it on the use of "thirds," the most common example is the placement of the horizon line in landscape photography. If the area of interest is land or water, the horizon line will usually be two-thirds up from the bottom. On the other hand, if 101 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills the sky is the area of emphasis, the horizon line may be one-third up from the bottom, leaving the sky to occupy the top two-thirds.

6.5. Role of Visualizations

It has been said that a really good photographer can make a picture with a pinhole camera made from a shoe box. Currently, a good photographer can make a good image of anything that he can see. But seeing requires an "eye." One has to "see" the picture before the shutter is released. Not everyone sees the subject in the same way, and not everyone can see the picture. But most people can learn to "see" through training and experience. It is a slow process that has its own reward.

The point in "seeing" is well illustrated when we come upon an interesting subject. The immediate reaction is to make several exposures on the spot. But it is far better to pause and examine the subject from different points of view, from different angles, and to walk around it if it is not too big or at least to view it over 180 degrees.

Observe the lighting as you change positions; observe the foreground, the background, and the composition. Use a punched out ready mount for framing, and by moving it back and forth you will know how long a lens you need. This is where the zoom lens is better since you can fill the frame exactly without moving. Then, with the camera on a tripod, make your exposure. Do not hand hold; the best lens will not produce a critically sharp image if there is the slightest movement of the camera.

How many slides of the same subject do you need? Two or three at the most if they are intended for competition. It is quality, not quantity that counts. The latter is a waste of film. It has been heard about people bragging that they shot 60 rolls of film on a 12-day trip. That is five rolls per day, 180 exposures. Certainly there were not 180 subjects; so many shots had to be made of each subject. It is true that we are often advised to take lots of film, twice as much as we think we need. But that does not mean that we should use all of it. It is simply insurance that we do not run out of film.

Bracketing is good insurance for the best results in difficult lighting situations, but hardly necessary for everything. However, it is good photography to make more than one shot of a subject from different angles and at different image sizes with a zoom lens.

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What about indoor workshops and home setups where the photographer has complete control over everything? Visualization plays an important part in still life photography as well. We usually visualize the image before setting up the subject and photographing it. Many great photographs have been made this way. Another technique is to create a subject from workshop materials.

Visualization means to form a mental image. Please note that there is no such word as pre-visualization. When you have complete control there is no need to bracket exposures. To do so shows uncertainty of technique.

The art of seeing extends also to competition, both in the camera club and in other competitions, including international exhibitions, where some judges are long on "rules" and short on creativity; long on triteness; short on constructive criticism and weak on aesthetics. Have you heard a judge say "I don't know what this is" when an abstract, creative image appears on the screen, such as crystals? He/she is at a loss for words. At least the judge could comment on compositional elements such as line, color and mass. New concepts appear from time to time and represent progress. We must be on the alert for them and be objective and free from bias.

Cameras at the top of the line are expensive precision instruments for both advanced amateur and professional photographers. Such cameras should not be bought for status symbols. When all is said and done about photography, precision cameras are still only sophisticated tools. Less expensive cameras can produce equally good photographs for the average worker. A skillful, creative and aesthetic person is required in order to utilize the camera's features to full advantage. Simply pointing and shooting, letting the camera do the rest automatically often does not produce prize winning images. The camera does not think, but is the tool of the thinking photographer who can formulate in his/her mind a superior image.

Photography is a language. Like the written or spoken word, photography has its own vocabulary and its own grammar. Photography might be called an art of selection. A photographer works with a vocabulary made up of the visual elements that exist all around us. Anything we see can be a visual element.

The grammar of photography is the order in which visual elements are selected, isolated, related to other elements, or otherwise emphasized in a photograph. The choice and arrangement of visual elements are techniques a photographer uses to communicate an idea.

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6.6. Photo Editing in newspaper

Photo editing is an art and craft for effective communication with the help of journalistic photographs by selection, cropping, enlarging blowing up, reducing, sizing, retouching, reproduction, insetting, grouping, clubbing, etc for appeal presentation.

Selection: selection of a photo is an extremely important job, as the valuable space available in the newspaper should in no way, be wasted. The selected photograph should be able to depict a scene and to follow the old slogan that ‘a picture speaks more than a thousand words’. If the picture provided by the photographer, provides nothing to the understanding of the reader, it should be rejected.

In some pictures, the emotions are very well captured by the photographer and in some both the pictures and words will provide perfect combination. A creative and capable picture editor, experienced in visual communication, provides necessary guidance for successful use of pictures. Small and local newspapers usually turn to the photographer for advice, but mostly it is the news editor or copy editor who makes the decision.

Selection procedure may differ from newspaper to newspaper. Some allow the photographer to make the decision of selecting the photos and the pictures submitted by him/her are considered for publication. Some newspaper work closely both with the photo editor and the photographer to make the best selections.

Cropping: this process involves the cutting of the unwanted part of a photograph. Earlier the photographs provided by the photographers were either selected or completely rejected but these days a photographer has the tools to select the relevant content of a photo while the rest is cropped off.

Enlarging: also called as blowing up, involves the procedure of enlarging a photograph. Some photos are very small in size, but of great relevance and value to the news story. Such photos need to be enlarged or blown-up.

Reducing: it’s just the opposite of enlarging. Both the newspapers and the magazines run into space crisis and at these times some photographs needs to be reduced in size so as to be accommodated on the page. Reducing will mostly depend on the relevance, importance and degree of news value.

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Sizing: the sizing of a picture should be preferably determined by the value of the photograph and not by the space available. Many a times, the newspaper editor tries to reduce a photograph to fit a space and destroy the impact of the photo in the process. It is obvious that a photograph of about 10 people will be ineffective in a two-column photo and thus this photo will need at least three columns.

The biggest danger while sizing a photo is to make it appear too small. A skillful and rational photo editor will opt for a three-column photo if given a choice between two columns and three-column space.

Sizing of any picture is very significant job, but sizing of pictures on multi- photograph packages is especially significant. In such packages, one photograph should be dominant. These multiple pictures allow the photo editor a lot of flexibility that may not be available in single-photo situations. Dramatic size contrast is an effective device to use in multi-picture packages. A photo editor trained in visual communication understands the usefulness of reversing normal sizing patterns for added impact.

Retouching: it is a process of toning down or eliminating extraneous distractions within the frame. Retouching can improve some pictures. It can be accomplished with an airbrush, an instrument that applies a liquid pigment to a surface by means of compressed air. Retouching can also be done by brushing on a retouching liquid or paste or by using retouching pencils of varying colours.

Retouching should be done so minutely and meticulously that the meaning and content of the picture are not changed. Retouching a picture to change its meaning is unethical as changing a direct quotation to alter the meaning of a speech.

Reproduction: there are four main mechanical processes of reproduction. These processes are 1 metal engraining 2 plastic plates 3 screened positives 4 windows and photo negatives.

Insetting: insetting is an innovative and creative way of photojournalism. For example, there was some fatal incident at a particular city. The people affected by the incident are shown in the picture. At the same time, a map of the city is inserted in the picture indicating where that particular city is located in the country.

Grouping: when two or three or even more photographs are joined without overlapping one another, the process is called grouping.

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Clubbing: clubbing is a very creative, imaginative and innovative way with a sense of graphics. The photojournalist moves through four steps in handling a story:  Idea generation  Planning  Observation  Writing captions

The photojournalist develops an idea or concept, decides on the appropriate lenses, speed and aperture and selects locations from where to shoot; decides when to shoot, and then does the darkroom work that will enhance to story. For a feature, the photojournalist moves carefully and deliberately through these stages on a breaking news event, the thinking and the decisions come quickly and instinctively.

If the camera does not tell the truth, skepticism about the media arises in the minds of readers. A picture may be striking and it may be narrative. But if it conveys a false or distorted impression it would be better left unpublished. Picture editors usually will select the picture showing the figures more favorably.

6.7. INDIA'S TOP PHOTO JOURNALISTS

Pablo Bartholomew born 1955 is an award - winning Indian photojournalist. Pablo Bartholomew is an independent photographer based in New Delhi, India. He is noted for his photography, as an educator running photography workshops, and as manager of a software company specializing in photo database solutions and server-based digital archiving systems like Net photograph.

Represented by Gamma Liaison for over 20 years, he worked as a photojournalist recording societies in conflict and transition. His works have been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Business Week, National Geographic and GEO, amongst other prestigious magazines and journals. Bartholomew then began photographing people in transition in different parts of the world.

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He has held a number of fellowships, including one from the Asian Cultural Council, New York 1991, to photograph Indian immigrants in the USA, and one from the Institute of Comparative Studies in Human Culture, Norway 1995, to photograph the Naga tribes in India. Between 2001 and 2003 he ran a photography workshop for emerging photographers in India with the support of the World Press Photo Foundation in Amsterdam. Among his photo essays are "The Chinese in Calcutta," "The Indians in America," and "The Naga Tribes of Northeast India". Pablo Bartholomew at the age of 19 won the World Press Photo award for his series on Morphine Addicts in India 1975 and the World Press Photo of the Year for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy1984.

Some pictures from ‘Morphine Addicts in India’ 1975)

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N. Thiagarajan 1933 - 2008 was an Indian photojournalist and photographer who described himself as "a pictorial photojournalist."From 2002 to 2004 he was a member of the Press Council of India but it was in the field, as a practicing photojournalist, and later as photo-editor, that N. Thiagarajan made his name.

For many years he worked for The Hindustan Times but spent time at The Hindu, Sport and Pastime and the Times of India."I have always said that a photojournalist or a journalist should be committed to journalism, but should not be a ‘committed journalist’. Like many embedded war photographers or correspondents,” he said, famously.

His big break came in 1955 with the visit to India of the Soviet leadership, Nikita Khrushchev and his Prime Minister Nikolai Bulganin. He went on to photograph many of the great names of world politics, including Fidel Castro, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. His coverage of the 1971 war, in Bangladesh, where Kishore Parekh and Raghu Rai were also active, and the Bhopal gas tragedy are widely remembered.

He also wanted to move away from portraying India in a negative manner, as a land of beggars and snake charmers. "I want to show that real India exists far away from all of this. The rich cultural heritage and the diversity of the country is what I wanted to portray in my images," he said. His legacy is his body of work, family and the Academy of Visual Media, which promotes photography and art.

Altaf Qadri born in Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, is an outstanding photojournalist of his generation. Altaf studied science at Kashmir University and began his working life as an engineer before he took photography as a profession. It was not long before Altaf gained his first freelance assignment and, in 2001, he became a staff photographer on a local newspaper. In 2003, he joined the "European Press photo Agency", for which he provided extensive coverage of the conflict in Kashmir till May 2008 and joined "The Associated Press" in September 2008. His photographs and stories from events in Kashmir have appeared in newspapers around the globe including Time, The Guardian, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Washington Post and The Times among others. He has had many exhibitions in several cities like, Los Angeles, Washington DC, San Francisco, New Mexico, Cambodia, Houston, New York, Beijing, France, New Delhi and Mumbai.

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 Winner of First place in General News Story category in India Press Photo Contest 2008 by The Indian Express Ramnath Goenka Foundation  Winner of the All Roads Photography Program by National Geographic Society for the year 2007.  His photo story titled Kashmir: Paradise in Pain won the bronze prize in the War & Disaster News category in the China International Press Photo CHIPP) Contest 2007.  First Prize in "One Weeks Work" category by Pictures of the Year International POYi 2007.  His picture of Kashmir village children playing cricket gave him the First prize in Sports Action and Feature category in the ‘India Press Photo 2006 by The Indian Express Ramnath Goenka Foundation.  Outstanding Award in Spot News at the 2nd China International Press Photo Contest CHIPP) 2006.  Outstanding Award in General News at the 2nd China International Press Photo Contest CHI PP) 2006.

Raghu Rai born 1942 is an Indian photographer and photojournalist. Rai became a photographer in 1965, and a year later joined the staff of The Statesman, a New Delhi publication. In 1976, he left the paper and became a freelance photographer. From 1982 up until 1992, Rai was the director of photography for India Today. He has served on the jury for World Press Photo three times.

Raghu Rai took up photography in 1965, and the following year joined "The Statesman" newspaper as its chief photographer. Rai left "The Statesman" in 1976 to work as picture editor for "Sunday," a weekly news magazine published in Calcutta. Impressed by an exhibit of his work in Paris in 1971, Henri Cartier- Bresson nominated Rai to join Magnum Photos in 1977. Rai left "Sunday" in 1980 and worked as Picture Editor/Visualizer/Photographer of "India Today", India’s leading news magazine, during its formative years. From 1982 to 1991, he worked on special issues and designs, contributing trailblazing picture essays on social, political and cultural themes, many of which became the talking point of the magazine.

Rai has specialized in extensive coverage of India. He has produced more than 18 books, including Raghu Rai’s Delhi, The Sikhs, Calcutta, Khajuraho, Taj Mahal, Tibet in Exile, India, and Mother Teresa. His photo essays have appeared in many of the world’s leading magazines and newspapers including Time, Life, GEO, The New York Times, Sunday Times, Newsweek, The Independent, and the New Yorker.

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For Greenpeace, he has completed an in-depth documentary project on the chemical disaster at Bhopal in 1984, and on its ongoing effects on the lives of gas victims. This work resulted in a book and three exhibitions that have been touring Europe, America, India and Southeast Asia since 2004, the 20th anniversary of the disaster. Rai hopes that the exhibition can support the many survivors through creating greater awareness, both about the tragedy, and about the victims – many who are still uncompensated – who continue to live in the contaminated environment around Bhopal. He has served three times on the jury of the World Press Photo and twice on the jury of UNESCO's International Photo Contest. Awards:-  Padmashree’ in 1971  National Geographic cover story “Human Management of Wildlife in India” won him widespread critical acclaim for the piece. 1992  Photographer of the Year from USA 1992

Subhash Sharma is an award winning freelance photographer based in Mumbai, India contributing to various publications, specializing in humanistic and documentary photography. His photographs are regularly published in photographic journals, illustrative books and magazines like TIME magazine USA, Nikkei Japan, Venerdi Italy, The Globe and Mail Canada, Quebec Science, IEEE Spectrum USA, Courier International Paris, The National Newspaper Abu Dhabi, Hindustan Times, Marwar magazine, G2 magazine, ROUGH Travel Guide to India etc. To capture the Magic of everyday life, the day to day existence of ordinary unimportant people who despite their hardships face life with utmost dignity and courage, photographing them in their daily environment and circumstances is what gives him the utmost joy and fulfillment.

A mechanical engineer by qualification, he discovered photography at an early age. While he was studying for his M.B.A. degree, he realized that his creative self was not at all satisfied. He then left the course to give all his time to his love for photography, which is now his passion.

His first book titled “Digital Glimpses of India” was also widely received and appreciated. His next book “The Land of The Holymen “is currently under print and explores the lifestyle of the Naga Sadhus Naked saints Of India. A sensitive artist, Subhash Sharma is not only inspired by the works of photographers but also painters, poets, ancient Indian art and philosophy, and filmmakers.” There are

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Reporting Techniques & Skills always many sources of inspiration for the one who wants to create. It is just a matter of sensing it and reacting to It.” he says. Awards-  2008: 1st prize INDIAN PRESS PHOTO AWARD, sports feature story category.  2006: 1st prize HUMANITY PHOTO AWARD, CHINA, traditional sports Category sponsored by UNESCO.  2005: 2nd place in the United Nations, Switzerland WHO ICF International Photo Contest themed

Other India’s Photojournalists • Ramnath Goenka IPP Picture of the Year Award 2006: Vipin Pawar DNA • Spot News Single) Amit Dave Reuters • General News Single) Aziz Bhutta Rajasthan Patrika • General News Picture Story Rafiq Maqbool Associated Press • Sports Action Feature Single) Altaf Qadri European Press Photo Agency • People in the News Single) Prashant Nadkar The Indian Express • People in the News Story Yasin Dar, freelancer • Nature and Environment, Single) Ashima Narain, freelancer • Daily Life Single) Manish Swarup, Associated Press • Daily Life Story Sohrab Hura, freelancer • Arts and Entertainment Single) Mahendra Parikh, The Indian Express • Contemporary Issue Single) Arvind Jain The Week • Contemporary Issue Story Samkit S hah freelancer

6.8. Cartooning

A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. Much of this work is humorous, intended primarily for entertainment purposes. Many print cartoons are of the single-panel variety and are published in print media of various kinds. Cartoonists may work in many different formats: single-panel gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels or animation. A cartoonist traditionally developed rough sketches into finished pencil drawings and then, for reproduction purposes, completed the artwork in black ink, using either a brush or a metal-nibbed pen. Today, cartoonists increasingly work in digital media.

Cartooning that is an art which was introduced in India by the British, and has come a long way. Today, cartooning is an integral part of every newspaper. A cartoonist has to be alert and sensitive. 112 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

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While photojournalists in India once saw their job as a source of livelihood, today they understand their social, political and moral responsibilities as professional lens men.

However, the Indian photojournalism scenario has been plagued by lack of opportunity to showcase and recognize talent, lack of motivation and international exposure.

With the credibility of the media challenged time and again, we are still able to identify brave men and women who continue to report events as they are. Cartoons were very much needed in a healthy democracy and politicians should also welcome then so that hey could correct their functioning.

India’s top Cartoonists

Mario De Miranda: Mario, who has held exhibitions in several cities of the world, does not limit himself to cartooning. His sketches and drawings have graced the books of Dom Moraes, Kushwant Singh, Manohar Malgoankar and Ruskin Bond. He has also illustrated children's books for India Book House. His drawings on Bombay, Mysore and Bangalore, are well known.

S. D. Phadnis: He is from a rare species of cartoonists who have not done political cartooning, "The Visual Experience offered by society is rich and universal and I enjoy it more than any thing else," His cartoons have a stylized grace and gentle humor is presented with finesse. Phadnis is a rarity; some of his best cartoons don't have captions. That way he cuts language barriers.

C. J. Yesudasan He drew his first cartoons for Janayugom, the communist party organ, in 1960 and three years later joined the Shanker's weekly He has won about a dozen of awards including The Cartoonist of The Year Award of National Film Academy in 1998, Millennium Award for Best Cartoonist 2000 and Cartoonist of The Decade Award from the Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam.

Pran: It was in 1960s that young Pran thought of creating Indian comics having our own characters and based on local themes. Thus came into life adventurous teenage boy

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Daabu and Prof. Adhikari. But the character that made Pran popular was Chacha Chaudhary.

Chacha Chaudhary is one of the most famous Indian comic characters. He was created by Pran Kumar Sharma in 1969 though he first appeared in the Hindi comic magazine “LotPot” in 1971. His first comic was “Chacha Chaudhary and the Pocket Thief”. Chacha means uncle in Hindi. From then on he has come a long way selling almost ten million copies and being published in ten different Indian languages. Chacha Chaudhary is portrayed as a middle class, old man. Physically he is not strong but his strength lies in his brain. He is always shown as holding a stick and wearing a red turban. His family includes his wife, Bini, more famously known simply as Chachi Hindi for aunt. His companions include Rocket, who is a street dog and Sabu who is a giant from the planet Jupiter. Sabu decided to stay permanently on Earth after tasting delicious food made by Chachi’s hands. When need arises Sabu helps Chacha Ji with his physical strength. Chacha Chaudhary is remarkably different from other superheroes whether Indian or foreign that he does not have a single superpower to his credit except of course his mind about which it is said that “Chacha Ji’s brain is sharper than a needle and works faster than a supercomputer”. Chacha Ji has solved more than eighty cases till now, most of them involving around supernatural or scientific threats. He has a red convertible as his car.

Bapu: His main achievements are the production of an illustrated book of Ramayana for children, one-man art show at National Film Theater in London 1978 and over 250 one -man shows throughout Andhra Pradesh.

Gopulu: Sri Gopulu joined Ananda Vikatan in 1945 under the leadership and inspiration of the great master Sri. Mali. Gopulu started to draw journalists’

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R. K. Laxman: Childhood, for R.K. Laxman, was a happy series of doodles in a large family, and he practiced with chalk on the floors of his house. When he learnt to wield a pen and pencil comfortably, he began to generously supply beards, moustaches and shaggy eyebrows to photographs or sketches, which appeared in books and magazines. Awards and accolades have been showered on Laxman: The Padma Bhushan, Ramon Magsaysay award, numerous doctorates.

Cartoon by R.K. Laxman

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GLOSSARY OF JOURNALISM TERMS

1. ABC: Audit Bureau of Circulation, which has the task of certifying, audited statistics on the circulation of a publication. This is highly respected watchdog body. 2. Add: additions of any kind to news story. If copy sent down to the printing has to be supplemented by additional material, this is done by marking the news copy with the connotation ‘add to’ 3. AP: Associated press 4. Assignment: A particular job given to reporters by editors. Sometimes reporters suggest their own assignments, but they must get an editor's approval before beginning work. 5. Advertisement: A public notice or announcement usually paid for, about things for sale. 6. Angle: To give a specific aspect, bias, or point of view to a story or report. 7. Article: A complete piece of writing on a single subject; it is nonfiction. 8. Attribute - to write the name of source of your information when using a quote, of book, or a part of any copyrighted work. 9. Banner: A headline stretching across all the columns on the top of the front page. 10.Beat: The exclusive territory assigned to reporter or a series of places visited by a reporter to gather news. 11.Body: Part of a story that follows the lead. Also the name of the type in which regular newspaper reading matter is set. 12.Bleed: When an illustration of photograph runs bleed into the edge of the page. Instruction given to printer to follow this direction. 13.Blurb: Publicity material. 14.Broadcast - communicating near and far using radio and television. 15.Byline: A line between the headline and the article, telling who wrote the article. 16.Caption: The copy what is written underneath a photograph 17.Caps: Capital letters 18.Closed question - This type of question doesn't help an interviewee to open up! Closed questions usually prompt a person to answer with simple "yes" or "no". But keep in mind that they can be the right questions to ask at certain points in an interview. They help you pin down important information and get a definite answer. 19.Clip - a segment of audio or videotape that's included in a story that is broadcast on radio or television or on the Web. 116 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

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20.Copy - material for a newspaper or magazine article. 21.Copy Desk: Where copy is edited, cut and headlined. 22.Correspondent: A reported who is out of town on duty, who corresponds with his head office 23.Cover: Covering an event, that is, reporting it in full 24.Credit line: To name the source of a picture, illustration, photograph, giving credit to the person responsible 25.Cartoon or Comic Strip: A drawing, as in a newspaper, caricaturing or symbolizing, often satirically, some event, situation, or person of interest. Or a humorous drawing, often with a caption. 26.Column: An article that appears regularly. It is written by one writer or about a special subject. 27.Communications: A giving or exchanging of information, signals, or messages by talk, gestures, writing, etc. Or a system for sending and receiving messages, as by telephone, radio, etc. 28.Crop: Cutting out nonessential parts of a photograph to sharpen the visual impact 29.Cut line - sentences at the bottom of a photo that describe what happened in it, which usually relate to a story. Also called a caption. 30.Dateline: The place-names at the beginning of a story that tell the reader where the story occurred. A dateline includes the name of a city or town, and sometimes the country. Before high-speed transmission of data, it also included the date, which is why it is called a "dateline." 31.Deadline: A time given to a reporter by which he/she must turn in a story. 32.Desk: The sub editor’s desk 33.Download - to take files from another computer or server for use on your own. 34.Drop: Used to indicate that a letter should be in larger type, it is the first letter in the first paragraph of a story and is set thus for purpose of effective display 35.Draft - Most journalists will write a draft of an article before submitting it. After completing this draft, they will edit their own work for content and mistakes before submitting it to the editor. 36.Dummy: A drawing usually freehand, outlining the position of news stories on a page, along with advertisements and illustrations 37.Editor: A journalist who works closely with reporters, giving out assignments and deadlines and helping them craft their stories. 38.Edition: Remake or revision of some of the pages of a newspaper 39.Editing - the process of reviewing a news story, revising the writing and checking it for mistakes before it is published or broadcast. 117 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

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40.Editorial: A column written by the editor that expresses his or her opinion about a particular subject of interest 41.Embargo: Mandatory deadline for the release of a story 42.Encoding videos - the process of changing video camera footage into digital footage, which can be read and displayed by a computer. i.e. —Real Video material 43.Ethics in Journalism: The code of morals that journalists are supposed to uphold. These include a commitment to revealing the truth, objectively and without being influenced by self-interest, maintaining the secrecy of sources, and attributing what is said to the appropriate source. 44.Exclusive: A story that is not carried by any other newspaper on a particular day, a scoop 45."Execution at Dawn" - These are groups of people lined up against the wall to be shot with a camera of course)! For large groups, cut lines end up being long lists of people from ‘left to right'. 46.Feature: A carefully researched article, that explains, interprets and/or provides background or tells of interesting, unusual occurrences that interest the reader. Feature stories sometimes have emotional, personal, and/or humorous slants. 47.Filler: Small items used to fill out columns where needed 48.Flush: Set copy without para indenting 49.Feature: A feature takes an in-depth look at what's going on behind the news. It gets into the lives of people. It tries to explain why and how a trend developed. Unlike news, a feature does not have to be tied to a current event or a breaking story. But it can grow out of something that's reported in the news. 50.FTP - File Transfer Protocol this is a program used to upload files and WebPages from a personal computer to a server. After an individual creates a website, they must upload transfer) this page to a server so that it can be viewed by others. 51.Headline: The title of the article or column. 52.HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language HTML is the lingua franca for publishing hypertext on the World Wide Web. It is a non-proprietary format, based upon SGML and can be created and processed in a wide range of tools from simple plain text editors to sophisticated authoring tools. HTML uses tags like

and

to structure text into headings, paragraphs, lists, hypertext links and more. 53.Hyperlinks - The text you find on a Web site, which can be "clicked on" with a mouse, which in turn will take you to another Web page or a different area of the same Web page. Hyperlinks are created or "coded" in HTML. 118 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

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They are also used to load multimedia files such as AVI movies and AU sound files. 54.Hypertext -A system of writing and displaying text that enables the text to be linked in multiple ways, to be available at several levels of detail, and to contain links to related documents. It refers to a nonlinear system of information browsing and retrieval that contains associative links to other related documents. The World Wide Web uses hypertext transfer protocol HTTP to provide links to pages and multimedia files. 55.Interview: A meeting in which a person is asked about views, activities; as by a reporter on a radio or a published account. 56.Investigative Reporting: Reporting that requires a careful search to uncover facts and determine the truth. 57.Info-bahn - the information super highway info, as in information and bahn, as in German for highway. 58.*. Jpeg *.gif - These two file extensions are the most common types of picture files. If you were to scan a picture into a computer yourself, you would need to convert the file to one of these formats for use on a web page. 59.Journalism: The work of gathering, writing, editing, and publishing or disseminating news, as through newspapers and magazines or by radio and television. 60.Journalist: Someone who works in the news gathering business, such as a photographer, editor or reporter. 61.Layout: The way the newspaper is designed and laid out on the page. 62.Leading questions - These questions try to lead an interviewee in a certain direction. 63.Lead - the first and most important sentence of the story. It sets up what the story is going to be about. 64.Loaded words - words that leave people with a distinct and often negative impression. That can prompt your source to get defensive or to disagree with your question – and that won't help you get an answer to your question! 65.Mass Media: Those means of communication that reach and influence large numbers of people, especially newspapers, popular magazines, radio and television. 66.Morgue: News library, also known as reference section 67.Newsroom: An office where journalists work. 68.Neutral questions - A neutral question is straightforward. It doesn't have your opinion in it. You aren't assuming you know the answer already. Your question is clear and gets right to the point. In return, you will probably get an informative answer.

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69.News article: It presents, as objectively as possible, the facts about the latest news events. 70.News brief or News Item : The basic structure for a newspaper article. 71.Objectivity: The state or quality of being without bias or prejudice; detached, impersonal. The journalist's job is to report the facts, not colored by his personal opinion; except in the case of opinions or editorials. 72.Obit: Short for obituary, an announcement of a death 73.Opinion: Letters or articles that express the subjective opinion of the writer. 74.Open-ended questions - these questions encourage the person to talk and share their thoughts and feelings on a subject. It allows them to tell their own story without much prompting from the reporter. 75.Off the record - this is what people say when they want the information they tell you to be unmentioned. This means that they don't want their names or quotes to be said to anyone or printed in your story. 76.On the record - the opposite of "off the record". This means that you are allowed to use the person's name and quotes for your story. 77.Online journalism - stories that are written specifically for the Web instead of newspaper, radio, television or magazine. It can include the use of text, photos, graphics, hypertext, audio and video to tell stories. 78.Photographer: A journalist who takes photos. 79.Pulitzer Prize: Pulitzer Prizes are annual awards for achievements in American journalism, letters, drama and music. The prizes have been awarded by Columbia University in New York City since 1917, on the recommendation of a Pulitzer Prize Board. Fourteen prizes are given in journalism. The award is named after Joseph Pulitzer, American newspaper publisher, who endowed the journalism school and the awards. 80.Photography: Each article must be accompanied by an appropriate photograph and caption. Photographs should be colorful, interesting, clear and well composed. 81.Pix: Picture 82.Plagiarism: The act of taking ideas and writings from another and passing them off as one's own. 83.Profile: A short biography of an interesting person. It is usually based on an interview with the person. 84.Proof Reader: One who reads proofs to make corrections in setting and sends it back for revision 85.Pack journalism - this refers to large groups of reporters from different newspapers or broadcasting stations that are all after the same big story. You usually find mobs of journalists outside courthouses, city halls, or at the scene of an accident or disaster, to get comments from the important 120 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills

sources. Compare this to a pack of hungry wolves: they're all hunting one thing, the story, but they're all so hungry that they want to move in to get the biggest piece for themselves. 86.Photographs "Grip and Grin" - These are photos of people receiving awards or diplomas, cutting ribbons or passing out cheques. They just do the ‘handshake' pose and smile at the camera. 87.Publish - to produce or release a written work for the public to see or hear. 88.Put to bed: When all pages have been locked up and the press is ready to print it. 89.Report: An article meant to tell a story and inform. 90.Review: An article that presents a critic's opinion about an artist's work for example: books, plays, movies, television and dance). 91.Reporter: A journalist who gathers information and writes news stories. 92.Real Video - The format of video files displayed on most Internet sites, such as SNN. 93.Running Story: A chronological story of an event topped by successive leads as the news changes 94.Scoop: An advantage gained over competitors by publishing a news item first. Often, a news item itself is a called a scoop when no one else has that news item. 95.Source: A person who gives information to a reporter or editor. 96.Survey: It collects the demographic profile of the reader and their opinions about a subject that has been chosen for study. 97.Subjectivity: The state or quality of being effected by the feelings or temperament of the subject or person thinking. It is extremely important for us to teach our students to distinguish between subjective and objective journalism. Even though it is presented in black and white that does not mean that it is free from the writer's opinion. 98.Scrum - The gathering of reporters around a person who is important to a particular story. When a scrum occurs, all the reporters shout questions to the person in an attempt to further their own story. This situation is much more informal then a Press Conference. 99.Source -a person, written article, book, song, video or film from which to get information 100. Search engine: a program used by an Internet browser to look for specific words and sort them for information. 101. Server - A computer in a network shared by multiple users. The term may refer to both the hardware and software or just the software that performs the service. For example, Web server may refer to the Web server software in a computer that also runs other applications, or, it may refer to a 121 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills

computer system dedicated only to the Web server application. There would be several dedicated Web servers in a large Web site. 102. Syntax - the way those words are put together to make sentences. 103. Target Audience: Who are the readers of the newspaper? The editors and journalists must gear themselves towards writing what will interest this population, in order for the newspaper to be successful. 104. Tail piece: Usually paragraph with finishing touches, a joke at the end, something added on to enliven a column 105. Upload: to transfer files from your computer to another computer or server. 106. Wire: A source of information for Journalists. You may have heard a reporter say that they got their information "off the wire". The wire itself is an up-to-the-minute source of information for other reporters. 107. Wrap-up questions - help you make sure you have all the information you need. You can ask your source questions like this to end the interview and clarify information he has given you during the course of your conversation. 108. Web cast - a video or audio broadcast that's transmitted over the World Wide Web. 109. Wire Service: News Agency 110. Yellow Journalism: The use of cheaply sensational or unscrupulous methods in newspapers to attract and influence the readers. The New York World of 1895 would print the "Yellow Kid" comic strip in yellow ink to attract readers.

SUMMARY

The Press is independent of government. Governments are composed of human beings, and human beings can and do commit wrongs. The press and government should not become institutional partners. They are natural adversaries with different functions, and each must respect the role of the other. Sometimes a free press can be a distinct annoyance and an embarrassment to a particular government, but that is one of the prices of liberty. A free press is responsible to its readers and to them alone.

A Reporter is a type of journalist who researches and presents information in certain types of mass media. Reporters gather their information in a variety of ways, including tips, press releases, and witnessing events. They perform research through interviews, public records, and other sources. The information-gathering part of the job is sometimes called "reporting" as distinct from the production part 122 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills of the job, such as writing articles. Reporters generally split their time between working in a newsroom and going out to witness events or interview people.

Fairness is the foundation of good journalism. Fairness and balance is giving both sides of the picture, while fairness is not taking sides. It also means not providing support to political parties, institutions, communities or individuals, etc through the columns of the newspaper. It is the attribute of a professional reporter and the duty of a sub editor to implement it.

‘Sources of news are everywhere’. A journalist is surrounded by sources of potential news stories ore features. A conversation with a friend, a poster on a wall, an unexpected juxtaposition-all might result in a story if you keep your eyes, ears and mind open. Some sources will be routine points of contact for journalists while others may be one-offs, some will be proactive, approaching journalists because they want news access for their views or events, while other sources may not even be aware that they are sources. A journalist should maintain a contact book having list of people categorized and carrying vital information.

News report writing always starts with the most important fact. When you report on a football game, you do not start with the kick-off; you begin with the final score. A news report has a beginning, middle and an end. News stories in contrast to this will blurt out something and then explain themselves. News reports are mostly active rather than in passive voice and are written in concise language. Paragraphs are short so as to set in newspaper columns. Shorter paragraphs are more likely to keep the attention of readers. Attribution meaning ‘somebody saying something’ is used in the news- reports to present a range of views over which the reporters can appear to remain neutral. Most news reports follow the ‘Kiss and tell’ formula- Kiss standing either for ‘keep it short and simple’ or ‘keep it simple, stupid.’ Complexity, abstract notions, ambiguity and unanswered questions tend to be frowned upon and deleted out of news copy.

Every news story has to have a focus, which could be a person or an event. The story emerges sharper when the focus is clear and blurred when the focus is unclear. A news story is built on a central idea theme), sometimes on two or three central ideas. So it is called as single element story or two-element story or three-element story depending on the number of themes it has. Journalists use many different kinds of frameworks for organizing stories. Journalists may tell some stories chronologically. Other stories may read like a good suspense novel that culminates with the revelation of some dramatic piece of information at the end. Still other stories will start in the present, then flashback to the past to fill in 123 Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping

Reporting Techniques & Skills details important to a fuller understanding of the story. All are good approaches under particular circumstances.

An article will analyze and interpret and provide arguments and counter- arguments. An article will go to the root cause of an event or happening and provide background information. Then it describes the present situation and finally peeps into the future prospects too. Though it is not necessary that an article will follow the past-present-future course. An article may start with an insight into the future and then cover the past and present. It may start with the present situation, go to the past and then look into the future. Also, it may not be necessary that an article should always deal with the past or predict the future.

An Editorial is a statement or article by a news organization, newspaper or magazine that expresses the opinion of the editor, editorial board, or publisher. An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite editorial due to the tradition of newspapers placing such materials on the page opposite the editorial page, is similar in form and content to an editorial, but represents the opinion of an individual contributor, who is sometimes but not always affiliated with the publication. These two terms are sometimes used interchangeably by the public, although it is important to understand that they have different definitions and characteristics.

Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, and in some cases to video used in broadcast journalism.

QUESTIONS FOR PRACTICE

1. What training and qualifications are required to be a news reporter? 2. How to take Notes while reporting? 3. What are the skills required for writing news? 4. What are the newsgathering skills required by a news reporter? 5. What are the various kinds of interviews which a reporter takes while doing reporting? 6. What are the various beats/kinds of reporting? 7. ‘Headline is window to the news’. Comment. 8. What is the importance of a good lead in a news story? 9. What things should be kept in mind while writing letters to the Editor? 10.Write short notes on:  Photojournalism

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Reporting Techniques & Skills

 Inverted pyramid style of news writing  Editorial  Article  Cartooning  Film review

SUGGESTED READING

1. Media and Journalism by J.K. Singh APH Publishing Corporations 2. The Indian Press at the Crossroads by J.P.Chaturvedi Media Research Associates 3. Journalism by Jayapalan Atlantic Publishers & Distributors 4. Professional Journalism by M.V. Kamath Vikas, New Delhi 5. Professional Journalism by Patanjali Sethi Orient Longman, Mumbai 6. Journalism Editing & Reporting by M.H. Syed Anmol Publication Pvt .

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