INTRODUCTION TO JOURNALISM
1 UNIT 1-JOURNALISM
Structure
1.0 Unit Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Meaning and Definition of Journalism 1.3 History of Journalism 1.4 Role of Journalism 1.5 Glossary of Terms used in Journalism 1.6 Summary 1.7 Exercises and Questions 1.8 Further Reading
1.0 UNIT OBJECTIVES
• To understand the meaning of Journalism • To discuss the terms and definitions of Journalism • To study the role of Journalism • To trace the history of Journalism
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Journalism as a craft, a profession and even as a trade or business is over two centuries old. It was made possible by the coming together of a number of technologies as well as several social, political and economic developments. The main technologies that facilitated the development of large-scale printing and distribution of print material were the printing press.
2 1.2 MEANING AND DEFINITION OF JOURNALISM
Journalism is a form of communication based on asking, and answering, the questions Who? What? How? Where? When? Why?
Journalism is anything that contributes in some way in gathering, selection, processing of news and current affairs for the press, radio, television, film, cable, internet, etc. Journalism is a discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying, and presenting news regarding current events, trends, issues and people. Those who practice journalism are known as journalists. Journalism is defined by Denis Mc Quail as ‘ paid writing for public media with reference to actual and ongoing events of public relevance’.
Journalism can also be defined as: 1. The collection and editing of news for presentation through the media 2. The public press 3. An academic study concerned with the collection and editing of news or the management of a news medium 4. Writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation 5. Writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest
The words ‘journalist’, ‘journal’ and ‘journalism’ are derived from the French ‘journal’ which in its turn comes from the Latin term ‘diurnal is’ or ‘daily’. The Acta Diurna, a handwritten bulletin put up daily in the Forum, the main public square in ancient Rome, was perhaps the world’s first newspaper. Later, pamphlets, gazettes, news books, news sheets, letters came to be termed as ‘news paper’. Those who wrote for them were first called news writers and later journalists.
Thus, Journalism can be one of the most exciting jobs around. One goes into work not necessarily knowing what you are going to be doing that day. Journalists get to meet powerful people, interesting people, inspiring people, heroes, villains and celebrities. The chance to know something and to tell the world about it is exciting. One also gets chance to indulge a passion for writing and the opportunity to seek the truth and campaign for justice. And then there’s the excitement of seeing your
3 byline in print, watching your report on television, or hearing your words of wisdom on the radio. As a craft Journalism involves specialization in one area (editorial, design, printing) for the reporters and the sub-editors for instance, it entails writing to a deadline, following routines in a conveyor-belt like workplace, while respecting the divisions of labour in the newsroom and the printing press. In earlier times, knowledge of typewriting and shorthand were the main skills demanded. But today, computing and DTP skills are in demand for all areas of Journalism. As a profession, it is markedly different from other established professions like medicine, law, management or teaching. While the established professions require some specialized educational qualifications and training to be recruited to them, Journalism does not make any such requirement essential. There is no bar to anyone entering the profession, no matter what one’s educational background or professional experience is. From the very beginning, Journalism has been, and still, remain an ‘open’ profession.
Also, journalism has no distinct body of knowledge that defines the profession and marks its relationship with its clients (readers, advertisers, advertising agencies, public relations officials, others). Journalism is a specific approach to reality. However, there is no consensus in the journalist community on this, nor is there any universally code of conduct or code of ethics, and where it does exist, is rarely enforced. Opinions vary on whether journalism is a ‘calling’ public service, an entertainment, a cultural industry motivated by profit, or a tool for propaganda, public relations and advertising. Journalism can be a combination of all these, or each of these separately. Opinions are not so varied about the other professions.
As a business and trade, Journalism involves publishing on a regular basis for profit, with news considered as the primary product. Hence, there is the need to attract advertisers and readers, through marketing strategies, which focus on circulation and readership. CHECK YOUR PROGRESS Q1.Define ‘Journalism’? Q2.How is Journalism different from other professions?
4 1.3 HISTORY OF JOURNALISM
The history of Journalism, or the gathering and transmitting of news, spans the growth of technology and trade, marked by the advent of specialized techniques for gathering and disseminating information on a regular basis that has caused, the steady increase of "the scope of news available to us and the speed with which it is transmitted."
Some relatively recent craze, stimulated by the arrival of satellites, television or even the newspaper, the good news is that the frenzied, obsessive exchange of news is one of the oldest human activities. In early times, messengers were appointed to bring word, carriers to proclaim it and busybodies to spread the word. The need to know helped attract people to crossroads, campfires and market places. It helped motivate journeyers; it helps explain the reception accorded travelers. In most parts of the pre-literate world the first question asked of a traveler was, as it was in Outer Mongolia in 1921, "What's new?" These preliterate peoples were probably better informed about events in their immediate neighborhood than are most modern, urban or suburban Americans.
A similar fascination with news was evident in the Greek and later in the Roman Forum, where to the hubbub of spoken news was added information from daily handwritten newssheets, first posted by Julius Caesar. The bad news is that two of the subjects humans have most wanted to keep up with throughout the ages are –sex and violence. The Nootka of Vancouver Island, for example, would exchange plenty of important news on fishing, on the chief's activities, on plans for war. But they also pricked up their ears at word that someone was having an affair. And the tale of a suitor who tumbled into a barrel of rainwater while sneaking out the window of his lover's house "spread," according to an anthropologist, "like wildfire up and down the coast." There is more bad news. The golden age of political coverage that journalism critics pine over – the era when reporters concentrated on the "real" issues-turns out to have been as mythical as the golden age of politics. In those rare historical moments when politicians deigned to face major problems to allow journalists to
5 comment on them, those comments tended to be wildly subjective, as when the founders of our free press called their pro-British compatriots "diabolical Tools of Tyrants" and "men totally abandoned to wickedness." Samuel Johnson, writing in an era when thinkers like Joseph Addison, Daniel Defoe and Jonathon Swift dominated British periodicals, concluded that the press "affords sufficient information to elate vanity, and stiffen obstinacy, but too little to enlarge the mind."
Yet, journalism had changed. And much doesn't change. It is foolish to pretend that sensationalism and superficiality could simply be expunged from the news. Nevertheless, we can still protest when the news gets too irrelevant, too shallow. We can better educate audiences about its limitations and encourage viewers to change the channel. The desire to keep up with the news seems basic to our species, but that does not mean that in learning about the world we have to limit ourselves to just satisfying that desire. Prehistoric, ancient and Midieval periods
Early methods of transmitting news began with word of mouth, which limited its content to what people saw and relayed to others; accuracy in new depended on the scope of the event being described and its relevance to the listener. Ancient monarchial governments developed ways of relaying written reports, includinng the Roman Empire from Julius Caeser onward, which recorded and distributed a daily record of political news and acts to Roman colonies. After the empire collapsed, news dissemination depended on travelers' tales, songs and ballads, letters, and governmental dispatches.
Rennaissance and the printing press
The invention of the movable type printing press, attributed to Johann Gutennberg in 1456, led to the wide dissemination of the Bible and other printed books. The first newspapers appeared in Europe in the 17th Century. The first printed periodical was the Mercurius Gallobelgicus, first appearing in Cologne, now Germany, in 1592; it consisted of Latin text, was printed semi-annually and distributed in book fairs. The first regularly published newspaper was the Oxford Gazette, first appearing in 1665, which began while the British royal court was in Oxford to avoid the plague in London and was published twice a week. When the court moved back to
6 London, the publication moved with it. An earlier newsbook, the Continuation of Our Weekly News, had been published regularly in London since 1623. The first daily newspaper, the Daily Courant, appeared in 1702 and continued publication for more than 30 years. Its first editor was also the first woman in journalism, although she was replaced after only a couple of weeks. By this time, the British had adopted the Press Restriction Act, which required that the printer's name and place of publication be included on each printed document. Journalism in America
The first printer in Britian's American colonies was Stephen Day in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who began in 1638. The British regulation of printing extended to the Colonies. The first newspaper in the colonies, Benjamnin Harris's Publick Occurences both Foreighn and Domestick, was supressed in 1690 after only one issue under a 1662 Massachusetts law that forbade printing without a license. The publication of a story suggesting that the King of France shared a bed with his son's wife probably also contributed to the suppression.
The first real colonial newspaper was the New England Courant, published as a sideline by printer James Franklin, brother of Benjamin Franklin. Like many other Colonial newspapers, it waS aligned with party interests and did not publish balanced content. Ben Franklin was first published in his brother's newspaper, under the pseudonym Silence Dogood, in 1722, and even his brother did not know.
After James Franklin suspended publication of the Courant, Ben Franklin moved to Philadelphia in 1728 and took over the Pennsylvania Gazette the following year. Ben Franklin expanded his business by essentially franchising other printers in other cities, who published their own newspapers. By 1750, 14 weekly newspapers were published in the six largest colonies. The largest and most successful of these could be published up to three times per week. American Independence
By the 1770s, 89 newspapers were published in 35 cities. "Most papers at the time of the American Revolution were anti-royalist, chiefly because of opposition to the Stamp Act taxing newsprint." Though the tax was imposed on newsprint, not publication itself, Colonial governments could supress newspapers "by denying the stamp or refusing to sell approved paper to the offending publihser." Newspapers flourished in the new republic by 1800, there were about 234 being published.
7 As the 19th Century progressed in America, newspapers began functioning more as private businesses with real editors rather than partisan organs, though standards for truth and responsibillity were still low. "Other than local news, much of the reporting was simply copied from other newspapers, sometimes verbatim. In addition to news stories, there might be poetry or fiction, or (especially late in the century) humorous columns." Newspapers in general remained political with strong bias toward the government; Andrew Jackson started his own newspaper, funnelled government printing work to it, and forced his Washington competition out of business. Rise of the great newspapers
As American cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington grew with the growth of the Industrial Revolution, so did newspapers. Larger printing presses, the telegraph and other technological innovations allowed newspapers to print thousands of copies, boost circulation and increase revenue.
The first newspaper to fit the modern definition as a newspaper was the New York Herald, founded in 1835 and published by James Gordon Bennett. It was the first newspaper to have city staff covering regular beats and spot news, along with regular business and Wall Street coverage. In 1838 Bennett also organized the first foreign correspondent staff of six men in Europe and assigned domestic correspondents to key cities, including the first reporter to regularly cover Congress. Brief History of Journalism in India
Newspaper industry in any country is related to the beginning of printing press and it was Johann Guttenberg who invented printing press in 1455. Thus in India too, the beginning of newspaper is related to the beginning of the press. The Portuguese introduced the printing press in Goa, in 1557. British East India Company brought about the printing press in India and first press was strolled at Bombay in 1674. Ironically, the first printing press was strolled in 1674, yet there was no newspaper being published for another 100years.
William Bolts who was an officer in the company announced a hand written newspaper in 1776. He wrote the newspaper and asked the people to come to his residence to read it. The aim of this newspaper was to inform British Company in
8 India to the news from home and also to bring about the grievances against colonial administration.
The first newspaper to be published in India was ‘Bengal Gazette’ or Calcutta general, which was a weekly newspaper. Later, it was named as ‘Hickey’s Gazette. Hickey declared that he started the newspaper to expose corruption and favoritism of the Company and thus he covered all the inner fights of the company and did not spare even the governor general.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy published out free newspapers magazines in the year 1821, namely sambad kaumudi (Bengali), mirat-ul-akbar (Persian), brahamanical magazine (English) . It was the first time that through these newspapers Raja Ram Mohan Roy tried to cover all the readers in India.
The first newspapers in Bombay were owned and printed by Parsis, who already owned the technological and financial basis for such ventures. Rustomji Keshaspathi printed the first English newspaper in Bombay in 1777. The first vernacular newspaper in Bombay was the Gujarati daily Mumbai samachar, published in 1822 by Fardoonjee Marzban. Although not the first newspaper in an Indian language, Mumbai Samachar is still being published and is India’s oldest newspaper.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS Q1.What developments in the history have helped in the publication of the newspapers? Q2.How could have newspapers helped in India’s Independence?
1.4 ROLE OF JOURNALISM
Disseminators of information? Watchdogs? Interpreters of events? Journalists have many roles to play.
Journalism mainly involves practices of print journalism in general, and newspaper in particular, because newspaper journalism remains a good grounding career in television, radio, magazine and online journalism.
The role of press is to be a watchdog and act as a catalytic agent to hasten the process of socially and economic change in the society. Journalism is the voice of the people about corruption, the government, and the use and misuse of power. It
9 should be noted that Journalism too is part of the political process, craves for power, is made up of people with personal ambitions and aversions, preferences and prejudices. As perhaps the largest advertisers, the government supports and strengthens the press. Both the government and the press represent the ‘power elites’ and therefore reflect their interests. This is why the interests of the poor are rarely on the agenda of public discussions.
The press is so obsessed with politics that even a silly rumor hits the front page. What the Journalism profession urgently needs is creative, investigative and development reporting chiefly on non-political themes like unemployment, malnutrition, exploitation of the poor, miscarriage of justice, police atrocities, development schemes and the like. For example, in India, the Bofors pay-offs, the Harshad Mehta securities scam, the ‘hawala’ payments to top politicians etc are all incidents where follow-up investigations are lacking. Such ‘crisis’ reporting sells newspapers but does little to bring the guilty to book or to educate the public about the context of corruption.
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 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.
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.
10 • 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. CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Q1.Why are journalists called the ‘watchdogs’?
Role of Journalism in society
Journalism's role is to act as a mediator or translator between the public and policymaking elites. The journalist became the middleman. When elites spoke, journalists listened and recorded the information, distilled it, and passed it on to the public for their consumption. The reasoning behind this function is that the public is not in a position to deconstruct a growing and complex flurry of information present in modern society, and so an intermediary are needed to filter news for the masses. Lippman put it this way: The public is not smart enough to understand complicated, political issues. Furthermore, the public was too consumed with their daily lives to care about complex public policy. Therefore the public needed someone to interpret the decisions or concerns of the elite to make the information plain and simple. That was the role of journalists. Public affects the decision making of the elite with their vote. In the meantime, the elite (i.e. politicians, policy makers, bureacrats, scientists, etc.) would keep the business of power running. The journalist's role is to inform the public of what the elites were doing. It was also to act as a watchdog over the elites as the public had the final say with their votes. On the other hand, it is believed the public was not only capable of understanding the issues created or responded to by the elite, it was in the public forum that
11 decisions should be made after discussion and debate. When issues were throughly vetted, then the best ideas would bubble to the surface. Thus, journalists not only have to inform the public, but should report on issues differently than simply passing on information. journalists should take in the information, then weigh the consequences of the policies being enacted by the elites on the public. Over time, this function of journalism has been implemented in various degrees, and is more commonly known as "community journalism." This concept of ‘Community Journalism’ is at the center of new developments in journalism. journalists are able to engage citizens and the experts/elites in the proposition and generation of content. the shared knowledge of many is far superior to a single individual's knowledge and conversation, debate, and dialogue lie at the heart of a democracy. CHECK YOUR PROGRESS Q1.What role does Journalism play in our society?
1.5 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.
12 13 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. 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.Crusade: a newspaper campaign for reform and development 27.Column: An article that appears regularly. It is written by one writer or about a special subject. 28.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. 29.Crop: Cutting out nonessential parts of a photograph to sharpen the visual impact 30.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. 31.Cub: An unseasoned reporter
14 32.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." 33.Deadline: A time given to a reporter by which he/she must turn in a story. 34.Desk: The sub editor’s desk 35.Download - to take files from another computer or server for use on your own. 36.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 37.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. 38.Dummy: A drawing usually freehand, outlining the position of news stories on a page, along with advertisements and illustrations 39.Editor: A journalist who works closely with reporters, giving out assignments and deadlines and helping them craft their stories. 40.Edition: Remake or revision of some of the pages of a newspaper 41.Editing - the process of reviewing a news story, revising the writing and checking it for mistakes before it is published or broadcast. 42.Editorial: A column written by the editor that expresses his or her opinion about a particular subject of interest 43.Embargo: Mandatory deadline for the release of a story 44.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) 45.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. 46.Exclusive: A story that is not carried by any other newspaper on a particular day, a scoop 47."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'. 48.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.
15 49.Filler: Small items used to fill out columns where needed 50.Flush: Set copy without para indenting 51.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. 52.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. 53.Headline: The title of the article or column. 54.Header: The graphic design at the top of each page of the paper that tells you what section of the paper you are in. 55.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. 56.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. They are also used to load multimedia files such as AVI movies and AU sound files. 57.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. 58.Interview: A meeting in which a person is asked about views, activities; as by a reporter on a radio or a published account. 59.Investigative Reporting: Reporting that requires a careful search to uncover facts and determine the truth. 60.Info-bahn - the information super highway (info, as in information and bahn, as in German for highway). 61.*. 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.16 62.Journalism: The work of gathering, writing, editing, and publishing or disseminating news, as through newspapers and magazines or by radio and television. 63.Journalist: Someone who works in the news gathering business, such as a photographer, editor or reporter. 64.Layout: The way the newspaper is designed and laid out on the page. 65.Leading questions - These questions try to lead an interviewee in a certain direction. 66.Lead - the first and most important sentence of the story. It sets up what the story is going to be about. 67.Letter to the Editor: a letter written by a private citizen to convey an opinion regarding a community issue. These are printed in the paper to give the community members a voice. 68.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! 69.Mass Media: Those means of communication that reach and influence large numbers of people, especially newspapers, popular magazines, radio and television. 70.Masthead: This appears on the editorial page, and it lists the names and positions of all individuals on the newspaper, along with guidelines for letters to the editor. 71.Morgue: News library, also known as reference section 72.Newsroom: An office where journalists work. 73.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. 74.News article: It presents, as objectively as possible, the facts about the latest news events. 75.News brief (or News Item): The basic structure for a newspaper article. 76.News hawk: a reporter 77.Nose for news: aptness for sensing news 78.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. 79.Obit: Short for obituary, an announcement of a death 80.Opinion: Letters or articles that express the subjective opinion of the writer.
17 81.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. 82.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. 83.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. 84.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. 85.Pen name: A pen name is a name other than the writer's legal name used as the byline on their written work. 86.Photographer: A journalist who takes photos. 87.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. 88.Photography: Each article must be accompanied by an appropriate photograph and caption. Photographs should be colorful, interesting, clear and well composed. 89.Pix: Picture 90.Plagiarism: The act of taking ideas and writings from another and passing them off as one's own. 91.Profile: A short biography of an interesting person. It is usually based on an interview with the person. 92.Proof Reader: One who reads proofs to make corrections in setting and sends it back for revision 93.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 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. 94.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.
18 95.Publish - to produce or release a written work for the public to see or hear. 96.Put to bed: When all pages have been locked up and the press is ready to print it. 97.Report: An article meant to tell a story and inform. 98.Review: An article that presents a critic's opinion about an artist's work (for example: books, plays, movies, television and dance). 99.Reporter: A journalist who gathers information and writes news stories. 100. Real Video - The format of video files displayed on most Internet sites, such as SNN. 101. Running Story: A chronological story of an event topped by successive leads as the news changes 102. 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. 103. Source: A person who gives information to a reporter or editor. 104. Survey: It collects the demographic profile of the reader and their opinions about a subject that has been chosen for study. 105. 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.) 106. 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. 107. Source -a person, written article, book, song, video or film from which to get information 108. Search engine - a program used by an Internet browser to look for specific words and sort them for information. 109. 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 computer system dedicated only to the Web server application. There would be several dedicated Web servers in a large Web site. 110. Sleuth: reporter specializing in stories involving exclusive investigation 111. Slug: notation placed on copy to identify the story 112. Syntax - the way those words are put together to make sentences.
19 113. 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. 114. Tail piece: Usually paragraph with finishing touches, a joke at the end, something added on to enliven a column 115. Upload: to transfer files from your computer to another computer or server. 116. 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. 117. 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. 118. Web cast - a video or audio broadcast that's transmitted over the World Wide Web. 119. Wire Service: News Agency 120. 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.)
1.6 SUMMARY
Journalism is anything that contributes in some way in gathering, selection, processing of news and current affairs for the press, radio, television, film, cable, internet, etc. The history of Journalism, or the gathering and transmitting of news, spans the growth of technology and trade, marked by the advent of specialized techniques for gathering and disseminating information on a regular basis that has caused, the steady increase of "the scope of news available to us and the speed with which it is transmitted."
In early times, messengers were appointed to bring word, carriers to proclaim it and busybodies to spread the word. The need to know helped attract people to crossroads, campfires and market places. It helped motivate journeyers; it helps explain the reception accorded travelers.
20 1.7 EXERCISES AND QUESTIONS
Q1.Define ‘Journalism’? What role does it plays in our society? Q2.Give a brief account of the history of Journalism in the world. Q3.Write down the names of some journalism terms and explain their meaning?
1.8 FURTHER READING
1.News Writing - George Hough 2.The Professional Journalism - M. V. Kamath 3.The Journalist 's Handbook - M.V. Kamath
21 UNIT 2-NEWS
Structure
2.0 Unit Objectives 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Definition of News 2.2.1 What is News? 2.2.2 Writing news story 2.2.3 Types of News 2.2.4 News structure 2.2.5 Elements of News 2.2.6 Functions of News 2.2.7 News Sources 2.2.8 Structure and Scope of News 2.2.9 2.3 Leads 2.3.1 What is a ‘lead’? 2.3.2 Ideas to write leads 2.3.3 Types of leads 2.3.4 2.4 Headlines 2.4.1 Definition of Headline 2.4.2 Types of Headlines 2.5 Types of News Writing 2.6 Newsroom structure and Role 2.6.1 Desk Management 2.6.2 Editor 2.6.3 Sub-Editor 2.7 Journalist 2.7.1 Role of Journalist 2.7.2 Qualities of a Journalist 2.8 Trends in Modern Journalism 2.9 Summary 2.10 Exercises and Questions 2.11 Further Reading
2.0 UNIT OBJECTIVES
• To define ‘news’ • To discuss the importance and types of news • To know the elements of a news story • To discuss the functions of news and trace various news sources • To know the meaning of a ‘lead’ and ‘headline’
22 • To learn the role and ethics of journalists in our society
2.2 INTRODUCTION
‘Dog bites man isn’t news. Man bites dog is’. So goes an adage probably as old as journalism itself. Like many such sayings, it conceals as much as it reveals. People watch television or read the newspaper because they want to know about the happening and events around them. They want to gather all the news from around the world.
2.2 DEFINITION OF NEWS
2.2.1 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, sudden reversals, ups and downs of fate and facts and follies of the mankind. 2.2.2 Writing a News Story
1. What can I write about? What is news?
23 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's news can be harder.
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. 2.2.3 Types of News
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. 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 gives a journalist a chance to be creative and have fun with the news.
24 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. 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.
While writing a feature, 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 whom 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 the 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
25 something, don't beat around the bush. This is a space for you to rant and roll with as much emotive power as possible. CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Q1.What are the different types of News? 2.2.4 News Structure
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. Below is 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 Yonge St. in downtown Toronto Wednesday afternoon demanding the municipal government provide 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 years ago, Jason W. slept in alleyways... ") 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.
26 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. Thus, 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. CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Q1.An artist is having her first show. Why? What is it that she believes about her art? Is her artistic process rational or from the soul? What does the work look like? Write a news story about it. Q2.Note a lead from any news story in a newspaper. Try to identify the 5Ws in the lead. 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. • 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.
Newsgathering