Unit 2: Chapter 3 [Print Journalism]

•      Magazines Reporting-

•       A magazine is a publication that is issued periodically. It generally contains essays, stories, poems, articles, fiction, recipes, images etc. Magazines are directed at general and special audience, often published on a weekly or monthly basis.

•      Magazines don't necessarily follow a specific format or structure in writing the articles.

•      Newspaper Articles provide information but a magazine article creates an experience. Usually magazines publish features.

•      A magazine article should be a detailed report. It is like a feature and the writer / Reporter has an intention. The author can use his language skill comfortably. The article need not be on a current topic. The tone can be light. It can be conversational.

•      News Agencies’ Reporting-

•      A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to organizations in the news trade. They are also known as wire services or News services.

•      News agencies generally prepare hard news stories and feature articles that can be used by other news organizations with little or no modification, and then sell them to other news organizations.

•      Every news agency copy news story must carry at the top a suitable slug. Generally the slug is one word, which is often the key work in the story.

•      News agencies working process is totally different from newspapers because news agencies work as a news providers to different news channels they are not publishing the news like other Newspapers.

•      Newspaper Reporting-

•      A newspaper is a publication that is issued daily or weekly. It includes local and international news stories, advertisements, announcements, opinions, cartoons, and sports news and television listings.

•      In newspaper reporting it is required to deliver the information on deadline. The basic objective of news writing is to inform the audiences about the actions and events by creating pictures and visuals in the minds of the audiences.

•      Most important 5 Ws and 1 H are very important.

•      Always keep the words short. Always prefers the familiar words, avoid complex words. Always write the same way as you talk. Always write to express, not to impress.

•      An important story need not be long. Use Quotes in order to improve the story.

Unit 2: Chapter 2 [Print Journalism]

Reporting:

•    Reporting is the process through which we go on location or site of the incident and grab the information and make available to the common people.

•      Objective Reporting-

•     Journalism needs to be more objective, accurate and investigative in the way it presents information and relays facts to the public. This objectivity in journalism helps the audience to make up their own mind about a story and decide what they want to believe.

•      The journalist must report only the facts and not a personal attitude toward the facts.

•      Interpretative Reporting-

•      Interpretative reporting puts news in perspective to bring out its significance.

•   The Interpretative reporter gives the reader the background of an event and explains the possible consequences.

•      Most important 5 Ws in factual background are as follow – What, When, Where, Who & Why.

•      For an intelligent newspaper reader, there are few surprises, because the interpretative reports keeps him informed of the consequence of events.

•      Investigative Reporting-

•    Investigative reporting is exposing and reporting corruption. It calls for exceptional courage, a sense of justice and a commitment to the higher values of life.

•      The best kind of Investigative reporting is that which keeps the public interest in mind. It may highlight an injustice, expose corrupt practices or unmask dishonest politicians and Bureaucrats.

•      Investigative journalism is finding, reporting and presenting news which other people try to hide. The job of journalists is to let people know what is going on in the community, the society and the world around them.

•      When a journalist tries to report on matters which somebody wants to keep secret, this is investigative journalism.

•      Good investigative reporters do not let any possible story clues escape. They write them down because they might come in useful later.

Unit 2: Chapter 1 [Print Journalism]

1. News Reporting:

•      Definition-

•      It means the collection or gathering of facts about current events or background material required for a news story or feature.

•      Reporters do it through interviews, investigations and observation. They write the news stories, which are called copies.

•      Beat Reporting-

•      It is the craft of reporting on an issue or particular sector, organization or institution over time. Beat reporters build up a base of knowledge on and gain familiarity with the sector, allowing them to provide insight and commentary in addition to reporting straight facts.

•      Crime Reporting: 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. Crime reporting is usually assigned to one of the junior reporters in a newspaper, it is a highly responsible and specialized job. Eg - There are several types of crime news-murders, fires, accidents, robberies, fraud, blackmail, kidnapping, rape, etc.

•      Court Reporting: Court reporters must understand the judicial process from beginning to end. They should know what happens when a suspect is arrested, charged, tried and sentenced or released. The best way to learn the process is to spend time at the court house.

•   Health Reporting: Health reporter usually informs the public about major epidemics, diseases and their cures, new medical discoveries, medical irregularities, etc. The health reporter in no way should frighten the common man but present remedies and cures for the diseases. Health reporters need to examine the credibility and biases of scientific sources.

•      Civic Reporting: 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. Eg - products liability, medical malpractice, cases involving children, cases involving drugs or medical devices for women etc.

•    Education Reporting: The education reporter has to report education plans, durations, costs, and scholarships of various educational programs started by national and international universities. 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.

•       Sports Reporting: Sports reporters write to appeal to a class of readers who eat, drink and sleep sports. Sports writing is as competitive as the game itself. Reporter’s depth of knowledge is important while commenting on star performers.

Unit 1: Chapter 4 [Print Journalism]

News Sources

•      In journalism, a source is a person, publication, or other record or document that gives timely information. Sources of news are everywhere.

•      Eg - Official records, publications or broadcasts, officials in government or business, organizations or corporations, witnesses of crime, and most importantly involved people.

•      Most sources are not confidential. Research indicates that anonymous sourcing undermines credibility. When a source requests anonymity, they are referred to as a "confidential source".

•      The phrase on the record is used to refer to making an audio or video recording, making a transcription, or taking minutes.

•      ACADEMIC JOURNALS: Research by academics, published in journals is a frequent source of news stories.

•      COMMERCE & TRADE: business organizations can be useful source of news stories or comments about anything from interest rates, shares to shopping.

•      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.

•      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.

•      NEWS RELEASES: News or press releases are point of reference for the journalists while covering an event.

•      Attributions-

•      In journalism Attribution is the identification of the source of reported information.

•      Attribution means to tell your readers or listeners the name and title of the person you interviewed or document you got the information from.

•      Sometimes, attributions can be avoided. This simply means that the information given can be used but the source must not be identified. Individuals can be quoted and depending on the source, their general occupation can be named. For instance, someone may be named as a "senior Justice Department official" or a "spokesman" without the speaker's name.

•      Byline-

•      BY LINE: When the staff reporters or correspondents of the newspaper file news stories, there are three ways of mentioning it. First, credit is given by mentioning the name of the journalist. This is called giving by-line and is used only in special cases when the journalist has done something more than the usual.

•      Second, designation of the person who has filed the story is given. EXAMPLES: Our Special Correspondent, Our Correspondent, Our Staff Reporter, HT Correspondent, etc.

•      Credit Line-

•      CREDIT LINE: Credit line contains information about the source from where the news has been taken for publication. The news may be taken form a news agency and the abbreviated form of the name of the agency is used.

•      When the news has been picked from more than one news agency either the names of all the agencies are given or Agencies is mentioned in the credit line. In some newspapers the name of the agency is given at the end of the news.

•      EXAMPLES: PTI (Press Trust of India), UNI (United News of India), Bhasha (Hindi), Varta (Hindi), AP (Associated Press), Reuter etc.

•      Embargo-

•      Embargoes are typically used by government or corporate representatives working in publicity or public relations, and are often arranged in advance as part of a formal or informal agreement.

•      Sometimes publishers will release advance copies of a book to reviewers with the agreement that reviews of it will not appear before the official release date of the publication.

•      Complex scientific news might also require advance notice with an embargo. Governments also have legitimate reasons for imposing embargoes, often so as to prevent news reports being an unfair or undue influence over votes in legislative bodies.

•      Artists' names and locations of performances are sometimes embargoed pending the official announcement of the scheduled performance tour.

•      It’s a Mandatory deadline for the release of a story. A news embargo is a request by a source that the information or news provided by that source not be published until a certain date or certain conditions have been met.

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Unit 1: Chapter 3 [Print Journalism]

News:

•      Meaning-

•       Anything timely that is interesting and significant to the audience. It is the current happenings that are not ordinary but worth knowing.

•      News makes people curious and surprised. It makes people talk. Eg – Dog bites man is not news but Man bites dog is news.

•      Definition-

•      “News is any accurate fact or idea that will interest a large amount of readers”- Lyle M Spencer.

•      Nature-

•      Lead – The opening paragraph of a news story. It’s function is to summarise the story and garner interest for the story.

•      Body – These are the facts, quotes and incidents that explain the lead. No personal opinions are allowed here. A narrative which helps the story flow. (Inverted Pyramid)

•      Conclusion – Completion of news story by giving audience closure. It also includes some important observation.

•      Elements of News and News Values- They determine the ‘newsworthiness’ of news.

•      Proximity – It makes the story interesting as local news is appreciated by the local audience, rather than news from very faraway places. People wish to learn about the happenings of their towns and cities.

•      Oddity – Something odd or strange attracts readers. Eg – Man bites dog.

•      Conflict – The winner of conflict creates curiosity among people to see it through. Eg – Sports events and competitions.

•      Timeliness – News is a perishable commodity which loses its worth once consumed. Even a delay of seconds may cause news to lose its worthiness.

•      Consequence – People are interested in things which might affect their lives. Therefore news which can affect lives of people is very valuable. Eg – Students will value the news which gives information about doubling of college fees.

•      Human Interest – News which invokes emotions among humans. Eg – Bollywood news.

•      Hard News-

•      News which has great importance and significance. It impacts the life of a nation.

•      It is of immediate importance. Should be brought to the attention of the reads ASAP.

•      It starts with a summary lead and answers all the questions – What, When, Where, Why, Whom and How.

•      Brief and simple in nature for greater understanding. It is timely and serious news.

•      Eg – Election Results, accidents, swearing in of new govt, budget announcement.

•      Soft News-

•      News that interests people but doesn’t have huge significance. Involves subjects of human interest like Sex, Entertainment, Events, Persons, Places, et cetera.

•      It is sometimes sensational in nature. May appear frequently as anchor stories on front page (The Hindu).

•      Journalist can get creative and have fun with the content of news story.

•      Eg – Release of a book, seminars, people reaction about budget, lifestyle stories.

•      News Feature-

•      Deal with both information and facts. In news features, the presentation may be dramatic and major information may be revealed after creating some suspense or after creating a receptive environment.

•      It explores an issue. The most important information is normally not given in the beginning.

•      A good feature is about the people in your community and their struggles, victories and defeats. A feature takes a certain angle and explores it by interviewing the people involved and drawing conclusions from that information.

•      All important pieces of information are covered. These can be given in an imaginative manner using quotes, dialogue and picture making verbs.

•      News features more or less follow the chronological order of storytelling.

•      News Article-

•      An article is an organized way of telling the information which includes a headline, name of the writer/speaker, introduction, body, summary, conclusion etc.

•      If the story is about a natural disaster, a court case, or an important meet taking place to discuss some important social or environmental issues, the article necessarily has timeliness about it as it is time bound and has to carry facts and information that is fresh and has taken place just now.

•      A news article should not give any judgment or remarks from the author or the creator of the story as it is based upon real life facts and situations.

•      A simple article does not need concluding remarks from the writer, and it should be just reporting the facts as they are without being biased or judgmental.

•      Backgrounders-

•      These write-ups bring the readers up to date explaining how, why, and when of the event and issue so far. Backgrounders are more or less an historical presentation of the information and facts.

•      It might spin off a news event or it might appear after the reporter has collected enough information on a topic. It is advisable to write backgrounders in a systematic and planned manner.

•      For a backgrounder the data is generally organized in chronological order. Care should be taken to go into the past as much as possible. Its main purpose is to update and inform.

•      Since the backgrounder contains lot of facts, it has to be written very carefully to make it interesting and readable.

•      Eg - During elections, background information about constituencies, political groups and contestants is very important and every newspaper publishes it.

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Unit 1: Chapter 2 [Print Journalism]

Journalism:

• Definition-

• “Knowledge of the current events is journalism. It involves obtaining the facts, their critical evaluation and appropriate representation of such events”- C.G Muller. Mainly concerned with newspaper. NEWS: North, East, West and South.
• Role of a Journalist-
• A journalist is the person who wants to give a definite direction to the public through his writings published at short intervals”- T.H.S Scott
• Ancient Indian Journalist: Narada: First Journalist on Earth and also known as ancient father of journalism.
• People have the desire to know things. This curiosity is satisfied by the journalists through their writings in newspapers and journals.
• Journalists are the reporters, writers, columnists who write for a newspaper or a magazine.
• Truth – Journalists should always pursue truth in a practical sense. They should also be credible.
• Loyalty – They should maintain public loyalty by working for the public good rather than manipulating people for any third party.
• Verification – Maintaining transparency and objectivity.
• Independent of Bias – Journalist should not be influenced by external forces of culture, religion, et cetera.
• Watchdog – They act as a watchdog to the government officials by exposing corruption and other malpractices.

• Journalists should also:

• Make people aware of the world around them.
• Inform and Educate the audience.
• Promote Art and Culture.
• Entertain the masses.
• Make people sensitive to burning issues.
• Instil good moral values.

• Journalism as a Fourth Estate-

• The Press is the unofficial Fourth institution in any democracy, apart from the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary.
• The Press includes all photographers, journalists, broadcasters, radio announcers, et cetera.
• The Press has immense political influence and power.
• Press protects the ordinary citizens against the tyranny of rulers.
• It is the upholder of rights and freedoms of citizens.
• It is the voice of the people and watchdog of the government.
• Press is the embodiment of Article 19 of Indian Constitution: Freedom of Speech and Expression.

• Citizen Journalism-

• The concept of citizen journalism is basically journalism in the hands of citizens other than professional journalists.

• It is based upon public citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing, and disseminating news and information.

• Social media has empowered the ordinary citizens to take on the role of news reporters. Users are able to express their views and opinions.

• Creating a blog or doing a report on a topic you are knowledgeable on, even though you are not a journalist.

• Commenting on things you find online makes you become a Citizen Journalist by sharing your opinions and others.

• Examples of Citizen Journalism:

• Kennedy Assassination, 1963,

• WTC, 2011,

• Columbia shuttle Disater, 2003.

• It allows citizens to feel more involved in the community by expressing their opinions, engaging with other social media users and contributing their thoughts and knowledge about a subject.

• Penny Press-

• The Penny Press was most famous for its low price, a penny per paper.

• It became popular with the American public because while other papers were priced around six cents, they were able to sell their paper for just a penny.

• The Penny Press is generally considered to have started in 1833, when Benjamin Day founded The Sun, a New York City newspaper.

• Focus on local events, scandals and crime. Ran serialized stories. Human interest stories. Celebrity news. Fashion notes and Jokes.

• The heavy dependence on ‘advertising’ as a major source of revenue was a main reason that the Penny Press was able to sell papers for a lower price than anyone else.

• The Sun was the first popular penny paper.

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Unit 1:Chapter 1 [Print Journalism]

11. Evolution and Growth of Print Journalism in India

William bolts
• First attempt to start a newspaper in Calcutta in 1776 but his efforts to publish newspaper were not approved by the Company

• JAMES AUGUSTUS HICKEY:
• James Augustus Hickey who published the first newspaper In January 29th 1780, It was called the Bengal Gazette, Calcutta General Advertiser and Hicky’s gazette
• Hickey is regarded as the father of the Indian press
• He described Bengal gazette weekly political and commercial paper open to all parties but influenced by none
• James Augustus Hickey’s personal contention with the British rule or its representative- East India Company
• The content was mainly for criticizing the East India Company. But to make it more catchy and readable, Hickey added other things four page Gazette, like a Gossip column, a poet’s corner, news related the European scandals and most importantly the advertisement
• There were two rival groups :one group supporting Warren Hastings, and another group led by Philip Francis who himself an aspirant of the post of the Governor General.
• The newspaper was entirely against Warren Hastings and his friend Elijah Impey, the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
• The newspaper survived only for two years.

After Bengal Gazette:
• Rival paper(Messink and Reed) established India Gazette in the year 1780 as a voice against Bengal Gazette. It was a new paper of quality and standard in comparison to Hickey’s newspaper, India Gazette enjoyed the patronage of Warren Hastings in the form of all facilities from him. Approximately 200 newspapers/ journals came into existence between 1780 and 1857 but most of them were closed within short duration of time.

Early Newspapers of Calcutta
• 1780 November – India Gazette by Bernard Mess ink
• 1784 February – Calcutta Gazette and Oriental Advertiser
• 1785 February – Bengal Journal by Thomas Jones
• 1785 May – Oriental Magazine/Calcutta Amusement, first monthly
• 1786 January – Calcutta Chronicle
• 1796 – The Telegraph
• 1799 – The Relator

• 1795 – The Harakuru, name changed in 1864 Indian Daily News

Early newspapers of Madras
• 1785 – Madras Courier by Richard Johnson
• 1795 Weekly Madras Gazette by Robert William
• 1795 – Indian Herald by Humphrey (without authority was arrested)
• As a result censorship was introduced in 1795

Early Press in Bombay
• 1789 – Bombay Herald, weekly
• 1790 – Bombay Courier by Luke Ashberner, name changed to Bombay Times in 1838 under the editorship of Robert Knight
• 1791 – Bombay Gazette
• 1792 - Bombay herald and Bombay Gazette merged
• 1816 – Bengal Gazette, The first Indian owned newspaper by Gangadhar Bhattacharya.

James Silk Buckingham
• Father of indian journalism
• He came to India in 1818 as the editor of the “ Calcutta Chronicle”
• Biweekly paper consisiting of 8 pages
• Contain political, commercial and literary news and views.
• This set a new standard in calcutta journalism as correspondence columns were open to all who had grievance.
• Buckingham paper was interested in discussing the acts and policies of bengal govermnet, postal service ,the police , the military establishment and government attitude to various matters of public interest.
• Buckingham criticised the policy of sati and denounced the government’s failure to put an and to this system.
• Calcutta journal was acknowledged to be the be the best produced paper and the best in content and presentation.
• Buckngham first encounter with authoritoes of east india company col rubinson.
• In england buckingham started the “ Oriental Herald”
• Role and contribution of buckingham in indian journalism :
• Imparted a quality of leadership
• Unbiased news
• Made the newspaper the mirror of the people
• He set a examples of others.

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