Principle and practice of journalism

Paper: II full marks – 100

JMC- 422 full marks for theory- 70
Pass marks for theory- 24.5
Pass marks for practical- 12

Unit – one
Introduction to principles of journalism

Course contents
a. Definition of journalism, origin and evolution of journalism, duties and
accountabilities/ responsibilities of journalists.
b. Definition of news, determinants of news.
c. Concept of news reporting, Forms of reporting- interpretative, in depth,
investigative and concept of editing, 5ws and 1H in news, News structure (lead
and body of news), concept of hard news and soft news, maintaining fairness and
accuracy in journalism
d. News writing for print, radio, television and online media
e. Human interest and feature news/ stories
f. Global journalism practices and types of journalism practiced around the world.
 Journalism
Journalism is the art and science of gathering, selecting and processing information or ideas,
intelligence for dissemination to the public. The media of dissemination are usually the print or
broadcast channels. In other words, there is journalism for the print and the broadcast. For both
them, the journalist follows the same principles and is guided by the same determinants/values in
gathering news materials. What makes them different, lies in the adaptation of the principles to
bear upon or reflect the specific features of the medium? For instance, a news story for
transmission in the radio medium should use words, which are simpler and mostly
conversational. But, in the newspaper or magazines, words may not be as simple and less
conversational.

Good journalism consists of the intelligent assembly of relevant facts. Getting the facts to work
with is not an easy task. Yet, it is the most important responsibility of the reporter.
Newsgathering therefore concerns the ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘How’ of identifying, selecting,
collating and processing of information for publication in the newspaper, magazine, radio,
television. To achieve all this, demands the special skill of nosing for news.

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. It 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 McQuail as paid writing for public media with reference to
actual and ongoing events of public relevance.

Journalism is both an art and a profession which records events and opinions and seeks to
interpret and mold them for the benefit of the educated public. 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. It 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 McQuail as paid writing for public media with reference to
actual and ongoing events of public relevance.

Some definitions by scholars

1. Journalism is the occupation of conducting news medium including publishing,

editing, writing or broadcasting. (New Webster’s dictionary)
2. Journalism is the business of timely knowledge (C.G. Muler)
3. Journalism is a literature in a hurry (Mathew Arnold)
4. Journalism is the guardian that never sleeps and protects freedom of people
(Winston Churchill)
5. Journalism is the most immediate and short term weapon to change the world (Tom
Stoppard)
Basic Principles and functions of journalism

The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information
they need to function in a free society. This purpose also involves other requirements such as
being entertaining, serving as watchdog and offering voice to the voiceless.

Journalism has developed nine core ideals to meet the task.

1. Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth: Journalism does not pursue truth in an
absolute or philosophical sense, but it can and must pursue it in a practical sense. This
journalistic truth is a process that begins with the professional discipline of assembling
and verifying facts.
2. Its first loyalty is to citizens: Journalists must maintain loyalty to citizens and the larger
public interest above any other if they are to provide the news without fear or favor. This
commitment to citizens first is the basis of news organizations credibility; to tell audience
that news coverage is not slanted for friends or advertisers. Commitment to citizens also
means journalism should present a representative picture of all constituent groups in
society.
3. Its essence is disciplines of verification: Journalists rely on professional discipline for
verifying information. It called for a consistent method of testing information- a
transparent approach to evidence- precisely so that personal and cultural biases would not
undermine the accuracy of their work.
4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover:
Independence is an underlying requirement of journalism, a cornerstone of its reliability.
Independence of spirit and mind rather than neutrality is the principle journalists must
keep in focus.
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power: Journalism has an unusual
capacity to serve as watchdog over those whose power and position most affects citizens.
As journalists, one has an obligation to protect this watchdog freedom by not demeaning
it in frivolous use or exploiting it for commercial gains.
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise: The news media are
the common carriers of public discussion. This discussion serves society best when it is
informed by facts rather than prejudice and supposition. Accuracy and truthfulness
requires that as framers of the public discussion journalists do not neglect the points of
common ground where problem solving occurs.
7. It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant: Journalism is
storytelling with a purpose. It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
The effectiveness of a piece of journalism is measured both by how much a work engages
its audience and enlightens it. This means journalists must continually ask what
information has most value to citizens and in what form.
8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional: Keeping news in proportion
and nor leaving important things out are also cornerstones of truthfulness. Inflating
events for sensation, neglecting others, stereo typing or being disproportionately negative
all makes it less reliable. It should also include news of all communities, not just those
with attractive demographics.
 9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience: Every
journalist must have a personal sense of ethics and responsibility- a moral compass. Each
of them must be willing if fairness and accuracy requires, to voice differences with
colleagues, whether in the newsroom or the executive suite.

Origin and development of journalism

Technological Developments

Strictly speaking, the word technology does not refer to mechanisms, but the way
mechanisms are used. Thus, when using such terms as modern technology, or the latest
technology, although inventions or new machines are at the heart of the matter, it is the
processes in which they are used that constitute the technology. This should be borne in
mind when studying the text by a journalism historian Robert Desmond (1978:1 - 12).
He talks about the Roman’s first daily newspaper. Rain or shine, soldiers in Caesar’s
garrison in the freezing Alps or burning Sahara were lined up in the parade ground at
least once a week to have the Acta Diurna read to them. The soldiers were easier to
control and easier to motivate, if they were reassured regularly that theirs was the greatest
nation on earth. News of fresh conquests by their colleagues in other parts of the Empire,
plans by the government to increase soldiers’ pensions, gossip about the famous, and
sports reports all helped convince them they were remembered and would get fed today
and paid next week.

a. Writing

Desmond then takes several steps backward to trace the history of the ideographic
and phonetic types of writing. The phonetic writing used here is based on a 26-letter
Latin alphabet, and an Arabic numbering system. This system is pre-dated, however,
by ideographic systems. Originally, these systems used stylized drawings of objects.
By a series of combinations and associations these pictographs could be made to
represent abstract ideas as well as objects. For instance, the abstract notion of a home
could be written down by melding the pictographs for a house, with those for a man
and a woman. The notion of a family could be portrayed by combining the
pictographs of home and children, and so on.

The three great early civilizations in India, Egypt, and China probably developed their
own ideographic systems of writing independently. Today, only the Sino-Japanese
versions survive. To those of us who only have to learn 26 letters and nine figures,
the survival of an ideographic system in which people have to learn literally
thousands of characters may seem strange. The Chinese see the advantages of this
system. The Latin alphabet is taught in schools in China and used in many forms of
public communications such as street and shop names. However, the ideographic
 system has one advantage over the phonetic. The ideographs are the same for all
languages. That is to say, there are many ethnic divisions in China, with many
variations in language, but the ideographs are the same. The word for house may be
very different in each language, but the ideograph is the same. Hence, the national
television news is broadcast from Beijing in Standard Chinese, but for those who do
not understand this language, most items of news are summarized on the screen in
ideographic writing.

b. Paper and Printing

Desmond (1978) further outlines the development of writing surfaces, from animal
skins to woven papyrus; then to the invention of paper about 1800 years ago. The
latter occurred in China, but the major breakthrough in paper manufacture took place
in Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Almost simultaneously,
chemists discovered how to break the strong bonds of lignite that hold wood fibers
together so all the tree – not just the bark – could be used for paper-making.
Engineers then invented machines that could make paper continuously as a long strip.
(Up to this point paper had been made out of fibers, such as cotton and linen that were
also used to make cloth). In the final part of this reading, Desmond summarizes the
development of printing.

For a start, the evidence has grown stronger that Coster (or Koster) was using
movable type before Gutenberg. George Putnam says in his two volume “Books and
Their Makers” during the middle ages that Coster was using movable type in 1426
and published his first book using this method in 1430. This pre-dates the available
evidence as to when Gutenberg started using movable type.

Second, Peter Schoffer who made the breakthrough for mass-producing type seldom
gets credit in the history of printing.

Third, Caxton is unlikely to have carried out much printing himself. By the scale of
his time he was virtually an old man by the time he returned to England after retiring
from being a wool-merchant and diplomat in Burgundy. The foreign assistants he
brought with him back from Europe, headed by Wynkyn de Word, were the real
printers. Caxton was an author and translator. Caxton used his knowledge of the
contemporary public service to get legislation passed by Parliament that could be
described as the world’s first guarantee of the Freedom of the Press.

American Dominance and rise of broadcasting media

This showcases the developments in journalism technology as viewed from the

United States. This is probably an appropriate view because, after the steam-powered
rotary press was invented by Walter Koenig in German, and first used in 1811 (three
years earlier than in America), most of the significant new journalism technologies
emerged in America. These included the telegraph, telephone, radio news, and
television.

This list, however, should only be used as a guide. There is a certain ethno-centric
bias in the extract by Schramm (1975). For example, the town of Schenectady is
credited as being the place from which the first regular television schedules were
broadcast. Other countries make rival claims that such broadcasts were originated
from their soil. The most widely accepted of these claims is that the honor goes to the
British Broadcasting Corporation in London in 1936.

Today, the place of origin of new journalism technology is hardly relevant. It is not
significant if John Logie Baird invented television. What matters is that there are
more people involved with American television coverage at an Olympic Games than
competitors. What matters is that Olympic officials time high points in the Games’
schedules to coincide with prime-time viewing in the Americas. What matters is that
without the money generated through and by the American television networks, the
Olympic Games as we know them may as well have some hitches.

However, the present dominance of the mass media by America is not something that
will last in perpetuity. Just as the focus of media technology shifted from China to
Europe, and then to America, so, too, will the focus move on to Asia and Africa.

Already there are signs this is happening. For instance, the present dominance of
American and/or Japanese media is largely due to the expensive and complex back-up
systems these two societies can afford to support their dominant news media. Even
today it normally takes many hundreds of people to bring an overseas item of news to
the front pages of American daily newspaper, radio newscasts, or television screens.
But the 1991 coverage by CNN of the gulf War from within Iraq showed that a story
could be covered round-the-clock by fewer than ten people using portable satellite
phones. Since then, satellite technology has been improved, and the cost of digital
video has been reduced so that it can now come within many family budgets. Soon
individual journalists will be able to afford the portable technologies to cover stories
for all types of media, without the backup of a newspaper empire, or a television
network. Such a situation might lead to a new type of less-restricted, independent
journalist, covering the world’s news without political and economic interference.

On the other hand, it might lead to more restricted journalism as publishers no longer
have to employ staff journalists, but can pick and choose which version of events
pleases them and their customers most from the different ones offered by the many
new technically independent freelance journalists.
1. Politico-Economic Developments

The history of journalism in England is the next step. Cranfield (1975) of the University
of Newcastle traces how the Tudor monarchy whittled away the freedoms gained in the
1484 Act until the Crown had total control of all publications. Even when Parliament
gained ascendancy over the monarchy there was little inclination by the elected
government to relax the controls on publishing. Only party politics prevented the
Printing Act being renewed in 1695. This lapse in government control meant England
was the only country in Europe at that time where the publishing of newspapers was
unlicensed.

a. Freedom of the Press

A few weeks after he became King of Prussia in 1740, Frederick the Great introduced
a process that partially freed the Press by removing virtually all censorship (Koser
1907: 158-9). He even tolerated attacks on himself in books, plays, pamphlets, and
especially in the newspaper he ordered to be established in Berlin. Just across the
border in Denmark, a young doctor from Prussia, Johann Struensee, took over the
effective rule of the country in 1770 with the help of his lover, the queen Caroline
Matilda (Williams (1907: 415 – 118). One of his first edicts was the granting of
unrestricted freedom of the press. Unfortunately, a prime target of the new free press
was Struensee and his relationship with Caroline Matilda. After a sustained press
campaign, Struensee was put on trial and beheaded in 1772.

The concept of a free press jumped the 20km gap between Denmark’s Copenhagen
and Sweden’s town of Malmo. In 1997, the world’s first law to specifically guarantee
the freedom of the press – including limitations to this freedom – was introduced in
Sweden. Since then freedom of the press has been guaranteed in the laws of many
nations. In the United States and the former Soviet Union such a guarantee is
enshrined in each nation’s constitution; although the Soviet guarantee differed from
its Western counterparts by guaranteeing freedom of access of its citizens to the
columns of the press.

b. Development of Newspapers

Anthony Smith (1979: 7 – 15) offers an explanation why the birthplace of printing.
China was one of the last places to introduce mass circulation newspapers. Smith
also expands on Desmond’s claim that modern newspapers and accompanying forms
of journalism did not emerge in the West until about the 1850s. The author outlines
four stages before the nineteenth century in the European development of publishing
news. All were in book form, with the first stage being known as relations. These
contained a description of a single event that was written long after the event
occurred. The second stage was the collection of these relations into a publication
 known as a Coranto. The first English prototype of a daily newspaper was the Daily
Courant (or Coranto) which appeared during the latter part of this stage, in 1702.

The publications in the third stage were known as diurnals. These dealt with more
recent events and were published weekly – provided a sufficient number of
significant events had occurred during the previous week. However, the diurnals
ranked their information in chronological order.

The fourth stage was the mercury. Although these publications were still in book
form, according to Smith, their writers adopted some of the basic practices used by
today’s journalists. For instance, for the time information was selected and ordered in
ways that would most interest or influence the readers.

In another book by Smith (1978:147) that incorporates an historical view of

journalism. The Politics of information, he quotes the nineteenth century poet Rev.
George Crabbe as describing journalists as:
“Some champions for the rights that prop the crown. Some sturdy patriots sworn to
pull them down; some neutral powers, with secret forces fraught. Wishing for war,
but willing to be brought.”

A pessimist might say that, in the intervening years, the role of journalists has not
changed, only the technology. For instance, during the five years before the start of
the nineteenth century, two New York newspapers “The World” (owned by Joseph
Pulitzer) and “The Journal” (owned by William Randolph Hearst) were engaged in a
circulation battle. After running the gamut of stories on local sex, crime and scandal,
the World began to highlight often fictitious stories about the cruelty and excesses of
the soldiers in the Spanish colony of Cuba.

The Journal responded by sending a dozen of the cream of its reporters and artists to
milk as many human interest stories about the alleged civil war that was about to
erupt. After several months one of the artists telegraphed Hearst asking to come
home because there was no war. Hearst’s reply was: “You supply the pictures. I’ll
supply the war”. Sure enough, public opinion in American had been whipped up to
such a fever pitch against the Spanish over the “exploited” Cubans that Hearst was
able to persuade his government that the almost certainly accidental sinking of an
American warship near Havana in 1898 was cause enough to start the Spanish-
American War.

c. The Fourth Estate

Like Smith, Jeremy Tunstall in Newspaper History from the Seventeenth Century to
the present Day, identifies four stages in the development of journalism. However,
Tunstall argues that these stages are myths that have been constructed post facto in
attempts to raise the status and value of journalists.
 The first of these mythical stages was “the heroic struggle against state control of the
press, culminating in the establishment of the fourth Estate”. The tag of Fourth Estate
helped reinforce this first myth. This was created by Lord Macaulay for journalists
when he suggested that they were a fourth-part of government – after the estates, or
classes, of the Lords Temporal (peers of the realm and members of the House of
Lords), Lords Spiritual (archbishops and bishops of the Church of England, also
sitting in the House of Lords), and the Commons (members of the lower house).

Tunstall’s second mythical stage was the “key role of the Fourth Estate in
maintaining a mature democracy” as watchdogs.

The third stage was the alleged transformation of journalist from venal hacks into
socially responsible people committed to the ideals of “objectivity, accuracy, and
truth”; and fourth, “the contest within the press between commercial and non-
commercial goals, between conceptions of the press as an industry and as a public
service” (1978: 17).

Smith also pours cold water on such a romanticised view of journalism history. He sees
the needs of trade and the economy of particular societies dictating the rate of
development and spread of journalism. He says, for instance, that the fact that the Far
East had a 500 – year march on Europe in the development of printing and yet had to
wait for Europeans to introduce the idea of newspapers only demonstrates this
hypothesis. There was no commercial or economic need for newspapers for the common
reader in the highly-bureaucratised, pre-nineteenth century China.

History of Social Media:

Technology began to change very rapidly in the 20th Century. But the history of social
media can go back in 60s.

The earliest forms of the Internet, such as CompuServe, were developed in the 1960s.
Primitive forms of email were also developed during this time. By the 70s, networking
technology had improved, and 1979’s UseNet allowed users to communicate through a
virtual newsletter.

By the 1980s, home computers were becoming more common and social media was
becoming more sophisticated. Internet relay chats, or IRCs, were first used in 1988 and
continued to be popular well into the 1990’s.

The first known social media site was Six Degrees. It is considered as first modern social
network. It was created in 1997. It enabled users to upload a profile and make friends. It
allowed users to list friends, family members and acquaintances both on the site and
 externally; external contacts were invited to join the site. Users could send messages and
post bulletin board items to people in their first, second, and third degrees, and see their
connection to any other user on the site.

By the year 2000, around 100 million people had access to the internet, and it became
quite common for people to be engaged socially online, particularly in Western countri
Origin and evolution of Journalism in Nepal

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MEDIA AND JOURNALISM OF NEPAL

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
 History of media goes parallel with the political history of any country. We can also
witness similar situation in Nepalese context. The history of Nepali media has been
immensely influenced by the Nepalese political history.

The political history of Nepali journalism can be divided into seven phases.
o Traditional communication system
o Rana period
o Period after the establishment of democracy
o Panchayat period
o Period after the restoration of democracy
o Period during king’s regime
o Period following the success of People's Movement-2063 BS onwards

Traditional Communication System

During the period, there were no any aids of print and audio-visual media. This period of
traditional communication system is non-recorded history of Nepali Media. Bengal Gazette, as
the first newspaper of the South Asia, was published from Calcutta, India in 1837 BS (1780AD).
However, it did not have any effect to the development of Nepali journalism. Nepal was passing
through the unification era at the moment during which no educational or extra activities took
momentum. Owing to the political, educational, transportation among many other causes, no
influential move took place regarding the publishing of newspapers in Nepal. 'Katuwal Karaune',
'Jhyali Pitne', 'Sankha Phukne', 'Damaha Thataune', 'Karnal Phukne' etc. were in practice for
public information and mass communication during this period. Those practices were in use for a
long time and are still in existence in some rural parts of Nepal. Katuwal played an important
role in the history of mass communication of Nepal; village panchayat used to appoint them as
peons. Due to the geographical difficulties, illiteracy, backward communities and other
difficulties in the country, Katuwals were more effective than other modern media including
newspapers to disseminate information.
Rana period − 1903 to 2007

This period is considered as the initial phase or beginning of the development of journalism of
Nepal.
In 1908 BS, then Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana (JBR) imported a hand press instruments in
Nepal from Europe in course of his visit there. Although it was used for publication purpose only
after 58 years of its entry into Nepal, It was said to be the first press machine here. It was kept at
JBR's then Palace at Thapathali, Kathmandu. Due to the trademark of an eagle pasted in the
machine, it was often called 'Giddhe Press'. But its official name was Type Printing Press '.
GORKHA BHARAT JEEVAN This was the Nepali magazine brought out from Banaras, India.
This is first media outlet in Nepali language. Ram Krishna Barma served as the founder editor of
this magazine brought out on the prime initiative of great scholar Moti Ram Bhatta. Gorkha
Bharat Jeevan was a monthly magazine based on literature. It was printed at Bharat Jeevan Press,
Banaras which was owned by Editor himself. There was no uniformity regarding the date of its
publication, however, different dates are found in the history of journalism. 1943 BS - according
to the Press Commission Report- 2015 1945 BS. - According to the historian of Nepali language
and literature Harsha Nath Sharma.

1950 -according to a book entitled 'Patrakarita' authored by Ram Raj Poudyal

An advertisement was published at the cover page of a book entitled 'Gorkha Hasya Mangari' in
1952 BS which was published from the same Bharat Jeeban Press, Banars. '' G]fkfnL efiffdf
afa' /fds[i0f jdf{ ;Dkfbs ''uf]vf{ ef/t hLjgn] cg]s t/xsf xf;L lbNnuL cf} rt'–ofO{sf s'/f ;+ux u/L
cfkm\gf lghL oGqfnodf 5fkL ksfz u/] .

Whether it was brought to Nepal or not has not been mentioned and the number of copies
published is still unknown. Kamal Mani Dixit has mentioned in his book 'Kalo Akchhar' that
some copies of 'Gorkha Bhatat Jeevan' were in Kashi Vidyapeeth.
Anyway the magazine played two major roles in the history of Nepali journalism that are as
follows.
A. Preserved existence of Gorkha (Nepali) language among other languages of Indian sub-
continent.
B. Boosted up confidence and inspiration among Nepalese youth and scholars for the
publishing of magazine in their mother language.
SUDHA SAGAR Sudhasagar was a monthly literary magazine published as the first print
media outlet from Nepal. This is the second publication in Nepali language.

It was published in Shrawan, 1955 BS and Pandit Naradev Pandey and Kapil Dev were
the editors of the magazine. The magazine was printed at Pashupat Press, Thahiti of
Kathmandu. Being inspired by Motiram Bhatta, the two youths took initiative to publish
this magazine. But Bhatta did not witness the initiatives taken for the publication of
magazine since he passed away at the delicate age of 30 in 1953 BS. Number of issues
and copies published was also unknown Media historians Ram Raj Poudyal and Grishma
Bahadur Devkota had not also trace it. Itihans Siromani Baburam Acharya noted that he
had at least four copies of Sudha Sagar, but lost in the debris of 1990 's earth quake. It
was not clear whether the copies were same or different.
gnf]kfVofg a book published in 1956 BS under the aegis of Nardev and his friends in the
same press Pashupat and his friends) mentioned some information about Sudha Sagar at
the back page as following.

यो बडो खश ु ीको बात भयाको छ की हाम्रा गोर्खा भाषामा पनि ५५ सालका श्रावण मैना देखीन सधु ासागर भन्या मासीक पत्र निस्क्याको छ
जस्मा अनेक तरहका बिध्न आनन्द दिन्या श्लोक- कथाहरु समेत हाली प्रकाश हुन्छ । यस्मा हाम्रो गोर्खाली षज्जन महाशयहरुले आफ्नो देश
आफ्नो भाषाको उन्नतिका निमित्त अवश्य दया दृष्टि गर्नु हुन्ये छ । मदिसेहरुका हजारौ पत्र निस्कन्छन तापनि एक २ अखबार दस हजार
बारहजार ग्राहक छन् भन्या हाम्रा गोर्खामा फगत एक मात्र छ झन यसमात सबै हाम्रा स्वदेसीय महाशयहरु सवैले जावेा कमपनि १॥ रुपैया
मात्र देशोन्नती भाषाको उन्नती गर्नाका निमित्त ग्राहक श्रेणीमा अवस्य नाम लेखाउनु पर्छ किन भन्या यो मासिक पत्र तपाइहरुबाट मददत्
नगर्दिनाले कथंकदाचित बन्द भयो गार् हक कम भया भन्या मेरो मात्र नोक्सान पान्र्या हावौन की तपाइहरुलाई पनि के ही सरम हुन जाला ।
बिदेसी पनि यहि भन्नन की नेपालबाट एक मासिक पत्र निस्क्याको थियो सो पनि ग्राहक कम हुनाले वन्द भयो गोखा ् रा् लीहरु बा् र्ष
दिनको जावो १॥रु दिनलाई पनि गाहारो मान्या रह्या छन् तस्मात हे स्वदेसीय बद्धि
ु वन्त महाशयहरु यो कुरा सवै विचार गर्नु हवस यस फगत
एकलो अनाथ सधु ासागरका उपर दयाराखी आफ्ना देश भाषाको उन्नति गर्नु हवस''

We can understand various aspects including financial situation of the Sudha Sagar with
this advertisement. There was big lack of financial along with other resources for the
publishing of Sudha Sagar and Gorkha Bharat Jeevan as well. Then Rana regime did not
provide any support to these magazines. It shows there might be big research about these
two publications.

GORKHAPATRA
Gorkhapatra started to get published after two years and ten months of the publication of
the Sudha Sagar. It was first printed in Baisakh 24, Monday of 1958, (May 6 1901). With
the publishing of Gorkhapatra, Nepal has entered into the newspaper development era in
the history of Nepali journalism. Gorkhapatra is the first Nepali newspaper, second press
publication and third press publication in Nepali language.

Gorkhapatra was published in the period of the Rana regime where civil rights and
democracy was no more in Nepal. Prime Minister Dev Shumsher JBR was more liberal
and reformist in comparison to other Rana Rulers. Therefore, the publication of
Gorkhapatra was made possible with his liberal thoughts. It was also one of the
reformative initiative among others brought out during his rule in Nepal. He handed over
the Giddhe Press and Litho Press to Nardev and authorized him to publish Gorkhapatra
under the supervision of Lt. Conl.Dilli Samsher Thapa. But, Dev Shumsher JBR was
subjected to victim by his brother Chandra Shumsher. JBR’s conspiracy and overthrown
from Prime Minister's post. Chandra Shumsher JBR ruled for 31 years as he was a
hardliner ruler. In his period there was no chance to have other newspaper published.

He even did not allow to have published 200 copies of each issue of Gorkhapatra during
his rule. Media activities were almost limited to zero during Rana Period. Deficit
financial situation, lack of educated human resource and curtailment of civil rights
attributed to the limitation of the development of journalism. Later during the period of
Juddha Shumsher JBR, Sharada Monthly got published in Falgun, 1991 BS on the
leadership of Riddhi Bahadur Malla. It was the third press publication brought out with
some financial support from Rana government. It was a new publication in Nepal after a
long gap of 33 years. - In Bharda, 1992 BS, Editor Surya Bhakta Joshi started Udhyog
Fortnightly as an industrial information journal. But it converted into monthly literary
magazine after two years. In Asoj, 2000, Gorkhapatra started publishing twice a week
after 42 years of its beginning and thrice a week later.

Newspaper publication during Rana Period

1. SudhaSagar
2. Gorkhapatra
3. Sharada: Monthly newspaper started publishing in 1991 Falgun, Editor: Rhiddi
Bahadur Malla,
4. Udhyog: Fortnightly magazine published first in 1992 BS, Editor: Suryabhakta Joshi.

Juddha S. JBR was positive to develop media industry in the country. So, this
newspaper was published as a journal to impart industrial information. But it was
converted to the literary magazine after two years. It got published having various
poems of great poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota.
5. Sahitya Shrot: Baisakh, 2004 BS, Monthly Literary Magazine, Editor:
Hridayachandra Singh Pradhan;
6. Gharelu Ilam Patrika: Jestha, 2004 BS, Fortnightly, Editor: Bhimnidhi Tiwari. It was
published by Gharelu Ilam Prachar Adda (government office)
7. Shikshya: Jestha, 2004 BS, Fortnightly, Editor: Bhimnidhi Tiwari.
8. Kathmandu Municipal Paprika: Manghsir, 2004 BS, Fortnightly, published on the
initiative of Kathmandu municipality.
9. Nepal Shikshya: Asoj, 2005 BS, Monthly, a team of five editors headed by
Trailokyanath Upreti published the magazine.
10. Ankha: Asoj, 2005 BS, Monthly, Editor: Devi Prasad Rimal
11. Purusartha: Poush, 2006 BS, Monthly literary magazine, Editor: Budhisagar Seshraj
Sharma.
12. Jagaran Weekly: Falgun, 2007 BS, Editor: Hridayachandrasingh Pradhan. It was the
first weekly newspaper published from the private sector and first anti–Rana
newspaper.

Various newspapers were published from some cities of India in Nepali language.

Radio Broadcasting

Indian and other foreign radio programs were likely to listen in Nepal during the rule
of Judda S. Rana There were only few sets of radio with well-off families of Nepal
and they brought the sets from India. But all radio sets were seized by Juddha S. JBR
during the Second World War due to German propaganda. Prime Minister Padma S.
JBR returned those radio sets to respective owners in 2003 BS. First test broadcasting
was carried out from Bijuli Adda, Kathmandu in 2003 Magh 14 from 1 to 1.3o PM.
Electrical Engineer Kashi Raj Pandey was the main person to carry out this test
broadcasting. It was not exactly the radio frequency but the only radio sounds.
Ramayan and other religious hymns were played in during the occasion of religious
days through loud speakers in and around Tundikhel.
Nepali radio came to introduction through revolution. Narad Muni Thulung, Jayandra
Bdr.Thapalia and their friends made efforts to broadcast radio programme from
Bhojpur. It was the practice of mobilizing people against Rana oligarchy in Nepal. In
Mangshir, 2007, they started the radio frequency for the first time in the history of
Nepalese radio. Later on, under the leadership of Tarini Prasad Koirala 'Prajatantra
Radio' broadcasting was initiated in 2007 from the premises of Raghupati Jute Mills,
Biratnagar. It was also a part of anti-Rana revolution. After establishment of
democracy, the same transmitter was brought to Kathmandu and started Nepal Radio
as a state run broadcasting service from 2007 Chaitra 20th, again under the leadership
of Mr. T.P. Koirala. In this way, a few but important steps were taken in the
establishment of radio in Nepal after toppling down of 104 Year-Rana regime.

AFTER ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY − 2007 to 2017

This period is taken as the initial stage of the Nepalese journalism. Various sectors
such as education, economics, politics, journalism etc were immoderately benefited
following the establishment of democracy. Political parties enjoyed open environment
and democratic institutions were established and strengthened. Within 24 hours of the
proclamation of democracy, 'Awaj' the first daily newspaper of Nepal was published
in Falgun 8, 2007 from Kathmandu. Siddhi Charan Shrestha was the Editor of the
newspaper. It presented a Banner headline news on royal proclamation of democracy
establishment, along with photograph of King Tribhuvan in its first issue.
Unfortunately, Awaj sustained just for two years.

In Bhadra 24, 2011 BS, 'Samaj', the second daily newspaper was brought out from
Kathmandu, Editor of the newspaper was Pashupati Dev Pandey; later Mani Raj
Upadhyaya gave editorial leadership to the newspaper. Many weeklies, half weeklies
and dailies got published during the period. Women also took initiatives to publish
the newspaper. In 2008 Jestha 'Mahila' a monthly magazine was published having
Editors namely Sadhana Pradhan and Kamakchha Devi (first female journalist of
Nepal). Journalism was started in various languages like English, Newari, Hindi in
Nepal.

'Nepal Guardian' is the first English monthly magazine which was published from
Kathmandu in 2010 BS (1948 AD). The magazine was printed in Calcutta, Editor-
Barun Samsher JBR.
'The Commoner', the first English daily newspaper of Nepal, published from
Kathmandu in 2012 (1956 July 15),
Editor- Gopal Das Shrestha. Other newspapers published in English language include,
Daily Mirror, Everest News, The Motherland etc.
In Kartik, 2009, 'Pasa ', a fortnightly newspaper was published in Newari language.
Editor of the newspaper was Asharam Shakya. 'Nepal Bhasa Patrika', the first Newari
daily newspaper was published from Kathmandu in 2012 Asoj 16. Fatte Bdr. Singh
was the Editor of the newspaper.
'Tarang Weekly', the first Hindi newspaper, got published from Kathmandu in 2008
Shrawan, Editor- Bhoj Bahadur Singh.
'Jai Nepal', the first Hindi Daily, was published in 2012, Shrawan from Kathmandu.
Editor was Indra Chandra Jain. The publication took place out of Kathmandu valley.
'Sewa' was the first monthly newspaper published from out of Kathmandu valley
(Birgunj) in 2008, Shrawan. It was printed in Banaras of which Editor was Shyam
Prasad Sharma. The regular broadcasting of Radio Nepal started under the leadership
of Tarini Prasad Koirala in 2007, Caitra 20 from Singha Durbar, using the same
transmitter of Prajatantra Radio. News Agency- Nepal Sambad Samiti, the first news
agency of Nepal established in 2016, Paush 1 from private sector. Sagarmatha
Sambad Samiti (second news agency) was incepted in 2017, Baisakh 30.

During this period, around 170 newspapers brought out in Nepal.

Mainly political parties were enthusiastic to publish the newspaper as a means of
political awareness at the moment. Around 35 political publications took place during
the period. Some main political party publications were Nepal Pukar and Nawa Nepal
published by Nepali Congress, Nepal Sandesh and Jana Bani by Rastriya Praja
Parishad, Nawa Yug by Communist Party of Nepal, Mashal, Naya Bato by Nepali
Rastriya Congress, Samyukta Prayas by Samyukta Prajatantra Party, Karmabir by
Karmabir Mahamandal etc. Most of them were weeklies.
- Parliamentary reporting (2016 / 2017) was also started at that time. Bhogya Prasad
Shah and Prakash Man Singh were first parliamentary reporters. They were
associated to Radio Nepal and used to provide news to the parliamentary secretariat.

Publications of this period can be divided into 5 categories;

a. News oriented – dailies
b. Views oriented- weeklies, half weeklies and fortnightlies
c. Language and literature oriented - monthlies, bimonthlies
d. House journals - publications of parties and other institutions
e. Government publication
- Journalism of this period can be named as 'initial stage of modern journalism in
Nepal'.

PANCHAYAT PERIOD − 2017 to 2046 BS

Panchayat period is taken as the period marking the beginning of mission journalism.
For the first time in the history of Nepal, the mission journalism was introduced
during the period. Journalism during the period was divided into two missions: pro-
panchayat and anti-panchayat
Main objective of the pro-panchayat newspaper was to justify the necessity of the
panchayat system whereas anti-panchayat newspaper came to front to advocate for
democracy. Press freedom was not more in practice and many actions took place
against press. There were two phases of journalism: Before Referendum (2017 to
2036 BS) and After Referendum (2036 to 2046BS).

Views oriented weekly newspapers were more popular at that time. Although there
was no guarantee of civil rights and press freedom during the period, development of
infrastructure was sped up in various sectors of press. Ministry of Communication
was given autonomy. Earlier, other Ministries looked after the portfolio related to
information and communication. News Agency was established as a government
media and at the same time Press Council was founded on the initiative of
government. The Tribhuvan University began teaching journalism education and
press publication and media development took a professional turn. Nepal entered into
the television era and radio was expanded outside Kathmandu.

Gorkhapatra became daily from 2017 Falgun 7 (after 59 years of its publication).

Gopal Pd. Bhattarai was first editor of daily Gorkhapatra. The Rising Nepal national
daily published in 2022 Paush 1, Editor Barun S. JBR
Other dailies; Hamro Desh, Naya Nepal, Nabin Khabar, Naya Samaj, Nirman
(Biratnagar), Jana Jeevan (Birgunj), Dainik Nirnaya (Pokhara / Bhairahawa).

Some Leading weeklies : Samikchha, Matribhumi, Naya Sandesh, Saptahik Manch,

Jana Sambad, Yug Sambad, Jana Jyoti, Jan Jagriti, Deshantar, Dristi, Punarjagaran,
Saptahik Manch, Saptahik Bimarsha, Rastra Pukar, Chalphal, Pratibadha, Gatibidhi,
Tarka, Arati, Arpan, Panchayat Bato, Anchal Sandesh (Janakpur), Lumbini Sandesh,
Bheri Sandesh, Gandaki Sandesh, Himalayan Guardian, Nepal Review, The Nepalese
Perspective etc.

Rastriya Sambad Samiti, RSS (later called Rastriya Samachar Samiti established in
2018 Falgun 7th after merge of two private news agency SSS and NSS.

Radio broadcasting development committee was started in 2041 and its capacity was
expanded to the various region of the country as the transmission stations in
Dhankuta, Dharan, Kathmandu, Bardibas, Pokhara etc. Few TV sets entered into
Nepal in the decade of 30s, and possible to see only foreign channels. Nepal
Television (NTV) project initiated in 2041 Magh 17 under the leadership of Nir Shah.
First test transmission was done in 2042, Srawan 29 to cover youth mass
communication workshop. Visual news transmitted in 2042 Bhadra 16 to 21 to cover
Their Majesties' State visit to Australia. NTV project converted into NTC
Corporation in 2042 Paush 12. Regular transmission from 2042 Paush 14 (on the
occasion of king Birendra's birthday) Active role in third SAARC summit held in
Kathmandu 2044.

Nepali media was allowed to the parliamentary reporting (Rastriya Panchayat) and
got open environment after the referendum. They became more free and critical in
comparison to the previous time. It was the impact of referendum.

Fatal attack to journalist Padam Thakurathi took place in 2043 Bhadra. It was a major
incident in the history of Nepalese media that occurred Panchayat period. Fortunately
Thakurathi survived and united Nepali media professionals to condemn the panchayat
system.
Press and student unions played the role of opposition in Panchyat regime, press used
to give high priority to student's activities. High commands of Panchayat politics like
Gaun Pharka Rastriya Abhiyan, Panchyat Neetee Tatha Jhanchbujh Samiti and Zonal
Chiefs (Anchaladhis) etc. misused media. Interviews and columns became more
popular. Namita, Sumita murder case (Pratidhoni weekly), Bomb scandal 2042
(Matribhumi), 84 boxes Soviet arms (Nepal Post), B.P. Koirala's policy of returned
back to homeland, death of B.P. Koirala, Sikkim issue, Chernovil milk scandal,
earthquake 2045, media war with India during 15 month of border blockade in 2045
( an unique feeling of national unity), corruption scandals like carpet, dollar, hashish
etc., session of Rastriya Panchyat were the major issues covered by Nepalese media
during Panchayat system.

Nepali media played great role in people's Movement 2046 started with Chaksibari
meeting at the leader Ganeshman Singh's residence on 2045, Magh 5. Nepali
congress and left political parties joined hands for movement to dethrone Panchayat
system. Active role played by private and foreign media to support the movement.
Government media were compelled to support Panchayat system till last minute but
the journalists extend their moral support to the movement. After struggle of 50 days,
party less system was declared end at late night in 2046 Chaitra 24th.

AFTER RESTORATION OF DEMOCRACY − 2047 to 2061

This period is regarded as the phase of modern and professional journalism in the
history of Nepali journalism. After the success of people's movement, new
constitution (Nepal's constitution 2047) has guaranteed the press freedom and right to
information to people. It was widely praised. Wide impact of this provision has been
seen to the media sector. Political and other sectors have also been benefited by this
freedom. This provision encouraged the media sector luring huge investment in
media. Media became professional and it was accepted as the industry of the country.
Political parties became free and Political activities sped up.
Before this, man cannot imagine television run by private sector. Television and
Radio in private sector started and are going on. Off set press came into use and due
to the accessibility of computer media became too advanced. So there was a favorable
environment to develop professional journalism in Nepal.

The door has been opened for huge investment and from private sector Kantipur
Publications established with ambitious investment of more than Rs.30 million (3
crore).

Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post, the first broad sheet national dailies from private
sector were published in 2049 Falgun 7th. Due to the popularity in the short time
many other broadsheet dailies came out. Some of them sustained and some went out
from the sight. During this period online journalism also came out and because of the
computer it was possible to read the newspaper and to hear the radio in computer.

Shree Sagarmatha, Everest Herald (English daily), Lokpatra, Space Time, Space
Today, Shree Deurali, Naya Sadak stopped their publication not because of
government but by their own problem.
Simultaneous publication also started to get published. Nepal Samacharpatra started
to publish from Biratnagar since 2058, Baisakhi. Kantipur started since 2061 Ashar
from Bharatpur. Newspaper publications were also stared from outside the country.
For example, Nepal Samacharpatra initiated its publishing from Doha, Qatar since
2062 Ashead, although it could not sustain for a long time. Now Kantipur and
Rajdhani dailies have their weekly publication from Doha but not simultaneous.
Newspaper publication in different languages was started and going on. Significant
changes have occurred in radio broadcasting after 2047 and radio Nepal has started to
broadcast the news service in 20 different languages. New wave of FM broadcasting
from non-government and private sector has become significant initiative in South
Asia. Private channels in television came into the light. Channel Nepal, Kantipur TV,
Image started their service. New debate on foreign investment in media and multi
media ownership is on. The FM's expansion is significant in this period and it is
going on in a new height. There seemed the very gloomy picture in Nepalese media
during the Maoist Conflict, State of Emergency and during the period of direct rule
by the king Gynendra. Some 18 innocent media persons killed, more than 100 put
behind the bars, several cases of arrested, kidnapped and tortured from both sides i.e.
state and Maoist insurgents. Nepal was characterized as ' the world's biggest prison
for the journalists.
(You can add more based on your own observation)

PERIOD DURING KING’S REGIME

Militarization over the news and media was started at the king's regime. Presence of
military officials in media houses and even news rooms was normal. Confiscation of
radio equipment from FM studios and unfair distribution of government
advertisements was in use. The radios of country played the vital role against the
king's regime and to establish democracy.

AFTER SUCCESS OF THE PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT -2 (2063 Baishak Onwards)

Nepali press played an important role against king's regime. It fought for the freedom
of press and democracy. Due to its contribution to the democracy Nepali press is
admired among the society and government itself also created the favorable
atmosphere to exercise press freedom. No any restriction or pressure from the state
and rebels after the democracy.
Government took initiative for overall development of media .Some important
achievements of this time are as follows:

1. High Level Commission for Media Recommendation.

2. High Level Taskforce to recommend restructuring the government media.
3. Right to Information Act, 2064
4. First Amendment in working journalist Act
5. Minimum wages recommendation commission of the working journalist
 6. Clear provision about press freedom in interim constitution (even in preamble)
7. State run media are also enjoying more press freedom
8. No any journalists in jail
9. Various television channels and newspapers are coming out with huge
investment.
(You can add more based on your own observation)

Unpleasant part is also noticed in the journalism; Journalist are killed and threatened,
Madhesh movement Everyday news about anti-press incident has come to notice.
(You can add more based on your own observation)

Journalism after 2015 constitution

The 2015 constitution has guarantee the provision of free press as below. 

A. Right to freedom:

1. No person shall be deprived of his or her personal liberty except in accordance with
law.
2. Every citizen shall have the following freedoms:
a. freedom of opinion and expression,
b. freedom to assemble peaceably and without arms,
c. freedom to form political parties,
d. freedom to form unions and associations,
e. freedom to move and reside in any part of Nepal
f. Freedom to practice any profession, carry on any occupation, and establish and
operate any industry, trade and business in any part of Nepal.

B. Right to communication:

1. No publication and broadcasting or dissemination or printing of any news item,

editorial, feature article or other reading, audio and audio-visual material through any
means whatsoever including electronic publication, broadcasting and printing shall be
censored. Provided that nothing shall be deemed to prevent the making of Acts to
impose reasonable restrictions on any act which may undermine the sovereignty,
territorial integrity, nationality of Nepal or the harmonious relations between the
Federal Units or the harmonious relations between various castes, tribes, religions or
communities, or on any act of sedition, defamation or contempt of court or incitement
to an offence, or on any act which may be contrary to public decency or morality, on
any act of hatred to labor and on any act of incitement to caste-based untouchability
as well as gender discrimination.
 2. No radio, television, on-line or other form of digital or electronic equipment, press or
other means of communication publishing, broadcasting or printing any news item,
feature, editorial, article, information or other material shall be closed or seized nor
shall registration thereof be cancelled nor shall such material be seized by the reason
of publication, broadcasting or printing of such material through any audio, audio-
visual or electronic equipment. Provided that nothing contained in this clause shall be
deemed to prevent the making of an Act to regulate radio, television, online or any
other form of digital or electronic equipment, press or other means of communication.
3. No means of communication including the press, electronic broadcasting and
telephone shall be interrupted except in accordance with law.
C. Right to information: Every citizen shall have the right to demand and receive
information on any matter of his or her interest or of public interest. Provided that no one
shall be compelled to provide information on any matter of which confidentiality must be
maintained in accordance with law.
D. Right to privacy: The privacy of any person, his or her residence, property, document,
data, correspondence and matters relating to his or her character shall, except in
accordance with law, be inviolable

The journalist
A question that often comes to our mind is who is a journalist? A journalist is someone who
mainly performs two functions- reporting of news and offering interpretation and opinion based
on the news. A journalist may also write an account that is both entertaining and newsworthy.

In fact,

 A journalist is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of

information about current events, trends, issues and people.
  journalist is a person whose job is to collect news and write about it
for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio.
 A journalist is one whose occupation is journalism.
 A journalist collects and disseminates information about current events, people, trends,
and issues. His or her work is acknowledged as journalism.
 A person who writes for Newspaper or Magazine or prepare news to be broadcast on
Radio or Television.

Depending on the context, the term journalist also includes reporters, photographers, and editors.
Irrespective of the medium, the term journalist carries a connotation of expectation of
professionalism in reporting with consideration for truth, fairness, balance, decency and ethics
even though standards can vary from organization to organization. The explosion of modern
media has given rise to a new bunch of journalists who are not only well adept in their own fields
but are also able to multi-task. A journalist is considered to be a collator and disseminator of
information. He or she has to gather facts about any story, decide which of those to include in the
story and which to omit, how to structure the story and what are the proper words that must be
used to prepare a report.

The journalistic writing is a contemporary report of the changing scene in the society. Such form
of writing is basically intended to inform the readers about the events that are taking place
around them. Some journalistic writings can create a big impact in the society by focusing on
issues of national or local importance. Some of the reports on communal riots, rising prices or
deteriorating crime situation can build up public opinion leading to debates and discussion.

A journalist enjoys the stimulation of being close to events and the knowledge that his/her efforts
can help in shaping the future of a country. In a way the journalist is communicating the
developments of the day to an audience whose lives have been affected by the events which he
or she discusses in his/her dispatches. Television and radio journalist communicates the news of
the contemporary events with the help of electronic devices.

At present, journalism has become a highly organized activity. It is a dynamic profession which
moves with the times. These days a journalist needs to multi-task. He or she has to have the
technical knowledge of writing and editing using different software on computer. He/she also
needs to know how to operate a camera, record an event, edit the footages using simple software
tools; and also how to send it through Internet. A journalist must have the ability to convey the
news and views to the public in a clear and concise language.

Thus, journalists are seen as people who not only bring the world’s happenings to the people but
also as professionals who can delve into issues and events and put them in perspective for the
readers.

Hence, a journalist is a person who collects, writes, or distributes news or other

current information to the public. A journalist's work is called journalism. A journalist can work
with general issues or specialize in certain issues. However, most journalists tend to specialize,
and by cooperating with other journalists, produce journals that span many topics.

For example, a sports journalist covers news within the world of sports, but this journalist may
be a part of a newspaper that covers many different topics.

Professional duties/ accountabilities and ethical standards for journalists

1. As the press is a primary instrument in the creation of public opinion, journalist should
regard their calling as a trust and be eager to serve and guard their public interest.
2. In discharge of their duties, journalists should attach due value to fundamental human and
social rights and shall hold good faith and fair play in news reports and comments as
essential professional obligations.
3. Journalists should observe special restraint in reports and comments dealing with
tensions, likely to lead, or leading to civil disorder.
4. Journalists should endeavor to ensure that information dissemination is factually accurate
 5. Responsibility shall be assumed for all information and comments published. If
responsibility is disclaimed, this will be explicitly stated.
6. Confidences shall always be respected. Professional secrecy must be preserved.
7. Any report found to be inaccurate and any comment on inaccurate reports shall be
voluntarily rectified
8. Journalists shall not exploit their status for non-journalistic purposes.
9. Journalists shall not allow personal interest to influence professional conduct.
10. Journalists shall not accept or demand bribe to give or delay publicity to news or
comments.
11. Freedom in the honest collection and publication of news and facts and the rights of their
comments and criticism and principles which every journalist should always defend
12. Journalists shall be conscious of their obligation to their fellows in the profession and
shall not seek to deprive fellow journalists of their livelihood by unfair means
13. The carrying on of personal controversies in the press in which no public interest is
involved shall be regarded as derogatory to the dignity of the profession
14. It is unprofessional to give currency to rumors or loose talk affecting the private life of
individuals
15. The press shall refrain from publishing matters likely to encourage vice and crime

Types of journalist

1. Editor
The editor takes all important decisions connected with the publication of news and
expression of opinion on vital national and international issues and events. He/she
coordinates the editorial department (editing & reporting). Every newspaper in Nepal is
required under the law to print the name of the editor on every issue. This pins
responsibility on the editor for what goes to print. If a newspaper violates the laws of the
land the person responsible can easily be identified, located and booked.

2. News Editor
News editor is in charge of the newsroom and his major responsibility is in the selection
of news stories. He/she allocates tasks to news team and instructs reporters on the news
angles which are to be highlighted in reports. News editor is directly answerable to the
chief editor. The news editor in consultation with the chief reporter will decide what
news stories should be covered and in what detail. As the final authority on the news, he
has the power to stop the printing of a newspaper in order to accommodate an important
fast-breaking news story. He/she must scan all incoming news and issue directions for
appropriate editing. Dummy for the first page is finalized by the news editor. He/she
should know the pressure, stress, ordeals and joys of working in the late night as well as
the strain of competitive journalism and news operations.

3. Chief sub-editor
The senior sub-editor or the chief sub-editor is the captain of the editorial section of the
news desk. It is his/her responsibility to see that copies are distributed among the sub-
editors and to ensure that copies are edited properly, attractive and meaningful headlines
 are given and copies are free from libels. The edited copies are handed over to the
printing section before the cut-off time.

4. Sub-editor/copy editor
The sub-editor also known as copy editor has been described as the midwife to the story
and the unsung hero of a newspaper. He/she should have a lawyer’s analytical approach
and quick-mindedness which enables him/her to understand a story quickly and come to
the core of the matter. A sub-editor has to give appropriate headlines and, where
necessary, revise and condense the material to suit the available space. These tasks call
for a flair for writing and mastery over the language. He/she has to check and recheck
facts, style, grammar etc. while editing a story in a newspaper.

5. Chief photographer
Photojournalism is a form of journalism that creates images in order to describe a news
story. A photojournalist is a visual reporter who must often make decisions instantly and
carry photographic equipment, often while exposed to significant obstacles such as
physical danger, weather, crowds etc.

A good photojournalist is both a skilled photographer who uses the camera and other
equipment to his best advantage. He must also be a creative person who mixes technique
and judgment to capture images as they happen because news events do not wait for the
photographer. A photojournalist must be prepared to act fast and have his camera always
at hand. Interesting pictures are most often a result of the alertness of the photojournalist
who is at the right place at the right time. The chief photographer coordinates the
gathering of photos.

6. Reporter/correspondents
A reporter collects news on behalf of the readers of a newspaper. To a great extent, a
newspaper’s reputation and credibility depends on the reporters. They can make or
destroy a newspaper

The term reporter applies to a journalist who covers field stories report from the site.
Reporter is a specialist form of a journalist. We can say a journalist who is responsible
for gathering information and present it on mass media is called a Reporter. Reporter is
supposed to be the explainer of complicated issues in simple and communicative manner.
The main role of reporter is to present news in digestible format for viewers. Reporters
gather information in variety of ways, the press releases, witness events, Interviews,
Public records and other sources. Reporter covers the event which is assigned to him by
his organization/Newspaper or TV Channel. Reporters split their time between working
in the newsroom and going in the field to witness events or interview people.
NEWS

CONCEPT OF NEWS:
‘News’ is a dynamic concept. The concept of news can change every moment, hour, day, week
or month, etc. Earlier it was said that yesterday’s news was no news. Today, in the era of twenty-
four hour channels, what is news in the morning is outdated by the afternoon. As we have
discussed earlier, news is about an event and the persons, organizations, or processes related to
it.

Newspersons are generally called journalists. Newspersons are professionals involved in the
gathering, processing and presentation of news. A newsperson could be a field journalist or an
editing journalist.

Field journalists include reporters, correspondents, photographers and camerapersons. Editing

journalists include sub-editors, chief-subs, news editors and editors, etc.

In case of television, input editors and output editors are newspersons. Anchors are also included
in this category. But persons, engaged in marketing, management, and advertising in news
media, are not labeled as newspersons.

Professionals working in entertainment field are sometimes media persons but they are not
newspersons.

Curiosity and inquisitiveness are the part of human nature. Everyone is curious to know about
other and the happing around him. To satisfy this trait, gathering and dissemination of news
started and the communication tool were invented.

In common parlance, news is what is new. News is what everyone wants to know about. A
newspaper office's main concern is to gather and report news-local, state, regional, national, and
international. The basic understanding about news is essential for any editorial work in a
newspaper/news agency or a news magazine.
ORIGION OF NEWS
 NEWS…… comes from Greek word “NEOS”
 In English…. “NEWES”
 In French…… “NOVELLAS”
 In German…. “NEUES”
 In Slavic Language (Czech, Solovak and Polish) …………” NOVINY”
 In Arabia………” ALAKHBAR”
 In Urdu……… “KHABAR”

CARDINAL DIRECTIONAL DEFINITION

North……………...N
East………………. E
West………………W
South………………S. so, news can be described as anything that interests people from four
directions.
Definitions
There are several definitions of news.

1. News may be defined as "anything timely that interests a large number of persons and the
best news is that which has the greatest interest for the greatest number".
2. In other words, the news is the timely report of events, facts, and opinions and interests a
significant number of people. The news is a new piece of information about a significant
and recent event that affects the audience and is of interest to them.
3. You must be aware of the famous definition of news developed by Jhon B. Bogart, City
editor of the New York 'Sun'. He defined the news like this: "when a dog bites a man,
that is not news; but when a man bites a dog, that is news. W. Jhon Bogart pointed out
very correctly that unusual events fall under the purview of the news.

4. Later, another famous editor of the Sun, defined the news as, "...everything that occurs,
everything which is of sufficient importance to arrest and absorb the attention of the
public or of any considerable part of it".
5. You must be familiar with the name of Joseph Pulitzer, the publisher of the New York
World. He defined news as, “original, distinctive, dramatic, romantic, thrilling, unique,
curious, quaint, humorous, odd, and apt-to-be-talked-about".
 6. The founder of the first School of Journalism, Walter William, defined the news as,
"...News, in its broadest sense, is that which is of interest to the readers-the public. ...".
7. The former managing editor of the New York Times said that the news was "...anything
you can find out today that you didn't know before.”

Let us recapitulate the salient points of the news based on the above definitions.

The News is:

 Perishable -When the event is understood and the tension is eased off- the news gets less
informative and more of history
 Of interest to a large number of people.
 Of unusual events and happenings.
 What is new to the public?
 An event put forward by a reporter-without a reporter, a news item does not exist.

However, you should remember that the general notion of the news varies with people and
situations. Generally, though some of the points about news may vary, but essential ingredients
of the news are universally recognized.

NEWS- AN OVERVIEW:

Let us start with what constitutes news. It is important to understand what makes news? Do
people make news? Do places make news? Do all information form news? Here we shall try to
find answers to these questions.

 NEWS AS INFORMATION: News is essentially a package of information. It is

essentially information about certain events and the persons, organizations, or processes
related to the events.
 NEWS AS IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Every piece of information is not news.
We all live in a thick jungle of information. It is humanly impossible to be aware of
everything around us. At individual level there are certain bits of information that are of
value to us, rest is trash at any given point of time. Similarly, at group level also every
piece of information is not important and relevant. So information has to be considered
important at individual or group level to be considered as news.
 NEWS IS IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT GETS SHARED: Important
information confined to an individual or a small group is no news until many persons
know about it. A discovery made by a scientist is only important information till it
remains with the scientist or the team. If and when it becomes available to large numbers,
it can be considered as news.
 NEWS IS IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT GETS SHARED THROUGH
MEDIA: Sharing of important information with very large number of people is not
possible unless some technology of dissemination is used. Radio, television, printed
paper and Internet help in the dissemination of information. These devices are called
media.

Combining the above four ingredients, we have one definition of news:

 1. “ANYTHING THAT APPEARS IN THE NEWS SPACE OF VARIOUS MASS
MEDIA IS NEWS.”
2. “NEWS IS ANY INFORMATION THAT APPEARS IN THE NEWS SPACE OF
THE NEWSPAPERS OR RADIO OR TELEVISION OR NEWS PORTALS OF
INTERNET.”

Some more definitions-

DEFINITIONS OF NEWS:
Placed below are some of the definitions given by experts. It can be noted that every definition
has a different perspective or separate point of emphasis.
 Events, action or statements that make us stop and shake our heads in wonder or
puzzlement is news. (Melvin Mencher)
 News is anything that will make people talk. (Charles Dana)
 News is what interests a good newspaperman. (Gerald Johnson)
 News is anything that makes a reader says Gee whiz. (Arthur McEwen)
 News is current or fresh information that is gathered and disseminated through a
news process to public about an event or subject of interest to a significant number
of people. (Melvin DeFleur & Everette Dennis)
 News is ‘man bites a dog’; news is something you have not heard before, news is
what editors and reporters say it is. (Bruce Itule and Douglas Anderson)

Determining factors that makes news (news values)/ determinants of news

We discussed on concepts and definitions of news. Now we shall closely look at all these values
and try to understand them comprehensively. The following are some of the important
ingredients of the news.

1. CONFLICT

Conflict means a kind of clash, quarrel, disagreement, discard or battle between persons,
groups, societies or countries. It may be political, religious, ethnic or personal. Most
conflicts are newsworthy to some extent or degree. Important types of conflict are given
below:
a. Physical Conflict:
Physical conflict is normally newsworthy because it usually leads to injury and
damage. Since it involves violence, where there such an incidence of conflict arises,
people rush to it to know what has happened actually. Physical conflict may be
between two brothers over the division of inherited property, between a shopkeeper
and a buyer on bargain, between two landlords on water dispute, or between two
business partners over the question of profit.
b. Social Conflicts:
Social conflicts may not involve physical clash but there is a possibility of
disagreement on certain issue amongst different fractions of society. A violent mob
 getting wild and unruly may loot the shops, set the buildings on fire, break the
window-glass of showcases, ablaze the tires on important crossroads and may jam the
smooth flow of traffic. All these happenings provide a good stuff for a news bulletin.
c. Economic Conflicts:
Economic conflicts are between two business tycoons, between government and
public and between two countries; as well. For instance, there are certain economic
sanctions imposed on any country resulting from a clash on any issue between super
power and a weaker country.
d. Religious Conflicts:
Religious conflict is an important conflict of immense news value. What history
reveals is the fact that most of the wars fought on earth were because of religion. It
needs a great deal of magnanimity and big heartedness to bear and tolerate other
religion’s existence. Failing to which leads humanity to a deadly riots, clashes and
sometimes wars.

Different factions and sects within a religion also provide grounds to horrible clashes
between the people constituting the same religion. Riots between Hindus and
Muslims, Hindus and Christians, and Hindus and Sikhs are the incidents carrying
strong and convincing news value and are not only reported prominently in Nepalese
media but also worldwide.
e. Conflict between Politicians:
In today’s world of news, conflict between politicians is a major source of stuff for a
news bulletin. Politician is part and parcel of a democratic system and they are always
seen at daggers drawn at one another. One political party’s political leader does not
let any chance go unveiled to criticize the rival political party or political leader.
Their statements against each other are of great news value.
f. Conflict between States:
Conflict between states may be of different kinds. It may be just verbal or may be
physical. Verbal conflicts are because of certain unresolved vendetta and disputes
between the countries. And if the bilateral relations fail to achieve a position of
normalization and the state-of-affairs gets more and more tensed and worse, a
moment arrives when war gets ignited between the countries. Getting into war does
not demand countries to share the border-line with each other or one another. Last
century gifted world with an unending list of reasons to wage a war against any
nation, a wide range and choice of sophisticated weapons and intriguingly subtle war
ways and techniques that now any nation can declare war against any other nation on
earth provided it is more powerful than the other one. War news are always read and
listened to with great deal of keenness and curiosity.
g. Conflict between Man and Nature:
Floods, earthquakes, tsunami, famine, torrential series of rains, twisters, tornados, etc.
are enough examples of conflicts between man and nature. Radio for the coverage of
such natural calamities can prove its worth more than any other form of media
2. PROGRESS
Progress means any improvement in any field. If the progress is really significant it will
be a part of the news bulletin. Some leading walks of a society are as under in which if
there is any remarkable progress; it will be noted by the reporter.
 a. Progress of a student
Outstanding performance in education or sports or in any co-curricular activity such
as debates, speech competition, poetry, essay competition, etc.
b. Progress of a political party
Any political party wins the polls or clean sweeps the elections.
c. Any Department
Progress in any project initiated by any government department may be good news.
d. Scientific device
Any change or innovation in any already existing invention or device also makes
news, for instance, progress in IT devices or equipment. The first computer could
hardly fit into a big room but following years’ hard work done by the IT engineers not
only brought about revolutionary and mind blowing improvements in the machine but
also shrank the size of the same machine to the extent that now it can easily fit into
one’s pocket as well.
e. Medicine
Human and animal diseases are getting more and more complicated day by day and
the growing state-of affair is offering difficult challenges to the medical scientists.
Whenever there is any breakthrough in the on-going search for the antidotes of fatal
diseases like AIDS and HEPATITUS, it becomes news.
f. Ongoing fight
If war has been erupted between the countries and there is a change in the situation, it
is media’s responsibility to keep the people informed.
g. Progress in relations between countries
If a kind of tension and cold war is going on between two countries owing to certain
grounds and backgrounds and the attempts are being made to restore a state of
normalization between them through diplomacy or some other channel and resultantly
there is a noteworthy progress in the process, it deserves to be given a place in the
news bulletin.
3. VICTORY AND DEFEAT
Conflict naturally paves way for the victory of one party and defeat of the other one.
Whether the conflict is between two hockey or cricket teams striving for a cup or trophy,
or two armies combating in a battlefield or two political parties contesting an election,
one side’s fate is victory and the other’s is defeat. These two ingredients of human
society are teemed with healthy newsworthiness.
4. EMINENCE & PROMINENCE
It is agreed upon that names make news and the bigger the name, the larger the news.
There is an aura of news around prominent persons. The inauguration of a beauty salon
by a renowned actress is news. A statement issued by a social reformer about the pathetic
condition of patients in government hospitals is news. A prominent actor’s visit to a
market is news. An eminent cricket player’s appearance in a TV ad in future is news. Any
world Hindu political leader’s visit to a pashupatinath and muktinath is news. Rightly is
said that even flu to an actress is news for media.
5. TIMELINESS (IMMEDIACY)
“NOW” is more newsworthy than “THEN”
Timeliness, in the field of journalism, no matter print or electronic media, means
freshness. News is about what is happening now. A saying goes, “old is gold”. It is not
 true when it comes to a news story. What is old is not news in any way. It is important to
mention here that the word old used here must never be mistaken for history. These two
terms are entirely different and especially in journalism both have different connotations.

History itself is a news value importance of which would be discussed later on. For
instance, Nepal has won the match. You have come to know about it and one of your
friends rush forward to you filled with thrill and excitement and wishes you to get
surprised. But, since you have already come across the victory of Nepal in the match,
how much ever you try, will not be able to come up to the situation with natural
excitement and spontaneity in reflexive actions. It is, however, important to note, besides
something that has happened just now, news is also about the first linking of something
that had happened earlier but was not known to people.

That is why,

“Radio news is what happened five minutes ago and its impact on what is going to
happen in the next five minutes.” ------------- (Richard Bestic)

And,

“The strength of radio is its immediacy. Exploit that by constantly up-dating stories and
keeping them fresh. We are telling people what is happening now.” ------------------------
(Malcolm Shaw-news editor independent radio)

6. PROXIMITY (NEARNESS)

“Local” is more newsworthy than “Foreign”

Proximity is nearness which means that an incident which is to be reported as news has
taken place near the people; the news bulletin has been put on air for. We, naturally, tend
to take more interest in the news story that is about us, or our city, or our province, or our
country. The closer the accident, the more the interest will be.

For instance, though flood in terai was, more or less, equally devastating for humanity
but earth quake took place in Nepal’s hilly areas and had more impact on the lives and
minds of Nepali people.

Likewise, the news of a plain accident in Nepal will be heard with far more attention and
concern than news covering an accident of buses anywhere in any other part of the world.
The obvious rule hence is, “big problems for them are less important than small
problems for us.”

7. NOVELTY

Novelty means something different, something against the general routine of people,
something amazing, something incredible, something astonishing, something unusual.
 Anything, any action, any hobby, any incident, people would hardly prepare to believe in
is something novel and hence carries the characteristic of novelty.

The birth of twins is, though not very common yet is normal and can be believed in
easily. But the news of the birth of triplets (three children born at the same time to the
same mother) or quadruplets (four children born at the same time to the same mother) is
capable enough to surprise people.

Similarly, a child getting birth with two heads or four legs will provide a reporter with
good news. If you come to know that a person devours up glass or iron or blades, how
will you not help yourself getting astonished? ---. You will certainly. A man pulling a
truck with his moustache, or allowing a tractor overrun himself makes news carrying a
strong flavor of novelty.

So, anything capable enough to surprise your faculty of accepting things comes under the
head of NOVELTY. Rightly said Charles Dana, a renowned journalist: “When a dog
bites a man, that is not news, but when a man bites a dog, that is news.”

8. HUMAN INTEREST

Simply we turn to those news item, we find interest in. Listening to news pertaining to
politics to some people is interesting but at the same time it may bore to a lot of other
people.

Some take interest in stories about showbiz but to some people sports news segment
serves to make them turn their radio set on.

Women are normally considered to go after fashion news. News stories regarding
commerce and economy if bore a lot of people, it gathers the attention of more than many
as well.

What follows from all above lines under the head of human interest is; a balanced news
bulletin – one that carries news items from all possible walks of life and caters for the
tastes of maximum number of people.

People with different mindsets normally wish to know about celebrities, dignitaries,
showbiz activities, entertainment, politics and politicians; and those, the mercy of whose
decisions and actions, our social, cultural, political and economic decisions and actions
rest on.

9. DISASTER

Disaster is destruction, ruin, adversity, calamity, devastation, and catastrophe. Where

there is any disaster on a considerable scale, there is an availability of news. Earthquakes,
floods, famine, starvation, torrential rains, tornados, twisters, all these are natural kinds of
disasters and devastations. People wish and deserve to know about such stories. The
 coverage of such disasters is not only a professional duty of any media but also it is a
noble service to humanity and a moral and religious obligation. It is media’s
responsibility to inform people about the magnitude of the disaster, number and names, if
possible, of the casualties and injured ones, aid activities, rehabilitation efforts, etc.

Destruction as a result of wars is man-created form of disaster. World war-1 and world
war-2 left world with horrible ruins of humans and humanity, death and fear of death are
still dancing upon those ruins and ashes of which are still smoldering. The repercussions
of world war-2 are still pregnant with a lot of news stories. Every year the victims and the
next generations of the victims of atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, lit
candles and observe silence to commemorate one of the most destructive examples of
catastrophe history ever witnessed and the heinous act of cruelty earth ever endured. This
gathering of people and their act is news.
10. HISTORY

It is mentioned before that there is no connection between an old event and a historical
event. History is an important source of news. Researchers are all the time working on
history and historical events. The digging of thousands and thousands years old ruins, in
fact, is an effort to peep into man’s past and to explore the basic facts regarding man’s
creation, evolution, and old civilizations. Above all the quest to history is an effort to
quench the thirst of man’ faculty of curiosity.

11. RELEVANCE

Relevance is another significant news value. Stories which have direct influence on our
lives or have direct relation with us are more important for us. Even a news story that is
about my own city will fail to catch my attention if I am waiting for my own interview on
radio.

Any news about the University of my City will not attract me if there is news about the
school where I got my early education at. Any news about my own profession is more
newsworthy than news about any other profession. News about the imposition of new tax
on cars will not affect a layman who will more be affected by the news about the rise in
the local transport fare.

So relevance of a man with a particular incident or place enhances the weight of the
news.

12. CONSEQUENCE

Any event or statement of any important person in a society, capable enough to affect a
larger number of people in future, carries newsworthiness and must be given space in
news bulletin. The incident, as a matter of fact, at the time of its taking place, may not be
that important but in future may acquire a great deal of significance in terms of affecting
people in one way or another.
 Likewise, under the head of CONSEQUENCE, there may be a statement of any
personality who enjoys the authority and power of policy making in a state or society and
he makes a policy statement that concerns with the coming days of people.

For instance, if metrological office declares a dry weather for the whole year with
nominal amount of rains, it means that drought in region may be expected in future.

Every government, during its tenure, every year, announces budget for coming monetary
and fiscal year in which new taxes are imposed and some already existing taxes are
rescheduled where as some commodities and goods are declared tax free; some imports
are declared free from customs duty whereas on certain imports custom duty is levied.

It is to be noted, all announcements regarding rise or fall in prices of different

commodities and services does not have any immediate effect on the lives of the people
but it does after the date the decisions are put into effect. It follows from this, the budget
speech is important in terms of consequence.

The announcements of rise or fall in the prices of certain utilities, such as, petroleum
products and electricity, also come in such news stories.

13. MISCELLANEOUS NEWS VALUES

There are certain news stories which though do not possess any of the news values
mentioned above but still, find place in newspaper, radio, and TV bulletin. Such news
stories, in any way, are news stories. Migratory birds, flying from extreme cold regions to
warm ones covering thousands and thousands of miles, make news. A dog saving his
master from being robbed makes news. Anniversaries of different people are covered as
news.

ELEMENTS OF NEWS (qualities of news)

While dealing with news, two stages we have covered so far. First, to see what we call
news, what actually is news? Second, to understand those features that convert an
ordinary event or statement or opinion, into news.

Now we go into details of news elements. News must carry following elements to come
up to the ideal standards of news.

1. Accuracy
The facts in a story should be correct, down to the minutest detail. A reporter must be
precise with every bit of the details of a story. Readers tend to judge newspaper’s
credibility by their own experiences with its record of accuracy. News stories with
inaccuracies are a sign of a lazy reporter.
 When we say ‘a news item must be accurate’ we actually mean that whatever we are
required to produce as news, or whatever we are being given in the name of news to
believe in, it must be correct in every crumb of its details.
 The names of people given in the news must be correct.
 The names of the places given in the news must be accurate.
 The ages of the people, if required to be given in the news, must be given with
precision.
 The days, dates and time of the incident or speech, or accident, being treated
and reported as news, must be accurate
 Language must be correct in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, structure,
and grammar.
 Statements of people must be accurate.

2. Attribution - Source identification should be as specific as possible. Use the person’s

name if possible, not merely a ‘spokesperson’. A reporter should not invent news source
or attribute information to such vague quarters like ‘an informed source’, ‘a confidential
observer’ etc. The source from which a story’s information is obtained must be clearly
identified. Failure to do so makes a reporter’s story suspect.
3. Fairness - News stories should be scrupulously fair in their presentation of information.
They should never serve the vested interests of groups or individuals. When a person
criticizes the behavior or opinion of another in a story, basic fairness requires that a
person criticized is given an opportunity to respond.
4. Meaningful
The news should be meaningful and must make any sense. It also implies that it must
carry any one, or some of them, or all of the news values we have gone through.
5. Interesting
The news story, especially to be broadcast on radio, must be written and presented in
such a way that the listener may not get bored. It is quite a difficult task to be managed
when it comes to writing and presenting news bulletin since news is something that can
never drift away from the principals of accuracy and objectivity. What we actually mean
by making news bulletin interesting is the reading effect in the tone and style must be
avoided by the news caster and spoken language is to be employed while writing the lines
of any news item.
6. Factual
The news story must base on the incident or statement which has actually taken place. In
this era of media, where the choice available to the listener is wide and universal, news
on one channel can easily and instantly be verified on the other channels. The taking risk
of putting on air something fabricated or concocted will definitely bring bad repute to the
channel doing it. Hence the most important element to be cared for and taken into serious
consideration while presenting news is its being factual and truthful.

7. Objectivity
Besides being accurate and factual, a news story needs to be to-the-point as well.
Unnecessary details, though may be a part of the incident, should be brushed aside.
Another thing that is important to be considered while making the element of objectivity
 certain in a news story is that it must not be given personal touch or flavor. Even a slight
impression of personal emotions or any kind of exaggeration may endanger the
objectivity of the bulletin.

Writers should strive to keep their personal opinions out of a news story. In general
readers are unable to detect the reporter’s political beliefs, religious affiliations or social
attitudes. Every reporter will have his/her personal beliefs, interests, and involvements
but these should not be allowed to creep into the story. At times a reporter will cover
events that run contrary to those personal concerns. In such cases, the reporter should
work harder to achieve evenhandedness. Before a reporter submits a story, read through it
one more time and ask: “Is it accurate? Does it have a proper attribution? Is it fair? And is
it objective?”

8. Conciseness
When it is said, a news story must be concise, it means, it should not be unnecessarily
lengthy. Where unnecessary details are to be avoided, unnecessary wording must also be
pruned out. Verbosity always kills the purpose and this is brevity that is unanimously
agreed upon to be the soul of wit. Wordy expressions and unnecessary repetition must be
avoided. Your duty is to inform people about an event; you are not supposed to make
them understand a thick and problematic matter of psychology or the reasons why crimes
are getting rampant in our society. These may well be the topics of an article or feature
but cannot be touched upon in a news bulletin. One-word substitution saves the space and
time, both.
9. Clarity
The main objective of news is to keep the listeners in picture of what is happening around
them and in the world. And the purpose is achieved only if clarity is there clarity.
Simplified vocabulary, easy-on-tongue order of the words, and correct and clear
pronunciation are the key factors employing which the goal of making news clear and
understandable may well be achieved.
10. Comprehensiveness
If something is comprehensive it means that it is complete by all regards and aspects. A
news item is considered comprehensive only when it answers every possible question that
may arise in the minds of listeners. As a general principal to make a news story
comprehensive and complete – five Ws and one H are to be satisfied. They actually stand
for: what, when, where, why, who and how.
 What happened?
 When happened?
 Where happened?
 Why happened?
 Who did it? And
 How did it happen?

Sometimes in certain stories it also becomes necessary to answer another W, and that is
who for. For instance, in vicarious crimes (crimes which are performed by an agent on
 behalf of some other person or persons), it becomes necessary to give the person’s name
as well who the agent did a certain crime for.

First, to make a news item comprehensive, and then, the whole news bulletin, is a must.
A news bulletin must also consist of all the possible news items of all those happenings
which have taken place just prior to the moment the news bulletin goes on air.

Sometimes, however, it happens that an important news lands in newsroom immediate

after the time the bulletin has started. In such case, an attempt must be made to pen down
the story at the moment and be handed to the newscaster so that in this era of neck-to-
neck competition the channel may not lag behind its competitors.
11. Cohesiveness
The last but not the least one is the element of cohesiveness. When we talk of an order, a
kind of symmetry; a well-knit, well-planned, well-organized and even end-product, we
actually talk of cohesiveness. It means that the order of the details to be put in a news
item must be in proper order. Symmetry suggests beauty and it must be self-evident in the
construction of the news story. Asymmetry mars the beauty and the listener does not go
on with the bulletin smoothly and comfortably. It must not be jumpy and uneven.

To be more precise, a news item, and then the bulletin, must be well-knit, well arranged
and well-ordered.

CONCEPT OF REPORTING
Reporting is the journalist’s word for research, for the collection of data, for the gathering of
facts. In every news organization, there are reporters whose task is to go to the field and collect
information. When an incident occurs in a place, the reporter is sent to gather facts relating to
that incident. He then comes back to the office and finally makes a report or news story by
compiling the gathered information.
The reporter, while on field, collects information that he or she finds on the spot, interviews the
people who probably have seen the event that happened and if the need be, goes deeper to find
out more information so that an interesting news report can be produced. Therefore, in other
words, reporting may also mean an act of research. The way a researcher does extensive study on
any given topic and finally comes to a conclusion, the reporter, too, has to make an exhaustive
study of the event before coming to a conclusion in the form of news. But what is important to
remember is that this research has to be manifold. Until the facts are rigged out and all the points
are established the reporter must carry out his or her investigation before arriving at finality.
News Reporting (Reportage) sometimes refers to the total body of media coverage of a particular
topic or event, including news reporting and analysis. Reportage is also a term for an eye-witness
genre of journalism: an individual journalist’s report of news, especially when witnessed
firsthand, distributed through the media. This style of reporting is often characterized by travel
and careful observation.
Literary reportage is the art of blending documentary, reportage style observations, with personal
experience, perception and anecdotal evidence, in a non-fiction form of literature. This is perhaps
most commonly known as creative nonfiction and is closely related to New Journalism. The
prose of such reporting tends to be more polished and longer than in newspaper articles.

Basic facts about reporting

Reporting on various subjects or beats from the field is the best practice of journalism. A reporter
specialized in a particular field should go for reporting in that field. While writing for a news
story, the reporter should keep in mind that a gripping news story will consist of facts which will
answer the - who, what, when, where, why and how of the news story. However, it is the
responsibility of a reporter to verify the facts for its accuracy. Another point to remember here is
the use of active voice while reporting. Use of words in active voice makes it more
understandable and effective.

The language should be simple and there should not be inclusion of extra words. The
sentences should be short and concise. Inverted pyramid style of writing should be practiced
where the most important facts should be included in the lead and less important in the body.
However, in case of soft news which may be a human interest story or a background information,
facts can be put in the body of the news story.

A reporter should keep in mind a few important points while going to field for reporting as given
below.
a. A reporter must be conscious to never repeat a story which has been told to him or her in
confidentiality or in good faith, unless prior permission is taken to make the story public.
b. While collecting the local news, a reporter should keep in mind the great value of giving
names of persons in his or her stories.
c. Each and every reporter must try to develop the qualities of a descriptive writer. In this
way he or she can elaborate on any topic or issue if need arises.
d. A reporter must always try to improve his or her method and style of reporting. This goes
a long way in bringing out the best of the creative ability of a reporter.
e. A reporter, as far as possible must try to avoid ambiguous and technical jargons which
might be difficult to comprehend. In other words, he or she should enable the reader to
visualize the scene as described in the news story as though the event had unfolded in
front of their eyes.

Types/ Forms of reporting practices

A newspaper will have scores of reporters assigned with the responsibility of covering various
events, issues, organizations, celebrities etc. Thus, senior, mid-level, junior and trainee reporters
are entrusted with the task of writing regular reports from various areas on a daily basis.
Reporting in general takes three forms.

Forms of reporting are:

1. General assignment reporting
2. Objective reporting
 3. Interpretative reporting
4. Investigative reporting
5. In-depth reporting
6. Beats reporting
7. Special reporting.

Each of these areas has distinct characteristics, but their borders are tricky and over lapping.
News stories do not fall into a single category. They spill over into both.

1. General assignment reporting

General assignment reporters cover breaking news or feature stories as events and issues
unfold. The editor or the bureau chief (senior most designation among the reporters) of a
particular edition directly assigns these stories. These reports are covered from the spot
where the events take place. For example, a flash strike by private bus workers, a police
lathi-charge on students picketing the roads or a political murder.

It ranges from crime to crops, from weather to workers. The most successful General
Reporters are excellent workers. They always ask themselves how valuable it is for
audience. They go as close to the gross roots as possible in an attempt to generate original
material.

Reporter is an explainer of complicated issues and the General reporters are supposed to
report the facts in simple and communicative manner. While doing general reporting you
must know that true, new and interesting factors make news. Always look for new pitch.
Every reporter has a different I.Q and style.

2. Objective Reporting

Objective reporting presents news in a straightforward, factual and distinct manner. It

does not provide news in a distorted, analyzed and biased way. It is balanced and even
handedness in presenting different sides of an issue. There is accuracy and realism in
reporting news stories. It presents all the main relevant points which separates facts from
opinions, but also treats opinion as significant. Objective reporting minimizes the
influence of the writer’s own opinions, attitudes or involvement. It avoids slant,
malicious or devious purposes.

The following points can well summarize the concept of objective reporting:
 Balance and even handedness in presenting different sides of an issue
 Accuracy and realism in reporting
 Presenting all main relevant points
 Separating facts from opinions, but treating opinion as relevant
 Minimizing the influence of the writer’s own opinions, attitudes or involvement.
 Avoiding slant, malicious or devious purposes.

3. Interpretative Reporting
 Interpretative journalism goes beyond the basic facts of an event or topic to provide
context, analysis, and possible consequences. Merely reporting of facts of any event
sometimes does not serve the purpose. It demands more about the reasons and purposes
of the happenings, causes, after effects of natural calamities and the future prospects of
certain ongoing talks between two leaders or authorities as well. It is based on the ability
of the journalist how it provides meaning to news stories and its causes and effects.

Interpretative reporting combines facts with interpretation. Many a time the reporter has
to interpret certain events for better understanding of the readers. It means providing
background information relating to a particular incident or happening. Apart from the
facts gathered from the field, the reporter, sometimes, needs to make the news more
illuminating by providing background information so that the readers can perceive it
better and understand the meaning of it. As such, the reporter delves into reasons and
meanings of a certain development and gives information along with an interpretation of
its significance.

The entire event may not unfold in a day. It is a continuous process and often one event
leads to another. In order to understand the occurrence of an event we need to understand
the previous, or the course of events that led to the latest one. And it is the reporter, who
interprets the event by telling the readers about the past history or the course of action
that led to the happening of the event. This adds more insights into events and the
reporter has to keep a track of all the events of the past, present and also at times should
be able to forecast the future. Thus, interpretative reporting brings out the hidden
significance of an event and separates truth from falsehood.

4. Investigative Reporting

DEFINITION
 Investigative Reporting is an act of discovering the truth and to identify lapses on
media such as Print, Electronic or Web.
 Investigative reporting is an alternate interpretation of the public right to know.
 Investigative reporting is to uncover what officialdom does not wish to make
public.
 Investigative reporting highlights the wrong doings and helps to shape the things
positively in future.
 Investigative reporting reveals scandals and violations of law and rules.
 Investigative reporting exposes unethical, immoral and illegal behavior by
individuals, businessmen or Government agencies.
 Investigative reporting is complicated, time consuming and expensive. It requires
months of research, interviews and long-distance travel.
 Investigative reporters deeply investigate a topic of crime, political corruption or
some other scandal.
 Investigative reporters may take the investigation through his own initiative or
have a clue by someone else.
  Investigative journalist is a person who does investigation like a police, lawyer,
auditor or a regulatory body and derives facts for public consumption to present
on media.
 Investigative reporter has to do the extensive scrutiny of documents, fact finding
and physical efforts to interview a person.

To be a successful investigative reporter, the reporter must have an analytical and incisive
mind with strong motivation.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANALYTICAL & INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING

Analytical reporting takes data available and recon figurate it in different ways while the
investigative reporter has to dig out the data from documents/reports and findings.

Investigative reporting is a watchdog role of the media. He is a person who is supposed to

be alert all the time and to sniff the wrong doings.

He has to focus on the accountability of institutions and individuals.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER HAS TO REPORT:

 Who is responsible for wrongdoings?
 How was it done?
 What are the consequences?
 What can be done about it?

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER IS REQUIRED TO HAVE THE QUALITIES OF:

 Determination
 Patience
 Carefulness and reporting the facts fairly.

PRE-REQUISITS FOR AN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER

Investigative reporter should be proactive rather than reactive.

STRATEGY/ SKILLS

An Investigative Reporter must form a strategy. Following acts would be helpful in

getting facts: -
 Observation: Stroll through an unfamiliar neighborhood. Talk the people you meet there.
This exercise will give you many leads/clues.
 Personal sources: Keep close contact with family, friends, Bosses and co-workers.
Sometime anonymous sources give you valuable information. Never ignore them. When
your analysis the facts/data, it will give further lead.
 Studying neglected sources, such as archives, phone records, address books, tax record
and license records. These could be very helpful in taking clues and lead to further
proceed on the issue.
  Check every fact, as well as the source of information. Accuracy of facts has a prime
importance.
 Know the law. Check the law in your area related to journalism. If you violate the law
you may have to face the consequences.
 Work with research librarians. They are trained to track information. If you consult the
librarian, you will save the time in getting the required material.
 “CAR” (computer assisted reporting). In modern journalism the use of computer/Internet
will give you great help.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING AS UNDER COVER REPORTING

Investigative Reporting is done by applying various techniques and methods. Under

Cover Reporting is one of the important methods. Under cover is a deceptive practice, in
this method a reporter has to misrepresent himself to get the facts or to verify the
information. Remember, the first duty of a reporter assuming another role is to do the job
right and not jeopardize any one’s life.

Under Cover Reporting requires special care. It should be done in a tightening circle. He
has to use strong thread throughout the story.

Investigative reporter has to dig out information often from hostile sources. This situation
requires special care and security measures. It is advisable that the reporter must talk “off
the record” sources before going under cover. It will facilitate him to reach the real
sources/documents. Merely for getting the information – Never encourage people to
break the law merely to get the story. The goal of a good investigative story is to inform,
educate and keep the interest of the reader/viewer.

When an investigative report published in the print media or aired on electronic media,
it’s on impact individuals and the institutions would be multidimensional.

Investigative Reporting has widened the scope of journalistic freedom. It enhances the
capacity of the media to play a watchdog role. By doing investigative reporting an
individual do a National Service. It is a professional reference to him. He may get pride
of performance award.

Sometime the concerned persons are forced to resign or they are fired. In result of
investigative reporting, changes in the law and policies are to be made to avoid such
misappropriations in future.

USEFUL GUIDELINES
 Reporter must know the law.
 Know the procedure.
 Focus on research.
 Follow the lead.
 Just keep digging.
 Organize the information.
 Write the report.
 Check facts, Triple Check
 Libel Check, Deformation check

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING- IN SUMMARY

Investigative reporting means digging beneath the surface. It is a process in which a reporter
may have lead or tip for the issue being taken to investigate. He should have the quality to
sniff and to start initial investigation. The reporter has to form an investigative hypothesis to
start work. He has to chase the documents and to analyze the data. He has to use the crime
solving tools and methods to investigate the documents.

For investigative reporting one should have the skill to examine documents. He has to do the
human trial by interviewing the people and to dig-out facts or to verify the facts. He has also
to do the electronic trial by using computers and internet for research and reporting. He
should have skills of onsite inspections and to testify or derive facts. For Investigative
reporting, he has to develop the qualities of a good reader. Read, read and read. He must
study a lot on the subject.

5. In Depth Reporting

The in-depth, for many journalists, is the opportunity to do “real” journalism. It’s a
chance to utilize and combine many of the journalism skills you’ve learned over the
course of the semester. And it’s a chance to dig a little deeper on an issue of importance
and interest.

The idea behind the in-depth is to go beyond basic news or feature writing. You need to
inform, like the news story, and write well and creatively, like the feature, but the in-
depth requires a depth of knowledge and sophistication on your subject that separates it
from other genres of print journalism. An in-depth is written on topics that are complex,
with numerous variables, and not always easy to understand. An in-depth is often written
on topics that are controversial, and it usually includes expert sources on several sides of
an issue debating what’s right, best or closest to the truth. These stories, as the name
suggests, are longer and strive to sort out all the conflicting information and reach the
best attainable version of the truth. An in-depth is written to give the readers a deeper and
more thorough understanding of complex issues and what they mean.

In sum, after spending the semester learning about news judgment, information gathering
and storytelling, the in-depth is a chance for you to use these skills as a basis for a longer,
comprehensive piece of journalism.

Planning Your Story for in-depth reporting

Once you have an idea of your topic, the next step is much like any other paper you’ve
ever written — begin research.

In journalism, research can mean many things. As we’ve learned this semester, online
databases have become an essential journalism tool. They can provide you with “big
picture” information that can serve as a springboard for deciding what angles are relevant
to explore, which statistics are important, who you should interview and what questions
you should ask.
Research can also mean talking to your friends and others who you think may be
associated or knowledgeable on your topic. Find out what they think are the most
important aspects to the issues you’re investigating, and even let them select possible
solutions or angles to you (this may later help you prepare for interviews, or give you
more direction in research).

At first, think of yourself as a researcher trying to find out general knowledge about your
topic. “Cast a wide net,” is how some researchers put it. Try to get as much information
as you possibly can on your topic.

Use your research to:

1. Provide necessary background.

2. Lead you to other research.
3. Help you focus on the greatest areas of controversy, reader interest or news.
4. Show you what documents, statistics and studies are used to explore the topic, and
give your ideas which ones you might use, need or localize.
5. See who are the experts on the topic you’re writing. What titles do these sources
have? Think who you might be able to use who has a similar title or expertise.
6. Help formulate questions for your sources. There may be statements or quotes in the
research, which you’d like to get into your story. It’s always better to use a fresh
quote. Think how you can phrase questions to elicit similar responses.
7. See how the research stories are constructed. What’s the most appropriate style for
your story?
8. Make a pre-interview plan. Where is the story going? What are its important issues?
Who are the best sources for which part of the story? Plan your story to have a good
mix of hard data (from your research) and people (the best sources).

Scheduling Interviews for depth reporting

Only after you have considerable knowledge on your topic should you schedule your
interviews. Remember, these interviews must be of substance. You can’t expect your
sources to just fill you in on the news. If you want a reader to read your in-depth, it
must show a depth of knowledge that is reflected by extensive knowledge on the
subject. You, as the reporter, cannot have this knowledge without considerable
preparation. Also, your sources will never speak openly with you if they have no
confidence in your knowledge of the topic.
During the actual interview, you need to get answers to the questions that: A) your
research hasn’t answered; B) that your research has answered, but you want to get
your source on the record saying. This usually means that going into the interview
you should know the answers to many the questions before you ask them. Of course,
you should still listen closely. You may find a source has different ideas than
prevailing knowledge, and this can only add depth, and/or a new dimension to your
story.

More in-Depth Interviewing Tips:

1. Make it clear to the source you’re working on a longer piece, and that you’ve
done an amount of research and plan to look in-depth into the issue. Tell the
source what part of the story you want to question them about.
2. Make it clear you don’t expect the source to carry the entire story. Some sources
are intimidated if they feel their expertise is the basis of an in-depth. Let the
source know they are only one of several important pieces to this story, but let
them know they are important.
3. Make a longer list, a couple lists, or a thematic list of questions.
4. Test the logic of your approach with some sources. Ask them how’d they tackle
the same story. Where would their focus be?
5. Give them a chance to speak at the end of the interview. “Is there anything you’d
like to add?”
6. Make sure you can recon tact them if need be.

Structuring Your Story

If you go through the process correctly, by the time you’re ready to begin writing
you’ll have so much information it’ll may be difficult to know where to begin.
Structuring your in-depth borrows some ideas from both news and feature writing.
I suggest you begin with a creative lead: a metaphor, analogy or even better, a
real-life example. If you want your reader to read a long story, you’ve got to hook
them early. A hard news lead can work, but it usually must be more than the five-
Ws. As always, your lead needs to be clear and give the reader an idea to what the
story is about. If you write a creative opening, remember you need a nut graph to
explain to the reader the “so what” and tie your opening into the body of the story.
Try writing the body like a series of shorter stories that develop one aspect of the
issue at a time.

Choose the main ideas that you want to include in your story, and write about
them in descending order of importance, using transitions to tie them all together.
In an in-depth, sometimes it’s hard to decide which is more important because
your subject has intertwined aspects. If that’s the case, choose a method of
presentation (chronologically, thematically, etc.) and be consistent throughout the
story. Mix together your research, different sources, paraphrases and quotations
 so the story reads as a good mix of research and human input. Too much research
puts the reader to sleep; too much human element often takes away seriousness.

Lastly, use a kicker to reward your reader at the end for reading the entire story.
Often, a good quote is a good finish. Avoid spewing your opinion at the end; it
can weaken the credibility you worked so hard to develop and leave the reader
wondering about your story.
.
6. Beat reporting and specialized reporting

What is Beat Reporting?

Beat reporting is the act of covering and reporting from a particular field or subject of
coverage for your media organization. Beat reporting is therefore one form of specialized
news gathering. It could also be regarded as a form of correspondence. Here, the beat is
the place of coverage while the correspondent in that place is the beat reporter.

One very common word you might hear in the news room is ‘beat’. As a reporter many
people will ask you who ‘beat’ you cover. Reporters always have to work in beats. Beats
are the specialized areas of operation for the reporters assigned by the organization in
which the reporter works. Since it is not humanly and physically possible for a single
reporter to cover multiple areas, each reporter may be assigned a single or couple of
beats.

Beat reporters cover news and features in specific geographic or subject areas such as
police stations, district courts, universities, local bodies, political parties. These reporters
come up with their own story ideas based on the inputs they get from a number of
resources that they maintain. They usually write at least one story on their beat. Beats are
one of the best methods to catch major news stories. This practice has become an
accepted method all over the world. A person assigned with a beat is media
organization’s primary source of news from that area.

And the reporter is expected to cover all the developments or happenings taking place
under the jurisdiction of his beat. The reporter cannot afford to miss any significant or
insignificant event falling under his assigned beat/ beats. If the reporter working in a
particular organization by chance fails to spot a significant event falling under his/her
purview, which the other reporters working for other news organizations have managed
to cover, it amounts to the loss of credibility, not only for the reporter, but also for the
newspaper or news channel as a whole.

The classification into beats is compulsory for every news organization. In every
newspaper there is a variety of news items that are published in a day. One may find
news related to economics, health and hygiene, education, environment, art-culture-
literature, trade and commerce, women and child, sports, science and technology, crime,
social issues etc. Moreover, newspapers also have specialized columns and supplements
 on special issues and subjects. For all these the services of the reporters are essential to
fill up both the regular and special columns.

Reporters are placed at the city or place from where the publication is carried out or
correspondents are located at various places in order to report events taking place at
centers other than the one where the newspaper is published.

Moreover, in many other large organizations further classifications are made, depending
upon the requirements like local, regional, national and international news. The reporters
are supposed to operate in selected areas assigned by the senior person, usually by the
chief of bureau or any senior person like the editor or news editor. A single reporter may
be given to handle more than one beat and on many occasions an important beat may be
shared by many. This varies from organization to organization. Therefore, the task of the
reporter is enormous and very crucial for the organization.

In summary we can say that, Beat is a journalistic term used to refer to segmented area
or particular field a reporter is assigned to monitor and report from there on a regular
basis. The act of monitoring and covering assigned beats for the purpose of publication is
referred to as beat reporting. This is another angle to the discussion on specialized
reporting. This unit will concentrate on beat reporting, types and the kind of reporters
assigned to cover particular beats.

What is a Beat/ news beat?

A beat is a reporter’s assigned area of responsibility in a particular segment. A beat may
be an institution, such as the National Assembly; a geographical area, such as a small
town or an entire city/town, or a subject area, such as science and technology, business
etc.

Who is a Beat Reporter?

A beat reporter is a person with well-trained and adequate knowledge in a particular area
of news coverage where he represents his news organization. A beat reporter may be a
young reporter assigned to cover such local beats like the police, the courts, local
government or the schools. A beat reporter could also be a well-trained and very
experienced reporter of many years standing who covers very important news for his
media organization. In this instance, one has to be a successful reporter before one is
assigned to cover such important beats.

Types of Beats
a. Crime/ Police:
Crime is a usual phenomenon that takes place in every society. And the newspapers or
the news channels are supposed to report about any kind of crime taking place in the
society. When working under this beat the reporter should keep good contacts with police
stations, police officers and also with the crime branches of the different investigating
agencies, both Government and non-governmental organizations, operating in the society.
The crime reporter should also have good contacts in the state and district level courts
where the legal course of action takes place against the different types of crimes.
b. Legal/ Court:
The court beat is a major beat for any newspaper as it is the source of a great number of
stories. The court beat is allied to the crime/police beat since criminal cases are tried in
the courts. But court reporting is not about crime alone. Many civil or non-criminal cases
are also tried in the courts. A reporter who is assigned the court beat has to cover all cases
whether civil or criminal and has to look after both the lower court and the higher court.

A court reporter needs to have a good understanding of the judicial system and should
know the hierarchy of the courts. Developing a good network of sources in the court and
among the police is very essential for a court reporter. He has to be fully aware of all
important ongoing cases and keep a file of arrests. He has to understand what goes on in
the grapevine but should have the ability to differentiate between official records and
grapevine rumours.

Another important thing a court reporter needs to keep in mind is that he has to remain
within the rules and regulations of the legal system and learn to respect the sanctity of the
court. He has to be careful not to commit contempt of court and thus avoid punishment.

c. Culture/ Entertainment:

Culture is a part of every society and without a distinct and individual culture a society
cannot exist. And media, being a part of a society, has to give due importance to the
cultural aspect of the society that it belongs to.

Media has to highlight the courses of culture, its process, its developments and many
other issues related to it so that people remain abreast and understand their own culture.
And now with the emergence of what we call the ‘global village’, the importance of
cultural reporting has increased manifold. People want to know not just about their own
culture, but also about foreign cultures. People are also hugely influenced by foreign
cultures and often sprinkle their own lives with elements from other cultures. The entire
world has changed today as a result of intermingling of cultures and the mass media can
be attributed with a major part of the credit for this.

Today the media devotes considerable space to covering this area. Hence, it has become a
very important beat for every media entity. Nowadays the newspapers also publish
separate pages and also supplements devoting to many areas of culture like songs, drama,
cinema, folk songs, dance, folklore, language, behavior, food habits, life styles, fashion,
ethnic materials, norms, ethics, values and so on and so forth.

Normally, anybody who has interest, good contacts in the field of culture and has good
understanding of his or her own cultural way of life, is assigned with this beat.

d. Political:
 This is also another important beat for every newspaper and electronic news bulletin.
Especially considering the Nepalese media scenario, all the Nepalese media are obsessed
with political news. Most of their newspaper pages and bulletin time is occupied by
political news. Political activities and political discourses do hold coveted positions in
every society and hence even the media across the world do give emphasis on covering
political matters with serious intent. So much so that there has been a tendency to
undermine all other important matters confronting the society.

However, political beat in this situation, becomes one of the most important beats for
every media house. Therefore, usually a senior reporter is assigned this task of covering
this beat. The person, who handles this beat, must be a senior man, having long years of
experience of working in the field of media and who understands the political situations
and happenings well. He should have better grasp and reflexes over political matters and
course of action.

He also should have good contacts in the political field, in State Legislative Assemblies,
Parliament etc.

e. Business/economic:

Now-a-days, business plays a crucial role in every society. There has been a surge in
activities everywhere around the world related to business, trade, commerce, finance, etc.
Especially in today’s globalized world, business and financial matters have occupied
center stage. With the emergence of free market economy, ‘businesses have become
everybody’s business rather than being confined to a few financial experts. There has
been so much in the offing in regards to all these areas that it becomes overtly necessary
for people to broaden their knowledge and strengthen their understanding about the issues
and processes that surround these areas in a way not done before. Therefore, media has
also started taking these issues seriously and with a lot of emphasis. In this connection the
business beat is considered to be an extremely responsible and serious one.

The person who is willing to take the responsibility of this important beat upon his
shoulder should keep this in mind that he must have clear understanding about the
matters related to business and finance, the dynamics of the stock market etc. He should
have up to date information about the business activities taking place not only in his own
society but also elsewhere. He should have proper knowledge about the dynamics of
business and also have a network of reliable sources in Government and non-government
organizations, corporate bodies, political circles and everywhere.

f. Sports:
Sports are also one of the most coveted beats in every media organization. Every media
organization gives due weight-age to covering the areas of games and sports. All the
newspapers devote one or two pages of a total newspaper to sports related news.
Therefore, anybody covering this beat holds mammoth responsibility. The person who
has some understanding about the rules and tactics of different games and sports is
normally assigned with this beat. The person handling this beat must be aware of the
 sporting scenario of the country and of other countries as well and also should be able to
understand the issues and problems engulfing the sports scenario the world over. It is
expected that he also knows about the players and has good contacts with the players as
well as the people and different organizations related with sports.
g. Education:
Education is another important beat due to the sheer number of people that are involved
in this field — students, teachers, guardians, researchers and, of course, policy makers.
News about the different schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions of technical
and higher learning and the educational scenario in general make very good, important
and relevant news content. A good education reporter will cover important activities in
different educational institutions and will try to bring out stories about the unusual
developments, if any, in the field to education. Government policies on education are
very important issues that need to be covered. New trends and problems pertaining to the
field are also important topics for news.

A person who covers the education beat needs to have a good understanding of the
education scenario, and must have good contacts in different educational institutions and
in the education department.

h. Science and Technology:

Science and technology is increasingly shaping and revolutionizing our lives every day.
We cannot possibly think of our lives without the contributions of scientific and
technological developments. Therefore, understanding science is a cultural necessity and
is a part of general cultural knowledge as art and drama. The public needs to know what
scientists are doing and how their work is influencing the society. Science reporting
intends to inculcate a scientific temperament among the readers and to encourage them to
have a rational and analytical mindset in explaining various phenomena in their everyday
life.

Science and technology news includes noteworthy scientific discoveries about nature and
all major advancements that take place in the field of technology. Discovery about stars,
atoms or about human body or mind, discovery of major drugs, breakthrough in fusion
research, space shots, etc make good science reports. What a science reporter usually
looks for are the milestones in the progress of science and technology.

Specialization in the field of science is often an advantage for a science reporter, but a
science reporter need not necessarily be a specialist.

What is essential is a background in science and a scientific temperament. Since science

is not something static and new things are developed every day, so a science reporter
should have the willingness and zeal to make himself a student of science every day and
update himself about the new developments. A science reporter should also be aware of
the major areas of ongoing scientific research. But perhaps the most important quality of
a science reporter is the ability to write the highly technical scientific news for the
 common readers in an understandable way. He should be able to digest an abstract theory
and express it in a readable and understandable form.

i. Development:
A very important beat in the present context of media coverage is development reporting.
By development report we mean a report in which development or under development in
a particular field is highlighted.

Development is measured in terms of improvement in the living conditions of the people,

of the society, of the nation. As such, development includes issues like removal of
poverty, lessening of disparity between religions and classes, building up of technological
infrastructure, modernization of society through shedding feudalism, tribalism and
superstition, and gradual achievement of economic self-reliance. A development reporter
will be required to cover all such developments and also the lack of it. Rural reporting is
a very important aspect of development reporting. Development reporters should also pay
due importance to issues relating to social evils, deprivations and try to represent the
unrepresented sections of the society.

A development reporter needs to maintain regular contacts with different organizations

and institutions, government departments, development agencies, NGOs, voluntary
organizations etc. It is absolutely necessary for a development reporter to acquire basic
understanding of terms used in agriculture, environment, science, economics and other
related subjects. A development reporter cannot afford to be guided by personal
prejudices, likes and dislikes. Also he should never rewrite official handouts, but use
them as his raw material and develop a well-researched story on his own.

The most important aspect of development reporting is human development reporting. It

must concern itself with people since it is the people who are building the nation. It must
show them how to improve their condition in the society.

j. Disaster/ Accidents/ Fires:

Stories about accidents, fires and disasters are very common and form a major part of
news content. Major accidents, fires and disasters almost always make front page
headlines. Beginners in the field are most often assigned this beat. These are hard core
hard news stories and are relatively easy to cover in the sense that they do not require any
specialized knowledge on the part of the reporter. It is enough for the reporter to have the
basic reporting skills. A keen power of observation and the ability to interview people to
find out details is necessary. Eye witness accounts are very important for these kinds of
stories.

Principle roles of Reporters on a Beat/ specialized reporting

If you must succeed as reporter on the beat, you must:

a. Be prepared: Have a basic education in journalism, understand the society, understand
the government, know history, economics and psychology and be well exposed in your
area of coverage.
b. Be alert: The germ (the beginning) of a good story is hidden in many a routine one. So,
always stay focused and take tips seriously.
c. Be persistent: Persistence entails two things to a reporter on a beat. First, it means that
when you ask a question; you cannot give up until you get an answer. Second, it means
that you must keep track of slow-developing projects or problems.
d. Be there: In beat reporting, there is no substitute for personal contact. The only way to
cover a beat is to be there every day, if possible. You must make yourself seem to be part
of the community you are covering.
e. Be wary: You must always try to keep your readers informed about the latest events or
developments. You must also be cautious in your dealings that come across you.
f. Set daily goals: Make sure you have a good idea of what you want to accomplish on a
daily basis.
g. Build sources: There is no substitute for regular contacts that will alert the reporter the
first time they hear or see anything news worthy in the beat.
h. Do favors: Where appropriate, go out of your way to do favors for your sources. It sure
will help in times of your own need.
i. Ask the sweeping questions: If you like, ask the dumb questions but make sure you are
asking the questions that will get something out of your sources or subjects.
j. Listen carefully and watch carefully: Some reporters look but they do not see. When
you look, try to observe and see what is happening around. Check out the moods, the
reactions, body language when the question was asked. Look and see.
k. Look at the Records: In covering your beat, you are expected to constantly keep in
touch with original documents. Go for the original source material.
l. Make Phone Calls: Make constant phone checks and calls even if not very necessary.
You should also know that phone calls cannot replace direct contact. They are only a
supplement.
m. Start out Early and Fast: You need to constantly leave your office early to your beat.
You must a clear understanding that stories do not usually pump up in the newsroom. So,
what are you still doing there by 9.00 in the morning?
n. Know the Beat: You must make a concerted effort to know your beat like you know
your true friend. There is no substitute for this. Just make sure you understand the process
in and around your beat.
o. Show Some Courtesy and be Friendly: As a beat reporter, you should be able to relate
with people in your beat and treat individuals you beat there some respect. You may
never know who the next source might be. A beat reporter should also try to make friends
in his/her area of coverage. You sure need them than enemies.
p. Be an Observer: A beat reporter should maintain a critical distance between him and
the subjects he is covering. He must be a non-participant observer and not a participant.
The moment a reporter associates very closely with the subjects of his beat, he begins
writing for his sources rather than the audience. This is very dangerous.
q. Be Protective of Confidential Sources: You must respect the off-record rule. You must
also maintain the confidence of your sources even at gunpoint. Any beat reporter who
 easily divulges the sources of information or gives a hint about it because of threats, is
already dead professionally.
r. Maintain the Triple News Virtues: The triple news virtues are they fundamental pillars
upon which every news story must rest. They are: truth, objectivity and accuracy. For no
reason should any of these be violated

Specialty/ specialized reporting

Specialist reporters cover breaking news and features in more specialized areas than the
beat reporters such as environment, cultural programs, information technology, law,
foreign affairs, education and medicine. Specialist reporters generally do not cover spot
news. But they have to analyze the roots of problems, the reasons behind the news, the
possible solutions, and the future prospectus of the news events and developments.

So, what is specialized reporting?

Specialized reporting can be said to be the next level of beat reporting. When you cover a
particular beat for a long time, you gain knowledge and familiarity that would help you in
providing insight and commentary along with the fact. Specialist reporters, or those who
have command over particular areas, always in demand in the media industry. But to
become that requires years of hard work.
The best reporters are those who possess in-depth knowledge of specific issues,
institutions, areas and places. The reporters use their knowledge for crafting special
stories that separate a publication from the rest. In every newspaper, you will find
specialist reporters who have been writing about a particular subject for years.

While specialized reporting also allows you to explore your interests like sports, defense,
film, science, technology etc, you are required to develop your writing skills. Here are
some tips:
1. Always avoid plagiarism
2. Read about your area of interest as much as you can
3. Involve yourself in discussions on subjects of your interests.
4. Try to be innovative in your writing. People like to read new perspectives and insights.
5. Be the master of your subject, but never lose an opportunity to learn. Nuggets of wisdom
are all around. You just need to keep your mind open.
6. Never try to be biased or let your personal opinions reflect in your writing. For personal
opinions, newspapers have separate Op-ed pages, but special stories are still news.
7. Research before writing.

Specialized reporting simply means, reporting from special areas/ beats or fields. It is a
clear departure from the general type of reporting that is not focused on particular
fields or areas. It is therefore referred to as reporting specialties.

Specialized reports could therefore be regarded as in-depth, thorough, elaborate,

comprehensive, discriminate and very lucid report of a specific area or field of
 journalistic coverage. In other words, specialized reporting is knowledge demanding and
brain tasking intellectual piece focusing on specific issues in specific areas of media
coverage.

Who is a Specialized Reporter in specialized reporting?

A specialized reporter is a special kind of correspondent who covers a particular beat for
his or her media organization. A special reporter could also be referred to as a seasoned,
professional reporter who covers a particular beat for his organization. A specialist is a
beat reporter and is very knowledgeable in his/her area of coverage. He/she is contrasted
with the generalist or roving reporter. A correspondent is usually in charge of his/her
organization’s news bureau or office in major cities or towns where his organization
operates. He or she could also be in charge of subject areas or matters for his/her
organization. This will be further explained in beat reporting.

How to Identify Specialized Reports

a. Specialized report is in-depth, thorough and detailed. It is complete in content and

delivery.
b. Specialized reports also involve the use of technical and advanced language with
explanation where necessary.
c. Specialized reports are usually serious in tone and well packaged.
d. Specialized reports should provide background and precedence. This is the primary
reason the specialist must be research savvy.
e. Specialized reports should reflect sound professionalism and experience of the writer in
the choice of words, sentences, and so on.
f. Sometimes, there are some levels of professional subjectivity in the stories reported.
g. Specialized reports are sometimes very critical and scientific.

Professional Qualification and Experience

a. The specialist reporter must be an accredited journalist registered with the professional
association or, as the case may be, in the country of practice.
b. He/she must have worked as a journalist at whatever capacity for some time.
c. He/she should have adequate exposure or professional training in the area of
specialization.
d. He/she must have long-term experience as a generalist and assisting correspondent in the
particular field of coverage.

Personal Qualities and roles of specialized reporting

1. First and foremost, s/he must be a good and seasoned reporter.
2. S/He must be a good analyst.
3. He/she must be passionately and resolutely committed to the area of coverage.
4. He must have a wealth of experience and knowledge in the field or area of coverage.
5. He must be skilful in packaging interesting and intellectually stimulating write-ups.
6. He must be research-driven so as to give his stories enough depth and factual support.
7. S/He must always be prepared.
 8. S/He is always at alert.
9. S/He is very persistent.
10. S/He is always there whenever the news breaks.
11. S/He easily mixes up.
12. S/He easily cultivates sources and maintains them.
13. S/He dresses fine, very courteous and amiable.
14. S/He must be knowledgeable about the area of coverage and have the technical,
professional and educational competencies to cover the area.

PARLIMANTRY OR LEGISLATURE REPORTING

Parliamentary reporting is a specialized job. Only experienced and a person who has the
nose for parliament courage can do this job. Parliament reporting is a sensitive
assignment.

In a parliamentary democracy, parliament reporting assumes supreme significance for

reasons not difficult to enumerate.

The Government announces all the major policy decision in Parliament. Political news
emanates form in and around the House in session and the relative strength of political
parties is tested on the floor of the House.

Legislature reporting focuses on the day-to-day proceedings of Parliament as well as state

legislature (Shanghiya Sabha , rastriya sabha and Pradesh sabha).

Normally, seasoned special Correspondents are assigned to cover parliamentary

proceedings, to ensure accuracy and maturity in reporting. Legislature reporting often
involves taking copious notes of speeches made by ministers and members of the
legislature, for which knowledge of shorthand is an advantage.

The exact quotes of the Prime Minister and senior Cabinet Ministers lent credibility to a
news report.

Role of general reporter

 The role of a general assignment reporter is very important to the success of a news
organization. Without general assignment reporters most news stories could not be
reported or broadcast. 
In the news media, the general assignment reporter role is performed by beginning
reporters or reporters with less than five years of experience.
 On a newspaper staff, general assignment reporters cover and report on three stories a
day.
 General assignment reporting requires versatility and patience. During a shift, a reporter
can report on a fire in the morning and then a school event in the afternoon.
 Today, some general assignment reporting is performed by freelance reporters or
stingers due to the reduction of newspaper staff. 
 In television, general assignment reporting is performed by on-air reporters. Like
newspaper reporters, television they must have the ability to report on a wide range of
topics.
 Generally, all reporters on local television news are considered general assignment
reporters.
 A television reporter usually reports on one story per day, but the story subject changes
daily. Like television, radio reporters on radio news stations cover a variety of stories and
assignments. 
 Becoming an effective general assignment reporter requires a board range of general
knowledge. Unlike beat reporting, general assignment reporting does not require the
reporter to be an expert in a specific field or on a specific topic.
 Most general assignment reporters obtain either liberal arts degree or a journalism degree
from a university. A college degree, however, is not a requirement for entry into
journalism or general assignment reporting. The basic skills of a general assignment
reporter are curiosity, desire, and the ability to meet deadlines. 
 Being a general assignment reporter is not a dead end or career stopper. The majority of
editors, managing editors, and news directors began their careers as GAR's. This position
is the first step on the ladder to success in journalism.
 After proving themselves in this role, some reporters are promoted to the position of beat
reporter and assigned a beat. 
 While the job of a general assignment reporter can be fun, exciting and very interesting.
The downside is that you might be called to cover a story at any time; day or night.
 All and all being can be rewarding because on a daily basis general assignment reporters
have the opportunity to meet different people from all walks of life: fireman, policeman,
government officials, entertainers, and everyday people.
 A GOOD Reporter should take care of Some Basic Rules of Reporting.
1. Never leave your camera or laptop unattended, because if you lose it, how can you
work?
2. Keep your laptop, cell phone and camera batteries charged.
3. Try to get sick only on your days off. It means that the profession of Reporting is not a
job for fix hours. It is a way of life.
4. If a person is habitual of taking leave on one or other pretext, he can never be a
professional reporter.
5. If you do not understand something, ask for a clarification. “Assumptions” kill more
journalists every year than any other natural cause. Be honest about deadlines and time.
6. If you fail to report on time or speedy than you will not be treated as a good Reporter.
7. Be skeptical, check facts to make sure they are facts. A single source of information is
an invitation to disaster.
 8. Read newspapers and internet and stay tuned, you never know what kind of story you
will have to do. Ignorance is not an excuse in News profession.

Role of specialized reporters

 It is said that a reporter is both eyes and ears of a news organization. It is not possible to
strictly prescribe qualifications which a good reporter must possess.
 However, novice reporters must train themselves informally for the job so that they
would be able to discharge their responsibilities with confidence, courage and
competence.
 In order to qualify the role of a reporter you must prepare yourself in many ways. It helps
to be well-read, and you can do full justice to your reporting beat.
 You must equip yourself adequately with all aspects of your beat. If you are covering the
civic body proceedings, you must be fully knowledgeable about several laws and rules
under which the proceedings are regulated.
 In addition, you must know its various functions, areas of operations and jurisdiction.
 You should cultivate wide contacts with all kinds of sources in your beat, sometimes
even outside your area of activity.
 As a reporter, you should be able to find out information; you should have a bent of mind
for research.
 You should be a perfect talker; you should possess inexhaustible patience and the ability
to get along with any kind of people in difficult situations.
 To be a successful reporter and to accomplish your job competently, you must be able to
perceive, calculate, predict and plan your action appropriately in anticipation of a news
dent.
 The sole aim of good news reporting should be writing with a certain amount of
responsibility to oneself, to an organization, to society and to humanity at large.
 You must use your pen consciously, carefully and should bear full credit (or discredit)
for what you say: "Just as an unclaimed torrent of water submerges the whole countryside
and devastates crops; even so, an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy."
 Besides, as you must write every day, you should write to build your own image, as well
as the image of your institution.
 You have a responsibility towards your city, state, region, country, even the world at
large. Echoing this, the noted editor M.V. hamath once said: "A newspaper's sense of
purpose and integrity, rather than its circulation, would determine its influence."
 And it is the reporter who is a builder of a newspaper's sense of purpose and integrity. Let
it be said here that a reporter is neither a social worker nor-a preacher nor a reformer.
  Reporters are duty bound to keep a finger on a sore point in society. For it is only then,
that the attention of all those concerned is drawn to the disease that ails the society.
Unless cub reporters are imbued with a total sense of responsibility towards the
profession and the news organization, they will not be able to rise to the expectations
reposed in them by the news organization and the society. It is essential for a news
reporter to be alerted minded and curious.
 In addition, one should be in excellent health and should have inexhaustible stamina to
chase difficult assignments. Most: of all, a reporter should be a sociable person.

STRATEGY
A specialized Reporter must form a strategy.
Following acts would be helpful in getting facts: -
a. Observation: Stroll through an unfamiliar Neighborhood. Talk the people you meet there.
This exercise will give you many leads/clues.
b. Personal sources: Keep close contact with family, friends, Bosses and co-workers. Some
time anonymous sources give you valuable information. Never ignore them. When you
analysis the facts/data, it will give further lead. Studying neglected sources, such as
archives, phone records, address books, tax record and license records. These could be
very helpful in taking clues and lead to further proceed on the issue.
c. Check every fact, as well as the source of information.
Accuracy of facts has a prime importance. Know the law. Check the law in your area
related to journalism. If you violate the law you may have to face the consequences.
Work with research librarians. They are trained to track information. If you consult the
librarian, you will save the time in getting the required material. “CAR” (computer
assisted reporting). In modern journalism the use of computer/Internet will give you great
help.
d. SKEPTICISM
Develop a healthy skepticism. Do not get caught off because someone seems
sympathetic. Every person has an agenda. Always report the facts by checking
credibility. Investigative Reporter’s job is to separate facts from fiction. Investigate the
truth of every bit of information you get. Double check and triple check the facts. Talk to
specialists. If you have some technical information, you must consult the specialists of
that field to verify the real facts and their impact. When you are interviewing someone
for investigative purposes, always know before an interview which questions are to be
answered or which major topics are to be covered.
e. Reporter must know the law.
Know the procedure. Focus on research. Follow the lead. Just keep digging. Organize the
information. Write the report. Check facts, Triple Check. Libel Check and deformation
check.
Concept of editing
As you know that editing is tailoring news items or a news story to the required shape and size
using the right kind of expressions and symbols, so let us now take a quick recap on editing and
its intricacies. On the new desk all incoming news items are sorted by a senior journalist to
achieve a balance between news originating within the organisation and those pouring in from
outside. In the process, unwanted copies get weeded out. Only copies having news value are
selected. These are checked for grammar, syntax, facts, figures, sense and are improved upon
and condensed for economy of space. A copy is edited to highlight the ‘news sense’ in a story
and to bring uniformity of language and style.
In a news organization, editing plays a pivotal role. A news item or a news story, as it is called, is
written by hurried reporters. and is rough-edged like raw diamond. Hence, the copy is polished
and honed by a team of editors, who form the Editorial Desk. The team, also called the desk
persons. works under tremendous pressure and severe time constraint. The desk persons work
well past midnight. and ensure that your newspaper reaches you on time in the morning.
In order to understand the term ‘editing’, we first need to know what we are editing, and why we
are doing so. If you think properly, you will realize that all we edit is information. Every
information or communication is edited for effect, so that they are better expressed and
consequently, better understood. The information can be for publication or for broadcasting. It
can be the content of a book, a magazine, a newspaper in case of print media. And in case of
electronic media, it can be the content of radio, television, cinema or a website.

DEFINITION
The Advanced Learner’ Dictionary of Current English defines editing as ‘preparing, (another
person’s writing) for publication (especially in a newspaper or other periodical); doing the work
of planning and directing the publication of a newspaper, magazine, encyclopedia etc; preparing
a cinema film, tape recording by putting together parts in a suitable sequence.’
Prominent American theorist and Editor-at-large of American monthly magazine ‘commentary’
Norman Podhoretz says ‘editing is to improve an essentially well-written piece or to turn a
clumsily written one into, at the very least, a beautifully shaped effective essay which remains
true to the author’s intention and which realizes that intention more fully than he himself is able
to do.’
The news reporters are the main news writers. They are in a hurry, especially in the evenings,
when the news development gathers momentum. The copy written by them under pressure is
bound to carry errors of all types. In any newspapers, there is always a shortage of space for all
news items, which are received in the office. The newspaper's advertisement department is ever
eager to grab the valuable but limited space. Moreover, newsprint and means of production cost
a lot of money. Ultimately, a newspaper's success largely depends on the space and its most
efficient, judicious and economic use. Hence, within the space set aside for news, as much news
as possible needs to be packed to serve a divergent readership. Considering these factors; editing
of the news copy becomes essential.
Hence, ‘Editing is a whole concept around which a message is conceived, perceived, designed
and communicated.’ News editing is tailoring news items or a news story to the required shape
and size, using the right kind of expressions and symbols. A copy is edited to highlight the "news
sense" in a story, and to bring uniformity of language and style in an issue of a newspaper
It is a chain of activities that starts with the assigning of beats to the reporters and culminates in
the final publication of the newspaper. News editing is all about building bridges with mass
audiences by eliminating blocks in that process. Editing makes the copy suitable for publication.
The exercise of editing, especially in print media, can broadly be divided into four stages:
 Conceptualization and planning
 Visualization
 Dummy Preparation
 Handling of copy

Of the four stages, the most exhaustive stage is the fourth stage,
i.e., handling of copy.

It involves the following:

1. Selection of news items
2. Cutting and pruning
3. Removal of mistakes
4. Rewriting when necessary
5. Headlining

TIPS FOR MAKING NEWS- 5 Ws and 1H

The Five “W” s and the “H”
This is the crux of all news - you need to know five things:
a. Who?
b. What?
c. Where?
d. When?
e. Why?
f. How?
Any good news story provides answers to each of these questions. You must drill these into your
brain and they must become your second nature.
For example, if you wish to cover a story about a local sports team entering a competition you
will need to answer these questions:
  Who is the team? Who is the coach? Who are the prominent players? Who are
the supporters?
 What sport do they play? What is the competition?
 Where is the competition?
 Where the team is normally based?
 When is the competition?
 How long have they been preparing?
 Are there any other important time factors?
 Why are they entering this particular competition? If it‘s relevant, why does
the team exist at all?
 How are they going to enter the competition?
 Do they need to fundraise?
 How much training and preparation is required?
 What will they need to do to win?

As such a news item should answer these questions.

 What happened?
 Why did it happen?
 Where did it happen?
 When did it happen?
 Who was involved?
 How did it happen?

‘What’ is the first element that deciphers what is the news all about? What did happen? Is it an
accident, a blast, a fair, a crime or what?

Ideally the ‘what’ element should appear in the beginning? The element ‘why’ delves into the
reasons behind the happening of any event. It tells us about why the incident occurred. If it was a
case of accident, then what are the reasons behind it? Was it due to reckless driving or brake
failure or poor condition of the road or foggy weather, if not, then what? Was the driver in a
drunken state? All these questions should be answered by this element—why.

The element ‘where’ talks about the place of occurrence of the event. If it was a case of accident,
then in which place did the accident take place— in Kathmandu? In Gorkha? At Chandanbari? It
tells about the specific location of the event.

The ‘when’ element tells us about the time of occurrence of the event, like morning, evening,
night, mid-night or exactly at what time of the day? It should also specify on which day-Monday,
Tuesday, Thursday……today, tomorrow or any other day. Without specification of time and day
news remains incomplete. The readers should be aware as to when did the incident occur and at
what time the reportage has been carried.

As such the ‘when’ element also establishes the immediacy of the event.
The ‘Who’ element tells us about the people who are involved in an incident. It gives the actual
profile of the people involved, their names, age, sex, place of habitat etc. Bigger the names,
bigger would be the importance and size of the news.

Lastly, there should be a narration as to ‘how’ the incident has occurred. The elements stated
above only gives the readers a glimpse of the story, highlighting the major points. But the story
needs further elaboration, taking the readers to the situations that led to the occurrence. So, here
comes the element of ‘How’ which attempts to detail the event for the readers.

STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY

Once news is selected, the journalist writes the news report. Though individual style of news
presentation varies from organization to organization or individual to individual, all news reports
contain a headline, a by-line or credit line, a dateline, a lead, a body and conclusion.
1. Headline: It is the most visible part of a news report and often is either the summary or
the main point of the story. Usually headline is written in a font few sizes bigger than the
rest of the news story. A reader decides to read the story after reading the headline.
Sometimes headlines try to create curiosity through interesting use of language and
prompt the reader to read the full story

Types of headline

Almost every headline will have one of the characteristics of each of the categories.

I. BASED ON NUMBER OF LINES

a. SINGLE LINE HEADLINE
When the headline contains just one sentence and extends along the same line
only, then it is called a single-line headline.
b. DOUBLE- LINE HEADLINE
In case of some headline, the sentence extends to two lines. This type of headline
is called double-line headline.
c. MULTIPLE LINE HEADLINE
When the same sentence extends to three lines or more, then it is called a multiple
line headline.
II. BASED ON ALIGNMENT
a. FLUSH LEFT HEADLINE
When a single or multiple line headlines is aligned to the left margin, it is called a
flush left headline. The white space at the right is considered enhancing, because
it allows “air” into the otherwise stuffy column spaces and makes it more pleasing
to the eye. Flush left is the most commonly used headline today. When in a flush
left headline, every next line is longer than the previous one; it is called a stepped
headline.
b. FLUSH RIGHT HEADLINE/ REVERSE STEP HEADLINE
 It is reverse of the flush left head. Here the lines are pushed against the right
margin to create a stepped effect on the left. It is not a very commonly used
headline.
c. FLUSH CENTRE HEADLINE/ CENTRED HEADLINE
This is also a headline of more than one line where all the lines are center aligned.
d. INVERTED PYRAMID HEADLINE
This is a headline style of three or four lines aligned center, where each
successive line is shorter than the one above. Its use is relatively less.
III. SPECIAL HEADLINES
a. BANNER HEADLINE
The banner headline is a large headline of one or more lines extending across the
entire page. It is so called because this headline looks like the banner or flag of
the newspaper. It is also known as the streamer. It is used only in case of very
important news in order to draw attention. Now-a-days some feature stories also
use this kind of headline.

In very rare cases the banner headline runs above the flag. It is called the skyline.
It is used sparingly and the news has to be really very big to merit such a headline.
b. CROSSLINE OR BLANKET HEADLINE
The cross line head is very similar to a banner headline but it does not cover the
full width of the page. It however covers all the columns of the story.
c. KICKER
When two important pieces of information are to be carried in the headline, then
the headline is broken into two sentences. The second line of the headlines is
apparently bolder and bigger in size. Above this there is another sub-ordinate
headline which is half the size of the one below and also with different font style.
It is called kicker or eyebrow line or strapline. It adds a new thought but does
not repeat the words or information in the main line below. To add white space,
the kicker is always underlined.

IV. REVERSE KICKER OR HAMMER HEADLINE

As the name suggests, this headline is exactly the reverse of the kicker headline. Here
the kicker over line is set twice the size of the hammer headline below. Although the
over line is bigger than the hammer, the hammer is still considered to be the main
headline. This headline was originally used mainly in feature stories only, but now-a-
days it is used for hard news stories as well.
V. TRIPOD HEADLINE
The tripod head is a single, short line of larger type set to the left of two or three lines
of smaller type. The tripod portion (larger wording) should be twice the size of the
definition or main headline. For example, a 36-point tripod would dictate that the
main head be set in 18-point type to give the true tripod appearance. Punctuation in
the form of a colon is required when the tripod conveys a separate thought.
VI. WICKET HEAD
The wicket head is a tripod in reverse — short line of larger type set to the right of
two or three (or more) lines of smaller type. The colon is not used in the wicket. This
headline is seldom used and its actual design varies from newspaper to newspaper
 VII. NOVELTY HEAD
The novelty head features typographical tricks, such as setting part of the head upside
down, using an ornate typeface or substituting artwork as characters. It is used
sparingly and is appropriate for feature articles only.
VIII. SIDE HEAD
The side head is a headline form that runs alongside a story. It is normally three or
four lines and looks best when set flush right. A side head is usually placed slightly
above the center of the story.
IX. JUMP HEAD
This headline is designed to help the reader find a portion of a story continued from
another page. The jump head uses one or two key words from the headline that
introduced the story. It is set flush left followed by the words “Continued from Page
##,” usually set in boldface body type or at times in italics.
X. STANDING HEAD
The standing head is essentially a label used for regular or recurring content, such as
sports, science columns etc. It does not change from issue to issue.

2. By-line / Credit line: This identifies the source of the story or the writer. It could be the
name of the journalist who has filed the story or the agency from which the story has
been sourced. When a person or journalists name is mentioned, it is called by-line and
when there is no mention of the person ‘s name it is called credit line. The credit line
could be the agency ‘from which news is taken or by our correspondent ‘or our bureau
‘or by our special correspondent etc.
3. Dateline: The name of a place and date is mentioned below the credit line or by-line and
before beginning of the actual news. This is called dateline. This informs the date on
which the reporter has filed the story and the place from where the reporter has filed the
story.
4. Lead: This is the opening paragraph of a news story. This gives the most important
information very briefly. It is always short and crisp and reflects the mood of the story. If
the lead is not effective, the reader may skip the story. Generally, it answers 5W (Who,
What, Where, When and Why) and I H (How).

Types of lead
a. Summary lead/ news lead/ multiple element lead.
Ideally the lead should give the summary of what has happened in a nutshell. The reader
should get the entire information in the lead itself, at least the crux of the story. It enables
the hurried readers to get the main essence of the story in the first paragraph, without
needing to go further. This kind of lead which summarizes the story is called the
summary lead or news lead or multiple element lead.
A short lead, telling all the vital points, using simplest possible words and maintaining
the order of importance, is the key to the success of a story.
b. Narrative lead
Apart from the normal summary lead, the copy editor can also, make use of different
other kinds of lead for special impact in case of certain stories. For instance, the
narrative lead (also known as descriptive lead or picture lead) can be used in order to
 attract the reader’s attention by drawing a vivid picture of a particular situation, place,
person, object or unusual phase of action that the story may deal with.
c. Staccato lead
Again, if in a news story, the time element consists of fast action or the intervals are
separated by a series of related events, which needs to be emphasized, then the staccato
lead can be used. It consists of several small broken sentences punctuated either by
periods or dashes.
d. Contrast lead
Again if the news story deals with a situation that presents some kind of contrast, say a
contrast between the present and former situations, two people or say, between two
events happening in two different places, then the contrast lead can be used.
e. Question lead
Sometimes, the lead can start with a question (question lead) and sometimes the reader
can be directly addressed in the lead (directly addressed lead). While reporting
important speeches or public statements by important people, the lead may begin with a
quote. This is called quotation lead. So, in this way, different types of leads can be used
to enhance the impact of the story.

5. Body: It gives the additional details or elaborates the event. In this part actual story is
narrated. The body describes what the story is all about in order of importance of
information, whereas the lead provides just the gist of the actual event. It is divided into
several paragraphs and written in inverted pyramid style. We shall discuss about inverted
pyramid style later. The body elaborates what has been established in the lead. Points
which have not been accommodated in the lead are elaborated in the body.
Mostly the body deals with the element of ‘how’. But while constructing the body the sub
editor should remember that he maintains the logical order of facts in the body. Or in
other words he has to follow the inverted pyramid style of news writing. In case of
features, on the other hand, the pyramid style is used.

The portion of a news story that follows the lead is called the “Body” and it normally
presents facts in descending order of importance. Essentially, the body amplifies the story
by providing additional information. This could be names, descriptions, quotations,
conflicting viewpoints, explanations, background data and so forth. News stories end
with their least important details–never with any type of conclusion. e.g If two cars
collide, injuring several peoples, an inverted pyramid story about the accident might
contain the following sequence of paragraphs.
6. Conclusion:
As mentioned earlier, a hard news story does not have a conclusion. Mostly, in case of
soft news stories the conclusion is an essential element. Nevertheless, in the conclusion
part the sub editor should weave out the vital points of the entire story and give a suitable
conclusion.
THE MAJOR TYPES OF NEWS STORY STRUCTURES OR FORMATS:
There are two major formats for writing the main body of the news story: the
1. Chronological Format and the
2. Inverted Pyramid Format.
3. Pyramid format
4. Hourglass format
CHRONOLOGICAL FORMAT OF NEWS STORY WRITING:
Chronological format is widely used for narrating or writing stories, real or fictitious. The entire
sequence of events is presented in order of their occurrence. The result is that the most important
information may be places anywhere in the narration according to the fact when it occurred.

This format is mainly used either to create documentary evidence of the actions or events, as in
recording of evidence in courts or when the purpose is to entertain and the climax is brought
forward in the end.

Generally, in a feature film the peak of the story is at the end and events are projected in a
chronological order, may be sometimes in flash back. Stories told by grandparents also follow
the order of occurrence, and suspense is delayed till the end.

INVERTED PYRAMID FORMAT OF NEWS STORY WRITING:

Journalism also adopted the inverted-pyramid form because it summarizes the news quickly. It
gives readers the convenience of grasping the news of the day by simply skimming lead
paragraphs. The form allows readers to decide whether they want to continue reading a story or
leave it after any one of its paragraphs. An inverted pyramid can also be trimmed from the
bottom, which makes it easier to fit it into the tight news holes of a newspaper, broadcast media
or on line medias.

The inverted pyramid format of news writing has the following advantages:
 The primary advantage of the inverted pyramid style is that it allows someone to stop
reading a story after only one or two paragraph. Doing so still allows that person to learn
the story’s most important details. The inverted pyramid style also ensures that all the
facts are immediately understandable. It also helps the headline writer to grasp the
essentials of the story more quickly. Moreover, if a story is too long, editors can easily
delete one or more paragraphs from the end.
 Only important bits of information go to the readers and unnecessary details are kept out.
 The information is presented in order of importance and the readers have the choice to
read as much story as they wish without missing the important facts.
 It keeps the interest of the readers live and opens one fact after another.
 This style also helps the staff on the desk (sub-editors). If the story needs to be cut
because of the shortage of space or time, it can be cut at the tail and loss is only of the
unimportant information.
 The inverted pyramid format lays emphasis on the facts and thus the comments and
opinions of the news writers are not included which in itself is a healthy journalistic
practice.
However, it must also be admitted that inverted pyramid style of news writing limits the
storytelling abilities of the writers. Some experts feel that there is hardly any scope for creativity.
But this is not entirely true. To write news stories briefly, focused and leaving out unnecessary
information and still make it readable for a wide variety of news readers is itself a great
challenge for creative abilities of the writers

Disadvantages

 The inverted pyramid style has several disadvantages. First, because the lead
summarizes facts that later paragraphs discuss in greater detail, some of those facts may
be repeated in the body. Second, a story that follows the inverted pyramid-style rarely
contains any surprises; the lead immediately reveals every major details.

Pyramid style
For features and other soft news items, the style mostly used is the Pyramid style of writing.
Pyramid style is the classic style for academic writing. It starts by laying the foundations. It starts
with less significant details, building the story towards a climax, leaving the most important
information for the end. Finally, it caps the work off with a brief conclusion.

Fig of pyramid style

Hourglass style
Most stories are written in the traditional inverted pyramid. But there are alternatives to this
style. In hourglass style, the reporter provides the major news in the first few paragraphs of the
story. These paragraphs are presented in the inverted pyramid style. The reporter uses a turn; a
transitional paragraph is introduced to explain the chronology of the events. The transitional
paragraph may begin with: police gave the following account of the accident, our correspondent
gave the following account, the victim told the jury what happened etc. The details presented are
told in the chronological order.

Hourglass style is suitable for covering trials, accidents news, breaking news etc.

Fig of hourglass structure

Concept of hard news and soft news

Stories that fall in the hard news category report specific, tangible events such as fire, accident
and death of a prominent person. News stories that provide explanations, analyses and
interpretations are known as soft new

HARD NEWS:

News that has great importance and impact on the life of a nation or people or news that has
great significance or affects life of many people is termed hard news. The swearing-in of a
President or Prime Minister, the presentation of the national budget, the passing of an important
Bill in upper house and lower house, the assassination of a Prime Minister or a President, a major
earthquake, plane crash, etc. are examples of hard news.

News, which is of immediate importance, is called hard news. It must be brought to the notice of
the audience as soon as possible. For a newspaper the waiting period is time of publication of the
next issue. In radio and television, the first new bulletin after the information about an event
reaches the newsroom must carry the hard news.

With the advent of twenty-four-hour news channels, the waiting period for the hard news is
almost zero. It is told instantaneously.
Examples: Election results, accidents, swearing–in of a government, fall of a government, budget
announcements, removing of a Vice Chancellor, murder, rape, dacoity, theft, marriage or divorce
of a celebrity, death of a public figure etc.

SOFT NEWS:

News that interests people but has great significance is called soft news.

The wedding of a film actor, the birthday party of a celebrity, a rock show, a beauty contest, or a
campus festival are examples of soft news.

There are many news stories that contain any information that needs to be disseminated urgently.
They have the news values, which will not be reduced with the passage of time. Such news
stories are called soft news.

Soft news stories can wait for publication or broadcast. Soft news is sometimes sensational in
nature. Soft news is on the priority list of the news desk. Soft news is also generally first to be
‘killed’ (rejected) when due to the shortage of space or time only some stories have to be
included.

Newspapers are meant for hard news. But every newspaper carries a mix of hard news and soft
news daily. This is because the changing tastes of the news audience.

With a high level of entertainment content on most media including TV, radio, magazines and
the Internet; even newspapers have started giving more space to entertainment. This is reflected
in the increased coverage of sports activities and the entertainment world.

Also in addition to short stories, poetry, satire and other such write ups, newspapers have started
giving more of soft news. This is not a new phenomenon. The age-old definition of news: ‘When
a dog bites a man, that is not news; but when a man bites a dog, that is news’ reflects that soft
news has been in vogue since almost the beginning.

Examples: Voters’ perception about contesting candidates, release of a book, seminars and
workshops, people’s reaction about budget proposals, lifestyle stories, follow-up stories etc.

NEWS WRITING FOR PRINT, BROADCAST AND ONLINE MEDIA

NEWS WRITING FOR NEWSPAPERS/ PRINT MEDIA- AN INTRODUCTION:

News is an art of producing descriptions for the consumption of masses. Essentially, news must
contain information about five Ws and one H. These are:
 What
 When
 Where
 Who
 Why and
  How

1. What: - is the kind of the action or the event of the news story
2. Who: - relates to the persons involved in the news story
3. When: - provides information about the time of the action or event
4. Where: - relates to the place or places of the occurrence of the event
5. Why: - provides real or perceived reasons for the action or event reported as news
6. How: - is the detailed description of whatever has happened

While mentioning the names of the person’s care should be taken that correct names and
spellings must be used. It is not how the name should be written but how the person writes his or
her name. The correct spellings may be Ananta but the person so called may be using Ananta, in
such case the later has to be used.

There may be some confusion about the similarity between ‘What’ and ‘how’. But both are quite
different. Whereas ‘What” is the answer to the type of occurrence, ‘How’ is the answer to the
curiosity of the manner in which it has happened. While reporting accident information about the
collision between a car and a truck is the answer to ‘What’ and head-on-collision, injury or
death, hospitalization etc. are the answers to ‘How’.

While giving the timing (When) in the news story, the journalist has to keep in view the timing
when the story is going to be read or listened or viewed by the receivers. We should not write
today if we are reporting for a morning newspaper as the reader is going to read it tomorrow.

Similarly, it would sound strange if we mention the day and date of today for a story for radio or
television to be broadcast on the day of reporting. In such a case ‘today’ is a better option.

In many news stories answer to ‘Why’ may not be required. Still in other stories the reason may
not be factual and only opinion cam be given. In such cases the journalist should resist from
making guesses and try to find the opinion of few related persons with report them with
attribution. In rare cases the journalist may provide a range of possible reasons. A meeting
between two political leaders of opposing parties may lead to lot of speculation but while
reporting the possible motives of the meeting need to be carefully reported; else the journalist
may appear to be an activist or partisan.

The search for answers to 5 Ws and 1 H begins as soon as the reporter starts collecting
information about the news. Yet, while looking for information and then while writing down the
news story the reporter must always ensure that these 5 Ws and 1 H have been taken care of.

News writing for radio broadcasting

The basic concept of news remains same for all media. The elements of news, structure of news,
and the principles of news writing remain same for all media. However, the style of writing and
presentation is dependent upon the nature of the medium- whether it is newspaper, magazines,
radio, television, or Internet.
So far we have discussed the basic concept of news in the previous lessons. These basic
principles apply to all media. We have discussed the basic concept of news more specifically for
the print media.

Print media news is mainly meant for reading. Other than the reading content print media has
less visual content in the form of pictures, graphs, charts, diagrams and caricatures.

Radio, on the other hand, is solely meant for the ears. Radio news is only for listening. On the
contrary television is a medium both for the eyes and the ears.

RADIO NEWS- AN INTRODUCTION:

Radio and television are grouped together either under electronic media.
These are also called the broadcasting media. But technology aside, writing for radio is different
from television news. It is said that writing radio news is more similar to print media writing than
to writing for television.

This is because in both print media and radio, words form the soul and the spirit. Words are used
to create pictures in the minds of the receivers. In print media the words are read and in radio the
words are heard. In both only one sensory organ is used.

Television, on the other hand, is a multi-sensory medium. Television makes use of pictures to
communicate. Since pictures are not able to communicate completely, words are also used.

There are technical and other differences among the different news media. Therefore, there are
specific requirements for writing news for radio, television and print media.

STYLE OF RADIO NEWS WRITING:

Many stories contain too much of numerical data which is important and must be mentioned in
the news story.

Numerical figures must be written in a manner that is easy for the newsreaders to read and easy
for the listener to understand and remember. Following is suggested:

 To simplify the complicated numbers, use terms such as approximately, more than,
about and almost, etc.
 To emphasize trends and changes use terms like dropped sharply, tumbled, cut in half
and slightly more than … percent, etc.
 Number below 12 should be written in words, and use numerals from 12 to 999.
 Use combination of numerals and words to write higher numbers. For example: 23
thousand workers, 20 lakh voters, 3 and a half crore trees, etc.
 Use either Nepali names for the numerals (thousands, lakhs, crores etc.) or Roman
numerals like million, billion etc). Combined use creates confusion and is not advisable.
  Try to convert as many figures as possible into round numbers, for example: 98, 34,
44,003 can be written as a little less than 100 crores.
 Write fractions as hyphenated words.
 Where age needs to be mentioned the newspaper style is not conversational. Do not
write, Om Praksh Jindal, 74, died in a helicopter accident. Write, 74-year-old, Om
Praksh Jindal died in a helicopter accident.
 For exact number like license numbers use hyphens, bagmati license number BAA-H-2-
1-3-7-9-0-5.
 In radio time reference is also handled differently. It is suggested that in most cases
present tense should be used, some experts also suggest that use of present perfect tense
is better.

Some other tips about time are:

 Avoid mentioning old time elements as much as possible. Avoid saying yesterday in the
lead, listener expects radio to give latest developments
 Instead of today, try saying this morning, late afternoon
 Wherever possible and needed give precise time, for ex- there will be load shedding
from nine in the morning to six in the evening.
 When quotations are to be used the best option is to give actual sound bites. But if the
quotation is to be given it should be short and crisp, as the listener cannot see the quotes.
The quotes in radio should be preceded by words like: “in what he called”, which she
described as”, or “in his own words”.
 In radio never start a lead sentence with an unfamiliar name; listener is likely to miss it.
Unfamiliar names must be explained. Instead of “Parvati, a well-known Kathak
dancer…” it would be better to say, “A well-known Kathak dancer, Parvati…”
 In radio news abbreviations are as a rule not used, unless the abbreviations have become
the well-known proper nouns. For example: NUJ, IFWJ, KUTA are not familiar names
but UNESCO, CBI, SAARC, ISI are familiar and should be written with hyphen
between two letters, U-N-S-C-O, C-B-I, I-S-I.

GUIDELINES FOR RADIO NEWS WRITING:

Radio writing has to be conversational. Writer must write copy for the radio news as if the news
reader/ presenter is entering into a conversation with the listeners. One also has to remember that
this conversation is only one-sided.

This makes writing radio news different from writing for print media. Each radio broadcasting
network or radio channel has its own way of writing.

Professor Donald E. Brown has prepared common guidelines for radio news writing.

The following guidelines are adopted from Prof. Brown’s suggestions:

 Use computers for writing the radio news copy. Newsreaders normally read from a
prompter or a monitor screen.
 Use big font sizes. Font size and type should be fixed for each system
  If reading is to be from papers use standard size papers, avoid using stiff bond paper
which is noisy when handled in front of a microphone.
 Triple space all copy and print on only one side of the paper
 In the upper left-hand corner of each page print a slug line (consisting of one or two
words) that clearly identifies the story. (For example: Tsunami rescue, Budget-pradesh
Sabha, Security Council-Nepal)
 In news rooms where many persons work writers name may be mentioned below the
slug line
 Keep about 2.5 cm margin on left and right of the page keep the margins uniform so that
lines can be counted and scripts can be timed.
 Ordinarily, 16 typed lines take the reader one minute.
 In radio dateline is not given. Necessary place references may be given in the intro.
 Use a symbol used by all writers of the system to indicate the end of the story.
Commonly used end symbol is #.
 Keep sentences and paragraphs short. Announcers and news readers read short
sentences and paragraphs more comfortably
 Do not make too many marks on the copy
 Keep individual stories on separate pages, it helps in arranging the stories for the
bulletin
 Avoid editing symbols that are used in a newspaper copy

INTRODUCTION TO WRITING FOR TELEVISION NEWS

INTRODUCTION:
Today, television has become the main medium of news and entertainment. Its reach has become
very wide. The number of TV channels is increasing every day. Satellite transmission and cable
networking help bring a large number of channels to our homes. With multiple channels
available through satellite services and cable networks, we get a wide variety of content. Direct
to- Home (DTH) has also increased the reach of television many folds. It helps in the penetration
of television channels even in areas where cable is not available. Conditional-Access-System
(CAS) gives the option to users in getting whatever channels they want.

People have also accepted television as an important part of their lives. It brings information and
entertainment into our bedrooms. The variety of programmes on television is unimaginable.

The content on television includes a wide range of programmes: from pure hard news to pure
non-serious gossip. It ranges from purely educative and informative programmes (Discovery
Channel and National Geographic Channel) to purely titillating content (Fashion TV and
Trendz).

In addition, there are many efforts to make television programmes participative by involving the
viewers in the programmes in a variety of ways.

Television receiver sets have also become less costly. Not only television has reached majority
of the households, people are spending more and more time in front of television. Daily routine
is being organized according the timings of the television programmes. In-fact, it can be said that
today television, for many people, has become a friend, a companion, and a guide.

CONTENT ON TELEVISION - AN INTRODUCTION:

Television has seen a lot of changes in the last few decades. The reach of television has increased
by leaps and bounds. The number of channels and the type of specialized channels are increasing
beyond our dreams.

In addition, the type of programming also has seen sea changes.

The news and current affairs programmes on television have increased manifolds in number and
the content has improved dramatically. There are television channels that are exclusively meant
for news and current affairs.

These channels have no ‘sleeping time’; they telecast for twenty-four hours a day. Many other
channels, which are mainly entertainment channels, also have a component of news.

Regional channels telecasting in Nepali and languages other than English have also become
prominent in news dissemination. Many local cable networks also produce and transmit local
news. Telecasting technology has also made national boundaries and natural barriers like
mountains, deserts, seas and rivers irrelevant as signals are transmitted through satellites.
It would be appropriate to say that television has converted the entire world into a big village in
the real sense, where physical distance has lost its relevance.

TELEVISION NEWS- AN INTRODUCTION:

For media persons, the unprecedented expansion of television industry provides tremendous
opportunities for employment. There are many opportunities in the field of TV news.
Opportunities are available in the field of news include:

 Information gathering (Reporting),

 News processing (Editing),
 News presentation (News reading or Anchoring)

A wide variety of jobs are also available for qualified and trained persons to write, to manage
and organize, to visualize, to work on machines and to do research.

To learn the art and craft of writing for television news is essential for everyone who desires to
work in the field of news and current affairs. Because of the uniqueness of the television
medium, writing for its content is also typical and different from writing for newspapers and
radio.

For a writer for print media only one tool, the written word is available. For a writer for radio
also, only the spoken word is available. But for television news, two media are available, namely
visual content and verbal content (words). The verbal content on TV includes both the spoken
words; and the written words in the shape of scrolls, tickers, etc.
For TV, both visual and verbal content are used simultaneously. But one cannot be the substitute
for the other. More importantly, there needs to be a strong relationship between the two. The
relationship between the verbal content and visual content has to be both complimentary and
supplementary. In TV news, whatever is being shown in the visual may be explained in words as
well. At the same time visuals have their own limitations of communication potential; this gap is
also filled by the words. Therefore, it would be wrong to assume that for television visuals are
more important than the written or spoken word. Both need to be given adequate importance.
Also most of the words that are spoken on TV, other than live programmes, interviews, and
discussions, etc., are first written and then spoken.

Moreover, it would be impracticable to assume that complete and sufficient visuals are available
for all that needs to be conveyed through television news. There are many occasions when no
visuals are available but the news is breaking news. In such circumstances, use of the words is
the only choice available. In television jargon such stories are called dry stories.

TELEVISION NEWS WRITING:

An important point is that almost all that is spoken in a television news programme is to be made
available in the written or printed or electronic format for the anchors or voice-over artists.

Expertise in writing is as important in television as in the other media. In-fact, in television the
challenges for the writers are far greater. First, the verbal content should complement and
supplement the available visuals.

Second, in most cases there is very little time available for scripting, invariablyit has to be
instantaneous and spontaneous.

Two types of writing are required for television news:

 To be spoken (On-camera or as Voice-over)
 To be put on the screen (As scrolls and tickers)

STYLE OF TV NEWS WRITING:

Many stories contain too much of numerical data which is important and must be mentioned in
the news story. Numerical figures must be written in a manner that is easy for the anchor to read
and easy for the viewer to understand and remember. Following points are suggested:
 To simplify the complicated numbers, use terms such as approximately, more than, about
and almost, etc.
 To emphasize trends and changes use terms like dropped sharply, tumbled, more than
doubled, cut in half, and slightly more than … percent, etc.
 Number below 12 should be written in words, and use numerals from 12 to 999.
 Use combination of numerals and words to write higher numbers. For example: 23
thousand workers, 20 lakh voters, 3 and a half crore trees, etc.
 Use either Nepali names for the numerals (thousands, lakhs, crores, etc.) or Roman
numerals like million, billion, etc). Combined use creates confusion and is not advisable.
 Try to convert as many figures as possible into round numbers, for example: 98, 34,
44,003 can be written as a little less than 100 crores.
 Do not write Rs. 435; write 435 rupees.
  Write fractions as hyphenated words.
 Where age needs to be mentioned the newspaper style is not conversational. Do not
write, Rabindra Adhikari, 45 died in a helicopter accident. Write, 45-year-old, Rabindra
Adhikari died in a helicopter accident.
 For exact number like license numbers use hyphens, Nepali license number M-H-2-1-C-
7-9-0-5.
 In television, time reference is also handled differently. It is suggested that in most cases
present tense should be used. Some experts also suggest that use of present perfect tense
is better.

Some other tips about time are:

 Avoid mentioning old time elements as much as possible. Avoid saying yesterday in the
lead part of the news. Listeners expect television to give latest developments.
 Instead of today; try saying this morning, late afternoon.
 Wherever possible and needed; give precise time, there will be load shedding from nine
in the morning to six in the evening.
 When quotations are to be used, the best option is to give actual sound bites either with
the visual or the phone-in. But if the quotation is to be given it should be short and crisp.
The quotes on television should be preceded by words like: “in what he called”, which
she described as”, or “in his own words”.
 On television never start a lead sentence with an unfamiliar name; listener is likely to
miss it. Unfamiliar names must be explained. Instead of “Parvati, a well-known Kathak
dancer…” it would be better to say, “A well-known Kathak dancer, Parvati…”
 In television news, three types of writing situations arise:
a. Anchor read
b. Voice over
c. Piece to camera (P 2 C) or (P to C)

GUIDELINES FOR TV NEWS WRITING:

Writing for the spoken word is for listening of the viewer and generally follows the principles
described for radio writing in the previous unit. These are being reproduced here with
modifications for television:
 Use computers for writing the television news copy. Anchor or voiceover person should
normally read from a prompter or from a monitor screen.
 Use big font sizes. If use standard size papers, avoid using stiff bond paper, which is
noisy when handled in front of a microphone
 Triple space all copy and print on only one side of the paper
 In the upper left-hand corner of each page print a slug line (consisting of one or two
words) that clearly identifies the story. (For example: Tsunami rescue, Budget-pradesh
Sabha, Security Council-Nepal)
 In newsrooms where many persons work writers name may be mentioned below the slug
line
 Keep about 2.5 cm margin on left and right of the page. Keep the margins uniform so that
lines can be counted and scripts can be timed. Ordinarily, 16 typed lines take the reader
one minute.
  In television also dateline is not given. Necessary place references may be given in the
intro or the visual
 Use a symbol used by all writers of the organization to indicate the end of the story.
Commonly used end symbol is #.
 Keep sentences and paragraphs short. Anchors newscasters read short sentences and
paragraphs more comfortably
 Do not make too many marks on the copy
 Keep individual stories on separate pages, it helps in arranging the stories for the bulletin
 Avoid editing symbols that are used in a newspaper copy

Online journalism writing- New form of journalism

Online journalism is journalism more or less produced for the World Wide Web (unlike
print, radio and television journalism) .It exploits the unique characteristics of the
Internet. A network of networks, joining many government, university and private
computers together and providing an infrastructure for the use of E-mail, bulletin boards,
file archives, hypertext documents, databases and other computational resources The vast
collection of computer networks which form and act as a single huge network for
transport of data and messages across distances which can be anywhere from the same
office to anywhere in the world.

Distinguishing characteristics of online journalism as compared to traditional

journalism

1. Online = real time

Online journalism can be published in real time, updating breaking news and events as
they happen. Nothing new here -- we've had this ability with telegraph, teletype, radio,
and TV.

2. Online = shifted time

Online journalism also takes advantage of shifted time. Online publications can publish
and archive articles for viewing now or later, just as print, film, or broadcast publications
can. WWW articles can be infinitely easier to access, of course.
3. Online = multimedia
Online journalism can include multimedia elements: text and graphics (Newspapers and
books), plus sound, music, motion video, and animation (Broadcast radio, TV, film), 3D,
etc.
4. Online = interactive
Online journalism is interactive. Hyperlinks represent the primary mechanism for this
interactivity on the Web, linking the various elements of a lengthy, complex work,
introducing multiple points of view, and adding depth and detail.

A work of online journalism can consist of a hyperlinked set of web pages; these pages
can themselves include hyperlinks to other web sites. Traditional journalism guides the
reader through a linear narrative. The online journalist lets readers become participants,
as they click their way through a hyperlinked set of pages. Narrative momentum and a
 strong editorial voice pull a reader through a linear narrative. With interactivity, the
online journalist can pre- determine, to a certain extent, the reader/participant's progress
through the material, but manifold navigation pathways, branching options, and
hyperlinks encourage the reader/participant to continue to explore various narrative
threads assembled by the reporter/writer/editor.

A web of interlinked pages is also an ideal mechanism to give reader/participants access

to a library of source documents and background information that form the foundation of
an extensive journalistic investigation. Readers/participants can respond instantly to
material presented by the online journalist; this response can take several forms. Email to
the reporter or editor resembles the traditional letter to editor of print publications, but
email letters can be published much sooner online than in print.

Online journalists can also take advantage of threaded discussions that let readers respond
immediately to an article, and to the comments of other readers, in a bulletin board style
discussion that can be accessed at any time. Readers can become participants in the
ongoing co creation of an editorial environment that evolves from the online journalist's
original reporting and the initial article. Blogs (short for "Web log", a Web-based journal)
make this easy.

Characteristics of online journalism

Hyper textual

A news story is connected to other stories, archives, and resources and so on through
hyperlinks

Interactivity
• Complexity of choice available
• Responsiveness to the user
• Facilitation of interpersonal communication
• Ease of adding information
• Multimedia form

It has to do with the media format or formats that may best convey given news story.
Media are means of disseminating knowledge.

Some more Characteristics of the online journalism

1. Anonymity
2. Interactivity
3. beyond geography
4. Online community
5. Lower cost to participate in the public sphere
6. Lower threshold for self-expression of political

Limitations of the Internet/ online journalism

  Inaccuracy: misrepresent and lie
 Internet news audience is smaller than that of the traditional media
Entertainment rather than political engagement
 “Digital divide”: a class system based on
(a) Computer ownership,
(b) Internet access, and
(c) Computer literacy that corresponds with social economic statuses

FEATURES WRITINGS
A feature can be defined as a story that stresses the human interest angle. A news story usually
stops after it has presented facts or ideas but a feature story goes further than that. News is an
objective and factual account of events where the reporter sticks to facts and tries to answer the
six basic questions (who, what, where, when, why and how) which make a news story. The
ultimate aim of a reporter is to give facts or information of interest to readers.
In the case of hijacking of a plane, the lead stories will focus on hard facts such as the number of
passengers, the destination of the plane, the response of the government, the motives of the
hijackers and the details of the crisis management. On the other hand, a feature writer can
concentrate on the experiences, feelings, narrow escapes of passengers, the anxiety of the
relatives of the passengers and crew. A feature could also be written on the laxity in screening
and checking passengers and security lapses.
Writing style/ types of a feature
The style followed in news writing is in the descending order of importance (inverted pyramid
style). A feature follows an entirely different style. A feature writer has more freedom and he/she
can freely react to situations, events and people with emotions and imagination
Depending upon the content, features can be classified into the following categories.
a. Profiles or Personality Features
Profiles describe interesting people. The people may have overcome a handicap, pursued an
unusual career, achieved success or become famous because of their colorful personalities.
b. Historical Features
Historical features commemorate the dates of important events, such as the bombing of
Hiroshima, assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Tsunami tragedy and bombing of World
Trade Centre.
c. Adventure Features
Adventure features describe unusual and exciting experiences, perhaps the story of someone
who survived an airplane crash, climbed a dangerous mountain, and sailed around the world,
served in the peace keeping force or fought in a war.
d. Seasonal Features
Feature writers are often assigned topics about seasons and holidays: about Independence
Day, teachers’ day, and the opening day of schools.
e. Explanatory Features Explanatory features are also called interpretative features. In these
features, the writers provide a more detailed description or explanation of topics in the news
f. Unusual Occupation or Hobby Features
Reporters may write about an occupation because it is dangerous, highly specialized
(cleaning up oil spills) or exciting (personal fitness trainer or a make-up artist to a movie
star). They may also pick a boring or exacting job (sorting letters at a post office) that is
fulfilling to a physically challenged worker because it allows him or her to earn money and
live independently.
g. Personal Experience Features News stories are usually written in the third person (he, she, it)
with reporter being a neutral observer or outsider. Features stories can be written in the first
person (I, we) with the journalist appearing in the story.
Human Interest Features
These deal with ordinary persons in extraordinary circumstances such as a construction
worker winning five crore bumper lottery or extraordinary persons in ordinary circumstances
such the Chief Minister held up in traffic jam for three hours. They appeal to the emotions of
readers.

In journalism, a human-interest story is a feature story that discusses a person, or people, or

a pet in an emotional way. It presents people and their problems, concerns, or achievements
in a way that brings about interest, sympathy or motivation in the reader or viewer. Human-
interest stories are a type of soft news.

Human-interest stories may be "the story behind the story" about an event, organization, or
otherwise faceless historical happening, such as about the life of an individual soldier during
wartime, an interview with a survivor of a natural disaster, a random act of kindness, or
profile of someone known for a career achievement. In the American Behavioral
Scientist illustrates that human-interest stories are furthermore often used in the news
coverage of irregular immigration, although the frequency differs from country to country.
Human-interest features are frequently evergreen content, easily recorded well in advance
and/or rerun during holidays or slow news days.

Human-interest stories are sometimes criticized as "soft" news, or manipulative,

sensationalistic programming. Major human-interest stories are presented with a view to
entertain the readers or viewers while informing them. Although this could be considered a
strategy, it has been referenced as a successful method of persuasion. Terry Morris, an early
proponent of the genre, said she took "considerable license with the facts that are given to
me.”

Global journalism
Globalization
Globalization refers to the dynamic processes that are developed to break down interactions
between individuals, societies, organizations and cultures across the globe. It is a social process,
which compresses space and time while minimizing distance with technology. The media, on the
other hand, refers to the different modes of communication between parties like the internet,
television or radio among many others. It is a vital component while communicating, as it shapes
the minds of users. Globalization has been at the forefront in changing the media, as it brings
about communication technology. Globalization is relevant to all businesses as it allows them to
communicate and operate better while increasing their clientele base. It facilitates operations and
a prerequisite for technological advancements. Organizations easily created, while individuals
are connected to those around the world. In simple terms, technology and science make
institutions globalized and reflects convergence theory while promoting identity and culture.
Global journalism is a news style that encompasses a global outlook and considers issues that
transcend national boundaries like climate change, focusing on news that are intercontinental and
the relationships between nation states. Global journalism is different from foreign journalism in
that, foreign journalism focuses on stories in different regions in that regions specific context,
while global journalism works to bring foreign issues into a global context.
Scholars such as Stephen Ward feel that traditional media practices are typically designed to deal
with news on the national rather than global level, which negatively impacts an outlet's ability to
report on news on the global level. Peter Berglez believes that the focus of global journalism is
the increasingly complex relations caused by globalization and that while global journalism
exists in news, it has yet to be defined and established as a style, and is often confused with
foreign journalism. He also conceptualizes global journalism into three different relationships,
global space, global powers, and global identities, which he believes are a common factor in
representations of global journalism and could be helpful to the empirical studies of global
journalism as a news style.

Some examples on Global issues in the news

a. Climate change & global warming
b. Economy and trade
c. Disease outbreaks, such as bird flu (avian influenza)
d. Nuclear disasters, such as Fukushima, Japan (2011)
e. Terrorism
f. Human trafficking
Aspects of global journalism
a. A style of reporting and analyzing news events
b. People: Journalists around the world
c. Reporting from other countries: Same story, different viewpoints / The foreign
correspondent
Global journalism is:
a. More than just international news reporting
 b. Related to globalization, which involves ―ongoing relations between regions and
peoples
c. An ongoing journalistic practice with an everyday routine of investigating how people
and their actions, etc., in different parts of the world are interrelated.
d. Berglez gives us a definition of global journalism as a new kind of news reporting, which
is very well suited for the increasing interconnectedness of our world today.

TYPES/ FORMS OF JOURNALISM

Journalism is basically a discipline of gathering, writing and reporting news and more
broadly it includes the process of editing and presenting the news articles. Journalism has
always been regarded as a unique profession. It has been called a pillar of democracy, the
eyes and ears of the world and the arbiter of common opinion. Within the realm of
journalism, journalists are the communicators of news and facilitators of the process of
understanding in the public mind.

Usually we classify journalism based on certain factors. In this unit, we have tried to
classify journalism based on three different aspects-
1. types of journalism based on the use of different platforms,
2. types of journalism based on the writing style and
3. Types of journalism based on the style of presentation.

1. Types of Journalism based on the use of different media platforms

a. Print journalism

Print journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events in newspaper or in

other printed form to a broad audience. The aim of print journalism is to inform the
intended audience and also cover cultural aspects of society such as arts and
entertainment. Print journalism can be split into several categories like newspapers, news
magazines, general interest magazines, trade magazines, hobby magazines, newsletters,
private publications, online news pages and others. Each genre has their own
requirements for researching and writing reports. News reports are usually written in the
inverted pyramid style although this particular style is used more for straight or hard
news reports rather than features. Feature stories are written in a looser style that usually
depends on the subject matter of the report and in general granted more space. Articles
that are published in news magazines and general interest magazines do not follow the
inverted pyramid style. Trade publications are more news oriented while hobby
publications are more feature oriented.
b. Broadcast journalism

Broadcast journalism is that field of journalism whereby news and other information are
"broadcast" by way of electronic means. Some of the methods of broadcast journalism
include radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, and Internet), and
 more recently, the World Wide Web. Such forms of media disperse pictures (static and
moving), visual text and/or sounds. Radio and television journalists have to be always on
their toes for the purpose of collection of news and present them fairly and accurately.
Television journalists rely on visual information to illustrate and characterize their
reporting, including on-camera interviews with people involved in the story, shots of the
scene where the story took place and graphics usually produced at the station to frame the
story.

Broadcast journalism can be explained into two different main categories.

 Radio journalism
This field of journalism works for broadcasting news and information through an
important medium of mass communication called radio. People who work in this
area are usually known as radio journalists. Radio journalists are mainly
responsible for collecting news from distant places and conduct an interview of
any eminent person. If need be, they may collect data from masses as well. Not
only are they experts in the collection of news, but they also have the necessary
skill and expertise with the operation of sound recording equipment, microphones
and public address systems.

The radio journalists write their features or news clips which are then given to the
editorial staff for the purpose of editing. The edited portions are then handed over
to the radio announcers. However, many senior journalists are experienced enough
to bypass the stage of editing and dissection of their news stories or comments.
These days’ radio journalists have to multitask must be fully conversant with
digital data recording (including voice dictation and recording), operating the net,
audio systems and computers.
 Television journalism
Television journalism is one of the prominent fields of journalism which attracts a
lot of people to get employed in different specialized areas. With the passage of
time, the importance of this kind of journalism is increasing with every passing
day probably due to the glamour quotient attached to it.

The eagerness to be in front and behind the camera has led to a number of people
to join this field of journalism. The easy availability of a vast number of channels
has made it an enthralling medium audiovisual medium. Today, a TV journalist
has to possess a pleasing personality, deep rich voice, good command over
language and an ability to extract the news or information from the person being
interviewed. Television journalism also includes recording of music or dance
shows and offering the services of an anchor.
c. Online journalism- New form of journalism

Online journalism is journalism more or less produced for the World Wide Web (unlike
print, radio and television journalism). It exploits the unique characteristics of the
Internet. A network of networks, joining many government, university and private
computers together and providing an infrastructure for the use of E-mail, bulletin boards,
 file archives, hypertext documents, databases and other computational resources The vast
collection of computer networks which form and act as a single huge network for
transport of data and messages across distances which can be anywhere from the same
office to anywhere in the world.

2. Types of Journalism based on the writing style

a. Objective journalism:

Objective journalism refers to the plain presentation of facts as they have happened.
Objective reporting does not involve contextualizing, back grounding, analyzing or
opinionating. Here the reporter only reports what he has seen or observed without any
kind of subjective inputs. The following points can well summarize the concept of
objective reporting or journalism:
 Balance and even-handedness in presenting different sides of an issue
 Accuracy and realism in reporting
 Presenting all the main and relevant points
 Separating facts from opinions, but treating opinion as relevant
 Minimizing the influence of the writer’s own opinions, attitudes or involvement.
 Avoiding slant, malicious or devious purposes.

b. Interpretative journalism

This form of journalism tries to interpret the news, policies and programs of the
government. Media interprets the policies of the government and discusses its good or
bad effects on the society. Write-ups on such issues are published in newspaper columns
while radio and television hold discussions by inviting eminent panelists during live
programs. Thus, interpretative journalism plays an important role in educating the masses
about different issues. Interpretative reporting combines facts with interpretation. Many a
time the reporter has to interpret certain events to enable the readers to have a better
understanding of the events. It means providing background information relating to a
particular incident or happening. Apart from the facts gathered from the field, the
reporter, sometimes, needs to make the news more illuminating by providing background
information so that the readers can appreciate the facts better and understand the issues
involved in proper perspective. As such, the reporter delves into the reasons and
meanings of a certain development and gives information along with an interpretation of
its significance.

The entire event may not unfold in a day. It is a continuous process and often one event
leads to another. Sometimes the occurrence of an event is judged on the basis of some
preceding events. The reporter interprets the event by putting it in the proper context of a
past event leading to the present happening or a course of action. Such contextualization
adds more insight into events and the reporter is expected to keep track of all the events
of the past and the present so as to be able to forecast the future. Thus, interpretative
 reporting brings out the hidden significance of an event and separates truth from
falsehood.

c. Investigative journalism
DEFINITION

 Investigative journalism is an act of discovering the truth and to identify lapses on media
such as Print, Electronic or Web.
 Investigative journalism is an alternate interpretation of the public right to know.
Investigative journalism is to uncover what officialdom does not wish to make public.
 Investigative journalism highlights the wrong doings and helps to shape the things
positively in future.
 Investigative journalism reveals scandals and violations of law and rules. Investigative
journalism exposes unethical, immoral and illegal behavior by individuals, businessmen
or Government agencies.
 Investigative journalism is complicated, time consuming and expensive. It requires
months of research, interviews and long-distance travel. Investigative reporters deeply
investigate a topic of crime, political corruption or some other scandal.
 Investigative reporters may take the investigation through his own initiative or have a
clue by someone else. Investigative journalist is a person who does investigation like a
police, lawyer, auditor or a regulatory body and derives facts for public consumption to
present on media. Investigative reporter has to do the extensive scrutiny of documents,
fact finding and physical efforts to interview a person. To be a successful investigative
reporter, the reporter must have an analytical and incisive mind with strong motivation.

d. Public journalism/ Civic/citizen journalism

Public or civic journalism emerged in America following the 1988 Presidential elections
which, for many journalists and journalism scholars marked a nadir in political
campaigning and political reporting, which illustrated the need for a new style of
journalism which might reverse the growing trend towards citizens’ disengagement from
the democratic process. Subsequently, public journalism has become highly contested
both as a theory and a practice informing news gathering and reporting in American
newsrooms.

Public journalism argues that journalists have a responsibility to promote civic

commitment and citizen participation in democratic processes; journalism should
promote, as well as help to improve, the quality of public or civic life.

A central argument is that public journalists should report stories and issues from the
perspective of ordinary citizens rather than articulating the viewpoints of senior political
figures or local elites. Contra mainstream journalists, public journalism should provide a
public forum or public sphere where ordinary citizens can be helped to identify and
resolve public problems

In Jay Rosen’s words, public journalism involves

  Seeing people as citizens rather than spectators . . .
 Making it easier for people to become engaged in, as well as informed about public
life, local culture and politics.
 Seeing discussion and debate as democratic arts that journalists have a clear interest
in strengthening . . .
 Learning to frame the news in a way that invites people into civic activity and political
conversation . . .
 Reducing the personal and professional costs of an unearned or reflexive cynicism that
is strongly rooted in newsroom culture.
 Finally, reclaiming for trained professionals a stronger civic identity, so that
journalists can be better citizens and better journalists for fellow citizens.

3. Types of Journalism based on the style of presentation

a. Science journalism
Science journalism is a relatively new branch of journalism in which journalists’
reporting conveys information on science topics to the public. Science journalism is a
branch of journalism that uses the art of reporting to convey information about
science topics to a public forum. A science journalist (or science writer) is a journalist
who specializes in writing about science topics, and thus practices science journalism,
or popular science. Science journalists are responsible for choosing those news stories
which have wider appeal and is expected to bring about scientific temperament in the
minds of the common masses. They must have the capability to express their ideas in
simple language and to avoid technical jargon as far as possible.
b. Sports journalism
Sports journalism covers different aspect of sports related news. Over the years,
people’s interests in sports has increased manifold. This could be attributed to the
popularization of different international and national games and the lucrative career
associated with the world of sports. The rise in the popularization of sports in
Western culture has justified the attention of journalists to not just the competitive
events in sports, but also to athletes and the business of sports. Just like other fields of
journalism, in sports journalism also, emphasis is given on accuracy and underlying
fairness.
c. Gonzo journalism
This type of journalism has been popularized by the American writer Hunter S.
Thompson which is characterized by its punchy style, rough language and ostensible
disregard for conventional journalistic writing forms and customs. Gonzo journalism
attempts to present a multi-disciplinary perspective on a particular story, drawing
from popular culture, sports, and political, philosophical and literary sources.
Magazines like ‘Rolling Stone’ make use of this format of journalism.
d. Celebrity or People journalism
Celebrity or People journalism focuses on the personal lives of the celebrities
working in the entertainment industry as well as people who seek attention and do
something newsworthy. Celebrity journalism has become the focus of national tabloid
newspapers like the National Enquirer and magazines like People and Us Weekly,
syndicated television shows like Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition etc. This form
 of journalism covers news reports on the lives of the famous people and some
exclusive photographs for which hefty amounts are paid for the purpose of
publication.
e. Convergent Journalism
Convergent journalizing is the name given to multi-tasking in journalism where a
journalist is expected to not only produce a report for the newspaper, he is also
required to give it orally for radio and/or television and at the same time give a brief
one for mobile news services. A journalist needs to be trained in many skills like
writing for newspapers, radio, and television, Online and mobile news service. Gone
are the days when the journalism institutes were training journalists in specialized
area for a specific media.

The convergent journalism is the end result of the convergence of media and
communication technology. The most popular forms of convergent journalism are to
be found in media houses owning more than one type of media. Today, almost all
newspapers are having their hard copy editions and the online editions. They have
also taken interest in the mobile news service as it gives them a better market reach.
Even the radio and television houses have their online services where they not only
provide the audio-visual content, but they also give textual reports.

Looking at the economy of media management they prefer multi-tasking journalists

instead of having specialist in a particular media though the demand for specialization
in various kinds of journalism like economic journalism sports journalism, defense
journalism, etc. has also increased over the years.
f. Development journalism
Development journalism is that form of journalism which focuses on the development
issues. Development communication plays an important role in ameliorating the life
of people living in rural and urban areas. The media tries to inform the people about
the different issues and the schemes launched by the government for the benefit of the
people. Such reporting of issues which throws on the developmental aspects of the
society is known as development journalism.

Development reporting or journalism is a concept which is gaining much importance

in the recent times. Development reporting refers to reporting of development related
issues. Now development reporting refers not just to reporting development, but also
the lack of it, i.e., underdevelopment. You must be definitely aware of so many
developmental efforts, activities and experiments going on all around the society in
near and distant places.

Being aware of these developments is not merely enough. The goals of development
communication will be served adequately only when these happenings are reported in
the media. This will ensure that innumerable number of people or masses come to
know about them. At this moment you should remember that media is a magic
multiplier or force multiplier which multiplies all our efforts – whether negative or
positive alike.
g. Photo journalism
 Photo journalism is an essential component of print media journalism. A photo
journalist is an indispensable person for any newspaper organization. It is often said
that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. So, a photograph not only supports the
news story but also makes the newspaper colorful and attractive. It creates a powerful
impact on the minds of the readers. However, the work of a photo journalist is not an
easy one. A lot of hard work goes into the development of a perfect photograph. The
time spent from the time a picture is taken to the cropping stage is indeed a difficult
one. A photographic journalist should have strong photographic skill along with
presence of mind, courage and aggressiveness. It is expected that the photo journalist
must have ample knowledge about the working of digital technology in order to
succeed in this field.
h. Mainstream Journalism
The journalism practiced on day-to-day basis in big media houses is called
mainstream journalism. The broadsheet daily newspaper or tabloid format is an
example of mainstream print media, and the news bulletins in radio and television are
also the examples of mainstream journalism. Whenever we talk of the press as an
institution, we are normally referring to this main section of the press'

The main stream media is also big as opposed to small-scale efforts of alternative
media. The big media involves bigger investments and hence is regulated by many
internal and external influences. The need to earn profits forces them to seek more
and more advertising revenue and the space for news shrinks considerably. The
owners of such media are also cater to other trade or industry and to protect the
interest of their other business, they many a times influence news reporting and
editing. In spite of many such weaknesses, main stream media remains very
significant and strong because of its reach among masses.

The various aspects of reporting and editing in main stream journalism are dealt
within the subsequent books of this series. Hence, we would only look into various
kinds of journalism that are a bit different from mainstream journalism.

i. Advocacy Journalism
Advocacy journalism is one of the alternative forms of journalism. If the press or
main stream journalism is called fourth estate, then alternative journalism in all its
forms is called the fifth estate. Advocacy journalism is in a way just opposite of main
stream journalism as the main objective of such journalism is to create awareness
about a certain issue. A part of advocacy journalism also finds its place in the
mainstream by way of getting published in opinion writing. In a way, all Journalism
practices by or for various nongovernmental organizations can be seen as advocacy
journalism. NGOs working on the issue of gender, empowerment, labor issues, health
and hygiene, bonded labor, child labor, violence against women and children, etc.,
indulge in advocacy at both the levels, i.e., mainstream press and house publications.

There are journalists who after working with mainstream journalism feel that they are
not able to give their best or arc not able to get proper coverage for the issues of their
commitment. They also start newspapers, magazines or wall newspapers with a very
 low budget. Some of them do get significant readership too. Many such newspapers
and magazines are supported by various corporate houses and government
organizations in the name of social responsibility.

j. Tabloid Journalism
It is difficult to tell when a newspaper moved away from the tabloid format to
broadsheet, but after this shift tabloid journalism changed drastically. In most
countries, the midday or evening newspapers are in tabloid form. They are normally
not delivered at homes because of their time of publishing. They are distributed on
the crossroads, malls and smaller markets; in Western countries, the grocery shops are
supplied with copies of midday or evening tabloids. In Nepal, publishers engage
hawkers to sell the papers who have developed an art of attracting people towards
their product. They sell these midday or evening newspapers in busy crossroads,
markets and in city transport buses and trains. Unlike daily newspapers, tabloid
journalism thrives on sensationalism of one kind or the other. There were and still are
certain tabloids that publish nude photographs on the last page, even if they may have
very good reports inside them. The phenomenon of paparazzi or photographers
running behind celebrities and their scandals is another kind of sensationalism that
such journalism promotes.

Tabloid newspapers have become more relevant after the emergence of radio and
television as daily newspapers are always behind them in disseminating news. They
also have an advantage of allowing the reader to read them in congested buses,
metros and other city transports, as in comparison to newspapers they are easy to
handle.

k. Yellow journalism

The term yellow journalism is used to criticize journalists and their publications. It
implies they use poorly sourced material, misleading headlines, overly fancy prose, faked
interviews, scare tactics and questionable science.

The term implies that the publication is seeking the attention of the least educated or most
uninformed members of society through its apparent interest in underdogs. It may be anti-
elitist, praising the wisdom of the common man when compared with the ideas and
practices of “the establishment,” including the medical and financial establishments,
scientists and government. Yellow journalism further implies that the journalists are more
interested in gaining fame making money—by gaining readership or selling ads—than
they are in accuracy, in informing their audience or discussing serious ideas and trends.

Yellow journalism, or the yellow press, is a type of journalism that presents little or no
legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more
newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering,
or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative
(defamatory) to decry (criticize) any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or
unethical fashion.
 Campbell (2001) defines yellow press newspapers as having daily multi-column front-
page headlines covering a variety of topics, such as sports and scandal, using bold layouts
(with large illustrations and perhaps color), heavy reliance on unnamed sources, and
unabashed self-promotion. The term was extensively used to describe certain major New
York City newspapers about 1900 as they battled for circulation.

The term originated during the American Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century with
the circulation battles between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph
Hearst's New York Journal. The battle peaked from 1895 to about 1898, and historical
usage often refers specifically to this period. Both papers were accused by critics of
sensationalizing the news in order to drive up circulation, although the newspapers did
serious reporting as well.

Frank Luther Mott (1941) defines yellow journalism in terms of five characteristics:
1. Scare headlines in huge print, often of minor news
2. Lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings
3. Use of faked interviews, misleading headlines, pseudoscience, and a parade of false
learning from so-called experts
4. emphasis on full-color Sunday supplements, usually with comic strips
5. Dramatic sympathy with the "underdog" against the system.

With the onset of rapid industrialization in the late 19th century, machines began to
produce more than thousand copies in a single night. This led to increase of newspaper
sale and greater thirst for sensational news. Yellow journalism involved sensationalism,
distorted stories, and misleading images for the sole purpose of boosting newspaper sales
and exciting public opinion.

It was particularly indicative of two papers founded and popularized in the late 19th
century- The New York World, run by Joseph Pulitzer and The New York Journal, run
by William Randolph Hearst. The term yellow journalism came from a popular New
York World comic called “Hogan’s Alley,” which featured a yellow-dressed character
named the “the yellow kid.” Determined to compete with Joseph Pulitzer’s New York
World in every way, rival New York Journal owner William Randolph Hearst copied
Pulitzer’s sensationalist style and even hired “Hogan’s Alley” artist R.F. Outcault away
from the World. In response, Pulitzer commissioned another cartoonist to create a second
yellow kid. Soon, the sensationalist press of the 1890s became a competition between the
“yellow kids,” and the journalistic style was coined “yellow journalism.”