Subhash Dhuliya
Defining News
News is a report of any current event, idea or problem which interest large number of people BUT it acquires different meanings and concepts in different political, economic and socio-cultural environment.
1. News is new information
2. News is looking at a subject from a new perspective
3. The gap between “How things work” and “How things are supposed to work”
ELEMENTS OF NEWS
A News report must answer following questions:
WHO
WHAT
WHEN
WHERE
(Generally factual while answering these questions)
WHY
HOW
(While answering these two questions the element of interpretation and perception is introduced)
CREDIBILITY
Principles to be observed while reporting an event or editing news report
Accuracy
Fairness
Balance
Attribution
Objectivity
NEWSWORTHINESS
How to decide newsworthiness of an event, idea or problem (Evaluating information or any information package)
Audience
Impact
Proximity
Timeliness
Prominence (Size)
Context
Policy Parameters
Specific Informational Value
Unusualness
STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY
INTRO
EXPLANATORY DETAILS
DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ETC.
(In order of descending importance)
Various Types of Journalistic Writings
• FACTS
• ANALYSIS
• OPINION
• VIEWS
All kind of journalistic writings are based on combination of these four elements. For example: news is dominantly facts while the editorial is dominantly opinion
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Knowledge or information based on real occurrences: an account based on fact; a blur of fact and fancy. A fact is a thing that is known to be consistent with objective reality and can be proven to be true with evidence
Facts and opinions are often uttered in the same breath; the terms have a huge difference in their meanings. Whether a statement is a fact or an opinion depends on the validity of the statement. While a fact refers to the something true or real, which is backed by evidence, documentation, etc. On the other hand, opinion is what a person believes or thinks about something.
In finer terms, a fact is a proven truth, whereas opinion is a personal view, that represents the outlook of an individual, which may or may not be based on the fact.
View means a particular attitude or way of considering a matter, an act of seeing or looking at something.
Opinion is belief that a person has formed about a topic or issue judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.
As nouns the difference between opinion and view is that opinion is a belief that a person has formed about a topic or issue while view is the act of seeing or looking at something. As verbs the difference between opinion and view is that opinion is (archaic) to have or express as an opinion while view is to look at.
Read further at: https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-fact-and-opinion.html
Some major types of journalistic writings
- News item
- News Report
- News Analysis
- Interpretative Reporting
- Feature/Featured Reporting
- Interview
- Commentary
- Article
- Editorial
- Profile, Review, Review Article etc.
The investigative process
- Tip –Tipsters
- Formation of story idea
- Formulation of the problem
- Preliminary research feasibility study
- Plan of action-Synopsis
- Minimum and maximum story
BASE BUILDING: THE SPIRAL OF RESEARCH
- Written sources
- Experts- the sources of knowledge
- Sources of experiences
- Reportage- Field trips- Observations
- Key interviews
Assessment and analysis
• Conclusions
• Outline of story
• Writing and revising
• Hand in before deadline
Two Major Streams in Journalism
Episodic Journalism (Event focused)
Thematic Journalism (Process Focused)
- Reporting Event: What was happening
- Reporting the process that goes into happening of the event
- Explain why it was happening
