Journalism

Introduction

Journalism is a profession of writing for newspaper and magazines.

Two important works are done:
1. collection of news
2. dissemination of information
Journalist: One who is attached to the profession of journalism is called journalist.

Importance of Journalism:

Journalism is an import profession. Its importance can not be denied in modern world. It is
universally acknowledged that pen is mightier than sword. Journalism is highly important
because

1. It protects society from aggression.

2. It becomes the voice of society and don’t let any one to exploit it.
3. It protects human rights.
4. It serves a s mirror and project the images of politician and leaders etc.
5. It challenges act of autocracy and dictatorship
6. World has become global village, people stay connected through mass media around the
world.

Consumers of journalism:

1. Public masses
2. government
3. NGO’s
4. Organizations
5. youngsters
6. professionals
7. businessman
8. students etc

Functions of journalism:
following are the functions of journalism
1. Provide information
2. Influence people through opinions, advertisements, editorials etc.
3. Provide entertainment
4. Advertisement takes place
5. Educational function ( provide education to people on various topics)
6. Provide latest NEWS
7. Image building role ( it build image of a person as good or bad)
8. Defend propagandas of anti-state elements.
9. Builds public opinion.

The elements of journalism

According to The Elements of Journalism, a book by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, there are
nine elements of journalism [1]. In order for a journalist to fulfill their duty of providing the
people with the information, they need to be free and self-governing. They must follow these
guidelines:
1. Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
2. Its first loyalty is to the citizens.
3. Its essence is discipline of verification.
4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
7. It must strive to make the significant interesting, and relevant.
8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
10. Its the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
In the April 2007 edition of the book [2], they added the last element, the rights and
responsibilities of citizens to make it a total of ten elements of journalism.

Guiding principles of Journalism:

Following are the guiding principles of journalism.
1. Journalist should always adopt rationale approach.
2. He should be neutral and impartial.
3. He should have a broad vision for journalism.
4. Journalist should remain updated with current events.
5. He should be scientific in his approach.
6. He should be professionally trained.
7. Journalist should be a patriot, familiar with norm, culture and taboos of society.
8. He should perform his duties in highest public interest.

Ethics of Journalism

American society of newspaper editors (ASNE) prescribed the following canons of journalism
in 1923 which are as follows.
1. Responsibility:

The journalist should be a responsible man and perform his duties responsibly.
2. Freedom Of Press:

Freedom Of press shall not be used as a weapon against any one. Journalist shall report the
news in its true sense and shall not try to make someone’s image.
3. Independence:

The policy of a newspaper should be independent and shall not favour any political or
administrative figure. There shall be no bias and prejudices against any one.
4. Sincerity, Truthfulness And Accuracy: self explanatory

5. Impartiality:

The newspaper editor shall show impartiality. He shall stand neutral in all cases.
6. Fair play:

The journalist shall show a fair play. They shall not misuse their position and shall work in the
best interest of society.
7. Decency:

The journalist shall not give detail of any unethical crime.

COMMUNICATION

Need for communication

“He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself,
must be either a beast or God” Aristotle
 Psychological and Biological need
 Communication  “Communis” means “Commonness”

Definition
 “The conveying or exchanging of ideas, knowledge, whether by speech, writing or signs”
(Oxford English Dictionary)
 “The word communication includes all the procedures by which one mind may affect
another, this process involves not only written and oral speech but also music, the pictorial arts,
the theatre, the ballet and in fact all human behavior.” (Shannon and Warren Weaver)
 The Mechanism through which relations exist and develop – all the symbols of the mind
together with the means of conveying tehm through space and preserviong them in time”
(Charless Coley)

Types of Communication (Social point of view)

1. Intra-personal
2. Inter-personal
3. Extra Personal Communication
4. Mass communication

Other types
1. Accidental communication
2. Expressive Communication
3. Rhetoric communication

THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

1. Elements
a. Source
b. Message
c. Channel
d. Receiver
2. Procedure of Communication
a. Encoding
b. Decoding
c. Feedback

Essential for Effective communication

1. Gaining the audience

2. Holding the audience
3. Influencing the audience
a. Frame of reference
i. Age, sex, education, financial position, race, taste, religion, culture, tradition, attitude …..
b. Personality needs
Barriers of Communication
1. Physical
2. Psychological
a. Language / Semantic barriers
b. Cultural barrier
i. Meaning of meaning
c. Blind imitation / Stereotype thinking
d. Restricted / Limited experience

COMMUNICATION MODELS
1. Shannon-Weaver Model 1949

a. Mother of all models

b. Source, Encoder, Message, Channel, Decoder, Receiver

2. Wilber Schramm Model 1954

a. Father of communication studies
b. Encoding and decoding simultaneously

3. Lasswell Communication Model

a. Message, Channel, Receiver, Effect, Feedback

4. David Berlo’s Communication Model

a. Simplest and most influential message-centered model

Development Support Communication

 Exchange of messages to achieve specific developmental goals
 It is direct, goal oriented, terminated after goal achievement
1. The theory of Cognitive Dissonance
a. Difference b/w belief and act
b. Person tries to justify to decrease dissonance
2. Two step flow of communication
a. Two steps of communication; first direct and second indirect
b. Originates the need of Opinion Leader
i. Characteristics of Opinion Leader
1. Official Sanction
2. Respected Authority
a. Accomplishment
b. Identity with Target
c. Position of Authority
3. Source of Authority
a. Enemy leader, fellow soldier, famous scholars

Development Communication

“Art and Science of human communication apply to the speedy transformation of a country and
mass if tis people from poverty to a dynamic state and the larger fulfillment of the human
potential”

Development Journalism
“A counter concept generated in developing countries against developed countries to provide
information about developmental projects”

Rumors

“Ambiguous information about any important topic”

1. Hostility rumours
2. Wish rumours
3. Fear rumours
Rumour Development: Three-pronged process
1. Leveling  detail grow shorter
2. Sharpening  selective perception
3. Assimilation  listener adds something – falsification

PROPANGANDA

“The art of influencing, manipulating, controlling, promoting and changing opinions, attitudes
and actions through words and symbols”

Types of Propaganda

1. White Propaganda
a. Accurate source
2. Black Propaganda
a. Group rather than source
3. Gray Propaganda
a. No accurate source

PUBLIC OPINION

It is the aggregate result of individual opinions on public matter. It is a social judgment reached
upon a question of general importance after conscious and rational public discussion.
Public opinion is an aggregate of the individual views, attitudes, and beliefs about a particular
topic, expressed by a significant proportion of a community. Some scholars treat the aggregate
as a synthesis of the views of all or a certain segment of society; others regard it as a collection
of many differing or opposing views. Writing in 1918, the American sociologist Charles Horton
Cooley emphasized public opinion as a process of interaction and mutual influence rather than
a state of broad agreement. The American political scientist V.O. Key defined public opinion in
1961 as “opinions held by private persons which governments find it prudent to heed.”

Factors influencing public opinion

1. Environmental factors
Most pervasive is the influence of the social environment: family, friends, neighborhood, and
place of work, church, or school.

2. The mass media

Newspapers, radio, television, and the Internet—including e-mail and blogs—are usually less
influential than the social environment, but they are still significant, especially in affirming
attitudes and opinions that are already established. The news media focus the public's attention
on certain personalities and issues, leading many people to form opinions about them.
Government officials accordingly have noted that communications to them from the public tend
to “follow the headlines.”

3. Interest groups
Interest groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), religious groups, and labour unions
(trade unions) cultivate the formation and spread of public opinion on issues of concern to their
constituencies. These groups may be concerned with political, economic, or ideological issues,
and most work through the mass media as well as by word of mouth. Some of the larger or
more affluent interest groups around the world make use of advertising and public relations.
One increasingly popular tactic is the informal poll or straw vote. In this approach, groups ask
their members and supporters to “vote”—usually by phone or via the Internet—in unsystematic
“polls” of public opinion that are not carried out with proper sampling procedures.

4. Opinion leaders
Opinion leaders play a major role in defining popular issues and in influencing individual
opinions regarding them. Political leaders in particular can turn a relatively unknown problem
into a national issue if they decide to call attention to it in the media. One of the ways in which
opinion leaders rally opinion and smooth out differences among those who are in basic
agreement on a subject is by inventing symbols or coining slogans: in the words of U.S. Pres.
Woodrow Wilson, the Allies in World War I were fighting “a war to end all wars,” while aiming
“to make the world safe for democracy”; post-World War II relations with the Soviet Union
were summed up in the term “Cold War,” first used by U.S. presidential adviser Bernard
Baruch in 1947. Once enunciated symbols and slogans are frequently kept alive and
communicated to large audiences by the mass media and may become the cornerstone of public
opinion on any given issue.

5. Public opinion polling

Polling can occasionally reveal whether the people holding an opinion can be thought of as
constituting a cohesive group.

6. World opinion
The increasing importance of global telecommunication, trade, and transportation have
contributed to interest in a new concept of world public opinion, or “world opinion.” The idea
began to receive serious academic consideration near the end of the 20th century, as scholars
noticed certain global homogeneities in views and attitudes as well as in tastes and consumer
behaviour.

Magazine Journalism

Introduction

Magazine journalism uses the traditional journalism tools of interviews, background research
and writing to produce articles for consumer and trade magazines. Magazine journalism differs
from newspaper journalism in at least five ways.

1. Newspapers have a very broad audience with widely varying ages and interests confined to
one metropolitan area. Magazines have a national audience who has a very specialized interest
in one particular topic.

2. Magazines are published monthly instead of daily. Therefore readers expect articles that are
longer with much more in-depth analysis of issues and trends.
3. Magazine, a publication issued at regular intervals, usually weekly or monthly, containing
articles stories , photographs, advertisement, and other features, with a page size that is usually
smaller than that of a newspaper but larger that that of a book.

4. Magazine today is an important source of information. It performs entertainment function

very well and builds the opinion of reader on the other hand.

Brief History:

• First magazine was “review” in 1704 written for nine years by Daniel defoe. It consisted of
four pages three times a week.
• In 1709 “tattler “by Richard steel was published. It was edited by a fictitious editor called
“isac Bickerstaff”.
• In 1711 “spectator” by joseph Addison was published.
In sub continent:
• First magazine published in 1870 was “hickey gazette” . the editor was James Augustus
Hickey. It was an English magazine.
• After independence of Pakistan there was the birth of a new independent society in Pakistan.
• Journalism played up role in information of society.
• National press trust was created in 1963.
• General yahya relaxed restrictions but imposed later on.
• General ziaulhuq lifted restrictions for a short period.
• In 1988 interim government cancelled the press and publication ordinance and a new
ordinance i.e. Registration of printing and press ordinance (RPPO) was made.

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