BAYAN COLLEGE

Sultanate of Oman

Introduction to News Reporting and Writing

COM 255

FALL SEMESTER 2022-2023

Lecture 1
News and News Values

There have been many attempts over the years to define what news is and yet still journalists,
commentators and academics are likely to disagree even though it’s there for all to see in the
paper, on TV or on the internet.

Here are a couple of well-known quotations that attempt to define news:

News is one of the most prestigious media genres. People do not usually buy the daily paper for
its advertisements. They buy it for the news. But not everything in a newspaper or on a television
programme is news. So how do we distinguish news from everything else in the media?

News is culturally shaped

When we look at news from around the world, it is clear that it is shaped in some way by social
and cultural expectations of its readership. So while a BBC reporter might be filing stories about
Oman and from Oman, they will look more like what a British readership would expect rather
than what an Omani readership might expect.

News exists within specific social and cultural expectations. What Omanis read in their
newspapers every day is quite different in nature, not just in content, to what, say, the British
might find in theirs. For example, the news printed by Britain’s famous tabloid newspapers
would not be considered news in many other societies around the world. In Britain, however, it
makes up a large part of the market for daily news.

Three theories of News Values :-

1. News is what the chief reporter says it is!

This idea suggests that you get to know what news is by working as a journalist and that the
more senior journalists will tell you if what you are writing is news or not. According to this
theory, news is news because it was published as news, and it was published as news because the
editor said it was news. This is known as a ‘speech act’ – it’s news because I say it is.

2. News is a matter of importance

Halberstam also identified that news tends to be considered as matters of importance. The more
significant an event, the more likely it will be considered newsworthy.
3. News is a matter of interest

According to this theory, news is news because readers and viewers are interested in hearing
about it. And so it establishes a sense of community and connection to the world around us. It
provides a common set of topics about which we can exchange ideas.
If we accept this theory, news is what interests us.
A problem with this theory is: People are interested in all sorts of gossip and trivial matters.
Surely, that’s not news?’
So we can see that even when theories of news are developed, it is still very hard to pin down
just what news is.
What does news look like?
Journalists do recognise news when they see it. Their “news sense”, sometimes called a “news
nose”, which develops after working in a newsroom for some time, tells them clearly when they
are onto a big story.

Lecture 2
Reporters talk about “hard news” and “soft news”.

Hard news
Stories that fit this description are usually the news of the day, news that will be old and stale by
tomorrow. Sometimes it’s called breaking news.
Examples include plane crashes, bad weather, war and national politics.
Soft news
Soft news is not likely to be on the front page of the newspaper or the first item in a television or
radio news bulletin. It is more likely to be about people, their hopes and dreams, and their
problems and success stories. Soft news is often these “human interest” stories. It isn’t usually
very time sensitive and it will be about people, not government or business.
Examples are features on people, community news and “feel good” stories.

News values
So how do we know what news is, then? Well, news is there in the newspaper and many
researchers have studied it to find out what the common elements of news stories are. That way
they believe they can identify just what makes news.
These common elements are known as news values.

Frequency
Events which fit well with a media organisation's schedule are more likely to be reported. Long-
term trends are not likely to appear in the media so much.
Negativity
Bad news is more likely to be published than good news.
Unexpectedness
Things out of the ordinary – like a man biting a dog – have newsworthiness.
Unambiguity
Stories that are clear make news more easily than complicated ones which require a lot of
background to understand.

Personalisation
Stories that involve individuals will appeal to readers more than those to which readers can’t so
easily relate.
Meaningfulness
If a story has plenty of meaningfulness for a newspaper’s readers, then it’s likely to make its
pages. Cultural proximity is important here – stories about people who come from a similar
background to the audience receive more coverage than those concerned with people who speak
different languages, look different and have different preoccupations.

Reference to elite nations

Stories about global powers receive more attention than those concerned with less influential
nations.
Reference to elite persons:
Stories about the rich and powerful get more coverage.
Conflict
The drama behind conflict – whether that conflict is between individuals, countries or ideologies
– is an inherent part of news.
Consonance
If a news organisation expects it might have to cover a certain type of story, then it will be ready
to do so. Stories that come out of the blue may be ignored.
Continuity
A story which has already been in the news gathers a kind of momentum. Reporters know the
background and are expecting the next development. Readers, too, need the end of the story told
- especially if it is a long one.

Composition

How the newspaper, or radio bulletin, is composed, or made up, will dictate to some degree what
stories make today’s news. For example, if a major plane crash is the lead story, a much less
serious crash may get dropped. If the day’s news is full of international stories, then the least
important may get dropped so editors can provide some variety with a local story. So the
prominence given to a story depends not only on its own news values but also those in other
stories of the day.
The more of these news values a story has, the more “newsy” it is said to be. Theory suggests
that it is then more likely to make the pages of the local newspaper.
While news is shaped by the culture from which it emerges, in the 1980s Australian research
across 67 countries confirmed these so-called news values were widely accepted as the shapers
of news. Seventy-five percent of almost 300 journalists and journalism teachers surveyed agreed
three core elements needed to be there in a story before it could be called news:
1. Interest
The content of the story needed to be interesting to readers.
2. Timeliness
The information needed to be presented to readers as soon as possible.
3. Clarity
The information must be easy to follow. News needs to be clear.

Lecutre 3
The Nature of the medium

Another thing that will help shape the nature of a “news agenda” is the medium through which it
is to be reported. In some ways, Galtung and Ruge noted this with their ‘frequency’ and
‘consonance’ news values.
A radio station which has hourly bulletins will set out to make the most of the immediacy of a
developing story, updating listeners every hour. It will, of course, be more interested in stories
which can involve recorded interviews with people. That’s how radio tells the news.

A newspaper will be more interested in stories that develop more slowly so it doesn’t get left
behind and so it can make the most of its ability to analyse a situation in detail.

A television station will be more interested in a story that has good pictures because that’s how
the medium tells the news – in pictures.

Structuring to achieve fairness and balance

A clear and easy passage through a story is very important but it is not the only thing a reporter is
trying to achieve while structuring their story. Fairness and balance are almost as important.

In next week’s lecture we’ll look at fairness and balance in more depth but it’s important to note
here that anyone criticised in a story – either by the reporter or a source within the story – must
be given a right of reply i.e. the opportunity to put their side of the story. It’s only fair.

Reporters need to build this fairness, achieved through a structure of balance, into their
story. Even including a response from the person criticised is not always enough. If someone is
criticised in the introduction, it’s not fair to include their version of events in the last paragraph.
After all, as we have seen, a sub may cut that paragraph out. And by putting it at the bottom we
are suggesting it is not as important as the accusation itself.

Reporting and its types

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.
1. General assignment 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.
2. Beat reporting-Beat reporters cover news and features in specific geographic or subject areas
such as police stations, munsiff and district courts, universities, local bodies, political parties.
These reporter 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.
3. Speciality reporting- Speciality reporters cover breaking news and features in more
specialised areas than the beat reporters such as environment, cultural programmes, information
technology, law, foreign affairs, education and medicine. Specialist reporters generally do not
cover spot news. But they have to analyse the roots of problems, the reasons behind the news, the
possible solutions, and the future prospectus of the news events and developments.

Lecture 4

SOURCES OF NEWS
A newspaper will have hundreds of news stories each day comprising international, national,
state and local news. Besides such straight news, there will also be features, opinion pieces such
as columns, reviews, middles, articles etc. How does a newspaper gather all these stories from
across the world?
They are the foot soldiers of a newspaper. Their reports become news to millions of reading
public. News agencies are professional organizations that collect and distribute news to the
newspapers. All the news that is printed in a newspaper is not gathered by its reporters. A major
source of news for a newspaper is news agencies or wire agencies. Electronic and new media
namely television channels, radio stations and websites, are also a source of news for a
newspaper. Press release is an important source of news for newspapers.

Press conferences and meet the press are important sources of news.
Parliament, legislatures and civic bodies when in session become major sources of news.
Important decisions are announced, debated and voted in these assemblies.

Courts also are sources of news. Proceedings of sensational cases and important judgments by
High Courts and Supreme Court come in the news. Conferences, meetings, seminars,, symposia
etc. are also sources of news.

Important decisions can be announced in such meetings. Similarly, research findings and
discoveries could be put forward in such meetings. Internet has become an important online
source for all media professionals. Police stations, fire stations, party headquarters, medical
colleges, universities etc. are also news sources. For an alert and committed journalist anything
and anybody could be a potential source of news.

Lecture 5
How to write – Introduction (5W’s 1H)
The introduction is simply the most important paragraph of any news story written for a
newspaper.
It is also the most difficult to write.
Time spent writing your intro is time well invested. It may take an hour to write the first
paragraph but half an hour to write the ten paragraphs that follow.
Today we will look at why that is and how we go about writing intros.
But first let’s have a look at two different types of intros, both critical to the s uccess of the story
they begin.
Most newspapers contain a mix of styles of journalism. At the front, led by the biggest stories of
the day on the front page, is the news section or news pages. Further back come the business,
world news and sport sections. So far we are still talking about ‘news stories’ – stories written
in a way that promotes their urgency and importance and, hopefully, keeps the reader glued to
our news pages. We’ll come back to this.
Then, further back, you will generally find the ‘features’ sections. These are longer, more in-
depth articles providing background to issues of the day, investigations into trends in society and
politics, and ‘lifestyle’ stories about people, arts, cooking, holidays and so on.

The summary intro

The summary intro does just that – it summarises the story. So if that’s all the reader has time to
read, he or she still knows basically what has happened. A summary intro is the story in a
nutshell, as the English saying goes. It tells the whole story in a single sentence, although
obviously not all the details. But it is packed with facts and does contain all the main points the
reader needs to know what has happened.
If the reader then wants to know the finer details, they keep reading. If they don’t, they will
move on to the next story.This intro has everything in it a reader needs to know what has
happened.
Remember, a news story is basically made up of answers to the following six questions:
 What happened?
 Who did it?
 When did they do it?
 Where did they do it?
 Why did they do it and
 How did they do it?
If a journalist has answers to those six questions, they have the basic building blocks of a story
Now back to our intro . . . an intro needs to have as many of those building blocks as it can
without becoming hard to read.
Our example above has the:
 What (a TV cameraman held without charges has been freed)

 Who (the US, the cameraman)

  Where (Iraq) and

 When (on Thursday).

That’s a pretty good intro. If the reader wants to know why the US released him or how this all
came about, they will need to read on. But the essence of the story has been summarised well in
the intro.

Advantages of the summary intro

Three key advantages of the summary intro:
1. It is packed with facts.
By the time a reader has finished reading your summary intro, they will know most of the
key facts of your story – usually the what, when and how questions, and often even the
who or why.
2. It can, if necessary, be published in isolation from the rest of the story.
If the subeditors preparing the newspaper for publication don’t have room for your story
but think it’s important to get something about it in, they can cut the rest of the story and
just run the top as a brief, or maybe a two-paragraph story.
3. Readers still get the main point of the story, even if they quickly move onto the one
next to it or turn the page. The intro gives them a quick summary of the news item.

Lecture 6
LEAD/INTRO
The first paragraph or two in a news story is called the lead. The lead is the most important part
of a story and the most difficult part to write. It is the part of the story that attracts the reader and,
if it is well-written can arouse readers’ interest. It should tell the reader the point of the story, not
hide the subject with unnecessary or misleading words and phrases. The important types of leads
are listed below.

1. Summary leads A summary lead, generally in no more than 35 words, tells an audience the
most important of the six primary elements of an event, the five W’s and H. Reporters look for
these six elements whenever they cover a news event. The most important of the six elements go
into a summary lead. School of Distance Education News Reporting and Editing Page 19

2. Narrative lead A narrative lead is the most popular lead on features and non-breaking news
stories. It draws people into a story by putting them, suddenly, in the middle of the action. It
should entice a person to continue reading.

3. Contrast leads A contrast lead compares or contrasts one person or thing with another, or
several people or things with one another. These “old and new”, “short and tall” or “yesterday
and today” leads tell an audience the way something was and now is. They can be used on any
type of news or feature story.

4. Question leads Lead that asks a question. The key to writing a question lead is to answer the
question as quickly as possible Sweating? The mercury is to go up sharply in the days to come.

5. Direct address lead In a direct-address lead, the news or feature writer communicates directly
with the audience by using the word you in the lead. These leads give writers an opportunity to
reach out to their audience, to include them as individuals in a story. Beware if you are above 40.
One out five Indians suffer from serious respiratory ailments, revealed a study conducted by....

WRITING HEADLINES

Headlines are words and phrases printed in large types over each story in a newspaper or
magazine. The size of the headline varies with the importance attributed to news. The headline
can stretch over all column of a newspaper, if the report is on a very important topic. Such
headlines are called ribbon or streamer in newspaper jargons. Many readers read only the
headlines as these give a basic idea of the contents of a newspaper. Besides, headlines can be
read without much strain on a moving train or bus. School of Distance Education News
Reporting and Editing Page 27 Reporters gather news and then sub-editors correct and refine the
copy. Writing headline for a news story is an essential task of the editing process.

A subeditor should write headline that:

 1) Attracts reader’s attention.
2) Summarises the story.
3) Helps the reader index the contents of the page.
4) Depicts the mood of the story.
5) Helps set the tone of the newspaper.
6) Provides a better layout to a newspaper.

A headline that stretches across all columns of a newspaper is called a banner, streamer or
ribbon. Reputed newspapers will not display such headlines on every day. They will display such
headlines only on deserving occasions. Headline that appears above the name plate of a
newspaper is called a skyline. This type of headline appears on very rare occasions. Types of
headlines Styles of headlines, like fashion, change constantly, even though their functions remain
the same. Early newspapers’ first news display lines were short and slender.

Lecture 7
How do journalists make ethical decisions?

There are some basic underlying assumptions behind most journalism that include its most
simple moral perspectives.

Basic moral perspectives

1.Human rights
Human rights are universal and this means journalists should always and everywhere respect
fundamental human rights. Of course human rights are a social construct and so vary from
society to society.
But the rights acknowledged within any society must be the most fundamental guideline for its
journalists – both in their drive to expose abuses of human rights and their observance of them in
their own work.
2. Social contract
Journalists have a social contract with their audience to provide accurate, honest, reliable and
truthful news information. Any behaviour that compromises this contract is simply unethical.
This is not hard to understand or follow. But beyond those fundamentals, what are the moral
duties and rights of a journalist?
The practice of ‘doing’ journalism can throw up ethical dilemmas at unexpected times and in
what appear to be the most innocent of stories, or stories that appear at first to be for the good of
society. We’ll have a look at an example of that a little later.
The challenges
But first what are some of the difficulties journalists face when they are digging into some of the
more perplexing ethical issues? Professor Ed Lambeth, of the Missouri School of Journalism, put
together this list of questions, which you can find in the third edition of the textbook Intro:
1.What are the enduring principles a journalist should consult?
Truth, justice, freedom, humaneness and individual responsibility spring to mind.
2.Which counts most if two or more should conflict? For example, the public right to
know versus someone’s right to privacy?

3.How does the journalist reconcile traditional practices and values with enduring
principles? Does getting a scoop on page one outweigh causing harm to news subjects,
for example?

4.To whom does a journalist owe loyalty – to self, public, employer, news subject and/or
colleagues?
5.How does a journalist deal with such classic questions such as means versus ends,
especially when exhorted to serve as a watchdog over government? Is using a hidden
camera ever justified?
6.Journalism is sometimes an inherently harmful process: people’s rights can be subsumed
 by the need to investigate and expose. Should harm always be minimised? How?

If there is one thing in common in all these challenges, it is that good journalists are constantly
seeking an appropriate balance between the freedom they need to report without fear or favour
and the social responsibility they have.

Lecture 8

Interviews and its Techniques

While information for news stories comes from all sorts of places – government reports, the
internet, and other newspapers – the interview is still the single most important and effective
method of newsgathering available to journalists today.

Interviews come in many shapes and sizes. The one we think of first, perhaps, involves two
chairs, microphones and television cameras rolling. The journalist sits in one chair with his or
her back to the camera and the subject of the interview – the interviewee – sits facing the camera.
The interviewee is the expert under the spotlight, prepared to answer any question thrown at
them.

In reality, this scenario is much more prepared than it might appear. Usually the interviewer
and interviewee will have discussed their questions and answers well before the cameras are
turned on.

The process is not so much for the reporter to find out what the subject thinks or says – they will
already pretty much know that – but rather to present those views in a timely and efficient
manner to a third party, the audience.

But the vast majority of media interviews are much less staged than that and involve no-
one watching or listening but the reporter themselves. These interviews are the heart of daily
and weekly journalism and are often done face to face and even more often on the phone. They
do not have to be as streamlined or prepared as those on camera (though many a young reporter
has lost hours of their day and increased the pressure on themselves at deadline but letting their
interviewees ramble on and on about unrelated matters).

These interviews are the best method around for reporters who need both facts and
opinions for their story. After all, reporters need sources for their stories because, in the vast
majority of cases, their own opinions are not part of the story. And it’s in these interviews that
the sources are “on the record” – that is, they know what they say will appea r in the newspaper
or magazine.

Why is the interview so important?

Information for a story can come from all sorts of places. Perhaps a Government report has,
at first glance, everything a reporter needs to write a story about say, a shortage of housing or
medical services. There may well be statistics to back it up available on the internet. The reporter
might even be able to back their angle up with reference to history quoted out of books or other
media.

But no matter how detailed the hard data is, no story is complete without that essential
ingredient: the human being. Stories need people in them, either as the subject of the story or
giving their opinions on the issue at hand. Our story on the housing shortage is nothing but cold
statistics until we speak to a homeless family. Then we have feeling and drama in our story.
Until the reader can relate to someone in the story – empathise with them or even be angry at
them – then they are likely to move quickly on to the next story, leaving ours half read at best.

What kinds of people do journalists interview?

1. People who are newsworthy because of their position, qualifications,

talents, skills, expertise.
2. People who are authorities on a particular topic.
3. People who have information relevant to the inquiry.
4. People who have witnessed or experienced something newsworthy.
5. Famous people.

Getting the right person is very important. If you are doing a story on regional economic
development, you don’t go down to the local teashop and ask the proprietor, even though the
shopkeeper may have opinions on the subject. Your interviewee needs to be someone whose
position and credibility makes what he or she says authoritative.

It may not always be clear who is the best person to interview. A reporter wanting
information on a government matter may have to decide between talking to a member of
government (who is more likely to be forthcoming, but whose views are probably politically
motivated) and a government official (more wary about speaking to the media, but usually better
informed).

A few (well-established) guidelines

A reporter might be talking to a school principal in his playground, a business leader in his office
or a sports star on the side of the running track at training. But whatever the situation or the
subject involved, a few basic guidelines need to be applied if the reporter is going to leave the
interview with the information he or she needs to write or record their story.

1. Prepare as best you can

2. Be punctual and appropriately dressed.

3. Put your subject at ease in any way you can

There are many ways to help your subject relax.

Lecture 9
Citizen journalism
The role of the gatekeeper, however, is changing with the advent of the internet as a
dominant medium for news. One of the key features of the internet is the ability of users to
interact with the source of information they are interested in and with other users.

This interactivity has led to the growth around the world of the phenomenon known as citizen
journalism. The most visible work done by citizen journalists is on the millions of blogs that
have sprung up since the invention of software that enabled private citizens to become internet
publishers at a few clicks of a mouse. But citizen journalism is, in some ways, the extension of
what already existed – eyewitness accounts, photos sent to newspapers and letters to the editor.

These things already existed but the worldwide web has meant they have grown hugely until
they have changed the very nature of the relationship between news producers and their
audience.

Citizen journalism is a fairly wide-ranging term but one New Zealand academic, Dr Luke Goode,
describes it thus:

In general terms, 'citizen journalism' refers to web-based practices in which 'ordinary' users
engage in journalistic and editorial news practices. Citizen journalism encompasses
practices such as current affairs-based blogging, photo and video-sharing, and the posting
of eye witness commentary on current events. It may also involve users re-posting, linking,
'tagging' (labeling with keywords), rating, modifying or commenting upon news materials
posted by other users or by professional news outlets.

Democracy or populism? Citizens, gatekeepers and social news,

Dr Luke Goode, University of Auckland January, 2008

Opinion

Opinion is an important part of most stories. Perhaps a story about a traffic accident or a story on
an approaching storm won’t include opinion – they could be filled with only hard data obtained
from authorities – but most news stories do. Even the storm story is likely to include opinions
from weather experts and advice from authorities on what citizens can do to protect themselves.

But didn’t we just say a story is simply a series of facts? And opinions aren’t provable facts –
that’s what makes them opinions.

Opinion certainly is an important element of news – but it should never be the reporter’s
own opinion. There are times when the reporter’s opinion is valuable – reviews, features and the
occasional eye-witness piece.

However, in news, our first objective is to make sure our stories are free from our own view, that
we are detached and impartial. The reporter is there just to report the facts.
Opinions should be sought from people who are experts in their field or ordinary people who
have had some experience the reporter wants them to relate. Those opinions must be clearly
attributed to those who hold them. That is, they must be sourced. And they must be correctly
sourced.

Lecture 11
WRITING REPORT

Media reports are the product of slow, painstaking, accurate inductive work. The usual steps
involved in writing report are: (a) logical analysis of the subject-matter; (b) preparation of the
final outline; (c) preparation of the rough draft; (d) rewriting and polishing; (c) preparation of the
final bibliography; and (f) writing the final draft. Though all these steps are self explanatory, yet
a brief mention of each one of these will be appropriate for better understanding.

Logical analysis of the subject matter: It is the first step which is primarily concerned with the
development of a subject. There are two ways in which to develop a subject (a) logically and
(b) chronologically. The logical development is made on the basis of mental connections and
associations between the one thing and another by means of analysis. Logical treatment often
consists in developing the material from the simple possible to the most complex structures.
Chronological development is based on a connection or sequence in time or occurrence. The
directions for doing or making something usually follow the chronological order.
Preparation of the final outline: It is the next step in writing the research report “Outlines are the
framework upon which long written works are constructed. They are an aid to the logical
organization of the material and a reminder of the points to be stressed in the report.”3

Preparation of the rough draft: This follows the logical analysis of the subject and the
preparation of the final outline. Such a step is of utmost importance for the researcher now sits to
write down what he has done in the context of his research study. He will write down the
procedure adopted by him in collecting the material for his study along with various limitations
faced by him, the technique of analysis adopted by him, the broad findings and generalizations
and the various suggestions he wants to offer regarding the problem concerned.

Rewriting and polishing of the rough draft: This step happens to be most difficult part of all
formal writing. Usually this step requires more time than the writing of the rough draft. The
careful revision makes the difference between a mediocre and a good piece of writing. While
rewriting and polishing, one should check the report for weaknesses in logical development or
presentation. The researcher should also “see whether or not the material, as it is presented, has
unity and cohesion; does the report stand upright and firm and exhibit a definite pattern, like a
marble arch? Or does it resemble an old wall of moldering cement and loose brick.”4 In addition
the researcher should give due attention to the fact that in his rough draft he has been consistent
or not. He should check the mechanics of writing—grammar, spelling and usage.

Preparation of the final bibliography: Next in order comes the task of the preparation of the final
bibliography. The bibliography, which is generally appended to the research report, is a list of
books in some way pertinent to the research which has been done. It should contain all those
works which the researcher has consulted. The bibliography should be arranged alphabetically
and may be divided into two parts; the first part may contain the names of books and pamphlets,
and the second part may contain the names of magazine and newspaper articles. Generally, this
pattern of bibliography is considered convenient and satisfactory from the point of view of
reader, though it is not the only way of presenting bibliography. The entries in bibliography
should be made adopting the following order:

For books and pamphlets the order may be as under:

1. Name of author, last name first.
2. Title, underlined to indicate italics.
3. Place, publisher, and date of publication.
4. Number of volumes.

Writing the final draft: This constitutes the last step. The final draft should be written in a
concise and objective style and in simple language, avoiding vague expressions such as “it
seems”, “there may be”, and the like ones. While writing the final draft, the researcher must
avoid abstract terminology and technical jargon. Illustrations and examples based on common
experiences must be incorporated in the final draft as they happen to be most effective in
communicating the research findings to others. A research report should not be dull, but must
enthuse people and maintain interest and must show originality. It must be remembered that
every report should be an attempt to solve some intellectual problem and must contribute to the
solution of a problem and must add to the knowledge of both the researcher and the reader.

References

 Vir Bala Aggarwal, ‘Essentials of Practical Journalism’, concept publishing Company, New
Delhi, 2006.
 Bruce D. Itule, and Douglas A. Anderson. ‘News Writing and Reporting for Today’s
Media’, McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 2003.
 Julian Harris, Kelly Leiter, Stanley, Johnson, ‘The Complete Reporter’, Macmillan
Publishing Co, New York.
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