Print Journalism

BA(JMC) 102
Dr Neha Pande
 Road Map
Newspaper Reading Understanding News What is Journalism?

Elements of News Who is a Journalist? What are the Types of News Stories?

Structure of a Newsroom
How to write a News Story? News Editing

How to write a good news story? Use of Graphics, Cartoons, Photographs in News
 History of Printing

Early Mesopotamian civilisation before 3000 BCE

The Chinese were the first to invent the art of printing. They made wooden
blocks to print letters during the period of the Tang Dynasty in 600 AD
The oldest known surviving printed work in a woodblock is a Buddhist scripture
of 684 AD. It is now exhibited in a calligraphy museum in Tokyo, the capital of
Japan
The first printed book published in China was the Buddhist text, the
“Diamond Sutra” by Wang Chick in 868 AD
Some copies of the Buddhist scriptures printed in 1377 are preserved
in museums in China. This book is now housed in the British Library
in London
Though the Egyptians made paper by 3500 BC, it came to Europe only
by the 11th century. The first paper mill in Europe was set up in Spain
in 1120
Block printing came to Europe by 1300
It is believed that Johannes Gutenburg of Germany had developed
printing technology around 1439. Gutenburg also invented an oil-
based ink for printing. He printed the Bible in 1450 in the Latin
language with 1282 pages .He used movable printing blocks for the
book
In both China and Egypt the use of small stamps for seals preceded the
use of larger blocks.
Later, movable-type presses using cast ceramics were employed in
China from the early years of the last millennium
The carved wooden blocks used for this early method of printing were
also used in Japan and Korea as early as the 8th century
An important advancement to woodblock printing came in the early
11th century, when a Chinese peasant named Bi Sheng developed the
world's first movable type. Sheng’s movable characters methods were
made out of baked clay
The ink used was a mix of pine resin, wax and paper ashes, and this
method could be used to print thousands of copies of a document
fairly quickly
Later, earthenware movable type was used by several other Chinese
printers throughout the 12th and 13th centuries
In 1377, the first movable metallic types were invented in Goryeo
Dynasty in Korea, which is the oldest extant movable metal print book
In the 14th century, Wang Chen, a Chinese government official of the
Yuan Dynasty, independently created his own set of movable
characters out of wood, using tried-and-true woodblock methods, not
movable type
Metal type ( made from bronze and perhaps tin) was also used in
China for the printing of books and paper money until at least the 18th
century
Metal movable type was also developed independently in Korea in the
late 14th century.
The mechanization of bookmaking led to the first mass production of
books in Europe
A single Renaissance printing press could produce 3,600 pages per
workday
Printing technology came to India in 1556. It was the Jesuit priests
who brought this technology to our country.
The first book printed in India was in Portuguese language in Old Goa.
Origin and Growth of Indian Journalism
First printing press was set up in Mumbai in 1674
Second printing press was set up in Madras
Third printing press was set up in Calcutta in 1779
James Augustus Hickey, an
English man, started and
edited the first newspaper in
India.
On 29th January 1780, in
Calcutta, Bengal Gazette or
the Calcutta General
The first newspaper
Advertiser (popularly
known as Hickey’s Journal)
began with two sheet as a
weekly.
 19th century: The first real
journalist arrived in
Calcutta--- James Silk
Buckingham. Buckingham the
Editor of Calcutta Chronicle
The first issue :October 2,
1818; it was termed as a
chronicle of political,
commercial and literary news
and views.
The first newspaper published in Indian language was Samachar
Darpan (Mirror of News) in Bengali.
Its first number was issued on May 23, 1818. The famous
missionaries, Ward, Carey and Marshman, published it from
Serampore, which was then a foreign, that is to say, non-British
settlement.
The Sumbad Koumudi was
founded and edited by Raja
Ram Mohan Roy
He also edited Mirat-ul-
Akhbar (Mirror of
Intelligence) a Persian
newspaper
Roy started the Brahminical
Magazine to counteract the
missionaries propaganda
Another purely Indian newspaper, the Bombay Samachar, in Gujarati,
was first published in 1822 by Fardaonji Murzban.
Messer B Messinck and Peter Read the ‘Indian Gazette’ in November
1780
Calcutta Gazette 1784
The Bengal Journal 1785
1785, Richard Johnson in Madras brought out ‘Madras Courier’ in
English language.
In Bombay first newspaper was ‘Bombay Herald’ in 1789
Bombay Courier in 1789
Bombay Gazette in 1791
Samachar Darpan was the first Bengali newspaper
On 3 November, 1838 , The Times of India issued its first edition as
The Bombay Times
In 1861, The first edition of The Times of India was published by
Robert Knight
In 1868, 'Amrit Bazaar Patrika' was started by two brothers, Shishir
Kumar Ghosh and MotilalGhosh
In 1878, "The Hindu" was started in the English language, which was
mainly distributed in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
News agency services became available on a regular basis with the
Press Trust of India which was started in 1946
 Development of Magazines in India
The first Indian periodical was the Asiatick Miscellany (Calcutta, 1785-1789),
probably edited by F. Gladwin
The Calcutta Monthly Register was published in 1790, and the Calcutta Monthly
Journal from 1798 to 1841
Asiatic Observer (1823-1824)
The Quarterly Oriental Magazine (1824-1827),
The Royal Sporting Magazine (1833- 1838)
The Calcutta Literary Gazette was published in 1830-1834
The Bombay Magazine was started in 1811
The Bombay Quarterly Magazine (1851-1853) gave place to the
Bombay Quarterly Review, issued in 1855
Madras: Madras had a Journal of Literature and Science and the
Oriental Magazine and Indian Hurkuru (1819)
The Indian Antiquary was started at Bombay in 1872 and still
continues
Journalism
Meaning and Definition
Kovach and Rosenstiel (2001) summarises the concepts, values and elements
of journalism as:
Public service: journalists provide a public service (as watchdogs or
‘newshounds’, active collectors and disseminators of information);
Objectivity: journalists are impartial, neutral, objective, fair and (thus)
credible;
Autonomy: journalists must be autonomous, free and independent in their
work;
Immediacy: journalists have a sense of immediacy, actuality and speed
(inherent in the concept of ‘news’);
Ethics: journalists have a sense of ethics, validity and legitimacy
 Journalist means a person engaged in the profession or occupation of
journalism in connection with the publication of information, comment, opinion
or analysis in a news medium
Journalism means:
The practice of investigating, collecting, verifying and/or preparing, or editing, for
dissemination of information, commentary, opinion or analysis, including but not
limited to news or current affairs;
for the purpose of making that information, commentary, opinion or analysis
available to the public, or a section of the public; and
in respect of which a relevant person or persons abides by a journalists’ code of
practice, or the organisation for which they work is governed by, or submits to, a
journalists’ code of practice.
In the common understanding of democracy, journalists act as the ‘fourth
estate’, standing as guardians of the public interest, and watchdogs on the
activities of government
The practice of investigating, collecting, verifying and/or preparing, or
editing, for dissemination of information, commentary, opinion, or analysis,
including but not limited to news or current affairs;
for the purpose of making that information, commentary, opinion, or
analysis available to the public, or a section of the public; and
in respect of which a relevant person or persons abides by a journalists’ code
of practice, or the organisation for which they work is governed by, or
submits to, a journalists’ code of practice.
What is News?
What is Included? What is Excluded, and Why?
Report of recent events
Previously unknown information
Something having a specified influence or effect
Material reported in a newspaper or news periodical
Matter that is newsworthy
News is anything out of the ordinary
News is the unusual picture of life
News is anything that will make people talk about (the more it excites, the
greater its value)
Comprises all current activities which are of general human interest
The best news is that which interests most of the readers
News is anything that is fresh
The etymology of the word “news” from Latin “nova” which means “new
things”. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines news as topical
information worth noting. “To put at its simplest, news is a record of latest
events, incidents and developments that in some way touch on the lives of
newspaper’s and magazine’s readers”
According to Walter Lippmann “news and truth are not the same thing, and
must be clearly distinguished. The function of news is to signalize an event, the
function of truth is to bring to light the hidden facts, to set them into relation
with each other, and make a picture of reality on which men can act.[…] The
news is not a mirror of social conditions, but the report of an aspect that has
obtruded itself. The news does not tell you how the seed is germinating in the
ground, but it may tell you when the first sprout breaks through the surface”
According to the Royal Commission on the Press (1949), in order for an event
to be news, it needed to meet the following conditions – it must be new and
interesting to the public, that is be about people and their various strange or
funny experiences, tragedies, accidents, crime or sport events
Wilbur Schramm (1949), who pointed out that news exists in the minds of the
people, “news is not the event but is the report of the event”
Walter Gieber in 1964 proposed, news is what appears in the press and more
precisely, “news is what newspapermen make it”. Whether an event is to
become news or not is decided by what newspapermen do with it. Gieber
states, “[…] news does not have an independent existence; news is a product
of men who are members of a news-gathering (or a news originating)
bureaucracy”
American journalist, Fred Morris from NBC stated that news is “what is
current, important and influences our life.” Mark Henderson, a correspondent
for the “Times”, defines “News by definition involves unexpected and
dramatic, not the run-of-the-mill”
Bernard Roshco (1975) points out that news is necessary in order to control the
public and to maintain social cohesion. It is connected to time, is ephemeral and
it differs from knowledge which is long term
Time is a fundamental aspect of all news and it is the deciding factor in
publicizing news. Time, according to Roshco, can be viewed on three levels
which constitute its “currency”. In order to meet this criteria it must be 1)
recently discovered, 2) publicized instantly, 3) relevant to present concerns
Gaye Tuchman believes that a so called constructive approach to news is more
creative. He focuses on the activity of media organizations employees; they
decide which event possesses news value. This means that news do not mirror
reality. News is constructed as a social phenomenon, in the process of
describing the event; the news defines and shapes the event
“News is perpetually defining and redefining, constituting and reconstituting
social phenomena […]. It not only defines and redefines, constitutes and
reconstitutes social meanings; it also defines and redefines, constitutes and
reconstitutes ways of doing things – the existing processes in existing
institutions”
“Telling stories of social life, news is a social resource. A source of knowledge,
a source of power, news is a window on the world”
Herbert Gans (1979) pointed out the dynamic character of creation of journalist
information. According, to him, news is information which is transmitted from
the source to recipients by journalists who are both – employees of bureaucratic,
commercial organizations and also members of a professional group
They process, summarize and change what was made available to them into
information appropriate to their recipients. Gans focuses on the processing and
creation of news, it is not what was initially presented but an end result of
journalist processing
W. Lance Bennett, news is a public construction shaped by popular taste (that is
what people believe and want to hear), news agencies, communication
strategies of political actors (public opinion surveys, marketing, image
techniques (news management “software”), communication technologies
(“hardware” such as telegraph, TV, etc)
News can be defined as “what politicians promote, news organizations produce,
technologies transmit, and people consume at any moment in history”
Jack Fuller (1988) stated, “News is a report of what a news organization has
recently learned about matters of some significance or interest to the specific
community that news organization serves”
Jeremy Iggers (1998), news is the end product of a reporter’s daily life
experiences. It is he who decides which elements are newsworthy. Reporter’s
presence transforms an event from private to public, media, meanwhile,
transform “obscure occurrences” into news ascribing it symbolic meaning.
Thomas E. Patterson (1998)“ News is a construct: it is a version of reality
shaped in significant part by journalistic norms and conventions. Through the
frames they employ and the gatekeeping role they play, journalists help to
shape public opinion and debate”
Melvin de Fleur and Everette Dennis, “News is current or fresh knowledge about
an event that is gathered, processed and disseminated via medium to a
significant number of interested people”.
This definition includes three elements. Firstly, the time aspect – the event in the
news must be current, secondly – it must be processed by medium, thirdly – it
must be targeted at interested recipients. What differentiates de Fleur and
Dennis’s definition from others is its focus on the co-relation of three aspects
making up news – the event, the medium and the recipient. This triad is similar
to the interactions which were pointed out by Roshco (source – medium –
recipient).
 TYPES OF NEWS
News is classified into four prime categories on the basis of:
Treatment
Timeliness

Geographical spread
Reporting Beats
 HARD NEWS
Hard News comprises politics, economy and international affairs
It also often includes public administration, policy and national security
It sometimes also includes social matters and crime stories
The form of hard news is described in terms of qualifiers such as
newsworthiness and neutrality, objectivity, balance and accuracy
Hard news is important factual news with ramifications, demanding analysis
and commentary
Hard news is often breaking news of high significance that focuses on who,
what, where, when, why and how and is presented as longer text directed at
elites audiences, educated, opinion leaders.
According to Reinemann, “The more a news item is politically relevant, the
more it reports in a thematic way, focuses on societal consequences of events,
is impersonal and unemotional in its style, the more it can be regarded as hard
news.”
 SOFT NEWS
The umbrella term for the opposite of hard news is soft news
Soft news is treated on its own or it encompasses popular journalism,
consumer journalism, lifestyle journalism, service journalism,
sensationalisation or tabloidisation
Soft news content includes lifestyle, entertainment, sports, culture, arts,
celebrities, health, family, education, history, science and technology, royalty,
human interest, travel, advice columns etc
These are items of light news of immediate public interest with a low level of
information value that can be reported at any time
Soft news focuses on individuals and their personal and emotional
experiences, is spectacular, off-beat, colourful, confrontational
Soft news is utilitarian and concerns sensational and dramatic or specific
events often in the form of scoops and scandals
The popular appeal of soft news is designed to maximise traffic, is often
described as infotainment
It is often characterised by terms such as popularisation, tabloidisation,
trivialisation, sensationalism
 Summing up Soft and Hard News
Soft News
Reports on a light or exotic topic (gossip, fashion, consumerism) that can be
reported at a later time or not all;
Routine news without great or immediate public significance, and thus can be
reported at a later time or not all;
News that is of interest to a narrow segment of the public;
Light or routine news that for non-substantive reasons (famous personality) or
media competition (‘scoop’) must be reported immediately
Hard News
Political, social, economic or serious environmental news of a highly
significant nature that needs to be reported as soon as possible due to its
immediate influence or ramifications on the public and surrounding
world;
A breaking, surprising event of great import on most of the public
and/or the environment (e.g. epidemic, natural disaster, terror attack);
New findings, discovery or report regarding a continuing story of great
significance for most of the public and/or the environment;
Significant news on the national plane;
Significant news on the international plane
 General News
Up-to-date news that must be reported but not necessarily immediately, i.e. can be published a few days later;
Important news that influences only certain groups;
Important news not on the present public agenda, so that if not reported would not be missed;
A recent announcement regarding new data or reports that should be published but not necessarily immediately;
Very important utilitarian ‘news that you can use’, but which need not be reported immediately;
An event from an important continuing story;
Relatively ‘light’ news regarding a person who has great influence over society;
Light news relating to important, quality of life topics such as ecology and health, which do not affect the public in the short term.
 SPOT NEWS

News on any sudden event or happening like a terrorist attack like 9/11, 26/11,
Tsunami, Cyclone, Earthquake in Bhuj, is called Spot news. The journalists
are not prepared and clueless about such news and reporting them is
challenging.
It is also called Hot News
 DIARY NEWS

Diary news as the name suggests, is the one in which the reporter has
information prior to the event. For example, a cricket match between India
and Australia is known to the journalists and they are well prepared to cover
the event but result of the match falls under the spot news category as it is
not known in advance
 Geographical Spread
News on the basis of the geographical spread is categorised into Local,
National and International /global News
The importance of city page is self - explanatory as it provides information
closer to the local people. Therefore every newspaper has a city or local
news page. Such news stories cover events/incidents of crime and civic in
a particular city
News stories which cover events happening in the country or events that
have the potential to affect the entire nation fall under the National news
category
News from across the globe falls under international news. For example,
U.S. Presidential elections are international news but Indian Prime minister
Visits Japan, falls under the National News category
 REPORTING BEATS

In Journalism, beat refers to the area or jurisdiction assigned to a particular

reporter to cover
There are various beats like crime beat which covers incidents of crime,
political beat covers national, international and local news
In the same way, various other beats are parliamentary, civic, civil, art and
culture, entertainment, environment, sports and education
 NEWS VALUES

Stuart Hall argues “News values” are one of the most opaque structures of
meaning in modern society […] Journalists speak of “the news” as if events
select themselves. Further, they speak as if which is the “most significant” news
story, and which “news angles” are most salient are divinely inspired. Yet of the
millions of events which occur daily in the world, only a tiny proportion ever
become visible as “potential news stories”: and of this proportion, only a small
fraction are actually produced as the day’s news in the news media. We appear
to be dealing, then, with a “deep structure” whose function as a selective device
is un-transparent even to those who professionally most know how to operate it.
James Curran and Jean Seaton suggest that news values
allow journalists to “translate untidy reality into neat
stories with beginnings, middles, and denouements,” and
in the process such values tend to “reinforce conventional
opinions and established authority.”
Johan Galtung and Mari Holmboe Ruge were arguably
the first to provide a systematic list of news values in a
paper presented at the first Nordic Conference on Peace
Research in Oslo in 1963, and published in 1965
Galtung and Ruge presented 12 factors (summarized below) that they
intuitively identified as being important in the selection of news:
Frequency: An event that unfolds within a publication cycle of the news
medium is more likely to be selected than a one that takes place over a
long period of time.
Threshold: Events have to pass a threshold before being recorded at all;
the greater the intensity (the more gruesome the murder or the more
casualties in an accident), the greater the impact and the more likely it is to
be selected.
Unambiguity: The more clearly an event can be understood and interpreted
without multiple meanings, the more likely it is to be selected.
Meaningfulness: The culturally familiar is more likely to be selected.
Consonance: The news selector may be able to predict (due to experience)
events that will be newsworthy, thus forming a “pre-image” of an event,
which in turn increases its chances of becoming news.
Unexpectedness: Among events meaningful and/or consonant, the
unexpected or rare event is more likely to be selected.
Continuity: An event already in the news has a good chance of remaining in
the news (even if its impact has been reduced) because it has become familiar
and easier to interpret.
Composition: An event may be included as news less because of its intrinsic
news value than because it fits into the overall composition or balance of a
newspaper or news broadcast.
Reference to elite nations: The actions of elite nations are seen as more
consequential than the actions of other nations.
 c
Reference to elite people: Again, the actions of elite people, likely to be
famous, may be seen by news selectors as having more consequence than
others, and news audiences may identify with them.
Reference to persons: News that can be presented in terms of individual people
rather than abstractions is likely to be selected.
Reference to something negative: Bad events are generally unambiguous and
newsworthy.
Winfried Schulz (1982) developed the work of Galtung and Ruge by
carrying out a content analysis of newspapers, examining domestic and
apolitical news, as well as foreign news.
He proposed six different dimensions to news selection, which he further
broke down into 19 news factors: status (elite nation, elite institution, elite
person); valence (aggression, controversy, values, success); relevance
(consequence, concern); identification (proximity, ethnocentrism,
personalization, emotions); consonance (theme, stereotype,
predictability); and dynamics (timeliness, uncertainty, unexpectedness)
Golding and Elliott suggested the following selection criteria:
Drama: This is often presented as conflict, commonly as opposing
viewpoints.
Visual attractiveness: They discuss this in terms of images for television
though, of course, images are also relevant to newspapers. “A story may
be included simply because film is available or because of the dramatic
qualities of the fi lm”
Entertainment: In order to captivate as wide an audience as possible, news
producers must take account of entertainment values that amuse or divert
the audience. This includes “human interest” stories and the actors in
these whimsical and bizarre events may be celebrities, children and
animals.
Importance: This may mean the reported event is greatly signifi cant for a
large proportion of the audience, but it also explains the inclusion of
items that might be omitted on the criteria of other audience-based news
values.
Size: The more people involved in a disaster, or the bigger the “names” at
an event, the more likely the item is to be on the news agenda,
Proximity: As with size, this derives partly from audience considerations
and partly from accessibility since there is cultural and geographical
proximity. The fi rst depends on what is familiar and within the
experience of journalists and their audience, while the second may
depend on where correspondents are based. As a rule of thumb, nearby
events take precedence over similar events at a distance
Negativity: “Bad news is good news... News is about disruptions in the
normal current of events […] not the uneventful”. Such news provides
drama and shock value which attracts audiences.
Brevity: A story that is full of facts with little padding is preferred
(particularly important for broadcast news).
Recency: Competition between news outlets puts a “premium” on
exclusives and scoops. Also daily news production is within a daily time
frame so that news events must normally occur within the 24 hours between
bulletins (or newspaper editions) to merit inclusion.
Elites: Clearly big names attract audiences, but there is a circularity in that big
names become famous by virtue of their exposure.
'Personalities: Since news is about people, this is reflected in the need to reduce
complex events and issues to the actions of individuals.
 NEWS VALUES
Elements of news are what determine a story’s “newsworthiness”
Timeliness
It is also called Immediacy. Its new so will be in news! Timeliness is the essence
of news and is understandably a criterion for news selection.
An event that has just happened makes a good news story, while events happened
a few days ago are history. Timely dissemination of news is so important that an
hour or two often changes or kills the value of a news story, particularly if a new
angle develops causing it to be rewritten or when a final deadline passes.
It is because of this reason that we find words like yesterday, last night,
today, early morning etc. in newspaper reports. Any kind of predictions
and prophesies also make news.
The more recent, more is newsworthiness. In some cases, timeliness is
relative. An event may have occurred in the past but only have been learnt
about recently.
 Impact
The significance, importance, or consequence of an event or trend; the greater the
consequence, and the larger the number of people for whom an event is important;
the greater the newsworthiness.
One of the obligations of a newsman in selecting, judging and writing news is to
determine what is of real consequence and see that it is reported properly. News of
consequence often heralds the march of progress.
For example, if there is a blackout, the immediate questions asked are – what
happened?, how long will the electricity be gone? What is the electricity
department doing? Is there an alternative arrangement? If these questions are
answered, it means that the writer is highlighting the elements of
consequence.
The accidental killing of a little girl during a shootout between rival drug
gangs has impact too. Even though only one person - the little girl – was
directly affected, many people will feel a strong emotional response to the
story.
 Proximity
Proximity means nearness. Anything close to reader interests him. Proximity does
not mean that the news is presented in a direct ‘me to you’ appeal. Instead it
appeals to a group of people with common interest.
Proximity means mental as well as linear – psychological as well as physical
nearness. There is a famous saying that a dead dog in the courtyard is bigger news
than an accident taking place in a distant place.
Where is the story from? What happens in and around your city interests you
than what happened in a far-flung region. Therefore, newspapers allocate
greater space for local news coverage because of the proximity factor.
 Oddity / Uniqueness
Oddity means something that is unusual, unique, abnormal or exceptional/
rare. Oddity produces most of the news every day. Variation from what
normally happens is news. When a dog bites a man it is not news but when a
man bites a dog; that is news. Oddity creates human interest and emotion
both.
 Prominence
Prominence is anything that can be marked as important. Names make news and
newspapers like to use as many local names as possible. Widely heralded people
are covered time in and out.
Extremely popular artists, places, novels, monuments, leaders and the like make
potential news. The element of prominence can be applied to situations, dates and
issues of the day as well.
Famous people make news! Virtually every action of famous people is
considered to be newsworthy. Stories concerning the elite, powerful
individuals, organizations or institutions are enough to create a news story.
Celebrities are always a subject for news and their every action is under the
observation of the media.
 Conflict
Conflict is an open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals). It is a
disagreement or argument about something important.
News items with conflict like a football match between two countries, war
between two nations and difference in ideologies of two political parties all
contribute to the daily newspapers.
Conflict might be psychological of physiological. Any information about a
victory or defeat becomes news because conflicts create interest in the reader
and because of curiosity to know the result; the reader takes interest in the
information. Thereby, making the information; news.
 Size
A bigger event gets more attention than a small one. The news about the death
of 50 passengers travelling in a city bus will be given more attention than the
news of a motorist accident on the highway.
Emotion
Emotions can be explained as strong feelings and human responses to outside
stimuli. Emotional element provides fertile ground for cultivation of human
interest which is one of the most important qualities that makes news; news.
How do people feel about it? These news stories will be both bad news and
good news. Death or tragedy is an example of bad news. Positive news stories
are far more prevalent than is suggested by the cynical claim that only good
news is bad news.
 Suspense
William Shakespeare rightly said that the world is a stage and all men and women
are mere players but it is also true that every man and woman wants to know
about what is going to happen.
It is basic human nature to ‘find out’ the reasons behind things. Mystery entices
us. Suspense covers stories with ‘what next’ or with apprehensions like what will
happen and who will do it? Suspense is a very strong news value. Suspense gives
opportunity to the reporters and writers to infuse drama with news.
 Currency
Readers are quickly glued to stories that possess the appeal of freshly discovered
material or facts. Current updates and status of various matters are checked by
readers to keep comprehend the present condition.
Consequence
What are the effects on the reader? News stories about issues, groups and nations
are perceived to be of relevance to the audience.
Drama
Dramatic Events of any kind would be an ideal subject for an interesting news
story.
 Human Interest
People doing interesting things or incidents having an emotional element. Such
stories cover all the feelings that human beings have including sympathy,
happiness, sadness, anger, ambition, love, hate, etc. News stories concerning
entertainment, showbiz, drama, humorous treatment, witty headlines, entertaining
photographs will be of interest to most of the people.
Progress
Technological advance and new discoveries will always be the subject for
discussion and a readable news story.
 CITIZEN JOURNALISM
The history of citizen journalism is a key element when it comes to understanding
citizen journalism as a concept. Due to the development of technology, the Internet
and social media, citizen journalism is often considered as a new phenomenon.
Although, according to some authors, it could not be farther from the truth.
Wally Hughes states that citizen journalism has been around longer than the
profession of journalism itself:
“In 1908, the University of Missouri opened the doors of the world‘s first journalism
school, but newspapers had been around for centuries before that. As a matter of fact,
early colonial newspapers in the United States had such an impact on the country that
founders included a clause in the First Amendment protecting freedom of the press.
But if the country had no professional journalists (since the profession had not been
created, yet), then what were the framers of the Constitution protecting? “
CITIZEN JOURNALISM: DEFINITION & CONCEPT
Citizen journalism is a phenomenon in which the audience employs the press
tools they possess in order to inform one another.
Citizens become contributors to the media, using many different forms of
distributing information. The term which is commonly used while explaining
citizen journalism is “citizen media”.
According to Aparna Dwivedi, the term, ‘Citizen Media’ was coined by
Clemencia Rodriguez, who defined it as “the transformative processes they
bring about within participants and their communities”. Citizen media
contributes to the variety of media outlets. The occurrence of citizen-generated
content is a response to mainstream traditional media, which oftentimes
neglected public interests and had a biased portrayal of events and news.
According to Stuart Allan, citizen journalism can be described as a type of first-
person reportage in which individuals adopt or mimic the role of a professional
journalist in order to participate in the news-making, often during a period of
crisis, tragedies and disasters.
Citizen journalism is a concept in media that refers to journalistic activities of
ordinary people. It means citizens themselves report the issues confronting
them. Citizen journalism has enabled people to raise their voice on what they
feel need attention. These people are, thus, termed as citizen journalists.
Duffy, Thorson and Jahng have defined "citizen journalist" as an individual,
who is not a trained professional, but who nonetheless may report on his or her
neighborhood or community. Citizen journalists or amateur reporters are none
but the general audience, that is, viewers, readers and listeners of mainstream
media. Referring to citizen journalists as "people formerly known as the
audience.”
Citizen journalism is also known as participatory and democratic journalism.
There are various other synonyms used for citizen journalism - "public
journalism," "civic journalism," "stand-alone journalism," "networked
journalism," "open source journalism," "crowd-sourced journalism,"
"collaborative journalism," "grassroots journalism," "community journalism,"
"bridge media" and so on.
These forms of journalism are related to "citizen journalism", but each is a
unique species that has evolved out of a larger family of social media. All these
terms refer to different acts.
Bowman and Willis (2003) in New Media. They define citizen journalism as
the act of non-professionals, playing an active role in the process of collecting,
reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information. This definition
covers all the possible activities of citizen journalists in existence. The authors
further write, "the intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable,
accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires."
Nadine Jurrat, an independent media researcher, poses three main events which
shaped citizen journalism.
The first one is the terrorist attack on New York City and the Pentagon on 11
September 2001. During the attack, the general public searched for eyewitness
reports on the web for the first time.
The second one was the 2004 Asian tsunami, where the term “citizen
journalism” was used for the first time.
The third one were the 2005 London bombings when witnesses started sending
their footage of the attack to the mainstream media.
FUNCTIONS OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM
CŠejn Husejnefendić (2016: 308) classifies the function of citizen journalism
into two categories:
1) citizen journalism can be equal to professional journalism in countries with a
high level of democracy (for instance, in Germany, Canada, Austria and South
Korea)
2) citizen journalism can be a supplement to mainstream media, but sometimes
even acts as a replacement of traditional media in the less democratic countries
(for example, certain African or Asian countries).
 ROLE OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM
The roles of citizen journalism is not only to inform people, but
broaden the content published by traditional media.
Dr. Saqib Riaz stated that the big media organizations lost their
monopoly over news because of the evolution of citizen journalism.
With the Internet and social media, sharing information has never been
easier, which also means that hiding information requested by the
public is highly unlikely, if not impossible. Riaz claims that citizens’
involvement in the news process breaks down the media hegemony.
That means that citizen journalism contributes to pluralism in the
media. In addition, citizens do not have some hidden agenda, they just
report what they witness and experience.
Citizen journalism contributes to the democratization of the society. More
voices in the public arena can add to a more lively democracy. This is
especially important when it comes to censorship. It is common that in
the countries with a political system where all relevant information are
censored, citizen journalists become the advocates for democracy, and
sometimes the only truthful news source.
Citizen and other independent media not only inform people, but
critically question various problems and make governmental actions
more transparent.
ADVANTAGES OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM
The mainstream media confines the news to the market. Alternative media
facilitates interactive audiences which are only mass in traditional media. It
develops the sense of active audience by transforming them from marginal or
marginalized tendencies which are prevalent in the mainstream media
Sometimes citizen journalists break the news on the Internet before the traditional
or mainstream journalists. Such kind of tendency has reduced the monopoly of
and dependency on mainstream journalism.
Citizen journalists cover the issues confronting them more than the issues that
appear in the mainstream media. They cannot be compared with mainstream
media journalists. However, they cover anything newsworthy, and their role
should be accepted and acknowledged. It is also assessed that as the accessibility
of technology is on the rise, citizen journalism will be more accepted and
practiced.
There is a definite link among citizen journalism, public opinion, and cultivating
democracy. It is also found that the normative role of the journalist as gatekeeper
is challenged in creating and distributing the information. It democratizes the
mode of dissemination of information. It is used by mainstream media is an
alternative media that can expose social injustice for the betterment of society.
Editorial independence is the most striking feature of citizen journalism.
Citizen journalism is people-centric, hyper-local and hence, becoming a separate
entity from traditional journalism.
Citizen Journalism is participatory in nature.
DISADVANTAGES OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM
lack of credibility of information
Citizen journalism is involved with unconfirmed assessments. So far as quality
is concerned, such kind of journalism in subjective, amateurish, and haphazard
in quality.
Sometimes it has the problem of exaggerating unusual one-time cases, resulting
in distortion of facts.
The norm of objectivity and accountability in citizen journalism based on
user-generated content is far-fetched. he mainstream media is possessed
with authenticity, credibility, and responsibility. It enjoys the trust of the
audience because of a proper system of professional functioning. The
audience prefers news and information by professional journalists rather
than citizen journalists. So, mainstream journalism cannot be replaced by
citizen journalism, can only complement it.
The content in citizen journalism is of poor quality and hardly possesses
news values. Such kind of journalism does rarely adhere to journalistic
ethics. Also, many times the content is subjected to plagiarism, showing
the loophole of such journalistic practice.
Citizen journalism is sometimes perceived as “amateurish” or as a “bad version”
of the mainstream media
Many criticize citizen journalism and its lack of regulations and codes of ethics.
However, a few codes of ethics have emerged for online or citizen journalists.
According to Cyberjournalist.net’s Blogger’s Code of Ethics, responsibilities of
citizen journalists are the following: to be honest and fair, accountable, and to
minimize harm
Many authors have proposed numerous solutions to the ongoing problem of
ethics in citizen journalism. Martin Kuhn proposed a variety of practical and
ethical guidelines, such as promoting interactivity, striving for factual truth,
transparency and free expression (Roberts, Steiner, 2012: 9).
Reporting rumours as facts
Attribution
Attribution is stating who said something. Attribution is essential in all the
media, including radio and television.
Journalists do it so that the readers or listeners can know who is speaking or
where the information in the story comes from.
Journalists can use attribution for both spoken and written information, so
that you attribute information gathered from interviews, speeches, reports,
books, films or even other newspapers, radio or television stations.
 FOUR LEVELS OF ATTRIBUTION

On the record
On background
On deep background
Off the record
 On-the-record

On-the-record” attribution means that everything the source says may be

published and quoted directly, and the source may be fully identified by
name and title.
Reporters should try to keep as much as possible of every interview on the
record. This allows readers to see or hear the source’s exact words and know
who the source is.
 On Background

“On background,” which is sometimes referred to as “not for attribution,”

means the reporter may quote the source directly but may not attribute the
statements to the source by name.
The reporter may describe the source by her position.
Patrick E. Tyler of The New York Times used on-background sources for a story
exposing U.S. military assistance to Iraq during its war against Iran. Tyler
reported the United States had covertly provided intelligence and battle plans to
Iraq even though U.S. officials knew Saddam Hussein was using chemical
weapons against both Iranian troops and civilian rebels inside Iraq.
Much of Tyler’s story was attributed to “senior military officers with direct
knowledge of the program” or “former Defense Intelligence Agency officers”
who were willing to talk only on the condition that they not be identified.
When reporters use on-background information, they try to describe the source
as fully as possible.
To say the information came from “a government employee” is meaningless.
Saying the source is “a member of the House Appropriations Committee staff”
gives readers more information.
 On Deep Background
“On deep background” is a variation of the backgrounder. This level of
attribution is sometimes called the Lindley Rule, named after Ernest K.
Lindley, a Newsweek columnist who used it during the Harry Truman
administration to persuade U.S. leaders to discuss military and diplomatic
affairs.
A source on deep background may not be quoted directly and may not be
identified in any way. A reporter must publish the information without any
attribution or with a phrase like, “It has been learned that. . . .” Unless reporters
have a high degree of confidence in the source and the information and the
approval of their supervisors, they should stay away from information given on
deep background.
 Off The Record
“Off the record” is the final level of attribution. It generally means a source’s
information cannot be used, but that is often misunderstood. Some people say
they are speaking off the record when they really mean they are speaking on
background.
Also, reporters and sources sometimes disagree as to exactly what “off the
record” means. The U.S. State Department’s Office of Press Relations says
reporters may not use off-the-record information in any way. Reporters,
however, sometimes use off-the-record information as leads to other sources.
Some journalists have deplored the use of anonymous sources as a threat to the
independence, accuracy and credibility of the news.
Benjamin Bradlee, the former executive editor of The Washington Post, said,
“Why, then, do we go along so complacently with withholding the identity of
public officials? I’m damned if I know. I do know that by doing so, we
shamelessly do other people’s bidding: We knowingly let ourselves be used. . . . In
short, we demean our profession.”
Anonymity allows sources to try to influence the way journalists cover the news
The accuracy of information from sources who demand anonymity is always open
to question. If the information proves inaccurate, it is the reporter and the news
organization who look foolish, not the source
A final problem with anonymous sources is that under some circumstances a
promise to keep a source’s identity secret can be enforced in court.
 EMBARGO

In the history of journalism, press embargoes are remembered more in the

breach than in compliance.
A press embargo represents information offered reporters prior to the date and
time of official release as "news."
It is a system that gives each reporter an equal break on the news, along with
time to develop the story through appropriate interviews and other research.
They are often used by businesses making a product announcement, by
medical journals, and by government officials announcing policy initiatives;
the media is given advance knowledge of details being held secret so that
reports can be prepared to coincide with the announcement date and yet still
meet press time
In theory, press embargoes reduce inaccuracy in the reporting of breaking
stories by reducing the incentive for journalists to cut corners by writing up
information quickly in hopes of "scooping" the competition.
YELLOW JOURNALISM
Yellow journalism, in short, means biased opinion camouflaged as objective
fact
It involves sensationalism, distorted stories, and misleading images for the
sole purpose of boosting newspaper sales and exciting public opinion
The term originates from a series of events around a cartoon called "The
Yellow Kid”
The term was coined by Erwin Wardman, the editor of the New York Press
Wardman was the first to publish the term but there is evidence that
expressions such as "yellow journalism" and "school of yellow kid
journalism" were already used by newsmen of that time
Wardman never defined the term exactly
In 1883 Joseph Pulitzer purchased The New York World for $346,000
The newspaper concentrated on human-interest stories, scandal and
sensational material
It was extremely popular, especially the cartoons of its main artist, Richard
F. Outcault
In 1895 William Randolph Hearst purchased The New York Journal, and using
the similar approach adopted by Joseph Pulitzer, began to compete with the
New York World. Pulitzer responded by producing a colour supplement
This included “The Yellow Kid”, a new cartoon character drawn by Richard
F. Outcault
This cartoon became so popular that William Randolph Hearst, owner of the
New York Journal, offered the artist a considerable amount of money to join
his newspaper
Joseph Pulitzer then had to employ a new artist, George Luks, to produce the
Yellow Kid for New York World
As a result of the importance of Outcault's Yellow Kid character in these
events, this circulation war between the two newspapers became known as
“yellow journalism”
Sadly though, this period of sensationalist news delivery where the so-
called yellow press routinely outsold the more honest newspapers does
stand out as a particularly dark era in journalistic history
The demand of the United States people for absolutely free press allowed
such newspapers to steal headlines and stories directly from other papers,
or simply fabricate stories to fit their particular agenda
Some experts argue that the tactics used by the New York World and New
York Journal partly influenced the content and style of newspapers in many of
the USA's major cities
Indeed, several aspects of yellow journalism, such as banner headlines,
sensational stories, and coloured supplements, have become a permanent
feature of many popular newspapers in the United States and Europe,
especially tabloids
 Photo Captions and Cutlines

A photo caption should provide the reader basic information needed to

understand a photograph and its relevance to the news. It should be written in
a consistent, concise format that allows news organizations to move the photo
to publication without delay.
A poorly written caption that is uninformative or worse, misleading, can
diminish the impact of a good photo and undermine its credibility as
journalism.
 Components of a News Story

Headline: It catches the attention of the reader and provides the gist/summary
of the story. It is usually in larger font an mostly bold. It is mostly written by a
copy editor.
Deck: A sub head written by the copy editor to supplement information in the
main headline is called a deck.
Byline: This tells about who wrote the news story and sometimes may also
provides information about the reporter’s speciality eg, ‘Science Reporter’
Placeline/Dateline: it tells the reader about where the story originated. It gives the
location of a story that occurred outside the paper’s usual coverage area.
Lead: This is the opening paragraph of a story that condenses the key facts of the
story. It gives the most important information very briefly. The emphasis can be
on one of the factors as well depending on the importance of the same. If some
incident happens on a special date, ‘when’ becomes more important than other
aspects.
Body/Text: It is the actual story. It supplies additional information. It is divided
into small paragraphs and is set into columns. Facts. Every news story includes
simple, true statements about what happened.
Quotes: These retell, verbatim, what someone actually said. Usually, these
come from the exact words that someone said to the reporter in an interview.
Sometimes quotations also come from witnesses at the scene, or experts on a
subject. In case, a quote is given special graphic emphasis or is highlighted, it
is called a ‘liftout’ quote.
Attribution: it refers to the source of a quote or source of any information
used in the story.
Photos: It is either shot by the staff photographers or the reporters
themselves or purchased from agencies/ wire services.
Cutline/ Caption: The information about the photo, written as a caption
Infographic: these are informational graphics that display key facts from
the story visually.
Jumpline: When a long story is continued on another page, editors run this
line to tell readers where it is being continued.
Tagline: Contact information of the reporter that enables the readers to give
feedback is called a tagline.
 Lead and Types

Summary Lead (Straight Lead): is the most common and traditional lead in
journalism. It usually tops a traditional writing form which is known as the
inverted pyramid. This style of lead was popularised during the American Civil
War. It gives the readers the convenience of getting the news within a short span
of time. It is brief summary, written in one or two sentences and meant to give a
quick summary in as few words as possible. It contains most of the five Ws and
the H of the news story. It helps to draw the reader’s attention to the main point.
Example:
Anecdotal Lead: is where a writer uses a small experience, a story to
attract the attention of the readers. Anecdote is ,want to offer a broader
picture, and the connection of the anecdote should be explained in the
beginning, and it must follow the lead story.
 Example:
I went uphill and traced some of the footprints. Water from the Tsunami
had brought a chunk off water waste to the shore; within the waste, it was
hard to trace the footprints clearly. It was a scene which would be difficult
to remove from the memory.
Direct appeal lead: is also known as the ‘You lead’. It is an informal
kind of lead and allows the readers to understand why she/he should care
about the news at all. In this type of lead, the readers are directly
addressed through the story. It gives a feel of a collaborator to the reader.
It generally starts with a phrase like, ‘If you have ever watched’ or ‘it is
your health that matters’. The connection of the story is easily
established by addressing the reader in the lead itself.
Example: Flying Pizza! Don’t be surprised if next time a drone instead
of a delivery boy brings a hot, delicious pizza to your doorstep.
First-person lead: this is when a journalist describes a personal
experience with any kind of topic to theme. Usually a privileged writer or
a columnist can do this type of first-person usage in leads.
Question Lead: is in the form of questions by putting up a query to the
reader to bring their attention to the piece. It is an attractive format which
is rhetoric in nature. Itule and Anderson stated that ‘questions can be
used effectively to begin news and feature stories. Just be sure to use
them sparingly and appropriately.’
Quotational Lead: Quotation lead is used to allow the main character of
the whole story to interact with the readers and grab the attention. The
format is used when you have a story of some celebrity or any popular
identity whose impactful statement would be interesting and worthy to
the readers.
Example: “Special camps have been set up in the core Maoist – affected
areas to recruit local youths to the Army so that they do not turn to the
Left wing Extremism,” Minister of State for Defence Jitendra Singh told
journalists here on Thursday.
Descriptive lead: refers to the lead in which you define and highlight the
whole incident in detail with utmost precision. It tells how the event
happened rather than telling what the event is about. Usually, the incident,
explained in the description needs all details to make a wholesome story.
It is mostly written at the beginning of a feature story. It is used to put the
readers in the setting of the feature.
It is done to draw a picture with the words to arouse interest of the
readers. It is like a ‘descriptive focus-on-a-person lead’ but it does not
have to really target a person who is one of many.
Suspended interest Leads: this type of lead will serve as a stimulator of
interest. It gives the reader enough information to what his appetite and no
more. After the lead, the story usually runs along in chronological form, so that
the reader must read to the very end to get to the climax. Reporters use this
lead chiefly for short bits, on the theory that if used on longer articles, readers
would not bother to wade through paragraph after paragraph.
Example: The quick action of Ravi, a driver, probably saved the city of a major
mis happening today. At 5.00 p.m. he noticed smoke and fire in the nearby
factory. Just five minutes had passed by and the fire was spreading quickly to
the direction of the nearby houses. He immediately alarmed the fire control
department and also raised an alarm for the civilian to immediately empty their
homes to avoid any mis happening.
Blind Leads: This is a lead where you start off the article by summarizing but
leaving out one essential detail; this is done to catch the interest of the reader. As
journalists you want people to read and be interested in your work, and in
feature writing especially confusing the reader in the beginning is sometimes a
very good way to catch their interest. Right after a blind lead you have to clarify
the missing piece of information though.
Narrative Leads: These leads are another feature type that actually takes you
into the mind of the main person in an article. Narrative leads tell a story from
a person's specific perspective; it's the most classic and in some instances
most effective way to start out a feature. Pick a person and start your article
out with their story and tie it into the main point.

Example: Stonewall us if you must but please state your reasons for
preventing our investigators from questioning senior officials in corruption
cases. This is the essence of a plea the Central Bureau of Investigation has
made in its affidavit to the Supreme Court in the ongoing probe into the
questionable allocation of coal blocks, highly placed sources told The Hindu.
Circumstantial Lead: Here the beginning stresses on the circumstance of the
news. It crops up usefully when the story has a human interest slant: for example
the following news story lead is about a fatal car crash in which two of the five
people were killed, the emphasis in the lead is placed on the circumstances
which lead up to the accident- the heart attack of the driver. Without this-
emphasis on circumstances under which the story happened, it would have been
another ‘run-of-the-mill’ account of a car accident.
Example: A heart attack suffered by Mrs. Kumar 50 of 5 West 26 floor, Verley,
th

Mumbai, was believed by the police today to have caused her to lose control of
her car previous evening with resultant death for herself and two of the five
other people who were with her in the car. The three remaining persons have
suffered from serious injuries.
 Objective Reporting
The term Objectivity means to the point, direct. In journalistic discipline, the term
objectivity is closely related to news reporting
While doing objective reporting a reporter must be straight forward in presenting the
facts. The reporter must collect authentic facts, cross check them and present them in
the most honest purview
The reporting must be fair, impartial and free of any type of ambiguity. As it is rightly
said, news reporting is an impersonal task
The reporter must maintain neutrality while presenting the news and its follow ups.
Personal bias must be sidelined
There is no room for personal flavor when doing objective reporting. Every story has
two sides and through objective reporting the journalist must bring forth both sides of
the story. The journalist must not conclude or pass on a judgment
While undertaking the task of Objective reporting the reporter must not alter the
facts or unnecessarily delete them.
It is very hard for a journalist to maintain objectivity in reporting as journalists
are also human beings with personal ideas, thoughts and inclinations associated
with the event they are covering. this aptitude of objectivity may not be possible
completely but a good journalist tries hard to resist the temptations. Objective
reporting is primarily done by news agencies and newspapers.
Objective reporting can be summed up as:
Balance and even-handedness in presenting different sides of an issue
Accuracy and realism in reporting
Presenting all main relevant points
Separating facts from opinion, but treating opinion as relevant
Minimizing the influence of the writer’s own attitude, opinion or
involvement
Avoiding slant or devious purposes
 Interpretative Reporting
To interpret means to shed light on something, to make things clear, to elucidate.
Interpretative reporting is done when the reporter combines facts and
interpretation.
The reporter uses his knowledge and experience in drawing interpretation for an
event of consequence. Interpretative reporting is based on grave research on a
particular topic.
It is not personal opinion about an event but a well - researched and well –
analysed topic. The reporter also contacts specialists and experts for their opinions
and experiences. as the phrase suggests combines the facts with interpretation.
Interpretative reporting is done for events already known to the masses for
example: Indian Premier League, season 6, spot fixing and match fixing
controversy or the Coalgate Scam 2013
Interpretative reporting is done when an event is known to the people. The
reporter does not reveal the event but add interprets the event for the masses.
For example, it was not media who revealed the IPL fixing but it is the press
which is interpreting the updates for the common man. There is a huge
difference between interpreting an event and objectively presenting a news
story.
In the USA, the first important inputs to interpretative reporting was provided
by the World War I. Curtis D. MacDougall writes in his book “interpretation
reporting” that when the First World War broke out, most Americans were taken
by surprise. They were utterly unable to explain its causes. This led to changes
in the style of reporting. The result was that when the Second World War began,
an overwhelming majority of the Americans expected it or at least knew it was
possible.
According to MacDougall a successful journalist is more than a thoroughly
trained journeyman. With his reading of history, economics, sociology,
political science and other academic subjects, an interpretative reporter is
aware of the fact that a news item is not an isolated incident.
An interpretative reporter cannot succeed if he is hampered by prejudices and
stereotyped attitudes, which would bias his perception of human affairs.
Interpretative reporting thus goes behind the news, brings out the hidden
significance of an event and separates the truth from falsehood. Interpretative
reporting is primarily done by magazines.
 Investigative Reporting

To investigate means to carry out a systematic inquiry to discover and examine

facts so as to establish the truth. Investigative reporting is like drilling oil.
The reporter only has a clue about the possibility of an event becoming worth
consequence.
In investigative reporting, reporter only has a hint about a particular happening
which has all the elements of becoming news but has no concrete information.
Therefore, the reporter, investigates the event and finally when she/he has
substantial proof and information about the event, she/he reveals the
information as news through the press before the general public. In
investigative reporting, a reporter only has a hint and not complete information
unlike interpretative reporting where the reporter is aware of the event
chronologically.
In investigative reporting, the reporter acts like a detective and unravels the
mystery behind the event. This is quite a challenging task and it is also
dangerous. The investigative reporter is daring and confident. With hard work
and determination, the reporter gives insight into an event.
Investigative reporting has come a long way since Watergate Scandal in the United
States in 1972. Few path breaking and jaw dropping examples of investigative reporting
are Bofors Scandal, Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Jessica Lal murder case, Bhagalpur Gas
Blinding and many cases on human trafficking and child labour.
Investigative reporting takes time – time for digging out the story, time for writing and
time for editing.
An investigative reporter must have a nose for news. Quality writing and editing will
take time because there is more information to organize and the story or stories will be
lengthy.
Lengthy investigative efforts, either single stories or a series, like any other story,
depend for their impact on the care with which they are written and edited. The task
facing the reporter, or a team ofreporters and editors, in organizations and writing is
once again to find an appropriate overall structure, choose an appropriate type of lead,
organize and write the various segments of the body of the story, and bring the story to a
close with an appropriate conclusion.
The investigative reporter is expected to dig deeply beyond the fact stated
in hard news. An investigative journalist sees himself as the conscience of
the society, pursuing corruption in high places without fear or favour.
In his book ‘Press and Law’ Justice A.N. Grover has quoted, investigative
reporting has three elements:
It has to be the won work of the reporter. Under no circumstances should it
be of others.
The subject of the reporting should be such that it is of importance for the
readers to know.
There must not be any attempt made to hide the truth from the people.
The investigative reporter must be a combination of a battler, super detective
and curious. He must have necessary finance and time to carry out his work. In
the pursuit of his quarry, the investigative reporter must draw a line between
candid reporting and much raking, mud-slinging, character assassination or
blackmailing.
He should base his report on half baked information and uncertain
introspections.
An investigative reporter must uphold the wellness of the public before
publishing a particular story.
An investigative reporter must avoid getting influenced by lobbies and lobbyists
which may hinder honest working and may also misguide the reporter.
It is also important for an investigative journalist to garner support from
the judiciary, the executive and the legislature. An investigative reporter
must possess confidence and presence of mind to handle difficult
situations. The most important quality of an investigative reporter is that
he must be a sea of patience because investigative stories may take time
to complete.