The Nature of News

Convergence in Journalism to use the different strengths of different media to reach broader audiences and tell the stories in new ways

EX: print journalist summarizing stories into TV camera or live tweeting as the event happens

Crowd Sourcing: Readers/viewers are invited to submit own stories, photos, and videos, or even their expertise

 

WHAT NEWS IS

News is: relevant, useful, and interesting.

News is a report of a current event. It is information about something that has just happened or will happen soon. News is a report about recent happenings in a newspaper, television, radio or internet. News is something that is not known earlier. From all these, we can safely define news as a development that has happened in the past 24 hours which was not known outside and which is of wide interest to the people and that which generates curiosity among listeners.

Elements of a Good News Story

Impact: how many people are affected; how does it affect them Larger the impact, better the story

Conflict: struggles between people, among nations, or natural forces

Novelty: are they unusual/bizarre?

Prominence: big names make news

Proximity: people more interested in what happens close to home

Timeliness: news now needs to be instantaneous

Engagement: news is usually the beginning of a conversation

Solutions: no solutions are often offered in the tone can make people cynical about certain things

 

HOW DIFFERENT MEDIA PRESENT THE NEWS

·         News can be of crime, politics, world affairs, but also humor and gossip

·         News is more than telling telling a story

·         Papers/Magazines are best about explaining the impact of an issue (ppl remember it)

·         Television is best at speed and emotional power

·         Online journalism brings together the immediacy and comprehension

THE RISE OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM

·         Citizen Journalist - People not employed by traditional news organizations and often not professionally trained

o   Use technology social media to report and comment on news

·         Legacy media – traditional media outlets, such as newspapers, magazines, broadcast TV

THE ROLE OF JOURNALISM

First Amendment protects freedom of speech, press, religion, petition, and assembly

CHALLENGES TO JOURNALISM

·         People who make the news threaten the freedoms we have

o   How much freedom is compatible with safety?

·         People question scepticism about reporting

o   People see bias, inaccuracies, hurt to democracy

PRINCIPLES OF GOOD JOURNALISM

Tell the truth, first loyalty is the citizens, essence is a discipline of verification, practitioners must remain independent from those they cover, must serve as an independent monitor of power, must provide forum for public criticism, strive to be interesting and relevant, news must be comprehensive and proportional, practitioners must be allowed to exercise their conscience, citizens have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news

Journalist’s Responsibilities in a Democracy

·         Report the news: variety of topics in a variety of forms

·         Monitor power: in the government and in private businesses (even when things are done legitimately)

·         Uncover injustice

·         Tell compelling stories: may delight or dismay audiences

·         Sustain communities

·         Curate info: collect, sort, and verify information

ACCURACY AND FAIRNESS

·         Accuracy is the most important thing

·         Being fair requires you to ask yourself if you have done enough to uncover all the relevant facts and have delivered those facts in an impartial manner, without favouring a side

o   Must find every viewpoint on a story

DEALING BIAS

·         Journalists ARE biased towards conflict

o   War is better story than peace, celebrity is better than average

·         Journalism typically thought of liberal bias

o   At a deeper level, American journalism is strongly conservative question capitalism or system)

THE ISSUES OF OBJECTIVITY

Must be neutral and balanced, and not necessarily the openness that the world needs

WHAT IS NOT NEWS

Commentary is not news.

News Writing for Television and Radio

தொலைக்காட்சி வானொலி களுக்கு செய்தி எழுதும் கலை

This article retrived from University of Florida official site

Telg, Ricky W & Lundy, Lisa. (2014). "News Writing for Television and Radio" Agricultural Education and Communication, https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/WC193

Introduction

Creating a television or radio story is more than hitting “record” on a video camera or audio recorder. You have to learn the process of writing an effective television and radio news story first. The term broadcast writing will be used interchangeably for television and radio news writing throughout this publication.

Writing for the Eye and Ear

Writing for radio and television is different from writing for print for several reasons. First, you have less space and time to present news information. Therefore, you must prioritize and summarize the information carefully. Second, your listeners cannot reread sentences they did not understand the first time; they have to understand the information in a broadcast story as they hear it or see it. As a result, you have to keep your writing simple and clear. And third, you are writing for “the ear.” In print news stories, you are writing for “the eye”; the story must read well to your eye. The television or radio news story has the added complexity that it has to sound good; when a listener hears the story it has to read well to “the ear.” Also, for a radio news story, listeners cannot see video of what you are saying, so you must paint word pictures with the words you use in your radio news story so people can “see” images just through your verbal descriptions. In today’s media landscape, many stories are shared in video, audio, and text-based formats. It’s important to consider the various ways audiences will be taking in the information you are sharing.

As with any type of news writing, you should try to identify characteristics of your audience so you know what type of information your audience wants. Use the criteria of newsworthiness presented in News Media Writing in this publication series to help you determine if your television or radio news story idea has news value. Television and radio news stories must have these attributes:

• The writing style should be conversational. Write the way you talk.
• Each sentence should be brief and contain only one idea. We do not always talk in long sentences. Shorter sentences are better in broadcast news writing. Each sentence should focus on one particular idea.
• Be simple and direct. If you give your audience too much information, your audience cannot take it in. Choose words that are familiar to everyone.
• Read the story out loud. The most important attribute for writing for “the ear” is to read the story aloud. This will give you a feeling for timing, transitions, information flow, and conversation style. Your audience will hear your television or radio news story, so the story has to be appealing to the ear.

Television and Radio News Writing Structure

• Be brief. A good newspaper story ranges from hundreds to thousands of words. The same story on television or radio may have to fit into 30 seconds—perhaps no more than 100 words. If it is an important story, it may be 90 seconds or two minutes. You have to condense a lot of information into the most important points for broadcast writing.
• Use correct grammar. A broadcast news script with grammatical errors will embarrass the person reading it aloud if the person stumbles over mistakes.
• Put the important information first. Writing a broadcast news story is similar to writing a news story for print in that you have to include the important information first. The only difference is that you have to condense the information presented.
• Write good leads. Begin the story with clear, precise information. Because broadcast stories have to fit into 30, 60, or 90 seconds, broadcast stories are sometimes little more than the equivalent of newspaper headlines and the lead paragraph.
• Stick to short sentences of 20 words or less. The announcer has to breathe. Long sentences make it difficult for the person voicing the script to take a breath.
• Write the way people talk. Sentence fragments—as long as they make sense—are acceptable.
• Use contractions. Use don’t instead of do not. But be careful of contractions ending in -ve (e.g., would’ve, could’ve), because they sound like “would of” and “could of.”
• Use simple subject-verb-object sentence structures.
• Use the active voice and active verbs. It is better to say “He hit the ball” than “The ball was hit by him.”
• Use present-tense verbs, except when past-tense verbs are necessary. Present tense expresses the sense of immediacy. Use past tense when something happened long ago. For example, do not say, “There were forty people taken to the hospital following a train derailment that occurred early this morning.” Instead, say, “Forty people are in the hospital as a result of an early morning train accident.”
• For radio news stories, write with visual imagery. Make your listeners “see” what you are saying. Help them visualize the situation you are describing. Some radio news scripts even include suggestions for environmental noise to help set the scene for the listener.

Television and Radio News Writing Techniques

• Use a person’s complete name (first and last name) in the first reference, then the person’s last name thereafter.
• Use phonetic spellings for unfamiliar words and words that are difficult to pronounce.
• Omit obscure names and places if they are not meaningful to the story.
• Titles precede names; therefore, avoid appositives. Do not write, “Tom Smith, mayor of Smallville, said today….” Instead, write, “Smallville mayor Tom Smith said today….” (Other examples: “City councilman Richard Smith,” not “Richard Smith, city councilman.” “Anyville High School student Beth Baker,” not “Beth Baker, Anyville High School student.”)
• In age reference, precede the name with the age. (Example: “The victim, 21-year-old Rob Roy…”)
• Avoid writing direct quotations into a news script, if at all possible. Instead, let people say things in their own words during soundbites. A soundbite is the exact words spoken by someone in his or her own recorded voice. If you must use a direct quote, set it off with such phrases as "In the words of..." or "As he put it...," or try to paraphrase as much as possible. Avoid saying "quote" and "unquote” to lead into or end a direct quote.
• The attribution should come before a quotation, not after it. In contrast to writing for print media, the attribution of paraphrased quotations in broadcast stories should be at the beginning of the sentence, before the paraphrase. The listener should know where the quotation is coming from before hearing the quote. Example: “Bill Brown said he would run for re-election.”
• Avoid most all abbreviations, even on second reference, unless it is a well-known abbreviation. This is different from the Associated Press Style rules for print stories. Write out days, months, states, and military titles each time. About the only acceptable abbreviations are Mr., Mrs., and Dr. Punctuate, by using a hyphen in between, commonly used abbreviations. For example, write “U-S,” instead of “US” (United States), and “U-N” for “UN” (United Nations).
• Avoid symbols when you write. For example, the dollar sign ($) should never be used in broadcast writing. Always spell out the word “dollar.” This is different from the Associated Press Style for “dollar” when used in a print news story. This helps the story be more readable for the person delivering the information.
• Use correct punctuation. Do not use semicolons. Use double dash marks for longer pauses than commas. Use underlines for emphasis.
• Use numbers correctly. Spell out numerals through 11. (This is different from Associated Press Style for print stories, which spells out one through nine, and starts using numerals for 10 and above.) Use numerals for 12 through 999. Use hyphenated combinations for numerals and words above 999. (Examples: 33-thousand; 214-million.) Round off numbers unless the exact number is significant. (Example: Use “a little more than 34 million dollars,” not “34-million, 200-thousand, 22 dollars.”) Use st, nd, th, and rd after dates, addresses, and numbers above “eleventh” to be read as ordinary numbers. (Examples: "Second Street," "May 14th,” “Eleventh Avenue,” “12th Division”—this is different from AP Style for print.)

Television and Radio News Story Format

• Broadcast news stories are typed, double-spaced, and in uppercase/lowercase. Many years ago, television news scripts were written in all uppercase, but that practice has changed in recent years.
• Make the sentence at the bottom of a page a complete sentence. Do not split a sentence between pages.
• Never split words or hyphenated phrases from one line to the next.
• Do not use copyediting symbols. Cross out the entire word and write the corrected word above it. This is one reason why broadcast news scripts are double-spaced: so you will have room to make corrections between the lines.

Narrating Television and Radio News Stories

Follow these recommendations when you narrate (also referred to as “voicing”) television and radio news scripts:

• Position the microphone properly. Position the microphone 6 to 10 inches from your mouth and at a 45-degree angle to the direct line of speech. This will help prevent “blasting” with explosive letters such as “P” and “B.” Always maintain the same distance from the microphone as you speak.
• Remove noise-making distractions. Remove all paper clips, pens, and other items that you would be tempted to play with as you read the story. Any rustling of paper clips or pen clicking can be picked up by the microphone.
• Narrate the news story. After you hit the “record” button on the video camera or audio recorder, wait approximately 10 seconds before speaking. This prevents you from accidentally losing some of the narration if you hit “record” and start narrating the script immediately. It is a good idea to use a standard reference opening, such as the day, place, and subject’s name. You may want to use a countdown: “Honeybee story, coming in three, two, one,” and then start the story. This also helps your voice stabilize as you start. The standard reference opening and countdown will be edited out of the final story.
• Articulate words correctly. Speak clearly. Do not run your words together. Practice proper articulation, the distinct pronunciation of words. The following words are often improperly articulated: “prob-ly” for “prob-ab-ly,” “git” for “get,” and “jist” for “just.” Also, do not drop the final “g” in “-ing” words, such as cooking, running, and hunting.
• Think the thought. Think about what you are going to say. If something has a positive idea, put a smile in your voice by putting a smile on your face. This helps to project the personality of the story.
• Think the thought through to the end. Keep half an eye on the end of the sentence while you are reading the first part. Know how the sentence will come out before you start. This will help you interpret the meaning of the phrases of the entire idea.
• Talk at a natural speed. But change the rate occasionally to avoid sounding monotonous. The speed that you talk is your speaking rate. Vary the pitch and volume of your voice to get variety, emphasis, and attention. Pitch is the high and low sounds of your voice. You will sound more assertive if you lower your pitch and inflect downward; however, avoid dropping your pitch when it sounds unnatural to do so.
• Breathe properly. Control your breathing to take breaths between units of thought. Otherwise, you will sound choppy. Sit up straight or stand while narrating. This helps your breathing.
• Use your body. A relaxed body helps produce a relaxed-sounding voice. Do a few exercises before going on the air. A little activity reduces tension.
• Listen to the final product. Listen to how it sounds. Listen to what you said as if you were an audience member.
• Time the story. At the end, be sure you time the story. If the story is going on the air of a radio or television station, the story’s timing is important, and, in many cases, needs to be exact. Practice writing and narrating news stories to determine what your normal reading time is.
• Practice your narration skills. Never give up practicing speech and delivery techniques. Read aloud something at least twice a week for practice.

Further Readings

The Associated Press. (2022). The Associated Press stylebook and briefing on media law (55th ed.). New York: The Associated Press.

Burnett, C., & Tucker, T. (2001). Writing for agriculture: A new approach using tested ideas (2nd ed.). Dubuque, IA.: Kendall/Hunt.

Oliu, W. E., Brusaw, C. T., & Alred, G. J. (2007). Writing that works: Communicating effectively on the job (9th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Telg, R. & Irani, T.A. (2012). Agricultural communications in action: A hands-on approach. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar.

World Photography Day

August 19 of every year is celebrated as World Photography Day across the world, dedicated to the art, craft, science and history of photography.

Photography is a very important medium of storytelling. It conveys emotions instantly and sometimes more effectively than words. With the rapid advancements in camera technology, it has become one of the primary modes of communication in the digital world.

History

The day traces its origins to 1837 when the first-ever photographic process, the ‘Daguerreotype’ was developed by the Frenchmen Louis Daguerre and Joseph Nicephore Niepce. On January 9, 1839, the French Academy of Sciences announced this process, and later in the same year, the French government purchased the patent for the invention and gave it as a gift, "free to the world.”

Henri Cartier-Bresson

French photographer (1908 – 2004)

It’s an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart and head.

To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.

Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.

Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.

In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.

The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.

Robert Capa

Hungarian-American photographer (1913 – 1954)

If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough.

I hope to stay unemployed as a war photographer till the end of my life.

For a war correspondent to miss an invasion is like refusing a date with Lana Turner.

Ansel Adams

American photographer (1902 - 1984)

You don't take a photograph, you make it.

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.

A good photograph is knowing where to stand.

There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.

A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.

Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment.

Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.

A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into.

Susan Sontag

American writer / Photographer (1933-2004)

“To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.”

“Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality...One can't possess reality, one can possess images--one can't possess the present but one can possess the past.”

“The painter constructs, the photographer discloses.”

“The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world 'picturesque.”

“To suffer is one thing; another thing is living with the photographed images of suffering, which does not necessarily strengthen conscience and the ability to be compassionate. It can also corrupt them. Once one has seen such images, one has started down the road of seeing more - and more. Images transfix. Images anesthetize.”

“A photograph is both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence. Like a wood fire in a room, photographs—especially those of people, of distant landscapes and faraway cities, of the vanished past—are incitements to reverie. The sense of the unattainable that can be evoked by photographs feeds directly into the erotic

feelings of those for whom desirability is enhanced by distance.”

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In 2020, the World Photography Day theme was 'Pandemic Lockdown through the lens'. In 2019, World Photography Day theme was 'Dedicated to History'. 'Be Nice' and 'Understanding Clouds' were the themes of World Photography Day in 2017 and 2018, respectively.