News is any information given to the public – posters, announcements, notices etc News is what is...

News is any information given to the public – posters, announcements, notices etc

News is what is important for people to know- like in the rainy season the timings of high tides

News is what interests/ affects people and has not been brought to its attention before

2Seema Narendran, Ramnarain Ruia College

News is about – politics, sex and crime

News is what protrudes / attaches itself to reality

News is what will make someone stop in their tracks and say “Oh my God, this has happened”


Stories which usually come on the first page of a newspaper

Stories which need to be published within the shortest span of time – preferably a day

Political stories, war , crime, economic stories were considered hard news


Hard news stories typically answer the five W’s and one H – what when, where, why, who and how

The basic function of a hard news story is just to inform

Hard news articles are written in such a way that a reader can stop reading after the introduction (intro) and still come away with the news

Seema Narendran, Ramnarain Ruia College 5

Stories which are covered on the inside pages

They can be withheld for a day or two

Most feature stories are soft news stories

Soft news stories try to go beyond the factual information, even entertain and advise the readers


But the differences between hard news and soft news stories are blurring

Is the story about politicians private life, politics or entertainment, investment stories are “business” or “lifestyle”

Soft news lends itself to “featurish” writings or even flowery language


The other difference between a hard and a soft news is the tone of presentation

Hard news articles convey news/evidence in a very factual way


Staff reporters, correspondents, news agencies (gives all categories of news, features and opinions) and syndicates (syndicates only gives comment and opinion of experts)

Syndicate goes to many papers, with byline

News agencies, no byline


Immediacy, Proximity, Prominence, Magnitude, Relevance, Human interest


Timeliness

Proximity

Relevance

Unusualness of news

Drama or conflict

Humour

Prominence of people involved11Seema Narendran, Ramnarain Ruia College

Proximity: information has proximity if it involves something happened somewhere nearby.

If a bus accident Nashville, US kills 25 people, the TOI will devote maybe two or three columns to the story.

But if a bus wreck in India kills 25 people, the TOI will devote a sizable chunk of its front page to the story.


Timeliness: information has timeliness if it happened recently."Recently" is defined by the publication cycle of the news medium in which the information will appear.› For "Newsweek," events that happened during

the previous week are timely.› For a daily newspaper, however, events that

happened during the 24 hours since the last edition of the paper are timely.

› For a broadcast channel events that happened during the past half hour are timely.


Currency: information has currency if it is related to some general topic a lot of people are already talking about.

A town in India being declared as ‘corruption –free” or ‘cent –percent literate’ or ‘free from violence against women’ by the government and any of these events occurring there


Weirdness: information has weirdness if it involves something unusual or strange.

Charles A. Dana, a famous editor, once said, "If a dog bites a man, that's not news. But if a man bites a dog, that's news!“

People are interested in out-of-the-ordinary things, like a man biting a dog, five- legged calf


Conflict: information has conflict if it involves some kind of disagreement between two or more prominent people

A disagreement between two political leaders will draw more attention than their saying good about each other


News which have an element of humour in them

Published keeping in mind the sensibilities of the readers on matters which are generally regarded as sensitive within the society as a whole.


Prominence: information has prominence if it involves a well-known person or organization.

If you or I trip and fall, no one will be all that interested, because you and I aren't well known.

But if the President of India trips and falls, everyone will be interested because the president is well known.


Impact: information has impact if it affects a lot of people.

A proposed income tax increase, for instance, has impact, because an income tax increase would affect a lot of people.

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.


Parts of a Newspaper

Byline: The name of the author of the article.

Cutline: A caption underneath a photograph explaining what it is about.

Dateline: A heading that tells where and when a story takes place.

Gutter: the space along the crease where the pages fold.


Headline: The title of article. Usually printed in bold letters.

Sidebar: A story that accompanies a main story, possibly detailing a background event or a related topic.

Layout: The organization of the pictures, ads, and articles.


Caption: A description of a photo

Pullquote: A quote pulled out of a story to attract more attention to an article

Sidebar: A column of additional information or resources about the article’s subject


Inverted triangle/ pyramid: A diagram shaped like an upside-down triangle that notes the content of a newspaper article, listing the most important items first.


Lead: The first few sentences of the story. These lines tell the 5 W's of the story.

Blurb A small amount of text, used beneath photographs in newspapers

Banner headline A headline spanning the width of a newspaper page


An accident occurred yesterday. It accident was a car accident. It happened in Andheri on Veera Desai road. One person was killed. The person was Mr. Anuj Gupta. He was 20 years old and lived in Andheri, at 212 Royal Court.


He was driving a blue Esteem. He was driving northwest at about 5 p.m. He was over speeding, eyewitness claim . He was the only one in the car. The car smashed into a utility pole along road. The impact severely damaged the front of the car. Anuj was thrown through the car's windshield. He landed on the pavement some 20 feet away. He wasn't wearing a seat belt and died on the spot.


An Andheri resident died Thursday afternoon when his over speeding car spun out of control and crashed into a utility pole

Andheri resident, Anuj Gupta died yesterday when his over speeding car dashed against a utility pole

Anuj Gupta, an Andheri resident was killed yesterday, when his over speeding car dashed against a utility pole.


Anuj Gupta, an Andheri resident died yesterday when his over speeding car spun out of control and crashed against a utility pole.


The next graf/ paragraph of the story should pick up on some element of the lead and elaborate on it.

The deceased 20-year-old, lost control of his Esteem/car around 5 p.m. while heading northwest on Veera Desai road at about 20 kmph over the speed limit, eyewitness accounts claim / police officials claim .


The next graf presents more details about the crash:

The impact of the collision was so strong that Mr. Gupta / Anuj was through the cars windshield and onto the pavement some 20 feet away

Anuj, who was not wearing his seat belt at the time of the crash, died instantly. The front of the car was completely damaged in the collision


The body has been taken to Bhagwati Hospital for post mortem.

Anuj Gupta was a final year BA student of XYX College


A feature takes an in-depth look at what’s going on behind the news.

It gets into the lives of people. It tries to explain why and how a trend

developed. Unlike news, a feature does not have to

be tied to a current event or a breaking story. But it can grow out of something that’s reported in the news.


Feature stories can read more like nonfiction short stories

They strive to inform, but they also can amuse, entertain, inspire or stimulate

Because of their emotional appeal, such stories are also known as “human interest” stories


Like regular news stories, features must be journalistically sound

Nothing can be made up

They must be factual, fair and balanced, based on verifiable information


It may be a profile of a person or a group -- an athlete, a performer, a politician, or a community worker or a team, a choir or a political organization. Or perhaps it’s an in-depth look at a social issue -- like violence in schools or eating disorders among young women. It could also be a story that gives the reader background on a topic that’s in the news -- like a story that explains how land mines work and the history of their use in war.

A feature story is usually longer than a news story


The newspaper reports on the front page that school enrollments are dropping in a particular community. The reason? Many people are being forced to leave the city and go back to their villages as they have lost their jobs, due to recession. Obviously, their children go with them

As a reporter you can go beyond the facts and figures in the news story by talking to one of the families who are leaving. How do they feel?


What made them decide to go? What will they miss about Mumbai? What are they expecting in their new community? How do the children feel about leaving their school and their friends?

Or you can look at the story from the point of view of the people who remain in the town. What’s it like to lose friends and family in an alien city? What about the local economy?


Think of the feature as the journalistic equivalent of an essay

Start with a premise or theme Present information and opinions that

back your point, Bring the reader to a conclusion. The feature often explores several

different points of views, even when the story is about one particular person.


The news story tells the audience what happened. The feature will tell them why and how it happened, how the people involved are reacting, and what impact the decision is having on other people.


Human Interest story Personality profile Trend story Seasonal stories


Leads are the introduction or the start of any story or feature

The lead must catch the spirit of the story

and create the proper tone: serious, sarcastic, ironic, flippant, melancholy.


Narrative - tells a story Descriptive - describes a scene, person

or subject Direct Quote - Must be very powerful

quote. Startling statement Contrast and Compare (then and now) Twist


Narrative - tells a story Arun Joshi’s friends have never seen

him cry. His father has seen him cry only once — the day last October when doctors told the 16-year-old football player that what he thought was a bad case of fIu was actually leukemia. .” He cried a bit then,” Mr. Joshi said. “But then he squared off and said, ‘Well, I’m not dead yet.’ I haven’t seen him cry since, although he’s told me that sometimes he cries at night when he’s all alone.


On Meena’s two-hour trip with her parents to town, she turned around and

noticed that in the back of the tonga all her bags were packed.

“All of the sudden, I realized I wasn’t going to town ,I was on my way to someplace else she said. “I started screaming, crying and tugging at my father’s sleeve trying to figure out what was happening.”


That’s when her ‘baba’ told his 17-year-old daughter that he had sold her. Her mother was silently sobbing into her sari.


When she weighed 125 kilos, 14-year-old Madhu spent a lot of time at home in front

of the television. She found it easier to be alone than to

invite the stares, and even the contempt, of her peers for being so overweight.

“One time I was with a group of kids, and I fell down and caved in some bushes,” she said. “Instead of helping me, they just laughed at me.”


It’s too disturbing to watch the big screen TV at his cousin’s house. Too soon. Too real. Instead, using his index fingers, Deepak Naik twiddles a Dove soap box, the one he used to scribble telephone numbers on when he was evacuating.

He flips the box around. There’s his girlfriend’s number. Backward. His best friend’s digits. Forward. His coach’s number.


This is Deepak’s cell phone now. His real one is lost, somewhere back in the coastal town of Nagapatanam in Tamil Nadu along with most of his clothes, his family’s house and life as he knew


“Don’t be mad. I took some pills,” Priya Kapur cried as she stooped over the toilet.

A few hours later, the 14-year-old died after a series of coronary arrests.


“Sharma sir!” Gynesh Sharma, the longtime North

zone athletic trainer, recognized Coach Satyan Ramsey’s voice over the noise of the spectators behind him. But he had never heard Ramsey’s voice like that.

Sharma ran to Ramsey who was crouched over the North zone athlete Rahul Sharma pleading with the athlete. “Hang in there.” “Don’t leave us.” “Everything’s going to be all right.”


She never knew she had it. It never happened in families like theirs! But when her husband died she had to confront the truth


Alpa hates school. It’s not that she’s dumb. It isn’t that she doesn’t fit in socially. In fact, it isn’t that anything is particularly wrong. It’s more of a matter of nothing being particularly right.


A group of nurses stand around the nursery, holding incubator babies. It’s “loving time.” Another young girl steps in with her mother and picks up a baby, too. She is not in a uniform, but in a

hospital gown, for the baby she holds is her own — and it’s her “loving time.”

It’s also time to say good-bye.


“I sat in that rocker and held him and rocked him and I cried and cried and cried,” Ambar, says. “I wanted that moment to last forever so I could always hold him and always be there for him.”

“But I knew I couldn’t. That’s what hurt.”


After tension-filled hours of last-minute primping, the time had come for the

contestants to walk into the arena and strut their stuff in front of the three judges and an appreciative crowd.

Some walked briskly with an air of confidence. Others, distracted by the lights and cameras, shuffled along slowly. A few, overcome by the pressure, foamed at the mouth and mooed.


With India engaged in a perpetual war- like situation with Pakistan many Indian army men have lost their lives.

Mumbai lost one of its own last month when Rajat Singh was killed in crossfiring


When Sushma Singh didn’t hear from her son, Rajat , for a week she knew something was wrong. Maybe it was mother’s intuition, but she knew.

And when she saw two officers walking towardher door, her worst fear was confirmed.

“The officers said they were sorry to deliver the news, but Rajat died with honor,” she said.


“Dying with honor? How does that help? My heart was breaking. My boy was gone.”


News or editorials leads Stating the obvious. Using cliches. “Imagine this…” leads


Every day, millions of people wake up, go to work or go to school. But some days, they don’t.

Millions of teenagers have jobs. They work for many reasons: college, cars, just to have some spending money in their pocket


Imagine what it would be like to get shot in the face with a 57-automatic.

Dev Kumar doesn’t have to imagine. He got shot by his little brother by accident last month.


He heard the shot and then felt the pain, but only for a moment. Within seconds, Dev Singh blacked out and went into shock.

“I don’t remember much of the shooting,” he said. “I remember it felt like someone punched their fist right through my face, but then I went black.”


A nut graph is basically, a summary of what the story is going to be about. It’s the 5 Ws and H that hasn’t been answered in the lead.


He heard the shot and then felt the pain, but only for a moment. Within seconds, Dev Singh blacked out and went into shock.“I don’t remember much of the shooting,” he said. “I remember it felt like someone punched their fist right through my face, but then I went black.”

Last month, Dev’s five-year-old brother accidentally shot him in the face with his father’s loaded 57-magnum. Dev lost his right eye and part of his right ear in the accident but suffered no permanent


brain damage. “I was extremely lucky,” Dev said. “The doctor said the bullet missed my brain by an inch. I still have a long way to go with my reconstructive surgery, but I am just glad I am alive.”

After a strong lead and an informative nut graph…

Use the Transition/Quote formula


Transistion – Dev still needs four more surgeries, but none of them will help him regain his sight.

Quote - “I am glad that they are going to make me look more like my old self,” Dev said. “But I am upset about my eye. I wanted to be a pilot and now that dream is shattered.”

Transition - Dev says his little brother, Om, found the gun in his father’s dresser bureau on that summer day


Quote - “I think he was just curious,” Dev said. “I didn’t think the gun was loaded so I just told him to put it away. And then, bam, my life changed forever.”

Transition - Right after the gun went off, Om ran to the neighbor’s house to get help, Dev said.

Quote - “My little brother was scared, but he was also smart,” Dev said. “He knew I needed help and he knew Lucy, our neighbor, was home.


She came over and immediately called for an ambulance.”


A powerful quote Or Tie the ending back to the lead (Lead) “Don’t be mad. I took some

pills,” Priya Kapur cried as she stooped over the toilet.A few hours later, the 14-year-old died after a series of coronary arrests.

(Ending) Since the death of thier oldest daughter, the Kapurs have found themselves becoming more protective.


“I find myself watching for things,” Mrs. Kapur said. “I’m not sure for what. I’m

justwatching.”


A group of nurses stand around the nursery, holding incubator babies. It’s “loving time.” Another young girl steps in with her mother and picks up a baby, too. She is not in a uniform, but in a hospital gown, for the baby she holds is her own — and it’s her “loving time.” It’s also time to say good-bye. “I sat in that rocker and held him and rocked him and I cried and cried and cried,” Ambar, says. “I wanted that moment to last forever so I could always hold him and always be there for him.”

Narendran, Ramnarain Ruia College 72

“But I knew I couldn’t. That’s what hurt.”

(Ending) This was evident as she stated the one word that described the whole ordeal: “Pain,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks and falling onto her sweater. “True pain.”


A newspaper publishes its views on current events, both local and national on its editorial pages

Editorials are not news, but reasoned opinion based on facts

Editorials reflect the collective position of the newspaper’s editorial board


The object of editorials is to present points of view that will encourage readers to think and form their own ideas

An editorial writer expresses his or her opinion and includes facts to support his or her point of view

An editorial is used to provide perspective on the daily jumble of events


An editorial is not merely about dumping facts on the readers but presenting them in such a way that it makes an issue and its undercurrents understood to its readers

The editorial reaches a definite conclusion based on evidence and reasoning


Surveillance, Interpretation, Linkage, Transmission of values, Entertainment Development


The development of modern mass media has had a strong impact on cultural identity constructions and nation-building in general.

A free press is as an indispensible prerequisite for democracy

Media have come to play an increasingly significant part in the transmission of culture.


News is any information given to the public – posters, announcements, notices etc News is what is...

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