UNIT - 5 : NEWS

UNIT STRUCTURE

5.1 Learning Objectives

5.2 Introduction
5.3 Concept of News
5.3.1 Definition
5.3.2 News Values
5.4 Types of News
5.5 Sources of News
5.6 News Writing
5.7 Objectivity and Authenticity
5.8 Let us sum up
5.9 Further Readings
5.10 Answers to check your progress
5.11 Possible questions

1.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit you will be able to:

 define news
 analyze different news values
 classify the different types of news
 name the different sources of news
 discuss about writing of news
 explain Objectivity and Authenticity of news

1.2 INTRODUCTION

With the boom of the news media viz. newspapers, news channels and
news portals, news has become an important part of our daily lives. The
term news must be familiar to all of you. But as a student of Mass
Communication, your understanding of the term ‘News’ has to be deeper
and more comprehensive than what the common man understands by this
Journalism 7
 NEWS

term.

In this unit you will learn about news not just from the point of view of a
layman, but from the point of view of a journalist. Here we will introduce you
to the concepts of news, the different types of news, qualities of news,
sources of news etc.

We hope, after going through this unit, you will be able to have the basic
concepts of news clear to your mind. So let us concentrate on the sections
given below.

1.3 CONCEPT OF NEWS

“News” is probably one of the most commonly used terminologies in our

day to day lives. All of us invariably use this term quite often while talking to
our friends, families, relatives and other people, without perhaps, knowing
what actually constitute news. Innumerable activities and events are
happening simultaneously round the clock across the world. But have you
ever thought why the news bulletin of the day carries only a handful of the
events or activities that have taken place during the day, which we call as
news? Have you ever tried to understand why out of the hundreds only a
few items find a place in the newspaper that you read everyday and you
invariably call them news? What about the rest of the happenings that fail to
make it to the news media?

In a country of billions like India, why your television channel is obsessed

with only a few faces, probably a few politicians, a few film stars, models,
scientists, bureaucrats, etc. Why only a few people and events get reported,
and not the rest? Why don’t the media inform us about every little detail of
whatever is happening at any place in the world and at any point of time as
part of its responsibilities?

Well, in journalistic parlance the word “news” has certain connotations. All
events, incidents, activities or happenings around the world can not qualify
as news. In order to call something news there has to be certain elements
present in that event or activity or incident. Therefore, let us first understand
8 Journalism
NEWS

what can be called news.

1.3.1. Definition of news

It has been impossible to formulate one common and all

encompassing definition of news which is universally acceptable. This
is because the meaning and scope of news has been changing with
the passage of time and also differs according to the political structure
of the state.

Perhaps, the simplest way to define news is that, news is all that is
happening around us in the different directions, north-east-west-south,
and together all these make news. However, if one is to believe this
statement then he or she will have to maintain that every incident
happening in our society, no matter how big or small or whether
emanating from a renowned person or common men, must be
considered as news. Yet, when we see the different news media, we
can probably question the validity of this statement. Therefore, we
need to reconsider this statement and modify it by saying that -

News is something new, something relevant and important, something

immediate or something unusual happening in our world that concern
us or our society in some way or the other.

Now does this explain all the doubts creeping in your minds? There
News Story:
should be something fresh or new about the event like a discovery, an
News report or
invention, an innovation, a new project taken by the government for
material which goes
the uplift of people, an impending danger, a natural disaster, an
into the newspaper.
accident, a crime taking place in the society and so on and so forth.
Not to be confused
They always make good news stories. A new fashion in vogue,
with tale or novel or
announcement of new products in the market, a change in habit or in
fiction.
taste of people of the society, etc are also news as they signify changing
trends, eventually making them relevant for larger segments of the
society.

Journalism 9
 NEWS

In fact, everything can be called ‘news’ provided it holds immense

value for or affects the lives of larger masses. An unusual event like
the records of the Guinness Book may also qualify for news. The
actions and activities of members of Parliament or Legislative
Assemblies is also of concern to people as they are people’s
representatives conferred with the power to rule and guide the masses.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines news as ‘the report or account

of recent events or occurrences, brought or coming to one as new
information, new occurrences as a subject of report or talk.

Therefore, having discussed all these we can draw a conclusion by

defining news as information about an event that happens in the society,
which affects the lives of the people or has the tendency to affect the
lives of the people, directly or indirectly, or has immediate value for
larger segments of the society.

However, what we have discussed so far are only some of the

characteristics of news. Apart from these, there are some other
qualities as well, by which we can identify news. In journalistic parlance
these qualities are called News Values.

LET US KNOW

Some Interesting Definitions and Quotes

 ‘NEWS is what interests a good newspaperman.’
- Geraid Johnson, The Sun, Baltimore
 ‘W hen a dog bites a man it is not news, when a
man bites a dog it is news.’ - John Bogart
 ‘News is something someone somewhere wants suppressed.
All the rest is advertising.’ - William Randolph
 ‘For most times no news is good news, for the press, good news is
not news.’
10 Journalism
NEWS

ACTIVITY- A

1) Think of 10 major news items that were covered by the media in the
past two days and identify which news value or values are found in
each of these news items. Note down which news value was found
in the maximum no of news items.
2) Open today’s newspaper and go through the news items on the first
page- Identify the news items having the following news values. Name
the news value which is common to all the news items on the first
page.
1) Timeliness 4) Importance
2) Conflict 5) Impact
3) Prominence

1.3.2. News values

News values are the characteristics of news. As mentioned earlier

they are the qualities by which events qualify as news. And it is expected News Desk:

that all journalists regardless of whether they are involved in on-the- Desk where news

field reporting or placed at the news desk, have a clear idea about all is edited and

the values that constitute news. Therefore, let us now try to understand processed. Also

the characteristics of news one by one. known as Copy

Desk. In

Timeliness Journalism, Copy

News essentially has to be new, recent, on time. Old news is stale means the material

news and, therefore, of no value. Timeliness, however, is defined by written by a

the publication cycle of the news medium in which the information will journalist or news

appear. supplied by a news

 For a weekly news magazine, events that happened during the agency or

previous week are timely. correspondent.

 For a daily newspaper, however, events that happened during

the 24 hours since the last edition of the paper are timely.
Journalism 11
 NEWS

 For the broadcast media, events that happened during the past
few hours upto the last half hour are timely.
A timely presentation of events and happenings is a consideration
that every newsman strives to achieve. Otherwise news loses its
credibility and essence. Readers do not find it interesting to read stale
news. Therefore, it is said that news is the most perishable commodity
in the world. And that is the reason why the happenings of the day,
including the major events taking place in the evening and late at night,
will find a definite place in the morning newspaper.

This concern for immediacy has become more prominent in today’s

era of evolving technology. The television has reduced this time gap
to an unbelievable ‘news as it is happening now’ situation. And the
viewers are boggled by watching the seamless unfolding of events
taking place at far flung places of the world the moment they break on
their television screen. The online newspapers also keep on updating
information or the content of the paper as and when events break out
and simultaneously more and more information keeps on pouring in
throughout the day adding more highlights and insights into a single
event. Now-a-days news updates can be received through sms also.

Importance
Significant events that hold importance for the masses must be
considered as news. Any important event like the presentation of railway
or fiscal budget at the Parliament or in the State Assemblies,
announcement of any kind of development project by the government,
visits of Foreign ministers to our country or vice versa, a military threat
by the neighboring countries, crime related stories etc. are all important
events, information about which needs to be delivered immediately to
the people.

Conflict
Conflicts are parts of every society. When a society comprises multiple
ideologies, multiple organs, innumerable ethnic communities, multiple
languages, geographical terrains etc. then conflicts are bound to
happen. The entire North east region, including Assam, is a testimony
12 Journalism
NEWS

to conflicts of different nature and magnitude plugging at different points

of time fueled by innumerable reasons. Nuclear war, terrorist activities,
communal clashes, political turmoil, struggles for identities have
become cause of concern for every society the world over and there
have been excessive reporting about such incidents in every news
media. Reports about such happenings are widely covered by local
as well as national media because they are news worthy and arouse
heightened emotions among masses. One, however, needs to exercise
a lot of caution and restrain while reporting conflict as these issues
are very sensitive. Media reports portraying the incident in an improper
way can flare up the situation and cause further damage. At times the
media also has to hold back from revealing certain information in order
to help maintain peace.

Proximity
Similar to relevance the local news is always interesting for the
masses, irrespective of where they stay. When a local event is featured
in the newspapers or electronic media news bulletins, the readers
find it engrossing because local events affect their immediate life and
surroundings – weather, events, traffic, communication, market, health
facility etc. It is a general tendency of people to remain abreast with
what is happening in their locality, in their local markets, in their
neighborhood and with the local people. That is the reason why all the
newspapers devote a considerable amount of space for regional
affairs. Also, to capitalize on the readership base, there has been a
tendency of all the big national newspapers, in the past couple of years,
to have local editions in probably every state of the country to cater to
the needs and interests of the people of that particular state. Proximity,
however, means more than a simple measure of distance.
Psychological proximity is also important. So, if, say, an Indian is
awarded or gains recognition in a foreign country, it makes important
news for us.

Prominence
Prominent persons, prominent events and prominent places always
make news. You must have always been wondering as to why you
Journalism 13
 NEWS

always see the same faces — same politicians, same celebrities or

the same places making inroads into the newspaper space and bulletin
time. Popular politicians, popular film stars, sports persons,
celebrities, socialites—they always make news. This is because the
readers or the viewers adore them and want to know more about
them, about their life styles, their likes and dislikes. They are the role
models for many and hence, when their activities are covered by the
media it is bound to draw the attention. Political bigwigs like the
President, the Prime Minister, the Leaders of different political parties,
spiritual gurus, sports persons, film stars, business barons etc, are
always in the news.

Sometime, even prominent places make news. Like the metros of

India-Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and other major cities of India
and abroad, make news. The events happening in these places are
matters of concern for many and, hence, they raise curiosity.
Prominent events like International Trade Fairs, Expos, Fashion shows,
film festivals, international summits and conferences etc also make
news.

Impact or consequence
The kind of impact an event is going to have on the minds of the people
is also another characteristic of news. An event that causes or is
capable of causing a great sequence of events affecting many persons
is obviously newsworthy. Massive disasters, earthquake, floods,
natural calamities, political debacles, economic turmoil, major
accidents, crashes, inflation, hike of fuel prices, political party coming
to or moving out of power, union budget, reservation or any shift in
policy etc are all able to create greater impact on the lives of the common
people. Similarly, consequence may measure disaster or progress. A
fire that destroys a private dwelling is of small consequence in
comparison to tsunami which killed thousands of lives in the coastal
regions of India recently. When news about such incidents appear in

14 Journalism
NEWS

the newspaper pages people become emotionally aroused and such

incidents affects the lives of the people in more ways than one.
Progress
Information relating to a country’s development and prosperity always
makes news. Every society has problems and issues that need to be
highlighted by the media. Such information is always newsworthy.
Therefore, success stories of individual or the society, victories and
progress- they all make news.

Disaster
Any kind of disaster makes news. Disasters like earthquakes, flood,
fire, erosions, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, etc. make news as such
occurrences affect the lives of the majority. When such incidents occur
they take away human lives, damages property and break the
ecological balance. Such incidents stir the emotions of the larger
segments of the society.

Human Interest:
These are stories that arouse some emotions in the audience - stories
that are ironic, bizarre, uplifting or dramatic. For example, when a
person saves another’s life risking his own, it becomes news worthy
or when a person achieves something big despite being a handicap it
makes news.

Novelty
Stories that are unique, something that is new or unusual make news.
For instance, when a couple got married underwater, it created news.
Similarly Guinness world record events make news.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS- A

1) Define ‘news’.
__________________________________________________________

Journalism 15
 NEWS

__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
2) What do you mean by news values? Name some important news
values.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
3) Which of the following events have no news value for the media-
i) Indian Prime Minister visits China
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
ii) Foreign tourists visit India
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
iii) Price of commodities increase in Assam
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
iv) India wins football match against Pakistan
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
v) Your elder sister gives birth to a child
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
vi) Aishwarya Rai gives birth to a child
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
vii) You go to watch a football match
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
viii) Boy dies in Juvenile home
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
ix) Prime Minister goes to watch cricket match
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
x) HSLC examination begins
16 Journalism
NEWS

__________________________________________________________

1.4 Types of News

Having discussed about the characteristics of news let us now understand

the different types of news found in news media. News is basically of two
types-Hard News and Soft News.

1. Hard News: Hard news is a news item which states plain, simple facts
as it has happened. It usually answers the basic questions of 5W’s
and H
 Who
 What
 When
 Where
 Why
 How

Normally, a standard technique is followed while writing hard news. In

case of print media, the inverted pyramid style is followed, i.e., the most
important information is placed towards the beginning of the story and
the less important ones are placed thereafter. In the broadcast media,
the less important information are simply left out. The hard news writing
style is usually followed while writing news about important public events,
government actions, international events, economic and social affairs,
crime, science and technology, environment etc.

If a fire breaks out in any part of Guwahati causing considerable damage

to the property of the dwellers, including human lives, the information
about this unprecedented devastation needs to be given immediately.
Who, what, when, where, why, how?

Similarly when a bomb blast takes place, the news about it would be
immediately flashed in the news media in the form of hard news stating
straight facts like where it happened, casualty, action taken etc. .

In today’s parlance Hard news are also called spot news or breaking

Journalism 17
 NEWS

news, because the news organizations break out the news as soon as
it happens, without delaying.
2. Soft News: Soft news includes a wide variety of news items.
Feature: A story
Features, editorials, articles, etc fall under this category. Reactions
with news value,
and views are included in soft news apart from the plain facts. Stories
but not hard core
that deal with human interest angles can rightly be termed as soft
news. It gives new
news. Soft news mostly emanates from the hard news. Normally the
dimension to
follow up stories of a major event, highlighting the angles not covered
news, examines
in the hard news items, mostly the human interest angle are such
and dissects news
type of news.
giving opinions and
comments The idea of such news stories is to arouse curiosity among the readers
or viewers and heighten emotional appeal by presenting it in an
interesting manner. Therefore the conventional news writing formula
is not applied while dealing with soft news stories. The writer has the
Follow up stories:
liberty to be extremely innovative and create an item that would attract
A sequence of
as many readers as possible and at the same time create an impact
news events that
in the minds of the people.
follows after a
news break. Also
Let us take the example of a plane crash, say, in India. The media
known as Folo.
would definitely cover the event with due emphasis on the number of
deaths, time, place and a narration of how the crash may have taken
place and, if possible, also highlighting the cause of the crash. All this
information will be immediately covered in the form of hard news.
However, as the days progress, a newer set of information may surface
and reach the hands of a reporter working on the story. After
investigating on the incident the reporter may find out there was a
child of, say 3 years, who was traveling with his parents, and the child
has survived the crash and could escape with minor injuries. Such
news will be covered as Soft news.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS- B

1) What is the difference between hard news and soft news?

Answer in about 50 words.

18 Journalism
NEWS

____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
2) What are the other terms by which hard news is also known?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
3) What are the 5Ws and H.
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________

ACTIVITY- B

1) Read todays newspaper and identify:

i) Five hard news items.
ii) Five soft news items.

1.5 Sources of news

Source in journalistic parlance means the contacts or the people from whom
the reporter receives valuable information for news. It is impossible for a
reporter to keep track of every activity or happening in and around him and
also collect the information for reporting in the media. In such a situation the
reporter has to rely on people outside the periphery of the media organization
he/she is working for to retrieve information. These people supply information
and facts about events to the reporter, which is otherwise impossible for the
reporter to dig out. Normally the reporters have reliable people at different
places like the government or other offices, hospitals, municipal body offices,
state secretariats, assemblies, Deputy Commissioner’s office, police
headquarters, educational institutes and so on and so forth. The sources
may range from politicians, government officials, Public Relations Officers,
police personnel to even the peons or other junior employees of different
organizations.

Journalism 19
 NEWS

The sources can be of different types – primary or secondary, official or

unofficial. When the news organisation’s own set of reporters or
correspondents collect the news from the sources or go to the spot and
cover the event, then the news can be said to have come from primary
sources. On the other hand, news coming in from news agencies can be
said to be coming from secondary sources. Sometimes broadcast media
use newspaper reports also as sources of information to supplement their
own information or the print media may supplement their information about
an event with what has been shown in the broadcast media. In such cases
the print media becomes a secondary source of information for the broadcast
media and vice-versa.

When the media receives information directly from the organization in the
Grapevine: form of official briefing, press release, press note, press communiqué’,
The informal handout etc, then we say that the news has come from official sources.
transmission of (You will learn about all these terms in detail in your course on Public
information, Relations). On the other hand, if the news is received from the grapevine,
gossip, or rumor and is not confirmed by any official source and the source cannot be disclosed
from person to then the source is said to be unofficial.
person
Sources are not built in a day or two. It takes time to develop sources, bring
them to your confidence and elicit correct response in the time of need.
With experience and time these sources are built. And with time the network
of sources also widens. It is said that a reporter is known by the volume of
sources he keeps. Sources are considered to be the reporter’s prized
possessions. Therefore it becomes extremely important for the reporter to
maintain a good vive and rapport with the network of sources he or she has.

However, it is important to mention here that the reporter should be careful

while building contacts. In the pursuit of developing a strong chain of sources
the reporter should not forget that the sources should be reliable ones. They
should be able to provide you authentic information. There should not be
any malice or personal bias acting behind the sources willingness of the
sources to share information with the reporter.

Another important aspect is that the sources are for keeps, not for destroying
20 Journalism
NEWS

after he or she has given a piece of information to the reporter. So the reporter
should be able to keep them in good faith and shoulder their responsibilities
in the truest possible manner. This, in turn would take the reporter a long
way in future.

How To Judge Source Credibility:

Previous Reliability: Past track record goes a long way to show if a source
is reliable or not. If he has been a good source earlier, he has good chance
of being a reliable source now.

Confirmability: If the information which has been passed on by the source

can be confirmed by other sources then the source can be said to be credible.

Proximity: The proximity of the source to the place of event determines the
credibility of the source to a certain extent. The more proximate he is to the
event, greater is his credibility as a source.

Motive: The credibility of a source can also be judged from his motive of
passing on the information. A source may pass on wrong information in
order to fulfill his own selfish motives. As such it is advisable to find out the
motive.

Contextuality: The credibility of the source also depends on the contextuality

of the information. If it fits into the context in which it has been said, then it is
credible or else the credibility of the source is questionable.

Believability: Believability of the information also determines the credibility

of the source. The information that the source passes on must be believable
and as such must seem possible to happen.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS- C

1) What is news source? Why is it important to have a good network

of reliable sources?
___________________________________________________________
Journalism 21
 NEWS

___________________________________________________________

2) What are the criteria by which one can judge source credibility?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

5.6 News Writing

News writing is a skill that every journalist is required to develop and hone
it with experience. There are certain techniques or parameters upon which
news writing is based. And every news organization follows these basic
techniques despite the fact they may all have individual styles of news
presentation. The very first step towards learning this technique is to learn
the structure of a news story or news report.

Structure of a News Story

In the most basic sense, a news report has the following elements:

 Headline
 Byline/ Credit line
 Dateline
 Lead
 Body
 Conclusion

The last element, i.e., conclusion is present in case of soft news stories
only. Hard news reports do not have conclusion.

Now consider the following two news reports. The different elements have
been marked with arrows for your benefit.

22 Journalism
NEWS

HEADLINE
BY LINE

DATE
LINE

LEAD

BODY

Journalism 23
 NEWS

HEADLINE
CREDIT
LINE

DATE
LINE

LEAD

BODY

In the above examples, all the elements of a news story have been identi-
fied for you. Let us now learn about these elements in detail and under-
stand the significance of each of them.

Headline: You all must be familiar with the term headline. It is that part of
a news story which first catches the eye of the reader. As you can see in
the examples, it is the title of the news story and it is the most visible
element. It is always written in a font few sizes bigger than the rest of the
news story. The headline identifies the reader’s area of interest and intro-
duces and summarizes the story. It is usually after reading the headline
that the reader decides whether or not to read the rest of the story. Some-
times headlines try to create curiosity through interesting use of language
and prompt the reader to read the full story. There are different types of
headlines based on nature and significance of the story. We will be dis-
cussing these in later units. Journalism
24
Byline/ Creditline: You must have seen that below the headline, on the left
hand side, it is written ‘From Sobhapati Samom’ in the first example and in
the second example it is written ‘by a staff reporter’. This is called the byline
or the credit line and it identifies the source of the story. In the first example
where the person’s name is written, it is called the byline. In the second
example, there is no mention of the person’s name, but simply that it is from
a staff reporter. This is called the credit line. It could also be ‘by our corre-
spondent’ or ‘our bureau’ or ‘by our special correspondent’ etc as appli-
cable.

Dateline: Below the credit line or byline, just before the actual news story
begins, you would have seen the date of the story along with the name of a
place. This is the dateline. The date mentioned is the date on which the
event has taken place and on which the reporter has filed the story and the
place mentioned is the place from where the reporter has filed the story.

Lead or Intro: Just where the dateline ends, starts the main part of the
report. The first paragraph of the news story is called the lead. It is usually
written in bold or in a font larger than that used in the rest part of the story.
However, this varies from publication to publication. The lead usually tells
the story in a nutshell and gives the important information, particularly the
most important of the 5W’s and H.

Body: It gives the elaborate details of the event including all the 5W’s and
H and the related explanations of the event. The body is the part where the
actual story is narrated. The body describes what the story is all about.
Usually the lead provides just the gist of the actual event, the body gives a
description in order of importance of information and finally the story is
drawn to an end with a concluding paragraph, probably threading the im-
portant parts of the story or giving a general conclusion.

Of all these elements, the most powerful element is the lead. Because it is
the lead or intro that leads one into the news story. So, let us now discuss
the qualities of good introduction:

 The ‘intro’ is the most important part of any news story. It should be 25
Journalism
 NEWS

direct and attention-grabbing. It should contain the most important

aspects of the story. The details are covered later. It should arouse
the interest of the reader or listener, and be short. Normally it should
be one sentence of not more than 20 words for print media, and
fewer for radio and television.

 The intro should be based on the most newsworthy aspect of the

story, the essence of the story, the sharpest angle of the story. Hence
the intro should be kept short (ideally around 40 words), uncluttered
and relevant to the main story. The intro should make the reader
want to read the rest of the story. To write an intro, you must first
decide what makes the story a news. There may be several things
which are newsworthy in the story. But, you have to identify and de-
cide which is the most important or the sharpest angle of the story-
it is at this point that your professional skills will face the test. If you
pass the test, we can say you have written a good intro.

In this way, your readers or listeners will be provided with the most
important information straight away. Even if they stop reading or lis-
tening after the first one or two sentences, they will still have an idea
of what the story is about.

 Another point to note is that you should not try to give too much detail
in the intro. The six main questions which journalists try to answer -
Who? What? Where? When? Why? And How? - will all need to be
answered in your news story, but all of them need not to be answered
in the intro.

The Inverted Pyramid style

News stories are constructed in the Inverted Pyramid style in order of

importance. This is a formula used by all media organization. Inverted Pyra-
mid style is mostly applicable to hard news stories and most hard news
stories follow this structure religiously. However, on rare occasions feature
26 Journalism
NEWS

stories and other soft stories can be written in this style as well. In this style
the most important points of a story are told in the beginning, that is, in the
lead itself, followed by the body in which the rest of the relevant information
are presented in descending order of interest or order of importance. Of
course in this style there is no conclusion. The most important or interest-
ing facts are arranged in the lead or immediately after the lead and the least
important points are narrated in the end.

LEAD

BODY

DECREASING
ORDER OF
IMPORTANCE

A news story is expected to follow the principle of “5 W’s and H”. And ac-
cording to the Inverted Pyramid structure, the lead or intro contains the most
important of the 5 Ws. The less important Ws and the H is answered in the
body. In the process of writing the news care has to be taken that once the
intro captures the essence, rest of the questions are to be addressed in the
following parts of the story. If these questions are not addressed adequately
the reader/viewer/listener will not get his or her curiosity fully satisfied:

Generally this standard technique is followed while writing the news. If the
news is to be classified in form of straight and interpretative reporting then,
it can be said that the first four Ws- Who, What, When and Where- reflect
the hard facts of the story (straight news or the hard news) and while an-
swering the- Why and How -an element of interpretation is introduced. In
Journalism 27
 this context it is important to mention that contrary to the “hard news” the
concept of “soft news” pertains more to the background information and it
attempts to capture not only the event but also the process that goes be-
hind the happening of an event.

The concept of “soft news” is also associated with the emergence of

infotainment when all news, at times, are treated as “soft” to the extent of
entertaining. In nutshells, we can say that hard news is “event- centric”
while the soft news is “process centric”; hard news is ‘hard event’ and soft
news can be a feature capturing human angle of the event. Another differ-
entiation can also be that hard news are spot news or breaking news,
because the news organizations break out the news as soon as it hap-
pens, without delaying.

How to Write the Copy

Now that we have learnt about the structure of a news story, let us now
deal with actual news writing, which is, in journalistic terms, called ‘writing
the copy’ or ‘copy writing’. If we understand the basic principles for writing
each of the elements that make a news story, we will be able to write the
entire news story easily and with confidence. So, let us deal with them one
by one.

Principles of News Writing:

Headline:
The headline has to be written keeping in mind that it not only introduces
and summarizes the news story, but also serves the purpose of attracting
the reader’s attention. As such it has to be crisp and precise must clearly
give an appropriate perception of the story, and should also convey the
maximum meaning by using the least number of words. Here are a few
basic rules for writing good headlines:

1. Build the headline around a strong verb

2. Avoid articles and helping verbs like a, an, the, is are, were etc.
28 Journalism
 3. Never use the feel of the past. Use present tense and future tense
Use active voice. It helps cut out extra words and also helps give the
feel of the present.
4. Do not over abbreviate. Although headlines permit limited space, do
not in any case use arbitrary or rare abbreviations.
5. Mention the subject in the headline wherever it is known. If the name
is known, then use the name, otherwise another title that identifies
the subject.
6. When certain parts of direct speech are significant enough to be
used in the headline, then it is put in quotes. Unlike the use of double
quotes in the main body of the news story, in the headline only
single quotes are used.
7. The ‘period’ or ‘full stop’ is not used at the end of the headline.
8. The headline should always try to summarize the story and high-
light the most important/striking element in it.
9. While attempting to write attractive/smart headlines, clarity of in-
formation should not be compromised.

Byline/ Credit Line:

Different newspapers follow different rules for writing the byline or credit
line depending on their own style book. Credit lines within the same news-
paper may also vary. Some of the common styles are – ‘by a staff re-
porter’, ‘from a staff reporter’, ‘from a correspondent’, ‘by our special cor-
respondent’, ‘by our reporter’, ‘from our correspondent’, ‘by Manosh Das’,
‘from Bikram Mitra’ etc. Some newspapers omit the words ‘by’, ‘from’ etc.
They simply write ‘our correspondent’, ‘Manosh Das’, ‘Bikram Mitra’ etc.

Usually, it is placed on the left hand side of the report, below the headline.
In some cases it is kept left aligned, while sometimes it may be aligned
center above the first paragraph.

Dateline:
In almost all cases, the dateline has two parts — the place and the date.
The place comes first, and then comes the date. For instance, ‘Guwahati,
April 7’. However, some newspapers now-a-days have started omitting
the dateline also, or only mentioning the place in the dateline. This is done
Journalism 29
 mainly in case of feature news or other soft news stories where the time
element may not be very significant. It is also done when there are multiple
editions of the same paper where the news item may be carried on a
different date.

Lead:
Usually the lead should possibly be containing all the elements-five Ws
and an H. However, in some cases when it is impossible to club all the
elements in the lead then the rest of the elements should be carried in the
next paragraph. But the reporter must try to include as many elements as
possible in the first paragraph itself. If the incident is big in terms of effect
and importance then it becomes difficult to incorporate all the elements in
the lead itself, as it may end up cluttering of the lead. In such a situation,
the body should deal with the rest of the elements, mostly the ‘why’ and
‘how’ elements.

However, when it comes to detailing the event in the body of the news
story then the inverted pyramid style is followed invariably, where the more
important points are told in the beginning, followed by the lesser important
details.

Therefore, in a way, the lead summarizes the story in three to four sen-
tences. Ideally, the lead should not contain more than 30 to 40 words,
within which the summary of the event should be given. And within those
30 to 40 words the lead should attempt to contain all the five Ws and an H
as much as possible. Otherwise normally the ‘how’ element is carried
forward to the following paragraphs in the body as it deals with detailing of
the story.

Body:
As stated earlier, the body is the middle part of a story and it deals with the
detailing of events. After having summarized the story in the lead, still many
relevant points are left to be elaborated regarding the story which the read-
ers might be interested to know about. And this is done in the body part.

30 Journalism
Similar to the lead, the body is designed using the inverted pyramid style.
That is, playing down the facts in chronological order of importance and
relevance. The most necessary aspects are highlighted in the beginning
of the body followed by the lesser essential facts, in a descending order.
However, since the body deals with the description of the event, most of
the readers get wary of reading the whole detail and skip to other news
item, having skimmed through the lead. But a clever writer would know
how to retain the interest of the readers until the last line of the story. For
that the writing should be interesting and beautifully treated so that the
readers find it hard to leave it half way through. Also the reporter should
always attempt to say more with fewer words due to space restriction in
newspapers.

One has to remember that one basic feature that differentiates news from
other write ups is its language. Here are a few very basic guidelines to be
followed in case of the language of news.

1. Always use very simple language and short sentences.

2. Avoid the use of complicated words, metaphors, figures of speech,

adjectives and clichés. Explain technical jargons.

3. Write in active voice wherever possible. It makes sentences shorter

and direct.

4. Spell numerals up to 9 and beyond that write in numerals.

5. Identification that follows a name, viz., age, address, job description

or other information are to be set off by paired commas. Honorific
titles like Mr., Mrs., Dr. etc are not to be used.

6. While reproducing speech directly, place it within double quotes unlike

in the headline where it is placed in single quotes. Sometimes you
can write full sentences in direct speech or also write just significant
words or phrases in direct speech.

Journalism 31
 7. The time element in a news story is very important. News stories
about events that have already taken place are written in the past
tense. As such they use active verbs like elected, injured, killed,
damaged, awarded etc. or passive verbs like was elected, was in-
jured, was killed, was damaged, was awarded etc.

8. Present tense is often used in order to emphasize timeliness. E.g.

Refusing to lie down, Avian Flu, that bounced back in parts of West
Bengal for the second time in a month, broke out in Jalpaiguri dis-
trict prompting the aurhorities today to order mass culling.

9. In stories where the actual time of an event is not known or is not

important, the present perfect form of the verb is used. Say, has
been named, has said, has announced etc.

10. For news stories that speak about events that will take place in the
future are expressed by the use of the auxiliary verb will – will come,
will speak, will arrive etc.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS – B

1. What are the main parts of a news story?

2. What is the significance of the
a. Headline
b. Credit line
c. Dateline
d. Lead
3. Explain the following:
a. Inverted Pyramid Style
b. Pyramid Style
4. Which style of writing is used for news writing?
5. Which part of the news story contains the
maximum and the most important information?
6. Mention five important points to be followed while
writing headline.
7. Mention five important points to be followed while
writing a news story.
32 Journalism
 ACTIVITY – B

1. Develop a news story from the points given below.

The news story should be complete with all the
different elements and following all the principles of
news writing.
 Road accident on highway
 4.30 pm, Dec 6
 Head-on collision between truck and over
speeding motor cyclist
 Motor cyclist dead on the spot
 Truck lost control and stopped after hitting a tree.
Front part of truck damaged.
 Truck driver badly injured but alive, taken to
hospital.
Editorial:
The newspaper’s
opinion and
5.7 OBJECTIVITY AND AUTHENTICITY OF NEWS
comment on
current news
Journalism is a profession of news and news is a serious business.
published every
Newsmen, therefore, are required to present facts as they happen without
day along with the
tampering or adding any personal views or opinions. News means factual
news.
presentation of information without being judgmental. Objectivity is of prime
importance in journalism. Objectivity in reporting and objectivity in news
presentation is a virtue that every professional in this field should strive to
achieve. One needs to remain cautious and well guarded against any kind
Editorial Page:
of personal bias or opinions that might creep in while dealing with news.
Page which carries
The reporter has to remain more objective while reporting. Because when the editorial along
an incident occurs, it is the reporter who is sent first to the field to collect with articles
information. He not only gathers first hand information at the field, but also features and letters
interviews people who have probably witnessed the incident and investigates to the editor. Also
by going deeper into the event in the pursuit of unearthing any hidden facts. known as Edit
Page.
Journalism 33
 Therefore, it is expected that the reporter does not temper with facts and
figures and also remains cautious against biased opinions of the
interviewees. He or she should not, at any cost, let his/her personal opinion
to be reflected in the report.

There are specific columns in the newspaper such as the editorial page
where comments or views of writers find place. If the reporter wants to give
any personal judgment on any event he or she can very well write an
opinionated piece for the editorial page. The reporter should not inter-mix
news and views while making his report. If the reporter deviates, ethically,
from his objectivity, the image of the newspaper gets diluted. Therefore, the
reporter should strive to attain complete objectivity in reporting.

However, it may not always be possible for the reporter to remain absolutely
unbiased or objective. As a human being, the reporter is vulnerable to various
kinds of emotional as well as professional hazards, and can easily fall victim
to subjectivity. And more often than not the reporter’s personal opinion or
bias is reflected in the newspaper. On some such occasions, the reporter’s
authenticity and even the reputation of the entire newspaper might be at
stake. Nevertheless, the reporter should, as much as possible, try to achieve
objectivity in his work.

Sometimes it may happen that when the reporter is investigating a particular

happening and requires views of other people who may have been witness
to that particular incident, the other person may try to pass his own judgment.
In such cases the reporter should always check and cross check
information, probably verify it from other sources so that the readers receive
the truth and only the truth. Thus, objectivity is maintained at any cost.
Being objective also helps in being authentic. Facts are supposed to be
authentic information. If the reporter, or for that matter any person in the
news business, strives to achieve maximum objectivity, then this, in turn,
also helps in being authentic as far as information is concerned. Facts are
sacred in journalism. So the journalist should not try to dilute it by mixing it
with personal opinions.

In today’s era of profit driven media domain, there is an increasing tendency

34 Journalism
of the media organizations to try and influence the presentation of facts or
news. The owners of the media houses always look at profit while dealing
with news. They do not want to sacrifice their sources of profit generators
by writing against them, even if they have proper proof of their involvement
in any kind of mischievous activities. The media organizations may also
have a favored brigade of people in the society, whom they do not want to
offend at any cost, crucifying the concept of objectivity. On the other hand,
the news organizations may also attempt to nullify the image of the people
who do dot come under their good book by writing maliciously against them.
This kind of action on the part of the organizations sends a very bad message
across to the people and in the long run there is every possibility of losing
faith in the society.

Therefore, objectivity and authenticity are the virtues that every media
organizations and also the professionals working in this field should try to
achieve if they are looking for long time sustenance in the field.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS- E

1) What is Objectivity in news?

___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
2) How can the authenticity of a news item be ascertained. In a media
house, whose responsibility it is to ensure that the news which
are carried are authentic?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

1.7 LET US SUM UP

In this unit you have been introduced to the basic concepts of news. Let us
quickly recapitulate these concepts once.

Journalism 35
  News is a true account of events, happenings and incident. News is
something which has an immediate value for the larger segment of the
society.

 There are some basic qualities by which we can identify news. They
include prominence, proximity, disaster, progress, impact, importance
etc.

 There are two types of news, hard-news and soft-news. A news item
which states plain, simple facts as it has happened is called hard news.
Features, editorials, articles, etc fall under the category of soft news.
Reactions and views are included in soft news apart from the plain facts.
Human interest is an important concern in soft news.

 A news report should basically have six basic elements-who, what, when,
why, where and how, popularly called 5 W’s and 1 H.

 News sources can be primary or secondary, official or unofficial.

1.8 FURTHER READINGS

 Journalists Handbook, M. V. Kamath, Vikas Publishing House, New

Delhi

 Professional Journalism, M. V. Kamath

 Handbook of Journalism and Mass Communication, V B Agarwal

and V S Gupta, Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi

1.9 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS - A

1) News is information about an event that happens in the society, which

affects the lives of the people or has the tendency to affect the lives of
the people, directly or indirectly, or has immediate value for the people
at large.

2) News values are the qualities by the presence of which an event

36 Journalism
 qualifies as news. They are the basic characteristics of any news
item.

The news values are- Timeliness, importance, conflict, Relevance,

proximity, prominence, impact or consequence, progress, disaster,
human interest and novelty.

3) i) Yes
ii) No
iii) Yes
iv) Yes
v) No
vi) Yes
vii) No
viii) Yes
ix) No
x) Yes

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS - B

1) A news item which states plain, simple facts as it has happened. It

usually answers the basic questions of 5W’s and H. On the other
hand, reactions and views are included in soft news apart from the
plain facts. Features, editorials, articles, etc fall under the category of
soft news. Human interest is an important concern in soft news.

2) Spot news or breaking news.

3) 5Ws- Who, What, Where, When, Why

H- How.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS - C

1) News source means the contacts or the sources from which a news
reporter gets valuable information for news.

It is important for a reporter to have a good network of reliable sources

because news can happen anywhere, but it is not possible for a

Journalism 37
 reporter to be present at all places at all times. Moreover, it may not be
possible for the reporter to have direct access to all places. So
reporters usually build up some contacts in important places like govt.
departments, secretariat, court, police stations, hospitals etc so that
they can regularly get information about what is happening there.

2) The different criteria by which one can judge source credibility are-
previous reliability, conformability, proximity, motive, contenterability
and believe ability.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS - D

1) The main parts of a news story are – headline, dateline, credit line/
byline, lead, body and conclusion.
2)
a. Headline: The significance of a headline is great. The head-
line identifies the reader’s area of interest and introduces,
precedes and summarizes a news story. Most people
merely glance at the newspaper headlines and arrive at
judgements based on this. The headline is that part of a
news story which first catches the eye of the reader.
b. Byline/ Credit line: The byline or the credit line identifies
the source of the story.
c. Dateline: The dateline indicates the date on which the event
took place and on which the reporter had filed the story and
the place from which the reporter had filed the story.
d. Lead: The lead serves as the intro to the news story.The
lead usually tells the story in a nutshell and gives the im-
portant information, particularly the most important of the
5W’s and H.

3)
a. Inverted Pyramid style: It is the style of writing used for
writing news stories. In this style the most important points
of a story is told in the beginning that is in the lead itself,
followed by the body in which the rest of the relevant infor-
mation are presented in descending order of interest or or-

38 Journalism
 der of importance.
b. Pyramid Style: It is the classic style for academic writing. It
starts by laying the foundations. It starts with less significant
details and builds up the story towards a climax leaving the
most important information for the end. It is exactly the op-
posite of Inverted Pyramid Style.

4) Inverted Pyramid Style

5) The Lead
6) 5 important points to be remembered while writing ‘headline’ are:

a. Build the headline around a strong verb

b. Drop articles and helping verbs like a, an, the, is are, were
etc. wherever possible
c. Try to avoid the feel of the past. Use present tense and fu-
ture tense
d. Use active voice. It helps cut out extra words and also helps
give the feel of the present.
e. Do not over abbreviate. Although headlines permit limited
space, do not in any case use arbitrary or rare abbrevia-
tions.

7) 5 important points to be remembered while writing a news story

are:

I. Always use very simple language and short sentences.

II. Avoid the use of complicated words, metaphors, figures of

speech. Explain technical jargons.

III. Write in active voice wherever possible. It makes sentences

shorter and direct.

IV. Spell numerals up to 9 and beyond that write in numerals.

Journalism 39
 V. The time element in a news story is very important. News
stories about events that have already taken place are written in
the past tense. As such they use active verbs like elected, injured,
killed, damaged, awarded etc. or passive verbs like was elected,
was injured, was killed, was damaged, was awarded etc.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS - E

1) In news, objectivity is presentation of news as it has happened without

the addition of any colour or personal opinion to it, so that the audience
is left to form their opinion and an opinion is not imposed on the
audience.

2) Authenticity of a news item can be ascertained in the following ways-

 Collecting first hand information instead of relying on rumors.
 Taking the information from reliable and credible source only.
 Checking and cross- checking the given information with other
sources also.

In a media house, the entire news team is responsible for ensuring the
authenticity of the news. It includes the reporter, the sub-editor, the editor
and in case of radio and TV, the news producer and to a certain extent the
news presenters also have to bear a part of the responsibility.

1.10 POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

1. “When a dog bites a man it is not news, when a man bites a dog it is
news” – discuss.

2. What do you mean by the sources of news? Briefly discuss various

sources of news.

3. Explain the concept of news value.

40 Journalism
4. What are the basic differences between hard news and soft news?

5. What is the importance of objectivity and authenticity in news?

*****

Journalism 41