Introduction:
Humans are inherently inquisitive
creatures. They are constantly on the lookout for new knowledge on anything and
everything that piques their interest. Most forms of mass communication have,
for the most part, aided in gratifying human curiosity. Newspapers, magazines,
books, radio, television, and other forms of mass media have all attempted to
acquire and deliver information to those in need of it.
The most significant demand that these
mass media fulfil is to provide the most recent news from where one is located,
news from the area, news from the nation, country, and, of course, news from
across the world. As a result, the news is the most crucial input that
everybody seeks from a mass media. But what exactly is meant by
"news"? What exactly is news? This and other relevant topics will be
covered in this lecture.
Presentation of Content:
Most mass media outlets rely heavily on
news. Newspapers, radio, and news networks all rely heavily on breaking news.
Many periodicals and Internet portals do as well. The fact that so many media
outlets deliver news demonstrates the importance of news. We will study about
how news is written in this section. We will also concentrate on other
news-related write-ups. This lesson's content will be delivered as follows:
- News Definitions
- News Characteristics
- News Writing
- Analysis of News Story Structure
- Backgrounder
- Structure of Backgrounder
- The distinction between news analysis and
background
Definition of News:
In general, news refers to anything
that is new. A report about a recent incident is referred to as news. A
thorough storey that offers information or a description is referred to as
news. It may also comprise the representation, delineation, declaration, and
narration of a development event or occurrence. The occurrence is frequently
recent and new, or it was unknown previously.
News is a product as well as a point of
view. News is gathered, processed, and packaged as a product. The news is then
presented to their respective audiences via newspapers, news services, news
magazines, radio, television, cable stations, and networks.
News is anything that happens to catch
and retain the reader's or listener's interest at a specific time. A news
storey is a fair, accurate, brief, and balanced description of a current event
that is of general interest to the public. The problem with news is that it
doesn't stay noteworthy for very long.
Several newspapers, editors, news
reporters, prominent journalists, and numerous media instructors have tried to
define news, but their definitions have not always stood the test of time.
Among these are:
- Anything out of the usual constitutes news.
- Anything published in a newspaper that piques
the interest of a significant number of people is considered news.
- Newspaper people create news.
- Good news is not news. News is anything
announced by a high-ranking official.
- The terms "news" and
"truth" are not interchangeable.
- The purpose of news is to alert people to an
upcoming occurrence.
- The term "news" refers to any
current, up-to-date information on an event received from the North, East,
West, and South (news)
Joseph Pulitzer, the great American
newspaper tycoon, had his own definition of news. He once stated that news
should be: original, distinct, romantic, and exhilarating; unique, curious,
quaint, witty, odd, and appropriate to be discussed.
Turner Cateledge, a former managing
editor of the New York Times, defined news as "whatever you can find out
today that you didn't know previously."
In today's world, newscasters and media
personalities are more likely to define news in terms of what consumers,
readers, listeners, and viewers want to know.
Characteristics of News:
Despite several efforts to define
"newsworthiness," news remains undefined. Perhaps it is not
accessible to a succinct definition or a simple explanation. However, some
components are present in news. Generally, the following elements or traits of
news are regarded as reliable:
- Timelines
- Proximity
- Prominence
- Consequence
- Human Concerns
- Unusual occurrences such as mysteries,
- conflicts
- tragedies
News may be classified into the
following categories: novelty, personal effect money, crime, sex, magnitude,
religion, catastrophe, comedy, the underdog, science, entertainment, weather,
food, minorities, and fashion.
Writing News Stories:
It is critical to understand that the
goal of news writing is to disseminate information. It has been said that
today's news is history tomorrow. As a result, news writing must be done with
the goal of giving information that is true, objective, fair, balanced,
accurate, precise, and to the point. News writing, on the other hand, is a
skilled trade. Good reporters master their job and elevate it to the level of
an art form.
It may be obtained via hard effort,
devotion, understanding, and consistent and prolonged practise throughout time.
To be successful, one must have a nose for news as well as the attributes of
brain and heart. To write effective news, one must be highly adept and
discriminative in attentively observing, hearing, and seeing things, events,
and people, taking notes, and keeping a mental record of where to discover
information sources. It also entails asking pertinent questions, as well as
verifying, counter-checking, cross-checking, and double-checking facts. It
necessitates the capacity to analyse and understand data obtained in a fair and
impartial manner.
For news writing, one must instil a
strong discipline of writing in the needed style, with the goal of presenting
maximum information with the fewest words.
When properly written, a full news
piece should typically address the following six questions:
WHO - is or are involved?
WHEN-did the event take place?
WHERE -did the event take place?
WHY -did it take place?
WHAT -did actually take place? and
HOW -did it take place?
These questions are referred to as the
five W's and one H. These questions are at the core and soul of a well-written
news piece. Again, if a news storey directly attracts individuals, it will have
a broad impact.
Example of a News Story:
Here's an example of a reasonably well-written
news report introduction:
"A 25-year-old lady from Jaipur,
Mrs. Sarla Choudhaiy, was shot by a Delhi Police officer in a packed Connaught
Place shop this evening." When the accident occurred, her husband, Rajesh,
and mother-in-law, Mrs. Rani Chowdhary, were with her. She went shopping for
utensils for her newlywed daughter in Delhi. Ram Narain, the police officer,
has been detained and is being held in jail. Mrs. Sarla Chowdhary's body has
been transported to RLM hospital for post-mortem."
Here's another example of a piece of
excellent news:
"Kanpur, 17 March— A
two-and-a-half-year-old girl was brutally murdered today in a village here,
reportedly by three youngsters while playing beneath a tree, according to
police. "On Sunday evening, the boys, aged three to four, reportedly
stoned the child, then got a kitchen knife from the house to stab her, and
disposed of the corpse in a nearby drain in Hathipur village," SSP M A
Ganapathy said.
During interrogation, the youngsters
told the storey in a childlike manner, he claimed. Although the beating and
stoning appear to be unintended, Mr. Ganapathy believes criminal intent could
not be ruled out since they attempted to dispose of the body. No charges have
been filed against the three because, according to Section 82 of the Indian
Penal Code, a crime committed by a kid under the age of seven is not deemed a
crime, he said, adding that police were examining the matter. Children from
low-income households stated they liked watching action movies and learned how
to stab from them. During interrogation, the youngsters told the storey in a
childlike manner, he claimed. Although the beating and stoning appear to be
unintended, Mr. Ganapathy believes criminal intent could not be ruled out since
they attempted to dispose of the body. No charges have been filed against the
three because, according to Section 82 of the Indian Penal Code, a crime
committed by a kid under the age of seven is not deemed a crime, he said,
adding that police were examining the matter. Children from low-income
households stated they liked watching action movies and learned how to stab
from them.
The Police Inspector-General According
to Mr. L. P. Mishra, the police apprehended them after registering a murder
case against them. The kids did not hesitate to confess their crime to the
cops. They also informed police that they had witnessed similar incidents in
movies. He stated that this was most likely the sole event of its sort in the
country.
Structure of a News Story:
The "inverted pyramid"
approach and style of drafting a news storey is commonly used. Despite various
developments and modifications in news writing styles and procedures over the
years, most news articles remain adhere to the inverted pyramid form, style,
and tactics. The inverted pyramid structure of news suggests that the most
significant information will be shown first. This is referred to as the
"lead." The lead is sometimes known as the "intro" or
"introduction" since it introduces the news piece.
Lead could be of several types:
Name Lead: When the individual(s)
mentioned in the news is/are significant.
Quotation Lead: When what is said is
critical to the news item.
Short Lead: In three or four words,
conveys the most crucial portion of the news: 'Nehru is dead.'
Negative Lead: There are no survivors
from the railway catastrophe that happened yesterday.
Suspended Interest Lead: When three
isn't the main emphasis of the tale, but it still deserves to be told. It is
sometimes referred to as a "Featurised lead."
Question Lead: The first statement
raises significant concerns, such as who is to blame for the state of Delhi's
roadways.
Direct Quotation Lead: When the opening
paragraph opens with a citation from a V.I.P.'s speech or statement
Contrast Lead: A lead that compares the
two contrasting circumstances in order to draw attention to the emphasis. For
example, when one considers ongoing cases in courts, it is difficult to
understand what characterises the easygoing attitude of government employees. A
lead that compares the two contrasting circumstances in order to draw attention
to the emphasis. For example, when one considers ongoing cases in courts, it is
difficult to understand what characterises the easy-going attitude of
government employees.
Then, there are other leads such as:
·
Descriptive lead
·
Parody lead
·
Chronological lead, and
·
Staccato lead (stop and start lead)
Following the lead, the following
sections would be produced in a logical order to support the lead. That is, the
second most significant fact is presented first, followed by the third, fourth,
and so on. The tale is usually written in short paragraphs. Each phrase should
be no more than two dozen words long, and each paragraph should be no more than
two or three sentences long. Though the inverted pyramid format is appropriate
for hard news, it is not appropriate for soft news, feature news, or even sports
news.
- First paragraph: Most Important point
- Second Para: The second important point
- Third Para: The next important point
- Fourth Para: The next important point
- Fifth Para: The next important point
Examples of Lead or Introduction:
As previously indicated, the news item
is constructed in such a way that the "lead" carries the event's main
focus. This is referred to as the "Summary lead," as well as the five
W's and one H.
For Example:
The corpse of Ramesh 21, a Delhi
student, was recovered on the city's major market square yesterday by Hisar
police.
Here’s another example:
Ram Chand, a 33-year-old Chandigarh
shopkeeper, was murdered when a Delhi-bound Punjab Roadways bus collapsed on
the outskirts of Kamal on Monday morning.
Normally, the lead should answer all or
as many of the six (five W's and one H) questions as possible. If the person
killed is a minister, the lead could emphasise "who"; if the accident
occurred in a busy market place, "where" could be emphasised; if the
mishap occurred due to the carelessness of the driver, "why" and
"how" could be highlighted; if the number of deaths or property loss
is very high, "what" could be the lead and if time is critical,
"when" would be the lead of the storey automatically.
Furthermore, in news reports about
everyday occurrences, the reporter must pick which of the W's should be
stressed.
For example:
On Monday night, a devastating tyre
exploded in Delhi's Rajpath slum, destroying 120 thatched houses. There were no
fatalities recorded.
Yet another lead of an ordinary event:
5th of January, Hisar Anil and Sunil,
two eight-year-old boys, were abducted on Saturday from the Local DAV School
field where they were playing yesterday afternoon.
News Analysis:
News analysis is a style of writing in
which the author discusses the relevance and significance of a certain
development or event. Facts obtained on the scene or from a variety of
different sources are used to write news pieces. Most news events are forgotten
once they appear in newspapers, as you may have seen.
However, there are certain news events
that are extremely significant in a variety of ways. Furthermore, there are
other concerns on which, if a certain development occurs, various channels for
additional reporting open up.
For example, Prime Minister Vajpayee's
bus trip to Lahore is seen as a significant step in normalising ties between
India and Pakistan. As is generally known, India and Pakistan have a number of
bilateral concerns that need to be resolved. This visit by India's Prime
Minister is seen to be very important at the age of 80. A write-up or news
analysis of this event will explain to the reader the complete slew of problems
that could be addressed or the entire range of pending issues between the two
countries that might be resolved by the goodwill generated by the Prime
Minister's bus excursion.
Again, subjects connected to women's
empowerment, such as the adoption of the Women's Reservation Bill, or the
American President's visit to India, such as the 1998 nuclear test at Pokharn,
can be examined in depth.
Structure of News Analysis:
A news analysis is often composed of
the following steps: a broad introduction pertaining to the news development,
when and how it occurred; why and for what reasons it occurred; and placing it
in correct perspective. Explaining the relevance from a historical standpoint,
stating facts and numbers, and providing names; quotations, data, and events
that contributed to the current development. Then, anticipating probable future
developments, the reasons for these developments, the people involved, and the
ultimate solution or final shape of things to come as a result of the new turn
of events. The writer usually writes this piece while keeping the newspaper or
magazine's policy in mind. However, these sorts of write-ups are frequently
done objectively.
Backgrounder:
As newspapers aim to deliver all types
of information on all potential current topics of interest. There are certain
subjects that stay in the headlines and are relevant for years. A backgrounder
is intended to give information about a topic in chronological sequence. This
allows the reader to put a problem into context and appropriately appreciate
the subject in light of current developments. In general, a backgrounder traces
the issue back to the day it first drew the attention of the news media. For example,
if the President's rule is established in a certain state owing to poor law and
order, the backgrounder will include detailed facts on when and how the state
fell under President's control. In the international context, if a coup occurs
in any country due to civil conflict or another reason, the backgrounder will
discuss the history of that country.
How to write a Backgrounder?
To write a backgrounder on a specific
subject, one must first describe the present state of affairs and then trace
back to earlier occurrences. This would be done in a logical and historical
chronological manner, with the date, month, and year of each linked event
provided. Other facts, such as human life losses, property losses, and so on,
will also have to be provided. Furthermore, "how did the situation return
to normal" will need to be provided. These might be described using
charts, images, or other visual aids.
The backgrounder is provided in plain
language that avoids elaborating on subtle points of writing. The goal is to
tell the reader with historical and chronological information on recent
advancements in the events.
Difference Between News Story and Backgrounder:
While the news analysis section
describes the relevance, cause, and effect of an issue, the backgrounder
section looks into the event's history and chronology. A backgrounder does not
voice his or her viewpoint, but a news analysis writer may critique, celebrate,
or condemn the development. The backgrounder is an unbiased, plain, and
straightforward historical overview of the issue or subject. A backgrounder
must have substantial information and numbers, statistics, tables, graphs, and
images. Only the facts and data required to convey the relevance of the event,
topic, or development are used in news analysis.
