News

 I 

nterview:

Such talks between the reporter and his/her sources generally take place on shortnotice. It may be arranged by the reporter or the source

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s public relations representative. In suchinterviews the reporter has well-defined questions that are to be answered by the source.

Telephone

 I 

nterview:

This is an abbreviated version of the news interview. Because it is conductedthrough the telephone, the questions must be clear and well-defined.

The Prepared Question:

When all else fails, reporters often prepare a list of questions and submitthem to news sources, with a polite but urgent request for reply. This method has its disadvantagesas there may be no response from the sources, but it is worth trying in a tight spot.Regardless of what method a reporter employs, the first step should always be to identifyhimself/herself and the organization he/she represents. The business should be stated briefly.Surprises, insults and arrogance on the part of the reporter is unwarranted. Caution must beexercised against µnote-taking

¶

except when it is desirable and necessary, should be observed in theinterview. When a figure or a date or spelling must be noted, it should be done without ostentationand with a word of explanation. As soon as the interview is over, the reporter needs to makeextensive notes that should form the basis for anything that is written.There are a few essential aids for reporters:1)

The Diary

: This is a book of assignments. Assignments are listed well in advance. It ismaintained by the chief reporter or the news editor. Every event with its date of happening, time,reporter 

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s name, photographer 

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s name, speaker 

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s name etc is recorded. An active reporter may evenenter the number of words and pictures in the report.2)

The

 M 

orgue

: Another word for the library, it is a repository of dead information or the archives. Itcontains copies of old newspapers, rival newspapers of the same area; clippings of important people,events, subjects; photographs; dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesaurus, atlases; proceedings of legislatures etc.; reference books, year books etc. Earlier these materials used up a lot of space asthese were not available in the condensed form. New technology has enabled the capsuling of suchvast information in CDs and through microfilming. Every item is indexed and cross-indexed by thelibrary staff.Various beats in reporting include crime reporting, economic/business reporting, developmentalreporting, political reporting, sports reporting etc.

COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS - EDITING

 The term editing is a comprehensive one. It covers many functions, and means in the larger sense,making the copy or the reading matter free of mistakes of all kinds apart from indicating theheadings, subheadings and typography. Only after this is done, the final copy is sent to the printer.While the reporter is the eyes and ears of the newspaper, its, outside surveillance mechanism, theeditor is its µgatekeeper 

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, a decision maker who decides what will be chosen and what will not to be passed along to the reader.

 

The Make-up of a Newspaper

 The news editor µdummies

¶

the paper and guides the make-up men in the assembly of the items inthe newspaper. The principles of sound news presentation through the newspaper have two chief  poles. The first is

typographic

: an attractive combination of readable typefaces. The other is the

layout 

- an attractive arrangement of materials on the page and throughout the newspaper. The basicmaterials that the editor works with in making decisions about makeup are body type, display type,art, and white space, which are arranged with the five principles of 

balance, focus, contrast,dynamics

and

unity

.Each page of a newspaper has columns. The number of columns differs from newspaper tonewspaper, some have 8 columns, some have 6 and so on. The reader 

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s attention is best caught withthe first page called µpage one

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and the µsplit-page

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which initiates the second section of the first page. The following illustration explains the make-up of page one of a newspaper.

 

Source: http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/resources/exp_lang/front_page_small.Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand"The following can be seen on the page:1- the font and style of the masthead, which flies the flag for the newspaper;2- the use and impact of headlines and crossheads, which are subheadings between paragraphs;3- the

placement

of the lead story;4- the acknowledgment of reporters

¶

names (known as

bylines

) and of other sources, along with the

dateline

;5- the use of photos with their explanatory

captions

;6- the use of diagrams, tables, and other 

infographics

, which summarise information into visualform;7- the use of columns,

boxes

, stories going across the page;8- the variety in presentation of type, including reversed type of white on black; the use of space,including white space, and other aspects of layout and presentation, which are explained in sectionsthat follow

What Editing Does for Copy:

A copyreader does the following for a news story-1- performs or facilitates composing and makeup operations2- regularizes copy to conform to style of newspaper 3- adjusts story length to space requirements4- detects and corrects errors5- simplifies, corrects and clarifies language6- amplifies meaning7- makes stories fair and objective8- restructures stories extensively when needed9- alters story

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s tone when needed10- corrects copy for good taste

Editing to Save Space

 Brevity is not only the soul of wit, it is the heart of readership. Studies in relation between lengthand readership show an inverse relationship, i.e. shorter the story, the more likely it is to be read.

Cutting, trimming, boiling 

and

 slashing 

are among the terms used in a newsroom for reducingstories in length. Most straight news stories are arranged in an inverted pyramid form with the mostimportant part of the story coming first and the least important in the end. Thus editing for space becomes simplified as the story can be chopped off from the end, thus reducing comparativelyunnecessary facts. Another way of saving space that involves no loss of wordage at all is by setting part of the story in smaller type, i.e. dropping the words from a higher point size to a lesser one,example from a 8 point to 6 point type.