The investigative process
Tip –Tipsters
Formation of story idea
Formulation of the problem
Preliminary research feasibility study
Plan of action-Synopsis
Minimum and maximum story
BASE BUILDING: THE SPIRAL OF RESEARCH
Written sources
Experts- the sources of knowledge
Sources of experiences
Reportage- Field trips- Observations
Key interviews
Assessment and analysis
• Conclusions
• Outline of story
• Writing and revising
• Hand in before deadline
Functions of Media
Information
Education
Entertainment
Agenda Setting
Three streams of new media
News- “Page One” journalism
Entertainment – “Page Three” journalism
Education- “Page Seven journalism”
Emergence of infotainment
Commercialization of Media
Media as a Profit making business venture
Reader/ Viewer/Listener as Consumer
For citizens and information consumers, it is important to develop the skill of detecting bias
Objectivity and Bias
Human communication always takes place in a context
Through a medium, and among individuals and groups
Who are situated historically, politically, economically, and socially
Bias is a small word that identifies the collective influences of the entire context of a message
Journalist attempts to be objective by two methods:
Fairness to those concerned with the news
A professional process of information gathering that seeks fairness, completeness, and accuracy
Critical questions for detecting bias
The media applies a narrative structure to ambiguous events in order to create a coherent and causal sense of events
What is the author's / speaker's socio-political position?
Does the speaker have anything to gain personally from delivering the message?
Who is paying for the message? What is the bias of the medium? Who stands to gain?
What sources does the speaker use, and how credible are they? Does the speaker cite statistics? If so, how and who data gathered the data? Are the data being presented fully?
How does the speaker present arguments? Is the message one-sided, or does it include alternative points of view?
If the message includes alternative points of view, how are those views characterized? Does the speaker use positive words and images to describe his/her point of view and negative words and images to describe other points of view?
Kinds of Biases
Commercial bias
Visual bias
Bad news bias
Narrative bias
Status Quo bias
Fairness bias
Glory bias
Two Major Streams in Journalism
Episodic Journalism
Thematic Journalism
Reporting Event: What was happening
Reporting the process that goes into happening of the event
Explain why it was happening
Dominant Models in Today’s Journalism
The Watchdog
CNN Effect
News Management
Thought control
Manufacturing Consent
Mutual Exploitation
Role of News Media
How things work
How things are supposed to work
How things normally work
Thursday 19 June 2008
Introduction to Journalism
Introduction to Journalism
DEFNITION OF NEWS
News is a report of any current event, idea or problem which interest large number of people BUT it acquires different meanings and concepts in different political, economic and socio-cultural environment.
ELEMENTS OF NEWS
A News report must answer following questions:
WHO
WHAT Generally
WHEN Factual
WHERE
WHY Element of Interpretation
HOW is introduced
CREDIBILITY
Principles to be observed while reporting an event or editing news report
Accuracy
Fairness
Balance
Attribution
Objectivity
NEWSWORTHINESS
How to decide newsworthiness of an event, idea or problem (Evaluating information or any information package)
Audience
Impact
Proximity
Timeliness
Prominence (Size)
Context
Policy Parameters
Specific Informational Value
Unusualness
STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY
INTRO
EXPLANATORY DETAILS
DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ETC.
(In order of descending importance)
Various Types of Journalistic Writings
FACTS
ANALYSIS
VIEWS
News item
News Report
News Analysis
Interpretative Reporting
Feature/Featured Reporting
Interview
Commentary
Article
Editorial
Profile, Review, Review Article etc.
The investigative process
Tip –Tipsters
Formation of story idea
Formulation of the problem
Preliminary research feasibility study
Plan of action-Synopsis
Minimum and maximum story
Functions of Media
Information
Education
Entertainment
Agenda Setting
Three streams of new media
News- “Page One” journalism
Entertainment – “Page Three” journalism
Education- “Page Seven journalism”
Emergence of infotainment
Commercialization of Media
News: Product
Media as a Profit making business venture
Reader/ Viewer/Listener as Consumer
Information +Entertainment
Combining Factors:
MARKET
INVESTORS
ADVERTISERS
MARKET DRIVEN MEDIA: some key elements
PRIMARY PURPOSE OF NEWS IS TO EMPOWER PUBLIC BY MAXIMIZING ITS UNDERSTANDING OF CURRENT ISSUES AND EVENTS THAT SHAPE ITS ENVIRONMENT. ONCE NEWS IS TREATED AS COMMODITY LOSE ITS INFORMATIONAL VALUE
Profit
Competition
Winning Audience Game
Entertainment becomes dominant replacing informational value of news which in turn might encourage ignorance at the Cost of UNDERSTANDING
MARKET JOURNALISM GATHERS AN AUDIENCE NOT TO INFORM BUT TO SELL IT TO ADVERTISERS. FEW POWERFUL CORPORATIONS WIN AND PUBLIC LOSES
-BEN BAGDIKIAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
COUNTER POINT
MARKET CONTAINS ADEQUATE SAFEGUARDS AGANST ABUSE
-PHILIP MAYER, UNIV. OF NORHT, COROLINA
For citizens and information consumers, it is important to develop the skill of detecting bias: Concepts of “misinformed consumer” and “informed citizen” (Consumer and citizen are one and the same but role differs)
Dominant Models in Today’s Journalism
The Watchdog
CNN Effect
News Management
Thought control
Manufacturing Consent
Mutual Exploitation
Two Major Streams in Journalism
Episodic Journalism
Thematic Journalism
Reporting Event: What was happening
Reporting the process that goes into happening of the event
Explain why it was happening
Role of News Media
How things work
How things are supposed to work
How things normally work
The investigative process
Tip –Tipsters
Formation of story idea
Formulation of the problem
Preliminary research feasibility study
Plan of action-Synopsis
Minimum and maximum story
BASE BUILDING: THE SPIRAL OF RESEARCH
Written sources
Experts- the sources of knowledge
Sources of experiences
Reportage- Field trips- Observations
Key interviews
Assessment and analysis
• Conclusions
• Outline of story
• Writing and revising
• Hand in before deadline
Objectivity and Bias
Bias is a small word that identifies the collective influences of the entire context of a message
Human communication always takes place in a context
Through a medium, and among individuals and groups
Who are situated historically, politically, economically, and socially
Journalist attempts to be objective by two methods:
Fairness to those concerned with the news
A professional process of information gathering that seeks fairness, completeness, and accuracy
Critical questions for detecting bias
The media applies a narrative structure to ambiguous events in order to create a coherent and causal sense of events
What is the author's / speaker's socio-political position?
Does the speaker have anything to gain personally from delivering the message?
Who is paying for the message? What is the bias of the medium? Who stands to gain?
What sources does the speaker use, and how credible are they? Does the speaker cite statistics? If so, how and who data gathered the data? Are the data being presented fully?
How does the speaker present arguments? Is the message one-sided, or does it include alternative points of view?
If the message includes alternative points of view, how are those views characterized? Does the speaker use positive words and images to describe his/her point of view and negative words and images to describe other points of view?
Kinds of Biases
Commercial bias
Visual bias
Bad news bias
Narrative bias
Status Quo bias
Fairness bias
Glory bias
Dominant Models in Today’s Journalism
The Watchdog
CNN Effect
News Management
Thought control
Manufacturing Consent
Mutual Exploitation
Role of News Media
How things work
How things are supposed to work
How things normally work
Some Key Concepts
Journalism: Reporting on government, politics, policies, economics, and other news and issues.
Political Journalism: Reporting on the political process and other government and political entities.
Generate new ideas about scientific reasoning, democracy, and rule by consent of the governed and free criticism of government.
Journalism of Exposure: The process of uncovering information about practices those usually are illegal or unethical.
Objectivity: Looking at a story as though through a perfect lens uncolored by a reporter's thoughts about a subject; trying to view a story from a neutral perspective. Some critics believe pure objectivity is impossible and that fairness and balance are more important.
Narrative Tradition: Journalism as story. Many writers employ fictional techniques in writing nonfiction material.
Knowledge Gap and Media: Some studies show that those with information and access to technology are more likely to increase their knowledge more rapidly than those without access. Technological delivery of information, therefore, can increase the gap between those with information and those without.
Agenda-Setting Research: Media research that seeks to understand the relationship between readers' determination of important issues and politicians' and press's treatment of them. The research focuses not on how media cover an issue but on how they set an agenda through the choice of the issues they cover.
News Values: Newspaper editors and owners try to develop standards of value for determining which events and issues are newsworthy---that is, deserving of being given space in the paper.
The use of computer technology to gather and analyze information for news reports and articles includes the use of the Internet, spreadsheets, and databases. (To be covered in the next session)
Public Journalism: By creating a public conversation through journalism, modern news media hope to inspire “consumers” of news to become more involved in their own communities. The media encourage citizens, officials, reporters, and editors to identify and respond to the issues that confront their neighborhoods and their cities.
Media Convergence Case Studies
The idea of convergence means the combining of communication technologies to deliver a message. Media convergence is a phenomenon as revolutionary to communication as the invention of movable type or electronic communication. Such a monumental revolution has caused media owners, analysts and regulators to re-think the entire structure of information delivery to mass audiences.
The computer has made this convergence technologically possible. Large computers are used to gather, digitize, store, package and transmit information. Smaller, yet still powerful personal computers are used as receivers to bring words, sounds and sights to the audience.
Many scholars and analysts argue that someday people won’t need separate media to receive information. The messages delivered to previous generations through newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, and film will come to future generations through a single delivery system – and it will be digital.
True to their instincts as players in a free market economy, the owners of traditional media saw the future early and in the last two decades have positioned themselves to take advantage of the coming revolution.
In the marketplace of ideas, the marketers of those ideas, and the methods of delivering them, are converging, too. This creates a second definition of the new generation’s term "media convergence."
DEFNITION OF NEWS
News is a report of any current event, idea or problem which interest large number of people BUT it acquires different meanings and concepts in different political, economic and socio-cultural environment.
ELEMENTS OF NEWS
A News report must answer following questions:
WHO
WHAT Generally
WHEN Factual
WHERE
WHY Element of Interpretation
HOW is introduced
CREDIBILITY
Principles to be observed while reporting an event or editing news report
Accuracy
Fairness
Balance
Attribution
Objectivity
NEWSWORTHINESS
How to decide newsworthiness of an event, idea or problem (Evaluating information or any information package)
Audience
Impact
Proximity
Timeliness
Prominence (Size)
Context
Policy Parameters
Specific Informational Value
Unusualness
STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY
INTRO
EXPLANATORY DETAILS
DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ETC.
(In order of descending importance)
Various Types of Journalistic Writings
FACTS
ANALYSIS
VIEWS
News item
News Report
News Analysis
Interpretative Reporting
Feature/Featured Reporting
Interview
Commentary
Article
Editorial
Profile, Review, Review Article etc.
The investigative process
Tip –Tipsters
Formation of story idea
Formulation of the problem
Preliminary research feasibility study
Plan of action-Synopsis
Minimum and maximum story
Functions of Media
Information
Education
Entertainment
Agenda Setting
Three streams of new media
News- “Page One” journalism
Entertainment – “Page Three” journalism
Education- “Page Seven journalism”
Emergence of infotainment
Commercialization of Media
News: Product
Media as a Profit making business venture
Reader/ Viewer/Listener as Consumer
Information +Entertainment
Combining Factors:
MARKET
INVESTORS
ADVERTISERS
MARKET DRIVEN MEDIA: some key elements
PRIMARY PURPOSE OF NEWS IS TO EMPOWER PUBLIC BY MAXIMIZING ITS UNDERSTANDING OF CURRENT ISSUES AND EVENTS THAT SHAPE ITS ENVIRONMENT. ONCE NEWS IS TREATED AS COMMODITY LOSE ITS INFORMATIONAL VALUE
Profit
Competition
Winning Audience Game
Entertainment becomes dominant replacing informational value of news which in turn might encourage ignorance at the Cost of UNDERSTANDING
MARKET JOURNALISM GATHERS AN AUDIENCE NOT TO INFORM BUT TO SELL IT TO ADVERTISERS. FEW POWERFUL CORPORATIONS WIN AND PUBLIC LOSES
-BEN BAGDIKIAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
COUNTER POINT
MARKET CONTAINS ADEQUATE SAFEGUARDS AGANST ABUSE
-PHILIP MAYER, UNIV. OF NORHT, COROLINA
For citizens and information consumers, it is important to develop the skill of detecting bias: Concepts of “misinformed consumer” and “informed citizen” (Consumer and citizen are one and the same but role differs)
Dominant Models in Today’s Journalism
The Watchdog
CNN Effect
News Management
Thought control
Manufacturing Consent
Mutual Exploitation
Two Major Streams in Journalism
Episodic Journalism
Thematic Journalism
Reporting Event: What was happening
Reporting the process that goes into happening of the event
Explain why it was happening
Role of News Media
How things work
How things are supposed to work
How things normally work
The investigative process
Tip –Tipsters
Formation of story idea
Formulation of the problem
Preliminary research feasibility study
Plan of action-Synopsis
Minimum and maximum story
BASE BUILDING: THE SPIRAL OF RESEARCH
Written sources
Experts- the sources of knowledge
Sources of experiences
Reportage- Field trips- Observations
Key interviews
Assessment and analysis
• Conclusions
• Outline of story
• Writing and revising
• Hand in before deadline
Objectivity and Bias
Bias is a small word that identifies the collective influences of the entire context of a message
Human communication always takes place in a context
Through a medium, and among individuals and groups
Who are situated historically, politically, economically, and socially
Journalist attempts to be objective by two methods:
Fairness to those concerned with the news
A professional process of information gathering that seeks fairness, completeness, and accuracy
Critical questions for detecting bias
The media applies a narrative structure to ambiguous events in order to create a coherent and causal sense of events
What is the author's / speaker's socio-political position?
Does the speaker have anything to gain personally from delivering the message?
Who is paying for the message? What is the bias of the medium? Who stands to gain?
What sources does the speaker use, and how credible are they? Does the speaker cite statistics? If so, how and who data gathered the data? Are the data being presented fully?
How does the speaker present arguments? Is the message one-sided, or does it include alternative points of view?
If the message includes alternative points of view, how are those views characterized? Does the speaker use positive words and images to describe his/her point of view and negative words and images to describe other points of view?
Kinds of Biases
Commercial bias
Visual bias
Bad news bias
Narrative bias
Status Quo bias
Fairness bias
Glory bias
Dominant Models in Today’s Journalism
The Watchdog
CNN Effect
News Management
Thought control
Manufacturing Consent
Mutual Exploitation
Role of News Media
How things work
How things are supposed to work
How things normally work
Some Key Concepts
Journalism: Reporting on government, politics, policies, economics, and other news and issues.
Political Journalism: Reporting on the political process and other government and political entities.
Generate new ideas about scientific reasoning, democracy, and rule by consent of the governed and free criticism of government.
Journalism of Exposure: The process of uncovering information about practices those usually are illegal or unethical.
Objectivity: Looking at a story as though through a perfect lens uncolored by a reporter's thoughts about a subject; trying to view a story from a neutral perspective. Some critics believe pure objectivity is impossible and that fairness and balance are more important.
Narrative Tradition: Journalism as story. Many writers employ fictional techniques in writing nonfiction material.
Knowledge Gap and Media: Some studies show that those with information and access to technology are more likely to increase their knowledge more rapidly than those without access. Technological delivery of information, therefore, can increase the gap between those with information and those without.
Agenda-Setting Research: Media research that seeks to understand the relationship between readers' determination of important issues and politicians' and press's treatment of them. The research focuses not on how media cover an issue but on how they set an agenda through the choice of the issues they cover.
News Values: Newspaper editors and owners try to develop standards of value for determining which events and issues are newsworthy---that is, deserving of being given space in the paper.
The use of computer technology to gather and analyze information for news reports and articles includes the use of the Internet, spreadsheets, and databases. (To be covered in the next session)
Public Journalism: By creating a public conversation through journalism, modern news media hope to inspire “consumers” of news to become more involved in their own communities. The media encourage citizens, officials, reporters, and editors to identify and respond to the issues that confront their neighborhoods and their cities.
Media Convergence Case Studies
The idea of convergence means the combining of communication technologies to deliver a message. Media convergence is a phenomenon as revolutionary to communication as the invention of movable type or electronic communication. Such a monumental revolution has caused media owners, analysts and regulators to re-think the entire structure of information delivery to mass audiences.
The computer has made this convergence technologically possible. Large computers are used to gather, digitize, store, package and transmit information. Smaller, yet still powerful personal computers are used as receivers to bring words, sounds and sights to the audience.
Many scholars and analysts argue that someday people won’t need separate media to receive information. The messages delivered to previous generations through newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, and film will come to future generations through a single delivery system – and it will be digital.
True to their instincts as players in a free market economy, the owners of traditional media saw the future early and in the last two decades have positioned themselves to take advantage of the coming revolution.
In the marketplace of ideas, the marketers of those ideas, and the methods of delivering them, are converging, too. This creates a second definition of the new generation’s term "media convergence."
News Sources
News Sources
Examples of sources include:
1. official records
2. publications or broadcasts
3. officials in government or business, organizations or corporations
4. witnesses of crime, accidents or other events
5 people involved with or affected by a news event or issue
Reporters are expected to develop and cultivate sources. This applies especially if they regularly cover a specific topic, known as a "beat".
However, beat reporters must be cautious of becoming too close to their sources. Reporters often, but not always, give greater leeway to sources with little experience.
As a rule of thumb, but especially when reporting on controversy, reporters are expected to use multiple sources. Outside journalism, sources are sometimes known as a "news source".
Examples of sources include:
1. official records
2. publications or broadcasts
3. officials in government or business, organizations or corporations
4. witnesses of crime, accidents or other events
5 people involved with or affected by a news event or issue
Reporters are expected to develop and cultivate sources. This applies especially if they regularly cover a specific topic, known as a "beat".
However, beat reporters must be cautious of becoming too close to their sources. Reporters often, but not always, give greater leeway to sources with little experience.
As a rule of thumb, but especially when reporting on controversy, reporters are expected to use multiple sources. Outside journalism, sources are sometimes known as a "news source".
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