DIFFERENT MEDIA ,
ONE MESSAGE
Unit II
JOB TITLES RELATED TO A NEWSROOM
Correspondent : a person employed by a newspaper
to report on a particular subject or send reports from a
foreign country
Reporter : a person whose job is to discover
information about news events and report them for a
newspaper, magazine, radio or television
Editor: a person who corrects or changes pieces of text
or films before they are printed or shown (a person
who is in charge of the newspaper or magazine)
Scriptwriter: A person who writes scripts for films or
radio or television broadcasts
Sub editor: someone whose job is to check and correct
writing especially articles in a newspaper before it is
printed
Proof reader: A person whose job is to check text
before it is printed or put online
Journalist: A person who writes news stories or articles
for a newspaper or magazine or broadcast them on
radio or television
News reader: someone who reads the news on the
television or radio
Graphic designer: someone whose work is related to
the arranging of text and pictures
QUESTIONS FOR YOU
Do you think newspapers
have long life span?
Will they disappear soon?
What would the world be
without news?
What media do you
depend for news? Why?
In my experience …
As fas I’m concerned…
In my opinion…
Personally, I think…
I’d say that…
I’d suggest that…
I’d like to point out that…
I believe that…
HEADLI
NES
EXAMPLES
“ Yamuna
Type a quote
waterhere.
level in Delhi
highest in 10 years, Old Railway
Bridge shut
-Johnny Appleseed
“
PreetiaAghalayam
Type quote [Link] become first
woman head of IIT, to lead
Zanzibar campus
-Johnny Appleseed
“
Soybean
Type a quote
sownhere.
in 905000
hectares in current Kharif season,
says SOPA
-Johnny Appleseed
“
Slum adwellers
Type quote here.
scamper to safety
in night as Yamuna swells above
danger mark
-Johnny Appleseed
“
Ministry
Type a quote
sanctions
[Link] quality
control orders on portable water
bottle
-Johnny Appleseed
“
Contractor
Type a quoteto here.
be blacklisted in
case of fatal accidents: Delhi’s
new rules
-Johnny Appleseed
FEATURES OF A HEADLINE
Headline of a news story is a summing statement
which introduces the story at the beginning of a TV ,
radio news broadcast or which lead us to read the
article in a newspaper or on a website.
Grab reader’s attention
Unimportant words are often left out
* Articles
* Auxiliary verbs
* Possessive adjectives
News broadcasts and newspapers are designed to
make you think that news stories are happening now.
News stories use Simple Present tense in the headlines
Passive voice is also used in headlines (past participle
form)
To refer to future plans of the subject, the headline
usually uses a verb in the infinitive form ( to + v1)
CHANGE TO HEADLINES
The Indian cricket team arrived in Napier on Monday for the five
match ODI series against New Zealand starting January 19
Pleasant weather greets Team India in New Zealand
Twelve people were killed overnight in the Brazilian city of
Campinas in surge of
violence that began with the murder of an off-duty policeman,
police and media
said on Monday
12 killed in surge of violence in Brazil
Violence claims 12 lives in Campinas
Off-duty cop’s murder sparks wave of violence in Brazil
A victim of car crash has learned to walk again
Man learns to walk again after devastating car
accident
Victim of car crash defies odds, walks again
Inspirational story: Car crash victim walks again
A new drug will cure flu this winter
New drug to cure flu this winter
Flu curing drug approved by FDA
New flu drug shows promise
The police questioned a suspect in robbery yesterday
Police question suspect in robbery
Police investigate robbery, question suspect
Robbery suspect in custody for questioning
Journalists are creatures of nature not nurture. The profession
develops from
instinct, from a peculiar way of seeing and describing the world. It
may be
objective in practice but it is subjective in motivation.
Journalism is expressed in the written or spoken word, but I have
never
regarded that as its essence. The technical skill is that of creating
clear and
succinct sentences, which any profession should inculcate. This can
be
taught and should be part of any core curriculum. Its absence from
so much
of written English nowadays, from users' manuals to student exam
questions
to government white papers, is deplorable. I sometimes think a
well-produced
newspaper is that last redoubt of clear English. There is no talent
for such
The latter's Educational Supplement, then integrated with
the main paper,
possessed two invaluable bits of equipment. One was a
source of stories, the
politics of education, to which little harm could be done by
my reporting.
The other was a ferocious, Irish sub-editor. He would score
through
superfluous words, underline bad grammar and
mercilessly spike articles,
leaning back in his chair, removing his glasses and asking
the classic question
of any journalism teacher: Now, what is it you are really
trying to tell me?'
1 absorbed his maxims like mother's milk. Never begin a
paragraph with 'it'.
Never use sloppy words such as supply, problem,
accommodate and interesting and try to use concrete not
abstract nouns. The best punctuation is a full stop.
That training was a privilege greater than anything I
acquired at school or
university. It was the toolkit for a career, always to be kept
oiled and polished.
I watched colleagues floundering as they sought to
fashion stories in
ignorance of its framework.
used to ask aspiring journalists whether they kept a diary.
What was their
instinctive response to meeting an exciting person or
visiting a beautiful
place, to any highly charged emotion? Did they crave to
communicate their
experience through the written word? It is the best
The qualities essential to journalism thus extend far beyond
an ability to
write. They are those of curiosity, an uninhibited mind,
native cunning and
an eagerness to communicate, summed up in the gift to
narrate. Such is the
raw material on which the story depends and without which
there is nothing
to say. There can be a story without journalism, but no
journalism without
a story.