Kinds of Reporting
#Introduction to – Reporting Skills#
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Objective:
- The lesson will orient the student the different types of the reporting and describe the
- News agencies, interviews, uses of photographs.
Structure of The Lesson :
3.0 Objective
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Investigative Journalism
3.3 Interpretative
3.4 Advocacy Journalism
3.5 Objectivity
3.6 Parliamentary Reporting
3.7 Reporting : A Mandatory Requirement
3.8 The Job & Its Requirements
3.9 Reporters At Work
3.10 Compilation of Official Report
3.11 Verbatim Report : An Important Document
3.12 Citizen Journalism
3.13 History
3.14 Birth of Blogs and The Indymedia Movement
3.15 What is Citizen Journalism
3.16 Who Does Citizen Journalism?
3.17 Cirticisms
3.18 Online Journalism
3.19 Work Outside Traditional Press
3.20 Legal Issues
3.21 News Collections
3.22 Summary.
3.1 Introduction :
A reporter is the person who feds the news through any means or medium to the mediums of mass communication newspapers, radio, TV, floor etc. News is the raw products of any newspaper A correspondent writes a newspaper, and sub-editors arrange the news. A correspondent or reporter smells the rat, and investigates, formulates and presents the news for The readers would, therefore, agree that a reporter is the vein of any newspaper.
With the concept of a global village becoming a reality, news has become the most vital communi-cation media or both intra-cum international significance. In this changed context, the dictionary definition of news as ‘a report of a recent event’ appears inadequate. The time span between the concurrence of an event and its reporting sometimes becomes almost nill. On the other hand, an ingenious journalist should also turn a very old event into a current item of news value. Therefore the reporter presents the facts in such a skillful manner to create an impression of easy to-read fiction.
This lesson discusses the kinds of reporting – investigative, interpretative, advocacy, Parliamentary and such other varied kinds of reporting.
3.2 Investigative Journalism :
Investigative journalism is when reporters deeply investigate a topic of interest, sometimes
involving crime, political corruption, or some other scandal, but also looking into systemic problems in government, business and other sectors. In other words, a descriptive of a story without distorting facts through suitable news reports or articles is investigative journalism. Harish Chandra Mukherjee one of the founding fathers of Indian journalism, did pioneering work in this field. His well-researched articles on the 1857 Indian Revolution and the 1860 Indian Mutiny, stand as masterpieces of socially relevant investiga-tive journalism. The first two decades of post-Independence journalistic scenario, mainly dominated by the five mainline newspapers- The Times of India, The Hindu, The Hindustan Times, The Statesman and The Indian Express – did not produce investigative journalism of any great value. However, things changed during the late 1970s and 1980s when a number of new dailies and periodicals such a Mid Day, the Daily, The Telegraph, India Today and the regional papers entered the scene.
With national dailies shedding their conservation and magaines beginning explorations into vital issues of far-reaching political and social significance, investigative journalism received a big boost. For successful presentation of indepth reports, the collection of a mass of data although essential, is not sufficient. The ability of separate the seed from the craft is most important. Analytical sill and objective perception are the twin assets of a good investigative journalist. The Befor episode, sometimes compared to the Watergate scandal in the US, is a case in point. Years of painstaking research and a massive buildup in documentation by a host of journalists, including N.Ram and Chitra Subramanyam and others, unfolded the untold story in different phases. It is relevant to notice the laws of the land in such cases. For instance, India has an Official Secrets Act, which the USA does not have. Again, Sweden has its own laws which impose a lot of restrictions.
From a stylistic point of veiw, investigative journalism stands somewhere between straight sports and articles or features representing news and views, respectively. Interpretations based on news are likely to be more popular than views-oriented items, although the news value has to be preserved. Investi-gative reporters are always on the lookout fro scoops, which not only create a sensation but bring them-selves prestige. Washington Post’s Bernstien and woodward became heroes overtnight with their expo-sure of the Watergate Scandal that led to President Nixon’s exit from power. The sotry of ‘Antulay’s Trusts’ by Arun shourie in the Indian Express is somewhat similar.
What is really scoop? It is defined as ‘something that a reporter gets without help from anyone and entirely on the strength of his own search and persistence. More often than not, the distinction between a scoop, plant and a leak becomes hay. The rules of the game change often, hunger for sensation snaps the threads of objectivity.
Investigative Journalism had come to stay in the 1980s adding new dimensions to Indian Journal-ism. The style comprising colourful, allusive and flashy language, is used by the reporter to effectively inform and educate the people.
De Burgh (2000) states that: “An investigative journalist is a man or woman whose profession it is to discover the truth and to identify lapses from it in whatever media may be available. The act of doing this generally is called investigative journalism and is distinct from apparently similar work done by police, lawyers, auditors and regulatory bodies in that it is not limited as to target, not legally founded and closely connected to publicity”.
An investigative journalist may spend a considerable period researching and preparing a report, sometimes months or years, whereas a typical daily or weekly news reporter writes items concering immediately available news. Most investigative journalism is done by newspapers, wire services and freelance journalists. An investigative journalist’s final report may take the form of an expose.
There is no more important contribution that we can make to society than strong, publicly spirited investigative journalism.
While good investigation leads to the enhancement of purposeful journalism, sometimes journal-ists try to analyse events and forecast the shape of things to come which may not always prove correct.
The Investigation
The investigation will often require an extensive number of interviews and travel; other instances might call for the reporter to make use of activities such as surveillance techniques analysis of documents,
investigations of the performance of any kinds of equipment involved in an accident, patent medicine, scientific analysis, social and legal issues, and the like.
Investigative journalism requires the scrutiny of details, fact-finding, and physical effort. An investi-gative journalist must have an analytical and incisive mind with strong self-motivation to carry on when all doors are closed, when facts are being covered up or falsified and so on.
Some of the means reporters can use for their fact-finding:
- studying neglected sources, such as archives, phone records, address books, tax records and license records.
- talking to neighbors
- using subscription research sources such as LexisNexis
- anonymous sources (for example whistleblowers)
- going undercover
Investigative journalism can be contrasted with analytical reporting. According to De Burgh (2000) analytical journalism takes the data available and reconfigures it, helping us to ask questions about the situation or statement or see it in a different way, whereas investigative journalists go further and also want to know whether the situation presented to us is the reality.
Some of the potential consequences for the subjects of successful investigative journalism include:
- indictment and conviction
- loss of job
- loss of professional accreditation
- payment of fines
- loss of personal and professional reputation
- domino consequences for family members/associate involved in unrelated criminal acts discovered through the process of investigation
Consequences for society as a whole include :
- revision of institutional policies
- changes in the law
In The Reporter’s Handbook: An Investigator’s Guide to Documents and Techniques, Steve Weinberg defined investigative journalism as:
Reporting, through one’s own initiative and work product, matters of importances to readers, viewers or listeners. In many cases, the subjects of the reporting wish the matters under scrutiny to remain undisclosed. There are currently university departments for teaching investigative journalism. In some instances, advocacy journalism is the same as investigative journalism and muckraking, where these serve the public interest and the public’s right to know. Investigative reports often focus or criminal or unethical activity, or aim to advance a generally accepted public interest, such as government accountabil-ity, alleviation of human suffering, etc. It might be argued that the journalist is assuming a point of view that public action is warranted to change the situation being described.
3.3 Interpretative :
To Interpret means to explain, to unfold and to elucidate. Interpreting news mean to make it meaningful by adding new depth and insight to it. Reporters have to go behind the surface news and in the process, take care to distinguish deductions from assumptions. In this type of reporting ‘why’ becomes more important than ‘what’ and ‘who’. It is an objective appraisal of a given situation.
In the past, it was feared that interpetations would offend objectivity. Even now there are some orthodox reporters who dislike this type of reporting. They say reporting is an narration of facts as they happened and they considered that interpretation stretches facts too far, to suit the personal moods thinking of the writer. It can be by-lined interpretative writing. According to them the term ‘interpretative reporting’ is misnomer and contradiction in terms. But interpretative reporting has come to stay as people want something more than facts. They enjoy opinions and impressions. Thus we see the rise of the popular news analysis’s whose columns are looked forward to.
An interpretative news story must contain the following elements :
- Vivid presentation, capable of talking the reader to the scene:
- A definite interest in the significance of the news:
- Impact of the news on a cross-section of society: and
- Portrayal of the personality and character of people who make the news.
3.4 Advocacy Journalism :
Advocacy journalism is a genre of journalism that intentionally and transparently adopts a non-objective viewpoint, usually for some social or political purpose. It is distinguished from propaganda, in that it is intended to be factual, and is usually produced by private media outlets (as opposed to governments). It is also distinct from instances of media bias and failures of objectivity in media outlets which are attempt-ing to be or which present themselves as objective or neutral.
Traditionally, advocacy and criticism are restricted to editorial and op-ed pages, which are clearly distinguished in the publication and in the organization’s internal structure. News reports are intended to be objective and unbiased. In contrast, advocacy journalists have an opinion about the story they are writing. Fro example, that political corruption should be punished, that more environmentally friendly practices should be adopted by consumers, or that a government policy will be harmful to business interests and should not be adopted.
Some advocacy journalists reject that the traditional ideal of objectivity is possible in practice, either generally, or due to the presence of corporate sponsors in advertising. Some feel that the public interest is better served by a diversity of media outlets with a variety of transparent points of view, or that advocacy journalism serves a similar role to muckrakers or whistleblowers.
Examples :
Advocacy journalism is practiced by a broad range of mainstream media outlets and alternative media and special interest publications and programs, but might also apply to a single article in otherwise-neutral publication, such as political stories in Rolling Stone; there are also “advocacry journals”, or “alternative publications”, which are marketed to target groups based on their interests or biases, for example: Taking up the campaign on AIDS, Total Prohibition etc. by the newspapers.
Perspectives from advocacy journalists :
One writer for the “alternative” journalism collaborative, the Independent Media Center, writes the following in a call to action: Classic tenets of journalism call for objective and neutrality. These are anti-quated principles no longer universally observed… We must absolute not feel bound by them. If we are ever to create meaningful change, advocacy journalism will be the single most crucial element to enable the necessary organizing. It is therefore very important that we learn how to be successful advocacy journalists. For many, this will require a different way of identifying and pursuing goals.
3.5 Objectivity :
Objectivity (journalism) and Objectivity (philosophy)
Advocacy journalists may reject the principle of objectivity in their work for several different reasons. Many believe that there is no such thing as objective reporting, that there will always be some from of implicit bias, whether political, personal, or metaphysical, whether intentional or subconscious. This is not necessarily a rejection of the existence of an objective reality, merely a statement about our inability to report on it in a value-free fashion. This may sound like a radical idea, but many mainstream journalists accept the philosophical idea that pure “objectivity” is impossible, but still seek to minimize bias in their work. Other journalistic standards, such as balance, and neutrality, may be used to describe a more practical kind of “objectivity”.
Many advocacy journalists claim that they can reject objectivity while holding on to the goals of fairness and accuracy, and claim that corporate journalists often lack both.
Criticism of Advocacy Journalism :
Professional journalists and members of the public critical of the term assert that reporting without objectivity (termed “editorializing” or “sensationalizing”) is bad journalism, and does not serve the public interest. The term might also indicate a serious breach of journalistic canons and standards, such as rumor mongering, yellow journalism, sensationalism or other ethically flawed reportage for example, the 2004 revelations created by a press leak in the Palma affair, where a leak was alleged to be used to help an office holder’s political position. (However, a critic of that politician publicly admitted to being the source of that leak, not the politican in question.
Some fear the activity of “advocacy journalists” will be harmful to the reputation of the mainstream press as an objective, reliable source of information. Another concern is that undiscriminating readers will accept the facts and opinions advanced in advocacy pieces as if they were objective and representative, becoming unknowingly and perhaps dangerously misinformed as a result.
Advocacy journalists vary in their response to these criticisms. Some believe that mainstream and “alternative” outless serve different purposes, and sometimes different audiences entirely, and that the difference is readily apparent to the public. Many believe that the mainstream press is not an objective and reliable source of information, and so doesn’t deserve the reputation it seeks to maintain.
3.6 Parliamentary Reporting :
A familiar scene in the two Houses of Parliament is that of quietly dressed persons heading for the central table at a brisk pace -but with a careful and correct bearing – taking their seats, scribbling in their note-books for a while and then making an exit as quick and unobtrusive as their entry. But not many people know who are these men and women apparently always in a hurry and what is the purpose of these frequent short trips.
They are the Parliamentary Reporters engaged in the momentous task of preparing a complete and authoritative record of what transpires in the highest deliberative and legislative body of the country.
3.7 REPORTING : A MANDATORY REQUIREMENT
The Rules of Procedure require that the Secretary-General has to arrange for the preparation of a full report of the proceedings of each sitting of the House. Accordingly, everything said in LokSabha and Rajya Sabha every question, remark and speech is meticulously recorded by the Parliamentary Reporters, who represent the acme of the shorthand-writing profession. However, certain words or expressions, which are specifically expunged or ordered not to be recorded by the Speaker or the Presiding Officer, do not form part of the record.
The entire proceedings of the day’s sitting, comprising a couple of hundred pages, have to be edited, compiled and made available by the next morning. This remarkable feat is accomplished to perfec-tion by a combination of professional skill of the highest order and excellent team-work aided by modern technology.
Origin of Reporting :
The mode of Parliamentary reporting has undergone various changes before it reached its present verbatim form. In early days, namely from 1777 to 1835, when the Legislature functioned as a part of the Executive, the proceedings in the then Council of the Governor-General of India exclusively dealing with matters of law, were recorded in the Revenue Department of the East India Company. In 1835 the pro-ceedings concerning the legislative business began to be recorded separately in the form of minutes, which indicated only the title of the legislation considered by the Council. However, from 1860 the Official Gazette of the Government of the India contained brief references to the legislative business transacted in the Council.
When the proceedings of the then Legislative Council were thrown open to the outsiders in 1854, a decision was taken to release an authentic report of its proceedings for publication. It is obvious that the Secretary to the Council, who was charged with the responsibility for the preparation of the report, would have found it difficult, without the aid of shorthand-writers, to keep pace with the continuous flow of oratory of Members. Apart from the abstracts of the proceedings being published, portions of the proceedings began to appear in direct speech, although in a summarized form from 16 March, 1864.
Entry of Reporter :
The Rule pertaining to the preparation of the proceedings was amended in 1897 to provide for the preparation of a full report of the proceedings instead of mere abstracts. The responsibility for the prepara-tion of the report cast on the Secretary till then was thus transferred to the high speed shorthand-writers or Reporters. Consequently, the abstracts were discontinued and verbatim reports were issued and also published in the Gazette. The individual style of Members was then reflected in the proceedings, which gave a foretaste of the authenticity and vitality of the modern verbatim report. The right to ask questions, concedeed in 1892, added to the liveliness and readability of the reporters. In 1920 as the first bicameral legislature under the Government of India Act of 1919 was in the offering, the question of publication of its proceedings in separate book form was examined. It was considered that the proceedings of a popular Legislature would be in greater demand and it was, therefore, decided to publish them in book form for sale to the public. Simultaneously, it was also decided to change the title from ‘Proceedings’ to ‘Debates’. Today, the Official Report of the House of the People is issued under the title “Lok Sabha Debates”.
3.8 The Job & Its Requirements :
Reporting in the Parliament is a highly specialized knowledge-intensive job carried out under great pressure, completed within a fixed time-frame and continued for long hours without a break. The twin tasks of reporting, namely writing shorthand at high speed and transcription of shorthand notes, and demand the ulmost concentration and intellectual effort. Needless to say, physical stamina, mental alert-ness and quick reflexes are the essential attributes of a Reporter’s job, without which he cannot deal with situations like the one which usually prevails in the House immediately after the end of the Question Hour. A statistical analysis has revealed that a majority of the Members of the Lok Sabha speak at speeds ranging between 120 and 150 words per minute, some of them go up to 180 words per minute and a few reach the speed of 180 to 200 words per minute. Reporters must, therefore, possess a speed of 180 to 200 words per minute in shorthand along with a comprehensive grasp of the language and an ancyclopaedic general knowledge, so that they can perform their duties with confidence.
3.9 Reporters At Work :
Reporters record the proceedings of the House singly in turns of five minutes each. This cycle continues from the commencement to the adjournment of the House for the day. Since the floor language is generally either English or Hindi, an English Reporter and a Hindi Reporter are always on duty in the House for taking down its proceedings. However, if a Member speaks in a regional language, an English translation of the speech or observations is incorporated in the Official Report. The Question Hour is one of the most interesting features of the business conducted by the Praliament, but recording the proceeding s of the Question Hour tests the competence of even the most experienced Reporter. Questions relate to a wide variety of subjects and their range and scope have virtually no bounds. Supplementary Questions are marked asked from different parts of the House and answers given in quick succession. Reporters have not only to correctly identify the Members asking the Questions and the Ministers giving the answers, but also to record every word of what is said, including the often rapidly-quoted figures, names and unfamiliar technical words. Nevertheless, the Reporters always rise to the occasion and manage to
produce zero error transcripts. After taking the turn in the House, each Reporter goes through his short-hand notes and, if considered necessary, checks them with the tape-recorded version so as to ensure a faithful reproduction of the proceedings. English and Hind Reporters work in perfect unison and invariably settle the exact sequence in which their respective portions are to be dovetailed before they begin the transcription of their shorthand notes.
3.10 Compilation of Official Report :
Until early 1990s the Reporters used to trascribe the proceedings on stencils from which copies were made through cyclostyling. The Monsoon Session of 1993 was marked by the installation of comput-ers in the Reporters Branch. Since then the entire process of transcription and compilation of the proceed-ings has been fully computerized, and the proceedings are also placed on the official website of Parlia-ment of India (http://parliamentofindia.nic.in) The preparation of the Official Report is a complex operation demanding both precision and speed. As soon as Reporters complete their transcription, they pass on the draft print-outs to the Chief Parliamentary Reporter. The latter, with the assistance of Supervisory Senior Parliamentary Reporters, carefully scrutinizes the transcripts, cheks their continuity, verifies the texts as well as the disposal of Motions, Clauses and Amendments etc., carries out necessary editing and correc-tions and makes sure that every segment of the proceedings is in conformity with the prescribed forms and procedures. This elaborate exercise in ‘quality control’ is aimed at making the Official Report abso-lutely flawless. When all transcripts have been examined and finally approved, they are amalgamated and page-numbered to form an unabridged, continuous and factual chronicle of the proceedings of the day’s sitting. This compilation, together with contents pages, is then despatched for multigraphing and distribu-tion. Copies of multigraphed Debates are made available to various Branches of the Lok Sabha Secre-tariat as also the concerned Ministries for reference. A few copies are also placed in the Library for the convenience of the Members. The transcript of every speech delivered, question asked and interruption made by a Member is sent to him for confirmation or correction of inaccuracies, if any.
3.11 Verbatim Report : An Important Document
The Verbatim reports of the proceedings of the Parliament are not a mere narration of Questions, Adjournment Motions, Bills and Resolutions, etc. As a matter of fact, they are a rich source for contempo-rary history. They provide detailed information on all matters touching the life of a citizen. They bring to light the political, economic and social conditions of even the remotest parts of the country. Besides, they serve as a mirror of the hopes and aspirations, concerns and apprehensions of the nation as voiced by its chosen representatives.
The verbatim report entitled “Lok Sabha Debates” is issued in two parts. Part I contains Questions and Answers and Part II contains the rest of the proceedings. The printed version is available about two months after the date of the sitting. Its copies can be had from the Sales Section of the Lok Sabha Secre-tariat or from the authorized agents for Government publications on payment.
3.12 Citizen Journalism :
Citizen Journalism is also known as public or participatory journalism, is the act of citizens “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information,” according to the seminal report We Media. How Audiences are shaping the Future of News and Informa-tion, by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis. They say, “The intent of this participation is to provide indepen-dent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires.” Citizen journal-ism should not be confused with civic journalism, which is practiced by professional journalists. Citizen journalism is a specific form of citizen media as well as user generated content.
In a 2003 Online Journalism Review article. J.D.Lasica calssifies media for citizen journalism into the following types:
- Audience participation (such as user comments attached to news stories, personal blogs, photos or video footage captured from personal mobile cameras, or local news written by residents of a community).
- Independent news and information Websites (Consumer Reports, the Drudge Report).
- Full-fledged participatory news sites (OhmyNews).
- Collaborative and contributory media sites (Slashdot, Kuro5hin).
- Other kinds of “thin media.” (mailing lists, email newsletters), and
- Personal broadcasting sites (video broadcast sites such as online Radio)
Dn Gillmor, former, technology columnist with the San Jose Mercury News, is one of the foremost proponents of citizen journalism, and founded a nonprofit, the Center for Citizen Media, to help promote it. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s French-language television network has also organized a weekly public affairs program calle, “5 sur 5”, which has been organizing and promoting citizen-based journalism since 2001. On the program, viewers submit questions on a wide variety of topics, and they, accompanied by staff journalists, get to interview experts to obtain answers to their questions.
3.13 History :
The citizen journalism movement emerged after journalists themselves began to question the predictability of their coverage of such events as the 1988 U.S. presidential election. Those journalists became part of the public, or civic, journalism movement, a countermeasure against the eroding trust in the news media and widespread public disillusionment with politics and civic affairs. Jay Rosen, a journal-ism professor at New York University, was one of public journalism’s earliest proponents.
Public participation – such as telephone calls into the running broacasting might also be seen as an (old-fashioned) part of it. However, just a few years prior, new internet technologies gave birth to a new form of his movement.
3.14 Birth of Blogs and the Indymedia Movement :
In 1999, activists in Seattle created the first Independent Media Center (IMC) in response to the WTO meeting being held there. These activists understood the only way they could get into the corporate media is by blocking the streets. And then, the scant 60 seconds of coverage would show them being carted off by the police, but without any context ot explain why they were protesting. They knew they had to create an alternative media model. Since then, the Indymedia movement has experienced exponential growth, and IMCs have been created in over 200 cities all over the world.
Simultaneously, journalism that was “by the people” began to flourish, enabled in part by emerging internet and networking technologies, such as weblogs, chat rooms, message boards, wikis and mobile computing. A relatively new development is the use of convergent polls, allowing editorials and opinions to be submitted and voted on. Overtime, the poll converges on the most broadly accepted editorials and opinions. In South Korea, OhmyNews became popular and commercially successful with the motto, “Every Citizen is a Reporter.” Founded by Oh Yeon-ho on February 22,2000, it has a staff of some 40-plus traditional reporters and editors who write about 20% of its content, with the rest coming from other freelance contributors who are mostly ordinary citizens. OhmyNews has been credited with transforming South Korea’s conservative political environment.
In 2001, ThemeParkInsider.com became the first online publication to win a major journalism award for a feature that was reported and written entirely by readers, earning an Online Journalism Award from the Online News Association and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism for its “Accident Watch” section, where readers tracked injury accidents at theme parks and shared accident prevention tips.
In 2004, a citizen journalism website called Associated Content.com was launched. The “People’s Media Company”, as they claim to be, was the first company to offer monetary compensation for their users that publish quality content in the form of articles, videos and audio clips, A few years later, World VoiceNews.com was launched, claiming the tagline “Honest and Unfiltered,” and paying editors and reporters a per-story fee based on the number of stories they submit and the revenue for the company each month.
During the 2004 U.S. presidential election, both the Democratic and Republican parties issued press credentials to citizen bloggers covering the convention, marking a new level of influence and cred-ibility for nontraditional journalists. Some bloggers also began watch dogging the work of conventional journalists, monitoring their work for biases and inaccuracy.
A recent trend in citizen journalism has been the emergence of what blogger Jeff Jarvis terms hyper local journalism, as online news sites invite contributions from local residents of their subscriptions areas, who often report on topics that conventional newspapers tend to ignore.
3.15 What is Citizen Journalism?
There is no easy answer to this question and depending on who you ask you are likely to get very different answers. Some have called it networked journalism, open source journalism, and citizen media. Communication has changed greatly with the advent of the Internet. The Internet has enabled citizens to contribute to journalism, without professional training. Mark Glasser, a longtime freelance journalist who frequently writes on new media issues, gets to the heart of it.
The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distributon of the Internat to create, argument or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others For example, you might write about a city council meeting on your blog or in an online forum. Or you could fact-check a newspaper article from the main-stream media and point out factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as AP media blog.
3.16 Who Does Citizen Journalism?
According to Jay Rosen, citizen journalists “the people formerly known as the audience,” who “were on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one another and who today are not in a situation like that at all….. The people formerly known as the audience are simply the public made realer, less fictional, more able, less predictable.”
“Doing citizenn journalism right means crafting a crew of correspondents who are typically ex-cluded from of misrepresented by local television news: low-income women, minorities and youth and the very demographic and lifestyle groups who have little access to the media and that advertisers don’t want,” says Robert Huesca, an associate professor of communication at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
Public Journalism is now being explored via new media such as the use of mobile phones Mobile phones have the potential to transform reporting and places the power of reporting in the hands of the public. Mobile telephony provides low-cost options for people to set up news operations One small organi-zation providing mobile news and exploring public journalism is Jasmine News in Sri Lanka.
The growth of online participatory journalism gives rise to the legal question of whether bloggers who gather and disseminate “news” should be classified as journalists. In light of the proposed federal reporter-shield law, the resolution of this issue will have far reaching implications for the millions of people in this country who disseminate information via blogs. In other words, are bloggers the modern day equivalent of the revolutionary pamphleteer who passed out leaflets on the street corner?
The time is fast approaching when these legal lines will have to be drawn, In recent times bloggers have broken too many stories of national interest that mainstream media either overlooked, or decided against reporting, not to be considered legitimate news gatherers and reporters. Moreover, the fact that many bloggers are anonymous is of marginal importance to the question of whether they qualify as journalists.
3.17 Criticisms :
Citizen journalists may be activists within the communities they write about. This has drawn some criticism from traditional media institutions such as The New York Times, which have accused proponents of public journalism of abandoning the traditional goal of ‘objectivity’. Many traditional journalists view citizen journalism with some skepticism, believing that only trained journalists can understand the exacti-tude and ethics involved in reporting news.
Others criticise the formulation of the term “citizen journalism” to describe the concept, as the
word “citizen” has a conterminous relation to the nation-state. The fact that may millions of people are considered stateless and often without citizenship (such as refugees or immigrants without papers) limits the concept to those reconginsed only by governments. Additionally the global nature of many participatory media initiatives, such as the Independent Media Center, makes talking of journalism in relation to a particular nation-state largely redundant as it’s production and dissemination do not recognise national boundaries. Some additional names given to the concept based on this analysis are grassroots media, people’s media, or participatory media.
3.18 Online Journalism:
Online journalism is defined as the reporting of facts produced and distributed via the Internet. An early leader was The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Many news organizations based in other media also distribute news online, but the amount they use of the new medium varies. Some news organizations use the Web exclusively or as a secondary outlet for their content. The Online News Association is the premier organization representing online journalists, with more than 800 members.
The Internet challenges traditional news organisations in several ways. Newspapers may lose classified advertising to websites, which are often targeted by interest of geography. These organisations are concerned about real and perceived loss of viewers and circulation to the Internet. And the revenue gained with advertising on news websites is sometimes too small to support the site.
Even before the Internet, technology and other factors were dividing people’s attention. leading to more – but narrower – media outlets.
1 Work outside traditional press
2 Legal issues
3 News collections
3.19 Work Outside Traditional Press :
The Internet has also given rise to more participation by people who aren’t normally journalists, such as with Indy Media (Max Perez). Bloggers write on web logs or blogs. Traditional journalists often do not consider bloggers to automatically be journalists.This has more to do with standards and professional practices than the medium. But, as of 2005, blogging has generally gained at least more attention and has led to some effects on mainstream journalism, such as exposing problems related to a television piece about President Bush’s National Guard Service.
Other significant tools of on-line journalism are Internet forums, discussion boards and chats, especially those representing the Internet version of official media. The widespread use of the Internet all over the world created a unique opportunity to create a meeting palce for both sides in many conflicts, such as the Israeli-Palestiniah conflict and the Russian-Chechan War. Often this gives a unique chance to find new, alternative solutions to the conflict, but often the Internet is turned into the battlefield by contra-dicting parties creating endless “online battles.”
Most Internet users agree that on-line sources are often less biased and more informative than the official media. This claim is often backed with the belief that on-line journalists are merely volunteers and freelancers who are not paid for their activity, and therefore are free from corporate ethics. But re-cently many Internet forums began to moderate their boards because of threat of vandalism, which may users see as a form of censorship.
Some online journalists have an ambition to replace the mainstream media in the long run. Some independent forums and discussion boards have already achieved a level of popularity comparable to mainstream news agencies such as television stations and newspapers.
3.20 Legal Issues:
One emerging problem with online journalism in the World is that, in many states, individuals who publish only on the Web do not enjoy the same rights as reporters who work for traditional print or broad-cast media. As a result, unlike a newspaper, they are much more liable for such things as libel.
Some experts including kumud rajan believe that libel law is wholly incompatible with online journalism and that right of reply will eventually have to replace it. Otherwise commentary on events in places that give libel plaintiffs too many rights or powers will move to other jurisdictions and most of the comment will be made anonymous, Every one would then lose rights and remedies, due to a few wealthy people with resources to launch libel suits on weak grounds. Jennifer Jannuska and other legal commen-tators have, while agreeing with strong protections for publishers who only host journalists, sometimes emphasize tha the use of anonymizer technology makes even criminal abuses, not just libel, possible, and so should be avoided even if other rights are lost.
3.21 News Collections :
The Internet also offers options such as personalized news feeds and aggregators, which compile news from different websites into one site. One of the most popular news aggregators is Google News. For example, some fear that people will have narrower exposure to news.
3.22 Summary :
All journalistic writing should be objective, free from personal bias and individual whims and fancies. This is even more essential in news reporting. Since a reporter’s prime concern is truth, freedom of expression as far as the report is concerned, should be limited to conveying facts, figures and actual happenings at the same time certain liberties are acceptable, mainly for polishing the language or to provide lively reading. Stylistic innovation has become vehicles of creating reader satisfaction. In this process, it becomes impossible to maintain absolute objectivity.
Despite the fact that newspapers maintain their own individualistic styles, most news reports reveal certain similarities. This is because the main purpose of these stories is to arouse interest and capture the attention of the readers. The reader gets startled and absorbed and continues to road at one go.
This unit tries to place before you the various kinds of reporting that you see today in the main-stream media. With the advent of electronic media and new media technologies many changes have come into existence and continous reading of various newspapers, magazines and other media will make you more proficient in analyzing various kinds of news.
