WHAT IS NEWS?

News is one of the best known commodities in today’s world. Everybody who understands a language and has access to mass media can easily recognize it. The concept of news must have existed even before the beginning of the era of mass media.

                When two friends meet after some time they exchange information, which can be called personal news. If a person dies of a disease or an accident it makes news. The importance of this news is related to the importance of the person or disease.

                The four letter of the word NEWS is taken from four directions NORTH, EAST, WEST and SOUTH. News can come from any of these directions. But as we see everyday all event, do not make news. Only important and interesting event make news. Further an event itself is not news unless its account is available. Thus, BHAGALPUR JAIL blinding made news several weeks after the event.

                Not only event, but opinion also makes news. Opinion of Indian leader RAJIV GANDHI about the arms race in the world made news. Editorial comments by important newspapers can also make news for other newspapers. What the US PRESS wrote about the BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY was news for the Indian newspapers.

                Therefore by keeping these factors in mind we can attempt a definition of news:= ”News is an account of a recent event or opinion which is important or interesting”. Importance and interest are two factors that present unlimited variety.

                              EDITOR

                   NEWS EDITOR 

                                                               REPORTING DEPARTMENT EDITING DEPARTMENT  

                              

CHIEF REPORTER                            CHIEF SUB-EDITOR

          REPORTER                                  SUB-EDITOR

REPORTING DESK           ALL THE NEWS DELIVERED IN THE OFFICE ARE KEPT HERE.

                                                                                 

NEWS SOURCES:=

1.    DISTRICT CORRESPONDENT- Village news, district news etc.

2.    FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT- Foreign or international news.

3.    SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT- Special news.

4.  NEWS BEAT- Obvious source of news.

5.    SYNDICATE- Bureau, sources.

6.  NEWS AGENCY- PTI, UNI

7.    COMMON SOURCES- U and me.

8.   STAFF REPORTERS- Reporters of the respected house.

=: NEWS STRUCTURE: =

                                             

                                  INVERTED PYRAMID

5W+1H:-      

1.    What?

2.    When?

3.    Where?

4.   Who?

5.    Why?

6.   How?

ELEMENTS OF NEWS:-

1.  IMMEDIACY OR TIMELINESS-is of great importance. The new thing or the latest information makes all the difference. As news ages it loses its potency. The nearness of an event in time is vital to daily newspapers.

2.  TRUTH AND OBJECTIVITY: - is another quality of news. The balanced picture of an event or accuracy in reporting events enhances the value of news.

3.  NEARNESS/CLOSENESS IN SPACE:-is yet another  element of news. The news worthiness of an event is in direct ratio to its physical nearness to the public serves by the newspaper appraising it. An accident or a crime near at home has much importance than an accident or a crime abroad.

4.  NAMES OF INDIVIDUALS: - also makes news. The person may be widely known for his wealth or status. Even an unknown person can make news because of some oddity, eccentricity or unusual occupation or some other factor.

5.  NUMBERS AND SIZE: - make news. An accident in which a large number of people have died or injured makes news. If very few are involved in the accident and nobody died, the news value becomes less important.

6.  SUSPENSE AND MYSTERY:- adds to the value of news. It holds readers interest. The more the suspense, the greater is the curiosity of the readers in the news.

7.  INTEREST: - News should be of interest. The interest however differs. It may be of local, regional, national or international interest.

8.  TIMINGS AND PLACE OF OCCURRENCE: - Of an event are also important elements of news. The hour of an event may decide its news importance, so also where the thing happens is important.

NEWS VALUE:-

Importance and interest are often described as news value but infact these represent the sum total of news or intrinsic characteristic that distinguish news from non news. Identifying and measuring these values is usually called news sense. It is commonly believed that reporters identify news by intuition. In other words it is said “NOSE FOR NEWS”.

1.    CHANGE: - Is a basic news value. If nothing happens there will be no change. But the world is not static. Every moment things are different from the preceding moment. The bigger the change the more important it is from the news point of view.

2.   CONFLICT: - Actual conflicts and even the danger of conflicts make news as they tend to bring about major change. Conflicting ideas and resulting debates make up news. Tension and suspense often associated with conflicts are also regarded as news.

3.    DISASTER: - Be it a result of natural calamity like earthquake, volcanic eruption or manmade like Bhopal Gas tragedy, disaster always make news.

4.   PROGRESS: - as it is a positive result made by society. It improves the quality of life.

5.    EMINENCE AND PROMINENCE:-involvement of eminent personalities in an event adds to it news value and it is directly proportional to the prominence of the person. When MULK RAJ ANAND fainted while speaking at Lucknow, it became national news.

6.   CAUSE:- like consequence, the cause of a newsworthy event also make news. Every event has consequences and has cause also.

7.    TIMELINESS: - As old news is no news, in highly competitive world of journalism every medium tries to be first with news. It is highly perishable no one serves news on platter.

8.    PROXIMITY:-    News is meant for human beings.The prime concern is man himself,then he is interested in his neighbourhood.If other things are equal proximity becomes the key news value.A traffic jam in Mumbai will be more important for a newspaper published from Mumbai but may not find a place in Delhi newspapers.

9.   HUMAN INTEREST:- Almost everything in news concerns human being, but this particular news value is the emotional context of the news event.Human interest is the element with which the reader identifies anything familiar that stirs his feelings, ex- KALKA MAIL TRAGEDY.

10. NOVELTY:- If a dog bites a man, its not news.But if a man bites a dog,it becomes news.This old newspaper saying recognises the news value of the unusual-NOVELTY.