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Journalism for many is synonymous with the image of a reporter with
a notepad and pen chasing, probably, a controversial VIP. She is looking for the elusive but the all-important quote that
could make the morrow's screaming headline. Her job is all about words and she deals in information that people would like
to know, or what we call news.
The Roman Acta Diurna (c 59 BC), said to have been started by Julius Ceaser and
posted daily in public places, was the first recorded newspaper effort. It contained announcements of marriages, deaths, and
military appointments. Invention of printing by a German, Johann Gutenberg, in the 15th century triggered the idea of mass-circulated
newspapers and technological innovations helped increase circulation and brought in competition.
Joseph Pulitzer
of the US, who helped establish the pattern of modern newspaper took the lead in aggressive styles of reporting, catchy headlines
(alliteration was his favourite: like "Little Lota's Lovers", "Baptized in Blood" "A Preacher's Perfidy" etc), illustrations,
and resorted to all sorts of stunts to promote circulation. Two other giants, E.W. Scripps and William Randolph Hearst, joined
the race. But it was the war between Pulitzer's `New York World' and Hearst's `New York Morning Journal' in espousing the
Spanish-American civil war of 1898 that established yellow journalism (named after a cartoon character, the Yellow Kid, who
wore a bright yellow nightshirt.)
The technological innovations have had their impact on the conventional print
journalism. Says H.S. Balram, Resident Editor of `The Times of India', "On the production side, we have made major strides:
from linos to bromides to computers. In fact, it's the mouse and not the pen, that is mightier than the sword. Newspaper offices
look more like hi-tech corporate bodies."
"I have been associated with the print media for over 25 years. Journalism
has evolved tremendously over the period. On the production side, we have made major strides -- from linos to bromides to
computers. In fact, now it 's the mouse, and not the pen, that is mightier than the sword. Newspapers offices look more like
hi-tech corporate bodies.
"The style of reporting too has changed. No more does politics get high priority. The
focus has been shifted more towards local problems, health, science, education, information technology, sports, entertainment
and interactive columns. And to compete with the electronic media, which keep updating news, we have gone in for analyses,
interpretations and comment. That is why, the print media has not only survived but also grown in cirulation. So will be the
case with dot com companies that are mushrooming all over
"Present day journalism is highly competitive. Only
the fittest survive. Duds fall by the wayside. You need to have a good nose for news, flair for writing good copy and be computer
savvy. Success comes only through hard work.''
News now flows much faster. The live TV coverage of the first
moon landing in 1969 reached hundreds of millions of viewers. Coverage of the Vietnam war brought revolutionary changes in
the American society. At home, images of the Kargil war and the hijack drama at Khandahar changed reportage pattern. Says
Balram, "To compete with the electronic media, which keep updating news, we have gone in for analyses, interpretations and
comment. That's why print media has not only survived but also grown in circulation."
NEWSPAPER OFFICE
A
newsroom can be broadly divided into two sections - the reporting and the editorial. Reporters, (who can be said to be on
the job all the time) keep track of what happens in the city, gather information and give the reports to the editorial team.
The editorial department is like a large cauldron into which news keeps flowing in every minute; from the city, from different
districts, states and abroad. The editorial team sifts the news and decides what to publish and in what manner.
The
most common channel of news flow are news agencies: the two premier ones we have are the Press Trust of India and the United
News of India and the well-known foreign ones are Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France Presse. For city and district
news, newspapers depend on their own reporters. Big ones have their correspondents at state capitals and even abroad, and
prefer their articles to news agency reports.
How does a reporter get the news? There are a variety of sources,
the most important being the public relations departments of government offices, private institutions, hospitals etc. Departments
of police and fire force are also important sources of information. Sometimes, people call up the newspaper office and inform
the reporter of some incident in their locality. The reporter then follows it up. Letters to the editor often give a good
lead for a reporter to follow up and develop into a good "story". Besides these, every reporter will have her own "sources"
at various places, to whom she will look up to for "exclusive stories". Incidentally in journalism parlance, "story" refers
to truthful account of events and is in no way fictitious as the word suggests.
IS THIS NEWS?
That's
what a journalist keeps asking herself. Her professional aptitude rests largely on the ability to identify news. Basically,
anything that is not old hat and that interests readers is news. The amount of space a newspaper has for news (which is determined
by the volume of advertisements) and how newsy a day influence the way news is displayed. Thus, on some days, some events
get less coverage, contrary to what it would have got on a day when there are fewer advertisements or when it's not newsy.
The
editorial department comprises sports desk, business desk, foreign desk, features desk, city desk etc. The general desk takes
care of the first page and the national pages. Each day, the editorial team keeps track of news, selects, prioritises, edits
them (ie., checks for accuracy, grammar and readability) and makes the pages on computer. How the paper is, look-wise and
content-wise, is determined by the editorial department.
Deadline is very sacrosanct. Time to gather information
is limited, at the same time the publication of news can't be delayed until all possible details have been gathered. At a
daily newspaper office the day's news is in mostly by 11 pm. Yet, a piece of news can make it to print, although in a small
way, till 2 am, by which time the pages are sent to the press for printing.
Magazine journalism differs from
newspaper journalism in that it offers more room for detailed reportage. As Stephen David of `India Today' says: "One can
be interpretative and go much beyond the daily newspaper headlines. For example, while covering drought a magazine can give
perspectives like how the government ignored warnings, give more impact to the report with graphics, maps and photographs
and also describe how the situation is in different states."
Apart from these, there are house journals. They
contain news about their institutions and serve as a powerful tool in internal public relations. There are also journals devoted
to specific branches of study like engineering, medicine, computers etc. For them what is news and and how it is treated depends
on the particular publication and its target audience.
ELECTRONIC MEDIA
Newsrooms
in radio and TV stations function in a similar way but by taking into account the dimensions of audio and moving visual elements.
Here the reporter is accompanied by a recording crew. Once the film has been shot, the appropriate visuals are selected, a
script is written, and matched with the visuals. They are edited to make a comprehensive unit for the programme. Unlike print
medium, this demands much more co-ordination and teamwork as more number of people are involved.
E-medium is
also called the instant medium because it brings news as it happens. That makes it much more challenging. As Maya Sharma of
the Star TV says, "Speed is a crucial factor, as one has to be as quick with information as possible. The pressure is much
more in live shows. If a TV reporter fails to reach the venue of an event in time, she has missed it once and for all." Gayatri
Chandrashekhar, news correspondent of Doordarshan, says, "Brevity in language is very important as time is at a premium. All
that a reporter gets is a few minutes and within that time she has to give the maximum information."
INTERNET
REVOLUTION
The World Wide Web has given a totally new dimension to mass communication and as the newest baby
is the focus of all attention. While it's too early to be judgmental about its potential as it has a lot of growing up to
do, definitely the web combines the documentary permanence of the print medium with the thrilling immediacy of the electronic
medium. The newsroom functions the same way as one in a newspaper office. Reporters turn in the copies which are edited by
the desk. Says Gautham Machaiah, editor of Zeenext, "To do justice to journalism, we have retained the setup of a conventional
newsroom. The content department develops the site and uploads at regular intervals."
How do the portals score
over TV? Says Machaiah, "Except in cases of the few live telecasts, there is always a time gap. But for portals, the reporter
can call up the office from anywhere and the news can be posted, and it stays there for you to come back and read it anytime
later." Maya Sharma says portals and TV cater to different audience. "TV is always more easily accessible."
Where
do portals stand vis-a-vis the conventional media? Radha Radhakrishnan, associate editor of India Info, says people's mindset
itself will have to change before news sites really settle down. "We are so used to reading words on paper. That will have
to change. Secondly, Internet is seen as a medium for building a community and promoting commerce. And to cut costs there
is now a tendency to sacrifice the content quality. Down the line there will have to be more thrust on superior content."
And, the question everyone is asking: how many dotcoms will survive? "More than half will die out or will be
eaten up by bigger ones," says Machaiah. "Every other person now opens a portal and thinks of selling them. Already there
is a long sellers' queue. But how many will be sold? There will be a crash and just a few of the big players will survive."
Stephen David feels the printed word enjoys an unassailable position. "That's the basis, it has remained and
it'll remain so. Besides, in India, PC penetration is so low that the relevance of the printed word is all the more greater."
HOW
TO BE A JOURNALIST
"Present day journalism is highly competitive. Only the fittest survive. Duds fall by the
wayside. You need to have a good nose for news, flair for writing good copy and be computer savvy. Success comes only through
hard work," says H.S. Balram.
Over the past couple of decades a number of institutions have opened journalism
courses. In Bangalore, the Bangalore University offers MS in Communication and the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan offers PG diploma.
Some affiliate colleges have journalism as a subject for Bachelor's degree, like NMKRV College, Jayanagar, Christ College,
Hosur Road, Jyoti Nivas, Koramangala, Mount Carmel, Palace Road and Sheshadripuram College.
The Mysore University,
The Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Kerala University, Thiruvananthapuram,
and Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, Pune, are just a few of the such institutions. UGC offers scholarship for M
Phil and Doctorate. www.ire.org offers a course in investigative reporting.
According to
N.S. Ashok Kumar, Professor of Journalism in BU, "The course material are updated on an average of three to five years. The
students of BU also get exposure to the practical side through guest lectures and production of lab journals. Bangalore has
the advantage in that students get a chance to interact regularly with eminent professionals. Next year onwards, the course
will also include training in computer."
The recruitment is at the trainee level, when one gets exposure to editing
and reporting, and the pay packet is around Rs 4,000. Once upon a time, journalists were not the among the better paid people
__ excitement of being a journalist was the only worthwhile reward __ but not now. For the hardworking kind, the rise in the
profession can be very fast as the information business is booming. A reporter or a sub-editor can rise to become a chief
reporter or a chief sub-editor, and even an editor to earn around Rs 1 lakh. With proliferation of dotcoms, scope for attractive
career opportunities has only increased manifold.
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