JOURNALISM PRINCIPLES AND

PRACTICES

The course on Development Communication aims to teach students the value

of media and communication in advancing development in a community. The
course presents principles, practices and issues on development
communication, as well as case studies related to the discipline.

Module No. 1
News Basics

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................................... 2
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 3
News Basics......................................................................................................................4
And Now, the Story of A Bizarre and Tragic Fire........................................................... 4
How the News Media are Alerted................................................................................... 4
Early Coverage of the Fire.............................................................................................. 5
A Routine Story Becomes a Tragedy............................................................................... 6
What the Reporters Do with the Information They’ve Gathered................................. 7
The Story Goes National................................................................................................10
The Networks Make an Initial Judgment......................................................................11
A New Development Changes the Importance of the Story.........................................11
Where Does the Story Develop from Here?................................................................. 12
Why is this Story News?................................................................................................ 13
Concepts that Help Define News...................................................................................13
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................19

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INTRODUCTION
A Focus on Critical Thinking

We spend a great deal of time exploring critical

thinking, meaning the process of evaluating
information, and attempting to determine how we
know what we think we know. There is probably no
other skill as important for the journalist, or the
consumer of journalism, as the ability to spot a
misleading statistic or a lapse in logic. We’re
overloaded with information today, and trying to
consume it uncritically is something like attempting
to take a drink out of a fire hose. If you’re not
careful, the stream will tear your head off.

MODULE OBJECTIVES
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

● -

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News Basics
Journalism is our window to the world. By knowing more about the institution and the
process of reporting, who knows more about how we know what we think we know.

Journalism is sometimes driven by technology, as in the example of the telegraph

changing the nature of news; it forced reporters to be more objective before and during
the Civil War because their news was sent to different parts of the nation, regions that
held differing political beliefs. There are many such examples in this chapter; note, as
you read, how technology changed news in the past and is changing it today.

AND NOW, THE STORY OF A BIZARRE AND TRAGIC FIRE…

A little smoke was billowing from the front and the back of the three-floor
apartment building. The smoke -- not the fluffy white stuff associated with
bonfires, but greasy, black, superheated gas -- spread like a lightning-quick cancer.
In the back of the building, the common staircase linking all three floors sucked
up the smoke and fumes like a huge chimney. Survivors would later say they
heard the gasses rise with a roar like a freight train.

From the street, you couldn't see any actual fire because the flames were licking
up inside the walls, infiltrating the skeleton of the 70-year-old building. At 8:11
p.m., the first alarm came into the Central Division firehouse. The firefighter on
duty announced the location over the station's loudspeaker, and a pumper, a
ladder unit and the rescue van roared from Central Station.

How the News Media are Alerted

The TV newsroom is usually a noisy place. A cluster of five people stand around a
computer, discussing tonight’s line-up for the 11 o’clock news. The news director, who is
in overall charge of the department, contends that a story about a murder investigation
should go first. A senior reporter who has just finished a three-part series on abuse of the
elderly argues that the newscast should be led with part one of her story. But suddenly
things become very quiet. The police and fire scanner, which usually provides a steady
babble of conversation about broken windows, license plate numbers and barking dogs,
goes silent. And so does the newsroom. When normally garrulous public safety officials
clear the air and halt their chatter, everyone in the newsroom knows that something big

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is happening. Now, the commands come in terse, clipped tones: The dispatcher asks for
"another alarm," meaning another fire unit will be sent to the scene. Then another. And
another.

Early Coverage of the Fire

Reporters from the city's TV stations, radio stations, and the local daily newspapers
arrive on the scene roughly at the same time as the third fire unit. The reporters
immediately search for the man with the white helmet; he's the district chief. The district
chief fields questions, dividing his time between his primary responsibility -- directing
the fire-fighting operation -- and answering queries when time permits.

A TV REPORTER: Is anyone still in there?

THE CHIEF: Yeah, yeah. I think so, anyway. The owner of the building says
twelve people live here. We've accounted for five. There are four old people
who live on the first floor, and he says they don't go out much.

A RADIO REPORTER: Can you get them out?

THE CHIEF: Maybe, if you'll get the hell out of my way. (To nearby
firefighters attaching their hoses to a hydrant): Put Captain Larsen on the
nozzle. Look in the first two rooms on the right as you go in. The first two
rooms on the right!

Captain Larsen is in charge of the Central District Rescue Squad. It is he and his men who
will crawl into the maw of the fire and search for victims. They travel on their bellies; the
air near the floor is relatively cool -- say, 150 degrees -- but if they stood erect it would be
possible that their protective masks would melt and the men would be incinerated from
the waist up.

Captain Larsen's squad crawls ahead, pushing the nozzle forward, wetting down the path
of entry, and groping for the first doorway. While they carry powerful flashlights, the
beams serve only to illuminate a six-inch cone of smoke. By touch rather than sight they
locate the door, which, in keeping with Murphy's Law of firefighting, is locked. The men
rise to their knees and crack the door open with their axes.

As they enter the first room, the men are already exhausted. In addition to fighting
against the pressure of the water coming from the nozzle–something like trying to push a
rocket back on its launching pad -- each man is encumbered by his coat, boots, hat and

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respirator, which weigh a total of 45 pounds per person. Fighting off the fatigue, Larsen's
squad begins spraying the room and searching under beds and in closets, places where
frightened and disoriented fire victims typically hide.

Because of the thick smoke the firefighters are disoriented, too. One realizes that he is
standing in an overflowing bathtub. Another finds that what he thinks is a wall is really
the door of a refrigerator.

Outside, fire crews are scrambling to set up ladders. They want to carve holes in the roof
to allow the superheated gasses to escape, and need to have access to the windows to
search for and extricate survivors. Lieutenant Masters is in charge of a ladder company.
He's shorthanded as it is -- he's even conscripted a civilian to help him raise a ladder --
but he stops what he's doing to run over to the district chief when he sees an ominous
sign.

"Chief," Masters implores, tugging on the chief's sleeve, "Look at the smoke
coming out of the back...it's coal black, and it's swirling."

The district chief knows what that means. He orders all men inside the building to
evacuate. And they almost made it.

A Routine Story Becomes a Tragedy

When a burning structure is tightly sealed, as it is on the cold December night, the fire
sometimes uses up all available oxygen. If a path to the outside is made, the oxygen
rushes in underneath the superheated gasses in what's known as a backdraft. A
backdraft can be dangerous because the route firefighters are using for entry and exit
becomes the direction the fire is spreading. In this case, the rushing air creates a
powerful backdraft because the ceiling has not been fully vented yet, and the oxygen
creates what is known as a flashover, a deadly effect where everything inside a room or
hallway reaches its ignition point but can't burn because there's no oxygen. But when
oxygen arrives, as it did at 8:37, everything inside virtually explodes.

The flashover killed three firefighters. One resident died, an elderly man who, moments
after the flashover, leaped from the third floor to escape the flames. The ladder did not
reach him in time. No residents were still inside the bottom rooms when the fire scene
flashed over.

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What the Reporters Do with the Information
They’ve Gathered
Here is some of what will happen with the information gathered by reporters at the
scene:

1. Radio and Television Reports. Writing for television, radio or video requires a
different set of skills than writing text. Clear and condensed writing is key. After
all, a radio listener or TV viewer can't go back and re-read a sentence.

To improve your broadcast writing, multimedia producer Jehangir Irani

recommends that you open a major newspaper, pick any news article, and try
reading the first paragraph aloud.

You'll probably find that "it’s long and dry," he says, "and you’ll run out of breath
before finishing it."

To help you hone your broadcast writing skills, IJNet recently spoke to Irani and
media trainer Estel Dillon. Here are their key tips:

● Write like you speak: Write in your own voice, in a conversational tone,
as if you’re speaking to only one listener. Keep sentences short. If you have
a long sentence, follow it up with a short one. When you go back and read
your narration aloud, do you truly sound like yourself?
● Keep it simple: Allot a sentence to each idea. Be clear and concise, stick to
the story and don't try too hard to be "clever." Too much detail can become
irrelevant and make the story lose focus. Avoid most multiple-syllable
words, words that are tough to pronounce and long, convoluted sentences.
"Treasure small words," Dillon says.
● Provide specificity: Although the goal is to write clearly, you must also
avoid being too general. Dillon says reporters should provide context for
anything that may cause confusion or "raise eyebrows." When describing
people, don't label them. Tell exactly what they do as opposed to using their
official title.
● Tell stories in a logical order: Make sure that your content has a
beginning, a middle and an ending. Don't bury the lead; state the news near
the top, without too much buildup.

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 ● Use the present tense and active voice: You're writing for flow and to
express what is going on now. Broadcast strives for immediacy. To convey
this to the listener, use the active voice whenever possible. In English, try to
use a subject-verb-object sentence structure. For example: "Police (subject)
have arrested (verb) 21 activists (object) for staging a protest at Merlion
Park on Saturday afternoon."
● Write to the pictures: TV and video audiences will see why something
happened. In television, the phrase “write to tape” is used to describe the
way a story script is built around the visual images you have gathered.
Don't write any longer than the story or pictures warrant.
● Use imagery: Radio audiences need to imagine the people, places and
things in your story. With your words, create powerful and straightforward
imagery. Use descriptive verbs instead of adjectives. For example, if you
say “he struts or saunters” you’re giving a picture without using an
adjective. But don't let vivid, imagery-rich writing turn verbose. Use words
sparingly.
● Let the speaker speak: If you’re hosting a show or an interview, be the
host. Don't overpower the subject of the story. When interviewing, "Don’t
'mm hmm' them and don't keep talking and talking about yourself," Irani
says. "You’re just a conduit whose job it is to relay a
story/experience/emotion from the guest to the audience."

2. Newspaper Reports. News articles report on current events that are relevant to
the readership of a publication. These current events might take place locally,
nationally, or internationally.

News writing is a skill that’s used worldwide, but this writing format—with its
unique rules and structure—differs from other forms of writing. Understanding
how to write a news story correctly can ensure you’re performing your
journalistic duty to your audience.

Regardless of the type of news article you’re writing, it should always include the
facts of the story, a catchy but informative headline, a summary of events in
paragraph form, and interview quotes from expert sources or of public sentiment
about the event. News stories are typically written from a third-person point of
view while avoiding opinion, speculation, or an informal tone.

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3. Web Reports. Also known as digital journalism or online journalism, web reports
are a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via
the Internet as opposed to publishing via print or broadcast. Fewer barriers to
entry, lowered distribution costs, and diverse computer networking technologies
have led to the widespread practice of digital journalism. It has democratized the
flow of information that was previously controlled by traditional media including
newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. Some have asserted that a greater
degree of creativity can be exercised with digital journalism when compared to
traditional journalism and traditional media. The digital aspect may be central to
the journalistic message and remains, to some extent, within the creative control
of the writer, editor, and/or publisher.

4. Hard and Soft News from the Fire. News that does not include immediate, “this
is what happened” reporting is known as “soft” news. Soft news usually is thought
of as a “feature” or “human-interest” piece, and it usually begins with an anecdote
(a story) rather than a hard-news, summary lead. A story that begins with an
anecdote is usually said to have a “feature lead.”

5. Follow-Up Reporting. A follow-up is a journalist's term for a story which is

written so that you can report more of a story which has already been published
or broadcast. Those extra details can be new facts, later developments, reactions
or new issues which have been raised by the original event. What all follow-ups
have in common is that they depend for some of their news value on a story
which has gone before.

Follow-ups are needed because one story on its own may not cover all aspects of
an event or controversy properly. Although life goes on second-by-second,
day-by-day, journalists cannot report it all. Journalists have to concentrate on bits
of life and report them to their readers or listeners in 20 centimeter stories or
40-second news reports, three-minute current affairs segments or half-page
features. Journalists impose space and time limits on their reports which do not
always reflect how important the event is in the real world.

Journalists also attempt to show continuing events in self-contained "chunks"

called news stories. With the amount of information now available from
throughout the world, you have no alternative if you are to share out your limited
time effectively.

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 However, just because you as a journalist have described an event in a
single-column story or a 30-second report does not mean that the event itself has
been described completely. There are often side-issues which have not been
touched or later events which will need reporting themselves.

The Story Goes National

When a story goes national, in order to make national viewers understand the news in
their perspective is to localize the news. Localization is the process of adapting a piece of
content's full meaning for a new region, including translation, associated imagery, and
cultural elements that influence how your content will be perceived.

Localization is all about making your website feel like it was written with that audience
in mind. Fully localized content resonates with users because it incorporates relevant
cultural nuance to feel familiar instead of simply replacing English words with translated
text.

Localization looks at every aspect of your content, including:

● Language: Translation is a crucial aspect of localization, but it’s far from the only
part. Transforming your content from your source language to your target
language is just the beginning.
● Tone and message: Localization considers what will resonate with your target
audience, not just what’s technically correct. Are you trying to persuade them or
educate them in your marketing materials?
● Imagery and color: What may be appropriate in one country can be offensive in
another. Take, for example, the thumbs-up sign. In the U.S., it means “Good job!”
or “Like!” In Greece or Italy, it’s an inappropriate gesture best left out of any
designs.
● Date, time, measurement, and number formats: Formats change based on
location and may differ even within the same language. In the U.S., the date
follows this format: “July 4, 1776.” But in the U.K., that same date would be written
like this: “4 July 1776.”
● User interface: The way your audience expects to navigate your website or app
changes based on their cultural context and language. Right-to-left languages like
Arabic or Hebrew naturally change how you design a page. This is also called
software localization.

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 ● Payment method: Offering relevant credit cards and payment processing, in
addition to posting prices in the correct currency, matters for e-commerce —
otherwise, you may be missing out on customers that would otherwise want to do
business with you but can’t make sense of foreign currencies or don’t see a
payment option that works for them.

Localization can become highly nuanced to match unique dialects of a specific region
within a country or within the same language, depending on your audience. Going back
to our U.S. vs. U.K. example, many aspects of the language are different even though they
both speak English, from spelling (localization vs. localisation, for example) to
vocabulary choices (sweater vs. jumper). That’s why translation isn’t enough — you need
to consider the local culture, too.

Today’s world is more interconnected than ever. More than 6,000 languages are spoken
in the world today, from Spanish to Swedish. Of those, it takes almost 52 languages to
reach the majority of the global audience. So if you’re building a business with a global
audience in mind, you need to consider localization top priority.

The Networks Make an Initial Judgment

In New York City, the heads of the major network TV news divisions are screening
footage of the fire provided by their local affiliates, and attempting to decide whether to
use the story at all. It's an important story, and the video is compelling, but in the limited
time available for the network news, it faces a great deal of competition. The President is
holding a summit meeting with the leader of Russia, a major bill may come for a vote in
Congress today, and seven U.S. military advisors have died in an ambush in a country
strongly allied to the United States.

At 10:30 a.m., the producers of one network newscast begin debating the fire story. It's a
rather cold-blooded affair, comparing whether the deaths of four people here are more
important than the deaths of four people there. News decisions involving the magnitude
of a story based on the number of deaths can be, as the late John Chancellor of NBC News
pointed out, a "cold, impersonal process," but it is "the mathematics of the news
business." When only two people die in a tragedy, he noted, it is a small story nationally;
if it were twenty-two, it would be a major one.

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A New Development Changes the Importance of the Story

But the fire remains a huge story locally, no question about that. And at 3 p.m., the story
becomes even bigger. Police arrest a man and charge him with arson. The motive: He
wanted exact revenge against a former lover who had spurned him. The horrid irony:
She no longer lived in the building.

The story immediately makes all the news outlets’ websites and blogs. The local evening
newscasts run several stories about the arson. The evening newspaper carries six
separate stories about the fire, including a detailed history of a fire three years ago that
killed two firefighters, the most recent duty-related death. Various news organizations
update their websites throughout the day.

The story now makes the network TV newscasts, but only as a fifteen- second piece read
by the anchor with some footage of the fire (about seven seconds' worth) shown over the
anchor's picture while the anchor continues to "voice over" the story. The brief script:

What police called a senseless act of revenge was made even more tragic by a
startling revelation...police in the city of Metropolis today charged a man
with arson in connection with a fire last night that killed four people,
including three firefighters. Police say the man set the blaze as an act of
revenge against a former girlfriend...but they say she had moved out of the
building two weeks ago.

Where Does the Story Develop from Here?

That is the trail the story has left so far. There is one major aspect of the story left to
break, and you can probably deduce it by reviewing what has happened above. The clue
is buried there, and will be revealed at the end of the next section.

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Why is this Story News?
In one sense, we can all agree about the most basic definition of news, and your “news
judgment” would dictate what you would want to know if you drove by a major fire in
progress:

1. Is anyone dead, injured or still in danger? Who?

2. How extensive is the fire, and is it being brought under control?
3. What started it?

So far, we can all agree the fire constitutes news – and if you posed any version of the
three questions above, that basic news judgment is a reflection of normal curiosity. But
how can this concept be put into words? What exactly is news? Many definitions of news
have been posited. Here is a good one from University of Oregon journalism professor
Ken Metzler:

News is "prompt, 'bottom-line' recounting of factual information about

events, situations and ideas (including opinions and interpretations)
calculated to interest an audience and help people cope with themselves and
their environment.

Metzler’s definition includes the idea that news is designed to capture an audience, and
that is an important concept to keep in mind. Editors and news directors certainly do,
and this leads to another definition: News is what an editor says is news.

An example of this concept: The network news executives decided that the fire story was
news, but only after the fire story took a bizarre twist. However, if the national news
menu were any heavier that day -- suppose there were a stock market crash -- that same
executive might decide that the story is not news, at least not news as far as tonight’s
edition of the network broadcast is concerned.

Concepts that Help Define News

You will note that several factors have so far come into play, factors that helped people at
various news organizations decide whether the fire story was “news.” While these
factors can be categorized in many ways, I chose five while researching a book I wrote
about news judgment: timeliness, magnitude, unusual aspects of the story, direct or

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indirect identification, and drama.

1. Timeliness. Most of us have an innate interest in recent developments; hence the

common expression, "Did you hear the latest...?" Sometimes this interest in timely
stories is a function of curiosity, while other times there is a direct need to know
timely information.

Our interest in the fire story was piqued because it was happening now, right this
minute. We wanted to know all the details about a story of this importance -- and
we wanted them now, not tomorrow.

2. Magnitude. The size and scope of an event has a direct impact on its
newsworthiness. The fire that led this chapter involved the loss of four lives.
While in the icy mathematics of the news business four lives might not guarantee
newsworthiness on a network newscast, it is a compelling factor nonetheless. If 40
people died, the event would most certainly make the national news. If 400
perished, it would undoubtedly be one of the biggest stories of the year.

3. Unusual Aspects of the Story. The "man bites dog" bromide still holds true in the
news business. News is generated when something out-of-the-ordinary happens.
The event might not be anything earth-shaking, and it might be downright silly. A
seasonal story given prominent national play over a period of years involving the
ill-fated and hopelessly complicated romance of a wild moose and a dairy cow
comes immediately to mind. Unusual aspects elevate a story in importance when
they are coupled with a deadly-serious side, too, such as the death of three
firefighters. While firefighting is a hazardous job, it is still highly unusual for
three firefighters to die in one blaze. Ditto for planes crashing; it is the atypical
aspect of a plane crash -- and not necessarily its magnitude -- that draws news
coverage.

4. Direct or Indirect Identification. A story about a fire in a downtown landmark is

likely to interest listeners or viewers to a greater degree than a fire of similar
import in a remote area. If it happened in a building that thousands of people
drive by each day, the event gains in news value because people identify with the
scene of the event and can, to an extent, picture some of the story in their heads.
The same theory applies to stories about famous people. We don't know them, per
se, but we know about them. We have some indirect, vicarious identification with
them. To reinforce the theme of our chapter-opening example, we identify with
fire stories strongly, both on a direct and indirect level. Viewers in the local area

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 know where the neighborhood is, and probably know the street, too. Hence the
stronger appeal of the story to a local audience as opposed to a national audience.
We identify more closely with events geographically close. There is also a strong
measure of indirect identification in that most of us have had some experience
with a house-fire -- either having seen one or experienced one.

5. Impact. Another facet of identification is impact. The fire story might not touch us
directly but, as alluded to above, it has an indirect impact. Further, as residents of
the city, we have a presumed right to know why three of our municipal employees
died in a fire. And we have a right to know if the fire department is up to the job.
Remember the question posed at the end of the fire story: What else would be
covered as the story develops? When you read the story, did you wonder why it
was that a firefighter had to ask a civilian for help raising the ladder -- the ladder
that did not reach the elderly man in time? Is there a personnel shortage? Is there
a problem with lack of training? A reporter wants to find out. (And once did; this
is a real story, and the reporter who made the “catch” filed a major and important
piece.) The fact that the fire department may be understaffed is a big story, even if
this detail required some digging to ferret out.

6. Drama. A drama is essentially a story, and newscasters are storytellers. At their

root, most stories are about conflict. It may be a conflict of men and women
against one of our oldest adversaries -- fire. In other circumstances, the drama
might center around the conflict of two people vying for a political office, or police
attempting to stanch the drug trade.

In sum, news is what happens around us, perceived by us through a mass media that acts
as an extended “sensory” or “surveillance” mechanism, and journalists keep that
mechanism humming. Journalism is the business of news, and is sometimes a profitable
business. Journalism also rides waves of technologies, adapting so as to exploit new
media. And perhaps the most important characteristic of journalism, as defined by its
history, is the craft’s ability to shine in a crisis, and at the same time shine light on parts
of society that some people prefer to remain hidden.

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 ACTIVITY 1
Community Affairs

Instructions.

Look for news articles less than one year old. Read the whole story and analyze why
these stories are newsworthy. List at least 5 news articles.

ASSIGNMENT
Fire Drill

Instructions.

Participate in tomorrow’s fire drill and write a news article about the event. Interview
people during the event, observe, look and talk to key people, take pictures, and look
for possible angles. Then, write a story once your story has developed and print it
looking like an actual news clipping. You can write without prior knowledge of writing
for the news. This assignment’s purpose is to assess your writing skills.

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REFERENCES

An Introduction to Journalism by Richard Rudin and Trevor Ibbotson

Principles and Practices of Journalism by Carl Hausman

Practical Guide to Mass Media Law by by National Union of Journalists of the Philippines

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