Broadcast Journalism

As we discovered at the beginning of the course, we could argue for several variations of a definition of the news. Yet experts agree on key components of what we mean by news. Similarly, experts might argue over the precise definition of broadcast journalism. Yet, we must be careful work with a definition that corresponds to what people generally mean by the term. Los Angeles Times assistant managing editor Simon Li noted that quality journalism is hard to explain, but easy to spot. "It's like that Supreme Court Justice's definition of pornography: Most of us know it when we see it," he said. (From New Orleans TimesPicayune) Broadcast Journalism generally includes Local and national news Radio news Television and radio shows that are designed to present the news (facts and happenings),
rather than to entertain, support a cause, or promote a particular view point

Broadcast Journalism DOES NOT include Talk shows (such as Oprah) Satire (such as The Daily Show) A source that happens to give us information, but is not designed to be a news show (like many Discovery Channel, A & E, or History Channel shows)

A Brief History of Broadcast

Posted on November 24, 2010 by the20somethingdarling

From the humble beginnings of American radio in 1906 to the development of satellite radio today, broadcast has undergone enormous changes in a little over a century. Broadcast is ever changing and always exciting. Lets take a moment to reflect on the roots of broadcast journalism and one of its greats, as presented by CBS and Historynet.com It was not until 1935 that FM radio was developed. This was the same year that a man by the name of Edward Roscoe Murrow took a job as the director of talks with CBS. At the time CBS was the largest radio network in the country with 97 stations. By 1937 Murrow had moved to London and for the first time he began his program with the line, This is London. While it seems that Murrow was just doing his job, he was also making history. It was the first time that a reporter in the field had communicated with a central anchor in New York to turn out a daily national broadcast. The program was later named World News Roundup.

Objective
To provide information, education and wholesome entertainment, keeping in view the motto, "Bahujan Hitaya; Bahujan Sukhaya" i.e. the benefit and

happiness of large sections of the people, and strive to : Uphold the unity of the country and the democrative values enshrined in the Constitution; Present a fair and balanced flow of information of national, regional, local and international interest, including contrasting views, without advocating any opinion or ideology of its own. Promote the interests and concerns of the entire nation, being mindful of the need for harmony and understanding within the country and ensuring that the programmes reflect the varied elements which make up the composite culture of India. Produce and transit varied programmes designed to awaken, inform, enlighten, educate, entertain and enrich all sections of the people, with due regard to the fact that the national broadcast audience consists of a whole series of public. Produce and transmit programmes relating to developmental activities in all their facets including, extension work in Agriculture, Education, Health and Family Welfare , Science and Technology.

Serve the rural, illiterate and underprivileged population, keeping in mind the special needs and interests of the young, social and cultural minorities, the tribal population, and of those residing in border regions, backward or remote areas. Promote social justice and combat exploitation, inequality, and such evils as untouchability and parochial loyalties. Promote national integration.

All India Radio

Radio Broadcasting started in India in the early 1920's. The first programme was broadcast in 1923 by the Radio club of Bombay. This was followed by setting up Broadcasting Services in 1927 with two privatelyowned transmitters at Bombay and Calcutta. The Government took over the transmitters in 1930 and started operating them under the name of Indian Broadcasting Service. It was changed to All India Radio (AIR) in 1936 and it came to be known as Akashvani from 1957.

Organisational Set Up
The Directorate General, All India Radio functions under the Prasar Bharati. The Prasar Bharati Board functions at the apex level ensuring formulation and implementation of the policies of the organisation and fulfillment of the mandate in terms of the Prasar Bharati. Act, 1990. The Executive Member functions as a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Corporation subject to the control and supervision of the Board. The CEO, the Member (Finance) and the Member (Personnel) perform their functions from Prasar Bharati headquarters at 2nd Floor, PTI Building - Parliament Street, New Delhi-110001.

All important policy matters relating to Finance, Administration and Personnel are submitted to CEO and the Board through the Member (Finance) and Member (Personnel) as required, for the purpose of advice, implementation of proposals and decisions thereon. Officers from different streams working in the Prasar Bharati Secretariat assist the CEO, Member (Finance) and Member (Personnel) in integrating action, operations, plans and policy implementation as well as to look after the budget, accounts and general financial matters of the Corporation. Prasar Bharati also has a unified vigilance set up at the headquarters, headed by a Chief Vigilance Officer. The Director General of All India Radio is headed by the Director General. He functions in close association with the Member (Finance) and Member (Personnel) and the CEO in carrying out the day to day affairs of AIR. In AIR there are broadly five different Wings responsible for distinct activities viz, Programme, Engineering, Administration, Finance and News.

Programme Wing
The Director General is assisted by Deputy Directors General in the Headquarters and Deputy Directors General in the regions for a better supervision of the stations. The Headquarters of the Regional DDGs are situated at Kolkata (ER) Mumbai and Ahmedabad (WR), Lucknow (CR-I), Bhopal (CR-II), Guwahati (NER), Chennai SR-I), Bangaluru (SR-II), Delhi (NR-I) and Chandigarh (NR-II).

Engineering Wing
In respect of technical matters of All India Radio, The Director General is assisted by the Engineer-in-Chief and Chief Engineers posted in the headquarters and the zonal Chief Engineers. In addition, there is a Planning and Development Unit in the Headquarters to assist the Director General in respect of Development Plan Scheme of All India Radio. In respect of Civil Construction activities, the Director General is assisted by the Civil Construction Wing, which is headed by a Chief Engineer. CCW also caters to the needs of Doordarshan.

Administrative Wing
A Dy. Director General (Administration) assists the Director General on all matters of administration while Dy. Director General (Programme) assists DG in administration of Programme personnel. A Director looks after the Engineering Administration of All India Radio, while another Director (Admin. & Finance) assists DG in matters of administration and finance.

Security Wing
The Director General is assisted by a Deputy Director General (Security), Asstt. Director General (Security) and a Dy. Director (Security) on matters connected with the security and safety of AIR installations, transmitters, studios, offices etc.

Audience Research Wing

There is a Director, Audience Research to assist the Director General in carrying out surveys of audience research on the programmes broadcast by various station of All India Radio.

Activities Of Subordinate Offices Of Air

There are a number of subordinate offices of All India Radio performing distinct functions. Broad activities, in brief, are given below.

News Services Division

News Services Division works round the clock and broadcasts over 500 news bulletins both in the home and external services. The bulletins are in Indian and Foreign languages. It is headed by Director General, News Service. There are 44 regional News Units. The bulletins vary from region to region according to news interest.

External Service Division

As a 'Voice of the Nation', External Services Division of All India Radio has been India's "Authentic Window to the World". With growing importance of India in the world, an increasingly important role is envisaged for External Broadcast for times to come. External Services Division of All India Radio broadcasts in 16 foreign and 11 Indian languages for approximately 72 hours in a day covering more than 100 countries.

Transcription & Programme Exchange Service

This service looks after exchange of programmes among the stations, building and maintenance of sound archives and commercial release of prestigious recordings of music maestros.

Research Department
The functions of the Research Department include Research and Development of equipment required by AIR and Doordarshan, investigation and studies relating to AIR and Doordarshan, development of prototype models of R&D equipment for limited use, field trials in the network of AIR and Doordarshan.

Central Store Office

The Central Store Office located at New Delhi performs functions relating to procurement, stocking and distribution of engineering stores required for the maintenance of technical equipment at All India Radio Stations.

Staff Training Institute (Programme)

The Staff Training Institute (Programme) started with Directorate since 1948 has presently two main branches functioning from Kingsway Camp, Delhi and Bhubaneshwar. It imparts in-service training to programme personnel and administrative staff and induction course for the newly recruited staff and short duration refresher courses. It conducts examinations for administrative staff. In addition, at present five Regional Training Institutes at Hyderabad, Shillong, Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Thiruvananthapuram are working.

Staff Training Institute (Technical)

The Staff Training Institute (Technical), part of the Directorate since 1985, now functions at Kingsway Camp, Delhi. The Institute organizes training courses for the engineering staff of All India Radio and Doordarshan from the level of Technician to the Superintending Engineer. It also conducts departmental qualifying and competitive examinations. There is one regional Staff Training Institute (Technical) at Bhubaneswar.

CBS Centres & Vividh Bharati

There are 40 Vividh Bharati cum Commercial Broadcasting Service (CBS) Centres including 3 Exclusive VB Centres. The work relating to CBS is performed in two wings i.e., Sales and Production. A separate independent office known as Central Sales Unit along with 15 main CBS Centres looks after marketing of broadcasting time. There are two more Vividh Bharati Centres at Varanasi and Kochi.

Radio Stations

There are at present 231 Radio Stations. Each of these radio stations functions as the subordinate office of All India Radio.

High Power Transmitters

The HP Transmitters are equipped with short wave/medium wave transmitters together with eight extensive aerial systems to serve the external, home and news services of All India Radio. The main function of these centres is to transmit the programmes produced at nearby studios and also from Delhi studios.

Programme Composition
News, music and spoken work programmes constitute the three major pillars of AIR's programme composition. Music includes classical, folk, light, devotional, film and western music programmes. Talks, discussions, interviews are regularly arranged to provide a forum for all shades of opinion on outstanding national and international issues. While some of the programmes are arranged for being relayed by a number of stations, a much larger number are presented by individual stations in their respective languages. Radio drama is also an important ingredient of AIR's programme and figures both in its general programmes as well as in the programmes for specific groups. Radio features and documentaries are other formats, which employ the entire range of audio formats in a single programme, e.g., narration, music, drama, interviews, poetry, sound effects, etc. Programmes for rural listeners are broadcast from almost all AIR Stations in different languages and also in local dialects to provide educational and informational support to agriculture and rural development programmes.

Special programmes for women are broadcast from all stations of AIR. These programmes are directed to housewives and working women. Though these programmes provide items of information and of educational nature, as also entertainment. Programmes on health, family welfare, household chores, nutrition and problem of working women are broadcast. The programmes for children are broadcast for tiny tots and also children up to the age of 14 years. Educational programmes of AIR cover a wide spectrum, primary, secondary, tertiary and university levels. Enrichment programmes are also broadcast for teachers. Programmes on sports are very popular with the listeners and these constitute an important feature of AIR's programmes. All the important sports events of international, national, regional and local levels are given due coverage through running

commentaries, despatches and radio reports. Apart from two 5-minute daily news bulletins, AIR also broadcasts two half-hour sports magazine programmes. Yuva Vani caters to the needs and tastes of the youth in the age group of 15-30 years. These programmes are in different formats such as talks, discussions, interviews, plays, features, music etc., and are produced and presented by the youth and for the youth. Delhi, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Jammu & Srinagar Stations have separate Yuva Vani Channels. Programmes for the senior citizens (aged people) are being broadcast from number of AIR stations for a duration of 30 minutes every week. Programmes for industrial workers are being broadcast from AIR Stations in regional languages for a duration ranging from 20 to 30 minutes, two to seven days a week. Interactive broadcasts like the Phone-in-Programme, Radio Bridge and Voice Mail, apart from people's forum programmes, are recent innovations in broadcasting. In the Phone-in-Programme, people telephone to the broadcasting station on a given telephone number at the time of broadcast and ask questions and the experts at the broadcasting station reply to their queries immediately. The entire communication is simultaneous. Voice Mail is another service facility, where people can telephone and record their requests, complaints, suggestions and appreciation, etc. These messages are later retrieved and played back in a special Voice Mail programme with suitable replies to their queries. 'Radio Bridge' is a programme on special occasions and is broadcast live by uplinking AIR stations through satellite. It presents a live interaction among the participants including listeners in different parts of the country. Presently 20 AIR stations have uplinking facility. Using the satellite facility AIR has made provision for 20 radio channels for cable distribution. The system became operational on April 1, 1994 to enable the subscribers to receive the Sky Radio Channel on their domestic FM receivers.

News studio
Well my brain is at bursting point, but a happy bursting point. If that makes any sense...... I have been skilfully guided through some of the practicals of how Sharon goes about what she does. Learning about the various elements that you need to carefully weight and balance in order to produce a piece of writing.

Roughly speaking they covered; Types of narrative drive, e.g. Plot vs Character. How the drama of a piece of narrative will often come from obstacle and objective and the way in which a protagonist overcomes one to reach the other. The narrative arc. That the protagonist is the eyes of audience on the world you are creating. This all followed onto subjects like pace and drive and a wonderful example that Sharon uses of a depth charge and how its timing drives the audience forward on their path through the narrative. That tone of voice seemed to me be actually in someway indicative of the tremendous amount of yourself that inevitably goes into writing a piece. This lead on to style and structure where I realised I should probably go back and re-watch some Tarantino to appreciate the way in which he plays around with it. But also that Sharon has a preference, that seemed to me like a choice of tool or colour. I'm not sure but I wonder if this is instinctive? This all got my mind whizzing about structural forms in the narrative, how we can map them. I guess thats the programmer in me wanting to see the patterns. Along with all this I really felt like I got an insight into the mindset. It's a very instinctive and implicit creative process. Sure inspiration comes from things around you but...You have to inhabit the world you create in order to tap into that instinctive story telling that we all understand, that the audience will follow in their imagination. A bit like I'm guessing the way someone will compose a piece of music. I guess I found that fascinating coming from a discipline when so much requires an instinctive but never the less much more explicit understanding. Where the struggle is often with not killing the creative side of things. Element of news reporting

The first class of Journalism 101 highlights the importance of five simple words. Who, What, When, Where and Why. These 5 W's are the essential building blocks of news writing. Two more elements have impacted the flow of a news article. How? And So What? The sheer amount of news now requires new strategies to get readers involved in a single news story. These seven news requirements will forge a news article that is informative, well-written and even potentially important. Who?

Several questions should be asked in order to highlight any people who may be involved in the story. Find the major players, knowledgeable sources, stakeholders, etc. Secondary people would include those who support or oppose an issue or who may be indirectly affected by the problem or event. What? What is going on? What happened? Answers to these simple questions should be driven by key moments in the story and the forces that have created the issue or alternately, fixed the problem. This factor is the basic premise that supports why the story is news worthy. When? Attached to the events of What?, it is important to include a timeline of events. At what point does the story begin and where does it end? For future articles on the issue, an accurate timeline can be a useful tool. Where? Where is the action? This includes more than just the address or cross streets. Consider what the location looks like, sounds like and smells like as well as any surrounding locations that might impact the story. A great news writer would be able to make the reader "see" the location with minimal words. Why? This factor is not always the easiest to uncover depending on the circumstances. Look deeper than a simple, "Why did this thing happen?" Look towards why the people involved are behaving a certain way. Are there circumstances beyond the immediate story that contribute to the question of why? How? Once the initial story has broke, readers will want to gain insight into how the event happened, how the story was revealed and how the end has played out. How is an important factor for people to make sure something terrible never happens again, or even leads to government action. Just ask Enron and every other organization trying to keep up with changing governmental regulations. How? adds insight to a story that otherwise would be glossed over and forgotten. So What? So much news is at our fingertips today. With only so much time to read it all, it becomes important to learn quickly, "Why should I care about this story?" Writers need to gain a firm grasp early in the

writing of the article about why their story matters. For people to stick around and keep reading they should know why this story relates to them, impacts their life or is simply important for people to know about. These seven factors come together to give a story as much pertinent information as possible. The story can be informative, compelling and vital at the same time. Journalism, at its best, is an incredible tool for society.

Writing and Reporting / Collaborative Research1.

Students know good news stories when they see and hear them. Ask students to work as a class to brainstorm the characteristics of a good news story. Record student ideas on the board or overhead. Key components that should be included on the list include:

Attention getting headline A strong lead containing 5 Ws and H (who, what, when, where, why, and how) Use of quotes (we like to hear what others have to say about the topic of the story) Real facts (the truth and accuracy matter) A strong summary Arrangement of the story (presenting information from most to least important)

2. Facilitate a short discussion about what make a story newsworthy. Some key elements when considering newsworthiness are:

o o o o o

Timing: if it happened today, its news, if it happened last week, its not; with 24-hour news access, breaking news is important Significance: how many people are affected Proximity: the closer a story hits to home, the more newsworthy it is Prominence: when famous people are affected, the story matters (i.e. car accident involving your family vs. a car accident involving the President) Human Interest: because these stories are based on emotional appeal, they are meant to be amusing or to generate empathy or other emotions. They often appear in special sections of the newspaper or at the end of the newscast as a feel good story or to draw attention to something particularly amusing, quirky, or offbeat

3. Watch the video, listen to the audio, or print the transcript of the story of your choice from the Archive section of NOW Online available athttp://www.pbs.org/now/thisweek/archive.html. Distribute the News Story Analysis Worksheet provided with the lesson and review the directions with the class. Direct students to complete questions 1-6 on the worksheet as a class, in small groups, or in pairs, whichever is most effective for your students. 4. Facilitate a classroom discussion about questions 1-6 on the News Story Analysis Worksheet and encourage students to share their answers and ideas as part of the class discussion. 5. Discuss the importance of finding and citing reliable resources when doing reporting a news story. Remind students that with the evolution of the internet, some amateur sources and blogs are not credible sources. Points to address when discussing Internet resources:

Determining who is sponsoring/presenting the content you are using as a resource. Many reputable organizations will include their name in their URL. In addition, the 3 letter domain code will provide clues about the origin of the content (i.e. edu = educational institution, gov = government, org = organization, com

= commercial, net = personal, etc.) The group providing the information can also slant its content to promote the agenda most likely to serve the group. Find out about the author(s) by reviewing the about section of the site, looking for specific contact information, and looking for author credentials on the site Always evaluate the purpose of the site and try to understand the goals and mission of the people responsible for producing the site. If it is a commercial site, chances are they are trying to sell their product. It if it an organization site, they are probably promoting their specific point of view.