Something For Aspirant of Journalism Courses :2

Concepts of News/Journalism

DEFNITION OF NEWS

News is a report of any current event, idea or problem which interest large number of people BUT it acquires different meanings and concepts in different political, economic and socio-cultural environment.

ELEMENTS OF NEWS

A News report must answer following questions:

WHO
WHAT
WHEN
WHERE
WHY
HOW
CREDIBILITY

Principles to be observed while reporting an event or editing news report

Accuracy
Fairness
Balance
Attribution
Objectivity


NEWSWORTHINESS

How to decide newsworthiness of an event, idea or problem (Evaluating information or any information package)

Audience
Impact
Proximity
Timeliness
Prominence (Size)
Context
Policy Parameters
Specific Informational Value
Unusualness

STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY

INTRO
EXPLANATORY DETAILS
DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ETC.
(In order of descending importance)

Various Types of Journalistic Writings

FACTS
ANALYSIS
VIEWS

Ø News item
Ø News Report
Ø News Analysis
Ø Interpretative Reporting
Ø Feature/Featured Reporting
Ø Interview
Ø Commentary
Ø Article
Ø Editorial
Ø Profile, Review, Review Article etc.


Functions of Media

Information
Education
Entertainment
Agenda Setting

Three streams of new media


News- “Page One” journalism
Entertainment – “Page Three” journalism
Education- “Page Seven journalism”


Emergence of infotainment

Commercialization of Media
News: Product
Media as a Profit making business venture
Reader/ Viewer/Listener as Consumer

Information +Entertainment

Combining Factors:

MARKET
INVESTORS
ADVERTISERS

MARKET DRIVEN MEDIA: some key elements

PRIMARY PURPOSE OF NEWS IS TO EMPOWER PUBLIC BY MAXIMIZING ITS UNDERSTANDING OF CURRENT ISSUES AND EVENTS THAT SHAPE ITS ENVIRONMENT. ONCE NEWS IS TREATED AS COMMODITY LOSE ITS INFORMATIONAL VALUE

Profit
Competition
Winning Audience Game

Entertainment becomes dominant replacing informational value of news which in turn might encourage ignorance at the Cost of UNDERSTANDING


MARKET JOURNALISM GATHERS AN AUDIENCE NOT TO INFORM BUT TO SELL IT TO ADVERTISERS. FEW POWERFUL CORPORATIONS WIN AND PUBLIC LOSES
-BEN BAGDIKIAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

COUNTER POINT

MARKET CONTAINS ADEQUATE SAFEGUARDS AGANST ABUSE
-PHILIP MAYER, UNIV. OF NORHT, COROLINA
For citizens and information consumers, it is important to develop the skill of detecting bias: Concepts of “misinformed consumer” and “informed citizen” (Consumer and citizen are one and the same but role differs)

Dominant Models in Today’s Journalism

The Watchdog
CNN Effect
News Management
Thought control
Manufacturing Consent
Mutual Exploitation

Two Major Streams in Journalism

Episodic Journalism
Thematic Journalism

Ø Reporting Event: What was happening
Ø Reporting the process that goes into happening of the event
Ø Explain why it was happening

Role of News Media

How things work
How things are supposed to work
How things normally work

The investigative process

Ø Tip –Tipsters
Ø Formation of story idea
Ø Formulation of the problem
Ø Preliminary research feasibility study
Ø Plan of action-Synopsis
Ø Minimum and maximum story

Base building: The Spiral of Research

Ø Written sources
Ø Experts- the sources of knowledge
Ø Sources of experiences
Ø Reportage- Field trips- Observations
Ø Key interviews

Assessment and analysis

· Conclusions
· Outline of story
· Writing and revising
· Hand in before deadline

Objectivity and Bias

Bias is a small word that identifies the collective influences of the entire context of a message


Ø Human communication always takes place in a context

Ø Through a medium, and among individuals and groups

Ø Who are situated historically, politically, economically, and socially

Journalist attempts to be objective by two methods:

Ø Fairness to those concerned with the news

Ø A professional process of information gathering that seeks fairness, completeness, and accuracy


Critical questions for detecting bias

The media applies a narrative structure to ambiguous events in order to create a coherent and causal sense of events

Ø What is the author's / speaker's socio-political position?

Ø Does the speaker have anything to gain personally from delivering the message?

Ø Who is paying for the message? What is the bias of the medium? Who stands to gain?

Ø What sources does the speaker use, and how credible are they? Does the speaker cite statistics? If so, how and who data gathered the data? Are the data being presented fully?
Ø How does the speaker present arguments? Is the message one-sided, or does it include alternative points of view?
Ø If the message includes alternative points of view, how are those views characterized? Does the speaker use positive words and images to describe his/her point of view and negative words and images to describe other points of view?

Kinds of Biases

Commercial bias
Visual bias
Bad news bias
Narrative bias
Status Quo bias
Fairness bias
Glory bias

Dominant Models in Today’s Journalism


The Watchdog
CNN Effect
News Management
Thought control
Manufacturing Consent
Mutual Exploitation

courtesy amit jain

Something For Aspirant of Journalism Courses :1

Some Key Concepts


Journalism: Reporting on government, politics, policies, economics, and other news and issues.

Political Journalism: Reporting on the political process and other government and political entities.

Generate new ideas about scientific reasoning, democracy, and rule by consent of the governed and free criticism of government.

Journalism of Exposure: The process of uncovering information about practices those usually are illegal or unethical.

Objectivity: Looking at a story as though through a perfect lens uncolored by a reporter's thoughts about a subject; trying to view a story from a neutral perspective. Some critics believe pure objectivity is impossible and that fairness and balance are more important.

Narrative Tradition: Journalism as story. Many writers employ fictional techniques in writing nonfiction material.

Knowledge Gap and Media: Some studies show that those with information and access to technology are more likely to increase their knowledge more rapidly than those without access. Technological delivery of information, therefore, can increase the gap between those with information and those without.

Agenda-Setting Research: Media research that seeks to understand the relationship between readers' determination of important issues and politicians' and press's treatment of them. The research focuses not on how media cover an issue but on how they set an agenda through the choice of the issues they cover.

News Values: Newspaper editors and owners try to develop standards of value for determining which events and issues are newsworthy---that is, deserving of being given space in the paper.

courtesy amit jain

Jargon Buster : Advertising Media Planning

“Media planning” is the process of selecting time and space in various media for advertising in order to accomplish marketing objectives. Media planners often use three terms in describing a planning process: objectives, strategy and tactics.

A media objective states what the planner wishes to accomplish. It is usually specified in terms of the target audience, reach, and frequency. The target audience is often defined by demographics, product usage and psychographics.

Reach refers to the unduplicated proportion of an audience that is exposed to a media schedule (not necessarily to the advertising message) at least once during a designated time period (usually four weeks).

Frequency refers to the number of times within a given period of time an audience is exposed to a media schedule. A frequency of 3.0, for example, means that the target audience is exposed to a media schedule three times during a given period of time. Of course, not all audience members are exposed exactly three times; some may be exposed more than three times and some less.

A frequency distribution shows how many audience members are exposed at each level of frequency. With a frequency distribution, a media planner can determine effective frequency and effective reach.

Effective frequency is defined as the level of frequency that is necessary to achieve the desired communication goals.

Effective reach is the reach at the level of effective frequency. Gross rating points (GRPs) are the product of reach and frequency, representing the total gross delivery of a media schedule to the target audience.

A media strategy specifies the means for achieving the media objectives. A strategic decision is how to allocate the media budget geographically; that is, deciding in which markets to advertise and how much to spend in each of these markets.

In making these decisions, the media planner is guided by past sales and market shares of a brand in different markets as well as future expectations. Category and brand development indices are often used for these purposes.

A defensive media strategy allocates more money in a market where sales are high, whereas an offensive strategy allocates more money in a market where sales are low but there is potential to grow.

Media class strategy refers to the allocation of the budget to different media classes. Budget allocation in media classes focuses on matching media audiences with the target audience in addition to creative considerations. For instance, television may be the best media class if both audio and video are present in a commercial, while magazines may be more effective if detailed copy is required.

The third strategic decision involves advertising scheduling over a campaign period. “Continuity” refers to advertising on a regular and constant basis throughout the campaign period. “Flighting” means advertising intermittently, a period of advertising followed by a period of no advertising at all. “Pulsing” is a combination of both continuity and flighting, periodically building high levels of advertising on the top of lower yet continuous levels of advertising. The seasonality of sales often guides scheduling of advertising.

Media tactics consist primarily of the activities of selecting media vehicles in the most cost-effective manner to ensure the successful execution of media strategies. Among the criteria for selecting media vehicles are target audience delivery, cost efficiency, the editorial environment, advertising clutter, reproduction quality, and ad positions with the vehicle. Media planning software is often used along with media cost data and audience information to select and compare media vehicles. Contingency plans are often created to meet unexpected changes in the marketplace.

Media plans are implemented through media buyers. Media buyers are professionals who are knowledgeable in estimating media costs and skillful in negotiating rates.

Different media vehicles have different rate cards and discount policies. Some may offer added values such as combination rates, merchandising, and event marketing. Faced with such a complicated media environment, media buyers need creative ways of calculating and comparing media costs. Many media vehicles are flexible in terms of pricing and a savvy negotiator can purchase the same space or time at a much lower price than others even when all contract terms are equal. Media buyers also monitor the implementation of a media plan to assure its value is fully realized.

Advertising & PR as a career

In advertising, campaigns are created to convince consumers to purchase or use certain products. Campaigns are launched on television, billboards, radio, and internet. The advertisements are created to enhance the public’s perception and to get people excited about a product. Working in public relations generally entails the management of product perception, appearance of brochures, speeches, and crises for companies, non-profit organizations, and governments. Often advertising and public relations job responsibilities overlap similar tasks are required. Numerous organizations are claiming to be “strategic marketing communications consultants,” offering both advertising and public relations services.

People skills are essential in advertising and public relations careers. Jobs in these fields require close association with clients that are often demanding and difficult to work with.Stress levels soar in advertising and PR careers due to continuous deadlines. Late nights and weekends are often spent working to meet upcoming deadlines.To acquire an entry level job in advertising or PR, strong copy-writing skills are needed. Excellent communication skills and good presentation ability are essential to succeed in the industry. Workers must be persuasive and flexible.Creativity is the key to success in advertising. An advertiser who can create messages that the consumer remembers will be successful in the industry. Because there are more advertisers than advertising jobs, the industry is highly competitive. Workers need to complete an internship which generally provides no pay. Despite no income, internships are beneficial for experience and help get you into the advertising field.

Those interested in advertising and PR must be willing to start working in basic, entry-level positions and try to work their way up.Starting pay in advertising is usually low due to high numbers of people wanting to work in the industry. The more experience someone has in the industry, the better chances they have for salary increase.Experienced advertisers are getting opportunities to work on global campaigns. Companies are expanding worldwide increasing global career options in the industry.With the popularity of the internet continuing to grow, the advertising industry is gaining new opportunities selling, designing, and arranging advertising online.In the advertising industry, it is important to be effective working both individually and as part of a team. Opportunities arise in both areas.

Advertising and Public Relations Job and Employment Opportunities

Advertising Media Planners decide the distribution of television, newspaper, radio, and magazine advertisements for each campaign. They are responsible for making many choises affecting the delivery of the campaign message to the consumer. They are well informed about the different types of media and demographics they reach. After considering the advantages and disadvantages of the various media types, the media traffic personnel purchases space and time in the types of media that will most effectively deliver the campaign.

Copywriters, illustrators, and creative individuals create the actual writing and illustrating of advertisements. They are responsible for drawing storyboards, writing copy, designing headlines and body copy, and sometimes taking part in the actual formation of advertisements.

Production Managers are in charge of the actual physical advertisements. Working in cooperation with exterior advertising producers, production managers guarantee that each advertisement is finished successfully. They are employed in-house or often work for production houses that contract services.

Directors of Advertising and/or Public Relations are in charge of everything in advertising or public relations excluding sales. Directors manage the planning, production, creation, and budgeting of campaigns. The director of advertising and director of public relations are usually two different positions, but both maintain comparable job responsibilities. The size of the company or organization a director works for determines the scope of their duties.

Public Relations Specialists manage an organization’s public relations. Their job is parallel to an account executive in advertising. Specialists make sure programs are created to match public attitudes, ensuring an organization is publicly embraced. Specialists can either work for an agency or in-house.

An account executive manages the entire account. They determine and communicate the customer’s advertising needs to the rest of the agency. Account executives also organize the creation, planning, implementing, and producing of ad campaigns.

courtsy amit jain

WHAT MAKES FOR GOOD ADVERTISING?

From a technical point of view, advertising is a means of communication with the purpose of delivering a worthwhile message to a specific audience of one. It is important to recognize, regardless of the medium, that your message is always targeted to one person. You must direct what you have to say to someone who has every reason to listen. If your message is clear to the individual, then anyone who has a legitimate reason to be interested will want to get involved to learn more. If you try to write the ad for everyone, you risk reaching no one. You may even try to write the ad as one would talk. The closer you can come to everyday language the better.
Good ads do not just circulate information they penetrate people's minds with desires and beliefs. You must pinpoint and approach benefits emotionally and rationalize them logically. It has been a long-standing rule that most advertising is rejected consciously and accepted subliminally

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE WRITING AN AD

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE WRITING AN AD

• What are you trying to say?
• What is it you are trying to sell?
• What is your proposition?
• What will you put in the ad?
• Where will you put the ad?
• How do you extend the ads results to the point of sale?


PRINCIPLES OF GOOD ADVERTISING


• Command attention, but never offensively.
• Be imaginative, but never misleading.
• Tell the truth.
• Be altruistic by selling service.
• Keep it simple.
• Offer the privilege of buying.
• Never seek favor or profit for yourself.
• Never advertise negatively or put a competitor down.


QUALITIES OF GOOD ADVERTISING


• Instead of telling a customer how good your product or service is, tell them how good your product or service will make them.
• Graphics must support the main idea without cluttering.
• Be sure headlines and subheads are brief and to the point.
• You can overestimate the public's knowledge, but never their intelligence.
• If an ad is profitable, don't change it by trying to make it better.
• Sell the results of a product, rather than the product itself.

courtsy amit jain

The 21 Most Powerful Copywriting Rules of All TimeThe 21 Most Powerful Copywriting Rules of All Time

1. Know your USP.
USP = Unique Selling Proposition = a one line statement (proposition) that explains (sells) how your product or service differs (unique) from the competition. You can't know it unless you research your product as well as your competition. What does Federal Express say? Dove soap? You must know your basic offer before you can begin to persuade anyone to accept it.

2. Use layout that supports copy.

Graphics, fonts, and layouts don't sell, but they can help bring attention to your sales message. Use proven formats.. Consider an advertorial style. It can get 80% more attention than any other ad layout. You must know the form your sales message will take before you begin to draft your actual message. Knowing you are about to write a classified ad will lead you to write differently than if you were about to write a sales letter or a display ad.

3. Create a riveting and relevant headline.

Round-up your prospects with a headline that makes them sit up and take notice. Best place to see good headlines is on the cover of Reader's Digest. See my AMA advertising book for 30 ways to write headlines. A headline calls out your readers. A change in headline can bring 19 times more response.

4. Write simply, directly, and in the conversational style of your prospects.

Who are you trying to reach? Housewives, business executives, children? You must know the type of person you are writing to. Write to one person from that group and you will speak to all people in that group. Forget trying to impress people, win writing awards, or please a past English teacher. Good copy often violates the rules of English but still makes the sale.

5. So that -- ?

Write of the benefits, not the features. A feature generally describes a product; a benefit generally explains what the product does for you. A good way to write about benefits would be to keep saying you get this...and the product does this...so that you get.... Look at Kodak. People don't buy film for the pictures they create. They are buying memories. Look at their advertising and you'll barely see film anywhere. What you will see are family reunions, graduations, weddings, etc. You get film which helps you take pictures so that you get memories. Keep asking So that -- ? to dig up benefits. For example, This computer is a 486...so that...you get a computer that is twice the speed of other computers...so that...you can get twice the work done in the same amount of time...so that....you are free to have longer lunches, make more calls, or focus on something else.

6. Use emotional appeal.

People buy for emotional reasons and justify with logic. Gene Schwartz wrote an ad that ran for 20 years and sold so many flowers it exhausted nurseries. It's packed with emotional appeal. It read in part:
When you put this into the Earth, and you jump back (quickly), it explodes into flowers. And everybody in your neighborhood comes and they look. And people take home blooms because you've got so many you could never find a house big enough to put them. And you've become the gardening expert for the entire neighborhood.

7. Demolish the five basic objections within your copy:

• A. I don't have enough time.
• B. I don't have enough money.
• C. It won't work for me.
• D. I don't believe you.
• E. I don't need it.

8. Activate your writing.

Whenever you write the words "is," "was," "are," or "to be," train yourself to stop and change them to something more active. "The meeting is tonight" sounds dead; "The meeting starts at 7 PM sharp tonight" feels clear, direct and alive. "Clair Sullivan is the finest promoter in the country" doesn't convey the excitement that "Clair Sullivan creates corporate events better than anyone else on the planet" does.

9. Tell them something they don't know.

Fascinate your readers. The more you tell, the more you sell. Long copy usually works better than short copy, as long as the copy holds interest. After all, people read whole books. They will read your copy IF it interests them.

10. Seduce the reader into continued reading.

Keep your reader reading any way you can. Questions, unfinished sentences, involving statements, sub-heads, bulleted points, quizzes, all work. These techniques also handle the skimmers who just glance at your copy, as well as the word-for-word readers.

11. Say collie.

Be specific. Whenever you write something vague, such as "they say," or "later on," or "many," train yourself to stop and rewrite those phrases into something more concrete, such as: "Mark Weisser said...", or "Saturday at noon" or "Seven people agreed." Don't say dog when you can say collie.

12. Overwhelm with testimonials

Get as many testimonials as you can. The more specific, the more convincing. In short, deliver proof that your claim is for real.

13. Remove the risk!

Give a guarantee. Less than 2% of your customers will ever ask for their money back, so offering a guarantee is a safe risk. Here's the guarantee from my book, The Seven Lost Secrets of Success:
Use these seven principles for six months. If you're out of work, you'll find a job. If you're employed, you'll get a raise. If you're in business, you'll see a whopping 25% jump in revenues -- or return this book and your receipt for a full cash refund!

14. Ask for the order

Too much copy these days never asks anyone to buy anything. Sales copy should SELL. Use a coupon as a way to signal readers that you want their business and to remind yourself to always ask for the order (or at least to ask people to contact you or remember you).

15. Use magic words.

There are certain words which have been proven to help get attention. If you just string these words together, they sound like fluff. But weave them into your sentences, along with your facts, and they become powerful:
Announcing, astonishing, exciting, exclusive, fantastic, fascinating, first, free, guaranteed, incredible, initial, improved, love, limited offer, powerful, phenomenal, revealing, revolutionary, special, successful, super, time-sensitive, unique, urgent, wonderful, you, breakthrough, introducing, new, and how-to.
And consider the connotations of the words you use: workshop sounds like hard work while seminar sounds easier. Read sounds hard while look over sounds easy. Write sounds difficult while jot down sounds easy. Be aware of the psychological implications of the words and phrases you use.

16. Get pumped up!

Show your excitement for your product. If you aren't pumped up about it, why not? Enthusiasm sells.

17. Rewrite and test ruthlessly.

Test. Test. Test. A change of one word can increase response 250%. Sackheim tested his famous ad at least six times before he found the headline and format that worked. Most copy isn't written in one day. You have to write, rewrite, edit, rewrite, test, and test again. Keep asking yourself, Would I buy this product? and Have I said everything to make the sale?

18. State a believable deadline.

Most people won't take any immediate action unless there exists a sound reason to do so. Deadlines help, as long as your deadline sounds credible.

19. Instantaneous satisfaction!

Everything should be nearly instantaneous because we want instant gratification. Toll-free numbers and fax numbers help. If you're marketing on the Web, include a link or a button that makes it easy for your readers to order.

20. Sincerity sells.

Don't offer fluff, mislead, or lie to your prospects. Tell them the truth.While rarely done, it actually helps sales to admit a weakness or a fault. Remember the ad, These neckties aren't very pretty, but they're a steal at a nickel each! Tell the truth in a fascinating way.

21. Copy your copy from the best.

Read excellent copy, write it out word-for-word in your own hand to get a feel for its rhythm.

courtsy amit jain