Journalism

1. Introduction to Journalism
Department of Journalism and
communication
University of Gondar
By Nafyad Boja

2. CHAPTER 1
Historical overview of journalism
1.1. What is journalism?
 Etymologically, the term journalism is derived
from the Latin word ‘diurnal is’ which means
‘daily’.
 Therefore, journalism is the daily routine of
disseminating of news.

3. Conceptual definition
 Journalism is a discipline/ profession/science of collecting,
editing, analyzing, verifying, and presenting news
regarding current events, trends, issues and people.
 Journalism is a process of gathering, verifying, editing
assessing, and presenting news and information to the
society. It is also the product of these activities.

4. Cont’d…..
 Journalism is an art because it touches the
heart of the reader. It’s also an art because
of the flexible nature of types.
 It’s a science because so many techniques
are involved. Different rules have been
developed through.

5. Journalism is a contemporary report of
the changing scene intended to inform
readers of what is happening around
them.
Journalism has born out of human
curiosity to know about events and
objects around, far and near.
 The body of journalism is fact, because
people are its very heart.

6. Types of Journalism
 Journalism can be categorized in different ways
depending on two criteria: medium of delivery
(media) and subject matter (theme).
Types of journalism based on medium of
delivery (media)
 Based on medium of news delivery, journalism
can be divided in to three: broadcast journalism,
print journalism, and online journalism.

7. Cont’d
Broadcast journalism: Encompassing the broadcast
media platforms for dissemination of recent happenings, this
form is amongst those types of journalism that utilize
Television and radio platforms to telecast news and recent
happenings.
 The content for broadcast journalism can range from news
stories, bulletins, and documentaries to other factual
programs.

8.  Print journalism: This is the most traditional types of
journalism that is mainly concerned with the practice of
reporting news and related contents through newspapers,
magazines and periodicals.
 In earlier times, newspapers were the most powerful
medium for those wanting to voice certain issues that are
prevalent in society.

9. Online journalism: Online journalism can be defined as
the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and
comment via an internet.
 Online journalism also known as digital journalism is a
contemporary form of journalism where editorial content
is distributed via the Internet as opposed to publishing
via print or broadcast.
 Online journalism has democratized the flow of
information that was previously controlled by traditional
media including newspapers, magazines, radio, and
television.

10. Types of journalism based on subject matter/theme
 Depending on the subject matter it focuses on,
journalism we can split in to several categories.
These are:

11. Cont’d
Investigative journalism: This type of journalism is about
unearthing facts and studying cases that may require more
efforts, which can take months or even years. Journalists who
specialize in investigative journalism create headlines with
news that expose scandals.
 Investigative journalism aims to inquire upon a single
topic of interest or news story, which can vary from crimes
to corruption and wrongdoings. Furthermore,
investigative journalism is any reporting that uncovers
information that people in power would like to keep secret.

12. Photojournalism: Journalism in which a high proportion
of pictorial presentation is used. Photojournalism holds the
potential of elucidating even the most simpler and
overlooked issues in a thought-provoking manner. Is a
combination of two mediums: words and pictures.
Celebrity journalism: As the name suggests, the
journalist is connected to news and events related to
celebrities from the entertainment world and also includes
celebrities from other fields such as music, sports, dance,
art, politics, etc. This journalism is all about news that is
related to their professional and personal life.

13. Developmental Journalism: As amongst the emerging
modern types of Journalism, developmental journalism has
its core focus on promoting the welfare of the general public
and society. Pivotal aim is to explore the impact of rural
development in country and highlight the concerns of those
who are still deprived of their rights and basic amenities and
need government’s attention.
Sports journalism: Here, journalists spend hours
reporting on a particular sport event. A journalist has to
report the accurate facts and statistics related to that event.
Interviews with celebrity sport stars are yet one of the
interesting features of sports journalism.

14. Agricultural journalism: Agricultural journalism is a
specialized branch of journalism which deals with the
techniques of receiving, writing, editing and reporting from
information through the media like newspapers, periodicals,
radio, TV, advertising etc. and the management processes
connected with such production.
 It is the timely reporting and editing with words and
photography of agricultural news and information for
newspaper, magazine, radio and television.

15. Medical journalism: Medical journalism is the
communication of health and medical information in the
media. It targets the layperson rather than the medical or
health professional, by disseminating health related
information through different types of media sources.

16. Purposes of journalism: What do we
need for it?
Journalism has a number of purposes to
the society. Some of them are:
To Inform
The Watchdog Role
To create democratic environment
To entertain
To educate

17. JOURNALISTS
Who are journalists?
 Journalists are most commonly defined
by the activity they perform in their
daily routines.
 Journalists are all media personnel
who engaged in preparation or
transmission of news stories or other
basic information units.

18. Cont’d…..
Journalists are those whose principal
responsibilities lie in news gathering, news
processing and editing, or the supervision or
management of news operations.
Journalists are sometimes described as
“public intellectuals” they tend to view the
world deductively, immersing themselves in
the synthesis of complex areas of research,
offering analysis across cases and events.

19. Qualities of good journalist
A. Effective Communication Skills: The
primary role of a journalist is to communicate
news, either written or verbally. No matter how
proficient you're in other skills, it’s difficult to
be a journalist without good communication
skills.
B. Good writing skill: Anyone who wishes to
produce a good writing should endeavor, before
he/she allows him/herself to be tempted by the
more showy qualities, to be direct, simple,
brief, vigorous, and lucid.

20. Cont’d….
C. Persistence: Journalist should have a motive
to ask questions. As a journalist, it's not always
that your sources will be willing to talk or give
you the information you need.
D. Good observation skill: Observation is the
art of attentively noticing what is going on
around the environment we live in.
 Observation is useful when you, as the
journalist, want to get direct information, and
to better understand aspects of an event.

21. Cont’d….
E. Multi-skilled: Journalists should be
equipped with an array of skills to meet the
needs of media users.
 These skills allow journalists to pace
themselves to consumption-on-demand.
F. Creativity: Journalism is absolutely a
creative endeavor. Thus, we must choose
how to combine the skills to tell a story
succinctly, accurately and fairly to the
public.

22.  In their book, The Elements of
Journalism, Bill Kovach and Tom
Rosenstiel identify the essential
principles and practices of journalism.
 Here are 10 elements common to good
journalism, drawn from the book.

23. Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth
 Good decision-making depends on people having
reliable, accurate facts put in a meaningful
context.
 Journalism does not pursue truth in an absolute
or philosophical sense, but in a capacity that is
more down to earth.

24. Cont’d
 This “journalistic truth” is a process that begins with
the professional discipline of assembling and verifying
facts.
 Then journalists try to convey a fair and reliable
account of their meaning, subject to further
investigation.
 Journalists should be as transparent as possible about
sources and methods so audiences can make their own
assessment of the information.

25. Journalism’s first loyalty is to citizens:
 The publisher of journalism – whether a media
corporation answering to advertisers and shareholders or
a blogger with his own personal beliefs and priorities —
must show an ultimate allegiance to citizens.
 They must strive to put the public interest – and the truth
– above their own self-interest or assumptions.

26. Cont’d
 A commitment to citizens is an implied covenant with
the audience and a foundation of the journalistic
business model.
 Journalism provided “without fear or favor” is perceived
to be more valuable than content from other
information sources.
 Commitment to citizens also means journalism should
seek to present a representative picture of constituent
groups in society.
 Ignoring certain citizens has the effect of
disenfranchising them.

27. Its essence is a discipline of verification
 Journalists rely on a professional discipline for verifying
information.
 While there is no standardized code as such, every
journalist uses certain methods to assess and test
information to “get it right.”
 Being impartial or neutral is not a core principle of
journalism. Because the journalist must make decisions,
he or she is not and cannot be objective.

28. Cont’d
 But journalistic methods are objective. When the
concept of objectivity originally evolved, it did not
imply that journalists were free of bias.
 It called, rather, for a consistent method of testing
information – a transparent approach to evidence –
precisely so that personal and cultural biases would not
undermine the accuracy of the work.
 The method is objective, not the journalist.

29. Cont’d
 Seeking out multiple witnesses, disclosing as much as
possible about sources, or asking various sides for
comment, all signal such standards.
 This discipline of verification is what separates
journalism from other forms of communication such as
propaganda, advertising, fiction, or entertainment.

30. Its practitioners must maintain an independence
from those they cover
 Independence is a cornerstone of reliability.
 On one level, it means not becoming seduced by sources,
intimidated by power, or compromised by self-interest.
 On a deeper level it speaks to an independence of spirit
and an open-mindedness and intellectual curiosity that
helps the journalist see beyond his/her own
class/economic status, race, ethnicity, religion, gender or
ego.

31. Cont’d
 Journalistic independence, according to Kovach and
Rosenstiel, is not neutrality.
 While editorialists and commentators are not neutral,
the source of their credibility is still their accuracy,
intellectual fairness and ability to inform – not their
devotion to a certain group or outcome.
 In our independence, however, journalists must avoid
straying into arrogance, elitism, isolation or nihilism.

32. It must serve as an independent monitor of power
 Journalism has an unusual capacity to serve as watchdog
over those whose power and position most affect citizens.
 It may also offer voice to the voiceless.
 Being an independent monitor of power means “watching
over the powerful few in society on behalf of the many to
guard against tyranny,” Kovach and Rosenstiel write.
 The earliest journalists firmly established as a core
principle their responsibility to examine unseen corners
of society.

33. Cont’d
 The watchdog role is often misunderstood, even by
journalists, to mean “afflict the comfortable.”
 While upsetting the applecart may certainly be a result of
watchdog journalism, the concept as introduced in the
mid-1600s was far less combative.
 Rather, it sought to redefine the role of the journalist
from a passive stenographer to more a curious observer
who would “search out and discover the news.”

34. It must provide a forum for public criticism
and compromise
 The news media are common carriers of public
discussion.
 This responsibility forms a basis for special
privileges that news and information providers
receive from democratic societies.

35. Cont’d
 Journalism should also attempt to fairly represent varied
viewpoints and interests in society and to place them in
context rather than highlight only the conflicting fringes
of debate.
 Accuracy and truthfulness also require that the public
discussion not neglect points of common ground or
instances where problems are not just identified but also
solved.

36. Cont’d
 Journalism, then, is more than providing an outlet for
discussion or adding one’s voice to the conversation.
 Journalism carries with it a responsibility to improve the
quality of debate by providing verified information and
intellectual rigor.
 A forum without regard for facts fails to inform and
degrades rather than improves the quality and
effectiveness of citizen decision-making.

37. It must strive to keep the significant interesting and
relevant
 Journalism is storytelling with a purpose.
 It should do more than gather an audience or catalogue
the important.
 It must balance what readers know they want with what
they cannot anticipate but need.

38. Cont’d
 Quality is measured both by how much a work engages
its audience and enlightens it.
 This means journalists must continually ask what
information has the most value to citizens and in what
form people are most likely to assimilate it.
 While journalism should reach beyond topics as
government and public safety, journalism overwhelmed
by trivia and false significance trivializes civic dialogue
and ultimately public policy.

39. It must keep the news comprehensive and
proportional
 Journalism is our modern cartography.
 It creates a map for citizens to navigate society.
 As with any map, its value depends on a completeness and
proportionality in which the significant is given greater
visibility than the trivial.

40. Cont’d
 Keeping news in proportion is a cornerstone of
truthfulness. Inflating events for sensation, neglecting
others, stereotyping, or being disproportionately
negative all make a less reliable map.
 The most comprehensive maps include all affected
communities, not just those with attractive
demographics.
 The most complete stories take into account diverse
backgrounds and perspectives.
 Though proportion and comprehensiveness are subjective, their
ambiguity does not lesson their significance.

41. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their
personal conscience
 Doing journalism, whether as a professional writing for a
news organization or as an online contributor in the
public space, involves one’s moral compass and demands
a personal sense of ethics and responsibility.
 Because “news” is important, those who provide news
have a responsibility to voice their personal conscience
out loud and allow others to do so as well.

42. Cont’d
 They must be willing to question their own work and to
differ with the work of others if fairness and accuracy
demand they do so.
 News organizations do well to nurture this independence
by encouraging individuals to speak their minds.
 Conversation and debate stimulate the intellectual
diversity of minds and voices necessary to understand
and accurately cover an increasingly diverse society.

43. Cont’d
 Having a sense of ethics is perhaps most important for
the individual journalist or online contributor.
 Increasingly, those who produce “the news” work in
isolation, whether from a newsroom cubicle, the scene of
a story, or their home office.
 They may file directly to the public without the safety net
of editing, a second set of eyes, or the collaboration of
others.

44. Citizens, too, have rights and responsibilities
when it comes to the news
 The average person now, more than ever, works
like a journalist.
 Writing a blog entry, commenting on a social
media site, sending a tweet, or “liking” a picture
or post, likely involves a shorthand version of the
journalistic process.

45. Cont’d
One comes across information;
 decides whether or not it’s believable,
 assesses its strength and weaknesses,
 determines if it has value to others,
 decides what to ignore and what to pass on,
 chooses the best way to share it, and
 then hits the “send” button.

46. Cont’d
 Even though this process may take only a few moments,
it’s essentially what reporters do.
Two things, however, separate this journalistic-like process
from an end product that is “journalism.”
 The first is motive and intent:
The purpose of journalism is to give people the information
they need to make better decisions about their lives and
society.

47. Cont’d
 The second difference is that journalism involves the
conscious, systematic application of a discipline of
verification to produce a “functional truth,” as opposed to
something that is merely interesting or informative.
 Yet while the process is critical, it’s the end product – the
“story” – by which journalism is ultimately judged.

48. Genres of journalism
What is news?
 It has been impossible to formulate one common and all-
encompassing definition of news which is universally
acceptable.
 This is because the meaning and scope of news has been
changing with the passage of time. Therefore, news can be
defined in a various ways.

49. Some of the definitions are given below:
 News is something new, factual and truthful.
 Something relevant and important.
 Something bizarre or something unusual that breaks the
normal flow of events, an interruption the expected
situations.
 The news is a new piece of information about a significant
and recent event that affects the audience and is of
interest to them
 In other words, news is the timely report of events, facts,
and opinions and interests a significant number of
people.

50. News stories try to answer six basic questions. These are
Who, What,Where, When, Why and How. These are
popularly known as the 5 ‘W’s & 1‘H’.
 Who relates to the persons involved in the news event and
covered in the news story?
 What is the kind of the action or the activities of the news
event?
 When provides information about the time of the news
event?

51. Cont’d
 Where relates to the place or places of the occurrence of
the news event?
 Why provides real or perceived reasons for the event
reported in news?
 How is the detailed description of how the event took
place or how things happened?

52. Elements of news/ news values/ newsworthiness
 These are the criteria which help journalist or an editor
decide what news is and what’s not.
 There are plenty of events happen every day around the
world. It is impossible to consider every happenings/
events as news.
 Thus, we have to select the one which have the potential
to be news or newsworthy depending on the following
criteria.
 Here are the elements of news:

53. Cont’d
 Timeliness
 Impact
 Prominence
 Proximity
 Conflict
 The unusual/bizarre
 Currency

54. Types of news
In this case basically there are two types of news: hard news,
and soft news.
Hard news: Political, social, economic or serious
environmental news of a highly significant nature that needs
to be reported as soon as possible due to its immediate
influence or ramifications on the public and surrounding
world.
 A breaking, surprising event of great import on most of the
public and/or the environment (e.g. epidemic, natural
disaster, terror attack).

55. Cont’d
Soft news: Soft news journalism focuses on lifestyle and
entertainment and typically revolves around culture, art, and
human interest events.
 Soft news includes sports journalism, entertainment
journalism, and celebrity coverage.

56. Sources of news: Where Does News comes from?
 Journalists find news in all sorts of places, but most
stories originate in one of the following basic areas: -
Naturally occurring events
Planned activities
Reporters’ Enterprise/endeavor
Government officials includes
Individuals[ordinary Vs experts]
News agencies

57. Method/ ways of gathering news
There are three main ways to gather information for a news
story or opinion piece:
Observation: watching and listening where news is taking
place.
Interview: Talking with people who know something about
the story you are reporting.
Documents: Reading stories, reports, public records and
other printed material.