Spurious Correlations

Spurious Correlations Ó 1996, 1997 by William C. Burns
The analysis of human resources data typically involves the use of computer databases that were constructed to process transactions. Their purpose normally centers on administration and recordkeeping. Thus the variables that are available for analysis are not necessarily the ones that would be chosen as the ideal set of variables given the purposes of the analysis. A side effect is that in many cases critical analysis variables may be missing. This can lead to "spurious correlations," a common and serious interpretation fallacy. For example, suppose that the critical variable is correlated with race, age, or gender. Thus any other variable that correlates with the critical variable will probably also be correlated with race, age, or gender. These correlations are spurious because their primary cause is the missing critical variable. Nonetheless these spurious correlations are at times used as indicators of discrimination. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the widespread occurrence of spurious correlations.
 My favorite example is to do the following:

1. Get data on all the fires in San Francisco for the last ten years.
2. Correlate the number of fire engines at each fire and the damages in dollars at each fire.

 Note the significant relationship between number of fire engines and the amount of damage. Conclude that fire engines cause the damage.
 The reason that I like this example is that the conclusion is so absurd. Anyone will quickly recognize that both variables result from and are correlated with the overall size of the fire. However, many spurious correlations do not seem absurd and some seem compelling.

Development Support Communication: DSC

The practice of Development Support Communication, DSC, is a multi-sectoral process of information sharing about development agendas and planned actions. It links planners, beneficiaries and implementers of development action, including the donor community. It obligates planners and implementers to provide clear, explicit and intelligible data and information about their goals and roles in development, and explicitly provides opportunities for beneficiaries to participate in shaping development outcomes. It ensures that the donor community is kept constantly aware of the achievements and constraints of development efforts in the field.

Development Support Communication makes use of all available structures and means of information sharing. Therefore it is not limited to mass media alone. It also uses both formal group and non-formal channels of communication, such as women’s and youth associations, as well as places where people gather.... markets, churches, festivals, and meetings. But its contribution is in using these in a systemic, continuous, co-ordinated and planned manner, to perform linkage and enabling functions. It requires analysis of the communication environment, of the available and needed communication competencies and resources (hardware, software, financial and human), and clearly indicates expected results from specific resource inputs, so as to maintain accountability.

Write a short note on Opinion Leaders

Opinion Leaders are the individuals in a community where people go for information and advice. They are fully access to mass media and much of the information  reaches the general public through them. As "gatekeepers", they filter the media message during communication. As "interpreters", they interpret the message obtained from media to the people; and as "influential", influence the public by passing on thier own opinion along with the message.

According to Rogers, Opinion leadership is the degree to which an individual is able to influence other individual's attitudes to overt behaviour informally in a desired way with relative frequency."

In the traditional Meetei family, grandfathers or grandmothers are regarded as Opinion leaders. During King's rule, maichous or priest are opinion leaders, where people seek advise on different topics.

(Source - Internet)

Write a short note on Photography

Photography is an important tool in the hands of a journalist. A photograph gives a vivid and comprehensive account  of an object, event or situation. The communication through photograph is visual, and as such the comprehension of information by the audience is easy and even an illiterate can get it.

Photographs are used  not only for highlighting the news, but also to make features and articles more informative and interesting. This also makes investigative journalism more authentic by providing evidence of the facts. A picture is worth a thousand words. This old saying will continue to be true. 

What is News Ombudsman?

A News Ombudsman receives ad investigates complaints from newspaper readers or listeners or viewers of radio and television about accuracy, fairness, balance and good taste in news coverage. He or she recommends appropriate remedies or responses to correct or clarify news reports. The first newspaper  ombudsman in the US was appointed in June 1967 to act for readers of The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times.

Organisation of News Ombudsmen (ONO) was founded in 1980. This organisation includes approximately 100 experienced jouranlists around the world. No two ombudsmen work exactly alike. However, they monitor news and feature columns, photography and other graphic materials for fairness, accuracy and balance. They investigate and reply to comments and complaints concerning published or broadcast news and feature material. They  obtain explaination from editors and other staff members for readers, viewers or listeners.
In India, The Hindu is having news ombudsman and writes regularly for the readers, following the media ethics.

(Source - Internet)

Explain the Social Responsibility Theory

According to this theory, although the press has a right to criticise government and other institutions  it also has a social responsibility to preserve democracy by properly informing the public and by responding to society's interests and needs. It is more important for citizens to have the right of access to information than it is for the press to achieve complete freedom of speech.

Main principles of this theory are
a) Media should accept and fulfill certain obligations to society by setting high or professional standards of truth, accuracy, objectivity and balance etc.
b) In accepting and applying these obligations, media should be self regulating within the framework of law and established institutions.
Journalist and media professionals should be accountable to society as well as to employers.

(Source - Internet)

Write a short note on Yellow Journalism

Yellow journalism is the use of lurid features and sensationalized news in  a print  or electronic media to attract readers and increase circulation. The term was used for the first time in 1890s to describe the tactics employed in furious competition between two New York City newspapers, the "World" and the "Journal".

Joesph Putlizer had purchased the New York World in 1883 and using colourful, sensational reporting and crusades against political corruption and social injustice, had own the largest circulation in the country. However, his circulation was challenged in 1895, when William Randolph Hearst, bought the rival "Journal". He then, began to challenge Joesph's newspaper in sensationalism, crusades and Sunday features.

Generally speaking, Yellow journalism is known as that type of journalism which is sensationalism, distorted and lacks credibility.

(Source - Internet)

Describe the importance of Sound in Film making.

The three aspects of sound we perceive are:
- Loudness
- Pitch
- Timbre

As fundamental components of film sound, loudness, pitch and timbre interact to define the overall sonic texture of a film. At the most basic level, these three acoustic factors enable us to distinguish the various sounds in film. For example, these qualities enable us to recognize different characters' voices.

The rhythm, melody, harmony and instrumentation of the music can strongly affect the viewer’s emotional reactions. Also, a melody, musical phrase or sound effect can be associated with a particular character, setting, situation or idea creating a sound motif.

By reordering and varying sound motifs , the filmmaker can compare scenes, trace patterns of development, and suggest implicit meanings. A musical score can create, develop, and associate motifs that enter into the film’s overall form.

Sound guides the viewer’s attention. Normally, this means clarifying and simplifying the sound track so that important material stands out. Dialogue , the transmitter of story information, is usually recorded and reproduced for maximum clarity.

How many Camera shots are there in Film making?

There are Seven Basic Moving Camera Shots:
- Panning shots (swish pans)
- Tilts
- Dolly Shots (Trucking, Tracking, Pull-backs)
- Handheld Shots
- Crane Shots
- Zoom Shots
- Aerial Shots 

Explain the difference between Mainstream and Parallel Cinema.

Mainstream Cinema is also known as Commercial cinema or Popular cinema and concentrates on the entertainment needs of the masses.  Cinema in India is in itself a diverse strand of expression incorporating mainstream cinema which holds popular appeal, art or parallel cinema that engages with social issues, middle cinema and regional language cinema. Mainstream or popular Hindi cinema is also better known as "Bollywood" because such cinema is seen to exercise widespread influence over people and enjoys mass appeal. Popular cinema and culture derive from each other. Films are believed to be the opium of the Indian masses as people rely on this medium to help them escape to a world of fantasy. In a bid to reach the masses, mainstream cinema has become melodramatic and rhetorical. The presentation of extremes has been common.

However, to a certain extent Mainstream Cinema are films that are distributed to movie theaters which give these films worldwide releases. The definition of a mainstream Cinema can vary by country. For example, a mainstream Cinema from China wouldn't be considered a mainstream film in India. But from a global perspective, mainstream Cinema could be defined as Hollywood films, because it is these films which make up the majority of the most widely distributed films in the world. This makes Hollywood films the worldwide mainstream.

Parallel Cinema is a film movement in Indian cinema that originated in the Bengal in the 1950's as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema, represented especially by popular Hindi cinema, known today as Bollywood. The Parallel Cinema movement began to take shape from the late 1940s to the 1960s, by pioneers such as Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Bimal Roy, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Chetan Anand, Guru Dutt and V. Shantaram. This period is considered part of the 'Golden Age' of Indian cinema.

The Parallel Cinema concentrates on contemporary socio-political problems of the country. These films are made for the elite audiences and they are expected to change their thought processes. Mostly, there are no idols or stars in the art movie. There are only ideas that shake the minds of the viewer.

Examples of Mainstream Cinema in India are - Sholay, Zanzeer, Don, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Devdas, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Dil to Pagal hain, Kuch Kuch Hota Hain, Kabhi Khusi Kabhi Gham, Doom 3, Krrish 3 etc.

Examples of Parallel Cinema in India are - Do Bhiga Zamin, Pather Panchali, Salam Bombay, Sati, Welcome to Sajjanpur, Chandni Baar, Lakshmi,Ishanou, Leibaklei etc.

(Source - Internet)

What are the stages of film production?

A typical Hollywood  style film production cycle is composed of five main stages.
1. Development
2. Pre-production
3. Production
4. Post-production
5. Distribution

Production cycle normally takes three years. the first year is taken up with development. The second year comprises pre-production and production. The third year is for post production and distribution.

Source - Internet

Writing Dissertation for Master Degree in Easy Way

Here is a quick step by step to complete dissertation for Master Degree in any University in the easiest way.

1. Topic
The topic for research should be selected carefully. It should be specific and about the general issues at regional and national level.

2. Introduction
It should provide a brief description to explain the area of the proposed research work by the researcher.

3. Review of Literature
A review of the relevant literature is another very important part of the synopsis, showing the work done previously in the area of proposed research is essential to plan further research effectively and in a proper way. The information given in the review should be supported by references.

4. Justification and Likely Benefits
It is important to provide justification for undertaking the proposed research, perhaps in the light of previous work done. It should be possible in most cases to predict the specific and general benefits likely to be achieved as a result of completion of the proposed research.

5. Main Objectives of the Study
Broad objectives to be achieved should be clearly mentioned and these should be itemized. These objectives will indicate the major aspects of the study to be undertaken.

6. Hypothesis of Study
Hypothesis is statement which is to be tested for possible acceptance or rejection. Hypothesis are of two types i.e. Null (Ho) and Alternative (H1). Null hypothesis is tested for possible rejection, where as alternative hypothesis is tested for possible acceptance.

7. Significance of Study
It emphasized on the significance/ importance of the research work/study i.e. why we selected the topic under discussion.

Write an Essay on Security Issues on Internet or Cyber Crime.

Any crime that is committed using a computer, a network, or hardware device is known as cyber crime. Attacks include keystroke loggers, viruses,  Trojan horses, phishing, theft or manipulation of data or services via hacking or viruses, identity theft, and bank or e-commerce fraud.

More than 9 out of 10 of the world’s emails are fraudulent. No doubt,we have noticed the increased amount of spam . The spam keeps coming because it works . People do click on the messages, fill in their account details, order the fake pharmaceuticals and sign up for bogus work-from-home schemes, and lose
their personal information.

 Phishing attacks, or fake email or other lures that get the consumer to provide confidential data. One creative phishing attack offered Australian tax payers a special printable form to access their refund payments . After the victim entered their sensitive financial information into the form and clicked “Print,” their private data was sent to the cyber criminals .

Modern cyber crime is about money. 78% of online attacks include a financial component and, in fact, 76% of those online attacks include a keystroke logger—a piece of software that silently waits on our computer to record our logins and account credentials and passwords and then ships them off to the crooks, wherever they may be, via the Internet . Next thing we know, our bank account is being emptied and our credit cards are being used fraudulently.

Define E-governance

E-governance is defined as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-enabled route to achieving good governance since it integrates people, processes, information, and technology in the service of governance initiatives.

The expected benefits of such public sector reforms have been identified as an increase in the efficiency of government operations, strengthening democracy, enhancing transparency, and providing better services to citizens and businesses.It is the use of ICT to promote more efficient and effective government, facilitate more accessible government services, allow greater public access to information, and make government more accountable to citizens.

E-government has emerged beyond electronic service delivery and is part of the ongoing reform and transformation of government enabling participatory governance and partnerships to improve efficiency and effectiveness. E-government is about transforming government to be more citizen-centred.

(Source - Internet)

Define Cultivation Theory

Cultivation Theory suggests that television is responsible for shaping or cultivating viewers' conception of social reality. This theory was an approach developed by Professor George Gerbner in the mid 1960s, to study whether and how watching television may influence viewers' ideas of what the world is like.

Gerbner argues that the mass media cultivate attitudes and values which are already present in a culture. And the media maintain and propagates these values amongst members of a culture, thus binding together. Cultivation theory asserts that viewers who have a constant diet of television have attitudes that are cultivated primarily by what they watch on television. George Garbner views this television world as reality itself.

Viewers tend to have more faith in the television version of reality the more they watch television. This constructed version of the world makes viewers assume things about violence, people, places, and other fictionalized events which do not hold true to life. Television acts as a socializing agent that educates viewers to a new reality.

(Source - Internet)

Explain Types and Genres of films.

Genre Theory and Classifications Genre films are distinguished by a characteristic set of conventions in style, subject matter, and values. Genre is a convenient way of focusing and organizing the story materials. Many genre films are directed a specific audience.

Some common genres of films are Western, Family, Drama, Sci-fi film, Action, Romance, Adventure, Fantasy, Crime, Horror, War and Comedy.

“Conventional definitions of the genre are based on the idea that they share particular convention of content e.g. Themes or setting” – David Chandler.

Until the 1970s films were not generally specified as a particular genre, film genres help to categorize films, allowing more meaningful comparisons.

1. The Action Genre:

What is Film Aesthetic?

Aesthetic deals with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, and the creation and appreciation of beauty. Film combines many diverse disciplines, each of which may have their own rules of aesthetics. The aesthetics of films are closely related to still photography, but the movement of the subject, or the camera and the intensities, colours, and placement of the lighting are highly important.

The beauty of a film lies in its representation by the Camera, lighting and Mise en Scene. A scene from the Bollywood film "Ram Teri Ganga Maili" where the actress breast fed her child is a perfect example of aesthetic in film, portraying a motherly care for the child. This scene was beautifully represented by the camera shot, the angle and the lighting.

 Film aesthetic depends on the following factors:

Copy Editing

News Editing is an important function in the field of journalism. There is a lot of ignorance among the public regarding the importance of editing the news. Some laymen may just think that the newspaper reporters simply have to gather enough news material to fill the columns of their newspapers. Some others may think that all the newspaper reporters write the headlines over the news stories filed by them. Sometimes even the working newsmen may not realize the importance of editing the news. The word editing is derived from the Latin word editus, past principle of the verb edere – meaning to put forth, to give out, or to publish. Editing is all about making a copy worth publishing by perfecting it to suit the requirements of the publication which also includes the choice of stories.
Editing is importantly used to make it easy for the reader to comprehend whatever he reads in a particular publication. This includes sifting, cleansing, and sorting out the best out the moulds of stories and giving it a finishing touch and a fine headline to attract the audience or readers.

Selection of Media

There are five steps in the selection of media.

These are:

1. Write an objective.

2. Determine the domain in which the objective can be classified: Cognitive, : Affective, Psychomotor.

3. Consider various factors affecting media selection.

4. Consider various methods/techniques to be adopted.

5. Select appropriate media.

Point of sale (POS)

A place where sales are made. On a macro-level, a point of purchase may be a mall, market or city. On a micro-level, retailers consider a point of purchase to be the area surrounding the counter where customers pay. Also known as "point of sale".

In recent years, the point of purchase for products and services has become an important focus for marketers, because consumers tend to make purchasing decisions on very high-margin products or services at these strategic locations. Points of purchase may be real, as in the case of a "brick and mortar" store, or virtual, as in the case of an electronic retailer that sells goods and services over the internet.

Source: Internet

Media Buying

Media Buying, a sub function of advertising management, is the procurement of media real estate at optimal placement and price. The main task of media buying lies within the negotiation of price and placement to ensure the best possible value can be secured.

Media Buyers are the individuals responsible for purchasing time and advertising space for the purpose of advertising. When planning what to buy, they must evaluate factors based on but not limited to station formats, pricing rates, demographics, geographic, and psychographics relating to the advertiser's particular product or service objectives. The Media Buyer needs to optimize what is bought and that is dependent on budget, type of medium (radio, internet, TV, print), quality of the medium (target audience, time of day for broadcast, etc.), and how much time and space is wanted.

Advertising Effectiveness

Many researchers are of the opinion that effectiveness refers to whether the cost of advertising is returned back to the advertiser in the form of current or potential sales revenue, thus focusing on sales.

There is often an indirect link between advertising and sales.

The main “actors” related to the effectiveness in the advertising activities are consumer, advertisement, product/service, medium, and environment. The advertising effectiveness can be studied from the different manifestations of these actors.

Consumers are audience of the advertisement and potential purchasers of the product or service. Many models of consumer behaviour have been developed to measure the advertising effectiveness.

Corporate advertising

Advertising that is more public relations than sales promotion. Its objective is to build a firm's corporate image, reputation, and name-awareness among the general public or within an industry. See also institutional advertising.

Corporate advertising is a promotional strategy that is designed to not only interest consumers in products and services offered by the company, but also to cultivate a positive reputation among consumers and others within the business world. The focus of corporate advertising is on the company itself, with the attention to the products produced by the corporation being a byproduct of the advertising effort. This type of corporate marketing is often employed along with advertising campaigns that are directly focused on the goods and services produced by the company.

The main function of corporate advertising is to generate and enhance a sense of confidence and appeal among vendors and consumers. Depending on the exact nature of the corporate marketing approach, the advertising may also be developed with an eye of enhancing the reputation of the company among its peers in a community or within a given sector of the marketplace. In any application, the idea is to build the most agreeable public image for the corporation as possible.

Advertising Budget

An estimation of a company's promotional expenditures over a period of time. An advertising budget is the money a company is willing to set aside to accomplish its marketing objectives. When creating the advertising budget, a company must weigh the trade-offs between spending one additional advertising dollar with the amount of revenue that dollar will bring in as revenue.

Companies can determine what level to set their advertising budget several different ways, each of which has its positives and negatives. A business can set its budget as a percentage of sales, at the same level as its competitors, as the amount required to meet a certain objective, as the entirety of its profits or as a function of the units of product it wants to sell among others.

News reporting

Journalism has as its main activity the reporting of events stating who, what, when, where, why and how, and explaining the significance and effect of events or trends. Journalism exists in a number of media: newspapers, television, radio, magazines and, most recently, the World Wide Web through the Internet.

News reporting is a type of journalism, typically written or broadcast in news style. Most news is investigated and presented by journalists or news Reporters, and can be distributed to various outlets via news agencies. News is often reported by a variety of sources, such as newspapers, television, and radio programs, wire services, and web sites.

Reporter is a type of journalist who researches and presents information in certain types of mass media. Reporters gather their information in a variety of ways, including tips, press releases, and witnessing events. They perform research through interviews, public records, and other sources.

Types of New writing

Every news story has to have a focus, which could be a person or an event. Thestory emerges sharper when the focus is clear and blurred when the focus isunclear. A news story is built on a central idea (theme), sometimes on two or threecentral ideas. So it is called as single element story or two-element story or three-element story depending on the number of themes it has.Journalists use many different kinds of frameworks for organizing stories.Journalists may tell some stories chronologically. Other stories may read like agood suspense novel that culminates with the revelation of some dramatic piece of information at the end. Still other stories will start in the present, then flashback tothe past to fill in details important to a fuller understanding of the story. All aregood approaches under particular circumstances.

1. Inverted pyramid:

News Values

Eight primary factors that determine the newsworthiness of a potential story:

1.     Impact: The significance, importance, or consequence of an event or trend; the greater the consequence, and the larger the number of people for whom an event is important the greater the newsworthiness.

2.     Timeliness: The more recent, the more newsworthy. In some cases, timeliness is relative. An event may have occurred in the past but only have been learned about recently.

3.     Prominence: Occurrences featuring well-know individuals or institutions are newsworthy. Well-knowingness may spring either from the power the person or institution possess – the president, the Speaker of the House of Representatives – or from celebrity – the late Princess Diana or fashion designer Gianni Versace.

4.     Proximity: Closeness of the occurrence to the audience may be gauged either

News Sources

‘Sources of news are everywhere’. A journalist is surrounded by sources of potential news stories ore features. A conversation with a friend, a poster on a wall, an unexpected juxtaposition-all might result in a story if you keep your eyes, ears and mind open. Some sources will be routine points of contact for journalists while others may be one-offs, some will be proactive, approaching journalists because they want news access for their views or events, while other sources may not even be aware that they are sources. A journalist should maintain a contact book having list of people categorized and carrying vital information. Sources of news can be listless, some sources are:

News reporting

News reporting is a type of journalism, typically written or broadcast in news style. Most news is investigated and presented by journalists or news Reporters, and can be distributed to various outlets via news agencies. News is often reported by a variety of sources, such as newspapers, television, and radio programs, wire services, and web sites. Reporters enjoy no special rights beyond those of other citizens. They must be aggressive in pursuing facts. Indeed, one of the most important functions of a free press is to serve as a watchdog. But its staff members have no dispensation to be rude or discourteous. Television has many sins of its own, but one thing it purveys very quickly to viewers is whether reporters at a news conference are behaving arrogantly or with unnecessary brusqueness.

New elements

1. Timeliness. Based on the idea that news is something you didn’t know before which is significant or interesting to a group of readers, news items are basically timely or immediate. In other words, items are fresh and new as usually indicated in the news by the use of words “today” or “yesterday” or “at present time” and the use of the present tense in news headline as one principle in journalism. Although news is basically timely, it may not be always new or fresh, for it  can be the development of an old event. There are news that are drawn from the historic past and are made to come alive by playing on or reporting the newest angle or latest development of the story. For example: Jose P. Rizal’s death in 1896 will always be presented on its newest angle as readers recall his death anniversary.

Journalistic Writing

Journalistic Writing

It is closely associated with the practice of reporting the news. Reporting is an art and a craft. Its skills can be taught, learned, and developed as a form of artistic expression. The modern newspaper writing style is a lead and summary form. In this form, the news item begins with a round-up of the major facts of the story, and then summarizes subordinate facts arranged in order of decreasing importance. The final item is often described as a throw-away item because it is lowest in importance and is designed to be discarded if necessary to fit the article into the news paper, magazine, or journal's physical news space.

Journalist trends

Marketing: An aggressive marketing drive has overtaken the media of today, making it more commercialized than ever. The media of mass communication and journalism i.e. television, radio, newspaper, are considered as commodities and vigorous marketing is done. Also much advertising is done these days to increase the circulation of the mass media. This has also led to state of the art designing and production of newspapers and programmers because a better and more advanced presentation is the requirement of the day.

Technology:

The news information technology has resulted in revolutionary changes in every sphere of life including journalism. With over expanding of satellite network, the world has become a ‘Tiny global village’. Computers, WWW, cellular phones, internet, etc the world of communication has changed immensely. As a result, a new branch of journalism i.e. ‘Cyber Journalism’ or ‘On-line-Journalism’ has emerged.

Interview Techniques

1.      Find a good location

Avoid Starbucks! It’s often easiest to suggest a centrally located corporate coffee shop but if there is any way you can interview in a place that has some relevance to the story or your subject you’ll have much greater success. Not only because you’ll gain a further sense of context, people are often more comfortable (and open) when they’re in a familiar place or what feels like “their territory.” Ask to meet at your subject’s house, work, or the location of an incident relevant to the story. Even meeting at the interviewee’s favorite restaurant is more interesting than a Starbucks.

2.      Prepare Your Goals Ahead

Know what questions you’re going to ask and why you’re going to ask them. Heading to an interview with a sense of what you want to get out of it (a colorful re-enactment of an event, an on-the-record opinion on the issue you’re covering, general background, etc.) is critical to conducting a successful interview. You should already be thinking about what you want your piece to look like and what you need from this interview to get your article closer to that end result.

Functions & responsibilities of good reporter

The press is independent of government. Governments are composed of human beings, and human beings can and do commit wrongs. The press and government should not become institutional partners. They are natural adversaries’ with different functions, and each must respect the role of the other. Sometimes a free press can be a distinct annoyance and an embarrassment to a particular government, but that is one of the prices of liberty.

A free press is responsible to its readers and to them alone.

Independence is at the very heart of any statement of ethical principles respecting the conduct of the press. The proprietors of a newspaper may choose to ally it with a particular political party or interest, but an increasing number of newspapers and journals are politically independent as well as independent of government. This means not that they refrain from endorsing a certain political party or a candidate for public office, but rather that they owe no prior allegiance and that they make the endorsement voluntarily, as an exercise of their

Elements of Good News

Good Reporter should have following elements in his news story:

Accuracy

Every statement, quotation, name, date, age and address must be verifiable. In addition, accuracy of general impression is also important. This involves the way the details are put together and the emphasis given those details. A reporter must judge what is important or unimportant, what will be played up or played down. The overall article must give an accurate portrayal of an event or situation, and poor selection of details or improper emphasis of details can distort the truth. In general, accuracy is difficult because reporters are dealing with many facts; they must gather information and write quickly, and many people are involved, from source to reporter to editor. To ensure accuracy, check and double check every detail and question sources carefully. You can't always rely on sources to give complete, accurate information any more than you can rely on them to just "tell" everything needed for an article. Indeed, some sources may intentionally misinform, so reporters often need to check with more than one source.

Editorial Room set up

Pressroom- rotary presses can turn out newspapers at phenomenal speeds. They print but also cut, fold and trim the papers and deliver them directly to the mailing room.

Proof Desk- in a sense, proof desk lies by the side of the mechanical, editorial and advertising departments but is usually responsible to the mechanical superintendent. Its object is to correct all typographical errors. A ‘proof’ is taken of all material set in the composing room, including ads and editorial matter, by inking the type and taking an impression of it on a rather simple ‘proof press’. These proofs are then compared with the ‘copy’ to make sure that the two conform. Proof reading is hence a more or less mechanical operation, unlike copy reading.

Attributes of Reporter

Off the record

Information given "off the record" is for the reporter's knowledge only and is not to be aired or made public in any way. The information also is not to be taken to another source in hopes of getting official confirmation.

Guidance

Information given as guidance is to help reporters with the status or timing of an event. The information is considered to be similar to "on background" statements. When the source of information for a story says nothing about being quoted, the reporter can presume that the information is on the record. After all, the subject is talking to a reporter about a developing news story. Sometimes, a source asks to go off the record, and it is up to the reporter to decide whether to accept the information on this basis. (Some reporters will tell the newsmaker that as a reporter, any information could find its way into a story. Because of that, I will not listen to anything told me "off the record.") Once the reporter allows the person being interviewed to go "off the record," he or she may not use the material.

News Editing process

Before a news story is assigned to a reporter or accepted from a beat or general assignment reporter, an editor must decide the story is newsworthy. Knowledge of the newspaper’s audience is the key to determining which news values to emphasize, and many newspapers today periodically conduct sophisticated surveys to help editors stay abreast of readers’ interests.

  In exercising news judgment, editors evaluate the extent to which each story contains one or more traditional news criteria, which include

Ø           Timeliness. Something that happens today has more reader impact than something that happened yesterday. Timeliness means that up-to-the-minute information is valuable.

Ø           Proximity. Something that happens nearby physically or geographically is important to readers, but so in information about others who share a common interest, such as people who participate in the same online discussion groups.

Ø           Prominence. People who are well-known or hold positions of authority, such as the president of the United States, often are newsmakers. But others in the community often have interesting stories, too.

Ø           Relevance. A story often has an impact on its audience, whether emotional or rational. The more people affected by the consequences of a story, the more significant the story will be.

Stylebook

Most newspapers have there own stylebook. Many use the stylebook prepared jointly by the Associated Press and United Press International. Many large newspapers have their own stylebook, some agreeing in most cases with the press association’s joint stylebook and some different considerably. Book publishers, public relations agencies, the Government printing Office and the armed forces also have stylebook. Most books on news writing, including this one, contain a basic style guide for beginners.

The Joint Stylebook

One of the major influences on news style today is the joint stylebook published by the Associated Press and United Press International. The first joint stylebook was published in 1960, revised in 1968 and completely rewritten for its most recent edition in 1970. Most newspapers follow this lead, either using it as their own stylebook and making locally written copy conform or basing their own stylebook on preferences stated in the joint stylebook. 

Offset Printing Process

Introduction to the Offset Printing Process

Before your jobs get to the press, there are several things that must be done to make sure it will look its best. Busy printers have to balance a tight schedule, so they want to make sure that each project is properly prepared to avoid problems at the press. If you’re having your job printed on an offset printing press, your printer will first take your digital files and make film negatives of them. These negatives will then be used to create metal plates through a process that’s similar to camera film development. If you have a four color (CMYK) design, there will be four plates — one each for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Once the plates are made, your project is ready to be printed.

News agency copy

News agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to organizations in the news trade: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. They are also known as wire services or news services. News agencies can be corporations that sell news (e.g. Reuters and All Headline News (AHN)), cooperatives composed of newspapers that share their articles with each other (e.g. AP), commercial newswire services which charge organizations to distribute their news (e.g. Market Wire, Business Wire and PR Newswire).Governments may also control "news agencies," particularly in authoritarian states, like China and the former Soviet Union or non-profit organizations operated by both professionals and volunteers. News agencies generally prepare hard news stories and feature articles that can be used by other news organizations with little or no modification, and then sell them to other news organizations. They provide these articles in bulk electronically through wire services. The bulk of copy, which comes to the news desk, is from wire agencies.

Headlines and its functions

Headlines – its Functions

Writing headlines, it has been said, is easy. All you have to do is make them accurate, fair, clear, precise, punchy, thoughtful, inviting, relevant, urgent and readable and do it in half a dozen words, often in three or four minutes. Obviously, that’s stretching the point. The truth is headline writing is often the most difficult and demanding part of a copy editor’s job. What a reporter said in 30 words or more in a lead, a headline writer might have to say in six words or less. But it can be done. It requires skill and a command of the language. Most of all, it requires imagination.

In this age of short attention spans, if a story has to exert a pull on the reader it has to have a catchy headline.  Headline is like a signpost that directs the reader to the story. It also determines the number of the people who go through the story. The role of headlines in making a story striking has always been a very important subject matter among the editorial staff. Giving attractive headlines to a story is an art. By writing headlines, a story can be made or dented. An improper headline, which lacks clarity, may deprive the story the importance and readership that it deserves. In a headline the main objective is to convey the maximum meaning using minimum words.

Types of printing process

1. The Gravure process is a type of intaglio process in which the actual image is etched into the surface of a plate or metal cylinder. The image consists of tiny cells (or wells) engraved into the cylinder; there may be as many as 22,500 ink wells per square inch. When the cylinder is rotated in a fountain of ink, the excess ink in the non-image area is removed by a thin piece of stainless steel called a doctor blade. The size and depth of each ink well determines how much ink will be deposited on the substrate. When paper is passed between the plate cylinder and rubber impression roller, it acts like a blotter and absorbs the remaining ink in the microscopic wells.

Editorial Hierarchy

Atop the editorial hierarchy ranks the editor or an editor-in-chief who plans and directs the day-to- day operations, supported by a team of news editors, chief subeditors, senior sub editors and sub editors. The news desk usually operates in shifts and each shift is headed by a chief sub, also called as ‘slot man’. Ideally, in a newspaper, it is the news editor who plans and directs page making while the chief sub helps implement his decisions. In a news agency, news editors chief sub editor look after the smooth functioning of the news desk. They plan and write ‘leads’ (updated version of developing stories).

Editorial page

The Editorial Page

An editorial is defined as “a write-up usually done by the Editor, his deputy or assistant editor/editors. Unlike a news story, it contains comments, usually on a current situation or development”. (Dictionary of Media and Journalism, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi) The editorial usually reflects the policy of a particular newspaper or magazine. The editorial is either written by the editor himself or by an established columnist. It is can at times be an article written by an assistant editor and signed by the editor or written by one of his principal editorial writers.

Depending on the kind of topics dealt, the editorials have been classified as follows:

1.      The Informative or interpretative editorial

2.      The Appreciative or Critical editorial

3.      The Human Interest editorial  

In the beginning editorial was a platform where the learned editors put forth their views and opinions about a contemporary issue. And the editors made no bones when they were criticizing something very caustically.

Editing and page design

Editing

              News Editing is an important function in the field of journalism. There is a lot of ignorance among the public regarding the importance of editing the news. Some laymen may just think that the newspaper reporters simply have to gather enough news material to fill the columns of their newspapers. Some others may think that all the newspaper reporters write the headlines over the news stories filed by them. Sometimes even the working newsmen may not realize the importance of editing the news. The word editing is derived from the Latin word editus, past principle of the verb edere – meaning to put forth, to give out, or to publish. Editing is all about making a copy worth publishing by perfecting it to suit the requirements of the publication which also includes the choice of stories.

Digital printing

Digital printing refers to methods of printing from a digital based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large format and/or high volume laser or inkjet printers. Digital printing has a higher cost per page than more traditional offset printing methods but this price is usually offset by the cost saving in avoiding all the technical steps in between needed to make printing plates. It also allows for on demand printing, short turn around, and even a modification of the image (variable data) with each impression. The savings in labor and ever increasing capability of digital presses means digital printing is reaching a point where it could match or supersede offset printing technology's ability to produce larger print runs of several thousand sheets at a low price.

Structure of Newspaper organization

The Editorial Pyramid

It has a whole range of people for the collection of news and production to making of the pages

The structure of Newspaper organization

The emphasis in newspaper work has long – too long, perhaps – been put upon the reporter. While there is no wish to take from him credit for his many superb contributions to the excellence of the modern newspaper’s it out to be realized that there is a man who stands between him and his critical public – the copy editor.

It is seldom that the wit, ingenuity and craftsmanship of the copy editor rescue the reporters. It is the editorial pencil as much as the reportorial typewriter that puts before the public daily the readable information of the world’s happenings. It is the copyeditor or the sub-editor (as he is popularly called) who is essentially that guardian of what gets into the newspaper and how it looks when it gets there. He detects the errors, corrects the English, cuts out the dead wood of verbiages, and tones the story up to its roper pitch or down to the level required by good taste or the libel, laws.

Some of the popular columnists’ of English Magazines

Shobaa De
Shobhaa Dé, also known as Shobha Rajadhyaksha (born 7 January 1948), is an Indian columnist and novelist. After making her name as a model, she began a career in journalism in 1970, during the course of which she founded and edited three magazines — Stardust, Society, and Celebrity. Shobhaa De runs four weekly columns in mainstream newspapers, including the The Times of India and Asian Age.
She writes for The Week under the name ‘the sexes’. You can find her: shobhaade.blogspot.com
Kishwar Desai
Kishwar Desai (born 1 December 1956) is an Indian author. She started her career as a print journalist, worked as a political reporter with the Indian Express, and moved on television and broadcast media. She writes columns for The Week magazine, The Asian Age newspaper and the Tribune newspaper. She writes for The week under the name ‘Masala Musings’. Find her: www.kishwardesai.com

Book Review: Everyone Loves A Good Drought

Everyone Loves A Good Drought

By P.Sainath

Penguin India 1996,

Price: Rs 295/- Pages: 470

Everybody Loves a Good Drought is not about drought, yet anybody working on the problems of drought in developing countries will benefit from reading it. Those looking for recipes, or in development parlance, “conceptual frameworks” or “strategies”, to solve the problem of drought or any other developmental problem will be disappointed. The author, a freelance journalist in Mumbai, India, has based this book on a series of reports that he filed for the Times of India from India’s poorest districts between 1993 and 1995. The emphasis is on highlighting the processes that lead to poor people’s vulnerable condition rather than on events of droughts, famines or starvation deaths. The book is divided into 11 chapters, each bringing together reports on different aspects such as health, education, displacement, justice, drought and the role of the press in poverty and development.

Fashion Photography

Fashion photography is important in considering realism in photography because it reaches such a wide audience. Today, as much as 50 years ago, fashion photography is tied in with values such as lifestyle, buying power (“retail therapy”), happiness and success – much more so than other status symbols. For the purpose of this essay, the term fashion should be taken loosely, simply meaning the desire to own and the ability to buy what is considered fashionable at the time.
Whilst the early examples of this genre only aimed at showing the product to be advertised (the clothes), the face of this type of photography changed from the 1930s and more radically during the 1950s to suggest a lifestyle that could be achieved with wearing certain types of clothes. This trend seems to fall in line with the developments in advertising.
Looking at the 1950s, we think of the image of a young house-wife with a healthy smile and perfect teeth, awaiting the return of her husband for whom she has dressed up after  doing the washing, cleaning the house and preparing a three-course meal. Her image communicates happiness and fulfilment.

Photography: Lighting devices

Photography is all about light. Our photographs are recorded light. How we control the available light and add additional light when needed is basis for all photography. There are numerous controls and methods for controlling light available to today's photographer.
Light Meter: Your camera's light meter is your link to understanding how your camera sees light. This device takes into account all of the settings on your camera (aperture, shutter speed, film speed, etc) and tells you what type of exposure that combination plus the available light will create on film/sensor. The first step to understanding photography lighting is to understand this tool for measuring light.
A light meter is an instrument inside your camera that tells you if the amount of light reaching the film will be enough or too much to properly expose your image. The light meter takes into account your shutter speed, film speed, and aperture settings.

Photography is both an art and a science

Photography is both an art and a science. Photography allows us to express our feeling and emotions, but to do so we need to master the scientific part of the medium. Unlike a painter, who is in direct contact with his subject and his canvas, a photographer is separated from his subject by the camera and from his "canvas" by computers and printers today and by darkroom equipment previously.
Whether color, black and white, abstract or documentary, photos tell a story without the need for words. Sometimes photographs that were never meant to be viewed as art become art just through their narrative superiority. Anyone who has seen photographs of intense moments of human emotion in war, poverty, or social conflict can confirm that photographs express emotions that could otherwise not be expressed merely by literary or painterly methods. For this reason, photography has rooted itself so deeply in our culture that we now rely on photography to tell stories, advertise products, record history, and communicate visual ideas. It not only documents the human experience, but it also helps us understand more about ourselves and our existence in this world.

Types of Camera

Introduction:

A camera is an optical instrument that records images that can be stored directly, transmitted to another location. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies."Photography" is derived from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("to draw"). The word was first used by the scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839. It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation, on a sensitive material.

Types of camera:

Plate camera: The earliest cameras produced in significant numbers used sensitized glass plates and are now termed plate cameras. Light entered a lens mounted on a lens board which was separated from the plate by an extendible bellows. There were simple box cameras for glass plates but also single-lens reflex cameras with interchangeable lenses and even for color photography. Many of these cameras, had controls to raise or lower the lens and to tilt it forwards or backwards to control perspective.

Ethics in Photojournalism

INTRODUCTION:

Pictures are worth 1,000 words – in the newspaper business that equals about 25 inches of print. Images are one of the most powerful forms of communication, especially in journalism. One image or sound can summarize an event or person or motivate a nation; one image can upset people more than endless pages of print on the subject.

In the early days of newspaper journalism the photojournalist’s role was relatively straightforward. Armed with a camera he captured a moment in time – a reality. Back at the newsroom he spent hours in the darkroom mixing chemicals and perfecting his art. The photojournalist emerged with a snippet of reality, ready to show the truth to the public. The development of news photography in the 19th century supported claims by newspapers that they reported events as they happened, objectively.

Press Council in India

Press Council in India aims at preserving the freedom of press and maintaining its standards. The Press Council of India was established in the year 1966 by the Parliament on the proposals of the First Press Commission. This council aims at preserving the freedom of the press and maintaining and improving the standards of Indian press. The present Press Council of India functions under the Press Council Act 1978. It is a constitutional, quasi judicial body which acts as a supervisory body of the press. It arbitrates the complaints against and by the press for violation of ethics and for violation of the freedom of the press correspondingly.

The Press Council is headed by a Chairman, who has by principle, been a retired and senior judge of the Supreme Court of India. The Council consists of 28 other members of whom 20 represent the press and are nominated by the press organisations or the news agencies. These organisations are recognised and notified by the Council as all India bodies of categories such as editors, working journalists and owners and managers of newspaper. Five members are nominated from the two houses of Parliament and three members represent cultural, literary and legal fields as nominees of the Sahitya Academy, University Grants Commission and the Bar Council of India. The members serve the Press Council of India for tenure of three consecutive years.

Registrar of Newspapers for India

The Office of the Registrar of Newspapers for India, more popularly known as RNI, is a government office in India. It came into being on 1 July 1956, on the recommendation of the First Press Commission in 1953 and by amending the Press and Registration of Books Act 1867.

The Press and Registration of Books Act contains the duties and functions of the RNI. On account of some more responsibilities entrusted upon RNI during all these years, the office is performing both statutory as well as some non-statutory functions.

Under statutory functions, the following jobs are covered:

·         Compilation and maintenance of a Register of Newspapers containing particulars about all the newspapers published;

·         Issue of Certificate of Registration to newspapers published under valid declaration;

·         Scrutiny and analysis of annual statements sent by the publishers of newspapers every year under PRB Act containing information on circulation, ownership etc.;

·         Informing district magistrates about availability of titles, to intending publishers for filing declaration;

·         Ensuring that newspapers are published in accordance with the provisions of PRB Act 1867 and the rules made thereunder;

·         Verification under Section 19-F of PRB Act, of circulation claims furnished by the publishers in their Annual Statements; and

The following fall under the non-statutory functions:

·         Formulation of Newsprint Allocation Policy - Guidelines and issue of Eligibility Certificate to the newspapers to enable them to import newsprint and to procure indigenous newsprint;

·         Assessing and certifying the essential need and requirement of newspaper establishments to import printing and composing machinery and allied materials.

    Source: Internet

Right to Information (RTI)

The Right to Information (RTI) Act is a law enacted by the Parliament of India to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens. It was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 13 October 2005. The RTI Act mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information. It applies to all States and Union Territories of India, except the State of Jammu and Kashmir, which is covered under a State-level law.

The Act relaxes the Official Secrets Act of 1889 which was amended in 1923 and various other special laws that restricted information disclosure in India. In other words, the Act explicitly overrides the Official Secrets Act and other laws in force as on 15 June 2005 to the extent of any inconsistency.

Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen (excluding the citizens within J&K) may request information from a 'public authority' (a body of Government or 'instrumentality of State') which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act also requires every public authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination and to proactively publish certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.

The RTI Act specifies that citizens have a right to: request any information (as defined); take copies of documents; inspect documents, works and records; take certified samples of materials of work; and obtain information in the form of printouts, diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode.

Freedon of Press and reasonable restrictions

FREEDOM OF PRESS IN INDIA

The freedom of press is the mother of all other freedoms. This freedom can be used to create a brave new world or to bring about universal catastrophe. There are media laws which curtail press freedom and the right of the citizen to information, as well as right to freedom of speech and expression, besides the restrictions imposed by constitution. Press freedom can be weighed from two sides.

1. The external and internal pressures such as interference by political and business leaders, pressure from advertisers, physical attacks on the press people, and so on.

2. Various media laws, such as the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, The Copy Right Act, 1957, impose restrictions on the exercise of the right of freedom of speech and expression by the press.

REASONABLE RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH

The second Press Commission has suggested certain amendments in the existing press laws to expand the scope of press freedom and at the same time to project the right to privacy of the individual and prevent newspapers from indulging into free style of character assassination.

1) Security of State: Under Article 19(2) reasonable restrictions can be imposed on fredom of speech and expression in the interest of security of State. The term "security of state" refers only to serious and aggravated forms of public order e.g. rebellion, waging war against the State, insurrection and not ordinary breaches of public order and public safety, e.g. unlawful assembly, riot, affray. Thus speeches or expression on the part of an individual, which incite to or encourage the commission of violent crimes, such as, murder are matters, which would undermine the security of State.

Freedom of Speech and Expression

"Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression" is a fundamental right of the citizens of India. This is mentioned in Part III of the Constitution of India - Article 19(1).

This Article is so wide in scope that Freedom of the Press is included in Freedom of Speech and Expression. It includes the right of free propagation and free circulation without any previous restraint on publication. The freedom of speech and expression does not give right to every possible use of language. It would lead to disorder and anarchy.

Salient features of Indian Constitution

PREAMBLE:

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY, of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;

and to promote among them all

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;

IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, DO HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.

THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE CONSTITUTION

1. Preamble: The Preamble, the preface to the constitution, describes the source nature, ideology, goals and objectives of the constitution. It describes India as a sovereign socialist, secular, democratic republic and underlines the-national objective of social just: economic justice and political justice as well as fraternity. It emphasises the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation. It declares that in India the people sovereign.