пятница, 28 мая 2010 г.

Are Newspapers Dying? Yes Or No?

Some Say the Internet Will Kill Off Papers. Others Say Not So Fast.

Are newspapers dying?

That’s the raging debate in the news biz these days. Many say the ultimate demise of the daily paper is just a matter of time – and not much time at that. The future of journalism is in news websites, not newsprint, they say.

Hold on, says another group of folks. Newspapers have been with us for hundreds of years, and while all news may someday be online, papers have some life in ‘em yet.

So who’s right? I’ll outline the arguments on both sides, then you can decide.

Newspapers Are Dead

Newspapers are in trouble. Circulation is dropping, display and classified ad revenue is drying up, and the industry has experienced an unprecedented wave of layoffs. Big metro papers like the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer have gone under, and even bigger newspaper companies like the Tribune Co. are in bankruptcy.

And where are newspaper readers going? To the web. A recent study by the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for the Digital Future found that Internet users read online newspapers for an average of 53 minutes per week in 2008. That’s the highest level recorded in the eight years the study has been done.

The bad news for newspapers? The study found that 22 percent of users said they stopped their subscription to a printed paper or magazine because they could access the same content online.

Gloomy business considerations aside, the dead-newspaper people say the Internet is just a better place to get the news.

“On the Web, newspapers are live, and they can supplement their coverage with audio, video, and the invaluable resources of their vast archives,” says Jeffrey I. Cole, director of USC's s Digital Future Center. “For the first time in 60 years, newspapers are back in the breaking news business, except now their delivery method is electronic and not paper.”

Conclusion: The Internet will kill off newspapers.

No They Aren’t – Not Yet, Anyway

Yes, newspapers are facing the toughest times ever, and yes, the Internet can offer many things that printed papers can’t.

But pundits and prognosticators have been predicting the death of newspapers for decades. Radio, TV and now the Internet were all supposed to kill them off, but they’re still here.

And while many papers are still hurting financially, there are hints that the picture will brighten as the economy gains steam.

For example, the Inland Press Association recently reported that, contrary to expectations, many papers are still profitable. And advertising research firm Borrell Associates recently predicted that newspapers' print ad revenue will actually increase 2.4 percent in 2010, and 8.7 percent by 2014.

"That will be short of its 2008 level, but a long way from extinction,” Colby Atwood, Borrell Associates’ president, told Business Insider.

Rick Edmonds, media business analyst for the Poynter Institute, says the widespread newspaper industry layoffs of the last few years, while painful, should make papers more viable when the recession ends.

“At the end of the day, these companies are operating more leanly now,” Edmonds said. “The business will be smaller and there may be more reductions, but there should enough profit there to make a viable business for some years to come.”

And those who claim that the future of news is online and only online ignore one critical point: Online ad revenue just isn’t enough to support most news companies, not in the way print advertising does. So for online-only news organizations to survive, they’ll need an as-yet undiscovered business model.

As for readership, while it’s true that news websites are gaining ground on newspapers, Martin Langeveld, a columnist for Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab, recently found that more than 96 percent of newspaper reading is still done in the print editions. The online share of the newspaper audience only amounts to about 3 percent, he found.

Conclusion: Until someone figures out how to make online news sites profitable, newspapers aren't going anywhere.

http://journalism.about.com/od/trends/a/papersdying.htm

 

A Code of Conduct For Reporters

Rules To Live By On The Job

  • Always clearly identify yourself as a reporter whenever you're interviewing someone. Never try to deceive or mislead anyone.
  • Always make it clear to people you're interviewing that you're writing an article that could be published.
  • Always be polite and courteous with people you're interviewing, even if they are not.
  • Never get into verbal or physical confrontations with people you're interviewing. If someone you're interviewing becomes agitated or threatening, leave immediately.
  • Never state your opinions or inject yourself into any event you cover, such as protests, rallies or public comment forums. As a reporter you're there as a professional observer, not a participant.
  • If someone tries to offer you a bribe or inducement in exchange for writing a favorable article about them, refuse. Let your editor know what has happened.

http://journalism.about.com/od/ethicsprofessionalism/a/codeofconduct.htm

 

A (Brief) History of Print Journalism in America

A Profession Intertwined With the Nation's History

The Printing Press

When it comes to the history of journalism, everything starts with the invention of the movable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. However, while Bibles and other books were among the first things produced by Gutenberg's press, it wasn't until the 17th century that the first newspapers were distributed in Europe.

The first regularly published paper came out twice a week in England, as did the first daily, The Daily Courant.

A New Profession in a Fledgling Nation

In America, the history of journalism is inextricably intertwined with the history of the country itself. The first newspaper in the American colonies - Benjamin Harris's Publick Occurrences both Foreighn and Domestick - was published in 1690 but immediately shut down for not having a required license.

Interestingly, Harris' newspaper employed an early form of reader participation. The paper was printed on three sheets of stationery-size paper and the fourth page was left blank so that readers could add their own news, then pass it on to someone else.

Many newspapers of the time were not objective or neutral in tone like the papers we know today. Rather, they were fiercely partisan publications that editorialized against the tyranny of the British government, which in turn did its best to crack down on the press.

An Important Case

In 1735, Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, was arrested and put on trial for allegedly printing libelous things about the British government. But his lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, argued that the articles in question could not be libelous because they were based on fact.

Zenger was found not guilty, and the case established the precedent that a statement, even if negative, cannot be libelous if it is true. This landmark case helped establish the foundation of a free press in the then-fledgling nation.

The 1800s

There were already several hundred newspapers in the U.S. by 1800, and that number would grow dramatically as the century wore on. Early on, papers were still very political and partisan in tone, but gradually they started to become more than simply mouthpieces for their publishers.

Newspapers were also growing as an industry. In 1833 Benjamin Day opened the New York Sun and created the "Penny Press." Day's cheap papers, filled with sensational content and aimed at a working class audience, were a huge hit. With huge increases in circulation and larger printing presses to meet the demand, newspapers became a mass medium.

This period also saw the establishment of more prestigious newspapers that had begun to incorporate the kinds of journalistic standards that we know today. One such paper, started in 1851 by George Jones and Henry Raymond, made a point of featuring quality reporting and writing. The name of the paper? The New York Daily Times, which later became The New York Times.

The Civil War

The Civil War era brought technical advances like photography to the nation's great papers. And the advent of the telegraph enabled Civil War correspondents to transmit stories back to their newspapers' home offices with unprecedented speed.

But the telegraph lines often went down, so reporters learned to put the most important information in their stories into the first few lines of the transmission. This led to the development of the tight, inverted-pyramid style of writing that we associate with newspapers today.

This period also saw the formation of The Associated Press wire service, which started as a cooperative venture between several large newspapers wanting to share news that arrived by telegraph from Europe. Today the AP is the world's oldest and largest news agency.

Hearst, Pulitzer & Yellow Journalism

The 1890s saw the rise of publishing moguls William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Both owned papers in New York and elsewhere, and both employed a sensationalistic kind of journalism designed to lure as many readers as possible. The term "yellow journalism" dates from this era; it comes from the name of a comic strip - "The Yellow Kid" - published by Pulitzer.

The 20th Century - And Beyond

Newspapers thrived into the mid-20th century but with the advent of radio and then television, newspaper circulation began a slow but steady decline.

That decline has only been hastened by the advent of the internet, and the early years of the 21st century have seen the newspaper industry enter a kind of death spiral, with layoffs, bankruptcies and even the total shutdown of some publications being seen nationwide.

Still, even in an age of 24/7 cable news and thousands of websites, newspapers maintain their status as the best source for in-depth and investigative news coverage.

The value of newspaper journalism is perhaps best demonstrated by the Watergate scandal, in which two reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, did a series of investigative articles about corruption and nefarious doings in the Nixon White House. Their stories, along with ones done by other publications, led to Nixon's resignation.

The future of print journalism as an industry remains unclear. On the internet, blogging about current events has become enormously popular, but critics charge that most blogs are filled with gossip and opinions, not real reporting.

There are hopeful signs online. Some websites are returning to old-school journalism, such as VoiceofSanDiego.org, which highlights investigative reporting, and GlobalPost.com, which focuses on foreign news.

But while the quality of print journalism remains high, it's clear that newspapers as an industry must find a new business model in order to survive well into the 21st century.

http://journalism.about.com/od/ethicsprofessionalism/a/printhistory.htm

 

10 Steps For Producing The Perfect News Story

What You Need To Do To Create Articles That Shine

So you want to produce your first news story, but not sure where to begin, or what to do along the way. Creating a news article is actually a series of tasks that involve both reporting and writing. Here are the things you'll need to accomplish in order to produce a story that's ready for publication.

1. Find Something To Write About

Journalism isn't fiction writing - you can't create stories from your imagination. You have to find newsworthy topics worth writing about. You can get started by checking out the places where news often happens - your local city hall, police precinct or courthouse. Attend a city council or school board meeting. Want to cover sports? High school football and basketball games can be very exciting and provide great experience for the aspiring sportswriter. Or interview local merchants for their take on the state of the economy.

2. Do Your Interviews

Now that you've decided what to write about, you need to hit the streets (or the phone, or your e-mail) and start interviewing sources. Do some research about those you plan to interview, prepare some questions and make sure you're equipped with a reporter's notepad, pen and pencil. Rerember that the best interviews are more like conversations. Put your source at ease, and you'll get more revealing information.

3. Choose The Best Quotes

You may fill your notebook with quotes from your interviews, but when you write your story you'll only be able to use a fraction of what you've gathered. Not all quotes are created equal - some are compelling, and others just fall flat. Pick the quotes that grab your attention, and chances are they'll grab your reader's attention as well.

4. Report, Report, Report

Good clean newswriting is fine, but all the writing skills in the world can't replace thorough, solid reporting. Good reporting means answering all the questions a reader might have, and then some. It also means double-checking the information you get to make sure it's accurate. And donlt forget to check the spelling of your source's name. It's Murphy's Law - just when you assume your source's name is spelled John Smith, it'll be Jon Smythe.

5. Be Objective and Fair

Hard-news stories are not the place to for opinion-spewing. Even if you have strong feelings about the issue you're covering, you need to learn to set those feelings aside and become a dispassionate observer. Remember, a news story isn't about what YOU think - it's about what your sources have to say.

6. Craft a Great Lede

So you've done your reporting and are ready to write. But the most interesting story in the world isn't worth much if no one reads it, and if you don't write a knock-their-socks-off lede, chances are no one will give your story a second glance. To craft a great lede, think about what makes your story unique, and what you find interesting about it. Then find a way to convey that interest to your readers.

7. After The Lede, Structure The Rest of The Story

Crafting a great lede is important, but you still have to write the rest of the story. Newswriting is based on the idea of conveying as much information as possible, as quickly and efficiently as possible. The inverted pyramid format means you put the most important information at the top of your story, the least important at the bottom.

8. Attribute The Information You Get From Sources

It's important in news stories to be absolutely clear about where the information comes from. Attributing the information in your story makes it more credible, and builds trust with your readers. Whenever possible, use on-the-record attribution.

9. Check Your AP Style

So you've reported and written a terrific story. But all that hard work will be for nothing if you send your editor a story filled with Associated Press style errors. AP Style is the gold standard for print journalism usage in the U.S., which is why you need to learn it. Get used to checking your AP Stylebook whenever you write a story. Pretty soon, you'll start to memorize some of the most common style points.

10. Get Started on a Follow-up Story

So you've finished your article and sent it to your editor, who praises it profusely. Then she says, "OK, we'll need a follow-up story." Developing follow-up stories can be tricky at first, but there are some simple methods that can help you along. For instance, think about the causes and consequences of the story you're covering. Doing so is bound to produce at least a few good follow-up ideas.

http://journalism.about.com/od/reporting/tp/createstories.htm



10 Terms Every Journalist Should Know

1. Lede

The first sentence of a hard-news story; a succinct summary of the story’s main point.

2. Inverted Pyramid

The model used to describe how a news story is structured. It means the heaviest or most important news goes at the top of the story, and the lightest, or least important, goes at the bottom.

3. Copy

The content of a news article.

4. Beat

To cover a particular area or topic, such as cops, courts or city council.

5. Byline

The name of a news story's author, usually put at the start of the article.

6. Dateline

The city from which a news story originates, usually placed at the start of the story.

7. Source

Anyone you interview for a news story.

8. Anonymous Source

A source who does not want to be identified in a news story.

9. Attribute

To tell readers where the information in a news story comes from.

10. Morgue

A newspaper’s library of clippings of old articles.

понедельник, 24 мая 2010 г.

News writing

You've gathered the information, done the reporting. You've interviewed all the people involved, the eye witnesses to the explosion, the police, etc, etc. And now you have to write the story. You have pages in your notebook of facts, observations, quotes. You may have some agency copy, some material from other media. The first thing to do is stop and think. Do not start writing until you have a plan. Read through all your notes, marking the most important pieces of information and the quotes you want to use. The information you have gathered will not have entered your notebook in order of importance. You need to decide what is more important, what is less important, to establish a hierarchy of pieces of information. And this is where you must think about your audience. Not necessarily what interests you most, but what will interest them. It may not be the same thing, and this is where knowing, having a feeling for, understanding your audience is so important. As you stare at the blank screen try to imagine the reader.

It depends on the publication you are writing for, of course. You can assume more knowledge if you are writing for a specialist publication, or a specialist section of a newspaper. A cricket report or commentary can assume knowledge of the rules of cricket; an article for a motoring magazine can assume the reader knows what a supercar is. But some specialist publications set out to educate - computer magazines are a good example - and while interest can be assumed, knowledge of how to use specific pieces of software cannot. So understand the intentions of the publication you write for, or if you are a freelance you seek to sell to.

The market sector in which the newspaper is located is also relevant to how you write. You will find longer sentences and paragraphs and sometimes longer words in the more serious newspapers selling relatively small numbers of copies than in mass-selling newspapers with circulations 10 times as big. The reader of the Guardian will tend to be better educated and to have a larger vocabulary than the reader of the Sun. But do not, as a writer, show off your extensive vocabulary. It is never better, wherever you are writing, to prefer the less familiar word - "wordy" is always better than "prolix". Nobody is impressed by the use of a word they do not understand or would not use in everyday speech. The danger of talking down to the audience - assuming vocabulary as well as knowledge - is that it insults readers, makes them feel inadequate. And that turns them off and, worse, turns them away. They do not read on, and you have not communicated with them. The best writing for popular journalism is some of the best writing in journalism, and is hard to do. It is readily understandable, instantly readable and, if it is done well, makes you want to read on. Space is always the most precious commodity in a newspaper. Long words and sentences take up more space. Self-indulgent writing pleases nobody except perhaps the writer.

Stephen King, who has sold more novels than most, reflected on his craft in On Writing, and drew a similar message: "One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed."

So the overriding message in journalistic writing is: Keep It Simple. One of the greatest editors and journalists is Harold Evans, who has written one of the best books on journalistic writing, Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers. He summed it up thus: "It is not enough to get the news. We must be able to put it across. Meaning must be unmistakable, and it must also be succinct. Readers have not the time and newspapers have not the space for elaborate reiteration. This imposes decisive requirements. In protecting the reader from incomprehension and boredom, the text editor has to insist on language which is specific, emphatic and concise. Every word must be understood by the ordinary reader, every sentence must be clear at one glance, and every story must say something about people. There must never be a doubt about its relevance to our daily life. There must be no abstractions."

Below are a series of tips for keeping things simple and encouraging the reader to read it. They are addressed at news writing, but most apply to all forms of journalistic writing.

The intro

This is the start of the story, the opening paragraph. The traditional news introductory paragraph, still the dominant form, has two related purposes: to engage the reader instantly and to summarise what the story is all about. The structure is known as the "inverted pyramid" and dates back to the days of hot metal when words on their way on to paper passed through a stage of being slugs of lead. It was always easier and faster to cut a story from the bottom, using a pair of tweezers. News stories always have to be cut because reporters write them too long, and the (imperfect) theory was that a well structured story could always be cut from the bottom so that in extremis (do not use - see later) if the intro was the only paragraph left it still made sense. The good intro depends on your judgment and decisiveness. It declares why the story is being published, what is the newest, most interesting, most important, most significant, most attention-grabbing aspect of the story. It is not a summary of everything yet to come. The best intro will contain a maximum of two or three facts, maybe only one. In a popular tabloid it will consist of one sentence, probably no more than 25 words. The worst intro will be uncertain of what the story is all about and will contain several ideas. The best intro will demand that you read on. The worst will make it likely that you will move on.

As Tony Harcup puts it in his Journalism, Principles and Practice: "The intro is crucial because it sets the tone for what follows. A poorly written intro might confuse, mislead or simply bore the reader - a well-written intro will encourage the reader to stay with you on the strength of the information and angle you have started with."

Rest of the story

Once you've got the intro right, the second paragraph will be the most important you write. And so on. Holding the reader's interest does not stop until he or she has read to the end. You have already planned your structure, the hierarchy of information. After the intro you are amplifying the story, adding new, if subordinate, information, providing detail, explanation and quotes. And doing all this so that the story reads smoothly and seamlessly. News stories are about providing information, and there is nothing more frustrating for the reader that finishing a story with unanswered questions still hanging. Journalism students are taught about the five Ws: who, what, when, where and why. They are a useful tool to check you have covered all the bases, though not all will always apply. It is always difficult to detach yourself from your own prose when you read it through, but try. Try to put yourself in the place of the reader coming cold to the story, interested in it and asking the questions that will make it clear. Have you dealt with them? The subeditor, or text editor, will soon tell you if you haven't. There is always a problem over how much knowledge to assume, particularly with a running story of which today's is another episode. You cannot always start from the beginning for the benefit of reader recently arrived from Mars, but you can include sufficient to ensure it is not meaningless. It is a matter of judgement.

Active not passive

Always prefer the active tense in news writing, and particularly in intros. The active tense is faster and more immediate; it also uses fewer words. "Arsenal were beaten by Manchester United last night ... " is slower than "Manchester United beat Arsenal ... ", and if it is a London newspaper "Arsenal lost to Manchester United ... " is still preferable.

Positive even if it is negative

Not: "The government has decided not to introduce the planned tax increase on petrol and diesel this autumn." But: "The government has abandoned plans to raise fuel taxes this autumn." News is more engaging if it describes something that is happening, rather than something that is not.

Quotes

Long quotes bring a story grinding to a halt, particularly if they are from politicians, particularly local politicians, bureaucrats or bores. Short, incisive, direct quotes change the pace of a story, add colour and character, illustrate bald facts, and introduce personal experience. Journalists paraphrase speeches and reports to focus on the main points, and to make them shorter and more comprehensible. It is a vital skill, as is using indirect quotation. But a quote will add a different tone of voice, inject emotion or passion, answer the question "what was it like?", "how did you feel?", "what are you going to do next?", "what actually happened." Usually the reporter was not there and is gathering the information after the event. The direct quote provides actuality. And sometimes the quote has to be there to provide the precision, when the actual words used are crucial, and sometimes the story itself.

Never use a word other than "said" when attributing a quote. Affirmed, opined, exclaimed, interjected, asserted, declared, are all tacky synonyms which do nothing to help the flow of the story. When people speak they "say". On rare occasions it might be relevant to the story if they shout or scream; in which case break the rule.

Officialese

Language used in letters from bank managers, council officers, utilities and read from their notebooks by police officers giving evidence in court should always be avoided. People do not "proceed"; they walk. Police do not "apprehend"; they stop or arrest or detain. "At this point in time" is now.

George Orwell, in his essay Politics and the English Language, converts a passage from Ecclesiastes and turns it into officialese to make the point. Original: "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, not the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all." Orwell's rewrite: "Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account."

Adjectives

Keith Waterhouse, the veteran Daily Mail and Daily Mirror columnist wrote an irresistible book on journalistic writing called Newspaper Style. It was in fact an adaptation of the Mirror style book he had been commissioned to write. In it he warns of the dangers of adjectives thus: "Adjectives should not be allowed in newspapers unless they have something to say. An adjective should not raise questions in the reader's mind, it should answer them. Angry informs. Tall invites the question, how tall? The well-worn phrase: his expensive tastes ran to fast cars simply whets the appetite for examples of the expensive tastes and the makes and engine capacity of the fast cars."

This test should be applied to all adjectives used in journalistic writing. If they add relevantly to the information being provided, they can stay. If not, strike them. Too many writers believe adjectives add colour and style. Vague or general ones add nothing. "Use specific words (red and blue)," says Waterhouse, "not general ones (brightly coloured)."

Jargon, abbreviations, acronyms and know-all foreign phrases

All of us who work in organisations, professions, specific industries or bureaucracies are surrounded by jargon. We may regard it as shorthand to speed communication because we share the understanding of what it means, but, whether intentional or not, it is a protective shield that excludes those not in the know. That is the effect it has when used in newspaper writing. Those in the know understand; the rest do not. Anything readers do not understand makes them feel left out rather than included and turns them against the story. They may well stop reading. Medical, scientific and economic terms are a case in point. Avoid them or explain them. Price/earnings ratios and capitalisation mean nothing to the general reader. It is the same with abbreviations and acronyms. Today's students have no idea what CBI stands for; they are more likely to know FoI. A few could expand Nato, fewer the TUC. Many of the terms, although still in use, are generational. They need to be spelt out or explained, or another reader is lost. Just as long words speak down to those with a smaller vocabulary - and there is always a simpler, and less space consuming, alternative - so well-used Latin expressions mean nothing to those who have not learned that language, apart from lawyers who have had to mug up. Pro bono, inter alia and in extremis have no place in newspapers, and usually mean the writer is showing off.

Puns and cliches

Headline writers love puns and phrases from 60s pop lyrics and editors frequently have to restrain their use. They sit even less easily in copy, where only readers over 55 can identify. Again, the danger is excluding readers. Worst of all is the extended metaphor or pun. Like this (real) one: "Kingsbridge Silver Band has hit a high note with National Lottery chiefs to the tune of nearly £52,000. Tired old instruments struck a chord with the lottery board, which has drummed up enough cash for a complete new set, giving the band plenty to trumpet about." Yes, really.

Apostrophes

The printed word has done more to save the apostrophe than the whole of the teaching profession. Given the pace of newspaper and magazine production it is extraordinary that so few errors in spelling or punctuation appear, a tribute to the subeditors who prepare copy for publication. From advertising (shockingly, sometimes intentionally) to the greengrocer's board we are bombarded with mis- (and missing) punctuation, yet it is invariably correct in print, though seldom when it emerges from the home printer. If in doubt, and most people are, consult Lynne Truss (Eats, Shoots and Leaves). Often.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/25/writing.journalism.news

воскресенье, 23 мая 2010 г.

Interviewing techniques

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/professionals-podcasts/interviewing-techniques