Assignment 01
AN ASSIGNMENT ON PROCESS OF NEWSPAPER EDITING & HEADLINE AND LEAD
Course Code: MCJ 3105
Date of Submission: 05th April, 2022
Table of Contents
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Significance and Objectives of Editing
1.3 Principles of Editing
1.3.1 Understanding News Value and Newsworthiness
1.3.2 Editorial Policy, Judgment and Style-sheet
1.3.3 Editorial Values: Truth, Objectivity, Fairness, Balance and Independence
1.3.4 Editorial Challenges: Competition, Bias, Slant, Different Pressures
1.4 Process of Editing
1.4.1 News Selection, Treatment and Placement
1.4.2 Fact Checking
10.4.3 Handling of News Copy
10.4.4 Planning and Visualization of News
1.5 Rewriting News Stories
1.6 Headlines and Intro / Lead writing
1.7 Headline and its Functions
1.8 What is a Headline?
1.9 Functions of a Headline
2.0 Headline Writing Process
2.1 Writing the Headline
2.2 Kinds of Headlines
2.2.1 Label Headline
2.2.2 Descriptive Headline
2.2.3 Comment Headline
2.2.4 Quotation Headline
2.2.5 Question Headline
INTRODUCTION
You may be aware that in any news organization, news comes from varied sources and in raw form. They may be written by reporters, sent by institutions/ organizations as press releases, press agencies, or even common citizens may directly write to a newspaper organization. Many of these sources may not be professional as there is little chance of them knowing the system or pattern of news editing. This often results in mistakes of various kinds - sentence structure, grammar, variations in type and size of fonts and even readability. Hence, the raw draft requires editing before it goes for final publishing and layout.
Editing is, thus, the back bone for any news organization. Editing plays an important role in creating news stories. The news is collected by reporters from different locations, diverse sources and in multiple ways. These are then written in a hurried manner by them and sent to the news organizations for publishing. This is similar to making a building structure, the reporter creates a theme or basic structure while the rest of the work like plastering, painting, decorating is done by the editor. In a print media organization, the person working as editor or in-charge for the editorial desk is responsible for complete processing which includes adding, deleting, proofreading, writing headline and so on of the raw draft of news to be sent to the press for publishing. An editor always works within time constraints and under work pressure as he is the last sole accountable person to send the newspaper to the press for it to be available on time the next morning to the reader. The person who carries out all this work is known as editor or editorial desk in-charge in a print media organization.
This Unit will explain to you and take you through a newsroom in a print media organization, elaborate upon the role and responsibility of an editor and the editorial desk. Along with this, you will also understand the principles of editing and learn how a news item is created, how to judge its newsworthiness, accuracy, format, layout and design so as to make it readable, presentable and fit for publishing.
Further, it will elucidate on how a raw copy is edited and made printable incorporating newsworthiness, how the entire print organization works for printing a news item in the news paper/magazines. Overall, it will help you to understand the editing process in a print organization
WHAT IS NEWS EDITING?
In a news organization, news editing plays a vital role. A news story is written by hurried reporters and is rough-edged like a raw diamond. Hence, the copy is polished and honed by a team of editors. Thus, editing is done to achieve a balance of news between that originating within the organization and that pouring in from outside.
Sorting out and sifting also helps induce parity between the well-written articles and those written by inexperienced reporters. In the process, the unwanted matter gets weeded out. Only the newsworthy stories are finally selected.
These are checked and rechecked for grammar, syntax, facts, figures, and sense and also clarified for betterment, and are condensed for the economy of space.
SIGNIFICANCE AND OBJECTIVES OF EDITING
Editors are the face of any newspaper. They lead the newspaper by example. They are the motivational force for any newspaper and inspire the entire editorial staff working under them. In the current scenario, they not only decide what is to be published in the newspaper but also decide the area where it is to be published. In addition, they are also responsible for managing the day-to- day organizational policies. Because of this, the editor is now referred to as managing editor.
The objectives of this Unit is to know:
more about the editor’s role;
about the work of editorial staff;
about characteristics of good editing;
about the principles of good editing; and
the tips for better editing in order to make good news.
PRINCIPLES OF EDITING
Every idea or theory is based on certain principles to run the system and process in order to sustain for a long period of time. Editing is the process prior to publishing and printing of a newspaper or magazine. News editing is based on principles that are required to provide it shape as per the firm’s ethics and systems. Principles of editing news stories are as follows:
Accuracy: Editing is a time bound and data based activity requiring accuracy. A single mistake can damage the reputation and goodwill of the newspaper. The advice often given to editor/ sub-editor in the newspaper industry is: “If there is any doubt, keep it out”. For e.g. “we received this information from a highly placed source.” Such words should not be used in print and electronic media unless the source is well identified. It takes just a fraction of a second to destroy the whole purpose of a story. Therefore, it is better to check and cross-check to ensure that the facts and figures are perfect and authentic as it will also help the organization develop and retain its credibility.
Brevity: Brevity is a great need from a newspaper reader which is appreciated by a cross section of professionals in the newspaper industry. A good editor is one who can convey his message in a very concise manner. He/she always preserves the sanctity of time and space. Brevity and reliability are the key words in order to sustain in the competitive publishing line.
Clarity: Clarity is another key factor for success in print media. The vision pursued by a news organization translates onto paper. Clarity in content of messages helps to maintain the credibility of a newspaper. This is important as it assists the newspaper stand out compared to its peer group.
Readability: Yet another principle of print media is that, while writing, the length of a sentence should not exceed more than eighteen words, which is the accepted standard norm. It is assumed that if a sentence exceeds the word limit of 18, its Principles of Editing 142 Editing becomes difficult to grasp easily. The second assumption is that if the word limit crosses 25 then it becomes difficult to read and understand. However, there are many editors who do exceed the standard word limit set for fine editing but due to their art of writing, the flow can still make it attractive for readers. Hence, it ultimately depends upon the writers and how they excel in storytelling. But it is suggested that all newly recruited editors follow the word limit norm and keep the story short and compact.
Human Interest: Human interest is a basic ingredient of all our needs in life including gaining knowledge or pursuit of any career. Editing is an art of writing to maintain justice with human interest. A person cannot become a good editor if he/she cannot understand the readers’ perception. Hence, it is expected of a good editor to write stories keeping in mind the hopes, aspirations, desires and above all, the interests of the readers.
Sharp Observation: Observation plays a pivotal role in the successful life of any human being. Sharp observation skills is a basic characteristic needed for an editor as he/she is the person who creates, recreates, and writes stories for a newspaper with a sense of responsibility after sharp observation of the society. He/she should be able to mold the story keeping pace with dynamism of the situation, newsworthiness highlighting the truth of the society.
PROCESS OF EDITING
Editing is a process of selecting, preparing, writing, proofreading and publishing in the print media to disseminate the information to their target readers. The editing process goes through many channels from writing to correction, correction to consideration, consideration to modification and modification to production. The editing process starts with the reporter or author’s original writing and ends with the editor’s idea, creation and publication.
In the print media industry, there are various editorial departments working together to publish a newspaper. The editorial position is headed by chief editor followed by editor and then sub –editor and editorial assistant. In big media organizations, the editorial work from bottom to top position is finally reported to the chief editor while in small level newspapers the role is often overlapping.
News Selection, Treatment and Placement
Selection of news is based on time and space available in the newspaper. Every minute information is pouring into the newsroom from diverse sources. These can be from correspondents, press releases, phone calls, citizen journalists and so on. But due to limited page size and space crunch every information cannot be published as a news item. So, the editor must be selective and look for newsworthiness, sift and filter out each and every information, also taking into consideration the public interest before allocating space for the news in the newspaper.
The person who is responsible for deciding news agenda or the issues to be covered is called “gatekeeper” or “editor.” His ideology, vision, style and notion will get reflected in the newspaper. Most individuals, organizations or companies are aware about the stories that would cater to the interest of a newspaper and attract the editor’s attention. So, they send such stories to that particular newspaper. Yet there are some issues of news value which can get selected as news stories in majority of newspapers as they have the following features:
1. Newsworthiness.
2. Human interest.
3. Timeliness’ and technology.
4. Ethical standards and news values.
But, due to the influence of the paid news phenomenon and having generated public interest at times bad news also gets a major share of space in newspapers. These create sensation but do not have news values - such as crime, cricket, corruption and cinema? We know them as the “four C” of today’s news materials.
In what direction in terms of concern and placement of news will the story lead primarily depends upon newspapers, newspaper’s ideology and editor’s wish. For example on “Demonetisation issue” the ‘Times of India’ newspaper views will be entirely different from ‘Hindustan Times’ or ‘The Indian Express’. Hence, the newspaper story selection, treatment and placement are totally based on the agenda of the newspapers unless any big news is not influencing the interest of the majority of the common man.
Apart from that some common factors are involved for selecting news, treatment and placement which are as under:-
Threshold
Threshold is the scale or size of a story matter for selection. The more the people of society are affected, the more impact it would involve. For example, the more causality involved and more gruesome the murder, the maximum chance that it would get highlighted in front page news.
Frequency
An unexpected accident that occurs suddenly will be most newsworthy. For example, two plane crashes near Charkhi-Dadri, near Delhi-NCR. If news fits in with the news editor’s schedule he will pick it immediately since the truth will unfold gradually until the main reason of the accident has been not reported. It will get wider space for a longer period of time to create public interest.
Unexpectedness
Editors generally pick up the news that is not common and which happens unexpectedly. As the New York Tribune and Sun Editor, Charles A. Dana famously stated that, “If a dog bites a man, that is not news. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.”
Negativity
In today’s world, especially after globalization and liberalization, bad news has become more prominent than good news. Stories about corruption, robbery, murder, rape rate are getting more space than positive news. Editors are more likely to select these bad news stories rather than good news due to the value and sensation it is likely to create.
Fact Checking
A fact checking is a very important ingredient of good editing especially in news
field and information world. A single error can damage not only the reputation of
a newspaper but also the credential of an editor. In newspapers, many factual
errors are prevented as the editor works as “Gatekeeper.” To ensure this the
following can be kept in mind:
A good editor verifies the news credibility at least from two sources. Whether
it is original sources or websites.
Editor can either ask the writer for his source of material or enquire from
somebody to know the truth of the story.
Sometimes a good news editor neither asks anybody for their sources of information nor does he verify the news from any other sources. He assumes the fact from his own experiences and guts.
A senior editor’s understanding will always be very mature and he will be able to handle any kind of situation. He will look over the entire piece of information received from different sources and will always keep eyes open to catch the mistakes.
REWRITING NEWS STORIES
The situation of rewriting the stories arises when the message conveyed is not clear or is ambiguous. If an editor does not find clear lead and structure then he may be forced to rewrite the story. In this situation a good editor rearranges the facts, identifies the main news points, goes into depth and after retrieving all valuable data starts rewriting the news in a new way. For rewriting the story afresh an editor goes through with the following process:-
organizing facts in chronological order;
building paragraphs with specific points;
using quotes, if any, to validate points;
concluding the story with factual analysis.
For example:-
A sample of rewriting story received from local reporter:-
Original story:- Ghaziabad, Dec. 20:Two wheeler thefts have been rising very much during the past one month. The Ghaziabad Police conducted vehicle checks in many places in the town on Sunday.
Rewritten story:-“As per the order of the Superintendent of Police Sanjay Singh, a police team conducted a surprise vehicle check drive in Ghaziabad. The police team checked two wheelers and verified the driving license, registration certificate etc. The surprise check was conducted at Buddha chowk, Vasundhra, Abhay Khand, Indirapuram, and near Vaishali metro station.
LEVELS OF EDITING
Structural Editing
Structural editing is also known as substantive or developmental editing. This is
the most difficult and time consuming process of editing. It is a very expensive
editing but gives clarity in editing before the work begins. The manuscript of
structural editing is very long and requires many draft of rewriting before it goes
for publication.
Types of structural editing and its process. It includes two types:-
Fictional Editing: - Requires story formulation to generate conflict, create
general strength and weakness of story and meet the interest of readers
expectations.
Non-fictional Editing:- Requires particular structure, logic and flow of
arguments of ideas to plan the story and meticulously design the style and
fonts.
Copy Editing
Copy editing is a process to check, review and correct the written material to
make it more effective, readable, and accurate in terms of spelling, grammar,
punctuation and formatting. A copy editor is also responsible to check the factual
data and errors before sending any news material for publishing.
Rewriting
Rewriting actually means to write again and to verify the facts, figures and formats.
During writing a copy for print media or newspaper, the person responsible for
making significant changes in original news material is called copy editor. But in
journalism “rewrite man’’means the person who works for another story and rewrites in new ways the gathered information to avoid any grammatical errors. To simply put it, rewriting is a process of writing a news or story.
Proofing
Proofing or proofreading is a process to check the textual errors against the original manuscript of a newspaper before it is sent to the press for publication. Proofing means reading each and every word of manuscript carefully that may include punctuation mark, grammar, spelling errors, sentence structure etc to make it publishable. Almost everyone agrees that the best way of proofing is not to proof your original document, but ask someone else to do it for you. In a newspaper, generally this work is done by sub-editors or proof readers.
CRCs
CRC stands for cyclic redundancy check. It is an error-detecting code generally used in digitally enabled technology of printing and editing systems. This system is capable of checking storage devices and accidental changes in raw data. CRC’s can be used for error correction once data is fed for publication. The CRC was invented by W. Wesley Peterson in 1961. It is basically used in Wi-Fi and Ethernet enabled systems to catch the transmitted digital data. Nowadays the majority of publications and researchers use this system to rectify any mistake before sending their final draft for printing.
HEADLINE AND ITS FUNCTIONS
Headline is the title of a news story. It is placed on the top of every news story to serve as the heading for the content written below. Apart from providing the crux of the news content, it helps the reader decide whether the news story is of interest to him or not. It is written in bold and bigger typeface than the body of a news story.
WHAT IS A HEADLINE?
A headline is defined as the heading of a news story or article. It is generally placed on the top of the story, printed in large type and gives the news succinctly in an attention-grabbing manner. The high-visibility characteristic of headlines lets them influence the look and appeal of the newspaper as well as its identification from a distance. The presentation of a news story is dependent not only on writing its headline but also on its font, font size and the position on the page.
FUNCTIONS OF A HEADLINE
1. To attract the audience's attention: Generating reader’s interest is one of the most important functions of a good headline. A headline on a topic of interest to the reader should be able to lead him to read the news story or the article. This is possible when the reader finds something new or something that he has been looking for. However, a headline should not be misleading the reader. It happens when the reader does not get what he was expecting from the story in the later paragraphs.
2. To figure out your readers: A headline must be able to persuade the potential readers who are attracted to it if the story is in public interest and the headline is presented in an interesting manner.
3. To convey a message which is complete: A headline must not be ambiguous and incomplete. It has to be informative and complete. However, an ambiguous headline may work if a graphic or a picture supports it. Most people read headlines rather than the entire news story or article. Hence a headline must ensure that a fine balance between the crispiness and informative-ness is maintained.
4. To facilitate the reader in reading the whole story: Humor and surprise are used to generate curiosity in the headline. This is generally achieved through a question or a colorful quote being used as the headline in itself.
HEADLINE WRITING PROCESS
Writing a headline involves both the literary and technical aspects. Font size, positioning of text, font style, width of the text and presentation are some of the technical considerations. Selection of words, sentence structure and the headline type are some of the literary aspects.
Display and Point Size
Headlines have to be designed to fit into the allotted space. Thus in a three column (3-col) story, the headline must occupy three columns of type. In larger publications, generally one of the editors is assigned the job of determining the headline size, while others decide the headline content. A shorthand communication as 2-36-2 (two- thirty six-two) means that the story has two columns requiring a 36 point (pt) head arranged in two lines. Such a headline is also known as a double-decker head in the newsroom or the production department. Shorthand for headlines is written in the following sequence: number of columns, the type size and the number of lines. The height of type size is measured in points while its width is measured in picas. The type sizes are standard. A type size, which is equal to or smaller than about 12 pt., is best used for body text and is rarely used for headlines. Larger than this point is used for headlines that follow a font size in the range of 14-84. Such headlines are also known as display type.
Width, Weight, and Style
Width of a headline is decided based on the newspaper columns allotted to the news story. When a headline is bigger than the column space provided, doubledecker headline is used i.e., it is split in two lines instead of one. Setting the distance between letters, known as kerning the text, also helps reduce space between the words, allowing the headline to fit into the given width. The bolder the font the greater is the weight of the headline. Weight of a headline suggests the priority given to the news story by the editor. Weight is also related to the font style chosen for writing the headline, e.g A story written in Light / Semi Light style has lesser weight than that written in Condensed or Bold. Similarly, the font style also helps to decide the weight of a news story. The headlines in sans serif font styles are soft news or feature news stories. The headlines in serif fonts have more weight. Newspapers using sans serif fonts only, opt for a font family providing them a variety of font styles and weights.
Deciding News Angle
Generally, News Angle means perspective based on some element or point of the story. For example, a story can be written from the perspective of the people or the government or some institution or a group of people. Essentially it is the spin you impart to the story. You can give it a new angle by changing the context. Say you saw two people kissing under a lamppost in your campus. They could be unmarried lovers or husband-wife in a married hostel. Your angle could be love-and-studies go hand-in-hand or just love in the name of studies.
WRITING THE HEADLINE
The best way to write an attention grabbing headline is to understand the story fully. Thus, having got a good idea of the story, the sub-editor is able to reflect it correctly in the headline. Under headline pressures, most sub-editors/copy editors only read the opening lines of the story to come up with a headline. At times, a fact or a figure buried in the body text can also be used as a selling point in the headline.
After writing the headline, one should always get a third-person to check it for its language and impact. Headlines using redundant words are best-dropped. Similarly, ambiguity has no place in headlines. Moreover, headlines contradicting the story are not to be used at all.
Activity 3: Explain news angle with examples from stories published on the front page of today’s newspaper of your choice.
Check Your Progress 3
Note:
1) Use the space provided below for your Answers.
2) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.
1. What is a Headline?
............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................
2. What is the significance of a Headline? ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................
3. What process must be followed while writing a Headline? ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................
KINDS OF HEADLINES
Headlines can be classified into various categories based on their structure, context, presentation and positioning.
Label Headline
This type of headline does not have a verb. It is a label and is similar to a book title. In short, a headline without a verb is called a label headline.
Examples:
This year’s Padma awards.
A season of Holi festivities.
A label headline is a rarity and is used in newspapers to show neutrality in its approach to the story. A label is neutral in its approach and is easily searchable in a database.
Example:
PM’s stand shows vengeance can be label-headed as The PM’s stand.
Descriptive Headline
A descriptive headline is the one which describes the gist of a news story. It majorly focuses on 4Ws and 1H (who, what, when, where, how) while the why part of the story is often not part of the headline. Descriptive headlines are also called How to headline when they are used for explaining the stepwise process of doing something.
Examples:
How to form an Investing habit.
A Chennai team develops a device to test antibiotic resistance in just 6 hours.
Comment Headline
A comment headline is the one that interprets the news partly. It adds extra meaning to the headline by looking for something that is going on behind the scenes or by analyzing the implications of the news immediately or in the long run. Comment does add color to the headline and thus enhances its impact. The trend of using comments in headlines is growing these days.
Example:
Desperate Pakistan wants to sabotage the Indian bid in the FATF.
Quotation Headline
A quotation headline is the one that uses quotes in order that its impact is not reduced or lost after it is paraphrased. A quote is not a story in itself and hence is used to emphasize a news angle or news point. That is why quotes are used sparsely in headlines. 128 Editing
Examples:
I didn't kill her and I do not want to be hanged.
I am in full command and will get a second term: PM
Question Headline
A question headline is the one that evokes curiosity and highlights speculative points or provokes the reader. It is also good for pro-and-con stories. Many professionals do not favor it because it leaves the reader guessing whereas the job of a headline is to make sure that its meaning is grasped clearly.
Examples:
Is Shatrughan Sinha on his way out?
Who is number 2 in Rahul’s kitchen cabinet?
Check Your Progress 4
Note:
1) Use the space provided below for your Answers.
2) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.
1. What are the various kinds of Headlines? ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................
2. Distinguish between Comment and Quotation Headlines. ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................
3. What is a Question Headline? How is it different from Descriptive Headline? ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................
4. What do you understand by Label Headlines? ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................
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https://www.enago.com/academy/the-importance-of-editing-and-proofreading-before-manuscript-submission/
https://www.shareyouressays.com/knowledge/key-role-of-news-editing-in-journalism-explained/104008
https://getuplearn.com/blog/news-editing/
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