Fundamentals of Reporting and Editing
Contents: Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Understanding news. 2. News value. 3. Report writing. 4. Writing the lead. 5. News sources and sourcing. 6. Reporting for news media. 7. Reporter and reporting. 8. Writing general stories. 9. Writing simple story types. 10. Crime reporting. 11. Reporting beats. 12. Editorial department. 13. News room operations. 14. Editing the copy. 15. Headlining. Index.
"Fundamentals of reporting and editing covers all professional aspects of journalism. For the students of journalism it\'s a textbook and for practicing journalists it\'s a handbook. Though it deals with conceptual part of journalism, more emphasis is laid on the practical aspect. Thus, it might even serve the purpose of a work book.
The relevant aspects of reporting and editing have been covered in a manner that you will always find journalism in action in this book. For developing an understanding of news it has been defined in the words of scholars, the qualities of news and its elements have been discussed and the new value or the determinants of news have been underlined.
The structure of a news report--inverted pyramid and 5Ws as also the lead writing has been discussed with some new insight. The book focuses on both the essential aspects of reporting-news gathering and news writing. It includes news sources, sourcing or attribution, objectivity in reporting and social responsibility. It also talks about characteristics of a reporter, his/her functions and responsibility.
The book provides substantial material on writing general stories including personals, briefs, speeches, interviews and meetings and simple story types including illness, death, obituaries, funeral, fires, weather stories and natural disasters. It goes into the details of crime reporting and other local beats.
On the editing front, the book deals with news room operations, the hierarchies and the duties and functions of news editor, chief sub-editor and sub-editor. All essential aspects of subbing-copy-editing, copy pasting, copy reading and proof-reading have found place in the book. The chapter on headline writing adds value to the book." (jacket)
