Media Content
The most accessible evidence of how mass communication works is provided by its content. In a very literal sense we can equate the media with the message , although it would be extremely misleading to do so . In this respect, the distintion between message and meaning is a significant one .The physical text of the message in print , sound or pictorial image is what we can directly observe and is in a sense fixed . But we cannot simply read off the meanings that are somehow embedded in the texts or transmitted to audiences . These meanings are not self evident and certainly not fixed . They are also multiple and often ambiguous .


Status and Function of Journalists

Journalism is a team work, not one man show.
Editor in Chief;
1 Main leader –As a role of captain in dhief.
2 Policy and decission maker.
3 Overall responsibilities.
4 coordination with publisher ;top to bottom publisher to worker , board member to reporter ,Editor in Chief should coordinate .
5 Role of Promoter.
6 Public relation – to get information clue
Editor in chief should coordinate lay man to toplevel peaple.
7 Special Editorial ; In special time editor in chief writes special editorial.
8 Comparative Study of competators
9 Administrative role should plays administrative role ;
daily office operating , leave approve of Editor , open important letter and act as needed .
10 Reward and Punishment –Evaluate and recommended to reward and punishment.

Executive Editor
a Right hand to Editor in chief
b Assist to make policy and decession
c Policy implementation
d Sub editor mobilization
e Close content with all editing and reporting staff.
f Days to days job handling .
g Administrative function

Sub Editor
content analysis
structure
facts /figure
language
use of source
clarity
rewriting
translation
coordination
illustration (photoes ,pictures graph map )
sizing
head line (should not be wooden head )
placement (front ,middle and last page )
reporting
editorial writing

Chief reporter or reporting coordinator
Reporter mobilization
News hunting
Beat Management
Special reporting
Coordination with editor in chief and executive editor
Administrative funtion

Reporters
“Every journalist, working in whatever medium at whatever level,is basically a reporter.”Neal and Brown says .Hough says “Reporters are the foot soldiers of the news world . They are the representatives of newspapers ,news magazines, the wire services and radio and televesion stations and networks, Reporters go out into the world and bring back thenews of the day.They are the eyes and ears of the press.” Ahuja defines “a reporter is one who observs the passing show on the widest sense of the world and pictures its detail for the benefit of the whole society.

Fact collection
News presentation /News writing

Journalistic skill

For a journalists two types of skills are needed.
Common and special skills’
Common skills are also neede in other sector but special skills are just for Journalism sector .The person who have the special skill should be a good journalists .These following points are needed for a journalists .
Common skills and qualities
Good knowledge
Sound hefalth
Patient as considerable
self confidence
Discipline
Sincerity Determination

Special Skills or qualities
Instinct for information (nose for news)
Language command
Presentation skill
Alertness
Promptness
Impartiality
Fearless
Sense of doubt
Skill of selection
wide public relation
Good reference
Skill of handling media equipment

Journalists Responsibility
To inform Truth
Information should be based upon political,economical and cultural situation
Information should create public openion (paper,TV and radio etc)
Information should be real representation of the people
Journalists should minimize the wound of victim
As a bridge between sources and media users.
People right to know. This is based on Political and social system
Conserve Right to information of people
Right to publish of people
Roght to privacy.

Technical and economic constraints in media
Technical constraints
A High –Tech Proffession
B Dependable technology
C Lack of technical manpower
D Weak support system
High-Tech Proffession; Pen to sattelite is neccessary in media system. The media will be stable if the media adopts high technology in this globle competition market . But the developing countries like Nepal cannot compete with the international community because of lack of technology.Now a days because of democratization some developing countries are also trying for betterment .

Dependale Technology
Another important problem for media proffession is dependable technology.The developing countries like Nepal do not produce media technology so those country have to depend upon the international technology.If some problems occur in those technology then they have to depend on those countries where the technologies were formed .But the developed countries do not have those problem .
Lack of Technical Manpower;
Nepal is still strugling for media development. After the restoration of democracy media freedom is some how practice in this country. Lack of trained manpower ,skilled and educated proffessionals ,technically sound manpower (technology imported but no technical manpower). Because of these factors media development is still in problem.Besides financial problems affects the development of media in Nepal.
Weak support system
Loadshedding ,telecommunication problems, highway problems ,weak salary to journalists and other manpowers other stationary , vehical ets are also the existing problem for media development.
Economic constraints
a Heavy investment
b Risky investment
c Question of sustainability
d No status of industry
Employment problem in media
a lack of skill manpower
b Unsystemic recruitment
c Jumping tendency
Types of journalisms
Yellow Journalism
Keyhole Journalism
Hit and Run Journalism
These three types of joutnalism are ajournalistic in character
because yellow journalism is a nonsense and non fact writing . Similarly if journalism is concerned with personal secrecy , personal life of an individual then that particular journalism is Keyhole,and journalism that is concerced with hitting personal status without any source and followups is Hit and Run journalism.

Gonjo Journalism
Gonjo journalism is a type of journalism popularize by the American writer Hunter S Thompson . Gonjo journalism is characterize by its punchy style, rough language ,and ostensible disregard for conventional journalistic writing forms and customs. More importantly ,the traditional objectivity of the journalist is given up through immersion into the story itself,as in New journalism , and the reportage is taken from a first hand , participatory perspective, sometimes using an author surrogate. Gonjo journalism attempts to present a multi disciplinary perspective on a particular story,drawing from popular culture,sports ,political,poilosophical,and literary sources.
Celebrity journalism or peaple journalism
Another area of journalism that grew in stature in 20th Century is celebrity or people journalism ,which focuses on the personal lives of people ,primamarily celebrities,including movie and stage actors , models and photographers,other notable people in the entertainment industry, as well as people who seek attention such as politician etc.
Celebrity journalism differs from feature writing in that, it focuses on people who are either already famous or are especially attractive,and in that it often covers celebrities obsessively,to the point of these journalists behaving unethically in order to provide coverage. Paparazzi ,photographers who would follow celebrities incessantly to obtain potentially embarrassing photographs ,have come to characterize celebrity journalism.
Convergnce Journalism
An emerging form of journalism , which combines different forms of journalisms , such as print ,photographic and video,into one piece or group of pieces .Convergence journalsm can be found in the likes of CNN and many other news sites . The Washington Post has a notable amount of this.
Jazz Journalism
Following the yellow journalism era,Jazz Journalism was the journalism style of the roaring twenties (1920) named after its energetic fashion and well illustrated tabloid layout.The Journalism is really unethical and nonsense. Jazz journalism is a rhythmic conversation or nonsense talk of any topic.The USA was the pioneer of this particular journalism just after the 1st world war.
Citizen Journalism
Citizen journalism , also known as “participatory journalism” is the act of citizens “playing and active role in the process of collecting ,teporting ,analyzing and disseminating news and information , “according to Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis.They say,the intent of this participation is to provide independent ,reliable,accurate ,wide –ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires .”l
Citizen Journalism usually invoves empowring ordinary citizens including traditionally marginalized members of society.
Citizen Journalism is the product of circumstance. In this,when people are ignored by mainstream media ,they start journalism themselves.They are not trained journalists but had aquired journalism knowledge from practice.They dont know much about journalistic ethics ,sound economic to run media ; but they just have interest.
Yellow Journalism
Yellow journalism is a type of journalism that downolays legitimate news favour of eye –catching headlines that sell more newspapers.It may be feature exaggerations of news events,scandal mongering ,sensetionalism,unproffessional practices by news media organizations of journalism.Campbell defines Yellow Journalism as having daily multi-column front page headlines covering a veriety of topics , such as sports and scandal, using bold layouts (with large illustration and perhaps colour) heavy reliance on unnamed sources ,and unabashed self –promotiion.The term was extensively used to describe certain major NewYork City newspapers about 1900 as they battled for circulation.By extension the term is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion,such as systematic politicalbias.Yellow journalism can also be the practice of over –dramatizing events.
Frank Luther Mott 1941 defines Yellow journalism in terms of five characteristics .
Scare headlines in huge print ,often of minor news
Lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings
Use of faked interviews ,misleading headlines , pseudo-science,and a parade of false learning from so called experts.
Emphasis on full color Sunday supplements, usually with comic strips (which is now normal in the US)
Dramatic sympathy with the underdog against the system.
Present day exponent of the yillow journalistic style would include the British red top tabloids,notably The Sun and its German equivalent Bild, and in Australia the Daily Telegraph.
The term Yellow Journalism originated during the Gilded Age with the circulation battles between Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’sNew York Journal.THe Battle peaked from 1898 ,and historical usage often refers specifically to this period.Both papers were accused by critics of sensationalizing the news in order to drive up circulation,although the newspaper did serious reporting as well.The NewYork press coined the term Yellow Kid Journalism in early 1897 after a then –popular comic strip to describe the down market papers of Pulitzer and Hearst ,which both published versions of it during a circulation war .This was soon shortened to Yellow journalism .

Role of Journalism in todays world
Journalism is the guardian that never sleeps and protects freedom of the people-Winston Churchill
Newspapers are the schoolmasters of the common people-Henry Ward Beecher
Major role of journalism is to strenthen social awareness by disseminating the truth via print and electronic media. Social integration and impartiality is another major responsibility of journalism. Basically ,
Responsibility means;
Freedom of the press
Independence
Sincerity
Truthfulness
Accuracy
Impartiality
Fair Play
Decency
are the major roles of journalism.
others major role (look at codes of conduct of press council, SPJ ,IFJ ,press and publication act,broadcasting act)
similarly we have given the notes about the role of journalists to the society.
Because of these particuar features Thomas Alba Edison says “There is nothing more interesting, pervasive and juicy than journalism . How wonderful it is to reach out to thousands of people daily,tell them one’s views ,give advises ,educate and entertain them. I regret for not being a journalist”.
Journalistic Process
Journalist are the information disseminator . For this particular purpose journalist collects , manufactures and disseminates any sorts of information for the audiences . This is a special skilled job. So the proffession contains these following process.
a Reporting-News gathering and News writing (Collecting,Selecting, Reporting,Editing,Publishing)
b Copy editing / sub editing / rewriting the news
c page makeup
d Final editing
Reporting ; Its a skill or an art of collecting datas or gathering facts .Houge says Reporting is the art , the skill , the business of gathering information for immediate use.
Gathering of news is an important characteristic of the proffession.NEWS gathering consists of these specially qualities
a Approach to news source.
b Taking notes
c Getting information through asking quations .
d Double cheking information and verifying information.
e Information investigation
f processing information
g Analysing and interpreting information.
News writing
Gatherd news information is then manufactured in special way for the dissemination . For that news information is scripted .
News writing is a special type of skill. Writing news is not ordinary writing, it is for the people ie for the audience. News writing style varies according to the media structure. Besides writing for national level, local level ,hard news , soft news ,feature stories also varies.
Basically news writing is done in inverted pyramidal structure ie most important information in the first sentence then serielly other information and finally least information and reference. “ News writing demands discipline ,but it also demands imaginative impullses, perception ,humour , sympathy, and taste . News writing is more flexible and open to innovation today than it has ever been, Todays news writer relies on the tried and useful news-writing techniques but also uses unconvetional and creative ones”. Hough .similarly, Joseph Conrad says “ The task of the writer is by the power of the written word ,to make you hear , to make you feel, to make you see.”
KISS (Keep it short and simple)
This is the most important principle of news writing .Besides news are neither short and simole ,nor they are long and complex, news should be written properly.
Different scholar as J Edwdard Murray, Peter Clark,Melvin Mencher and others suggests some keys for good writings.Among them we will discuss points of Edward Murray
Accuracy
Double checking
Disclose of sources
Fairness
To get facts
Direct quatation for controversial material
Responsible and balanced news presentation
Beware of conflit of interest.
Principles of news writing in print media
First information should be the most important information
Sentence should be short and simple
Use always colloquial language
Every sentence should not excede 25-30 words
Use active voice, avoid unnecessary words
Always be aware of ABC
Write to express ,not to impress
Never editorialize the news story because give the news but not the views.
Be aware of stating names ,dates and time properly.
Doube check your final story before dissemination
For Radio media
o First information should be the most important information
o Sentence should be short and simple.Long sentence will confuse the audiences
o Use always colloquial language
o Every sentence should not excede 8-13 words
o Use active voice, avoid unnecessary words
o Always be aware of ABC
o Write to express ,not to impress
o Speak 3 words per second
o Broadcasting materials are only for ears so the material should be audile,
o Always use present tense
o Avoid too many figures eg 29784357 because it will confuse the audiences, it is better to use around 3 crores
o Be natural while speaking ,voice and presentation should be natural
o Spell properly otherwise thrust of the information will died and wrong information will be scattered
o Always be conversational , Avoid consusness


For Television
o writing to the pictures
o writing is for eye and ,ear both
o Dont use subordinate clauses,because it will mislead the information
o Dont use jargons and clithes

o First information should be the most important information
o Sentence should be short and simple.Long sentence will confuse the audiences
o Use always colloquial language
o Every sentence should not excede 8-13 words
o Use active voice, avoid unnecessary words
o Always be aware of ABC
o Write to express ,not to impress
o Speak 3 words per second
o Speker should be pleasant personality,smart and goodlooking
News editing
The word edit is defined as “to prepare a piece of writing , often another person’s for publication,eg in a book , newspaper and magazine .Similarly prepare(a film ,tape recording, radio , or television programme. book etc) by putting together collected parts in a suitable sequence.Arrange data for processing by computer.” –Oxford Dictionary
Editting is a special skill or talent in the journalistic world. Reported documents by the reporter and manufactured script is finally edited before dessemination. Editing is looking after the spelling, language , word selection grammer and the fact. The most importaant role of editing is finalizing the script .Philosophically where there is doubt cut it out is practiced.The person who edits the information is an editor.
The editor of any media is a leader of the particular media and responsible for the whole news . Editor of newspaper has authority and responsible to control the selection of the matter that is published in that newspaper.
Editor is a prestigious and highly paid job with responsibility for the newspaper which may have millions of readers and involves a social life mixing with celebrities and politicians.Similarly News Editors of Broadcasting Media also responsible for any sort of contents of wholw bulletin. Besides the job is highly challangeable . Many threats ,risks interference from the different pressure groups have to face by the editors.
Four Roles of Editor
Editor
communicator Gatekeeper

Public relation developer Media manager

Rewriting news
Generally reporters collect news and manufactures the particular news for dissemination but it is sure that the first written story will not be good so far . For that news story is better to be rewrite . Some gramatical mistake , incorrect information ,doubtful datas ,names ,position and numbers are corrected more during the time of rewriting.
So Wall street journal former editor Roscoe Born says “ What you have written is only preparation for what you are going to write”
Tools for rewriting
Read your story aloud
Check your sentences
Check your writing for clutter
Use SVO pattern
Avoid libel
These tools was proposed by Poynter Institute Britain

Editorials
Editorial is a statement made by the groups of individual proffessionals . Editorial is marked as the opinion builder because it interprets and critically analyse the particular event in a significant way. Primarily editorial was understood for papers only but now a days it has been strongly practised in Broadcasting media also. It is done not daily as in print media but in some major events .Editorial simply is not news writing it is an opinion writing with the equal treat.Though Editorial is a combined effort but in nepal it is not seen in practice because an individual editor or editor in chief owns sole authlrity during the time of editorial writing. The most pecular feature of editorial writing is it always reflects the most current and publicly popular issues without bias.
Barun Roy in his Beginners Guide to Journalism catagorizes Editorial as;
Editorials that interpret
Editorials that critisize
Editorials that persuade
Editorials that praise
OP-ED Page
OP-ED is generally an opinion page in any print media, Opinion from individual author is placed in that page. In Nepal OP-ED page is very popular .Mostly every newspapers (daily) has selected space ie page for individual authors opinion. eg Kantipur daily, Annapurna Post ,Nepal Samacharpatra, Gorkhapatra , The Kathmandu Post ,THe Rising Nepal and so on .


Editorial Independence
Editorial independence generally means there should not be any sort of interference in any news contents . The word independence means state of being not controlled or not dependent, so Editorial independence governs all sort of freedom in the news organization. The editorial board has all authority what to publish or broadcast. There is not Editorial independence found in any media orgnization because government always controls and would like to manipulate every events through government media . Similarly Private media owners always intends to earn more and more by any costs,
Fabrication, exageration and manipulation are the Characteristics of Private Media .So Editorial independence is quite impossible in any where.Moodrock,Politzers are the media tycoons of the world and they intended to capture world through media. Some Government media is trying to practice editorial independence but could not yet practicing the real freedom.In Nepal it has been observed that each political party beyond the government strongly souts for the independence of government media but when they will be in government instantly talks against the independence of those media.
Government and Press
The first estate and the fourth estate.
Government and Press have mutual relation in order to develop the Nation and the Citizens. If there is sound relation between these two estates then the country is said in the state of peace and prosporous. Though there is no any specific guidlines for developing government and press relationship despite there has found relationship according to the position of the state ,educational level of the people and the political condition of the country.
‘Press without government is better than government without press’. Jefferson
“Press can distort the government but it can not make”
Government and Press would like to keep rule of law in the country.

Government and Press have these mutual objectives
Rule of Law
Peace and Security
Socio economic growth
Relation between Government and Press
Not so close not so far
Censorship
The relation between Press and government should be based upon merits . If government made mistakes then press should sssssspeak against the government and play the role of watchdog to keep government in a right track. If press did not speaks against the governments mistakes people should questioned/protest press and government.Besides Press should govern the culture to appreciate good dids of government.
In the world we found two major types of relationship between government and press.
a Infavor of government
b against the government
if such condition is in the country there may not be clear vision or view of people towards the government .People can not be able to make their clear vision about the whole political situation.
Censorship;Censorship is a short of control towards the press by the government .It is highly practiced in the world not only to non democratic countries but also in democratic countries. Censorship generally means to look the disseminating matters prior to the dissemination. If the authority permits the content then only the matter is able to throw otherwise not.
It is also strongly believed that censorship is needed for press otherwise press would violet the ethics .This is done according to the government policy but government should not censor by their vested interest.

News
News is abnormal ,unusual , unnatural happenings.Unexpected and uncanny happenings.The OALD defines News as new or fresh information ; reports of recent events. The word News is defined in different forms according to the persons thought but it is beleived that generally the word news is derived from Latin word NOVA which means new thing. It is also believed that the word is derived from the sanskrit word NAVA . Some scholars claim that news means events or incidents occured from North, East, West, and South part of the world.
Harold Evans says “News is People”.So most people would like to know what neews exactly is. So it is said that “News is something interesting, something that has happened, something news ,something people dont know before,something that affects their life and something they are interested in.
Finally News is a report of a recent or current event or an information published in a newspaper or other periodicals.In its final analysis ,news may be defined as any accurate fact or idea that will interest a large number of readers and of two stories the accurate one that interests the greater no of people is a better news .In a news strangeness , abnormality, unexpectedness and nearness of an event ,all add to the interest in the story but none of these is absolutely essential.
Similarly freshness, enormity, and departure from the normal also add greatly to the value of a news, but even these are not absolutely essential. The only requirements are that the story should be accurate and contain facts or ideas interesting to a considerable no of readers. Thus, the news is an information about an events, annoucement of government policies etc. The News , of course should be an information that is both important and meaningful for the people.
Denis Mcquail says “Despite the central position of news in the media, the question ‘what is news ?’ is one which journalists themselves find distinctively metaphisical and difficult to answer except in terms of their institution, ‘ feel’ and innate judgement.”Similarly he says “ news is not a mirror of social conditions, but the report of an aspect that has obtruded itself”.The founding father of sociology of news Walter Lippmann (1922)
Here are some definitions given by different scholars;
Ø News is surprise an unexpected happening- Lord Northcliffe
Ø When a dog bites a man , that is not news, but when a man bites a dog,that is news –Charles A Dana
Ø News is anything that will make people talk –Charles A Dana
Ø Josefph Pulitzer instructed his editors and reporters to look for stories that were “original, distinctive, romantic, thrilling,unique, curious,quaint, humorous , odd, and apt-to-be talked about”.
Ø News is anything you did not know yesterday –Turner Catledge
Ø News is anything that makes a reader say,”Gee, whiz” –Arthur McEwan
Ø News is timely report of facts or opinion of either interest or importance or both , to considerable member of people—Michel V Charnley
Ø News is usually stimulating information from which the ordinary human being derives satisfaction and stimulation – Prof. Chilton Bush
Ø The rise and falls of governments, wars,Stories of peaceful international relations, the doings and movements and sayings of famous people,man ,made disasters-those are essentially what news is –Reauters
Ø News is news when it is new –MV Kamath