Question

What is news, sources of news and characterstics of news?

Answer 1

Outside journalism, sources are sometimes known as "news sources". Examples of sources include official records, publications or broadcasts, officials in government or business, organizations or corporations, witnesses of crime, accidents or other events, and people involved with or affected by a news event or issue

Answer 2

Journalism is a craft, and needs to be learnt the hard way. To excel, you need to be a good craftsman. You should know how to structure a news report, how to write a headline and how to make news pages.

characteristics of news reports  

There are four characteristics that every good news report should possess. These are:

Fairness and balance

As a reporter you must learn to get the other point of view. This may mean calling a person late at night to get his side of the story or even holding back an investigative story for a day. But you must do so. This is the best way to bring balance in the copy.

Accuracy

This is the first requirement of a good news report. You must get all your facts right, starting from the name and designation of the subject to the statements made by him or her. You cannot hide behind the excuse that that there was not enough time to cross check the facts.

Brevity

The importance of this characteristic cannot be overstressed. You must learn to write short stories without missing important facts. Please remember that today’s reader is in a hurry. He does not have the patience to go through long news reports.

Clarity

This is not easy to achieve. You are required to report an event in as few words as possible. You can do this if you use short and simple words and keep out irrelevant facts. The intro of your report must be short and crisp. The body must be made up of as few paragraphs as possible with each paragraph devoted to one point.