News! News! News! “Nose for News” Is A Vital Point in Journalism

 

Journalism 

You must have a Nose for News ! This is the sentence I heard in my first journalism class.

What is NEWS?

We are flooded with different kinds of news through Radio T V Newspapers, Weeklies, Blogs, Websites and many other internet news medias as well as many other forms of print media.

What exactly is News?  A definition says:

There are two types :  The first one is “Need-to-know News.”  And the second one is “Want-to-know News.”

Need-to-knowNews:

Covers government policies, government budgets, health risks, environmental disasters, Transport facilities, women issues, wars, auto recalls, R T I Act and various other essential news in relation to our daily life.

Want-to-knowNews:

Includes film, and other VIP personality’s liaisons, who is number one in Cricket, or football or any other sports.  Who replaces the present President or Prime Minister or Chief Minister, etc. This news also includes fear-based:  violence, crime, corruption, scams, rising taxes, layoffs, banks in distress, etc.   A school shoot out. Major accidents, Earthquakes, Flood, and other calamities.

Are you a Journalist? Or a Freelance Writer? Do you have a nose for news? Click To Tweet

Whatever it is, a would-be journalist should have some qualities in gathering news,  first of all, he must have a nose for news, that is you must very carefully and sharply try to gather information for the newsroom or the news paper’s or Television’s editor’s desk.

Yes, if you have that nose to smell the information you can be a good journalist!

In India, the newspapers are filled with political news.  The forthcoming Lokshaba election is on the anvil and the pages of newspapers are filled with political parties’ arguments, statements counter-arguments etc.

This year’s election news are prominently portrayed the personal attacks or the personal life stories are discussed, one party leader is attacked in his personal life, immediately there will be a counter attack.  This trend is fast moving and the stories connected with such incidents are the everyday news.

Anyways the ordinary voter is in a dilemma to decide whom to vote this year?

Whenever such election campaign starts in the country the newspapers are covered with such stories, some newspapers show favoritism will praise one party and another newspaper counter attack that news item and this process is going on and on.  In between these newspaper barons and their products the ordinary reader or a citizen of a country is in a dilemma.  In some cases, people’s life too is in jeopardy.  The rivalry between two parties sometimes leads to fighting and it may sometimes end in violence killing.

Such is the situation in many parts of the country.  Such occasions are the well-groomed land for news gathers or the journalists. Some journalists create sensational news out of it, few others make simple things very serious and will turn into a debatable issue.

In any case election time is the hay day for newspapers and news journalists.

It is always very easy to create a story out of such situations.

Of course, there are a good number of newspapers in India they always stand for the truth in an impartial way.  But industrialists and politicians nexus influence them and ultimately they twist the story altogether. At the same time, few publish biased news for their selfish interest.  The interesting fact is that almost all political parties have their own publications and they always twist the original news!   This is very well visible in the election season.

Here is a blog post in this regard, I posted some time back on the pages of #Philipscom.   The political parties dump money to the newspaper barons to twist the story according to the whims and fancies for a heavy price.   You can read more about this trend among newspapers in this story.  This post is based on a cover story published by India’s one of the top most weekly magazine called  “The Outlook weekly”. To Read The Story Click on the Below Links:

 News You Can Abuse, Please Do not Sell

Scamsters Are Brewing up from News Media  (A Feedback To a News Report)

 

Source:

Outlook Weekly,

Wikipedia,

World Book