Nowadays a ‘reporter’ is a person who is also a photographer, a layout designer, a proof reader and a copy editor.

If you can take a photograph of what you report, which is a very basic necessity of a reporterof today, it saves a lotof time for you. You need not search for one picture that tells your story visually, from a series of clicks taken by the photographer in his digicam.

You can have it in your library for any follow up action on the same story later.

You can decide the focus  of the subject which can suit both print and online edition of your publication.

I can list at least 10 advantages of a reporter being a photographer! Some tips here if you want to photograph your report:

1. Shoot from other than your eye level too. That will show magic to the readers.
2. If you are reporting about a place, building, institution, take the photograph along with humans in it.
(E-g) If it is a school, the kids running down the stairs during the lunch break could be the best photo.

3. You don’t need to leave space on all sides of the frame. Concentrate on the subject.
4.What clues from the picture can you give to the reader about the place of shot? Think and angle well.

Finally a tip for your report:

If the photos are marvellous and tell the story beautifully, avoid writing long. Let the pictures say what you want to!

This is for the freshers who want to take journalism as part-time or pass-time activity.

The high-school journalism which is popular in the West hasn’t yet picked up in India. But many kids are interested to know what is journalism for they are now attracted by the visual media.

To begin writing / reporting and enter into a newsroom one needs to know the basic jargons of journalism. The people in the newsroom talk in this language!

Here is a link to knothe J-jargons!

http://www.highschooljournalism.org/Teachers/Teachers.cfm?id=16&t=journalismterm&jtid=226

How much do the users read online or on a webpage?

On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.

When this is the case, why are so many blogs on the web? Why do newspapers publish their online editions increasingly? Why do teachers use the web for homework? Why are online degrees and other courses becoming popular? Why are . . . There is a long list of never ending why’s!

But then, a short and shallow article or a blog post means nothing to the reader. Jakob Nielsen also says that when long has value, go for it.

Long or short, I feel it is the interest you create in the reader in the first two sentences that make them read on, without prompting to ‘Read more . . .’

That was an interesting contest announced by Poynter. To create a motto for contemporary journalism in six words.

I have not submitted any entry. But voted for my favourite.

On a first look I liked this one from the Top Ten Picks:
Who, what, when, where, why, Web — Greg Phillips, The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer

And from the Honourable mentions this one made me read it again with a smile on my face!
Critical thinking? We outsourced to India — Dennis Alchemist

The results are now out.

Read them all. Perhaps you would get a better idea of what the younger generation thinks of journalism.

Today, I came across this interesting article on reporting. Roy Peter Clark is one who I look up to for writing tools, whenever I find time to learn more on writing.

But this time, it is Clark inspired by a young reporter’s presentation at a conference.

Benton’s thesis goes like this: Eyewitness reporting rendered in real time via the blog represents an interesting and worthy kissing cousin to long-form narrative journalism.

Interestingly, blogs have done a lot of good for my writings as well as keeping my interest in writing in tact. Simple blogs that have only experiential posts and serious blogs discussing a range of hot topics from city traffic jams to politics were taking most of my time I spent online, when I was first looking at different blogs.

Believe me, it is useful to spend so much time reading blogs. Just write in plain language – is one important thing I learnt from the blogs. No idioms, no phrases, no decorated words!

But, how blogging enters into reporting, especially news or eyewitness reporting, made me think!

A few small newspapers have been using the blog platform for putting up their print content online. But the concept of realtime reporting online through blogs and taking the issue forward to go on to a narrative is interesting!

If you can relate this TV commercial to this concept, tell me what do you think of blogging! If you are motivated to start a blog and write on issues that bother you with photos and invite people to share their experience on the same issue, perhaps Benton and I would only be happy!

There was no confusion over the usage of commas till I was not writing for publishing.

Comma was another typewriter key, I used very often, whenever I paused while reading a sentence.
(Should I use a comma after ‘I paused’ in the above sentence?)

The basic rule I observed was that I should use a comma, where I took a breath in a long sentence.

But, there is much more than a breath.
If you know the basic rule not to use a comma before ‘and’ and use a comma after yes, here are more tips on the usage of commas.
Believe me, commas make the sentences easily understandable!

You do it with every story you file.
You talk to people and file your report basing on the information you got from the other person.
Then, what’s special about interviews?

Interviews are independent stories or reports as against talking to people as part of a main story.
The subject is the person you interview and the story of that person brought out through you!

All about ‘Interviewing’ will be posted in three parts in this blog.
That speaks of its importance.

Preparing for the interview is the most important aspect of this task.

Preparing yourself for the interview, preparing the person who you are going to interview and preparing the background papers for the interview are the parts of preparation.

It is for the interviewer to research and know the information about the interviewee. Biographical as well as his or her area of specialisation.
Also important is a bit of knowledge of the subject or the area of specialisation of the interviewee.

To prepare the interviewee, a convenient time, place and a brief introduction about what your interview will focus on, should be conveyed to him.

And your background papers – the basic research you have done about the person and his work in a notepad, the relevant paper clippings if your interview is going to be based on a specific issue the interviewee has raised or he or she has been in the news for.

And the usual advice you would receive from any seasoned senior journalist or your editor – carry  a recorder but assume it is not working! So a convenient notepad and a pen are a must!

My first interview assignment was with an artiste. As I mention quite often in this blog, I have been lucky to be guided to what I had to ask the interviewee and how the interview had to proceed and in what direction. If any mention of unusual references came within the interview it was a bonus.

Here is my first interview. The last but three question were the bonus ones!

This is another useful place to look up to for clues and help, when you want to submit a fool proof copy.

Read also about the author of this website, Bill Walsh, who says,” As they say, anyone who checks his own copy has a fool for an editor.”

At my workplace, most of the obituary news are personally written or directly edited by the editor.
The importance of an obituary is such.
I have been listening to how one should write an obit and what do the reporters contribute to the community by writing an obit, from the editor’s desk almost every week.

Here are a few I heard from our editor.

• We sum up a life in a few paragraphs.
• We come to know of the contribution of the deceased to society only after his death in many cases, where he or she was not a well known person.
• For many people, an obituary is the only story the newspaper ever carries about them.
• In an obit, you don’t write about death, but about the life of the deceased.

So, while newspapers treat the obits as news stories, unless they are advertised, the reporter has the responsibility of putting out correct and complete information and additional inputs from various sources. Also to follow the newspaper’s style and policy.

Some important dos and don’ts:

• Check with the family of the deceased for correct information. Do not start writing an obit based on information from ’some friend’. They may be hoaxes.
• Watch your language. If you are writing the cause of the death, a person never dies ‘as a result of a kidney operation or a heart surgery’, but dies ‘following a surgery’.
• A man is survived by his wife, not his widow and a woman is survived by her husband ant not his widower!
• Do a research by talking to people in the same field if he was a well known person. Or to his walk mates in the park or the visitors at the funeral, if he is not a public figure.
• Don’t think any contribution by the deceased is insignificant, be it a voluntary service or just keeping the spirit of his family high. They may be the distinguishing characters of that person’s life.

A sample of an obit I wrote is here.

What did you do when you were sitting in your office and received a IM that Benazir Bhutto was killed?

I jumped onto the Online World to check. Many would have too!

But I never thought the online world could affect the spirit of a reporter. Or could throw challenges at the newspapers. Or could make someone like Ron Sylvester to write a post on this! He says his students posed questions! Read more and you too will ponder!