 Dear learners, I, Tricia Dora-Borok from the Bhupatha School of Mass Communication, Krishna Kanahani State of University, would like to welcome you all to another Audiovisual Counseling class. In today's class we are going to discuss Unit 12 of a second semester Mass Communication paper, that is journalism paper, and unit is Unit 12, that is news, editing. In this particular unit, we would like to talk about the definition of editing, the various principles of news editing, how a newsroom setup is taking place, the different functions in a newsroom setup, and different personal associated with the newsroom, the different functions of each of the person associated in the newsroom, the process of photo editing, and lastly the different photo editing terminologies. In the earlier unit we have talked about what news reporting is all about and how a news writing should be done, what structure of news writing should be followed, the different elements of a news writing. In this particular unit in detail we are going to talk about the different aspects of news editing. Now a person generally, he or she enters a journalism profession either as a reporter or as a DEX person. While reporters are responsible for the collection of news, the responsibility of selection and arrangement of news lies with editorial team. So in this unit we will discuss the major chunk of the people who compress editorial desk and how their job entails them to work as they do. And we shall also discuss about what news editing is all about, why editing of news is very much necessary and what principles are to be followed while editing news. Now let us understand the concept of news editing. In order to understand this particular term editing, we first need to know why we are editing news, why we are doing so. We can just collect news and we can just publish like that, isn't it? And then why we need to go for editing process. If you actually think in the proper way you will realize that we all edit this information. Every information communication is edited for effect so that they are better expressed and consequently better understood. The information can be for publication or for broadcasting. It can also be for the content of a book, a magazine, a newspaper in case of print media. And in case of electronic media it can be the content of radio, television, cinema or a website. There is a prominent American theorist editor at large of American Monthly Magazine commentary. His name is Norman Podoretz. He says that editing is to improve essentially well written piece or to turn a clumsily written one into as a very least a beautifully shaped effective essay which remains true to the author's intention and which realizes that intention more fully than he himself is able to do so. Now and in this particular unit we shall discuss editing only in the context of print media journalism. Remember that. We won't talk about mostly about online media electronic media but in the context of only print media journalism. That is we shall talk about we shall discuss about a news editing in print media. Now many people misunderstand the term editing. They usually think that editing is only removing the typographical errors in the text but news editing is certainly a lot more than this. As the renowned veteran journalist Dasu Krishnamurti has said, editing is a whole concept around which a message is conceived, perceived, designed and communicated. It is chain of activities that starts with a signing of beats to the reporters and culminates in the final publication of the newspaper. Now the entire axis of editing especially as far as print media is concerned can broadly be divided into this following four stages. The first stage we have the conceptualization and planning. The second one we have visualization. The third stage is known as a dummy preparation and the fourth stage is the handling of copy. And among these four stages the most descriptive then most exhaustive stage is the handling of the copy stage. And this particular set is the handling of the copy stage again involves some of the other important parts to it. For instance we have the selection of news items where the important news items should be selected. Then there's a cutting and pruning that is the important ones will be taken whether less important ones will be left out. Then removal of mistakes of course grammatical errors and some errors in the use of language will be looked after. Then there will be rewriting when necessary if need be. Then the concerned person can rewrite the particular news story also if he or she thinks that they need some modification to it. That the language needs to be a little bit you know modified then that can be done. And finally is the headlining. Now newspaper offices receive news from various sources. The reporters and correspondents are positioned at various important places by organizations for the purpose of collecting news. And the newspaper offices also receive a bulk of news from different news agencies whose task is to supply up-to-date information around the clock. You know and there are also other different sources as well from where the newspaper office gets the information. So the volume of incoming news items far exceeds what can actually be accommodated in the newspaper and not all of these are truly newsworthy. Therefore the first active that is selection is basically a gatekeeping process. It involves sitting through the entire incoming news items that is the copy and sorting out the news story in accordance with the newspaper's editorial policy. So the second, third, fourth and fifth stages of the last stage that is the selection of news items cutting and pruning, removal of mistakes, rewriting when necessary and headlining. These four stages, these five stages taken together they form what is popularly known as copy editing. And what does copy editing mean? It means cutting the news, tailoring the news and shaping them for publication. It also includes checking for inadequacies in grammar, syntax, facts and figures and of course, news sense. It is also the job of the copy editor to cross check the different facts and if necessary corrections are to be made and at times the story is even rewritten. Finally at long last news reporters stopped the suitable headline. Now as far as the publication house is concerned, copies are filed by different reporters with uniform writing skills. Therefore an important function of copy editing is to bring uniformity of language and style in confirm meeting with the style book so the readers get a uniform reading experience. Of course the people who work at a desk are also very much highly skilled in carrying out this specific job of editing news stories. They sit at the desk or in the office and work in ships. Some might have morning shift, some might have evening shift but their role is very much similar. Their role is very specialized and demands immense creativity and concentration and it is because of their contribution that news becomes worthy of publication. They scan through all the news items, select the ones that are news voting and relevant for the readers. Then they also look for factual and qualitative errors. They correct them, they cut them to fit into the limited space. They are tempering actual meaning of the news story and they finally give the news the shape and style like this followed by the newspaper. Now let us understand what consists a newsroom setup. Now we always talk about that the newsroom should have so and so many people over there. The newsroom should consist of you know certain different tools should be there, certain different you know machines should be there with which communication is being done but a basic newsroom should consist of what? Who should head a particular newsroom? Who should be in charge of a newsroom? A newsroom is usually headed by an editor or editor-in-chief or the chief editor. The editor-in-chief is a leader of the editor as well as a reporting team because in addition to the editor many news organizations also appoint a chief editor or the managing editor or an executive editor to look after important policy decisions of the organization and carry out other important activities and that come under the purview of the editor. So after the editor the the next important person is a news editor. The news editor is assisted in turn by a number of sub-editors or copy editors. Now there are usually different copy editors for different pages like for page one there might be different editor for sports page race and some other editor to look into for the international page for the national page for the business page or for the even entertainment page. There are different editors assigned because when you assign editors with different pages the work becomes very much easier and also you know it cuts down the time that is needed for editing a particular news copy and the reporters responsible for different beats they report back to the concerned copy editor for their different reporting bits. Now let us understand the different role of the editor. Now what role does an editor need to play as far as a print media organization is concerned? What does it need to look into to you know to make an entire copy completely error-free? It is actually the editor who is responsible for the entire content of principle. He takes the responsibility of planning and directing the various operations that are carried out in a day and since he is the leader of the entire team he has to take a lot of responsibilities. He not only has to plan direct supervise as well as take important decisions but also has to ensure the smooth functioning of different activities in a news organization. He also should be aware of the taste of the readers and shape the content of the paper according to the reader's taste and needs. Then we come to the news editor. The news editor also plays a very important role in the shaping of a newspaper after the editor. A news editor's responsibilities are very much important as he or she is supposed to be in the overall charge of making sure that no important item is missing from the newspaper or the bulletin at any cost. In fact he or she is also responsible for maintaining a steady and continuous flow of up to the minute news items. The news editor must also be able to spot an interesting any interesting news item when others might have failed. Okay so it's a responsible of this person to spot it and instruct his or her own colleagues for getting the news item out of the potential sources. Then we have the sub-editor or the copy editor. Now the sub-editor or the copy editor is by far the most hardworking person in a newspaper organization. It is a sub-editor through whom all news articles and features that are meant for the newspaper passes and it is a job of the sub-editor to shift through all the material and discard unnecessary copy and select those important news and other relevant news matters and finally edit the copy to create the readable and punishable news content. And the important functions or the job of a sub-editor entails these following points that is he reads the story for clarity of language and meaning and rewrites whenever necessary. He even is responsible for shortening the news story even if he or she finds the news story is very much longer in size and he can also combine several reports from different sources to produce a single intelligible report. He looks for the errors that might be there in the news story. He also checks the grammatical errors, grammatical mistakes. He writes the headlines. He also adds important background information if necessary. Now this way some of the important you know functions of the different people associated with the newsroom setup. Now let us come to the different principles of copy editing. Now what are the different principles? First one, first principle is basic principle in a copy editing is headline, writing headlines. Now headline writing is perhaps it is one of the most difficult part of any news editing process because it's very easy to say they're done. When we say that headline needs to be very much short it needs to be very precise, it needs to be very concise but it takes a lot of effort on a part of the concerned person to write a very eye-catching and a very proper headline. A headline which not only represents the story but also catches the eye of the reader is indeed a very big challenge because while explaining by looking for a key word or two that expresses the high point of the story. So definitely a lot of effort is needed in writing a news headline. Then comes another important principle that is a lead. Now we have already talked about what lead is all about in the previous unit that is a unit 11 where we have said the lead consists the you know the most important parts of a news story they are put into the lead as far as you know writing anybody's primary story is concerned. No matter how the reporter is written the copy the sub editor handling the copy has to arrange the lead in such a manner that after extracting the main points of the news story the lead should contain all the five w's and one h you know in that particular news story. But in case of a major story where it becomes very much difficult to club all the w's and one h then at least the lead should answer what when and where the rest of the elements should be dealt with in the subsequent paragraphs. And in writing the lead the copy editor has to keep in mind the economy of the w's. Ideally a lead should not contain more than 30 to 35 w's and each sentence should not exceed more than 15 w's. Now there are also different kinds of leads. Usually we say the lead should be very much short in nature it should be very precise but this doesn't mean the lead should be devoid of facts it doesn't mean that you won't give all the different facts you remove the facts. Definitely facts will be there in a lead but the w's should be very much limited. Ideally the lead should give the summary of what has actually happened in the news story. The reader should get the anti-information in the lead itself at least the crux of the story because it enables the readers to get the main essence of the story in the first paragraph itself. And this kind of lead which actually summarizes the story as soon as a summary lead or news lead or multiple element lead. And then apart from summary lead, yeah another important lead that is the narrative lead. Now what exactly is narrative lead? It is also known as a descriptive lead what picture lead. Okay now the copy editor also makes use of different other kinds of leads for special impact and narrative lead is one of them. This lead is used can be actually used in order to attract the reader's attention by drawing a vivid picture of a particular situation or maybe in particular place or about a particular person or about some object or unusual phase of action. Again if the if the news story if in a news story the time element consists of fast action or the intervals are separated by a series of related events which needs to be emphasized then the staccato lead can be used. Okay in staccato lead it consists of several broken sentences that is punctuated either by periods or dashes. Then you know these are some of the important types of lead. Then let us come to the body. Now the body elaborates what has already been established in the lead because points which have not been accommodated in the lead are elaborated in the body. Mostly the body deals with the element of how but while constructing the body of a news story the sub editor should remember that he maintains a logical order of the facts in the body. Okay he should put the facts in a proper body in a proper way in a proper chronological way otherwise the entire meaning of the news story will not come out. Then comes of course a conclusion part. Now as we have talked about earlier a hard news story does not have a conclusion because mostly in case of soft news stories the conclusion is an essential element. Nevertheless in the conclusion part the sub editor should weave out the vital points of the entire story and give a suitable conclusion. Now let us come to another important concept of this particular unit that we'll talk about now that is the photo editing. Now we have talked about editing the different principles of editing what you know guidelines should be followed by editing a news story, how a news story should be edited, who are the persons responsible in a newsroom setup and so and so forth. Now we shall try to talk about or discuss a little about photo editing. Now from the term itself photo editing that is it means editing a photocopy because apart from text news contents newspapers also carry a number of pictures a number of photographs apart from adding validity and emphasis to news stories a photograph can also stand alone as a news item in itself. Besides photographs lend variety to a page attract attention enhance the look of the page and break the monotony associated by it and photo features are very much popular among the readers. You know because whenever you write a news story usually when you try to incorporate some photos into it that actually enhances the beauty of the news story because that will cut down the monotonous nature of reading a particular news story. We often say the picture is worth a thousand words. Why do we say that? Because from a picture we can actually make our world the news story is all about. So whenever a particular news story is followed or whenever a news story has a picture to accompany it that actually enhances the aesthetic appeal of that particular news story. Now who is your photo editor? Just like the news editor and other departmental editors a photo editor is also responsible for collecting the different quality photographs of any event that is happening anywhere and also editing it in order to make it worthy for publication in the newspaper. The photo editor in consultation with the editor of the departmental editors you know would select appropriate photographs adequately edit them and decide their position within the layer of the paper and it is a photo it is a responsibility to select the best picture which tells the story on its own and let us try to just you know quickly go over basic requirements of a good photograph what exactly is necessary for a picture to be incorporated within a news story or what consists of a good photograph. The first and foremost basic requisite of a good photograph is that it should have the elements essential for news that is it should have the news values news value should be there. Second important basic point as far as a photograph is concerned is that it should be an action photo or dynamic photo that is it should show some kind of action you know it shouldn't be something something is very stagnant and the picture has been taken no now because whenever you take a picture of an active that is taking place or maybe you want to show some you want to showcase you know an action in a form of a picture that has more appeal to it okay so and the third important prerequisite or third important quality of a good photograph is clarity it is a very important consideration while selecting pictures okay because the main elements in the picture must be clearly visible it should not be very much hazy in nature okay it should not be blurred if it is very much clear then of course the readers also will find it very much interesting to read the news story if it is followed or if a clear picture is incorporated within that particular news story. Then comes another important concept another important part of photo editing that is cropping and what is cropping a competent photo editor's job is basically to see that he or she does not waste spaces and dreams a picture keeping in mind the essence of the subject you when when we try to crop a particular picture so that it can you know fit in within the particular news story that is known as a cropping okay the process of reduction done keeping the essential parts of the picture intact is known as cropping now what is scaling editing often also involves enlarging or reducing the size of the main image so that it gives a better visual impact or it fits into the available space this is known as scaling now scaling needs to be done proportionately so that the image is not distorted okay you should be very much proportional as far as doing the scaling okay you should not do the scaling disproportionately if that is done then the entire image will be distorted then let us come to the very important aspect of photo journalism or food editing that is caption writing now what is a caption caption is basically a description of the content of a photograph now let's suppose if i try to insert a particular photograph within a news story i'll have to write something below that you know photograph that might actually enhance that might actually pick what the photograph is all about because if i just insert a simple picture without writing anything below it then of course and if the picture is very much you know abstract in nature then readers won't be able to understand what the news story is all about or for that matter what the picture is all about that is why caption is very much an important part of photo photograph in fact a caption tells what a photograph is all about usually caption it's written in a very short way very minimum words is used and it best describes a photograph so it is not a very easy task to write a caption and it demands high amount of creativity and a caption always remember that a caption should always carry the elements of what where and when okay so with this we have come to the end of today's unit in this unit that is news editing we have tried to analyze we tried to understand what news editing is all about why editing is very much an essential part of any news writing process what editing is very much essential as far as print journalism is concerned and also we have tried to analyze you know the very basics or principles of news editing then we have tried to understand what photo editing is all about the various concepts the various issues related to the area of photo journalism or photo editing we have tried to understand what cropping is we have also tried to analyze the concept of scaling and also a very important part of photo editing that is caption writing so with this few words i have come to the end of today's discussion thank you all so much