 Now we shall talk about what we shall try to understand how the news agency evolved in India. That is a historical overview of news agencies in India. Before the earliest news agency is in India that actually existed before independence. They were the United Press of India. We had the Free Press news agency and then we had the Associated Press of India which is actually a subsidiary of Reuters which is one of the biggest news agencies of the world and that belongs to Britain. And Associated Press of India which is shortly in short form we know as API, it was founded by K. C. Roy and it was indeed the first Indian news agency and as such K. C. Roy is very popularly known as the father of Indian news agency journalism. Now in 1915 Associated Press of India it was later acquired by Reuters which belongs to Great Britain by the way and since at that point of time, I am talking about 1915, 90s, early 19s, India was under the British rule. So API dominated the scene for a very, very long time because you know API was acquired by Reuters and Reuters belonged to Great Britain. So and since India was under the British rule at that point of time, so its presence was very much seen at that point of time, the presence of API. Now then the UPI, the United Press of India and the Free Press news agency, they were actually formed by the Indian nationalists who were dissatisfied with the coverage given by the API because at that point of time now mostly since India was under the British rule, so the API they hardly used to cover certain news stories which focused on India's freedom struggle and the news stories which focused on India's nationalists, that flavor. So they hardly used to cover because they were quite scared that if they would focus on such kind of news stories and maybe the general public or the general people would rise up against us while British government. So the coverage was very minimum. So as such what happened, there were a lot of nationalist leaders at that point of time and they were not very much happy that what API was doing, the role that API was playing. So what did they do? They combined or they formed UPI and the Free Press news agencies and because after forming them, they tried to focus on those issues which were not covered by API. Now after in India again independence, what happened? API was transferred into the Indian hands and the new news agency, the Press Trust of India was formed in 1948. So after independence, the scenario completely changed and in 1961 the United News of India was formed but UPI however it collapsed in 1958. So that was the end of UPI. Now these different news agencies, they were English language agencies and the Indian newspapers that translated all agency copies before editing and publishing the news because most of the since most of these news agencies they used to kind of collect and edit news stories only in English language. So the different media organizations, most specifically Indian newspapers that used to translate the different copies which have been sent by different news agencies into the regional languages before they edited and they published. And the first Indian language news agency was Hindustan Samachar and after Hindustan Samachar, another important Indian language news agency came into the fore that was Samachar Bahati. Now in 1975, emergency was declared in the country, we all know that. What happened then? Then all the other four agencies, we have UNI, we have PTI, we have the Hindustan Samachar as well as the Samachar Bahati, they were merged. These four news agencies which merged together and the new agency was formed. That was Samachar was formed. But you know after the emergency was over, these four news agencies UNI, PTI, Hindustan Samachar and Samachar Bahati, they became separate again. Hindustan Samachar and Samachar Bahati, they could not sustain themselves for a long period of time. So ultimately they had to close down. But PTI and UNI, they were actually able to sustain the long run. And there are two major news agencies of a country at the present moment, making the presence felt not only in India, but across the length and breadth of the different countries across the world. And PTI is Hindi language service that is known as Basha. And UNI is Hindi service known as Vata. They're a major Hindi language news agencies in India at the present moment. So this was in brief about how the news agencies evolved in our country. Now, let us try to understand some of the important news agencies across the world. We have talked about how we have UNI in India, we have PTI and we have the different Hindi versions of UNI, PTI. And this news has been doing a commendable job as far as the dissemination news stories is concerned in the context of India. Now, if you look at a world scenario, how are the other news agencies performing in different countries? Now, across the world, there are a number of other news agencies. There might be bigger news agencies, there are small news agencies. But some of the important news agencies which we'll be discussing today, they are the Reuters of United Kingdom, that is Reuters of Britain. We have the Agency France Press of France. We have the Associated Press of America. And then we also, we have the United Press International from the United States of America. So these are some of the important agencies. Apart from that, there are also other agencies where we won't talk about all the agencies. Just a few important agencies we'll be talking today, we'll be discussing today. Now, let us try to understand the first one is the Agency France Press. Now, AFP, in short form, it was actually founded in 1835 by Charles Louis Havas and the name of Agency Havas. And this is the world's oldest news agency and one of the world's top three news agencies. Initially what happened, this particular news agency, they used to have traditional news distribution methods. They used to use different pigeons, they used to use horse, tron carriages and coaches and they also used mounted couriers to transfer different news stories. Then the invention of the telegraph changed everything. After telegraph was invented in 1845, it gave this particular news agency's first test of modern news transmission and it quickly became a primary new means of distribution throughout France and across Europe as well. And by the end of this first decade, this particular agency's was already an international name. It was well known across the world. And in the present context, if you ask me, this particular news agency employs like 200, 300 photographers. It has around 2,000 of reporters and more than 3,000 strangers look at it over in 160 countries. And each day, the company distributes more than 2 million words in French, as well as in English, in German, in Spanish, in Portuguese and Arabic. Another important news agency is of which we would like to talk about is the Reuters. Now Reuters, it was started as a very small news agency in a small room in Paris by Paul Julius Reuter. He was actually a German by birth in 1940s and he started this Reuters with the help of his wife in 1940s, which is a small room in Paris. And in 1950, Paul Julius Reuter, he moved to London and by 1960, he had already established himself as a chief supplier for a news stories to almost every newspaper in Britain and of news from Britain to newspapers in other countries. So gradually, what exactly he started from a small room in Paris that actually branched out to every part of the country of Great Britain and slowly to the rest of the Euro. Of course, at the present moment, Reuters is something that we associated with a big news agency that supplies news to almost every single news channels or maybe to every single print media organization across the world. And at the present moment, Reuters has risen to become the largest international multimedia news agency. Report extensively from around the world on a wide variety of topics. But its special areas lies in financial news stories and then 90% of his revenue coming from this financial news services. There is another important news agency that is Associated Press or AP. Now, Associated Press was formed in 1948 and it is basically a non-profit-making corporation and its entire source of revenue is subscription by members. Basically, AP is owned by about 1500 US daily newspaper members and it has more than 5000 employees working in more than 300-plus worldwide bureaus. And it supplies a steady stream of news across around the clock to its different domestic members, to its international subscribers, as well as commercial customers. Then we have the United Press International or UPI. Now, UPI was formed in 1907 by E.W. Scripps under the name of United Press. And by the year 1921, United UPI eroded AP's hold on the European newspaper market and it began servicing newspapers in Cologne, Frankfurt and Vienna. And in 1922, United Press began servicing newspapers through Asian mainland as well. So gradually, this particular news agency tried to expand its services not only from America to Europe and to other Asian countries as well. Then we have the press coming back towards home. We have the press trust of India. As I've just said about the PTI is one of India's largest news agencies in the country and it is basically a non-profit sharing cooperative owned by the country's newspapers. And the subscribers of PTI includes more than like 500 newspapers in India and other, you know, more than 200 other newspapers abroad. And almost all the major TV radio channels in India, other several from abroad, it receives a PTI service. It has a staff of about 1300 people including 400 journalists. So and its different bureaus are not only located in the country, but also across the different major cities of the world like Beijing, Dhaka, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Islamabad, Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, London and so on and so forth. And let us come to another important news. I won't say news agency, but it's a news service of PTI. It is a Basha. Basha is a Hindi language news service of PTI. And its own network is in the Hindi speaking states and which draws on PTI files and it puts out about, you know, 40,000 words per day. It is such a vibrant, you know, news service of PTI. Then we have the United News of India or UNI. UNI was launched in March 1961 and it has grown to be one of the biggest or largest news agencies in Asia. It not only covers, you know, news stories relating to the field of politics, to the field of economics, to the field of social or society, it also provides subscribers with a rich choice in features, interviews and human interest stories. UNI has more than 100 subscribers in more than 100 locations across the land and the country as well as in other major cities abroad. And they include different newspapers, radio and television networks. There are websites and, you know, there are different government offices and private and public sector corporations as well. And UNI has more than 300 plus staff channels across the country and more than, you know, like 350 to 400 strangers covering news events from remote corners of the country. So, you can actually see how this particular news agency has grown up by lips and bounds. Then we have the Asia News International, UNI. Now, UNI was launched in the year 1975 by Mr. Prem Prakash. He is a pioneering TV journalist and it's one of the South Asia's actually leading multimedia news agencies with over 200 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. And it's range of products, encompasses loosely edited news feeds and other customized programs for television channels, audio bites for radio stations. There are live-babe casting as well as streamed multimedia, there is text content, etc. Now, this also includes provision of profession crews. They have editing and post-production facilities as well. Then we have the Indo-Asian News Service, that is INS. Now, Indo-Asian News Service, it was formally it was known as the India Broad News Service. It was started in 1986 to act as an information bridge between the India as well as between North America. It chronicles the growing ethnic business as well as cultural links. And just like other news agencies, even the Indo-Asian News Service also covers thousands of areas, not only in India but also in other major cities across the world. It has actually carved a niche for itself, not only reporting new stories from the subcontinent of India but also tries to focus on the large Indian diaspora that is spread across the world. And their team of journalists, they produce a steady outfit of news, features, analysis you know and other commentaries. Then we have dossier press agent tour, that is the DPA. It's the largest press agency in Germany. It's a news agency basically in Germany and was founded in the year 1949. And the main office of DPA is Hamburg and there's going to be a major worldwide operation serving, pain media, radio, television, online, mobile phones and national news agencies. Now finally we come to the last segment of our discussion today. It is the editing wire copy. Now why a lot of importance is given on editing wire copies? We can just you know collect news stories, we can just you know edit the news simply, we can just publish them, we can broadcast them. So why should we actually focus on editing it? Why should we focus on editing wire copy? This is because you know we need to base our different news stories on the aspect of objectivity as well as authenticity. Editing because doing something in a haphazard way will actually you know bring down the quality of the news stories. So one must be actually very much careful in editing a news story, most specifically a wire copy. And a person is actually responsible, the person is actually responsible for editing the different news stories for handling the different wire copies is known as the wire editor. Now besides not only looking after the different normal other processes of copy editing, the wire editor also has a few other important responsibilities as well. So the wire editor first of all he has to filter through the different because each and every day different lot of news stories come into the offices of different media organizations of other different news agencies. So they have to you know kind of you know separate those news stories which they find you know to be very much important to be published or those news stories which is very important to be broadcast and they will separate the other less important news stories in the you know side. And apart from the very important events that cannot be eliminated so wire editor what he should do or he she should do. So he or she should also look for those stories that present inspiring features eliminate social trends as well as offer clear analysis of complicated issues or stories that are a particular local interest that's connected in some way or the other to the community. Now comes to the actual process of editing the copy. Now suppose the news sweeper is subscribing to more than one wire service which most news sweepers they do because they don't stick to only one particular news wire service. Then the wire editor has to compare the copies for the same news sent by different agencies to check the for inconsistency of facts. Because you know if one particular news agency will send some copy and the information is a little bit different. Another news agency will send another putting the same news stream but the copy is a little bit different and the matter content in that particular news story is different. So then the wire editor will have to check both the news stories because if there is inconsistency of facts so that has to be eliminated and that has to be properly looked into. And it's also very much important for the wire editor to remember that wire information is the first step. It's not the final say. It actually must be supplemented whenever it's possible with first hand details from people in the field and details have to be verified. So verification is very important. Every step needs to be verified. You can't just put you know you can't that you just can't take some kind of news from a anonymous source and you just put it in the particular news story and just distribute it. That is not how editing or how you know news copy is edited and sent to different news organizations. Verification is a must. And sometimes when there is no information at all but only wire information available then the only way for the editor to actually come up with a good copy or the only way for a wire editor to verify the facts is to treat the wire story as just a fact sheet arranged in prose form. So finally we have come to the end of today's discussion. So far we have tried to understand what news agency is. We have tried to you know understand the the role and functions of a news agency. How the different news agency evolved in India. And you know a brief overview of some important news agencies across the world. And also how a wire copy is edited. Why a lot of importance is given to a wire copy. So with this we have come to the end of today's online discussion. Thank you all so much.