 Dear learners, I, Trisha Dora-Borua from the Bhupan-Hasugay School of Mass Communication, Krishna Kandahani State-of-the-University would like to cordially welcome you to another session, another segment of our online discussion. Today we are going to talk about the different types of news and this particular topic is incorporated in the Unit 6 of the second semester journalism paper of Being Journalism in Mass Communication. So let's proceed for today's discussion. Today's discussion will be based on the different types of news. We'll be discussing about different principles of news stories as well as the different qualities of a good news stories. Now let's understand what is a news. News is something which is new. In fact, something that has a new quality to it that can be done as a news. And let me talk about different types of news. There are basically two types. One is a hard news and the other is a soft news. Now what basically is hard news? Hard news refers to the up-to-the-minute news and events that are reported immediately. A hard news story takes a factual approach. For instance, like what has happened? Who was involved in that particular news story? Where did that particular news story take place? And when did it take place? And of course, why did it take place? In fact, hard news stories tries to analyze a news story from a different perspective. It tries to analyze news stories on the basis of 5Ws and 1H. Now what are the 5Ws? When we talk about 5Ws, it refers to who, what, when, where, why, and the 1H refers to how. In fact, suppose when we try to analyze a particular news story. Okay, let's give an example. Suppose a big massive accident has taken place in a particular place. So we'll try to analyze who are the people involved in that particular accident. Okay, in the particular news story. And what exactly happened in the accident? How did that accident take place? And then when we have to answer the question of when? What time period? In fact, whether the accident has taken place today or yesterday? Or at what period of time? When we need to answer the question to where? It means at which location the particular accident has taken place. And finally, when we try to question why? It means why did the accident take place? Was it because of some, you know, man-made problems? Or was it because of some other, you know, other issues that might have contributed towards that particular accident? So in other words, we can say that hard news stories tries to answer the five W's and the one H. And when we talk about one H, one H refers to how? In fact, how did the particular, you know, information come into being? Or what exactly are the elements involved that actually led to the particular incident? In other words, we can say that there are different other examples we can cite as far as hard news is concerned. It can relate to news in the area of politics. It can mean something related to the area of war. It can also mean something related to the area of economics as well as crime. So these are different assets. So these are different characteristics of what the hard news is all about. Now, moving on, we can also say, you know, we often like taken away by the thing like what exactly standard technique is followed when writing a hard news story? Because it's very easy to say that this is a hard news. The other is a soft news. We'll come later in a, you know, about what exactly soft news is all about. But for the time being, let's talk about what hard news, what technique is followed while writing a hard news story. Now, for different medias, different standard technique is followed. Okay. Now, as far as print media is concerned, we follow the inverted pyramid style where the most important elements or the most important parts of a news story are placed in the beginning of the story and the lesser important ones are placed towards the end. This is what an inverted pyramid style is known as. And hard news stories follow this particular pyramid style. Now, in case of broadcast media, the less important information is left out. Okay. It's not given towards the end of the story or in the beginning of the story, but this left out. Instead, in case of broadcast reporting, it follows a square format. Okay. What does it mean a square format? It means that the information remains the same all throughout the story. Okay. There is neither an inverted pyramid style or a pyramid style but it's a square format. Suppose someone is narrating a visit of an important celebrity has come to a particular place or maybe someone from the ministry has come to inaugurate a particular location. Okay. So, when the particular reporter or the particular anchor will be covering that particular news story, he or she won't try to show that okay, the important elements or the important password news story will be given in the beginning or the lesser important will be given in the end. No. That is not how in broadcast media the hard news story is broadcast. In fact, they'll try to follow a square format where the particular narrator will narrate the entire incident or the entire news story from the beginning to the end in the same format or in the there will be, you know, the information level will be the same. There won't be something which is very important or something which will be less important. Okay. So, that is how in case of broadcast media, you know, the hard news stories is being broadcast. And the hard news writing style which I'm talking about right now is usually followed while writing news about important public events. So, which I've just mentioned that usually, you know, most of the important events like any something like any about any government functionaries. Maybe there is a visit by, you know, someone from outside of the country has come to get some occasion or maybe some focusing on some international events or maybe it might relate to some of the economic and social affairs, something related to crime, something related to science and technology, something related to environment. So, all these different types, you know, of areas are being covered by the hard news writing style. Now, there are basically three types of coverage that falls under the hard news story. So, we have been talking about like what hard news is all about that, you know, it basically answers 5Ws in one age. And it also talks about, you know, covering important news stories, not something, you know, something related to human interest stories. So, we've talked about all that. But what are the different types of coverage that actually falls under the umbrella of hard news story? Basically, the three types. One is a spot coverage. The other is a depth coverage. And another one is an enterprise coverage. Now, what is spot coverage? Now, when we talk about spot coverage, it means like, you know, you try to cover the particular news story from the spot itself, from the field itself. Okay. So, for example, you know, like, suppose a big incident happened, you know, maybe a fire has taken place somewhere, or maybe there has been some election rally in some places, or maybe, you know, there was a huge accident in one place involving some other people. So, those will fall under spot news stories. Okay. So, spot news is one of the coverage that falls under the hard news domain. Another one important, you know, type of coverage that we can talk about is a depth coverage. And what is depth coverage? It is that form of hard news that goes beyond the spot developments, or that goes beyond spot coverage. And it basically mainly focuses on events, you know, where you try to unhurt the story, the news story, you try to cover the news story from a different perspective. Okay. You know, it's a very descriptive kind of, you know, way in which you're trying to focus a particular news story. There is depth in that particular news story. I mean, in other words, you provide all the details, all explanation in a broader way. You don't leave out any kind of explanation, whether that explanation or whether that information may be less important, or whether the information might be more important. Then there is another form of coverage which is known as enterprise coverage. Now, from the term itself, we can make our enterprise basically talks about the person who is collecting the particular news story, or the person who is trying to, you know, unhurt, or trying to gather the particular information for, you know, to broadcast, you know, maybe to print it in different form, should be very much enterprising. Enterprising means that they should know, or they should be able to understand how they can, at best, take that particular information, extract that information, and try to, you know, bring that particular information in front of the people, either to print media or to broadcast media. So, it basically shows the enterprising ability of the person who is collecting the particular news story. Okay. I mean, it doesn't only mean that the person has to go to the field, you know, collect the news stories from the field itself, you know, it's not only about that, but enterprise coverage also includes, you know, you are trying to, you know, utilize different technical tools and techniques in order to get the particular news story in the best format as possible. Like, you know, for instance, I can cite out like, you know, during the 1991 war in Iraq, CNN, one of the biggest broadcasters in the world, they learned an early coverage of the coalition war against Iraq. How were they able to do that? Because they had planned it months earlier. So, there was a lot of planning going on in the particular news studio that how they'll be covering that particular war, what stories they'll be covering, you know. So, what backup system they'll be having, because, you know, when you go to a, when you go for war reporting, when you go for conflict reporting, a lot of issues come to the forefront. So, one needs to be very much careful, one needs to be very much prepared for discovering such kind of news stories. So, what did CNN do? They had a very, you know, a big, massive backup communication system in place. Because, you know, when you try to cover news stories, especially from the war front, there's every possibility of the network going haywire, you know. There must be, there can be breakdown in the network connectivity. And when that breaks down, then it will be, it becomes very difficult to broadcast such kind of news from the war front. You know, that's why, how, what did they do? They had a very big communication system in place. And that was a backup system. Of course, they did have reporters at the field covering the particular situation. So, these are some of the examples of what enterprising coverage is all about. I mean, in other words, it makes sense, you know, that when one goes for a report or when one wants to cover a particular news story, one must be very prepared. One must have a plan A as well as plan B in hand. Because in case plan A doesn't work out, so they can actually depend on plan B. So, there it depends a lot on the enterprising ability of the concerned organization or on the concerned person who is, you know, covering the particular event. Now, let's come to the soft news concept. So, we have talked about what hard news stories all about. Like, it basically tries to answer the questions of 5Ws and 1H. And most importantly, it tries to, you know, and tries to like, understand, analyze the important news events that might take place. That might lead to, or it might consist of mostly, you know, something related from the government side, any news stories from the economy of the country, any news stories related to the, you know, society, the particular country. So, basically it tries to, you know, analyze something which is of very important in nature, something which might be very beneficial for the society in the long run. That's what a hard news story tries to, you know, talk about. Then we have also discussed about the different coverages that falls on different news stories, which basically consists of spot coverage, depth coverage, enterprise coverage. And now, let's come to another important area of news story, or another important aspect of news story, which is the soft news stories. Now, soft news stories is a little bit opposite of hard news stories. Hard news stories are very hard-hitting kind of news stories, as we have already talked about. And soft news, on the other hand, are mostly of very entertainment kind of nature. I mean, they try to entertain or educate the masses, rather than informing them on different issues. Of course, the education part is there, and the entertainment value is also there. So, in a way, we can say the soft news stories have that entertainment kind of quality to it. And soft news stories are very, originally, they have a synonymous with feature stories, which were like place newspapers, the television newscasts for human interest. The concept, slowly, the concept expanded to include a wide range of media outlets that, you know, present more personality-centered stories. So, you know, when we talk about human interest stories, or maybe feature stories, like if you open a newspaper, mostly, you know, soft news stories, they occupy the space at the bottom of the newspaper, which is the anchor story. And maybe soft news stories, you know, can also be a follow-up of the hard news stories. How can that be the follow-up of hard news stories? You know, suppose a massive accident has already happened. I'm giving the same example. So, with that particular accident, you know, when you focus it, analyze it from the 5Ws and 1H point of view, it becomes a hard news story. So, maybe after two, three days, you want to follow up on that particular news story, and you try to, you know, focus on the lives of someone, you know, on a particular family member whose near-dear ones have lost their lives. So, you want to focus on their lives, how they're surviving this particular tragedy, how they're moving ahead in particular tragedy, what the government incentives are. So, that is the kind of follow-up story. And this follow-up story can actually fall on the soft news story. So, basically, most of the soft news stories are emanated from the hard news stories. And now, you know, as far as the coverage of news stories is concerned, if you go to the different, you know, either print media or broadcast media or online media, you'll actually see that they actually try to balance the hard and soft news story. Why it is very important to balance hard and soft news stories? Because, you know, when you, you know, kind of a content analysis of different media outlets, you know, you have to balance it in such a way that it can actually attract the audience, can actually make them understand that which news stories needs to be more focused and which news stories needs to be less focused. That's why there has to be a proper balancing of hard and soft news stories. And this particular balancing is also based on how they see the role in the community and how they perceive the audience's needs and interests. And broadcasting stations are loaded with hard news programs in the morning and evening when people actually look for wrap-ups on what had actually happened overnight and during the day also. And, you know, morning newspapers, they try to emphasize on basically hard news stories. Because early in the morning people are not, people are always in a rush, either to, you know, go to office, to go to different education institutions, you know, maybe someone have some other, you know, obligations or some assignments at home. So it's very difficult to, you know, go over the different news stories, be it either soft news stories, be it hard news stories, be it future news stories. So what actually can be done to, you know, garner that interest or to attract the audience towards a particular news story. So usually they focus on hard news stories early in the morning. And of course towards evening, it can be the newspapers or it can be other media channels also. They try to report, tend to focus mostly on soft news stories. Why? Because towards evening people, when they, you know, they come away from the home, they finish their work at that respective, you know, place of work, they come home, they relax. So they try to, so they have that ample amount of time at their hand to focus on different soft news stories. As such, you know, most of the news channels, maybe most of the newspapers, they try to, especially morning news, I'm talking about the morning news channels, they focus on hard news stories. On the other hand, evening news papers or the evening news channels or other different media outlets, they tend to deviate mostly towards the soft news stories. Now let's try to understand the different principles of news stories. Now we have been talking about what hard news stories all about. We have been discussing about what is a soft news story. Now what exactly are the different principles of news stories? Okay, what are, in fact, what are different characteristics that actually, you know, makes a news story a very good news story. Okay, the different principles needs to be followed. Now the first principle that is very, what mentioning here is the lead writing. Okay, lead writing basically means that it's the most important part and when you talk about lead. Okay, lead is the top most part of a news story, especially whenever that particular news story is put in a printed form. Okay, and the lead in a news story actually needs to have the entire information or the main crux of the information of any particular news event should be contained in the lead itself. And by reading the, or by reading the lead paragraph, the reader should find a basic who, what, where, when of a news story. It should be available there. In other words, if the reader doesn't have the time to read the entire news article, because it's obvious because people always in a rush, people, you know, don't have the time or maybe someone might not be interested in reading the whole entire news story. So what will they do? They'll just try to, you know, analyze the five Ws and one H, which are usually contained in the lead itself. That's a lead writing. And such type of lead writing is also known as a summary. In fact, you try to summarize the entire news stories within the particular lead itself. The other important principle of news stories that is interviewing. Now what, you know, sometimes it happens, you know, like, not always you get the particular news story from the field itself, or you go to a particular spot or you go to a particular area and collect the news. Often you don't get the relevant news or information at your fingertips. So what can you do about that? So most of the cases, you know, they try to interview people, or the subject that is the focus in a particular news stories. And there is an art to interviewing also. It's not that you go to the person who you're supposed to interview and you just ask some random questions, you know, and you expect the person to answer to those questions. It's not that. You need to understand. You need to do your homework, you know, as far as the concerned person is all about. Because the subject of the news story should be researched thoroughly before being written. Because if you've kind of put some, you know, false news stories, or if you're trying to deviate from the fact and the fiction, then that will completely, you know, bring down the quality of a news story. So proper research is very important. And if you have to, if one needs to go for proper interview, one needs to have a very concise set of questions in hand and if need be, the questions can be, you know, kind of communicated to the other person, which will be who, who or she will be interviewed. So that the other person might be very, might not be very uncomfortable answering those questions. So everything must be handled very carefully. That's the art to interviewing. And there's other important principle as far as news stories is concerned, is giving quotes. I mean, quotations, you know, you, you'll find mostly in some of the, most specifically in soft news stories, or in other words, those feature stories and all you'll get quotations are being given. And quotations, you know, it's not something that you give quotations from, from some witnesses, from eyewitnesses, or you try to give quotations after you take those lines from some multiple sources. Okay, so while giving the quotation, it is not to simply tell a reader what has happened, but to illuminate the facts that are provided by, you know, those persons who have given those different quotations. You know, suppose, you know, you're like, you're trying to cover a particular news event. There's a press meet being organized or being given by the government of India and they've invited a number of media organizations to cover the particular event. So the concern from the media organization, someone is being, you know, deputed to cover the particular event and after they go there, so they cover the event and then maybe they'll take, they'll try to take sound bites of the person who has been giving the particular interview or who is trying to, you know, or actually organize a particular media press meet. So while, you know, taking the sound bites from the concerned person, the reporter might quote one or two lines as given by the concerned person. So while giving that quotation, why they try to focus? Basically just to emphasize, to emphasize the importance of the event or to emphasize that, okay, such and such thing is being actually narrated by the concerned individual and nothing is falsified. There is no false information involved. That is why quotes are being given. So there is, that is the importance of quotes. Just to illuminate the facts that are already being provided in the news stories. There's another important, you know, principle of news stories, that is headlines. Now, the first, now whenever we look at a particular newspaper or whenever we, you know, try to, you know, check out the different news channels, our first thought process or first thing that comes to mind is what is the headlines? The headlines with very eye catching. The headlines should have the quality to attract us as audience. You know, you open a newspaper, you open the phone picture of a newspaper, you see a plethora of news and other issues being given on the particular page. So it's not possible for you to read each and every line, each and every news story. So while writing the headline, it should be not only bold, it should not only have a very catchy headline because as, you know, as readers or maybe as someone who is trying to understand what particular news story is, we are very much attracted to those news headlines, you know, that has some kind of twist to it or maybe that has some kind of very, you know, witty headline to it. It has to capture our attention as a reader, as well as to reveal the substance of the anti-news story. So the first thing we do in pick up is that to scan the headlines, isn't it? Of course, without scanning the headlines, we just, we don't go on reading the different reports because we don't have that much of time also at our hands. So the headline of news stories, it needs to be very much concise, it needs to be very much specific and also it should be very much informative. In other words, it should be attractive and eye catching. Now, there is another important principle of news story which is known as the ethics. Now, ethical aspect of news story. Now, let me talk about ethics, you know, it's something that, something that's not new, it has been there over the last, you know, two, three decades. Most of the media organizations, be it print, be it electronic, be it online media organizations, they, you know, they have a very, a set of ethics that needs to be adhered to, that needs to be followed by the different personnel working under different media organizations. Now, why a lot of importance is given on ethics? To maintain the, you know, the quality of the news stories so that something which is not out of proportion is put into a particular news story. Something which is appropriate, something which is based on truth and something which is objective. So that's why ethical aspect of news story is very much important. Now, journalistic code of ethics should be very much strictly followed while writing the news stories. And when we talk about ethics, we actually mean that story should be very much accurate, should be non-biased and also should be objective in nature. Now, let's come to the different qualities of a good news story. Now, we have talked about what a hard news story is, what a soft news story is. We try to distinguish between the hard news and soft news. Also, we have tried to understand how there needs to be a proper balance between a hard news and soft news, while, you know, trying to incorporate such stories in a particular media outlet. Also, we have tried to analyze the different principles of news stories. Now, let's come to an understand the different qualities of a news story. What makes a good news story? We often keep on, we have been talking about that the news story should have this quality. A news story is, you know, the hard news story should occupy some kind of portion in a particular news story. There should be some portion assigned to soft news stories. You know, and also there should be some principles to be followed. But what exactly is a good news story? Basically, a good news story begins with a strong intention of getting a headline. The first most important part of a good news story is that it should be a very catchy headline. The headline should be such that it should be very much concise in nature, it should be very much specific and also it should be very much informative. In fact, this is the first thing should be to catch our attention, should be the headline. The other important quality of a good news story is that it has to have an informative lead. Okay, so when we talk about informative lead, basically it doesn't mean that all the we need to answer all the questions to five Ws and one H. It's not that the particular news story, it needs to cover the who, why, what, where, when, how. All those questions should not be, it's not necessary, it should be covered in the lead itself. But at least some aspects or some questions should be answered in the leading aspects. Because if that is providing the proper lead, then a person who is reading the particular news story will be able to get a better understanding about the story will unfold. That is why a lot of emphasis is given on the proper informative lead. Another important quality of a good news story is that it presents, it should present information in order of importance. Okay, it's not something that you give the less important news story in the front and the preceding and the other information is given in the back of the news story, it's not. Usually it's given the order of preference. For instance, suppose some government representative has come to inaugurate a particular function in a locality. So how the particular news story will evolve. It's something like they'll focus on the person who has come to inaugurate that particular occasion and what is the context of the occasion, when the particular occasion takes place. What is the idea or the theme behind the inauguration of the particular occasion. So all this information should come in the beginning and maybe later on the particular news story might cover who the people have been involved, how many of the people have participated in the particular occasion or the particular conference and so on and so forth. So in fact the good quality or good news story should present information in order of importance. Another important quality is that a good news story should use short paragraphs. You know, it's because people always in a rush to read newspapers or maybe people always in a rush to go over the different news stories that have been broadcast on different media channels. So when you focus on short paragraphs and this is mostly related to print media actually, not broadcast media because short and concise paragraph enables the readers to get a quick overview of the news story within the shortest possible time. You know, you don't have to go hours and hours and you can spend time on reading paragraph after paragraph because that becomes a big deterrent to understand and deterrent to, you know, it's become a kind of hindrance to understand what that story is all about or what that particular news is all about. So when you write and concise and short paragraphs, then the reader itself will feel encouraged or will feel happy to read the particular news story. Another important quality we can talk about is that a good news story is objective in nature. Now I'm going to talk about objectivity, what do we mean by that? Objective means that, you know, there is no biasness as far as the reporting of the news story is concerned. The reporter or the concerned person who has gathered the particular information has tried to, you know, broadcast the information or maybe tried to print that information, you know, they have done it on the basis of objective reporting. In other words, whatever has happened on the scene itself without kind of, you know, removing any kind of information, that particular same information has been put forward in front of the general public. In other words, the journalist seeks to present the news in an objective way without reflecting any corporate or personal biasness. That is objectivity in nature. Another important quality that we can talk about is that a good news story includes quotations from people involved in the issue event. So when you try to insert this quotation or maybe call as far as, you know, television reporting is concerned, you call them as sound bites. So why we try to put them just to give or just to, you know, emphasize on the particular news story? So that we can illuminate the particular point, okay, that such event has occurred. So we have tried to cover this event and so and so forth as someone has given his or her opinion regarding the particular event. So a good news report tries to incorporate the quotes that is given by the people who may or may not be involved in any issues or event. Another important quality that we can talk about is that it uses first and last names when first introducing the people involved. So it, in fact, a good news story tries to insert the proper full name of the concerned person who is involved in the particular news stories and then uses their last names only except in special cases. So this is especially true in as far as print media is concerned or maybe in case of broadcast media also. So in the lead itself or maybe in the beginning of the particular news story, the complete name of the individual, a complete name of the concerned person except in certain cases when it becomes very difficult to reveal the identity of the people. But as far, when it's possible to reveal the identity of the people, the complete name is being provided in the lead story itself. And maybe in the preceding paragraphs, only the last name is being given. Another important quality of a good news story is that it uses language that is easy for most readers to understand. You know, the simpler language you use, the better it is for the person to understand because a good news report uses language that is easily understandable by the readers. You don't want to use flowery languages. You don't want to use bombastic words just to show that you are very good in writing English or maybe you're good in writing reporting. No, that should not be the motto of how a news report should be done. In fact, one should be very careful enough in choosing the particular words while reporting a particular news story because not all the individuals, not all people are very, you know, have the same ability to comprehend the meaning of a particular word. So, a simple language is the key to actually attract the readers. Then, of course, a good news report is free from spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Now, this is a very important part of whenever news report is being given, especially in case of print media. Because, you know, if you see most of the print media houses, print media organizations, they have a separate editing department and different levels. So, they are actually responsible to check the spelling mistakes, to check the grammatical errors might be there because, you know, if you have such kind of things, if without checking anything that has been printed and that actually catches the eye of the reader, then that will be a big, you know, kind of disgrace to the media organization in a way or the people might feel that this is not the proper way how a news report has been given. So, one must be very careful enough, one must change the different spellings and one must be careful to check even the grammatical errors also. So, a good news report is actually devoid of grammatical and other spelling mistakes including the punctuation marks. And lastly, the most important quality of a good news story is that it should have or it has specific detail. In fact, a good news story, it provides a detailed account, a detailed reporting of the event that might have taken place while reporting an event. Okay, so there is a detailed news. It's not that some news is being left out and other news is being given more prominence when some are being left out, it's not that. Each and every element of the news, each and every element of whatever is important as far as that particular news story is being covered is, try, it's being given and that is being, you know, put forward from the general public. So, these are the different qualities of a good news story. So, in today's discussion, like we have tried to cover what basically is a news, different types of news with different principles of news stories and of course, last but not the least, we have tried to identify, but I have to analyze the different qualities of the news stories. And for further readings, you can check out any, you know, e-resources and there are other important, you know, reference books or reference materials have been provided in the back of your, this particular unit from your study material. I would like to encourage you all to go over it and, you know, check all these materials. So, with this, I would like to end our today's discussion. Thank you so much.