ARTICLE 4

JOUNRNALISM

BY UTIKI INGYESI JEREMIAH

(KUW/U14/MCM/2017

 Journalism is an art for earning one’s living through writing for the print and electronic media. Those who contribute occasional articles to newspaper or electronic media are not journalist. At best, they are mere writers. Journalism is a profession of, news-writing for radio, television and newspaper. A person practicing the act of journalism is a journalist. A journalist informs people about events on the locality, community country and the world. Hence, journalists help to create a global village.

Throughout the world, journalist gather, write and edit news, report for thousands of readers, listeners and viewers, in cities and towns, reporters prowl government agencies, the courts, tourist centre, government houses, air and seaports, sports arenas, and schools, etc. For news worthy events and other local stories of interest.

There are five major fields of journalism. These are newspaper, magazine, radio, television and news services. All these are divided into two main branches – print journalism ( or the press) and broadcast journalism ( or electronic or wireless ). Print journalism embraces newspaper, magazines and journals. The job of the print media is made possible by reporters, rewriters, proof readers, sub-editors, editors, production editors, Etc.

The reporter gathers news. This he does by witnessing different events, such as accident, participating in press conferences or interviewing persons, through investigation or researching etc. Reporters may write features to entertain readers or provide information for others. An editor, be it a news editor, sub-editor or any other editor, acts as a gatekeeper: he screens and edits, that is, revises materials submitted by writers for publication. He gate-keeps materials against libel and sedition. He also avoids security matters or information that may be found not to be true. An editor may also supervise an editorial staff and establish day to day policies.

The journalist’s writings must be factual and objective. Editorials published on topical issues do educate and influence public opinions. Journals are not newspapers. They are professional publications like law journal. Newspapers are published either by daily or weekly. Each day’s week’s issue is called an edition. Copies of newspapers and magazines are sold through news agents called vendors. A newspaper or magazines that sells many copies is said to have large circulation. Copies of previous issues are called back numbers.

The editor of a newspaper is the person in charge of newspaper production. He and his sub editors serve as gatekeepers against offensive materials from being published by the paper. The editor and his assistants often write a regular unsigned article called editorial which expresses the views and opinion of the paper on various national and international issues. Any story or article published in the newspaper is usually accompanied by the name of the writer. This is called by-line

Deadline which implies the time for a certain stage in preparing material for a particular edition, is important in journalism. Newspapers and magazine’s mastheads always include the title of the newspaper and magazine. Scoop in journalism refers to a story obtained and published by a newspaper house without the knowledge of its competitors. The title of explanation accompanying a picture is called its caption.