Mass Communication Notes for Class 12

Q. What is news?
Ans : News is a report of a current event. It is information about something that has just happened or will happen soon. News is a report about recent happenings in a newspaper television, radio or internet. News is something that is not known earlier. From all these, we can safely, define news as a development that has happened in the past 24 hours which was not known outside and which is of wide interest to the people and that which generates curiosity among listeners.

Q. What is the difference between news and information?

Ans: In the railway station, as we noticed the board displaying the train timings. That is now news.  That is information. But information becomes news when value is added to it. For example, if a new train time table is issued by the railway replacing the existing one with changes in train timings, that becomes news. Similarly, the different slabs of income tax rates is not news. But when the government decides to increase or lower the rates, it becomes news.                

                 We might have seen weather report in the newspapers. It gives the day’s temperature or rainfall. It does not make news. It becomes news when there is sudden change in weather, or when heavy rains lead to floods or when continuous absence of rain leads to drought.

Q. What do you mean by credibility in news?

Ans: Credibility of news is the most important virtue for any publication or channel or radio service. A reader trusts a newspaper mainly because of its credibility. If a newspaper continues to publish non-credible, unfair and non-objective stories, readers will start rejecting that paper. A news item published by a paper will be read by thousands of people. If that news is wrong, a correction can be given the next day. But many readers may not seen that correction. The newspaper gets a bad reputation if it is not credible.

Q. What is reporting?

Ans: By reporting, we mean collection or gathering of fact about current events or background material required for a news story or feature.              

             Reporters do it through interviews, investigations and observation. Reporters are given direction by editors to cover a particular event, known as alignments. They may be general assignments or special ones. Reporters write the news-stories, which are called copies.

Q. What is editing?

Ans: A person who edits is called an editor. By editing, we mean preparing a news report for publication, telecast or broadcast. Editing is a process by which a report is read, corrected, modified, value-added, polished, improved and made better for publication. Condensation is also part of editing.