Role of Chief Sub Editor PDF

# Role of Chief Sub Editor - Press sub-editors, or subs, check the written text of newspapers, magazines or websites before it is published. - They are responsible for ensuring the correct grammar, spelling, house style and tone of the published work. - Sub editors make sure that the copy factually...

# Role of Chief Sub Editor - Press sub-editors, or subs, check the written text of newspapers, magazines or websites before it is published. - They are responsible for ensuring the correct grammar, spelling, house style and tone of the published work. - Sub editors make sure that the copy factually correct and that it suits the target market. - They also lay out the story on the page, write headings and captions, and may be involved with overall page design. - Like other journalism roles, sub-editing is demanding and requires constant attention to detail in a fast-paced working environment. ## Responsibilities - To be a good sub editor, you must be an all-rounder; you need to know media law, have a keen eye for detail and be able to put a story together with speed and style. - Depending on the nature of employment and the extent to which production and layout work falls within the sub-editor's remit, your tasks will typically involve the following: - Editing copy, written by reporters or features writers, to remove spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. - Rewriting material so that it flows or reads better and adheres to the house style of a particular publication. - Ensuring that a story fits a particular word count by cutting or expanding material as necessary. - Writing headlines that capture the essence of the story or are clever or amusing. - Writing standfirsts or 'sells' (brief introductions, which sum up the story underneath the headline). - Liaising with reporters, journalists and editors. - Checking facts and stories to ensure they are accurate, adhere to copyright laws, are not libelous or go against the publication's policy. - Cropping photos and deciding where to use them for best effect and writing picture captions. - Proofreading complete pages produced by other sub-editors using the main basic proofing symbols. - Working to a page plan to ensure that the right stories appear in the correct place on each page. - Laying out pages and, depending on the nature of the role, playing a part in page design. - Manipulating on-screen copy using appropriate desktop publishing software, such as Quark Express, InDesign and Photoshop. - Keeping up to date with sector issues, e.g. by reading related publications. - Adapting all these skills for a publication's website. # Maintaining Objectivity - Inaccurate information can also be dispersed by well-meaning sources. - For example, a distraught mother who claims that her incarcerated son is an innocent victim of a federal law might have reached that erroneous conclusion as a result of her own emotional investment in her son's case, as opposed to the facts of the case. - To maintain objectivity, one can report the mother's perspective as her factual, though undocumented, point of view, while also reporting the contents of the actual arrest warrant or any other claims communicated by the arresting authority. # Staying on Track - Maintaining the focus of a piece of writing is another important element of the editing stage. - Writers are notoriously protective of their work. - Crafting a text can be a painful, time-consuming process. - After investing so much time and effort, it is very difficult for some writers to recognize and delete tangential sentences or passages - particularly if they are well-crafted or contain brilliant ideas. - Writers can also be blinded to generalizations that do not adequately cover the specifics of a topic. - In short, taking on an editor's role often conflicts with the writer's emotional and intellectual investment in the writing process. - For that reason, it is common for many writers to distance themselves from the text before editing it, or to ask someone else to read the text as a dispassionate editor. # Principles of Editing: - The principles of Good News Editing: - Accuracy - Attribution - Balance and Fairness - Brevity - Clarity - Readability - Human interest and Sharp observation ## Accuracy: - The sub editor should be obsessed with accuracy because one mistake can destroy the reputation of a newspaper or magazine, and it takes just fraction of a second to make one. - Checking and crosschecking names, figures and verifying facts are of utmost importance. ## Attribution: - Always attribute the news to the source so that readers can judge its credibility. - "A highly placed Defense Personnel, Finance Ministry Sources”, etc. are attributions that help readers to arrive at their own conclusions, while steering clear of the suspicion that the reporter is giving his own version of the story. ## Balance and Fairness: - Balance and fairness form the foundation of good editing. - Balance is giving both sides of the picture, while fairness is not taking sides. - It also means not providing support to political parties, institutions, communities or individuals, etc., through the columns of the newspaper. - It is the attribute of a professional reporter and the duty of a sub editor to implement it. ## Brevity: - Brevity is a great virtue in journalism appreciated by readers and editors alike. - It is telling a story, as it should be, without beating around the bush. - It saves time and space and wins applause when consummated to perfection. ## Clarity: - Clarity is the ability to think clearly and translate it into paper - a quality that can take one to the higher echelons of media hierarchy. - Readability has a bearing on sentence length and simple and forthright manner of expression. ## Readability: - The average length of a sentence should not exceed 18 words, which is standard. - It is not easy to read a sentence with more than 18 words. - Beyond 25 words the sentence would be very difficult to read, though some accomplished authors have far exceeded the standard and yet remained readable because of their craftsmanship. - But beginners are advised to stay out of long-winding and complicated sentence constructions. - The best way is to write news stories using simple words, short and simple sentences. ## Human Interest: - Using a style that arouses human interest is what the craft of editing is all about. - Sub editors should see the events from the readers' point of view and the news stories keeping the reader ever in mind along with his hopes, fears and aspirations. - The sub editor should identify himself with the proverbial common man who does not exist but represents the silent majority whom the journalist is duty-bound to defend and protect. # Unit:1 Basics of Editing - The ideal principle, which governs editing, is: "never overestimate the public's knowledge and never underestimate the public's intelligence’. - In a news organization, editing plays a vital role. - A news story is written by hurried reporters, and is rough-edged like raw diamond. - Hence, the copy is polished and honed by a team of editors. - Thus, editing is done to achieve a balance of news between that originating within the organization and that pouring in from outside. - Sorting out and sifting also helps induce parity between the well-written articles and those written by the inexperienced reporters. - In the process, the unwanted matter gets weeded out. - Only the newsworthy stories are finally selected. - These are checked and rechecked for grammar, syntax, facts, figures, and sense and also clarified for betterment, and are condensed for economy of space. ## Objectives of Editing: 1. **Striving for focus and accuracy:** Accuracy is one of the chief corners of the editing stage. News reports have the professional and ethical responsibility to include in their research and writing process the checking of facts, which includes the correct spelling and pronunciation of names, the factual details of a story, and any basis upon which conclusions are drawn. Multiple checks for accuracy are the norm. All careful, responsible writers should do the same. The reliability of the finished text depends upon accuracy in the researching and writing process. 2. **Fact Checking:** The internet has increased access to sources for checking facts. Unfortunately, the internet has also increased access to dubious sources. Debates about the academic credibility and trustworthiness of sources to which the public can contribute will probably continue as expanding internet access changes the rules by which sources are evaluated. Ready access, speed, and the look of authenticity typically influence public use and acceptance of available resources, as the proliferation of medical, legal, and other specialty web sites attest. One can even watch surgical operations online. Who is to say what is real and what is staged? Most internet users are savvy enough to avoid entering credit card information on unfamiliar and unverified websites. The "buyers beware" admonition is just as applicable to those who would use the web indiscriminately to find factual information. # Role of the Editor - Providing guidelines to authors for preparing and submitting manuscripts. - Providing a clear statement of the Journal’s policies on authorship criteria. - Treating all authors with fairness, courtesy, objectivity, honesty, and transparency. - Establishing and defining policies on conflicts of interest for all involved in the publication process, including editors, staff (e.g., editorial and sales), authors, and reviewers. - Protecting the confidentiality of every author’s work. - Establishing a system for effective and rapid peer review. - Making editorial decisions with reasonable speed and communicating them in a clear and constructive manner. - Being vigilant in avoiding the possibility of editors and/or referees delaying a manuscript for suspect reasons. - Establishing clear guidelines for authors regarding acceptable practices for sharing experimental materials and information, particularly those required to replicate the research, before and after publication. - Establishing a procedure for reconsidering editorial decisions. - Describing, implementing, and regularly reviewing policies for handling ethical issues and allegations or findings of misconduct by authors and anyone involved in the peer review process. - Informing authors of solicited manuscripts that the submission will be evaluated according to the journal’s standard procedures or outlining the decision-making process if it differs from those procedures. - Developing mechanisms, in cooperation with the publisher, to ensure timely publication of accepted manuscripts. - Clearly communicating all other editorial policies and standards. # Role of the News Editor - The News Editor is one of the most important persons who plan a daily newspaper. - His role in any newspaper office - whether it be weekly or daily - is all pervading. - To a national newspaper an active, intelligent and enterprising news editor is the vital spark which energises its news coverage and outlook. - He is responsible for a steady and continuous inflow of up-to-the-minute news into newspaper office. - Although most of the news supplied is a mechanical process covered by daily routine, but like all machinery of news gathering, the news editor is responsible for watching its smooth functioning. - The news editor keeps a careful eye on the routine side of his news collection as well as on the other side of his work or the news desk which calls for more imaginative emulation. ## Function of the News Editor - An ideal news editor manages to get all the obvious stories into his paper with a good proportion of them as exclusives. - While the selection of obvious stories is important, greater importance is attached to the original ones produced by his team of correspondents. - The number of words received on the teleprinter in a newspaper is so large that if each word were to be printed, the newspaper will have to run into hundreds of pages each morning. - The news editor is called upon to use his discretion, discrimination and imagination in reading the public mind and select the stories which have real news value and can be called important by his readers - quite a large number to be allotted a "splash" position on the main news pages according to the subject matter 01 field of activity they are concerned with. - All this has to be done with an alertness to ensure that the kind of stories readers seek shall be found in his newspaper. - There are some fundamental stories which no newspaper can afford to miss as they go into all the daily newspapers without exception. - While they are important and have to be included, there are others called exclusive which only an alert news editor can discover from the large ocean of copy that has been pouring into the office during the day. - An intelligent news editor has to make a judicious follow-up of a seemingly promising paragraph or sometimes even make further enquiry before finalising the story and give it the perfect shape he wants. # Photo Journalist And Photo Journalism: - However photographs can be “manipulated” with the help of modern device and sophisticated soft wares. - This can be depicted in wrong perspective with a purposeful motive. - The trend of yellow has its shadow also upon the photo journalism. - The most harmful are the ones which tell the Half-truth. - Perhaps all know the classic story about the ‘blind men and an elephant’. - Each of the blind men touches a different part of an elephant and reaches in different conclusions about the character of the elephant; while each man’s experience of the elephant is accurate, none of them have a full understanding of the nature of the beast. - One may be touching the tail and believe that the elephant is long and thin, another one may touch the belly and say that it is round and big. - The recent inventions of smaller and lighter cameras greatly enhanced the role of the photo journalism. - Since the 1960s, motor drives, electronic flash, auto-focus, better lenses and other camera enhancements have made the picture snapping easier. - New digital cameras free photo journalists from the limitation of film roll length, as photos can be taken without adjusting the modes in automated cameras and thousands of images can be stored on a single memory card. - Photographs have now become a part and parcel of the news coverage. - Most media house employ a fleet of photo journalists to ensure their service not only attractive and but also authentic. - Apart from usual newspapers, specialized magazines, particularly on travel and tourism, among other subjects, depend largely on the contribution of the photo journalists. ## Index: 1. Introduction 2. History of Photo Journalism 3. Qualities of a Photo Journalist 4. The essential qualities of good news photographs ## 15.1 Introduction: - Photo Journalism is an integral part of modern news media and the photo journalists are one of the important arms of the newspapers and television channels. - They contribute photographs, which enrich the news reports and make the reports more vivid and lively. - There is a saying that the photograph can not lie. It brings authenticity in the information provided in the reports and prove the reports as correct and reliable. - Hence, a good news report is incomplete unless it is accompanied by a good photograph. - Sometimes even a simple photograph accompanied by a good caption is enough to tell the readers about a news item. - Photographs tell the truth and record the evidence. ## Photo Journalism: - Photo journalism is that particular form of journalism which includes the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or telecast. - It provides with the images in order to tell a news story. - It is usually refers only to still images, but the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism. - Photo journalism is distinguished from other branches of photography, such as, documentary photography, social documentary photography, street photography or page3 photography etc. ## Photo Journalists: - Those who snap the photographs for the news media are called Photo Journalists. - They contribute photographs which are essential to enhance the credibility of a news coverage, nay the news paper or a television channel. - The job of a photo journalist is more difficult and very challenging than the reporters as he or she has to essentially be in the spot to have the photographs in the frame. - Who cannot reach the right spot in time cannot be able to get the original photograph for publication. - A reporter may or may not be able to reach a particular ## 15.2 History of Photo Journalism: - The practice of illustrating news stories with photographs was made possible by printing and photography innovations that occurred between 1880 and 1897. - While newsworthy events were photographed as early as the 1850s, printing presses could only publish from engravings until the 1880s. - Early news photographs required that photos be re-interpreted by an engraver before they could be published. - The person who is credited as the first photo journalist was a Rumanian painter and lithographer Carol Szathmari. - He took pictures in the Crimean War between Russia and Ottoman Empire between 1853 to 1856. - His collections were sent to different European royal houses. - Unfortunately just a few of his photographs are survived till date. - William Simpson of the Illustrated London News and Roger Fenton were published many engravings along with the reports. - Like wise, the American Civil War photographs of Mathew Brady were engraved before publication in Harper’s Weekly because the media and the readers of the time expected the craved images as more realistic representations of news stories. - Those days it was common for news worthy photographs to be exhibited in galleries or to be copied photographically. - It was on March 4, 1880 The Daily Graphic of New York possibly published the first halftone in stead of engraved reproduction of a news photograph. - In 1887, flash powder was invented which enable journalists such as Jacob Riis to photograph informal subjects indoors, which led to the landmark work How the Other Half Lives. - By 1897, it became possible to reproduce halftone photographs on printing presses. - The advancement in the technological sphere is continued in photography and printing technology. - A number of newspapers and magazines were arrived in the period from 1897 to 1927 which dealt with sensational stories. - The advent of Penny Press and Yellow Journalism were illustrated with engravings and photographs. - In 1921, the invention of wire photo made it possible to transmit pictures almost as quickly as news. - However, it was the introduction of the commercial 35mm Leica camera in 1925, and the discovery flash bulbs between 1927 and 1930 placed photo journalism indispensable for the news papers. - The period between 1930s-1950s is known as the “golden age” of photo journalism. - The publication of photographs had become phenomenon to the media. - Many magazines like Picture Post published from London, Paris Match published from Paris, Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung published from Berlin, Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung published from Berlin, Life of USA, Look of USA, Sports Illustrated also of USA, and a number of newspapers like The Daily Mirror published from London, The New York Daily News published from New York city could increase their readerships and reputations largely depending upon their publication of of photographs. - Photographers like Robert Capa, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White and W. Eugene Smith became well-known as news photographers. - Henri Cartier-Bresson is considered to be the father of modern photo journalism, although this appellation is not unanimous. - The same credit has been conferred to other photographers, such as Erich Salomon, whose candid pictures of political figures were published in the 1930s. - The photo journalism flourished much during the World War-II. - Many soldiers brought their camera in the field and captured images which are considered as great works of photo documentation. - Tony Vaccaro, a soldier took part in the War is recognized as one of the pre-eminent photographers of World War II. - He captured many of the historic moments of the Great War with his modest Argus C3. - Capa was another contemporary and noteworthy photographer who captured horrific moments in war. - Capa himself was on Omaha Beach on D-Day and captured pivotal images of the conflict on that occasion. - Vaccaro is also known for taking ‘live’ images in soldier’s helmet, and using chemicals found in the ruins of a camera store in 1944. ## 15.3 Qualities of a Photo Journalist: - The job of a photo journalist involves risk. - A photo journalist has to be very fast, fearless and alert and has to reach at the right place in time. - There is no other alternative but to be present at the spot, which is really a job easier said than done. - Unless he has wide contact will not be able to get proper information well in time. - His contacts help them bring exclusive photographs which brings credit for his professionalism. - A good photo journalist is actually a good journalist though he does not personally write a story. - He should have a nose which can smell the events worthy to be the subject of news photographs. - Photo journalists are of no less importance than the journalists in the modern media houses. - Like a good reporter a good photo journalist is considered as an asset to his organization. - A good photo journalist brings prestige for the publications. - Mere presence at a particular spot in time is not enough to produce a good photograph. - The photo journalists must possess news sense and should have good idea about the correct angle of a particular event. - A good photo journalist acts as a good reporter. - It is said that a reporter may not be a photographer but a good photo journalist must be a good reporter. ## 15.4 The Essential Qualities of Good News Photographs: - **Timeliness:** The images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events. - **Objectivity:** The situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone. - **Narrative:** The images combine with other news elements to make facts relatable to the viewer or reader on a cultural level. - A good photograph should deliver a soothing effect on the eyes and attracts the attention of the newspaper readers and the television viewers. - The authenticity of a good news report can be denied, but a published photograph cannot be denied it depicts the real situation and is believed to be a factual account of the condition. - A good photograph sometime is published only with a caption that itself narrates an event. - These are known as photo-news. - A series of related photograph can tale an entire story or reflect an issue. - Such representations are called photo-feature. - The photo features are commonly published on Sundays and other important holidays when the readers live in lighter mood. - As the readers prefer to read articles and feature stories in their leisure time, Photo features in the periodicals are very popular particularly to a section of the readers. ## 15.5 The Job of a Photo Journalist: - Photo Journalists are one of the most important parts of modern news media. - They have to be very fast, fearless and alert and has to reach at the right place in time. - There is no other alternative but to be present at the spot, which is really a job easier said than done. - Unless he has wide contact will not be able to get proper information well in time. - His contacts help them bring exclusive photographs which brings credit for his professionalism. - A good photo journalist is actually a good journalist though he does not personally write a story. - He should have a nose which can smell the events worthy to be the subject of news photographs. - Photo journalists are of no less importance than the journalists in the modern media houses. - Like a good reporter a good photo journalist is considered as an asset to his organization. - A good photo journalist brings prestige for the publications. - Mere presence at a particular spot in time is not enough to produce a good photograph. - The photo journalists must possess news sense and should have good idea about the correct angle of a particular event. - A good photo journalist acts as a good reporter. - It is said that a reporter may not be a photographer but a good photo journalist must be a good reporter. # 1.5 Qualifications of a Reporter - A reporter is a person who gathers information on a subject and then writes about or broadcasts it. - This profession is present in a wide array of media outlets. - He/she may work for a newspaper, magazine, radio show, TV show, or website. - The possibilities within each of those mediums are endless. - Many of those media outlets are needing more and more online coverage. - A reporter must be qualified because drafting a report is a complex and specialised task. - A reporter is a person who gathers information and writes about it. - A reporter is a type of journalist who researches and presents information in the mass media. - Reporters gather their information in a variety of ways including tips, press releases and witness events. - They perform research through interviews, public records, and other sources. - The information gathering part of the job is sometimes called "reporting" as distinct from the production part of the job. - Reporters are always in the midst of the real action. - They face the finest as well as the worst situation. - They usually meet with the most powerful leaders or the most famous celebrities. - They face danger and death with courage and dedication. - They are always curious and adventurous. - The news report eventually lands on the news desk. - The process of editing comes into operation, through a series of steps produces a package of information ready for mass communication. ## 1.5.1 Qualities of a good reporter: - A reporter has to be - - Smart - Quick - Curious - Honest - Courageous - Adventurous - Pleasant - Punctual - Able to effectively manage stress - Communicate effectively - Disciplined - Sincere # 1.6 Types of Reports - There are three types of reporting: objective, interpretative, and investigative. - Aside from that, there’s a concept known as beat reporting as seen above. ## Objective Reporting: - The term "objective reporting" refers to the straightforward presentation of facts as they occurred. - Contextualizing, backgrounding, analysing, and opining are not part of objective reporting. - Without any subjective inputs, the reporter simply reports what he has seen or observed. - The concept of objective reporting can be summarised as follows: - Accuracy and realism in reporting - Presentation of all main relevant points - Balance and evenhandedness in presenting different sides of an issue - Minimising the influence of the writer's own opinions, or involvement by separating facts from opinions but treating opinions as relevant. - Staying away from slant, malicious, or devious motives. ## Interpretative Reporting: - Facts and interpretation are combined in interpretative reporting. - Many times, the reporter must interpret certain events for the benefit of the audience. - It entails providing background information on a specific incident or event. - Aside from the facts gathered on the ground, the reporter may need to provide # 1.4 Beats in journalism: - Beats can be called subsets of different types of journalism. - Types in journalism mean different fields of journalism that are independent of each other generally, they use different pedagogy and research methods, for e.g. Investigative Journalism, Feature Writing Column Writing, etc. - while a beat in journalism means going in-depth in any type of journalism, for e.g. Business Magazines, Politics, Finance, Weather, Entertainment, TV Network Schedules, Sports News, Local News Resources, Government Directories, Horoscopes, Money, Personal Health Site, PR Newswires, Social Media and much more. - The term 'beat' is referred to as the way or road taken by an individual on a regular basis. - In journalism, the word 'Beat' is also referred to as the niche which is appointed to the reporter. ## The main beats in journalism: 1. **Political reporting:** Political Journalism is a very prolific and very broad branch of journalism. - This beat includes coverage of all aspects of politics and its political science. - Although the term usually refers specifically to coverage of civil governments and political power. - Many people opt for this kind of journalism, and it requires a lot of courage and diplomatic smartness. 2. **Sports:** This beat is the niche for sports and sports-related events coverage. - Reporters can cover information about hockey, football as well as cricket tournaments held all around the globe. 3. **Entertainment:** This beat is where the journalist tries to reveal the juicy gossip of the glamorous people in the world. - Entertainment reporting takes interviews, reviews of music and films and much more. - Think Page3 news, and you will understand the content type and structure of the news stories. 4. **Crime:** Most audiences consume crime news in one or another way, which means the audience is widespread. - That is why this segment of reporting requires all details before getting published. - All crimes are included in this reporting, from petty crimes to robberies and so on. 5. **Lifestyle:** Audiences will always be interested in what is going on in the latest trend and what is in fashion. - This reporting includes news/stories about the latest fashion/fitness trends and other trending stuff. - Fashion, shopping, retail, and food beats are branches of this lifestyle beat. - This beat is generally of the soft news type. 6. **Civic:** It is a type of reporting which covers citizen’s wellness. - This type of reporting is not just normal news but that makes the audience think. - The purpose of this type of reporting is to make a difference by public awareness. 7. **Health:** In today’s generation, many individuals have started to focus on their health. - The reporter covers topics like malnutrition, disease, healthcare, paediatric care, nutrition, fitness, growing epidemics and much more. - Reports mainly try to focus on prevention of the serious ailment or disease and for that, he must have great knowledge about that field and provide us with the insights. 8. **Business:** All news related to trade/business falls under this category. - Import/Export, Goods, Trade, Market, Stock Exchange and other news that are related to business attracts a large set of people and that is why this type of reporting is one of the most famous reporting in current time. - There are many more niches/beats like finance, law, education, infrastructure, environmental, food, and so on. - Different beats fall under different types of hard and soft news. - It is upto the reporter to find the niche they are good at and develop their craft. - This includes forming a source network, developing a distinct writing style, and ensuring that they are up-to-date with the ongoings of their beat. - A seasoned reporter generally has a beat that they excel in and are considered to be experts and consultants within the field. ==End of OCR for page 24==