(PLUS YOUR FIRST WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT)
AN AUDIO LESSON
Please listen carefully to the following audio lesson, presented below in two parts, and take notes under the heading ‘LESSON ONE: WHAT IS NEWS’.
Note: If you are hearing impaired, you may read the text of the lecture below instead. All students are free to use the text version for review, note taking etc. after listening
Save your notes and the worksheet for this lesson until after you have completed the program. At that time, you will submit all of your work via ANN’s Google Drive.
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WHAT IS NEWS: PART 1
WHAT IS NEWS: PART 2
Hello ANN Free Journalism Education Participant, and Welcome to your first foray into a powerful “journalism” journey” into learning how to become a qualified, proficient news journalist.
ANN hopes that you will apply your learning to achieve Certified Content Contributor standing and become part of ANN’s volunteer news team.
No matter what your purpose or end result this program will vastly empower you in many endeavors in your future.
In this brief exploration of what “news” means from a Journalistic standpoint, let’s start off with a question.
True or false: NEWS is an abbreviation or acronym for information that comes from any and all directions, North, East, West and South.
Take a minute, well 31 seconds, to think it out
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Okay and the answer is WHAT IS …… TR ahhhh FALSE!
The term news, whether personal or interpersonal, political, economic, event focused and so on derives from the good old question “What’s New?”
Variations such as What’s happening, what’s going on, How ya doin’, What’s the latest, What’s haps, What ‘s goin’ on…. Whudda ya doing, How’z it, What’s Up ‘ Wuzzup’ ‘sup’ and Bugs Bunny’s favorite, “AHHH What’s Up Doc?” are all inquiries about finding out the latest, current and hopefully important information at hand from the source.
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Ahh, but have you heard the news or what’s NEWS, whatever, , goes way back in time to earlier word concepts and foundations.
NEWS was a common, curiousity based concept – part of human nature and a key trait accomplished news journalists must have.
The term NEWS likely derived from the 11th Century English word “Tidung. ”
Now, from here its etymology gets a bit messy and wonky : The Online Etymology Dictionary traces its lingual roots to “ QUOTE the announcement of an event,” c. 1200, from late Old English tidung “event, occurrence, piece of news,” verbal noun from Old English tidan “to happen,” or in part from Old Norse tiðendi (plural) “events, news….” END QUOTE
And on and on from there to the point of ‘who even cares anymore’ obscurity.
Anyway, The word morphed into 14th century Middle English into the word “tidings, “ meaning “announcement of an event” and the idea underlying the word eventually transitioned into a French word we more easily recognize as a first cousin to the word “NEWS”
Namely, “Nouveau “
But enough trivial pursuit for now.
As to what really constitutes NEWS from the standpoint of ethics based journalism, boils down to one core tent: The facts tell the story. Period.
That means let only the established and verified facts determine the essence of the news.
This is a key distinction from a broader, more lax and even common definition of Journalsim, which stems from the word Journal, the strict definition of which often means two very different things
One is a daily record of news and events of a personal nature; a diary. That of course is an account replete with one’s biases, feelings, opinions, beliefs, whether substantiated or not. Thus a Journal in that sense, may or may not be fact based in some measure.
The other definition pertains to a newspaper or magazine that deals with a particular subject or professional activity. The Journal of American Medicine or Wall Street Journal readily come to mind in reference to what we focus on here, namely News Journalism.
So we now get into the great divide over what is Journalism in the modern vernacular and who is a Journalist?
Technically, if you keep a diary, memory book, physical or digital family photo album and so on, you are recording and preserving information, be it factual, opinion, hot air, nonsense or otherwise.
What you might put out on a blog, social media site, chatroom and so forth, even when relaying rumor, innuendeo, vain-glorious self promotion, hearsay and other unconfirmed second hand information often falls into the realm of being called Journalism:
Such content is technically a record of some sort, but those kinds of information , which may be trivial, unverified, bombastic, biased and of suspect reliability , really diminish the dignity that comes with the title of being a Journalist in the purest sense.
This is not to say that such content is of no social or potential news value as a kind of ‘town square’ melting pot of information. A good reporter will pick up on what is blazing around as the new hot topic or spin, and find the basis for a good story to investigate.
But that kind of content doesn’t fit well into the smaller, more strictly defined domain of News Journalism, and that is what this lesson is essentially about.
So lots of folks consider or call themselves journalists nowadays, but only a select few properly earn that classification by virtue of their training in and practice of adhering to the principles of ethics based journalism and doing the hard work it takes to get to the bottom of things when on the fact trail.
If you complete this program you will be well on the way of being able to legitimately call yourself a Journalist, a distinction of note and to some extent honor if you do it right and straight up.
At an rate to practice news Journalism you need to follow the facts to see where they lead, as opposed to simply searching out facts to support what you think the story is or ought to be.
It may well not turn out to be what you initially thought or what you wish or hoped for.
The fact finding part of news Journalism is kind of like Goldilocks leaving a trail of crumbs in the forest to lead her back home . Except that as a news journalist you have to a) follow the crumbs, ahhh, fact trail to see where it ends up.
and b) Goldi might have been a tad naïve to think that crumbs were a good trail marker. You know birds, ants, wolves and stuff? I mean, really Goldi.
Hey is that why they made trail mix?
What a waste of good food, when all is said and done.
Anyway tracking the fact trail also entails, SORTING OUT WHAT IS IMPORTANT NEWS INFO FROM WHAT IS NOT (big crumbs vs. the small or common crumbs of info)
What ever is the newest –aka most recent or breaking information—may or may not rise to the level of “News” in a journalistic sense.
Being the first and fastest with that imminent breaking news does not always serve the purposes of quality new journalism. In fact, it often undermines it , the subject of later lessons.
The key is to determine how important it is for the public to know.
Someone getting a new dog vs. a dog being rescued are very different in terms of interest and importance from a news standpoint .
One happens all the time and the other is something of an exception, in this case, a bit of good or heartwarming news. (see “Alameda’s Newest Dog Whisperer” story on home page; actually more about the human than the poor pooch )
That said, a dog rescue does not usually rise to the highest levels of what folks need or ought to know in pursuit of a core mission of news journalism: To shine the light of facts (sometimes called truth) on the community in the interest of letting the citizenry know about events and information important to them, of interest or for the greater community good.
Sometimes that involves telling folks about what they might NOT want to know, but which rises to the level of information they need to know ( of course that gets into who decides and on what basis, the subject of another lesson)
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So with respect to what is news and what is news journalism, we now take a look at the purpose, or core mission, really a vital part of keeping a government and society of the people, by the people and for the people under greater control.
A quick take from that amazing Founding Father and fountain of wisdom, Benjamin Franklin, helps guide us a bit, and gives a glimpse into a bit of history of the press, yet another lesson awaiting you.
“Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.”
Of course those in power, notably presidents throughout our history don’t always find comfort or guidance from Franklin. Nixon hated the press and put the Washington Post on his enemies list and on other former president, just after taking office called the media “the enemy of the people” Never mind tweets praising the convicted seditionists of January 6th as Patriots…
So it goes, and as a quick aside, upstanding, true blue news journalists have to have thick skins sometimes and find the courage to ward off the blowback and scorn from folks who don’t like your reporting the facts they don’t like.
What Franklin really underscores in terms of why the legitimate news press is a core foundation of a free Republic –and note that The First Amendment recognizes and codifies that, –double edged sword that it is — (yet another lesson down the road)
That core foundation of which old Ben spoke gets to the tenet that Purposeful, reliable news journalism provides transparency of — or insight into– of what goes on in the locale or world around the people of a community, society , region state or nation.
It seeks to shed light on the dark corners and into the smoky back rooms where those who have influence on us might want us to know. Or maybe just to show us about things in plain view that we didn’t notice or weren’t around to see.
News Journalism also seeks to move beyond what you see or know and show you what you didn’t see or didn’t know based upon that.
As renowned Alameda sports reporter Ray Ratto once profoundly told my students: “I assume you saw the game. My job as a sportwriter is to tell you what you didn’t see.”
News also seeks to hold those in power and of influence Accountable, Responsive to the Community in which they operate, and Transparent as much as possible. Put simply ART. –Accountable Responsive and Transparent.
That key part of the mission seeks to change the balance of power from those who hold it to those who have the right to hold them accountable. Keep ‘em honest, as journalists say.
So once we have something new that rises to the level of NEWS, the challenge is to rank or prioritize it.
One last notion, to round out this first lesson in the fundmentals: BAD NEWS OFTEN ENDS UP AS GOOD NEWS, OR AT LEAST HEADLINE NEWS, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT GOOD NEWS IS BAD NEWS.
HUH??????
I’ll say it again” Good News does not mean it’s bad news. Huhhhh? Well, try this: good news can and should be good news from a journalistic standpoint.
ANN wants to report the positive elements of that which is newsworthy and not fall into the trap of only or mostly running stories about negative issues as crime, fires, tragedies, car wrecks and rotten driving, the homeless problem, government incompetence, dishonesty, corruption or education shortcomings and so on.
Yes, sad to say, those often grab the headlines and typically anger, scare, depress people and make them want to NOT know what is going on.
The key mission of quality news journalism requires getting those in the community to engage and not turn away, even if they don’t want to rise to their civic duty to know what’s going on so they can exercise their power to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
So, one way ,is to accentuate the positives along with the negatives and cover the news, bad or good as it comes along.
So, I’ll try again: GOOD NEWS IS NOT NECESSARILY BAD NEWS. EVEN THOUGH BAD NEWS TENDS TO BE JUST BAD NEWS.
As a news journalist you have to recognize and handle both.
AND NOW, FOR YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT
Please click on the document ASSIGNMENT 1 in the Free Journalism Education Section on the homepage and GET TO WORK !
Compliments on taking your first big step along the trail.
No Goldi locks needed.