Scooped!

You've got a great idea and an editor's interest, but the story gets trashed when a similar piece runs in another publication. What's a freelancer to do? A newbie writer offers her step-by-step guide on how to avoid—and survive—being scooped

Why Google News signals the death of the online exclusive

The biggest player is undermining those who break stories, says Charles Arthur

More news is good news

Young adults are much more likely to read the newspaper if they were exposed to it in school

Eddie Adams embraced life with a wide lens

The photojournalist, shown stepping out of his New York City studio in October 2001, lived a life full of passion and energy, says Stacia Spragg, a Tribune photojournalist who once was Adams'assistant

My untold stories

Like our readers and viewers, we live stories that are often left untold. In this personal essay, Tom Huang shows one approach to bringing such a story to life

Journalism under fire

I don’t want to claim too much for our craft; because we journalists are human, our work is shot through with the stain of fallibility that taints the species. But I don’t want to claim too little for our craft, either.

- Bill Moyers

Part biography, part reprimand, part love letter to the promise of his profession—this speech at a Society of Professional Journalists conference on September 11 will be referred to for years to come by those who are worried about the state of journalism

Missed World

The journalist who broke the story of former a Miss World being an unmarried mother - a revelation that led to her losing her crown - has confessed to feeling guilt over the story's repercussions.
Broadcaster Tim Richards, who was at The Western Mail when he interviewed her, told his old newspaper: 'I later felt bad about writing the story. It was a good story and as a journalist you have to write it.'

[From HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk]

The Quote Diet

Get out one of your stories and start counting. Not all the words, just the ones between quotation marks. Chances are you'll get quite a mouthful

Newspapers accused of misusing word 'terrorist'

Canada's largest newspaper chain, CanWest Global, is being criticized over its use of the word in stories on the Middle East

Never...

From the famous George Orwell's excellent essay Politics and the English Language, written in 1946. Much of it is still relevant today:

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

Never use a long word where a short one will do.

If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

Never use the passive where you can use the active.

Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Courtesy: http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/

Undercover, investigative journalist

September 26, 1887: Nellie Bly goes crazy to get the story

In a spell

Vivian Cook, author of spelling compendium Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary, has set the following quiz to test your knowledge of some of the most difficult and frequently misspelt words in the language

After Olympics, why no Paralympics?

There will be no American television coverage

The Best of Eyetrack III

News websites have been with us for about a decade, and editors and designers still struggle with many unanswered questions

The Right to Information Act

Civil society groups in India have launched a public campaign to ensure a proposed Right to Information Act 2004 giving people access to information from closed government departments, introduces a real culture of glasnost in the country.

An update...

Never identify a rape victim

The media nowadays very often identifies the rape victim. But it is a bad trend. As good journalists, you should never identify a rape victim.

Also never identify an accused who is a minor.

The situation is tricky if the victim wants to be identified and is aware of the consequences.

Photographs of the victims or accused who are minors should also never be published.

Want to become a TV journalist?

rediff.com's GetAhead section tells you how


Gitanjali Aiyar tells you how to make the grade as a newsreader

Reporter or sub-editor?

You have decided you want to become a journalist. But, will you be a reporter or sub-editor?

A reporter is mainly out on the field. He reports what he sees. He speaks to eyewitnesses to an events and then reports what they said. He attends press conferences and interviews personalities.

A sub-editor edits copy a reporter writes. He tightens the copy. Check for facts. Corrects grammar and spellings. Makes the copy more pleasant for the reader. Gives headlines. Makes pages... and is mostly based in office.

Many news organizations have sub-editors who also report. The Business and Sports sections too often have Reporters-cum-Sub-Editors.