Lecture title: NEWS WRITING AND REPORTING 2018/219
Rev. Fr. Peter Egielewa Eshioke (Published 2018)
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Lecture Note
Many lay persons have simply defined news from the acronym of news to mean: North, East, West and South. The simple understanding of this definition is that news can come from anywhere. However, no one can define the term “news” that can satisfy everyone. Media Expert and Journalists are divided as to what constitutes news. However, news is not a phenomenon that is new to humanity. News is about people and anything that is associated with the human being, for instance, accident, Olympics, presidential election, oil spill, bomb blast by Boko haram armed group. From the very beginning of humanity, the concept of news has always existed but in its simplest forms, for example by simple interactions at public space such as friends exchanging pleasantries on the way to the farm, discussing about products in the market squares, village head palace meeting or even by the town crier activity in the village. Indeed, the death of a village head, who had four wives was a big ‘thing’ in the village. Why? Is it because no chief has died before? Is it because he is a man? Is it because he had four wives? In the death of the village head, prominence is what makes it particularly important to indigenes and possibly neighbouring villages. That is one factor that comes to play when the concept of news is defined. Thus, not all events make news, only those that are considered important and interesting events do. Importantly too, some events may be important and interesting, they do not ,however become news unless they are reported, making an event that has taken place known to its audience.
News is therefore a kind of history. The difference is that while history is an account of a past event, news is an account of a current event. News of today eventually become valuable documents for historians of tomorrow, just as historians of today consult newspapers of the past.
Item Type: | Lecture note(non-copyrighted) |
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Format: | PDF document, 543.29 KB |
Copyright: | ![]() |
Keywords: | News Writing and Reporting |
Department: | English and Mass Communication |
Field of Study: | Mass communication |
Uploaded By: | Aimomoh Joseph Inofe |
Date Added: | 08 Nov 2018 11:24am |
Last Modified: | 08 Nov 2018 |
Lecture URL: | https://www.edouniversity.edu.ng/oer/lecturenotes/news_writing_and_reporting_2018219 |
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