Hello Friends... 

Sure, we all are doing well... Be careful, we must stay fit and shouldn't fall ill getting our studies affected. We shall eat and drink healthy, exercise regularly, and won't avoid our domestic and social responsibilities. And whatever time we get for ourselves at the end of the day, we must study hard for most of the time, so that we learn to think... and learn. We simply cannot afford to stop thinking, for we are learners, and we are the chosen ones who got the scope to learn... 

Let's learn to think first...

How to Write a Newspaper Report

How to write a newspaper report,- that's what we are going to discuss in this session. Actually we are going to discuss how to report a piece of news, be it for the old school newspapers delivered to you early in the morning rolled up or folded neatly, or the modern e-versions that you can click and access anytime as per your convenience on your computer or phone. So we are basically concerned about reporting a piece of news, whatever be the medium of publication.

Which Article to Read?

Do you read the whole of a newspaper, by the way? Rarely can we afford to do that, for acute shortage of time of course. There are some lucky people, however, particularly some retired veterans, who can afford to read the whole of a newspaper. They often read multiple newspapers a day as they are interested in whatever happens around them, and they have the required time as well.

Now what do we do when we don't have the required time to read the whole of a newspaper? Our choice is driven by either our need or preference to read. Isn't it so?

How to choose the article I need/want to read?

How do we choose, by the way? What do you do when you choose some articles for reading, and just overlook the others?

You go by the headline/heading/title of the article to decide whether you are going to read the article or not. You may also decide to read an article being fascinated by the illustration, if there is any accompanying. But obviously, we have less than 10% of the articles published in a newspaper accompanied with an illustration. So primarily, it is the headline of a news article that helps us decide whether we are going to read the article or not.

The Headlines

By this time, I am pretty sure that you have got your first lesson quite clear. You need to focus upon your headline or title with specific care. It is your headline/title which will help the readers decide whether they are going to read your article or not. Am I clear, dear?

Let's study the headlines of some newspaper articles before we try our hand at it:

1. Rajasthan: Three killed in road mishap in Bharatpur

To read the article, click this link.

2. Four Killed, Eight Injured As Pick-up Van Hits Bike on Kolkata-Basanti Highway

To read the article, click this link.

3. At least 15 dead, 58 injured as two trains collide in eastern Bangladesh

To read the article, click this link

4. Six killed in train accident on bridge in Denmark

To read the article, click this link.

5. At least 27 killed as plane crashes into busy city in Congo

To read the article, click this link.

6. Low intensity earthquake hits Delhi

To read the article, click this link.

7. 26 killed, over 300 injured in PoK after earthquake jolts north-eastern Pakistan

To read the article, click this link.

8. Wildfires in Florida Force Hundreds to Evacuate: ‘All You Could See Is Smoke’

To read the article, click this link.

9. India beat Sri Lanka to win ICC World Cup 2011

To read the article, click the link.

10. India beat Sri Lanka to win World Cup

To read the article, click the link.

11. Lost, but not shamed!

To read the article, click the clink.

Let's study these headlines minutely. Do you find anything common in all the above headlines?

Yes, you are absolutely right. We refer to the most important information in the news headline. And this helps us to decide whether we're required to go through the news article in details, or, whether we can afford to skip the news.

The Most Important Pieces of Information

Casualty

Let's study the first five headlines in a row. They all refer to some sort of mishaps, or accidents. And what is the most important piece of information that you seek whenever you come across the news of any mishap? Of course you first want to know if there's any casualty, isn't it? Hence, we find in such news articles the headlines referring to the number of casualties, as that's the most important bit of information we all want to know in case of any mishap. It's the number of casualties that determine the magnitude of such a mishap, which in turn again determines the importance of the news for the readers.

Place of occurrence

What comes next? You must have hit it correct once again… Yes, it's the reference to the place of occurrence. It's because the locations of such mishaps help us to decide whether we're required to read the news immediately before getting engaged for the day’s hard work, or not.

How? Let's take up the second headline to discuss this issue. We may get interested in the news if we're to use that particular route to commute immediately. We may then very likely want to know whether we have any road block, or diversion put ahead or not, for our own convenience. 

Or, think of the very first headline. The news article may turn to be of utmost importance [for us] if we have any near and dear one residing in the particular place [Bharatpur], because we would then certainly want to get it confirmed by any means that they are safe.

In both cases, we must choose to read the news in detail without skipping, don’t you think so?

Global, or local?

Now, have you noted that both the first two headlines refer to local, or city news? (Why don't you check the source-links that follow?) Do we pinpoint the place/spot like this in case of global news? How are the places referred to in the third, fourth, and fifth headlines?

There we have references to 'eastern Bangladesh', 'on bridge in Denmark', and 'busy city in Congo'. I'm sure you have realised how the places here are referred to in a broad and general way so that the global readers, or readers from far away countries and continents may recognise the places easily and sympathize with the victims. Pinpointing location is not really essential for global readers, rather it may just turn them disinterested, being unable to identify the place at all.

A Little Brainstorming

Would you like to find out now which among these 11 headlines are meant for local readers, which are meant for national readers and which are meant for international readers? You may find this task quite interesting and challenging. Why don't you try to see for yourself?

The Incident/Reason

And obviously you won't deny that we need to refer to the main incident/accident/mishap in the headline so that the readers may know what are the reasons for the casualties.

Summary

So, if we just try to summarise what we need to write in the news headlines, or, what we actually expect from news-article headlines, we may say that we need to refer to (or, we expect) the main incident (accidents as in the first five headlines), its impact (number of casualties as in the said headlines), and the place of occurrence in words and phrases. We are not required to write complete sentences in the headlines.

But, we still have six more headlines to study. Are we ready for the second phase?

The Most Important Impact/Aspect

Now it's time to study the sixth, seventh and the eighth headlines in particular. I am pretty sure you realise why in the sixth and the eight headlines we don't have any reference to the number of casualties. Yes, it's simple. We don't have any casualty in those cases. And since we have a number of casualties in the seventh case, we have its direct reference in the headline. 

So, now you must have realised that there can be mishaps or accidents without casualties. In such cases we need to refer to the matter of highest importance [whatever they may be] in the headlines. As we find in the sixth headline, the incident of the tremor itself is the most important matter. Likewise in the eighth headline, the need to evacuate people to safety seems to be the most important matter. 

Right at this point, I would prefer to leave you on your own. You need to look for more headlines and find out how the reporter, or the journalist is choosing to reflect the most important aspects of the incidents (s)he is reporting.

The Reporters' Perspective

The last three headlines are really very important to understand the reporter's perspective to compose a news headline. All the three headlines refer to the same final match of the 2011 Cricket World Cup. One headline is from an Indian newspaper, one is from an international news agency, and one is from a SriLankan newspaper. Would you like to mark them accordingly?

I am pretty sure you didn't find any problem in identifying the eleventh headline as the headline from a SriLankan newspaper. 

The ninth headline is from an Indian newspaper and the tenth headline is from Reuters. Did you guess that correctly?

Let’s begin with the headline from Reuters. Being an international news agency, it has an objective perspective towards the match played without any specific bias for any team in specific, and has therefore come up with the final result reflecting the most important aspect of the match played in the very headline. The headline from the Indian newspaper also maintains the expected objective perspective in its headline, and hence the two headlines seem to be so much alike. (However, many Indian newspapers came up the same day with various headlines reflecting some sort of bias for the Indian team, since the target audience for these articles were primarily Indian readers whom they assumed to be the supporters of the Indian team by default.) Do you realise how the headline from the Sri Lankan newspaper reflects some sort of special empathy for the Sri Lankan team and supporters?

That's how our own bias and perspective determine how we are going to compose our news headlines. We often prefer to write biased news articles when we write for specific readers. Though it is said that we should always attempt to report objectively without any bias, they also admit that men [read it as a gender neutral term] are seldom without bias, and so, I leave it up to you to decide how you are going to report. I wish good sense will prevail.

You may however choose to read the following link if you want to dig deeper into this 'stance/perspective of a reporter':

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/9445113.stm

Activity

In order to consolidate your understanding, I would like you to go through the headlines of news articles from your own fields of interests (be it cultural, social, political, economic, academic, and so on), and to study how those headlines reflect the most important aspects of the news being reported. You also need to judge whether you would have composed a similar title for the same news, or would have preferred to have a different one.

The Convention of Writing a Headline

Before we conclude our discussion on the headlines, I would like to draw your notice to the way the eighth headline is composed. Do you feel that this particular headline is composed in a way particularly different from the rest of the headlines?

Yes in this particular headline, we do have all the words beginning with a capital letter except the articles and the prepositions, as is the convention of composing a headline or a title. The other headlines, however, have not followed this old convention. How to compose a headline is a personal choice however as a recommendation for the exam hall, you may choose to follow the old school.

Byline

Now that we are done with our headlines, we need to understand how we refer to ourselves- the reporters in the byline, the place of reporting, and the date of reporting, before we actually start writing our reports. If you have a glance at real newspapers and go through some news articles, you will find that such articles are reported by freelance journalists, special correspondents, staff reporters, and different professional news agencies. Mostly, reporters or news agencies refer to themselves in the byline just below the headlines.

Place of Reporting

Reporters refer to the place of reporting followed by the date of reporting just before beginning to write the actual reports. Sometimes, the place of reporting is the same as the place of the incident (if it is an incident, like a cricket match, that is being reported). Sometimes it is the nearest place with better connectivity and access (you need to have the required connectivities to mail or fax your report) from the place of the incident as in the case of reporting a tremendous landslide, or earthquake.

Date of Reporting

As far the date of reporting is concerned, it is usually the next day of the incident. The reporter usually requires a day to reach the spot and cover the incident, as in the cases of reporting accidents or natural calamities. However, for organised events like a football match, or a cultural programme or an academic seminar- we can have instant reports. Even then, we are required to keep in our minds that old school newspapers, and even the modern e-versions are published mostly only once a day with all the reports collected throughout the previous twenty-four hours. Hence, we often find a news report referring to the previous day.

If you still have the energy to go on, now it's time to start discussing the actual report that we need to write. And if you feel a bit exhausted, then take a break and come back again later when you are refreshed.

The Report

The First Paragraph

For the beginners, it is easy to develop the actual report in two paragraphs. In the first paragraph, we may just elaborate the headline. That is to say, we now need to refer to the incident or the event that we are reporting, along with the place and time of occurrence in complete sentences. We should not forget to mention the cause, if there is any, and the impact, if we feel it to be important. 

The Final Paragraph

In the final paragraph, we organise and present the rest of the information we need to report. We may write whatever else we want to let our readers know. We may very well quote some interviewee (for instance, an eye-witness in case of reporting an accident) in this section. We may also choose to incorporate our own observations and opinions in this very paragraph.

Hands on

Shall we try to write one, now? How about attempting this task from the prescribed textbook for English B [ESL], Class X, WBBSE?

Write a newspaper report (within hundred words) on the incident of burglary in a flat in Kolkata using the following points:

date and place- time- occupants of the house- number of robbers- list of articles stolen- police investigation

Let's start with the headline section. This will help us to get our stance for reporting clearly defined. Shall we?

A.

Burglary in the City 

[Isn't it straightforward enough? Do you find it to be too simplistic? Would you please suggest the headline of your choice? I've chosen to keep it simple, straight, and objective, of course.]

By A. Bhattacharjee

Kolkata, 28 May, 2020: Unidentified burglars broke into an empty flat at Shyambazar yesterday as the residents were out of station to attend a family get together at their native place.

Mr Rai, the head of the family, found the front door unlocked as he returned with his family late in the evening yesterday from the party they had been attending. The police, being informed, have started their investigation. The family is yet to complete the list of the articles stolen. However they have primarily estimated a loss of cash and jewellery worth about INR 2 lakhs. The police are primarily suspecting the involvement of more than three burglars, though the number is yet to be confirmed.

B.

How Safe Is Our City? -Burglars Break into an Empty Flat at Shyambazar 

Do you find the approach interesting? I've chosen to sensitise my readers to a greater concern citing this case of burglary. Or maybe if I want to take a dig at the police department and make my article popular, for the police have always been the easy target of all throughout...

By the way, would you like to mark the portions you think are responsible for the change in the perspective here in report B from the perspective of report A? Why don't you outmaneuver this to get the report of your own choice?

By A. Bhattacharjee

Kolkata, 28 May, 2020: Unidentified burglars broke into an empty flat in broad daylight at Shyambazar, raising the question of our city security once again.

Mr Rai, the head of the family, found the front door unlocked as he returned with his family late in the evening yesterday from a party they went to attend in the very morning. The family is yet to complete the list of the articles stolen. However they have primarily estimated a loss of cash and jewellery worth about INR 2 lakhs. The police have started their investigation however are yet to disclose further to the media. They are primarily suspecting the involvement of more than three burglars, though the number is yet to be confirmed.

C.

Desperate Burglary at Shyambazar 

Would you like to call this headline objective? Read the article up to the end before you answer.

By A. Bhattacharjee

Kolkata, 28 May, 2020: Unidentified burglars broke into an empty flat at Shyambazar yesterday as the residents were out of station.

The family found the front door unlocked as they returned late in the evening yesterday. They have primarily estimated a loss of cash and jewellery worth about INR 2 lakhs. The police have started their investigation. They are primarily suspecting the involvement of more than three burglars, though the number is yet to be confirmed. It might be a desperate attempt of some jobless youth who are now-a-day on the increase in the city, some residents from the same apartment have dropped the hint.

So, as you can see for yourself, you may choose to report the same incident as per your own choice. Just find your own tune, and sing your own song...

Let our good sense prevail...