Page updated:
Friday, 7 September 2007

SPECIAL REPORT...

Getting your message across

HOW NEWS is produced...

This is no simple transmission of information, however. Information may pass through many hands and in the process is edited, rewritten and changed. How this is done, and what happens to the information, depends on the media organisation and individual journalists and editors.

At best, the information the global news networks carry explains and analyses the motivation and behaviour of business, politicians, communities and individuals. At worse, the information can be trivialised, erroneous and misleading.

In societies claiming to be democratic and in which there exists the notion of the 'public right to know', the quality of news is critical because it affects what the public thinks, how they act and how they vote. Information in the media is instrumental to the thoughts, impressions and understandings that the public develops. It provides the information upon they base their decisions.

There have been suggestions by commentators that the type of information coming through the media can affect the mental health of individuals, influencing whether they feel optimistic or depressed and whether their outlook is positive of negative. The free flow of news and information is basic to the effective functioning of democracies.

News is a global business producing information distributed to the public by:

• large international publishers and broadcasters (radio and television) such as the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), Rupert Murdoch's News Limited and Sky cable network, CNN (Cable News Network, USA) and the publishers of influential news periodicals such as Time
• large regional publishers and broadcasters such as Australia's Fairfax organisation (The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review), the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), SBS (Special Broadcasting Service, Australia), and in media products such as New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian and The Independent (UK), Le Monde (France) as well as national news magazines such as The Bulletin (Australia) and Der Spiegel (Germany)
• small circulation local newspapers and radio stations
• publishers of specialist magazines and newsletters; industry, scientific and professional journals; community association newsletters
• publishers of websites, eZines, email newsletters, weblogs (known as 'blogs') and emerging forms of citizen journalism.

Media commentators distinguish between the profession and processes of journalism (news gathering and production) and the organisations journalists work for. As businesses, the role of media organisations is to make a profit. That of the journalists, photographers and videojournalists which work for them, to report news. Conflict occurs where these two roles intrude into each other.

How news is gathered and produced

The men and women who report news and produce other information are known by various terms such as:

• journalists - from the French word 'jour', meaning 'day'; a journalist in this definition is someone who reports the affairs of the day
• reporters - an alternative word for 'journalist' once favoured by newspapers and radio news services
• correspondents - this is a term commonly used for a journalist reporting from another country (such as 'foreign correspondent') and based in that country, or for other specialist journalists (such as 'political correspondent'); correspondents may interpret news - give it meaning according to their insights, knowledge and experience, rather than report a simple, factual reiteration of events; in this sense they could be considered to be 'commentators'.

The global news flow is generated by video news crews and journalists specialising in news gathering for differing formats of information presentation:

• print journalists - report for newspapers and magazines and, increasingly, for online news services; the same reportage may be used by more than one newspaper under the same ownership, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne, for example; stories and photographs produced by the organisation's journalists may appear on the publication's website as well as in print
• radio journalists - report for radio stations and networks such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation or the BBC; their reports may be used by a number of radio stations making up a network (such as ABC or SBS stations in the different cities in Australia) or may be sold for use by other radio stations (syndicated); radio journalists edit the recordings and interviews they make and sometimes include 'actuality', ambient sound associated with the event being reported to create a sense of 'being there'; their work may be further edited by producers to suit the format of the different programmes it is to be broadcast on - a segment may be edited from a longer interview for broadcast on a news bulletin, for example; in 2005, the ABC joined other media organisations and producers to offer 'Podcasts' of radio programme; Podcasting - named after Apple's iPod MP3 audio player on which (and on similar players) Podcasts can be played - are offered to listeners as computer downloadable MP3 sound files for playback on computer or player at a time of their choosing - Podcasts get around the need to tune in to a radio broadcast at the time of transmission and are more versatile than the streamed radio programme for online listening as they can be saved and played at listener convenience; Podcasting prolonges the life of the work of radio journalists and producers
• photojournalists - make still images for publication by print or online media outlets; sometimes called 'stills photographers' to differentiate them from video journalists; the high point for photojournalism is often said to be between the 1930s and the 1960s when journals such as Life carried photo essays that ran over several pages and were read internationally, however there remains a strong market for still images today
• videojournalists - take and sometimes edit video footage - known as 'vision' - for television and online video outlets
• online media journalists - reporters, writers, photographers, videojournalists who gather and produce news for online media such as the Worldwide Web and specialist email newsletters.

These different types of journalists may work as:

• employees of particular media outlets, such as a newspaper (for example, Paul McGeough was the Sydney Morning Herald reporter in Baghdad during the 2003 Gulf War; his work appreared in the papers owned by the Fairfax group - the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (Melbourne); he also did reports for ABC television news and current affairs programmes)
• employees of international news-gathering organisations that sell their work to subscribing newspapers, magazines and television organisations; the organisations include Reuters, AP (Associated Press), AFP (French Press Agency), AAPT (Australian Associated Press and Telecommunications), APTN (Associated Press Television News); these are sometimes still called the 'wire services' or 'the wires' because, in the past, they sent their information via telegraph and telephone lines; they are sometimes referred to as the 'agencies' or 'news agencies'
• stringers - print, photo, radio of video journalists located in a particular area who have an arrangement with metropolitan media outlets to produce material on demand, or who may produce speculatively and sell to networks
• freelance journalists - print, photo or video journalists who gather news speculatively and sell to publications; freelancers known to media organisations may be commissioned to produce material.

Types of journalism

Journalists may produce 'general' news or may be specialists reporting a particular type of news:

• foreign correspondents report news from other countries; some foreign correspondents are stationed in a region - the ABC, for example, has correspondents responsible for reporting the Middle East, Europe, the US, the South Pacific and parts of Asia who are based in a country within the region
• political journalists cover national or state political affairs, the parliaments (where the media is collectively known as the 'press gallery') and who monitor and report the political parties; the major media outlets in Australia base journalists in Canberra where they report federal Parliament; local newspapers may assign a journalist to regularly cover local government
• financial journalists report and provide analysis of international and national economic trends, business and economic policy
• science and technology reporters, who often have a tertiary education in science, interpret scientific discoveries and reports in terms understandable to the general public
• health and medical reporters, who may have specialist education or experience in the area
• information technology reporters who may or may not have formal qualifications in information technology or science but who commonly have experience in the industry
• police reporters who produce stories about crime, the police department, academic research into crime and the actions and policies of the political policies that affect crime, police and law enforcement and other law and order matters, sometimes including the courts
• court reporters who report legal cases, the judiciary and policy relevant to the legal system
• environment reporters who report the environmental industries, environmental politics (government, environment courts, environment lobbies, the environment movement and industry policy and practice), government and corporate policy affecting the environment and new environmental technologies; environmental reporting covers both natural and built environments
• urban affairs journalists who specialise in planning issues and planning law, local and state government planning initiatives and policy, urban development
• entertainment and arts journalists who monitor the entertainment industries, the art and design world
• media analysts - reporters who monitor and report changes and trends in the media, the doings of media companies, government policy and new media technologies; ABC TV's Media Watch and ABC Radio National's Media Report are two well known programmes dealing in media analysis
• war correspondents report coverage of conflict at great risk to themselves - this is the most dangerous and psychologically stressful type of journalism; war correspondents may report for the print media, radio or television and their work is often placed online; video and stills photojournalists covering conflict are sometimes known as 'combat photographers'; war correspondents may sometimes report disasters such as famine; sometimes, foreign corresondents report civil or military conflict but the area is commonly the preserve of specialist war reporters; companies such as Frontline Television, based in the UK, specialise in video coverage of conflict.

In the US there is a pool of print, photo, video and online journalists whose sole role it is to monitor and report on the President and on White House affairs. Similar to the press gallery of Australian parliaments, they have a brief to analyse and report the doings of the President who they shadow on all his public appearances. Such intense scrutiny increases the accountability of the president and explains his (or her, someday... maybe) decisions to the public.

News - production by selection

News production is a process of selection. From the time information is gathered to its final publication, it passes through a chain of people who act as 'gatekeepers' occupying points of decision in the news production process. They make the decision as to what information will be published, what they will allow to pass through their 'gate':

1. journalists in the field write and edit the information they gather; they select what to report or photograph
2. they send their report, images or vision to their news organisation where it may be assessed first by a 'copy taster' who decides to what news desk it goes (international, domestic, finance, business, science, aviation, women's or indigenous affairs etc); where the information goes to a news agency such as Reuters, Associated Press, AFP or APTN it will be edited before distribution to subscribing media outlets
3. an editor at the newspaper, broadcaster or online news service assesses the information and makes the decision to use or discard it or put it aside if it may be useful later; perceptions of newsworthiness play a role here
4. when news is approved by the editor, he or she may assign a journalist to rewrite the material to make it suitable for a particular publication and, on occasion, to follow-up the story by obtaining additional information, a local angle (how the news may affect local people, business or organisations) or by combining it with new information coming from an agency
5. before publication, another editor may cut parts of the material so that it fits the available space in the paper or magazine or the available time on the radio or television broadcast.

Each stage that the information passes through performs a gatekeeper function, a process of selection of what and what not to include.

Private, small scale or 'alternative' online news services claim that they reduce the number of gatekeepers that information passes through and, therefore, provide information less influenced by editorial policy. The conventional process, however, can be touted as a safeguard through which only verified, reliable information is passed to the public after passing through proven credibility filters.

Limits to news gathering

A limitation on reportage is the location of journalists around the world. Some areas, such as parts of Africa, receive little coverage because there may be no journalists stationed there.

Like foreign news, domestic news also faces a process of selection which places limits on what the public sees, hears and reads. Incoming press releases, and there can be many in a day, are assessed for relevance to readers. Those that make it through this filtering process are passed to journalists to follow up. Closer to deadline, the journalist's reports are brought together by the editors and a further culling may take place. Items may be bumped in favour of breaking news or news that has come along later and is of greater relevance to readers. News production is a selective process and for organisations and individuals seeking media exposure, it can be competitive.

Limits on foreign reporting

Journalists with specialised knowledge are sometimes responsible for reporting a large region. They will be located in a major city with good communications facilities and, usually, where the seat of national governent is located. From there they travel throughout the region to gather news. ABC TV's Port Moresby-based journalist, Shaun Dorney, for example, reported the entire South Pacific.

In contrast to poorly-reported regions, usually in developing countries, cities such as London, Singapore, Sydney, Paris, Beijing and New York are covered by hundreds of journalists because they are centres of economic and political power. Decisions made there can affect countries and people worldwide.

When something newsworthy occurs in out-of-the-way places, journalists are despatched by their media organisations to report. This is itself a limitation on wider news coverage because moving teams to cover one event might lead to other quite important events going unreported or being poorly reported.

Reporters sent to cover these types of events may be specialists who have knowledge of the destination or of the type or reporting they are expected to produce - disaster, war etc. The practice of sending journalists and video news teams on short assignments to unfamiliar places, sometimes with only limited knowledge of the place and the situation they are to report on, is called 'parachute journalism' because the teams are dropped into the situation cold, with little preparation.

Keeping journalists and television news crews in the field is expensive. They are pulled out and reassigned as soon as a situation starts to stabilise or as a news event starts to wind down. This is why it is said that news has a short attention span and news events a short life. It does not mean that the event disappears or is resolved. A short attention span does not mean that the issue or event is allowed to die. It simply passes from news to current affairs. There, it may no longer be covered by news programmes but by current affairs programmes on television or in news magazines or the feature pages of newspapers rather than on the news pages.

The lead-up to the South African elections in 1994, for example, when Nelson Mendala was elected president and the apatheid system demolished, was covered by the global media. Within a short period after the election, media coverage had reduced greatly, the coverage of the reconstruction of the country being left to specialist journalists. The same thing happened with reporting of the intervention of the Regional Assistance Mission Solomon Islands (RAMSI) in the Australian media in 2003. As the intervention became a routine operation media coverage moved on, returning briefly only when the operation started to wind down and with the newsworthy event of an Australian being shot in 2004. Curiously, the shooting-up of a RAMSI patrol vehicle not long before appears to have been missed by the Australian media.

The December 2004 tsunami provides a futher example of the way in which media coverage changes over time. In the initial phase, the tsunami occupied prime time (early evening, generally between the hours of 6pm and 8.30pm) news bulletins and the front news pages in the press as the world sought to gain some comprehension of the event. Media organisations fielded reporting teams to the countries affected where they sought out information to describe the extent of damage. It was the immediate impact of the event that was newsworthy. As this became clearer, reporting shifted to the aid effort and to the reporting of the stories of survivors. Eventually, other newsworthy items pushed the recovery effort from the headlines.

Media themes

A number of themes run through reporting. Themes describe a type of story. If you are producing stories for a publication, your story will probably automatically fall into a theme relevant to that publication.

Themes include:

• human interest - stories about people that illustrate some aspect of life; human interest stories may be merely interesting but sometimes they can inspire individuals; although they are classed as soft news they can be meaningful to readers or viewers in similar circumstances and can offer encouragement through the relating of personal experience; human interest may include roles such as victim/ hero as well as situations and occurances such as conflict, personality, epiphany, life change
• victim/ hero - victims of crime, war, personal or property loss, tragedy; hero stories are those involving triumph over adversity and include stories of the survivors of disasters, how a person helped others (by assisting, saving or rescuing them, for example) or overcame a significant challenge; hero stories do not have to involve some traumatic event such as disaster, crime or war; the story of a poor person making good would fit the category
• conflict - where something is in contention; the struggle of adversaries such as the citizen against the uncaring bureaucracy, terrrorism and war, ordinary people versus big government, family dispute, industrial action, elections, courtroom battles, clash of ideas/ ideologies; also included is conflict within the individual, such as that within a person - the overcoming of certain tendencies, overcoming difficulty or disability or making a decision as to what path to follow in life
• personality - usually placed within the human interest category, these are stories about the motivation and accomplishment of individuals such as celebrities or local identities but can be about a person who is not in the public gaze; personal or oral history can be introduced where relevant
• discovery - the finding of new knowledge in fields such as medicine and science; new ways of doing things, new design solutions
• separation and return - the uniting of families and friends after time apart, the finding of missing or unknown relatives, return of a refugee to their country, the return of lost or stolen goods, return of land or cultural property to indigenous people, return to a place of special significance such as a childhood home; these may be stories of 'completion', of satisfying some long-held need or urge and bringing it to a conclusion
• scandal - revelations about the misdoings of, for the most part, prominent people; the theme usually focuses on politicians, actors, musicians and the British royal family but can include those prominent in business and institutions; scandal is by nature sensationalist - that is, it takes some aspect of the person's life and emphasises it, frequently to exaggeration; scandal is a staple of the tabloid press, especially in the UK, and pseudo-current affairs television programmes
• humour - a light hearted or amusing slant on a story; serious stories can be written with humour; humour can also be used to ridicule someone in an amusing way.

Newsworthiness

News gathering organisations define the type of news they want from their reporters - what they consider newsworthy to their audiences or readers. This is collected in the field by print, radio, photo and video journalists. The notion of newsworhtiness remains a subjective one and is controversial among media workers.

Newsworthiness is a concept the interpretation of which differs with each media organisation. What may be newsworthy to one publication may not be so to another. A coup in a Pacific island state will be newsworthy to national and metropolitan daily newspapers and broadcast television news but will not be newsworthy to a computer magazine. It may be of interest to a business magazine if the island's economy or trade relations are likely to be affected.

There is no universal definition of newsworthiness.

What is news?

There are many definitions of 'news'. It can be defined as newsworthy information:

• of the type published by a particular media organisation
• that is in some way out of the ordinary, that is exceptional to the usual state of affairs (war, disaster, crime and corruption, major change such as economic downturn or boom, social change)
• that is current in time; that is 'new'
• that potentially affects the public in some way or that affects a special interest group such as an ethnic community, refugees, a socio-economic group, business or a segment of industry or communities of interest such as religions, environmentalists, farmers etc
• that explains the decisions and actions of individuals/ organisations or contributes to their accountability to the electorate, shareholders or other stakeholders.

Bad news, good news

It is often 'bad' news that is reported - news of crime, disasters, conflict and so on. This is because such news is often traumatic and can have a drastic effect on those involved. 'Good' news is reported but because it is unlikely to impact on people as dramatically or as immediately as bad news it is often given lower priority in newspapers or in news bulletins in the electronic media.

The problem is that, unless readers or viewers are media literate, they can get the impression that all is doom and gloom. They do not understand that bad news gets priority because of its drama, immediacy or its potential impact on the country or on the lives of themselves or others.

Attempts to report only good news have resulted in declining readerships, probably because good news is taken to imply that things are going on normally and therefore no potential for imminent change exists. Intellectually light, good news items, often stories of triumph over adversity, are sometimes used late in a news bulletin to end on an upbeat note or to alleviate what has been a bad news-laded bulletin. There is also the fact that visually-exciting video vision, which is often bad news, attracts viewers because it shows spectacle and drama - recall the repeatedly rerun clips of the collapsing New York World Trade Centre buildings on September 11, 2001; the repeated images of the disintegrating NASA space shuttle, Columbia; and the repeated runs of amateur video after the 2004 tsunami.

Those with some understanding of media practices and the way that news is produced - those with 'media literacy' - understand that bad news exists within a context that includes good news and that media organisations, from all the events that are documented in the world in a day, report only a narrow selection. This is due to time constraints on broadcast media, space constraints in newspapers and magazines and editorial judgements on what is most important to readers and viewers.

Sensationalism, moral panics, beat-ups, bias, trial by media and other grumbles

Sensationalism is the practice of exaggerating some unusual aspect of a story. Unfortunately, it is a practice that does occur, more commonly in the tabloid media (which focus more on the entertainment value of news) than in the 'quality' media (which focuses on more 'responsible' reporting and is regarded as having higher standards). In Australia, the quality media is said to include publications such as the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers while the tabloid press includes publications such as The Telegraph.

Sensationalist reporting is not always what it appears. It can be a subjective perception that varies between individuals. One person might consider a report on a conflict, particularly some gruesome event, to be sensational. Others would see the event in the context of the sort of thing that happens in conflict and, thus, not sensational. Others might say that, yes, it might be sensational, but then conflict is sensational and well out of 'normal' experience anyway and that showing it is not sensationalism.

Moral panics result from intense public and media focus on something that may be seen as a threat:

• the perception arises that a situation is out of hand even though it might occur no more frequently and be no more widespread than it has ever been
• moral panics are frequently based on fear rather than on a significant number of actual instances
• the controversy may put pressure on the legislature to take action, such as introducing legislation to stop or limit the cause of the moral panic.

Examples of moral panic include the controversy about the clergy and pedophilia in 2002-2003, the recurring story of drug abuse and concern about the use of mobile phones with built-in digital cameras in the changing rooms of swimming pools.

A media beat-up occurs when some less-important event is written up to give it greater importance than it deserves. The allegation is a favourite of politicians and public figures who have received negative exposure in the media. A beat-up may be associated with perceptions of sensationalism.

Bias is an allegation beloved of politicians, public figures and others with an interest in a story who believe that:

• their side of a story has been insufficiently covered or has been ignored
• a report is unbalanced, having failed to cover all opinion (there exists an unrealistic expectation that all sides should be covered in a single story rather than balance being achieved over the lifetime of an issue)
• there has been a lack of balance when reportage does not accord with their point of view; this is common among people with strong opinions on controversial subjects
• a report overtly or subtley advocates some particular political, religious or ideological point of view.

An example of how allegations of bias are regarded with some suspicion among media workers was the charge by the federal communications minister in 2003 that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation showed an anti-American bias in its reporting of the war in Iraq. A subsequent investigation failed to substantiate the allegation to the degree alleged.

An allegation of bias was leveled against the Murdoch press in the UK on account of their reporting of the war in Iraq in 2003 on Sky News, the cable television network. The reporting was regarded by many media observers to be unbalanced and blatantly pro-American and pro-British.

When considering bias or incomplete reporting, it is worthwhile remembering that full media coverage of a significant incident seldom happens in a single report:

• full information is seldom available soon after an event or incident and that which is available may carry errors due to witness misinterpretation and lack of overview
• early information, such as the number of casualties or extent of damage, are often rough estimates made by police or other authorities or may be based on the observations of journalists; such information should be regarded as indicitive of the scale of the incident only; more accurate figures will become available later
• new information becomes available progressively, often over the days or weeks following an event; the 2005 tsunami provides an example of this - reporting painted a fuller picture of the scale and impact of the event over a period of weeks as information became available and as reporters and news crews penetrated into more isolated regions
• official policy may favour secrecy and the information released to the media may be insufficient; the policy of NSW Police in not disclosing the number of police at a demonstration, for example, encourages the production of rough estimates by journalists; this is a reason why journalists should visit the site on an incident or event to gather information by observation and by talking to witnesses rather than relying on telephone conversations with spokespeople or the authorities to provide information.

Balance should be achieved over the life of the issue.

Trial be media is a percepton that intense media scrutiny replaces the role of the courts in deciding whether a person is guilty or innocent. That is why limits are imposed on the reporting of cases before the courts so that the accused receives a fair trial - such cases are said to be 'subjudice'.

In stories not the jurisdiction of the courts, trial by media might occur as a result of intense media coverage that suggets fault or guilt. Although this might not be the purpose of the reporting it can be the accumulative result of intense media scrutiny.

Trial by media is sometimes alleged by those under scrutiny and wishing to avoid it.

News hard and soft

News is sometimes categorised as 'hard' or 'soft':

• hard news is that related to controversial current affairs; it appears in the front sectons of newspapers or among the lead items of a radio or television news broadcast; hard news includes categories such as politics, economics, finance, war and conflict, foreign affairs, crime, disaster and the like
• soft news may have less immediate importance and includes entertainment, celebrities, social news, food and cooking, lifestyle reporting, motoring, travel, music and human interest stories found in the latter part of the newspaper of in weekly supplements; in television, soft news is sometimes known by the derogatory term 'filler', indicating suitability for use as light relief to a stream of hard and bad news or on a lightweight programme such as one dealing with lifestyle.

Some journalists look down on soft news, regarding it as fluffery, however a good human interest story, especially if it is humourous, can uplift a bulletin of bad news and be interesting and informative in its own right. However soft news is regarded, it is news consumed by a segment of the readership or viewing audience, and is clearly of value to them and, therefore, it is valid information.

Presentation - news, features and current affairs

News

News can be broadly defined, at least for major news organisations, as a 'record or journal of the day'.

Usually, news is published on brief radio and television bulletins or articles and reports of limited length in newspapers or online. In newspapers and news magazines, news is presented in segments such as:

• international - overseas news
• domestic - that happening within the country and having relevance to the nation or a porton of the population
• local - that relevant to a limited geographic area and commonly of interest to papers with only regional distribution
• special interest -science and technology, medicine, entertainment and so on; this is often given its own segment in major metropolitan newspapers, such as the Sydney Morning Herald's information technology, entertainment and lifestyle supplements.

There is usually little detail, background or context provided in a news report. A significant news story is seen as ongoing and having a life extending over a number of bulletins or editions. Listeners, viewers and readers are expected to acquire a knowledge of the event over a number of reports. News reports follow a formulaic presentation with the most important information in the lead and the following couple paragraphs and less important information in the body of the article.

Features

The major national and metropolitan dailies present in-depth articles as 'features'. These are longer articles, occasionally extending over several pages, that provide chronology, detail, context and background material. Such articles take time to produce and involve research by the journalist (or team of journalists) assigned to produce them.

Research may include:

• interviews by telephone
• face-to-face interviews
• consulting of expert opinion
• review of official records
• visiting places where an incident took place
• researching earlier reports
• finding specialist information
• talking with people who know a person involved or who witnessed an incident
• interviews by email and research via the Internet - known as 'computer assisted reporting'.

Because they take much time and effort, newspaper features usually appear in the paper's weekend edition, often in a specialist features section such as the Sydney Morning Herald's 'News Review'.

'Investigative journalism' is a painstaking process that can take months to result in a piece or a series. It is a specialised type of journalism that seeks to seriously examine some person, organisation or event, to explain that event or process or to expose wrongdoing. Sometimes, a investigative series will run over several consecutive daily editions of a newspaper. These are usually the work of two or more journalists and may involve processes such as the searching of public records and interviews and may investigate the reasons and motivations behind some incident or development.

Such reporting can be expensive, especially when it involves travel and accommodation. Perhaps this explains why, according to some journalists and media analysts, it may beless common today that in the 1970s and 1980s. Investigative journalism remains important to maintaining the accountability of government, business and influential individuals.

Current affairs

Greater detail, context and background is provided in current affairs, sometimes referred to as 'public affairs' reports on television and radio. Radio current affairs may be presented as a 'radio documentary'.

Current affairs are longer reports featuring:

• interviews
• expert opinion
• archival material - earlier reports presented to provide historic perspective or context and usually clearly identified as 'archive' or 'file' footage or by a similar label so that the viewer is aware that what they are seeing is not current
• radio or video actuality - vision (images recorded on a video medium) and sound recorded on site; actuaity may include the sound of machinery that is pertinent to the report, gunfire in a report about conflict, natural or city sounds where the reporter seeks to convey a feeling of place.

Such reports contain material that has been interpreted by the journalist, editor or producer. Because of limited time or space, material considered important by some viewers or listeners may be left out or given a lower priority. This is why current affairs production can be a controversial process and explains why those who feel ignored or misreported complain to the broadcaster or the Press Council.

News and feature-writing styles

There is a further division of news reporting to do with writing style. This differentiates between:

• the widely-practiced 'inverted pyramid' newswriting style found in newspaper reports and television and radio news bulletins; it is fact-laden, terse, brief and presented in the third person; it places the most important facts in the lead (more on inverted pyramid later)
• 'literary journalism', a style of writing factual material that borrows elements of creative or fiction writing such as structure, characterisation and first person reporting; writers like Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion and others pioneered literary journalism, which was known as the 'New Journalism', in the 1970s; literary journalism is frequently used in books on current affairs subjects and in magazines such as The Atlantic and The New Yorker; journalist and author John Krakauer's Into the Wild (1996; Villard Books, New York; ISBN 0 330 35169 9) and Into Thin Air 1997; Anchor Books, New York; ISBN 0 385 49208 1) are book-length investigations that borrow from fiction writing to explain an event; Richard Pyle and Horst Faas' Lost Over Laos (2003; Da Capo Press, USA; ISBN 0 306 81196 0) follows a similar structure to revisit and investigate events in which the authors were involved that occurred during the Vietnam War over 30 years earlier.

The 'fourth estate' role of the media

In Western democracies, the media has a 'fourth estate' role in public life. For historic reasons it has come to supplement the other three 'estates' that oversee the administration of the social system: the legislature (parliament), the courts and the church.

The church now has a reduced social role in Australia although elements of it continue to lobby and offer comment as a moral reference. In part, this reflects the immigration of non-Christian groups and the reduced influence of religion in national life. The more couragous religious leaders sometimes speak out on social and political issues, frequently to the annoyance of politicians and special interest groups. Such is their right in a democracy.

In its Fourth Estate context, the role of the media is to analyse and make public information pertinent to the effective governance of society and the conduct of institutions and influential individuals. An investigative, interpretive (explaining the meaning and implications of policy) and exposatory (to expose) role is implied.

If the media has such a historically-determined role of observation, analysis and reporting, then what institution watches the watchers, the media itself?

The legislature and courts have this role. Laws have been enacted to protect individuals from untruthful reporting and from intrusion into their private domain. Laws on trespass and defamation exist in all democracies, although some say that those covering defamation in Australia are in need of reform to make them consistent across the states and to place truth as the determinant when it comes to justification of publicity.

Ordinary people may not be able to afford a court challenge against reportage (the act and product or reporting) they believe to be untrue or defamatory. Their only recourse is to the 'letters to the ediitor' pages or to the Press Council, a body set up by media organisations to arbitrate disputes when the media organisation's internal disputes resolution processes are ineffective. The Press Council has no legal recourse. Findings against media organisations result in a correction being published.

News formats and changing electronic news gathering (ENG) technologies

News, current affairs and specialised material is published in a number of forms:

• print media - newspapers, magazines, journals, industry and other specialist newsletters that publish the work of print and photo journalists
• electronic media - radio and broadcast and cable television
• online media - information distributed via the Internet as email or as Worldwide Web content including print, photographic, audio (downloadable sound files, streamed audio content [streaming media plays as it downloads into a computer, in comparison to media files that are downloaded in their entirety before being played] or downloadable MP3 format Podcasts [so named because the files can be transferred to an Apple iPod or similar MP3 player, effectively getting around the problem of the ephemerality of radio broadcasts by turning them into a format useable at the listener's convenience]), video and illustrative art work such as drawn graphics, animation art, charts and diagrams and occasionally 'fine' artwork such as paintings.

Convergent media

Print, video and online have been considered as separate areas of media, however a process of integration is underway.

This 'convergent media' is fed by 'convergent journalism' that reports for different types of media. The information gathered by a journalist reporting for a newspaper, for example, might form the basis for a news report on the paper's website as might the images made by the paper's photographer. Video material and sound files edited from recorded material may be incorporated and offered as streaming media on a website. Websites sometimes offer a 'slide show' - so named for the way in which transparency film images ('slides') were presented with the aid of a projector before the advent of digital images. They may use dedicated slide show software or present the show as a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

A number of reports may be compiled into a bulletin that is emailed to subscribers (a paragraph on each item with links to the full story, photographs or video on the publication's website) or distributed to subscriber's PDAs (personal digital assistants such as those made by Palm and others running the Windows operating system for handhelds) via the telephone system. Mobile phone technology now makes possible the transmission of news directly to subscriber's mobile telephones.

This convergence of print/ photography/ video/ computer/ PDA and telecomunications technology has been made possible through the use of digital media technologies - computer-based word processing, photography, video and audio (sound files recorded on a digital recorder downloaded and edited on a computer). Major media organisations now have multimedia websites offering print, stills photography, sound and video clips.

To take advantage of convergent media, journalists who once would have reported solely for print may acquire skills in writing for print and online media, editing audio files and in the operation of small, high definition video cameras.

The new generation of mobile phones equipped with low resolution digital cameras and capable of emailing the images they take to a newsroom may yet find a role in online news production, especially as the resolution of the cameras is improved. The availability of such imaging phones has raised issues over privacy and, when the technology reached the market, gave rise to a minor moral panic. The phones, which sometimes include a voice recorder, could provide audio and images directly from a news event that could be quickly placed online. Where the newspaper photographer was not available, a print journalist attending an event, for example, could take images with the phone and compile a voice report for the newspaper's website before returning to the newsroom to write a report for the next edition of the paper. Mobile phones, of course, are proving versatile reporting tools, enabling a reporter at the scene to go live-to-air.

The camera phone's potential for intrusiveness certainly exists, however it must be seen in the context of the proliferation of other intrusive technologies such as software for the remote eavesdropping on another's computer content ('spyware'), the proliferation of video monitoring cameras in public places and in buildings (the use of information gathered by such cameras is governed by law) and the recording of information on individuals and organisations held in the databases of business and government, though use of this information is covered by the Privacy Act. Additional to these are the large number of video cameras in the hands of the public.

In this context, mobile phones with stills photograph or video capability become just one more technology capable of snooping on the individual. As a journalism tool, their use would presumably be governed by rules of practice and ethics that already exist or that may be developed by media organisations when use of the technology becomes more common.

Dealing with celebrities and the self-important

The entertainment media persists in perpetuating the 'cult of the celebrity'.

The subjects of such coverage - actors, singers, musicians and 'socially prominent' people - may have little that is informative or useful to add to public discourse or even to say about the state of their own industries. Usually, their commentary is about themselves, and then only about selective aspects of themselves. It is they themselves who are the entertainment news. Their media appearances are frequently self-serving and commercially oriented and may accompany the release of a new film or CD.

Having tantalised the media and its audience, celebrities feed the desire for more, often personal knowledge about themselves, yet complain when pestered by entertainment writers. When this public desire to know more is not fulfilled, the field is opened to a specialist type pf photographer - the papparazzi.

This is not to deny that a movie or CD may have news value as an art form beyond the commercial. But reporting would then have to analyse it in terms its arts context, its contribution to a particular genre of music or film as well as in terms of the development of the artist's career. The best entertainment reporting does this. The field is the province of the arts or entertainment reporter who is expected to have an in-depth knowledge of the history of the field, the artists, styles and trends.

To its detriment, the British royal family has fallen into the 'celebratory' category of news. They, rather than the carrying out of their official duties, have become the focus of a section of the media epitomised by the UK's tabloid press. Their private lives, dysfunctional some of them may be, are now as interesting to the voyeurs of royalty than is their proper role in the nation state. Athough scandal is a common theme, this is not simply a case of selling newspapers - there exists real demand for information about the royal family just as exists for actors.

The way that some members of the royal family have attempted to use the media for their own ends has only contributed to the type of attention they receive. They have learned that media attention cannot be turned on and off at their will, that the relationship with the media is a two-way affair in which they and the media demand a cut.

Covering celebrities presents a problem to news journalists (but not to those who make a living exclusively covering such people) - when are celebrities worth covering as 'real news' rather than for their supposedly-private carry-ons or for the voyeurism of sections of the public?

The privacy of celebrities and the public interest

In the case of celebrities, at what point do private lives become of interest to the general public? In any other area, responsible journalists might answer that privacy considerations do not apply when the actions of someone has the potential to impact on the public or on social institutions. This is the 'public interest' criteria used to determine when it is appropriate to report private business.

The private life of a newsworthy person, for example, might not normally be reported. If that private life is gained at the expense of the taxpayer or through suspected criminal activity or at the expense of company shareholders, however, it becomes of public interest and worthy of investigation because it affects the public or an institution.

Some say that when a person gains celebrity status they forego all rights to privacy. They point out that celebrities actively court publicity and should realise that they have to balance their status with the needs of the entertainment media for material about them. Whether this validates excessive intrusion into the celebrity's life or property is a debatable matter, however journalists working for the quality media would probably say that celebrities have a right to privacy. For celebrities the solution is eased if they are reasonably available for interviews and photo opportunities.

'Papparazzi' is the term used to describe photographers who specialise in the coverage of celebrities, often beyond the privacy bounds of conventional reporting. The market is lucrative because it is large, as is the number of media outlets that publish and pay substantial sums for their work. To meet the demand about the lives of celebrities, papparazzi go to extraordinary lengths to obtain images of their subjects (perhaps 'prey' would be a more apt term). Papparazzi should not be considered photojournalists, rather they are a branch of the entertainment industry.

For people creating media product for non-government or community-based organisations, the ethics of reporting celebrities will seldom arise. In fact, it may be useful for them to obtain the support of a celebrity, preferably gratis, who is prepared to promote the organisations agenda and to seek publicity for this - and themselves.

Privacy

The notion that a prominent person foregoes any right to privacy, that they are 'fair game' for the media, may in Australia have something to do with the 'tall poppy' syndrome - the practice of bringing prominent people back down to earth.

There is no legal right to privacy in Australia although laws of tresspass limit the entering of private property to photograph or observe a person. Taking photographs or video footage of a public figure in a public place is legal although the subject may find it annoying.

Reporting grief

The reporting of grief is a debated area in journalism and intrusion into the lives of those suffering grief is troubling to most journalists. Ironically, it may be seen as intrusion by many of the same people who enjoy watching it on television or reading newspaper reports about the cause of the grief.

Journalists have refused to cover stories that intrude into individual or family grief, but for some grieving individuals the opportunity to publicly comment is seen as a positive thing that validates a lost life and puts it in a good light.

Today's media world

This is a media-saturated world, however important information can be difficult to find where people are distant from the big cities and towns and where telecommunications or literacy is poorly developed.

A case in point was the lack of information available to villagers in a more isolated part of the Solomon Islands during the El Nino drought of 1997. Failing to understand the cause of the drought that was affecting their crops, it fell to visiting aid workers to describe the El Nino phenomenon to villagers. The aid workers and village trainers devised a simple workshop on El Nino and about ways to conserve available moisture and took it to other villagers in the region as an educational package.

Elsewhere, the challenge for media consumers is in wading through the mass of information to find that which is of most interest to them. It is here that the diverse, specialist sources of online information come to the rescue. Technologies such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication), software that automates obtaining the latest information from websites, saves time and facilitates quick scanning of headlines for information of particular interest.

The effect of narrowing the search for information to a number of specialist sources is to reduce exposure to peripheral information, such as that which comes from browsing a newspaper or watching a television newscast. This might not be critical to an individual's main interests, however it does develop a broader knowledge of what is going on in the world. Some commentators fear a diminution of general knowledge at the same time that more specialised information is gained.