Yellow journalism, in short, is biased opinion masquerading as objective fact. Moreover, the practice of yellow journalism involved sensationalism, distorted stories, and misleading images for the sole purpose of boosting newspaper sales and exciting public opinion. It was particularly indicative of two papers founded and popularized in the late 19th century- The New York World, run by Joseph Pulitzer and The New York Journal, run by William Randolph Hearst.
It all started, some historians believe, with the onset of the rapid industrialization that was happening all around the world. The Industrial Revolution eventually affected the newspaper industry, allowing newspapers access to machines that could easily print thousands of papers in a single night. This is believed to have brought into play one of the most important characteristics of yellow journalism - the endless drive for circulation. And unfortunately, the publisher's greed was very often put before ethics.
Although the actual practice of what would later become known as yellow journalism came into being during a more extended time period (between 1880-1890), the term was first coined based on a series of occurrences in and following the year of 1895. This was the year in which Hearst purchased the New York Journal, quickly becoming a key rival of Pulitzer's. The term was derived, through a series of peculiar circumstances, from a cartoon by the famous 19th century cartoonist, Robert Outcault called "The Yellow Kid" . The cartoon was first published in The World, until Hearst hired him away to produce the strip in his newspaper. Pulitzer then hired another artist to produce the same strip in his newspaper. This comic strip happened to use a new special, non-smear yellow ink, and because of the significance of the comic strip, the term "yellow journalism" was coined by critics.
Sadly though, this period of sensationalist news delivery (where the so-called yellow press routinely outsold the more honest, truthful, unbiased newspapers) does stand out as a particularly dark era in journalistic history. The demand of the United States people for absolutely free press allowed such aforementioned newspapers, which often appealed to the shorter attention spans and interests of the lower class, to print whatever they so desired. This means that they could easily steal a headline and story directly from another paper, or simply fabricate a story to fit their particular agenda.
One of the more disturbing features involved with the former practice of yellow journalism, and the period in which it was most active in is that there is no definite line between this period of yellow journalism and the period afterwards. There only exists evidence that such practices were frowned upon by the general public - by 1910, circulation had dropped off very rapidly for such papers. But regardless, does this mean that yellow journalism simply faded away, never to return? Or did it absorb itself into the very heart of our newspapers, where it will remain forever? One thing is for certain - after the late 1800s, newspapers changed drastically, and still show no sign of changing back. The modernly present newspaper appearances of catchy headlines, humorous comic strips, special interest sections, intrusive investigative reporting, et cetera serve as a constant reminder that one must always stay skeptical when examining our news sources.
What is the remedy to yellow journalism? Simply double- and triple-checking one's sources and reading between the lines. If one disregards the obvious marketing that is used to hook readers, newspapers may actually prove to be reliable sources of information.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
MUNICIPAL SCHOOLS
Municipal Schools – A Preview
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation runs more than 1000 schools in Mumbai with a total enrolment of over 650,000. Their purpose is to provide primary education at low cost. Shifts in population, specially of the jobless and the homeless, now threaten the functioning of these schools.
In recent years many mills and other factories in the Island city have closed down, and there has been an intense drive by the BMC to clear away slums. This has displaced a large population from the previously crowded areas of Parel and Lalbaug. Several schools have had to be closed because of lack of students. The remaining students then have to travel to a school further off, resulting in a further decline in attendance. In addition, as earning members of the family become jobless, students drop out of school in order to help shore up the family's income.
In contrast, suburban schools are overcrowded. The number of teachers is far less than what is required; sometimes a teacher has to take two classes at the same time. Such problems have led to a fall in enrolments even in the suburbs.
The BMC runs a mid-day meal scheme in its schools--- providing milk and khichdi to all students. In some schools this scheme has been discontinued.
A policy of no failures has been implemented, which makes it mandatory for all schools to pass all children in their first four years of schooling. This, coupled with a lack of individualised teaching, has occassionally resulted in children entering middle school without having acquired elementary reading or writing skills. The drop out rate among such students is very high.
Municipal schools are an integral part of the education system of our society as it imparts teaching to the lower income strata. Mulund Powai Plus readers suggests various measures to revive the old lost charm of civic schools and bring them at par with the standard of public schools
There is an urgent need for the revival of civic schools and we can adopt the following ways for its revival. First, if the school structure is in a poor state then it should be given a facelift. If structurally week, it should be repaired, renovated and restored. This will bring enthusiasm in the children and teachers.
Also, maintaining basic hygienic conditions can do wonders to boost the morals of children. Second, train teachers by conducting simple basic training courses from eminent teaching professionals and scholars. The BMC teachers should be inline with the modern teaching techniques. Offer incentives to teachers who imbibe real knowledge to children with dedication. Third, attendance should be made compulsory for both teachers and students. And, lastly provide good meal/snacks to attract under privileged children.
The recent SSC/HSC results have shown that students from poor, under privileged sections are also bright, as they have performed well against all odds. If the BMC standing committee on education implements the above four mentioned points, we may see more students enrolling into civic schools and scoring good marks.
Suggestions To Improve Standard Of Municipal Schools:
Illiteracy is the main cause of all the problems in India. So, civic schools are the only means by which the rural and poor population of the country can be educated. The government should come up with plans like mid-day meal, monthly wages for the students studying in these schools, free uniforms and books should also be provided. Reviving the civic schools is one of the best ways of spreading education to every nook and corner of the country.
Municipal schools are an important part of the society because parents with low income can easily pursue their ward's education there. But many of them are under impression that the municipal schools do not provide good education. But actually the education given by the civic schools are same as the private schools. So in order to revive the civic schools, the concerned authorities should see that if so many students are leaving the school then what is the reason for that. And, if they are leaving then are they pursuing their education further or they are leaving studies midway? Only strict implementation of certain rules can help reviving the civic schools.
Door-to-door campaigning and advertising in local newspapers should be undertaken highlighting state rank holders of civic schools to impress parents about the quality of education in civic schools. Distribution of free food packets, books, stationery and dress to the needy children may woo the children to be most regular to school.
Instruction should be given to teaching staff to be more sincere, dedicated and cool headed. Surprise checks through Inspectors will make the teaching staff and students more alert, which will also help in the revival of civic schools.
The pathetic condition of Municipal schools in the state is due to the negligent attitude of the state administration who is hardly concerned about dire state of the civic schools. We need to first bring the issue to the notice of the officials concerned and then suggest them measures that will give a complete makeover to the municipal schools.
The government should first improve the infrastructure of the schools in the area by renovating the school buildings; providing students a better toilet facility and sensible and sincere teaching staff. Along with this, extra curricular activities should also be promoted in the school, which will make school more interesting for students. Also other important facilities like mid-day meal, free books and rewards for performing well, will also help revive the civic schools in the suburbs.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation runs more than 1000 schools in Mumbai with a total enrolment of over 650,000. Their purpose is to provide primary education at low cost. Shifts in population, specially of the jobless and the homeless, now threaten the functioning of these schools.
In recent years many mills and other factories in the Island city have closed down, and there has been an intense drive by the BMC to clear away slums. This has displaced a large population from the previously crowded areas of Parel and Lalbaug. Several schools have had to be closed because of lack of students. The remaining students then have to travel to a school further off, resulting in a further decline in attendance. In addition, as earning members of the family become jobless, students drop out of school in order to help shore up the family's income.
In contrast, suburban schools are overcrowded. The number of teachers is far less than what is required; sometimes a teacher has to take two classes at the same time. Such problems have led to a fall in enrolments even in the suburbs.
The BMC runs a mid-day meal scheme in its schools--- providing milk and khichdi to all students. In some schools this scheme has been discontinued.
A policy of no failures has been implemented, which makes it mandatory for all schools to pass all children in their first four years of schooling. This, coupled with a lack of individualised teaching, has occassionally resulted in children entering middle school without having acquired elementary reading or writing skills. The drop out rate among such students is very high.
Municipal schools are an integral part of the education system of our society as it imparts teaching to the lower income strata. Mulund Powai Plus readers suggests various measures to revive the old lost charm of civic schools and bring them at par with the standard of public schools
There is an urgent need for the revival of civic schools and we can adopt the following ways for its revival. First, if the school structure is in a poor state then it should be given a facelift. If structurally week, it should be repaired, renovated and restored. This will bring enthusiasm in the children and teachers.
Also, maintaining basic hygienic conditions can do wonders to boost the morals of children. Second, train teachers by conducting simple basic training courses from eminent teaching professionals and scholars. The BMC teachers should be inline with the modern teaching techniques. Offer incentives to teachers who imbibe real knowledge to children with dedication. Third, attendance should be made compulsory for both teachers and students. And, lastly provide good meal/snacks to attract under privileged children.
The recent SSC/HSC results have shown that students from poor, under privileged sections are also bright, as they have performed well against all odds. If the BMC standing committee on education implements the above four mentioned points, we may see more students enrolling into civic schools and scoring good marks.
Suggestions To Improve Standard Of Municipal Schools:
Illiteracy is the main cause of all the problems in India. So, civic schools are the only means by which the rural and poor population of the country can be educated. The government should come up with plans like mid-day meal, monthly wages for the students studying in these schools, free uniforms and books should also be provided. Reviving the civic schools is one of the best ways of spreading education to every nook and corner of the country.
Municipal schools are an important part of the society because parents with low income can easily pursue their ward's education there. But many of them are under impression that the municipal schools do not provide good education. But actually the education given by the civic schools are same as the private schools. So in order to revive the civic schools, the concerned authorities should see that if so many students are leaving the school then what is the reason for that. And, if they are leaving then are they pursuing their education further or they are leaving studies midway? Only strict implementation of certain rules can help reviving the civic schools.
Door-to-door campaigning and advertising in local newspapers should be undertaken highlighting state rank holders of civic schools to impress parents about the quality of education in civic schools. Distribution of free food packets, books, stationery and dress to the needy children may woo the children to be most regular to school.
Instruction should be given to teaching staff to be more sincere, dedicated and cool headed. Surprise checks through Inspectors will make the teaching staff and students more alert, which will also help in the revival of civic schools.
The pathetic condition of Municipal schools in the state is due to the negligent attitude of the state administration who is hardly concerned about dire state of the civic schools. We need to first bring the issue to the notice of the officials concerned and then suggest them measures that will give a complete makeover to the municipal schools.
The government should first improve the infrastructure of the schools in the area by renovating the school buildings; providing students a better toilet facility and sensible and sincere teaching staff. Along with this, extra curricular activities should also be promoted in the school, which will make school more interesting for students. Also other important facilities like mid-day meal, free books and rewards for performing well, will also help revive the civic schools in the suburbs.
GRIFFITH
David Llewelyn Wark "D. W." Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948)
was a premier pioneering Academy Award-winning American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance (1916).
Early life
Griffith was born in La Grange, Kentucky to Jacob Griffith and Mary Perkins Oglesby. His father was a Confederate Army colonel, a Civil War hero, and a Kentucky legislator. Griffith was educated by his older sister, Mattie, in a one-room country school. His father died when he was 10, upon which the family experienced serious financial hardships. At age 14, Griffith's mother abandoned the farm and moved the family to Louisville where she opened a boarding house, which failed shortly. Griffith left high school to help with the finances, taking a job first in a dry goods store, and, later, in a bookstore.
Griffith began his career as a hopeful playwright but met with little success; only one of his plays was even accepted for a performance. Griffith decided to instead become an actor, and appeared in many plays as an extra.
Film Career
In 1907, Griffith, still having goals for becoming a successful playwright, moved to California and attempted to sell a script to Edison producer Edwin Porter. Porter rejected Griffith's script, but allowed him to be an extra in his movie. In 1908, Griffith accepted an acting job for the Biograph Company in New York City.
At Biograph, Griffith's career in the film industry changed forever. In 1908, Biograph's main director Wallace McCutcheon grew ill, and his son, Wallace McCutcheon Jr., took his place. McCutcheon Jr., however, was not able to bring the studio good success. As a result, Biograph head Henry Marvin decided to give Griffith the position; Griffith then made his first movie for the company, The Adventures of Dollie.
Between 1908 and 1913 (the years he directed for the Biograph Company), Griffith produced 450 short films, an enormous number even for this period. This work enabled him to experiment with cross-cutting, camera movement, close-ups, and other methods of spatial and temporal manipulation. At Biograph, Griffith became a huge success as a director.
On Griffith's first trip to California as a director, he and his company discovered a little village to film their movies in. This place was known as Hollywood. With this, Biograph was the first company to shoot a movie in Hollywood titled In Old California (1910).
Influenced by a European feature film Cabiria from Italy, Griffith was convinced that feature films could be financially viable. He produced and directed the Biograph feature film Judith of Bethulia, one of the earliest feature films to be produced in the United States. However, Biograph believed that longer features were not viable. Biograph thought that a movie that long would hurt the audience's eyes.
Because of this, Griffith left Biograph and took his whole stock company of actors with him, and joined the Mutual Film Corporation and formed a studio Reliance-Majestic Studios, with Majestic Studio manager Harry Aitken .(The studio was later renamed Fine Arts Studio).
His new production company became a self-governing production unit partner in Triangle Film Corporation with Keystone Studios. Through Reliance-Majestic Studios, Griffith produced The Clansman (1915), which later came to be known as The Birth of a Nation.
The Birth of a Nation is considered important by film historians as the first feature length American film, and arguably changed the standards of the film industry. It was enormously popular, breaking box office records, but aroused controversy in the way it expressed the racist views held by many in the era .(It depicts Southern pre-Civil War black slavery as benign, and the Ku Klux Klan as a band of heroes restoring order to a post-Reconstruction black-ruled South).
Although these views matched the opinions of many American historians of the day (and indeed, long afterwards), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People campaigned against the film, but was unsuccessful in suppressing it.
The Birth of a Nation went on to become the most successful box office attraction of its time. Among the people who profited by the film was Louis B. Mayer, who bought the rights to distribute The Birth of a Nation in New England. With the money he made, he was able to begin his career as a producer that culminated in the creation of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.
However, after seeing The Birth of a Nation, audiences in some major northern cities also responded by rioting over the film's racial content. After The Birth of a Nation had run its course in theaters, Griffith responded to the negative reception through his next film Intolerance, which attacked the institution of slavery. However, Intolerance was not a success. Like The Birth Of A Nation, Griffith put a huge budget into the film's production, which was also a key factor in it's failure at the box office. Soon after, the production partnership was dissolved, so Griffith went to Artcraft (part of Paramount), then to First National. At the same time he founded United Artists, together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. At United Artists, Griffith continued to make films, but never could achieve box office grosses as high as either The Birth of The Nation or Intolerance.
Though United Artists survived as a company, Griffith's association with it was short-lived, and while some of his later films did well at the box office, commercial success often eluded him. Features of Griffith from this period include Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921) and America (1924); the earlier three were successes at the box office.
In 1924, Griffith was forced to leave United Artists after Isn't Life Wonderful failed at the box office, and accepted return to Paramount as a director. Griffith made only two sound films, Abraham Lincoln (1930) and The Struggle (1931). Neither was successful, and he never made another film. For the last seventeen years of his life he lived as a virtual hermit in Los Angeles.
Death
He died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1948 on his way to a Hollywood hospital from the Knickerbocker Hotel where he had been living alone. He is buried at Mount Tabor Methodist Church Graveyard in Crestwood, Kentucky.
Achievements
D. W. Griffith has been called the father of film grammar. Few scholars still hold that his "innovations" really began with him, but Griffith was a key figure in establishing the set of codes that have become the universal backbone of film language. He was particularly influential in popularizing "cross-cutting"—using film editing to alternate between different events occurring at the same time—in order to build suspense. Some also claim, that he "invented" the close-up shot. He used many elements from the "primitive" style of movie-making that predated classical Hollywood's continuity system, such as frontal staging, exaggerated gestures, minimal camera movement, and an absence of point of view shots.
Legacy
Motion picture legend Charles Chaplin called Griffith "The Teacher of us All". This sentiment was widely shared. Filmmakers as diverse as John Ford and Orson Welles have spoken of their respect for the director of Intolerance. Whether or not he actually invented new techniques in film grammar, he seems to have been among the first to understand how these techniques could be used to create an expressive language.
In early shorts such as Biograph's The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) which was the first "Gangster film", we can see how Griffith's attention to camera placement and lighting, heighten mood and tension. In making Intolerance the director opened up new possibilities for the medium, creating a form that seems to owe more to music than to traditional narrative. Griffith was honored on a 10-cent postage stamp by the United States issued May 5, 1975.
In 1953, the Directors Guild of America instituted the D.W. Griffith Award. Its recipients included Woody Allen, Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, Ingmar Bergman, and Alfred Hitchcock. In Dec 1999, however, DGA President Jack Shea and the DGA National Board—announced that the award would be renamed the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award because Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation had "helped foster intolerable racial stereotypes".
Film Preservation
D.W. Griffith has five films preserved in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". These films are Lady Helen's Escapade (1909), A Corner in Wheat (1909), The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916), and Broken Blossoms (1919).
was a premier pioneering Academy Award-winning American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance (1916).
Early life
Griffith was born in La Grange, Kentucky to Jacob Griffith and Mary Perkins Oglesby. His father was a Confederate Army colonel, a Civil War hero, and a Kentucky legislator. Griffith was educated by his older sister, Mattie, in a one-room country school. His father died when he was 10, upon which the family experienced serious financial hardships. At age 14, Griffith's mother abandoned the farm and moved the family to Louisville where she opened a boarding house, which failed shortly. Griffith left high school to help with the finances, taking a job first in a dry goods store, and, later, in a bookstore.
Griffith began his career as a hopeful playwright but met with little success; only one of his plays was even accepted for a performance. Griffith decided to instead become an actor, and appeared in many plays as an extra.
Film Career
In 1907, Griffith, still having goals for becoming a successful playwright, moved to California and attempted to sell a script to Edison producer Edwin Porter. Porter rejected Griffith's script, but allowed him to be an extra in his movie. In 1908, Griffith accepted an acting job for the Biograph Company in New York City.
At Biograph, Griffith's career in the film industry changed forever. In 1908, Biograph's main director Wallace McCutcheon grew ill, and his son, Wallace McCutcheon Jr., took his place. McCutcheon Jr., however, was not able to bring the studio good success. As a result, Biograph head Henry Marvin decided to give Griffith the position; Griffith then made his first movie for the company, The Adventures of Dollie.
Between 1908 and 1913 (the years he directed for the Biograph Company), Griffith produced 450 short films, an enormous number even for this period. This work enabled him to experiment with cross-cutting, camera movement, close-ups, and other methods of spatial and temporal manipulation. At Biograph, Griffith became a huge success as a director.
On Griffith's first trip to California as a director, he and his company discovered a little village to film their movies in. This place was known as Hollywood. With this, Biograph was the first company to shoot a movie in Hollywood titled In Old California (1910).
Influenced by a European feature film Cabiria from Italy, Griffith was convinced that feature films could be financially viable. He produced and directed the Biograph feature film Judith of Bethulia, one of the earliest feature films to be produced in the United States. However, Biograph believed that longer features were not viable. Biograph thought that a movie that long would hurt the audience's eyes.
Because of this, Griffith left Biograph and took his whole stock company of actors with him, and joined the Mutual Film Corporation and formed a studio Reliance-Majestic Studios, with Majestic Studio manager Harry Aitken .(The studio was later renamed Fine Arts Studio).
His new production company became a self-governing production unit partner in Triangle Film Corporation with Keystone Studios. Through Reliance-Majestic Studios, Griffith produced The Clansman (1915), which later came to be known as The Birth of a Nation.
The Birth of a Nation is considered important by film historians as the first feature length American film, and arguably changed the standards of the film industry. It was enormously popular, breaking box office records, but aroused controversy in the way it expressed the racist views held by many in the era .(It depicts Southern pre-Civil War black slavery as benign, and the Ku Klux Klan as a band of heroes restoring order to a post-Reconstruction black-ruled South).
Although these views matched the opinions of many American historians of the day (and indeed, long afterwards), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People campaigned against the film, but was unsuccessful in suppressing it.
The Birth of a Nation went on to become the most successful box office attraction of its time. Among the people who profited by the film was Louis B. Mayer, who bought the rights to distribute The Birth of a Nation in New England. With the money he made, he was able to begin his career as a producer that culminated in the creation of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.
However, after seeing The Birth of a Nation, audiences in some major northern cities also responded by rioting over the film's racial content. After The Birth of a Nation had run its course in theaters, Griffith responded to the negative reception through his next film Intolerance, which attacked the institution of slavery. However, Intolerance was not a success. Like The Birth Of A Nation, Griffith put a huge budget into the film's production, which was also a key factor in it's failure at the box office. Soon after, the production partnership was dissolved, so Griffith went to Artcraft (part of Paramount), then to First National. At the same time he founded United Artists, together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. At United Artists, Griffith continued to make films, but never could achieve box office grosses as high as either The Birth of The Nation or Intolerance.
Though United Artists survived as a company, Griffith's association with it was short-lived, and while some of his later films did well at the box office, commercial success often eluded him. Features of Griffith from this period include Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921) and America (1924); the earlier three were successes at the box office.
In 1924, Griffith was forced to leave United Artists after Isn't Life Wonderful failed at the box office, and accepted return to Paramount as a director. Griffith made only two sound films, Abraham Lincoln (1930) and The Struggle (1931). Neither was successful, and he never made another film. For the last seventeen years of his life he lived as a virtual hermit in Los Angeles.
Death
He died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1948 on his way to a Hollywood hospital from the Knickerbocker Hotel where he had been living alone. He is buried at Mount Tabor Methodist Church Graveyard in Crestwood, Kentucky.
Achievements
D. W. Griffith has been called the father of film grammar. Few scholars still hold that his "innovations" really began with him, but Griffith was a key figure in establishing the set of codes that have become the universal backbone of film language. He was particularly influential in popularizing "cross-cutting"—using film editing to alternate between different events occurring at the same time—in order to build suspense. Some also claim, that he "invented" the close-up shot. He used many elements from the "primitive" style of movie-making that predated classical Hollywood's continuity system, such as frontal staging, exaggerated gestures, minimal camera movement, and an absence of point of view shots.
Legacy
Motion picture legend Charles Chaplin called Griffith "The Teacher of us All". This sentiment was widely shared. Filmmakers as diverse as John Ford and Orson Welles have spoken of their respect for the director of Intolerance. Whether or not he actually invented new techniques in film grammar, he seems to have been among the first to understand how these techniques could be used to create an expressive language.
In early shorts such as Biograph's The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) which was the first "Gangster film", we can see how Griffith's attention to camera placement and lighting, heighten mood and tension. In making Intolerance the director opened up new possibilities for the medium, creating a form that seems to owe more to music than to traditional narrative. Griffith was honored on a 10-cent postage stamp by the United States issued May 5, 1975.
In 1953, the Directors Guild of America instituted the D.W. Griffith Award. Its recipients included Woody Allen, Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, Ingmar Bergman, and Alfred Hitchcock. In Dec 1999, however, DGA President Jack Shea and the DGA National Board—announced that the award would be renamed the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award because Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation had "helped foster intolerable racial stereotypes".
Film Preservation
D.W. Griffith has five films preserved in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". These films are Lady Helen's Escapade (1909), A Corner in Wheat (1909), The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916), and Broken Blossoms (1919).
ALFRED HITCHCOCK
Hitchcock, Sir Alfred
born Aug. 13, 1899, London
died April 29, 1980, Bel Air, Calif., U.S.
English-born motion-picture director whose suspenseful films won immense popularity.
The son of a London poultry dealer, Hitchcock attended St. Ignatius College, London, and the University of London, where he studied engineering. In 1920 he began to work in the motion-picture industry, designing title cards for the Famous Players-Lasky Company. Within a few years he had become a scenario writer and an assistant director, and he directed his first film (The Pleasure Garden) in 1925. With The Lodger (1926), the story of a family who mistakenly suspect their roomer to be Jack the Ripper, Hitchcock began making the “thrillers” with which he was to become identified. His Blackmail was the first successful British talking picture.
During the 1930s he directed such classic suspense films as The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Thirty-nine Steps, Sabotage, and The Lady Vanishes. In 1939 Hitchcock left England for Hollywood, where his first film, Rebecca (1940), won an Academy Award for best picture.
During the next three decades Hitchcock usually made a film a year in the Hollywood motion-picture system. Among the important films he directed during the 1940s were Suspicion , Shadow of a Doubt , Lifeboat , Spellbound , and Rope .
He began functioning as his own producer in 1948, and he went on in the 1950s to make a series of big-budget suspense films starring some of the leading actors and actresses of Hollywood. These films include Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder , Rear Window , To Catch a Thief , The Man Who Knew Too Much (a remake of the 1934 film), Vertigo, and North by Northwest .
In the 1960s Hitchcock turned to making thrillers with new and original emphases, among them Psycho , The Birds , and Marnie . His Torn Curtain and Topaz are conventional espionage stories, while in his last films, Frenzy and Family Plot , he returned to his original themes. From the 1940s on Hitchcock usually made a fleeting, wordless appearance in a bit part in each of his films.
Hitchcock's films usually centre on either murder or espionage, with deception, mistaken identities, and chase sequences complicating and enlivening the plot. Wry touches of humour and occasional intrusions of the macabre(horrid) complete this mixture of cinematic elements.
Three main themes predominate in Hitchcock's films. The most common is that of the innocent man who is mistakenly suspected or accused of a crime and who must then track down the real perpetrator in order to clear himself. Examples of films having this theme include The Lodger, The Thirty-nine Steps, Saboteur, Strangers on a Train, I Confess, To Catch a Thief, The Wrong Man, North by Northwest, and Frenzy.
The second theme is that of the guilty woman who enmeshes a male protagonist and ends up either destroying him or being saved by him; examples of this theme include Blackmail, Sabotage, Notorious, Rebecca, Vertigo, and Marnie. The third theme is that of the murderer(frequently psychopathic) whose identity is established during the working out of the plot; examples of this theme include Shadow of a Doubt, Rope, Rear Window, and Psycho. The psychopathic killer theme may sometimes be combined with the plot of the falsely accused innocent man, as in Frenzy.
Hitchcock's greatest gift was his mastery of the technical means to build and maintain suspense. To this end he used innovative camera viewpoints and movements, elaborate editing techniques, and effective soundtrack music. He had a sound grasp of human psychology, as manifested both in his credible treatment of everyday life and in the tense and nightmarish situations encountered in his more chilling films. His ability to convincingly evoke human menace, subterfuge, and fear gave his psychological thrillers great impact while maintaining their subtlety and believability.
Hitchcock produced several popular American television series in the 1950s and '60s, which he introduced and sometimes directed. His name also appeared on a series of mystery-story anthologies. He received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1979 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1980.
Signature appearances in his films
Many of Hitchcock's films contain cameo appearances by Hitchcock himself: the director would be seen for a brief moment boarding a bus, crossing in front of a building, standing in an apartment across the courtyard, or appearing in a photograph. This playful gesture became one of Hitchcock's signatures. As a recurring theme he would carry a musical instrument — especially memorable was the large double bass case that he wrestles onto the train at the beginning of Strangers on a Train.
In his earliest appearances he would fill in as an obscure extra, standing in a crowd or walking through a scene in a long camera shot (e.g. in his film The Lodger). But he became more prominent in his later appearances, as when he turns to see Jane Wyman's disguise when she passes him on the street in Stage Fright, and in stark silhouette in his final film Family Plot.
Cinematic experimentation
Hitchcock seemed to delight in the technical challenges of filmmaking. In the film Lifeboat, Hitchcock stages the entire action of the movie in a small boat, yet manages to keep the cinematography from monotonous repetition (his trademark cameo appearance was a dilemma, given the limitations of the setting; so Hitchcock appears in a fictitious newspaper ad for a weight loss product). Similarly, the entire action in Rear Window either takes place or is seen from a single apartment.
In Spellbound, two unprecedented point-of-view shots were achieved by constructing a large wooden hand (which would appear to belong to the character whose point of view the camera took) and outsized props for it to hold: a bucket-sized glass of milk and a large wooden gun. For added novelty and impact, the climactic gunshot was hand-coloured red on some copies of the black-and-white print of the film.
Rope was another technical challenge: a film that appears to have been shot entirely in a single take. The film was actually shot in 10 takes of ranging from four and half to 10 minutes each, 10 minutes being the maximum amount of film that would fit in a single camera reel; some transitions between reels were hidden by having a dark object fill the entire screen for a moment. Hitchcock used those points to hide the cut, and began the next take with the camera in the same place.
His 1958 film Vertigo contains a camera technique that has been imitated and re-used many times by filmmakers, it has become known as the Hitchcock zoom.
Character and its effects on his films
Hitchcock's films sometimes feature characters struggling in their relationships with their mothers. In North by Northwest ,Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant's character) is an innocent man ridiculed by his mother for insisting that shadowy, murderous men are after him (in this case, they are). The killer in Frenzy has a loathing of women but idolizes his mother. The villain Bruno in Strangers on a Train hates his father, but has an incredibly close relationship with his mother . And, of course, Norman Bates' troubles with his mother in Psycho are infamous.
Hitchcock heroines tend to be lovely, cool blondes who seem proper at first but, when aroused by passion or danger, respond in a more sensual, animal, or even criminal way. As noted, the famous victims in The Lodger are all blondes. In The 39 Steps,Hitchcock's glamorous blonde star, Madeleine Carroll, is put in handcuffs. In Marnie , the title character (played by Tippi Hedren) is a kleptomaniac. In To Catch a Thief , Francie (Grace Kelly) offers to help a man she believes is a cat burglar. And, most notoriously, in Psycho, Janet Leigh's unfortunate character steals $40,000 and is murdered by a reclusive lunatic.
Storyboards and production
Hitchcock would storyboard each movie down to the finest detail. He was reported to have never even bothered looking through the viewfinder, since he didn't need to do so, though in publicity photos he was shown doing so. He also used this as an excuse to never have to change his films from his initial vision. If a studio asked him to change a film, he would claim that it was already shot in a single way, and that there were no alternate takes to consider.
However this view of Hitchcock as a director who relied more on pre-production than on the actual production itself has been challenged by the book Hitchcock At Work written by Bill Krohn, the American correspondent of Cahiers du Cinema. Krohn after investigating several script revisions, notes to other production personnel written by or to Hitchcock alongside inspection of storyboards and other production material has observed that Hitchcock's work often deviated from how the screenplay was written or how the film was originally envisioned. He noted that the myth of storyboards in relation to Hitchcock, often regurgitated by generations of commentators on Hitchcock's movies was to a great degree perpetuated by Hitchcock himself or the publicity arm of the studios. A great example would be the famous cropduster sequence of North by Northwest which wasn't storyboarded at all. After the scene was filmed, the publicity arm asked Hitchcock to make storyboards to promote the film and Hitchcock in turn hired an artist to match the scenes in detail. While Hitchcock did do a great deal of preparation for all his movies, he was fully cognizant that the actual film-making process often deviated from the best laid plans and was flexible to adapt to the changes and needs of production. Even on the occasions when storyboards were made, the scene which was shot did differ from it significantly.
* Montage is a technique in film editing that can refer to:
a montage sequence, a segment which uses rapid editing, special effects and music to present compressed narrative information
* Mise-en-scène is a French term and originates in the theater. It means, literally, "put in the scene." For film, it has a broader meaning, and refers to almost everything that goes into the composition of the shot, including the composition itself: framing, movement of the camera and characters, lighting, set design and gen eral visual environment, even sound as it helps elaborate the composition. Mise-en-scène can be defined as the articulation of cinematic space, and it is precisely space that it is about. Cutting is about time; the shot is about what occurs in a defined area of space, bordered by the frame of the movie screen and determined by what the camera has been made to record. That space, the mise-en-scène, can be unique, closed off by the frame, or open, providing the illusion of more space around it.
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a 1956 suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. The film is a remake in widescreen VistaVision and Technicolor of Hitchcock's 1934 film of the same name.
In this newer version, one of the most financially successful films of its year of release, Brenda De Banzie and Bernard Miles play an apparently benign British married couple, Christopher Olsen plays the son of Day and Stewart, and Reggie Nalder and Daniel Gélin are featured as assassins.
In the book-length interview, Hitchcock/Truffaut (1967), Hitchcock told fellow filmmaker François Truffaut that he considered his 1956 remake to be superior, saying that the 1934 version was the work of a talented amateur, the 1956 version the work of a professional.
The film won an Academy Award for Best Song for "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," sung by Doris Day at several points in the action.
Plot
An American family, Dr. Ben McKenna (James Stewart), his wife Jo (Doris Day) and their son Hank (Christopher Olsen) are on vacation, traveling in Morocco. They befriend a fellow traveler, the mysterious Louis Bernard (Daniel Gelin), on a bus. Later that same day, the couple meets another vacationing couple, the Draytons (Bernard Miles and Brenda de Banzie), at dinner in a local restaurant.
The next day, outdoors in a busy Marrakesh marketplace, the McKennas are shocked to witness the assassination of a spy. Before dying, the spy whispers into Ben McKenna's ear a terrible secret: that someone's life is in danger. The Draytons, who are not nearly as wholesome and innocent as they seem, kidnap the boy Hank in order to be able to pressure Dr. McKenna into not telling the local police what he has learned.
After following a number of leads, McKenna tracks the kidnappers to a simple old church, where Drayton is posing as the minister. Ben escapes, and learns that the Draytons are involved in a plot to assassinate a European head of state, on the orders of that country's ambassador, during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, where the film's famous climax takes place.
Ben and Jo separately track the killer to the concert, where he is to shoot the head of state at the exact moment of time when the music features a loud and climatic cymbal crash. However, in the musical pause right before the cymbal crash, Jo screams. The sudden unexpected sound causes the assassin to misfire. Ben chases the assassin through the seats and finally the assassin falls to his death from the balcony of the theater.
The couple then track the kidnappers to the ambassador's place in London, where they are welcomed as heroes for saving the head of state's life. Mrs. Drayton, unable to be complicit in the plan to kill Hank, helps the boy find his father. Mr. Drayton tries to escape with the two as hostages, but is struck by Ben and falls down the stairs to his death.
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In The Man Who Knew Too Much he can be seen (25 minutes into the film) watching acrobats in the Moroccan marketplace, with his back to the camera, just before the spy is killed.
Music
Music plays an important part in this film.Although the film's composer, Bernard Herrmann, wrote relatively little "background" music for this film, the performance of Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds, conducted by Herrmann, is the climax of the film. In addition, Doris Day's character is a well-known, now retired, professional singer. Several times in the film, she sings the Livingston & Evans song "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" which won the 1956 Best Song Oscar under the alternate title "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)." The song reached number two on the U.S. pop charts and number one in the UK.
Bernard Herrmann was given the option of composing a new cantata to be performed during the film's climax. However, he found Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds from the original 1934 film to be so well suited to the film that he declined. Herrmann can be seen conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and singers during the Royal Albert Hall scenes. The sequence in Albert Hall runs 12 minutes without any dialogue, from the beginning of Storm Clouds until the climax, when the Doris Day character screams.
born Aug. 13, 1899, London
died April 29, 1980, Bel Air, Calif., U.S.
English-born motion-picture director whose suspenseful films won immense popularity.
The son of a London poultry dealer, Hitchcock attended St. Ignatius College, London, and the University of London, where he studied engineering. In 1920 he began to work in the motion-picture industry, designing title cards for the Famous Players-Lasky Company. Within a few years he had become a scenario writer and an assistant director, and he directed his first film (The Pleasure Garden) in 1925. With The Lodger (1926), the story of a family who mistakenly suspect their roomer to be Jack the Ripper, Hitchcock began making the “thrillers” with which he was to become identified. His Blackmail was the first successful British talking picture.
During the 1930s he directed such classic suspense films as The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Thirty-nine Steps, Sabotage, and The Lady Vanishes. In 1939 Hitchcock left England for Hollywood, where his first film, Rebecca (1940), won an Academy Award for best picture.
During the next three decades Hitchcock usually made a film a year in the Hollywood motion-picture system. Among the important films he directed during the 1940s were Suspicion , Shadow of a Doubt , Lifeboat , Spellbound , and Rope .
He began functioning as his own producer in 1948, and he went on in the 1950s to make a series of big-budget suspense films starring some of the leading actors and actresses of Hollywood. These films include Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder , Rear Window , To Catch a Thief , The Man Who Knew Too Much (a remake of the 1934 film), Vertigo, and North by Northwest .
In the 1960s Hitchcock turned to making thrillers with new and original emphases, among them Psycho , The Birds , and Marnie . His Torn Curtain and Topaz are conventional espionage stories, while in his last films, Frenzy and Family Plot , he returned to his original themes. From the 1940s on Hitchcock usually made a fleeting, wordless appearance in a bit part in each of his films.
Hitchcock's films usually centre on either murder or espionage, with deception, mistaken identities, and chase sequences complicating and enlivening the plot. Wry touches of humour and occasional intrusions of the macabre(horrid) complete this mixture of cinematic elements.
Three main themes predominate in Hitchcock's films. The most common is that of the innocent man who is mistakenly suspected or accused of a crime and who must then track down the real perpetrator in order to clear himself. Examples of films having this theme include The Lodger, The Thirty-nine Steps, Saboteur, Strangers on a Train, I Confess, To Catch a Thief, The Wrong Man, North by Northwest, and Frenzy.
The second theme is that of the guilty woman who enmeshes a male protagonist and ends up either destroying him or being saved by him; examples of this theme include Blackmail, Sabotage, Notorious, Rebecca, Vertigo, and Marnie. The third theme is that of the murderer(frequently psychopathic) whose identity is established during the working out of the plot; examples of this theme include Shadow of a Doubt, Rope, Rear Window, and Psycho. The psychopathic killer theme may sometimes be combined with the plot of the falsely accused innocent man, as in Frenzy.
Hitchcock's greatest gift was his mastery of the technical means to build and maintain suspense. To this end he used innovative camera viewpoints and movements, elaborate editing techniques, and effective soundtrack music. He had a sound grasp of human psychology, as manifested both in his credible treatment of everyday life and in the tense and nightmarish situations encountered in his more chilling films. His ability to convincingly evoke human menace, subterfuge, and fear gave his psychological thrillers great impact while maintaining their subtlety and believability.
Hitchcock produced several popular American television series in the 1950s and '60s, which he introduced and sometimes directed. His name also appeared on a series of mystery-story anthologies. He received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1979 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1980.
Signature appearances in his films
Many of Hitchcock's films contain cameo appearances by Hitchcock himself: the director would be seen for a brief moment boarding a bus, crossing in front of a building, standing in an apartment across the courtyard, or appearing in a photograph. This playful gesture became one of Hitchcock's signatures. As a recurring theme he would carry a musical instrument — especially memorable was the large double bass case that he wrestles onto the train at the beginning of Strangers on a Train.
In his earliest appearances he would fill in as an obscure extra, standing in a crowd or walking through a scene in a long camera shot (e.g. in his film The Lodger). But he became more prominent in his later appearances, as when he turns to see Jane Wyman's disguise when she passes him on the street in Stage Fright, and in stark silhouette in his final film Family Plot.
Cinematic experimentation
Hitchcock seemed to delight in the technical challenges of filmmaking. In the film Lifeboat, Hitchcock stages the entire action of the movie in a small boat, yet manages to keep the cinematography from monotonous repetition (his trademark cameo appearance was a dilemma, given the limitations of the setting; so Hitchcock appears in a fictitious newspaper ad for a weight loss product). Similarly, the entire action in Rear Window either takes place or is seen from a single apartment.
In Spellbound, two unprecedented point-of-view shots were achieved by constructing a large wooden hand (which would appear to belong to the character whose point of view the camera took) and outsized props for it to hold: a bucket-sized glass of milk and a large wooden gun. For added novelty and impact, the climactic gunshot was hand-coloured red on some copies of the black-and-white print of the film.
Rope was another technical challenge: a film that appears to have been shot entirely in a single take. The film was actually shot in 10 takes of ranging from four and half to 10 minutes each, 10 minutes being the maximum amount of film that would fit in a single camera reel; some transitions between reels were hidden by having a dark object fill the entire screen for a moment. Hitchcock used those points to hide the cut, and began the next take with the camera in the same place.
His 1958 film Vertigo contains a camera technique that has been imitated and re-used many times by filmmakers, it has become known as the Hitchcock zoom.
Character and its effects on his films
Hitchcock's films sometimes feature characters struggling in their relationships with their mothers. In North by Northwest ,Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant's character) is an innocent man ridiculed by his mother for insisting that shadowy, murderous men are after him (in this case, they are). The killer in Frenzy has a loathing of women but idolizes his mother. The villain Bruno in Strangers on a Train hates his father, but has an incredibly close relationship with his mother . And, of course, Norman Bates' troubles with his mother in Psycho are infamous.
Hitchcock heroines tend to be lovely, cool blondes who seem proper at first but, when aroused by passion or danger, respond in a more sensual, animal, or even criminal way. As noted, the famous victims in The Lodger are all blondes. In The 39 Steps,Hitchcock's glamorous blonde star, Madeleine Carroll, is put in handcuffs. In Marnie , the title character (played by Tippi Hedren) is a kleptomaniac. In To Catch a Thief , Francie (Grace Kelly) offers to help a man she believes is a cat burglar. And, most notoriously, in Psycho, Janet Leigh's unfortunate character steals $40,000 and is murdered by a reclusive lunatic.
Storyboards and production
Hitchcock would storyboard each movie down to the finest detail. He was reported to have never even bothered looking through the viewfinder, since he didn't need to do so, though in publicity photos he was shown doing so. He also used this as an excuse to never have to change his films from his initial vision. If a studio asked him to change a film, he would claim that it was already shot in a single way, and that there were no alternate takes to consider.
However this view of Hitchcock as a director who relied more on pre-production than on the actual production itself has been challenged by the book Hitchcock At Work written by Bill Krohn, the American correspondent of Cahiers du Cinema. Krohn after investigating several script revisions, notes to other production personnel written by or to Hitchcock alongside inspection of storyboards and other production material has observed that Hitchcock's work often deviated from how the screenplay was written or how the film was originally envisioned. He noted that the myth of storyboards in relation to Hitchcock, often regurgitated by generations of commentators on Hitchcock's movies was to a great degree perpetuated by Hitchcock himself or the publicity arm of the studios. A great example would be the famous cropduster sequence of North by Northwest which wasn't storyboarded at all. After the scene was filmed, the publicity arm asked Hitchcock to make storyboards to promote the film and Hitchcock in turn hired an artist to match the scenes in detail. While Hitchcock did do a great deal of preparation for all his movies, he was fully cognizant that the actual film-making process often deviated from the best laid plans and was flexible to adapt to the changes and needs of production. Even on the occasions when storyboards were made, the scene which was shot did differ from it significantly.
* Montage is a technique in film editing that can refer to:
a montage sequence, a segment which uses rapid editing, special effects and music to present compressed narrative information
* Mise-en-scène is a French term and originates in the theater. It means, literally, "put in the scene." For film, it has a broader meaning, and refers to almost everything that goes into the composition of the shot, including the composition itself: framing, movement of the camera and characters, lighting, set design and gen eral visual environment, even sound as it helps elaborate the composition. Mise-en-scène can be defined as the articulation of cinematic space, and it is precisely space that it is about. Cutting is about time; the shot is about what occurs in a defined area of space, bordered by the frame of the movie screen and determined by what the camera has been made to record. That space, the mise-en-scène, can be unique, closed off by the frame, or open, providing the illusion of more space around it.
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a 1956 suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. The film is a remake in widescreen VistaVision and Technicolor of Hitchcock's 1934 film of the same name.
In this newer version, one of the most financially successful films of its year of release, Brenda De Banzie and Bernard Miles play an apparently benign British married couple, Christopher Olsen plays the son of Day and Stewart, and Reggie Nalder and Daniel Gélin are featured as assassins.
In the book-length interview, Hitchcock/Truffaut (1967), Hitchcock told fellow filmmaker François Truffaut that he considered his 1956 remake to be superior, saying that the 1934 version was the work of a talented amateur, the 1956 version the work of a professional.
The film won an Academy Award for Best Song for "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," sung by Doris Day at several points in the action.
Plot
An American family, Dr. Ben McKenna (James Stewart), his wife Jo (Doris Day) and their son Hank (Christopher Olsen) are on vacation, traveling in Morocco. They befriend a fellow traveler, the mysterious Louis Bernard (Daniel Gelin), on a bus. Later that same day, the couple meets another vacationing couple, the Draytons (Bernard Miles and Brenda de Banzie), at dinner in a local restaurant.
The next day, outdoors in a busy Marrakesh marketplace, the McKennas are shocked to witness the assassination of a spy. Before dying, the spy whispers into Ben McKenna's ear a terrible secret: that someone's life is in danger. The Draytons, who are not nearly as wholesome and innocent as they seem, kidnap the boy Hank in order to be able to pressure Dr. McKenna into not telling the local police what he has learned.
After following a number of leads, McKenna tracks the kidnappers to a simple old church, where Drayton is posing as the minister. Ben escapes, and learns that the Draytons are involved in a plot to assassinate a European head of state, on the orders of that country's ambassador, during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, where the film's famous climax takes place.
Ben and Jo separately track the killer to the concert, where he is to shoot the head of state at the exact moment of time when the music features a loud and climatic cymbal crash. However, in the musical pause right before the cymbal crash, Jo screams. The sudden unexpected sound causes the assassin to misfire. Ben chases the assassin through the seats and finally the assassin falls to his death from the balcony of the theater.
The couple then track the kidnappers to the ambassador's place in London, where they are welcomed as heroes for saving the head of state's life. Mrs. Drayton, unable to be complicit in the plan to kill Hank, helps the boy find his father. Mr. Drayton tries to escape with the two as hostages, but is struck by Ben and falls down the stairs to his death.
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In The Man Who Knew Too Much he can be seen (25 minutes into the film) watching acrobats in the Moroccan marketplace, with his back to the camera, just before the spy is killed.
Music
Music plays an important part in this film.Although the film's composer, Bernard Herrmann, wrote relatively little "background" music for this film, the performance of Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds, conducted by Herrmann, is the climax of the film. In addition, Doris Day's character is a well-known, now retired, professional singer. Several times in the film, she sings the Livingston & Evans song "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" which won the 1956 Best Song Oscar under the alternate title "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)." The song reached number two on the U.S. pop charts and number one in the UK.
Bernard Herrmann was given the option of composing a new cantata to be performed during the film's climax. However, he found Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds from the original 1934 film to be so well suited to the film that he declined. Herrmann can be seen conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and singers during the Royal Albert Hall scenes. The sequence in Albert Hall runs 12 minutes without any dialogue, from the beginning of Storm Clouds until the climax, when the Doris Day character screams.
WATERGATE SCANDAL
Watergate Scandal
Watergate Scandal
(1972–75), U.S. political scandal surrounding the revelation of illegal activities on the part of the incumbent(serving/sitting) Republican administration of President Richard M. Nixon during and after the 1972 presidential election campaign.
The matter was first brought to public attention by the arrest of five men who, on June 17, 1972, broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate, an office–apartment–hotel complex in Washington, D.C. Within a few days of their arrest at the Watergate, charges of burglary and wiretapping were brought against the five and against E. Howard Hunt, Jr., a former White House aide, and G. Gordon Liddy, general counsel for the Committee for the Re-election of the President. All seven were tried before Judge John J. Sirica, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in January 1973. During the months between their arrest and their trial, President Nixon and his aides had denied that anyone in the administration had been involved, despite persistent press reports to the contrary, especially in The Washington Post.
Of the seven, five pleaded guilty and two were convicted by a jury.
At sentencing on March 23, 1973, Sirica read a letter from one of the defendants, James W. McCord, Jr., which charged that the White House had been conducting a “cover-up” to conceal its connection with the break-in. McCord also charged that the seven defendants had been pressured by the White House to plead guilty and remain silent.
With the White House now clearly implicated, President Nixon on April 1973, announced that he had begun a new investigation. White House press secretary Ronald L. Ziegler said that all previous statements issued by the executive branch regarding Watergate were “inoperative.” After two weeks, Nixon issued a public statement that he took responsibility for the actions of staff members implicated in the case. Nixon, however, denied any personal knowledge of either the campaign of political espionage(spying) or the attempts to conceal any wrongdoing.
However, Alexander P. Butterfield, formerly of the White House staff, disclosed that conversations in the president's offices had secretly been recorded on tape.
When the tapes were subpoenaed for, Nixon refused on the grounds of executive privilege and national security. When Judge Sirica ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes and that order was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals, Nixon offered instead to provide written summaries of the tapes in question in return for an agreement that no further presidential documents would be sought.
A storm of public protest pressured Nixon into releasing the tapes on December 8, but of the nine tapes specified in Sirica's order, only seven were delivered (the White House claimed the other two had never existed); and one of the seven contained a gap that, according to a later report by a panel of experts, could not have been made accidentally.
By the beginning of 1974, several former White House aides were either under indictment or had pleaded guilty to charges stemming from Watergate. The term itself had come to denote not merely the original break-in but also more or less related allegations of misconduct, including the purchase of governmental favours with campaign contributions and other “dirty tricks” of the 1972 campaign. On August 1974 the President supplied transcripts of three tapes that clearly implicated him in the cover-up. With these revelations, Nixon's last support in Congress evaporated. He announced his resignation on August 8, stating that he “no longer had a strong enough political base” with which to govern. He left office at 11:35 AM the following day, August 9.
Former President Nixon was spared any further punishment when his successor, Gerald R. Ford, granted an unconditional pardon on September 8, 1974.
Watergate Scandal
(1972–75), U.S. political scandal surrounding the revelation of illegal activities on the part of the incumbent(serving/sitting) Republican administration of President Richard M. Nixon during and after the 1972 presidential election campaign.
The matter was first brought to public attention by the arrest of five men who, on June 17, 1972, broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate, an office–apartment–hotel complex in Washington, D.C. Within a few days of their arrest at the Watergate, charges of burglary and wiretapping were brought against the five and against E. Howard Hunt, Jr., a former White House aide, and G. Gordon Liddy, general counsel for the Committee for the Re-election of the President. All seven were tried before Judge John J. Sirica, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in January 1973. During the months between their arrest and their trial, President Nixon and his aides had denied that anyone in the administration had been involved, despite persistent press reports to the contrary, especially in The Washington Post.
Of the seven, five pleaded guilty and two were convicted by a jury.
At sentencing on March 23, 1973, Sirica read a letter from one of the defendants, James W. McCord, Jr., which charged that the White House had been conducting a “cover-up” to conceal its connection with the break-in. McCord also charged that the seven defendants had been pressured by the White House to plead guilty and remain silent.
With the White House now clearly implicated, President Nixon on April 1973, announced that he had begun a new investigation. White House press secretary Ronald L. Ziegler said that all previous statements issued by the executive branch regarding Watergate were “inoperative.” After two weeks, Nixon issued a public statement that he took responsibility for the actions of staff members implicated in the case. Nixon, however, denied any personal knowledge of either the campaign of political espionage(spying) or the attempts to conceal any wrongdoing.
However, Alexander P. Butterfield, formerly of the White House staff, disclosed that conversations in the president's offices had secretly been recorded on tape.
When the tapes were subpoenaed for, Nixon refused on the grounds of executive privilege and national security. When Judge Sirica ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes and that order was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals, Nixon offered instead to provide written summaries of the tapes in question in return for an agreement that no further presidential documents would be sought.
A storm of public protest pressured Nixon into releasing the tapes on December 8, but of the nine tapes specified in Sirica's order, only seven were delivered (the White House claimed the other two had never existed); and one of the seven contained a gap that, according to a later report by a panel of experts, could not have been made accidentally.
By the beginning of 1974, several former White House aides were either under indictment or had pleaded guilty to charges stemming from Watergate. The term itself had come to denote not merely the original break-in but also more or less related allegations of misconduct, including the purchase of governmental favours with campaign contributions and other “dirty tricks” of the 1972 campaign. On August 1974 the President supplied transcripts of three tapes that clearly implicated him in the cover-up. With these revelations, Nixon's last support in Congress evaporated. He announced his resignation on August 8, stating that he “no longer had a strong enough political base” with which to govern. He left office at 11:35 AM the following day, August 9.
Former President Nixon was spared any further punishment when his successor, Gerald R. Ford, granted an unconditional pardon on September 8, 1974.
MALAYALA MANORAMA
Doctrina Christam written in "Malayalam Tamul" by Fr. Henrique Henriques, a Jesuit priest is believed to be the first book to be printed in Kerala. Tamil language has been called Lingua Malabar Tamul in the book since Malabar was a synonym for Kerala and it included native States of Travancore, Cochin as well as Malabar district which was once part of Madras Presidency. This was in the year 1578 at Kollam. However, the first Malayalam book came out in 1824 from CMS Press, Kottayam founded by Benjamin Bailey in the year 1821.
Kottayam is also the place where Malayala Manorama was started from on 22 March, 1890 by Kandathil Varghese Mappillai as a weekly. This became a daily in 1928 and is the largest circulating daily of Kerala today. In addition, Manorama is Kerala's largest selling and most widely read newspaper. This is also India's largest circulated "regional newspaper". The Manorama group publishes it. It is the first joint stock publishing company of Republic of India.
“Malayala” is the adjective form (in Malayalam language) of the word Malayalam (Noun). “Manorama” is a word of Sanskrit origin. It means pleasing or delightful to the mind. So put together, “Malayala Manorama” means “all things pleasing to the mind” as well as “related to Malayalam”.
Like any typical broadsheet newspaper, the Malayala Manorama also is exactly eight columns wide. The lead story covers up almost entire half of the first page, which makes it almost seven columns wide. All the stories have byline and cutline. But most of the stories are without dateline. Wherever appropriate reports are provided with a drop head. The stories are also provided with jump and jumpline.
A) Flag
Flag is the name of the newspaper as it is displayed on page one. It is also called as nameplate.
Malayala Manorama flag is the name itself written in bold black letters (in the Malayalam script) with the official logo in between the two parts of the name. The logo of Malayala Manorama is actually a slight variation of the Royal Coat of Arms which was awarded by the Maharaja of Travancore.
B) Banner
Banner is a wide headline extending across the entire page.
The banner of Malayala Manorama unlike English language newspapers is sometimes printed in color.
C) Headline
Headline is a large type running above a story to summarize its content. It is also called a ‘head’ for short.
In Malayala Manorama’s case, the whole newspaper is filled with colorful headlines ranging from magenta to purple color.
D) Sidebar
A sidebar is small story accompanying a bigger story on the same topic. Malayala Manorama always puts a sidebar in stories of prime importance.
E) Layout
The layout of the newspaper is neat, colorful and clutter-free.
Usually there’s a single ad ( the Solus ad) on the bottom right of the front page. Malayala
Manorama mainly places advertisements of educational institutions instead of commercial products on the front page. The bottom left contains caricatures.
There is also a small strip running vertically from top to bottom but its not an index.
F) Folio
It is the type at the top of an inside page giving the newspaper’s name, date and page number. Recently, after the launch of Malayala Manorama’s website the folio has undergone slight changes. It now includes the official website’s link too.
G) Political Affiliation
The Malayala Manorama is not surreptitious about its support for the Congress Party. Although the newspaper has been criticized a lot for this, supporters of the paper claim that it is not doing anything wrong. All the other major newspapers of Kerala including Matrubhoomi support the left party and sugarcoat their bad deeds.
E) Circulation and Readership
Malayala Manorama enjoys a readership of over 15 million on a circulation base of over 15 lakhs copies. It is the only daily in Kerala, and one of the few in India, to have such an enormous following. In fact, it is the largest circulated regional language daily in India and reaches 63% of all newspaper readers and 39% of all adults in Kerala.
F) Achayan Paper
This is a derogatory term tagged for Malayala Manorama. Basically it means that the newspaper is pro-Christian. But at the same time Malayala Manorama is criticized for taking the side of rich Christians and not needy ones. The paper is also chided for helping Christian educational institutions to get more students through management seats. This system of procuring seats through the management quota involves heavy handling of money and also results in brilliant and capable students getting rejected.
G) Advertisements
Malayala Manorama has consistently enjoyed the largest share of the advertising pie, more than any other newspaper or any television channel in Kerala.
The daily has looked for novel ways to absorb the inflow of advertising. One such innovation is the twin issues – two newspapers with the same nameplate and layout – brought out during festival time, when demand for premium positions is high. This gives the readers two newspapers for the price of one, the advertisers their preferred positions and the newspaper itself, optimum revenues during the peak season of the year.
H) Journalists
Prominent journalists who have worked with the Manorama daily or other Manorama publications include Vaikkom Chandrasekharan Nair, E.V. Krishna Pillai, E.V.Sreedharan, T.V.R. Shenoy, K.Gopalakrishnan, Babu Chengannoor , K.R. Chummar, Moorkoth Kunjappa, K.M.Tharakan, T.K.G. Nair, K.G Nedungadi, V.K. Bhargavan Nair and K. Padmanabhan Nair.
Kottayam is also the place where Malayala Manorama was started from on 22 March, 1890 by Kandathil Varghese Mappillai as a weekly. This became a daily in 1928 and is the largest circulating daily of Kerala today. In addition, Manorama is Kerala's largest selling and most widely read newspaper. This is also India's largest circulated "regional newspaper". The Manorama group publishes it. It is the first joint stock publishing company of Republic of India.
“Malayala” is the adjective form (in Malayalam language) of the word Malayalam (Noun). “Manorama” is a word of Sanskrit origin. It means pleasing or delightful to the mind. So put together, “Malayala Manorama” means “all things pleasing to the mind” as well as “related to Malayalam”.
Like any typical broadsheet newspaper, the Malayala Manorama also is exactly eight columns wide. The lead story covers up almost entire half of the first page, which makes it almost seven columns wide. All the stories have byline and cutline. But most of the stories are without dateline. Wherever appropriate reports are provided with a drop head. The stories are also provided with jump and jumpline.
A) Flag
Flag is the name of the newspaper as it is displayed on page one. It is also called as nameplate.
Malayala Manorama flag is the name itself written in bold black letters (in the Malayalam script) with the official logo in between the two parts of the name. The logo of Malayala Manorama is actually a slight variation of the Royal Coat of Arms which was awarded by the Maharaja of Travancore.
B) Banner
Banner is a wide headline extending across the entire page.
The banner of Malayala Manorama unlike English language newspapers is sometimes printed in color.
C) Headline
Headline is a large type running above a story to summarize its content. It is also called a ‘head’ for short.
In Malayala Manorama’s case, the whole newspaper is filled with colorful headlines ranging from magenta to purple color.
D) Sidebar
A sidebar is small story accompanying a bigger story on the same topic. Malayala Manorama always puts a sidebar in stories of prime importance.
E) Layout
The layout of the newspaper is neat, colorful and clutter-free.
Usually there’s a single ad ( the Solus ad) on the bottom right of the front page. Malayala
Manorama mainly places advertisements of educational institutions instead of commercial products on the front page. The bottom left contains caricatures.
There is also a small strip running vertically from top to bottom but its not an index.
F) Folio
It is the type at the top of an inside page giving the newspaper’s name, date and page number. Recently, after the launch of Malayala Manorama’s website the folio has undergone slight changes. It now includes the official website’s link too.
G) Political Affiliation
The Malayala Manorama is not surreptitious about its support for the Congress Party. Although the newspaper has been criticized a lot for this, supporters of the paper claim that it is not doing anything wrong. All the other major newspapers of Kerala including Matrubhoomi support the left party and sugarcoat their bad deeds.
E) Circulation and Readership
Malayala Manorama enjoys a readership of over 15 million on a circulation base of over 15 lakhs copies. It is the only daily in Kerala, and one of the few in India, to have such an enormous following. In fact, it is the largest circulated regional language daily in India and reaches 63% of all newspaper readers and 39% of all adults in Kerala.
F) Achayan Paper
This is a derogatory term tagged for Malayala Manorama. Basically it means that the newspaper is pro-Christian. But at the same time Malayala Manorama is criticized for taking the side of rich Christians and not needy ones. The paper is also chided for helping Christian educational institutions to get more students through management seats. This system of procuring seats through the management quota involves heavy handling of money and also results in brilliant and capable students getting rejected.
G) Advertisements
Malayala Manorama has consistently enjoyed the largest share of the advertising pie, more than any other newspaper or any television channel in Kerala.
The daily has looked for novel ways to absorb the inflow of advertising. One such innovation is the twin issues – two newspapers with the same nameplate and layout – brought out during festival time, when demand for premium positions is high. This gives the readers two newspapers for the price of one, the advertisers their preferred positions and the newspaper itself, optimum revenues during the peak season of the year.
H) Journalists
Prominent journalists who have worked with the Manorama daily or other Manorama publications include Vaikkom Chandrasekharan Nair, E.V. Krishna Pillai, E.V.Sreedharan, T.V.R. Shenoy, K.Gopalakrishnan, Babu Chengannoor , K.R. Chummar, Moorkoth Kunjappa, K.M.Tharakan, T.K.G. Nair, K.G Nedungadi, V.K. Bhargavan Nair and K. Padmanabhan Nair.
TIMES OF INDIA VS LOKSATTA
TIMES OF INDIA VS LOKSATTA
I] ABOUT THE TIMES OF INDIA
“The Times of India” is started by Bennett, Coleman & Company, Limited. It was started long back in 1838. It is the oldest English Daily in India. It is also a great newspaper which played an important role in the development of Journalism in this country.
“The Times of India” contributed enormously to the freedom of India. “The Times of India” at that time belonged to the class of British-owned newspapers under the editorship of Thomas J. Bennett, who later became the sole proprietor of “The Times of India”, the paper maintained close relations with Indians, many of whom contributed to its columns. Bennett vastly improved the paper by bringing talented people from England among who was a master printer, F.M.Coleman, who had wide experience of daily newspapers in India to subscribe to Reuter’s news service.
“The Times of India” passed into Indian hands in 1946. Frank Moraes became the first editor when freedom came.
“The Times of India” today occupies a premier position and it has the largest circulation among English dailies.
”The Times of India” is having other publications like Maharashtra Times [Marathi Daily], Navbharat Times [Hindi], Economic Times [English] and Mumbai Mirror [Tabloid]. Other than newspapers Times has media publications in the form of Magazines, Radio F.M Channel, News-channel Times Now, Music venture Times Music and many more.
ABOUT LOKSATTA
Indian Express is a reputed English Daily in India. Indian Express Group felt the need of Regional Language Newspaper catering to Marathi speaking population. Then they started “Loksatta” in 1948 in Bombay. It was first Marathi Daily appear after Independence. Its first editor was T.V. Parvate. Its Sunday edition had a wide circulation. Then after “Loksatta” became Brand in Marathi Journalism and known for intellectual, in-depth analysis. Many prominent Journalists became Editors of this paper and give it distinct identity. Madhav Gadkari was one of the editors whose columns and editorials became famous and reprinted in the form of books. In the competition with other Marathi Newspaper “Loksatta” is number one. “Loksatta” is always active in Investigative Journalism as well as political ups-downs in Maharahtra.
II] Nameplates
The nameplate of this newspaper i.e. “THE TIMES OF INDIA” is set in Times New Roman Font. It is placed at the top of the first page in the center. It is black in colour with font size approximately 72. The width and length of the nameplate is about 2.5 cm into 26.5 cm respectively.
Just after the nameplate on the left side is printed the name of the owner of the paper that is “Bennett Coleman & Co, Limited. Besides that year of establishment 1838 is printed. Then Website address is given as “epaper.timesofindia.com” in the middle exactly above where the Edition center Day, Month, Date and Year are mentioned.
The nameplate of LOKSATTA is set in Loksatta’s own created font. It is placed at the top of the first page in center. It is black in colour with font size approximately 72. The width and length of the masthead is about 15.5cm * 20.5cm respectively. Just above the nameplate on left side there is address of website that is www.loksatta.com. Exact on the line below the nameplate is the Price of the Paper, Edition center, Day, Date, Month and Year.
III] First Page
First page considered a mirror. It reflects the name of the newspaper “The Times of India” and it’s known for its presentation.
Below the nameplate and masthead there is news-strip. This news-strip includes two news headlines and its related photo. The color combination of the news-strip is kept changing everyday. Sometimes it is red and blue. Some day it is grey and brown. Font size of the news-strip headline is 18. News-strip headline is important but not equally important as to get printed detailed on the first page.
To the left of the news-strip is the information bar. Information bar starts with News-Digest. News-digest is a list of small news items which is covered thoroughly in the inside pages. Sometimes News-Digest contains news, which comes at the time of going to print.
After that there is sometimes advertisement. After that there is Market Watch. As the name suggest it tells us information about Foreign Currency Rate, Rates of Gold & Silver plus situation of Sensex & Nifty. It also prints top gaining Companies & Firms.
Info-bar contains major substance which is appearing for years on the front page that is “You said it” cartoon column by R.K.Laxman. This column is highly popular among readers and many eagerly wait in the morning to read the pictorial comment on current situation. Common- man cartoon and readers have very special affiliation. Then there is “Indiatimes.com Poll” which shows results of question asked the previous day. People can register their vote through website or SMS. Moving down we come to “Weather”. It tells us information about Sunrise, Moonrise, Sunset & Moonset timings. It presents the forecast of the upcoming day. It also provides details of rainfall, humidity & temperature of selected cities. Between the “Weather” & “You Said It”, there is one small advertisement.
At the bottom of the Info-bar there is information provided about the number of pages that issue carries plus the related supplements. The last part gives us page number where there is “Classifieds” inside newspaper. Information Bar is useful as it provides information relating & affecting our life.
Loksatta does not have info-bar like “The Times of India”. Loksatta had such kind of info-bar but it was changed for the new look of the paper. It is because more space is given to the news. It does not have a news strip too. It has one head headline spanning the entire length of the newspaper.
IV] News Stories
As per news-value and the nature of the report layout changes from time to time. News of national importance mostly from political field captures the major space on front page. Parliament session, Election of Central or State government, New deals with foreign countries is part of the news, which usually appears on the first page.
News like India wins bronze at Olympics is presented on the first page in the form of photograph and report is printed in sports section. Always, News presented above the fold of the first page is hard news.
At the bottom of the first page there is soft news story called “Anchor”. This includes news about new trends, technology advancement, health and education related feature. 6-7 news stories are printed on the first page.
Times does not over use the space by giving “n” number of news on front page. Overall presentation looks sober and does not look gaudy. When one big photograph is printed then other stories carries small photograph.
By-line is not given to every news story. But every soft news story carries a by-line. Solus ad is the most expensive ad in the newspaper and it carries 10% of the first page. Right side bottom space is allotted for Solus ads.
As Loksatta is regional newspaper and its target audience is the Maharashtrian community news presented on front page is of regional importance than national importance. Layout of the front page keeps on changing. Sometimes a photograph with caption is printed in upper part of the front page where as some other day a detailed news report is printed with small photograph. Same like “The Times of India” Loksatta also covers 6-7 news stories on front page. Front page news is mainly from political ups-downs in Maharashtra. Besides this social, environment, education, crime beats offer front page story.
Font size of the headline is big and bold in format as to catch the reader’s attention.
At the bottom there is soft-news story is called “Anchor”. This includes issues like global warming, technology advancement, education change and etc. soft news story is must read of this newspaper. By-line is only given to very special report. Soft news story carries a by-line daily. Use of colors is limited and that is why paper looks less attractive and serious in visual sense. Use of black and red is prominent on front page.
Sometimes entire lower part of the front page is devoted to advertisement. Then that time soft news is omitted.
V] City News
COVERAGE OF CITY NEWS in “THE TIMES OF INDIA”
This segment covers news of Mumbai city plus Mumbai Suburbs, Thane & Raigad district. Besides this, news from Maharashtra state is also featured in the segment. Very first page of Times City carries News-strip headline. These news are there inside Times city. News from various beats like political, crime, education and environment are featured in this segment. During my analysis period I found crime stories are often printed in Times City. Besides this, education has been a major contributing beat to Times City. Results of 10th &12th exams were declared in this period and soon after that the Times carried out articles relating to admissions, new trends in admissions, career options, a problem faced by students etcetera. Political news comprises news of Assembly, BMC and from suburban politics. Times city is vibrant section as people like to read news of their area.
VI] National News
News from all over the country is printed in TIMES NATION. News from political, social, crime, environment & science are the major beats covered in this segment. India is big country and that is why news is available abundantly. Special stories are published with big photograph while other stories with small photograph. Political happenings in different states, natural calamity news, crime stories that took place in various parts are covered in detail.
As Loksatta is regional daily its Target Audience is Maharashtrian people and their related news; less priority is given to Nation-wide news. News from political, social, crime education, environment sectors are covered thoroughly. Therefore, fewer pages are devoted to national news i.e. to Desh.
VII] International News
Name: Times Global
The Times of India is perfect while covering international news. News from various countries like USA, UK, Iraq and Afghanistan are covered adequately. India has contacts with many countries. Happenings in other countries have consequences on our life as well and that is why International news cannot be neglected. These news comes from various foreign news agencies plus foreign correspondents. Newspaper like Times of India can afford to send its correspondents worldwide.
For example: For the Indo-US Nuclear Deal these correspondents provide plenty of information plus send information which is not available to reporters here.
Pages: None
Loksatta arranges International news inside the National news coverage. As Loksatta is regional daily less priority is given to International news. If International news is really very important then it appears on Front page. News about USA, Pakistan are regularly printed. Loksatta does not have foreign correspondents. Rather than giving detailed report Loksatta publishes small briefs which contains International news and if its consequences are long-lasting then we find articles and editorials about that issue or topic. If topic requires more space then an article analyzing that topic is published on Sunday supplement.
VIII] Editorials
This page is known as “Editorial Opinion”. Editorials of The Times of India are written in scientific manner. First, they put out the topic, then get the reader acquainted with various aspects and then provide a conclusion. Sometimes conclusion is left to the readers. Generally Times is Pro-Congress in their editorial. It does not mean that they don’t criticize congress. Whenever required they stand against Congress.
Topics for the editorial are vast in nature. Various reports released by government bodies are major topics of editorials. Reports may relate with population, environment and economics. Editorial helps us to understand these complicated topics.
Other than reports, editorials are based on politics, foreign relation, technology and economic sphere. Editorials also deal with sports, media buzz, new trends, science etc. Sometimes editorials are on very new topics like vibrating condoms. Editorials are written in simple & lucid language with short sentences.
Times editorials are not just writings; it is minute observation, suggested solutions for current problems, criticism of government decisions and appreciation of individuals who deserve it. Times editorials are must read part of the newspaper.
Elements of Editorial page:
• A Thought for Today
• Editorial 1
• Editorial 2
• Question & Answer
• Sacred Space
• The Speaking Tree (Mata Amritanandamayi, Swami Sukhabodhananda, Sri Ravi Shankar writings are regular part of this column)
• Small story- Experience story
• Column of Analysis 1
• Column of Analysis 2
• Edit Page Mailbox – Letter to Editor
• Debate- “Times View” versus “Counter View”
My Times My Voice
“Loksatta” has shifted their editorial page to right side of the newspaper defying the conventional pattern that places editorial page on the left side of the newspaper.
“Loksatta” has a fixed layout for editorial page. Below editorial, space is allotted for columns where expert opinions on various political and social issues are published. Sunil Chavke, Sulakshana Mahajan, Girdhar Patil are regular contributors to this column.
This space is also for Book-Review section. Books are reviewed and the reviewer tells us the ingredient that book contains. Rekha Deshpande, Mihir Mahajan, Arvind Gokhale are regular contributors to this columns.
Besides this there is a column named “Vyaktivedh”. This column narrates profile of a personality who has achieved something in current scenario. This column is helpful to understand particular personality and his journey. Below this column there is space allotted to Letters To The Editor.
Other than this there are small columns on right and left side of the editorial. Column named “Kalmanas” tells useful information about particular issue in detail where as “Dushare Bhashya” column gives us information about news appeared in foreign newspapers.
IX] ANALYSIS OF OP-ED PAGE
“THE TIMES OF INDIA”
Op-ed page of The Times of India is titled as “Times Trends”. This page is colorful and full of photographs. This page deals with research findings of western scientist study, new advancements in technology, health related topics etc. Op-ed page does not provide any serious reading content. Most of the reports and articles are taken from western media. This page is sort of a lifestyle page and many photographs are printed to support articles and features. Environmental issues like global warming are published with essential graphics, tables. By reading this page, we come to know about new happenings in science, medicine and technologies.
As contrary to conventional pattern, Loksatta have its op-ed page on the left side of the newspaper.
Prasad Kerkar writes column named “Board Battle” where he writes about corporate sector and its functioning.
Dinesh Thite writes a column which is devoted to “Right to Information Act” and opportunities for citizens.
Sudhir Joglekar is one of the editors of “Loksatta” writes column named “Kaka Square” where he writes about political and social sphere.
Foreign stories are covered by Datta Panchvagh in his column “Roller Coaster”.
Editor of Nagpur edition of “Loksatta” Praveen Bardapurkar writes column named “Diary” wherein he recalls his early days of journalism.
[Ravinder Panchal writes about the Happenings of Mumbai city.
Satish Kamath writes column which covers Konkan area and its happenings.
Jaiprakash Pawar writes columns which deals with Nashik and related area.
For western Maharashtra Rajendra Joshi writes column. ]
Besides this, environmental column is run by Abhijit Ghorpade. On Thursday, a whole op-ed page is devoted to environmental reports, features & columns. Global warming and its consequences are beautifully covered in this segment.
Left side of the middle part is devoted to column named “Hava-Pani” which is run by Loksatta Research Bureau. This column deals with temperature and its forecast and cyclones.
Bottom part of the op-ed page is called “Navneet” which means new things. In this, a small story is published for children and parents.
Next to it, a science-based story named “Kutuhal” is published. This story is written by Marathi Sahitya Parishad.
Reading to op-ed page is enriching experience and compared to Times of India op-ed page of Loksatta is far more superior, because it carries content for reading.
X] COVERAGE OF BUSINESS NEWS
Name: Times Business
Shares, investments, mergers, take-over, new launch of products and everything we need to know about financial sector can be found in “Times Business”. “Times Business” deals with news of our economy. It gives us details of banking sector. This segment provides plenty of news of share market and its ups-downs. Business sector is an active sector with mergers everyday and we can get news in detail about that in Times Business. Sometimes when topic is really vast then interviews of expertise people are published. This segment also gives information about new launch of products and their prospects ,weakness & cost factor.
“LOKSATTA”
Pages Allotted: None
Loksatta covers all this in their financial supplement named “Arthvrutant”. This supplement is weekly and published on Monday.
XI] Sports News
The Times of India has a vibrant sports section. “Times Sports” is well-presented section in the newspaper. Their range of games coverage is vast from cricket to golf and from football to basketball. Every sport gets represented as per priority decided by Times. Cricket is religion in India and that is why cricket news covers the entire first page of the total four.
The four sports pages ensure that Times can cover as many games possible. Football is much more popular in western countries but in India it takes time to find its followers. But credit goes to Times for continuous reporting of all football matches in various countries. Hockey is our national game and Times is leading the front while covering hockey news; hockey matches, and other happenings in hockey field.
Neglected games like swimming and other are part of Olympics are nicely featured. Besides this for local sports happenings Times Sports has got a column named “City Sport” where under 15, under 14, school as well as college plus local sports activities are reported in brief.
For sports lovers Times everyday presents contests like “Play Full, Pic Stop, On This Day” where readers’ knowledge is tested.
Loksatta” reserves two pages for Sport Coverage. Cricket is main News-focus of sports coverage.
Problem while analyzing cricket-reports is that if there are more cricket matches then Loksatta covers two matches perfectly and leaves out other match reports.
Loksatta is particular about other games reporting like Tennis, Football and Hockey. Though football news is covered Loksatta does not cover each and every football match as their focus is on Cricket.
Loksatta is lacking in presenting Stats Tables, Graphics and Illustrations .This may be due to lack of space.
Despite this, “Loksatta” is excellent while covering Mega-events like World Cups.
XII] Supplements
Bombay Times – Daily
Education Times – Monday & Thursday
Times Ascent – Wednesday
Property Times – Friday
Westside Plus- Saturday
Dombivli-Kalyan Plus – Saturday
Times Life! - Sunday
Mumbai Vrutant & Thane Vrutant: Both are published daily.
Lokrang- It is core supplement of Loksatta. Every day we read news but in this supplement we can get analysis of this news. It is published every Sunday.
Loksatta-Express Money (Arth-Vrutant)- It is first financial supplement in Marathi Journalism. It is printed especially on pink paper which is symbol of economic output. It is supplement extensively deals with financial matters like Banking, Investments, Shares, Corporate, New products etc. It is published every Monday.
Viva- It is a colorful supplement. It is related to lifestyle, trends, career, tradition, food, craft & painting, make-up tips, relationships, etiquette, fitness and travel. It is published every Monday.
Career Vrutant - It is perfect guide for those who wants to make good career. We can get information about competitive exams and about the studies. It is published every Wednesday.
Vasturang- Vasturang deals with the matters related to buy a house, procedure of taking it, difficulties while taking. It is similar to Property Times. It is published every Saturday.
Chaturang- It is the supplement catering to the needs of elite class. Basically it is a family supplement. It is published every Saturday.
Lokmudra- It is a cultural supplement. It deals with Book Review, international affaires, history, science, myths, museums and many more topics. It is published every First Sunday.
Hasyarang- Throughout the supplement there is “n” number of jokes which makes the reader laugh on it. This supplement is really stress-buster and makes the readers’ Sunday more enjoyable. It is published every First Sunday.
Chatura- This is not a supplement but a Women’s Magazine. It is published every Third Sunday.
Balrang- It is the supplements for kids. There are stories, puzzles and games for kids. Cover-page is very attractive as it is for kids. It is published every 1st & 3rd Sunday.
I] ABOUT THE TIMES OF INDIA
“The Times of India” is started by Bennett, Coleman & Company, Limited. It was started long back in 1838. It is the oldest English Daily in India. It is also a great newspaper which played an important role in the development of Journalism in this country.
“The Times of India” contributed enormously to the freedom of India. “The Times of India” at that time belonged to the class of British-owned newspapers under the editorship of Thomas J. Bennett, who later became the sole proprietor of “The Times of India”, the paper maintained close relations with Indians, many of whom contributed to its columns. Bennett vastly improved the paper by bringing talented people from England among who was a master printer, F.M.Coleman, who had wide experience of daily newspapers in India to subscribe to Reuter’s news service.
“The Times of India” passed into Indian hands in 1946. Frank Moraes became the first editor when freedom came.
“The Times of India” today occupies a premier position and it has the largest circulation among English dailies.
”The Times of India” is having other publications like Maharashtra Times [Marathi Daily], Navbharat Times [Hindi], Economic Times [English] and Mumbai Mirror [Tabloid]. Other than newspapers Times has media publications in the form of Magazines, Radio F.M Channel, News-channel Times Now, Music venture Times Music and many more.
ABOUT LOKSATTA
Indian Express is a reputed English Daily in India. Indian Express Group felt the need of Regional Language Newspaper catering to Marathi speaking population. Then they started “Loksatta” in 1948 in Bombay. It was first Marathi Daily appear after Independence. Its first editor was T.V. Parvate. Its Sunday edition had a wide circulation. Then after “Loksatta” became Brand in Marathi Journalism and known for intellectual, in-depth analysis. Many prominent Journalists became Editors of this paper and give it distinct identity. Madhav Gadkari was one of the editors whose columns and editorials became famous and reprinted in the form of books. In the competition with other Marathi Newspaper “Loksatta” is number one. “Loksatta” is always active in Investigative Journalism as well as political ups-downs in Maharahtra.
II] Nameplates
The nameplate of this newspaper i.e. “THE TIMES OF INDIA” is set in Times New Roman Font. It is placed at the top of the first page in the center. It is black in colour with font size approximately 72. The width and length of the nameplate is about 2.5 cm into 26.5 cm respectively.
Just after the nameplate on the left side is printed the name of the owner of the paper that is “Bennett Coleman & Co, Limited. Besides that year of establishment 1838 is printed. Then Website address is given as “epaper.timesofindia.com” in the middle exactly above where the Edition center Day, Month, Date and Year are mentioned.
The nameplate of LOKSATTA is set in Loksatta’s own created font. It is placed at the top of the first page in center. It is black in colour with font size approximately 72. The width and length of the masthead is about 15.5cm * 20.5cm respectively. Just above the nameplate on left side there is address of website that is www.loksatta.com. Exact on the line below the nameplate is the Price of the Paper, Edition center, Day, Date, Month and Year.
III] First Page
First page considered a mirror. It reflects the name of the newspaper “The Times of India” and it’s known for its presentation.
Below the nameplate and masthead there is news-strip. This news-strip includes two news headlines and its related photo. The color combination of the news-strip is kept changing everyday. Sometimes it is red and blue. Some day it is grey and brown. Font size of the news-strip headline is 18. News-strip headline is important but not equally important as to get printed detailed on the first page.
To the left of the news-strip is the information bar. Information bar starts with News-Digest. News-digest is a list of small news items which is covered thoroughly in the inside pages. Sometimes News-Digest contains news, which comes at the time of going to print.
After that there is sometimes advertisement. After that there is Market Watch. As the name suggest it tells us information about Foreign Currency Rate, Rates of Gold & Silver plus situation of Sensex & Nifty. It also prints top gaining Companies & Firms.
Info-bar contains major substance which is appearing for years on the front page that is “You said it” cartoon column by R.K.Laxman. This column is highly popular among readers and many eagerly wait in the morning to read the pictorial comment on current situation. Common- man cartoon and readers have very special affiliation. Then there is “Indiatimes.com Poll” which shows results of question asked the previous day. People can register their vote through website or SMS. Moving down we come to “Weather”. It tells us information about Sunrise, Moonrise, Sunset & Moonset timings. It presents the forecast of the upcoming day. It also provides details of rainfall, humidity & temperature of selected cities. Between the “Weather” & “You Said It”, there is one small advertisement.
At the bottom of the Info-bar there is information provided about the number of pages that issue carries plus the related supplements. The last part gives us page number where there is “Classifieds” inside newspaper. Information Bar is useful as it provides information relating & affecting our life.
Loksatta does not have info-bar like “The Times of India”. Loksatta had such kind of info-bar but it was changed for the new look of the paper. It is because more space is given to the news. It does not have a news strip too. It has one head headline spanning the entire length of the newspaper.
IV] News Stories
As per news-value and the nature of the report layout changes from time to time. News of national importance mostly from political field captures the major space on front page. Parliament session, Election of Central or State government, New deals with foreign countries is part of the news, which usually appears on the first page.
News like India wins bronze at Olympics is presented on the first page in the form of photograph and report is printed in sports section. Always, News presented above the fold of the first page is hard news.
At the bottom of the first page there is soft news story called “Anchor”. This includes news about new trends, technology advancement, health and education related feature. 6-7 news stories are printed on the first page.
Times does not over use the space by giving “n” number of news on front page. Overall presentation looks sober and does not look gaudy. When one big photograph is printed then other stories carries small photograph.
By-line is not given to every news story. But every soft news story carries a by-line. Solus ad is the most expensive ad in the newspaper and it carries 10% of the first page. Right side bottom space is allotted for Solus ads.
As Loksatta is regional newspaper and its target audience is the Maharashtrian community news presented on front page is of regional importance than national importance. Layout of the front page keeps on changing. Sometimes a photograph with caption is printed in upper part of the front page where as some other day a detailed news report is printed with small photograph. Same like “The Times of India” Loksatta also covers 6-7 news stories on front page. Front page news is mainly from political ups-downs in Maharashtra. Besides this social, environment, education, crime beats offer front page story.
Font size of the headline is big and bold in format as to catch the reader’s attention.
At the bottom there is soft-news story is called “Anchor”. This includes issues like global warming, technology advancement, education change and etc. soft news story is must read of this newspaper. By-line is only given to very special report. Soft news story carries a by-line daily. Use of colors is limited and that is why paper looks less attractive and serious in visual sense. Use of black and red is prominent on front page.
Sometimes entire lower part of the front page is devoted to advertisement. Then that time soft news is omitted.
V] City News
COVERAGE OF CITY NEWS in “THE TIMES OF INDIA”
This segment covers news of Mumbai city plus Mumbai Suburbs, Thane & Raigad district. Besides this, news from Maharashtra state is also featured in the segment. Very first page of Times City carries News-strip headline. These news are there inside Times city. News from various beats like political, crime, education and environment are featured in this segment. During my analysis period I found crime stories are often printed in Times City. Besides this, education has been a major contributing beat to Times City. Results of 10th &12th exams were declared in this period and soon after that the Times carried out articles relating to admissions, new trends in admissions, career options, a problem faced by students etcetera. Political news comprises news of Assembly, BMC and from suburban politics. Times city is vibrant section as people like to read news of their area.
VI] National News
News from all over the country is printed in TIMES NATION. News from political, social, crime, environment & science are the major beats covered in this segment. India is big country and that is why news is available abundantly. Special stories are published with big photograph while other stories with small photograph. Political happenings in different states, natural calamity news, crime stories that took place in various parts are covered in detail.
As Loksatta is regional daily its Target Audience is Maharashtrian people and their related news; less priority is given to Nation-wide news. News from political, social, crime education, environment sectors are covered thoroughly. Therefore, fewer pages are devoted to national news i.e. to Desh.
VII] International News
Name: Times Global
The Times of India is perfect while covering international news. News from various countries like USA, UK, Iraq and Afghanistan are covered adequately. India has contacts with many countries. Happenings in other countries have consequences on our life as well and that is why International news cannot be neglected. These news comes from various foreign news agencies plus foreign correspondents. Newspaper like Times of India can afford to send its correspondents worldwide.
For example: For the Indo-US Nuclear Deal these correspondents provide plenty of information plus send information which is not available to reporters here.
Pages: None
Loksatta arranges International news inside the National news coverage. As Loksatta is regional daily less priority is given to International news. If International news is really very important then it appears on Front page. News about USA, Pakistan are regularly printed. Loksatta does not have foreign correspondents. Rather than giving detailed report Loksatta publishes small briefs which contains International news and if its consequences are long-lasting then we find articles and editorials about that issue or topic. If topic requires more space then an article analyzing that topic is published on Sunday supplement.
VIII] Editorials
This page is known as “Editorial Opinion”. Editorials of The Times of India are written in scientific manner. First, they put out the topic, then get the reader acquainted with various aspects and then provide a conclusion. Sometimes conclusion is left to the readers. Generally Times is Pro-Congress in their editorial. It does not mean that they don’t criticize congress. Whenever required they stand against Congress.
Topics for the editorial are vast in nature. Various reports released by government bodies are major topics of editorials. Reports may relate with population, environment and economics. Editorial helps us to understand these complicated topics.
Other than reports, editorials are based on politics, foreign relation, technology and economic sphere. Editorials also deal with sports, media buzz, new trends, science etc. Sometimes editorials are on very new topics like vibrating condoms. Editorials are written in simple & lucid language with short sentences.
Times editorials are not just writings; it is minute observation, suggested solutions for current problems, criticism of government decisions and appreciation of individuals who deserve it. Times editorials are must read part of the newspaper.
Elements of Editorial page:
• A Thought for Today
• Editorial 1
• Editorial 2
• Question & Answer
• Sacred Space
• The Speaking Tree (Mata Amritanandamayi, Swami Sukhabodhananda, Sri Ravi Shankar writings are regular part of this column)
• Small story- Experience story
• Column of Analysis 1
• Column of Analysis 2
• Edit Page Mailbox – Letter to Editor
• Debate- “Times View” versus “Counter View”
My Times My Voice
“Loksatta” has shifted their editorial page to right side of the newspaper defying the conventional pattern that places editorial page on the left side of the newspaper.
“Loksatta” has a fixed layout for editorial page. Below editorial, space is allotted for columns where expert opinions on various political and social issues are published. Sunil Chavke, Sulakshana Mahajan, Girdhar Patil are regular contributors to this column.
This space is also for Book-Review section. Books are reviewed and the reviewer tells us the ingredient that book contains. Rekha Deshpande, Mihir Mahajan, Arvind Gokhale are regular contributors to this columns.
Besides this there is a column named “Vyaktivedh”. This column narrates profile of a personality who has achieved something in current scenario. This column is helpful to understand particular personality and his journey. Below this column there is space allotted to Letters To The Editor.
Other than this there are small columns on right and left side of the editorial. Column named “Kalmanas” tells useful information about particular issue in detail where as “Dushare Bhashya” column gives us information about news appeared in foreign newspapers.
IX] ANALYSIS OF OP-ED PAGE
“THE TIMES OF INDIA”
Op-ed page of The Times of India is titled as “Times Trends”. This page is colorful and full of photographs. This page deals with research findings of western scientist study, new advancements in technology, health related topics etc. Op-ed page does not provide any serious reading content. Most of the reports and articles are taken from western media. This page is sort of a lifestyle page and many photographs are printed to support articles and features. Environmental issues like global warming are published with essential graphics, tables. By reading this page, we come to know about new happenings in science, medicine and technologies.
As contrary to conventional pattern, Loksatta have its op-ed page on the left side of the newspaper.
Prasad Kerkar writes column named “Board Battle” where he writes about corporate sector and its functioning.
Dinesh Thite writes a column which is devoted to “Right to Information Act” and opportunities for citizens.
Sudhir Joglekar is one of the editors of “Loksatta” writes column named “Kaka Square” where he writes about political and social sphere.
Foreign stories are covered by Datta Panchvagh in his column “Roller Coaster”.
Editor of Nagpur edition of “Loksatta” Praveen Bardapurkar writes column named “Diary” wherein he recalls his early days of journalism.
[Ravinder Panchal writes about the Happenings of Mumbai city.
Satish Kamath writes column which covers Konkan area and its happenings.
Jaiprakash Pawar writes columns which deals with Nashik and related area.
For western Maharashtra Rajendra Joshi writes column. ]
Besides this, environmental column is run by Abhijit Ghorpade. On Thursday, a whole op-ed page is devoted to environmental reports, features & columns. Global warming and its consequences are beautifully covered in this segment.
Left side of the middle part is devoted to column named “Hava-Pani” which is run by Loksatta Research Bureau. This column deals with temperature and its forecast and cyclones.
Bottom part of the op-ed page is called “Navneet” which means new things. In this, a small story is published for children and parents.
Next to it, a science-based story named “Kutuhal” is published. This story is written by Marathi Sahitya Parishad.
Reading to op-ed page is enriching experience and compared to Times of India op-ed page of Loksatta is far more superior, because it carries content for reading.
X] COVERAGE OF BUSINESS NEWS
Name: Times Business
Shares, investments, mergers, take-over, new launch of products and everything we need to know about financial sector can be found in “Times Business”. “Times Business” deals with news of our economy. It gives us details of banking sector. This segment provides plenty of news of share market and its ups-downs. Business sector is an active sector with mergers everyday and we can get news in detail about that in Times Business. Sometimes when topic is really vast then interviews of expertise people are published. This segment also gives information about new launch of products and their prospects ,weakness & cost factor.
“LOKSATTA”
Pages Allotted: None
Loksatta covers all this in their financial supplement named “Arthvrutant”. This supplement is weekly and published on Monday.
XI] Sports News
The Times of India has a vibrant sports section. “Times Sports” is well-presented section in the newspaper. Their range of games coverage is vast from cricket to golf and from football to basketball. Every sport gets represented as per priority decided by Times. Cricket is religion in India and that is why cricket news covers the entire first page of the total four.
The four sports pages ensure that Times can cover as many games possible. Football is much more popular in western countries but in India it takes time to find its followers. But credit goes to Times for continuous reporting of all football matches in various countries. Hockey is our national game and Times is leading the front while covering hockey news; hockey matches, and other happenings in hockey field.
Neglected games like swimming and other are part of Olympics are nicely featured. Besides this for local sports happenings Times Sports has got a column named “City Sport” where under 15, under 14, school as well as college plus local sports activities are reported in brief.
For sports lovers Times everyday presents contests like “Play Full, Pic Stop, On This Day” where readers’ knowledge is tested.
Loksatta” reserves two pages for Sport Coverage. Cricket is main News-focus of sports coverage.
Problem while analyzing cricket-reports is that if there are more cricket matches then Loksatta covers two matches perfectly and leaves out other match reports.
Loksatta is particular about other games reporting like Tennis, Football and Hockey. Though football news is covered Loksatta does not cover each and every football match as their focus is on Cricket.
Loksatta is lacking in presenting Stats Tables, Graphics and Illustrations .This may be due to lack of space.
Despite this, “Loksatta” is excellent while covering Mega-events like World Cups.
XII] Supplements
Bombay Times – Daily
Education Times – Monday & Thursday
Times Ascent – Wednesday
Property Times – Friday
Westside Plus- Saturday
Dombivli-Kalyan Plus – Saturday
Times Life! - Sunday
Mumbai Vrutant & Thane Vrutant: Both are published daily.
Lokrang- It is core supplement of Loksatta. Every day we read news but in this supplement we can get analysis of this news. It is published every Sunday.
Loksatta-Express Money (Arth-Vrutant)- It is first financial supplement in Marathi Journalism. It is printed especially on pink paper which is symbol of economic output. It is supplement extensively deals with financial matters like Banking, Investments, Shares, Corporate, New products etc. It is published every Monday.
Viva- It is a colorful supplement. It is related to lifestyle, trends, career, tradition, food, craft & painting, make-up tips, relationships, etiquette, fitness and travel. It is published every Monday.
Career Vrutant - It is perfect guide for those who wants to make good career. We can get information about competitive exams and about the studies. It is published every Wednesday.
Vasturang- Vasturang deals with the matters related to buy a house, procedure of taking it, difficulties while taking. It is similar to Property Times. It is published every Saturday.
Chaturang- It is the supplement catering to the needs of elite class. Basically it is a family supplement. It is published every Saturday.
Lokmudra- It is a cultural supplement. It deals with Book Review, international affaires, history, science, myths, museums and many more topics. It is published every First Sunday.
Hasyarang- Throughout the supplement there is “n” number of jokes which makes the reader laugh on it. This supplement is really stress-buster and makes the readers’ Sunday more enjoyable. It is published every First Sunday.
Chatura- This is not a supplement but a Women’s Magazine. It is published every Third Sunday.
Balrang- It is the supplements for kids. There are stories, puzzles and games for kids. Cover-page is very attractive as it is for kids. It is published every 1st & 3rd Sunday.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Project- News Agencies
NEWS AGENCY IN A NUTSHELL
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines News as -
1) a: a report of recent events
b: previously unknown information
c: something having a specified influence or effect
2) a: material reported in a newspaper or news periodical or on a newscast
b: matter that is newsworthy
… And an Agency as –
1) a: the office or function of an agent
b: the relationship between a principal and that person's agent
2) the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power : operation
3) a person or thing through which power is exerted or an end is achieved : instrumentality
4) an establishment engaged in doing business for another
5) an administrative division (as of a government)
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines News Agency as “ An organization that supplies news to subscribing newspapers, periodicals, and newscasters.”
Wikipedia’s definition of News Agency goes this way –
A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to organizations in the news trade: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. These are known as wire services or news services.
Britannica Encyclopedia’s Definition of News Agency -
News Agency, also called press agency, press association, wire service, or news service organization that gathers, writes, and distributes news from around a nation or the world to newspapers, periodicals, radio and television broadcasters, government agencies, and other users. It does not generally publish news itself but supplies news to its subscribers, who, by sharing costs, obtain services they could not otherwise afford. All the mass media depend upon the agencies for the bulk of the news, even including those few that have extensive news-gathering resources of their own.
VARIOUS FORMS OF NEWS AGENCIES:
The news agency has a variety of forms. In some large cities, newspapers and radio and television stations have joined forces to obtain routine coverage of news about the police, courts, government offices, and the like. National agencies have extended the area of such coverage by gathering and distributing stock-market quotations, sports results, and election reports. A few agencies have extended their service to include worldwide news.
The service has grown to include news interpretation, special columns, news photographs, audiotape recordings for radio broadcast, and often videotape or motion-picture film for television news reports. Many agencies are cooperatives, and the trend has been in that direction since World War II. Under this form of organization, individual members provide news from their own circulation areas to an agency pool for general use. In major news centres the national and worldwide agencies have their own reporters to cover important events, and they maintain offices to facilitate distribution of their service.
In addition to general news agencies, several specialized services have developed. In the United States alone these number well over 100, including such major ones as Science Service, Religious News Service, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and News Election Service.
Specialized services in other countries include the Swiss Katholische Internationale Presseagentur, which reports news of special interest to Roman Catholics, and the Star News Agency of Pakistan, which supplies news of Muslim interest in English and Urdu.
The major press associations in the United States have expanded their service to include entertainment features, and some feature syndicates provide straight news coverage as a part of their service. The Newspaper Enterprise Association distributes both news and features in the United States.
Despite the plethora of news services, most news printed and broadcast throughout the world each day comes from only a few major agencies, the three largest of which are the Associated Press in the United States, Reuters in Great Britain, and Agence France-Presse in France.
Only these and a few others have the financial resources to station experienced reporters in all areas of the world where news develops regularly (in order to ensure access to well-organized transmission facilities) or to send them wherever news develops unexpectedly. These agencies are also equipped to distribute the service almost instantaneously.
Evolution of News Agencies
As early as the 1820s a news agency, the Association of Morning Newspapers, was formed in New York City to gather incoming reports from Europe. Other local news agencies sprang up, and by 1856 the General News Association—comprising many important New York City papers—was organized.
Out of this agency emerged in the 1870s the New York Associated Press, a cooperative news agency for New York papers that sold copy to daily papers throughout the country; the United Press began in 1882. Ten years later these organizations were merged, but the same year a rival agency, the Associated Press of Illinois, was founded.
Agence France Press (AFP) was founded in 1835 by a Parisian translator and advertising agent, Charles-Louis Havas as Agence Havas. Two of his employees, Julius Reuter and Bernhard Wolff, later set up rival news agencies in London and Berlin respectively. In order to reduce overheads and develop the lucrative advertising side of the business, Havas’s sons, who had succeeded him in 1852, signed agreements with Reuter and Wolff, giving each news agency an exclusive reporting zone in different parts of Europe.
And so, in Europe three international agencies had arisen—Agence Havas of Paris (1835); the Reuter Telegram Company of London (1851), known simply as Reuters; and the Continental Telegraphen Compagnie of Berlin (1849), known as the Wolff Agency.
These began as financial-data services for bankers but extended their coverage to world news. By 1866 national agencies were arising in many European countries; they covered and sold news locally, relying on the major services for coverage and sales abroad.
After the Associated Press of Illinois signed exchange contracts with the worldwide networks, the United Press went under (1897). In 1900 the Associated Press of Illinois, desiring to restrict its membership, reincorporated in New York state and was thereafter known as the Associated Press (AP); in 1915 the United States forbade the agency to restrict its members' use of other services. A Supreme Court decision in 1945 ended the exclusion of members' competitors.
In 1906 William Randolph Hearst founded the International News Service (INS), available to papers of other publishers as well as his own. The United Press Association, usually called United Press (UP) although there was no connection with the earlier organization, became an affiliate of the Scripps-Howard newspapers and sold reports to others.
The AP, UP, and INS grew steadily, and by the 1930s their foreign operations freed them of dependence on the European agencies, which tended to reflect national viewpoints in political news. In 1958 INS was merged with UP, forming United Press International (UPI). After a string of owners in the 1980s, UPI's assets were acquired in 1992 by Middle East Broadcasting Limited.
After World War II many agencies, including Reuters, AP, and Agence France-Presse (the renamed Agence Havas) became cooperatives owned by their member publishers. Notable cooperatives allied with Reuters include the Canadian Press, the Australian Associated Press, and the Press Trust of India.
Government Agencies
Government ownership of news agencies stems from the early 1900s. In 1904 the St. Petersburg (later Petrograd) Telegraph Agency was founded by the Russian government. In 1918, Soviet Russia founded Rosta by merging the telegraph agency with the government press bureau, and in 1925 Rosta became TASS. Today, as ITAR-TASS it is the official news service of Russia and also provides coverage of the other former Soviet republics. In 1915, Germany established a service called Transocean to broadcast war propaganda. The New China News Agency (Xinhua), founded in 1931 as the Red China News Agency, maintains official news and financial service wires, publishes dozens of newspapers and magazines, has its own advertising and public relations firms, and runs a school of journalism. Since 1990 independent news agencies have appeared in Eastern Europe, including Interfax in Russia and A. M. Pres in Romania.
News Transmission
From 1915 until the 1940s, news agencies in the United States transmitted most copy over telephone wires to teletypewriters in newspaper offices. The late 1940s, however, brought the introduction of Teletypesetter machines, which allowed the stories from the agencies, in the form of perforated paper tape, to be fed into typesetting, or linotype, machines, without the use of human operators.
In using Teletypesetters to save labor, publishers ceded to the agencies some of their editing prerogative, thereby standardizing usage and writing style in newspaper stories.
Newspapers moved from linotype to photocomposition in the late 1960s to 1970s. The data is transmitted by telephone or satellite service, and newspapers reconstruct the information in their own format. Most news agencies also offer their clients photographs, news analyses, and special features; for radio and television stations they transmit news-broadcast scripts.
Since the advent of computer technology, many news services have become available on line.
The ability to transmit news rapidly greatly increased during the 20th century. Radioteleprinters that make possible fast automatic transmission of news messages linked all major areas. Picture transmission by radio and high-fidelity wires became well developed. From the major agencies, teletypesetter service, pioneered by the Associated Press in 1951, was available to newspapers wishing to have computerized typesetting done directly from news-service transmissions. By the 21st century, most news agencies had moved the bulk of their operations and transmission to computers.
Commercial services
News agencies can be corporations that sell news (e.g. Thomson Reuters, UPI). Other agencies work cooperatively with large media companies, generating their news centrally and sharing local news stories the major news agencies may chose to pick up and redistribute (i.e. AP, Agence France-Presse (AFP), MYOP). Commercial newswire services charge businesses to distribute their news (e.g. Business Wire, the Hugin Group, Market Wire, PR Newswire, and ABN Newswire).
Governments may also control news agencies: China (Xinhua), Britain, Canada, Russia (ITAR-TASS) and other countries also have government-funded news agencies which also use information from other agencies well.
The major news agencies generally prepare hard news stories and feature articles that can be used by other news organizations with little or no modification, and then sell them to other news organizations. They provide these articles in bulk electronically through wire services (originally they used telegraphy; today they frequently use the Internet). Corporations, individuals, analysts and intelligence agencies may also subscribe.
Internet-based alternative news agencies as a component of the larger alternative media emphasizes a "non-corporate view" that is independent of the pressures of corporate media, business media and government-generated news and releases.
Market effects
Many publicly traded companies solicit business analysis firms to produce favourable reports and then submit these through wire services. These stories often form the basis for public news about a company and may affect stock performance.
List Major news agencies
Agence France-Presse
Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau
Associated Press
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
European Pressphoto Agency
Kyodo News
Reuters
United Press International
Xinhua News Agency
Yonhap
GROWTH OF NEWS AGENCIES AROUND WORLD:
The world agencies have established a variety of relationships with other agencies and with individual news media. Most of them purchase the news services of national or local agencies to supplement news gathered by their own staff representatives at key points.
Reuters, like the Agence France-Presse, supplies a worldwide news file to be distributed by some national agencies along with their domestic news reports. The American services more often contract to deliver their service directly to individual users abroad.
News agencies in communist countries had close ties to their national governments. Each major communist country had its own national news service, and each news service was officially controlled, usually by the minister of information.
TASS, the Soviet news agency, was the principal source of world news for the Soviet Union and its allies; it also made Soviet Communist Party policy known. Communist states outside the Soviet sphere, e.g., China and Yugoslavia, had their own state news services, which were controlled in similar fashion. China's Hsinhua, or New China News Agency, was the largest remaining news agency in a communist country by the late 20th century.
Most other countries have one or more national news agencies. Some depend on a common service, such as the Arab News Agency, which provides news for several states in the Middle East. Others are national newspaper cooperatives, such as the Ritzaus Bureau of Denmark, founded in 1866.
A few, like the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata of Italy, have expanded coverage abroad in a limited degree to supplement their domestic service but still depend on Reuters and Agence France-Presse for much of their foreign news. Germany since 1949 has built Deutsche-Presse Agentur into one of the more important news agencies in Europe, including extensive exchange with other national services.
In Canada the Canadian Press is a cooperative news agency with headquarters in Toronto. The oldest and largest news agency operating exclusively in Britain is the Press Association, founded by provincial newspapers on a cooperative basis in 1868. It began active work on February 5, 1870, when the postal service took over the private telegraph companies that had previously supplied the provincial papers with news. It supplies news to all the London daily and Sunday newspapers, provincial papers, and trade journals and other periodicals.
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse (AFP) is the oldest news agency in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency.
AFP is based in Paris, with regional centres in Washington, Hong Kong, Nicosia, São Paulo, Montevideo and bureaux in 110 countries. It transmits news in French, English, Arabic, Spanish, German, and Portuguese.
History
The agency was founded in 1835 by a Parisian translator and advertising agent, Charles-Louis Havas as Agence Havas. Two of his employees, Julius Reuter and Bernhard Wolff, later set up rival news agencies in London and Berlin respectively.
In order to reduce overheads and develop the lucrative advertising side of the business, Havas’s sons, who had succeeded him in 1852, signed agreements with Reuter and Wolff, giving each news agency an exclusive reporting zone in different parts of Europe. This arrangement lasted until the 1930s, when the invention of short-wave wireless improved and cut communications costs.
To help Havas extend the scope of its reporting at a time of great international tension, the French government financed up to 47% of its investments. When German forces occupied France in 1940, the news agency was taken over by the authorities and renamed the French Information Office (FIO); only the private advertising company retained the name Havas.
On August 20, 1944, as Allied forces moved on Paris, a group of journalists in the French Resistance seized the offices of the FIO and issued the first news dispatch from the liberated city under the name of Agence France-Presse. Established as a state enterprise, AFP devoted the post-war years to developing its network of international correspondents. One of them was the first Western journalist to report the death of Joseph Stalin, on March 6, 1953. AFP was keen to shake off its semi-official status, and on January 10, 1957 the French parliament passed a law establishing its independence. Since that date, the proportion of the agency’s revenues generated by subscriptions from government departments has steadily declined.
In 1982, the agency began to decentralize its editorial decision-making by setting up the first of its four autonomous regional centres, in Hong Kong. Each region has its own budget, administrative director and chief editor. In September 2007, the AFP Foundation was launched to promote higher standards of journalism worldwide.
Status
AFP is a government-chartered public corporation operating under a 1957 law, but is officially a commercial business independent of the French government.
AFP is administered by a CEO and a board comprising 15 members:
Eight representatives of the French press;
Two representatives of the AFP personnel;
Two representatives of the government-owned radio and television;
Three representatives of the government. One is named by the prime minister, another by the minister of finance, and a third by the minister of foreign affairs.
The board elects the CEO for a renewable term of three years. The AFP also has a council charged with ensuring that the agency operates according to its statutes, which mandate absolute independence and neutrality.
Editorially, AFP is governed by a network of senior journalists. By statute, AFP ’s mission is to report events, free of “all influences or considerations likely to impair the exactitude” of its news. And “under no circumstances to pass under the legal or actual control of an ideological, political or economic group.”
The primary client of AFP is the French government, which purchases subscriptions for its various services. In practice, those subscriptions are an indirect subsidy to AFP. The statutes of the agency prohibit direct government subsidies.
Investments
Notable investments include:
AFP GmbH:
AFP GmbH is the subsidiary of AFP in Germany, producing German-language services for local press, internet and corporate clients.
SID:
Sport-Informations-Dienst (SID) is producing a German-language sports service.
Citizenside:
In November 2007, AFP has announced its investment into Scooplive a news photo and video agency online, created in France in 2006. Scooplive became Citizenside after this investment.
REUTERS
Reuters Group Limited (pronounced roi-terz) is a British based news service and former financial market data provider that provides reports from around the world to newspapers and broadcasters. News reporting once accounted for less than 10% of the company's income. Its main focus was on supplying the financial markets with information and trading products. These included market data, such as share prices and currency rates, research and analytics, as well as trading systems that allowed dealers to buy and sell such things as currencies and shares on a computer screen instead of by telephone or on a trading floor like that of the New York Stock Exchange. Among other services, the most notable was analysis of 40,000 companies, debt instruments, and 3 million economic series. Competitors included Bloomberg L.P. and Dow Jones Newswires.
History
Reuters Data Centre, London Paul Julius Reuter noticed that, with the electric telegraph, news no longer required days or weeks to travel long distances. In 1850, the 34-year-old Reuter was based in Aachen, Germany, close to the Netherlands' and Belgian borders, and he began using the newly opened Berlin–Aachen telegraph line to send news to Berlin. However, there was a 76-mile (122 km) gap in the line between Aachen and Brussels, the Belgian capital city and the financial center of that country.
Reuter saw there was an opportunity to speed up news service between Brussels and Berlin by using homing pigeons to bridge that gap in the telegraph lines.
In 1851, Reuter moved to London, England. After failures in 1847 and 1850, attempts by the Submarine Telegraph Company to lay an undersea telegraph cable from Dover to Calais appeared to promise success.
Reuter set up his "Submarine Telegraph" office in October 1851 just before the opening of that undersea cable in November, and he negotiated a contract with the London Stock Exchange to provide stock prices from the continental exchanges in return for access to the London prices, which he then supplied to stockbrokers in Paris, France.
In 1865, Reuter's private firm was restructured, and it became a limited company (a corporation) called the Reuter's Telegram Company. Reuter had been naturalized as a British citizen in 1857.
Reuter's agency built a reputation in Europe for being the first to report news scoops from abroad, like the news of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. After many decades of progress, almost every major news outlet in the world subscribes to the Reuters company's services. It operates in at least 200 cities in 94 countries, supplying news text in about 20 languages.
Reuters was financed as a public company in 1984 on the London Stock Exchange and on the NASDAQ in the USA. However, there were concerns that the company's tradition for objective reporting might be jeopardised if control of the company later fell into the hands of a single shareholder.
To counter that possibility, the constitution of the company at the time of the stock offering included a rule that no individual was allowed to own more than 15% of the company. If this limit is exceeded, the directors can order the shareholder to reduce the holding to less than 15%.
That rule was applied in the late 1980s when Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which already held around 15% of Reuters, bought an Australian news company that also owned stock in Reuters. The acquisition meant that Murdoch then held more than 15%, and then he was compelled to reduce the holding to less than 15% to stay in line with the rules.
At the same time, as a further measure to protect the independence of Reuters news reporting, The Reuters Founders Share Company was set up. This is a company whose sole task is to protect the integrity of the company's news output. It holds one "Founders Share" which can outvote all other shares in the event that an attempt is made to alter any of the rules relating to the Reuters Trust Principles. These principles set out the company's aim to preserve its independence, integrity, and freedom from bias in its news reporting.
Reuters began to grow rapidly in the 1980s, widening the range of its business products and expanding its global reporting network for media, financial and economic services. Recent key product launches include Equities 2000 (1987), Dealing 2000-2 (1992), Business Briefing (1994), Reuters Television for the financial markets (1994), 3000 Series (1996) and the Reuters 3000 Xtra service (1999). In the mid-1990s, the Reuters company engaged in a brief foray in the radio sector - with London Radio's two radio stations, London News 97.3 FM and London News Talk 1152 AM. A Reuters Radio News service was also set up to compete with the Independent Radio News.
In 1995, Reuters established its "Greenhouse Fund" to take minority investments in a range of start-up technology companies, initially in the USA, only.
On 15 May 2007, The Thomson Corporation reached an agreement with Reuters to combine the two companies, in a deal valued at US $17.2 billion. Thomsons now controls about 53% of the new company, named Thomson Reuters. The new chief of Thomson Reuters is Tom Glocer, the former head of Reuters. The earlier rule of 15% ownership (see above) was waived; the reason as given by Pehr Gyllenhammar, the chairman of the Reuters Founders Share Company, was "The future of Reuters takes precedence over the principles.
If Reuters were not strong enough to continue on its own, the principles would have no meaning." citing the recent bad financial performance of the company. On 26 March 2008, shareholders of both organisations agreed the merger. The acquisition was closed on 17 April 2008.
In October 2007, Reuters Market Light, a division of Reuters, launched a mobile phone service for Indian farmers to provide local and customized commodity pricing information, news, and weather updates.
Journalists
Reuters has a team of several thousand journalists who over the years have covered major news events, sometimes at the cost of their lives. In May 2000, Kurt Schork, an American reporter, was killed in an ambush while on assignment in Sierra Leone. In April and August 2003, news cameramen Taras Protsyuk and Mazen Dana were both killed in two separate incidents by US troops in Iraq. During 2004, cameramen Adlan Khasanov in Chechnya and Dhia Najim in Iraq were also killed. In April 2008 Fadel Shana, a cameraman, was killed in the Gaza Strip after he was hit by an Israeli tank using controversial weapons known as flechettes.
The first Reuters journalist to be taken hostage in action was Anthony Grey. Detained while covering the Cultural Revolution in Peking in the late 1960s, said to be in response to the jailing of several Chinese terrorists by the colonial British Government in Hong Kong. He was considered to be the first political hostage of the modern age and was eventually released after almost 2 years solitary confinement. Awarded an OBE by the British Government in recognition of this, he went on to become a best selling author.
In recent years Reuters news service was subject to severe budget cuts.
Fatalities
Name
Nationality
Event Location
Event Date
Kurt Schork
American
Sierra Leone
2000-05-24
Taras Protsyuk
Ukrainian
Iraq
2003-04-08
Mazen Dana
Palestinian
Iraq
2003-08-17
Adlan Khasanov
Chechen
Chechnya
2004-05-09
Dhia Najim
Iraq
2004-11-01
Fadel Shana
Palestinian
Gaza Strip
2008-04-16
Investments
Notable investments include:
Action Images - On September 19, 2005, Reuters purchased North London-based Action Images, a deep collection of sports photography that includes more than 8 million images of which 1.7 million are online.
Application Networks - In June 2006, Reuters acquired Application Networks, Inc., a provider of trade and risk management software based on JRisk, and agrees to acquire Feri Fund Market Information Ltd (FERI FMI) and its fund database subsidiary, FI Datenservice GmbH (FID)
AVT Technologies - In December 2002, Reuters announced that it would acquire AVT Technologies, a specialist in foreign exchange transaction technology. Concurrent with the deal, Reuters established an Automated Dealing Technologies business unit, headed up by Mark Redwood, CEO of AVT Technologies.
Bridge Information Systems - On September 28, 2001, it completed the largest acquisition in its history acquired certain businesses and assets of Bridge Information Systems Inc. Also during the year, the Group acquired 100% of Diagram fip SA and 92% of ProTrader Group LP. In October 2001, the Group disposed of its majority stake in VentureOne Corp.
Clearforest - In June 2007, Reuters acquired Clearforest, a provider of Text Analytics solutions, whose tagging platform and analytical products allow clients to derive business information from textual content.
EcoWin - In November 2005, Reuters acquired EcoWin, a Gothenburg (Sweden) based provider of global fianancial, equities, and economic data.
Factiva - In May 1999, Reuters entered a joint venture with long-time rival, Dow Jones & Company, to form Factiva , a business news and information provider. In December 2006, Reuters sold its 50% share in Factiva to Dow Jones, who is now the sole owner.
Instinet - In May 2001, Instinet completed an IPO on NASDAQ; Reuters sold its majority stake in Instinet to The Nasdaq Stock Market in 2005.
Multex.com Inc. - In March 2003, Reuters acquired Multex.com, Inc., a provider of global financial information.
TIBCO Software - In July 1999,TIBCO Software completed an IPO on NASDAQ; Reuters retains a substantial proportion of the shares. Reuters announced in early 2000 a range of major initiatives designed to accelerate its use of internet technologies, open new markets and migrate its core business to an internet-based model.
Main corporate locations
From 1939, the Reuters corporate headquarters was in London's famous Fleet Street in a building designed for it by Sir Edwin Lutyens, but in 2005 Reuters moved to a larger building in the more modern Canary Wharf. The Reuters Building at 30 South Colonnade is near the One Canada Square tower, Jubilee Park and Canary Wharf tube station. The open space below the Reuters building has since been renamed Reuters Plaza. The company's North American headquarters is the Reuters Building at 3 Times Square, New York. It is on 7th Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets, and was constructed from 1998 to 2001.
Critique
Reuters has a strict policy towards upholding objectiveness and this policy has caused many to comment on the possible insensitivity of its reports covering major global events including: September 11, 2001, attacks. Reuters global news editor Stephen Jukes wrote, "We all know that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and that Reuters upholds the principle that we do not use the word terrorist."
The Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz responded, "After the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and again after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Reuters allowed the events to be described as acts of terror. But as of last week, even that terminology is banned." Reuters later apologized for this characterization of their policy , although they maintained the policy itself.
The September 20, 2004, edition of the The New York Times reported that the Reuters Global Managing Editor, David A. Schlesinger, objected to Canadian newspapers' editing of Reuters articles through inclusion of the word "terrorist," stating that "my goal is to protect our reporters and protect our editorial integrity." Due to this policy, Reuters was careful to only use the word "terrorist" in quotes, whether quotations or scare quotes. However, when reporting the 7 July 2005 London bombings, the service reported, "Police said they suspected terrorists were behind the bombings." The contrast between this and their aforementioned policy was criticized, although by that point Reuters policy was to use such words "when we are quoting someone directly or in indirect speech," and this headline is an example of the latter. The news organization has subsequently used the term "terrorist" without quotations when the article clarifies that it is someone else's words.
Photographs controversies
Reuters was accused of bias against Israel in its coverage of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, in which the company used two doctored photos by a Lebanese freelance photographer Adnan Hajj . On August 7, 2006, Reuters announced it severed all ties with Hajj and said his photographs would be removed from its database.
Press Trust of India
Press Trust Of India (PTI) is a news agency cooperatively owned by Indian newspapers, which joined together to take over the management of the Associated Press of India and the Indian outlets of the Reuters news agency of Great Britain. It began operating in February 1949 and is headquartered in Bombay.
PTI is the largest news agency in India. It is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 450 Indian newspapers and has a staff of more than 1,300. It took over the Indian operations of the Associated Press and Reuters soon after India's independence on August 27, 1947. It provides news coverage and information of the region in both English and Hindi.
All major TV/Radio channels in india and several abroad, including BBC in London, receive the PTI Service. With a staff of over 1,300 including 400 journalists, PTI has over 80 bureaus across the country and foreign correspondents in major cities of the world including Beijing, Dhaka, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Islamabad, Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, London, Moscow, New York, Washington and Sydney.
In addition, about 475 stringers contribute to the news file at home.
It exchanges information with several other news agencies including 100 news agencies based outside India, such as Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, The New York Times Company and Bloomberg for distribution of their news in India, and with the the Associated Press for its Photo Service and International commercial information. PTI exchanges news with nearly 100 news agencies of the world as part of bilateral and multilateral arrangements, including Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool and the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies. Major Indian subscribers of PTI include Times of India and Hindustan Times.
A national nonprofit enterprise, PTI, which operates primarily in English, as do most of India's large dailies, became one of the Third World's largest cooperative news agencies. It employed some 2,000 writers and other specialists in more than 150 offices, with correspondents in important world population centres. In the 1980s PTI underwent a program of modernization and diversification; it computerized many of its operations, introduced services in Hindi and other languages, and established a television facility (1986) as well as the country's first wire photo service (1987).
In 1976 the government declared a state of emergency and required PTI to merge with India's other three major agencies, the English-language United News of India and the multilingual Hindustan Samachar and Samachar Bharati, but in 1978, the four agencies were allowed to start operating independently again.
Services Provided By PTI
English News Service
Available in two forms. The ‘core’ service covers major developments in diverse fields in a compact form. A more comprehensive segmented service allows papers to pick additional inputs from segments of their choice. National/Regional, Economic/Commercial, International, and Sports. Core service puts out about 40,000 words and the full segmented service upto 100,000 words per day.
BHASHA
Bhasha is the Hindi language news service of PTI. With its own network in the Hindi-speaking states and drawing on PTI files, Bhasha puts out about 40,000 words per day.
STOCK SCAN
A screen-based service providing stock market information from major stock exchanges of the country.
NEWS SCAN
Displays news in capsule from on video monitors. Major developments in the country and abroad are covered.
DATA INDIA
A reference weekly providing a digest on the happenings in India, in a user-friendly alphabetical listing.
ECONOMIC SERVICE
A fortnightly journal providing analytical reports on the state of the Indian economy and trends in the corporate world.
PTI MAG
A weekly package of eleven special stories on topics ranging from arts to business to science. Available through the wire service as well as through mail.
SCIENCE SERVICE
Reports on the developments in the fields of science and technology with particular reference to India in a fortnightly journal.
PTI FEATURE
A package of four weekly features on topical national, international and general events. PTI-TV Provides spot coverage and makes corporate documentaries on assignment basis.
PHOTO
Available in two packages to suit the needs of small and big newspapers. PTI Photo provides pictures on the national, foreign and sports scenes via satellite, dial-up and hand delivery. The full colour service of the Associated Press Of America (AP) is also made available through PTI.
ASIA PULSE
An on-line data bank on economic developments and business opportunities in asian countries. Formed by PTI and four other Asian media organisations, Asia Pulse International is registered as a company in Singapore.
History Of PTI
1910 Birth of Associated Press of India, PTI's forerunner floated by K C Roy
1919 Reuters takes over operations of API but still uses API credit line
1945 API registered as a private limited Indian company wholly owned by Reuters
1947, August 27 Press Trust of India incorporated in Madras
1949, February 1 PTI begins news services, taking over operations from API but still maintains links with Reuters.
1953 PTI becomes a free agent, independent of Reuters
1976 PTI Economic Service is launched
1976, February PTI, UNI, Samachar Bharati and Hindustan Samachar merge under pressure during emergency to become 'Samachar'
1978, April PTI and the other three news agencies go back to their original units to restrart independent news operations
1980, July PTI Feature Service launched
1981, October PTI Science Service launched
1982, November PTI launches Scan, on-screen news display service
1984 PTI service launched for subscribers in USA
1985 Computerisation of news operations starts PTI service launched for subscribers in UK
1986, February PTI-TV launched
1986, April PTI-Bhasha launched
1986, August Experimental broadcast of news and pix via Insat-IB begins, Computer system made fully operational
1987, August Stockscan I launched
1987, October PTI photo service launched
1992, August PTI Mag launched
1993, August PTI Graphics service launched
1995, March PTI launches StockScan II
1996, February PTI invests for the first time in a foreign registered Company, Asia Pulse, which provides an on-line data bank on economic opportunities in Asian countries
1997, December PTI introduces photo-dial up facility
1999 March PTI celebrates Golden Jubilee. PTI goes on internet
2003, September PTI launches internet delivery of its news and photo services
THE STORY OF PTI IS VIRTUALLY THE STORY OF INDEPENDENT INDIA.
The run-up to Independence had also thrown up ideas of running free India’s own national news agency as an objective disseminator of information about a resurgent nation, freed of the foreign yoke. “The evolution of the concept of a national news agency was the direct consequence of the spirit of independence that swept the country since the days of the Quit India Movement. “The desire to shake off the imperial domination in the field of news supply was at the heart of this evolving thought,” said Ramnath Goenka, the fearless press baron and freedom fighter.
After two years of consultations and planning among senior journalists, newspaper proprietors and national leaders like Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel, free India’s first national news agency, the Press Trust of India, was incorporated in Madras on August 27, 1947. This was within a fortnight of what Jawaharlal Nehru described as India’s “Tryst With Destiny” at the historic central hall of Parliament on the night of August 14-15.
Though PTI began its operations in 1949, its origin goes back to the early years of the 20th Century when its forerunner - the Associated Press of India (API) - was launched by an enterprising Indian, Keshab Chandra Roy.
The first Indian to function as a Political Correspondent at the British imperial capital, Roy was a high-school dropout who made a success of a journalistic career and rose to be a nominated member of the Central Legislative Assembly as a distinguished journalist. Working for more than one newspaper at a time, including The Tribune of Lahore, the Indian Daily Mail of Bombay and the Amrita Bazar Patrika of Calcutta, Roy found it easy to have a news pooling arrangement with European journalists to carry on with his work. It was from this experience that the idea of a news agency grew in Roy’s mind. Soon he collaborated with three of his professional colleagues - Usha Nath Sen, Durga Das and A.S. Iyengar - to float and run API.
Though the exact time of its birth is somewhat hazy, according to the book ‘Reuter’s Century: 1851-1951' by Graham Storey, it was started in 1910. K C Roy finally gave up in 1919 his brave effort to run an Indian-owned domestic news agency and Reuters became the sole supplier of foreign and domestic news to the government and to the newspapers of India.The London-based Eastern News Agency, owned by Reuters, merely used the name Associated Press of India. API was to be registered as a private limited company, wholly owned by Reuters, much later in September 1945. The seven men who subscribed initially to the shares of PTI were K Srinivasan, Editor, ‘The Hindu’, Madras, Khasa Subba Rau, Editor, ‘Swatantra’, Madras, S.S Vasan, Editor, ‘The Anandavikatan’, Madras, S. Sadanand, Managing Editor, ‘Free Press Journal’, Bombay, C.R. Srinivasan, Editor, ‘Swadesamitran’, Madras, A.A. Hayles, Editor and Director, ‘The Mail’, Madras and S.V. Swamy, Editor, ‘Free Press’, Madras.
Recalling PTI’s takeover of the news operations of the erstwhile API, Goenka wrote: “Sadanand and I were happy that PTI eventually took over the operations of API from February 1, 1949. We were, however, unhappy with the package in terms of which PTI became a junior member of Reuters which retained its monopoly of distributing international news to Indian newspapers.” PTI, registered in 1947, took over news operations from API from February 1, 1949. “When PTI emerged a free agent in 1953, we felt as happy as Jawaharlal did at the end of the interval between India’s attainment of dominion status and its emergence as a Sovereign Republic - an interval during which he chafed at having to couch communications to His Majesty in the phraseology of a subject addressing his liege.
February 1,1949, PTI has reported India’s history as it happened, blow by blow, in the best traditions of news agency journalism, with speed, accuracy and objectivity. The first general elections of free India in 1952, the first Asian Games a year earlier, the war with China in 1962, Pandit Nehru’s death in 1964, the great split of the Indian National Congress in 1969, the 1971 war with Pakistan culminating in the birth of Bangladesh, India’s first nuclear test in 1974, the emergency in 1975, terrorist violence in Punjab in the 1980s, assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 as well as the stirring events of the 1990s, were all reported in detail by PTI journalists, most of them in anonymity.
In the last 50 years, PTI has come a long way, growing in size and stature as the oldest and largest among news agencies of the countries that became free after World War II.
PTI’s Golden Jubilee
“We got independence in August 1947. But independence in news and information, we got only with the establishment of PTI in 1949. That is the significance of PTI and its golden jubilee” President K R Narayanan , chronicling history from partition to the historic bus journey by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Lahore as it happened, PTI celebrates its Golden Jubilee this year. The celebrations were flagged off by the President Mr K R Narayanan by releasing a commemorative stamp on March 5th at the agency’s headquarters in New Delhi.
The Rs 15 multi-coloured and multi-lingual stamp on PTI depicts the Agency’s journey from ticker-tape printers to satellite transmission. According to the Department of Posts, it’s for the first time that an Indian stamp has seven languages. On the 10th of March Vice-President Krishan Kant inaugurated a 12-day Photo-exhibition PTI-Offbeat, tracing the evolution of the Agency’s photo-service and showcasing some of the best moments captured by our lensmen ‘on’ and ‘off the beat.’ The grand old lady of Indian Photography, Homai Vyarawalla was the guest of honour at the exhibition. It will later travel to Calcutta, Madras and Mumbai during the year long cleberations. Celebrating the power of the camera to capture images of the coming generations, the Agency also brought out a coffee-table book “PTI-Offbeat - A Candid View of Everyday Life”.
This was released by the Prime Minister Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the 11th of March.
The highlight of the celebrations, however, was a two-day international seminar on “Information without Frontiers — Breaking Barriers or Invading Cultures” inaugurated by Mr Vajpayee. A host of leading media personalities, bureaucrats and jurists deliberated on subjects like ‘IT Revolution : Impact on Media’, ‘Culture Clashes : Impact on Art, Culture, Theatre and Way of Life’ and ‘Media : Ethics and Responsibility’. The Agency also brought out a Souvenir on the occasion.
Remember News Agencies Are Not Newspaper Syndicates!
Newspaper syndicate also called Press Syndicate, or Feature Syndicate, agency that sells to newspapers and other media special writing and artwork, often written by a noted journalist or eminent authority or drawn by a well-known cartoonist, that cannot be classified as spot coverage of the news. Its fundamental service is to spread the cost of expensive features among as many newspapers (subscribers) as possible.
Press syndicates sell the exclusive rights to a feature to one subscriber in each territory, in contrast to the wire news services (news agency), which offer their reports to all papers in a given area.
Some syndicates specialize in such entertainment features as comic strips, cartoons, columns of oddities or humour, and serialized novels. Typical syndicated features are columns of advice on child rearing, health, running a household, gardening, and such games as bridge.
History Of Newspaper Syndicates
Syndicates came into being in the United States at the end of the Civil War. Individual features, however, had been syndicated as early as 1768 in the Journal of Occurrences, which was circulated by a group of “Boston patriots.” The syndicate filled a need among rural or small-town weekly and daily papers for material that would help them compete with big-city papers.
Three syndicates were in operation in 1865, supplying miscellaneous feature news items and short stories.
In 1870 Tillotson & Son, publishers in Bolton, Eng., began to supply some British papers with serialized fiction. By 1881 Henry Villard, a reporter for the Associated Press (AP), had founded his own syndicate in Washington, D.C., and was soon sending material to the Cincinnati Commercial, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Herald.
About 1884, Charles A. Dana of the New York Sun formed a syndicate to sell short stories by Bret Harte and Henry James. Samuel S. McClure launched a similar venture in the same year. He first offered fiction and secured the rights to several stories by Rudyard Kipling. He also helped to introduce the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and others into the United States. The features offered at that time were mostly literary material and pictures.
An important change came in 1896, however, when the big New York City Sunday newspapers began to produce and publish comic pages. In 1907 the comic strip was introduced in daily papers. This form of art gradually changed the whole character of the business and made it more profitable.
The strips were shipped in matrix form to the subscribers for simultaneous publication. Originally, they were truly “comics” in that they were intended to make readers laugh, but later many became continued stories with no humour.
When Bud Fisher's “Mutt and Jeff” was first bought and published in England in 1920, many British readers scoffed at the idea. It proved successful, and British editors later originated many strips in competition with the American products. By the late 1950s American comic strips were being translated into several languages and sold all over the world.
Many writers, photographers, and graphic artists syndicate their own materials. Some newspapers with especially strong resources syndicate their own coverage, including news, to papers outside their own communities. Examples include the New York Times, with major resources in every news department, and the defunct Chicago Daily News, which was known for its foreign coverage. Papers sometimes syndicate as a team with another newspaper—e.g., the Los Angeles Times–Washington Post syndicate.
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines News as -
1) a: a report of recent events
b: previously unknown information
c: something having a specified influence or effect
2) a: material reported in a newspaper or news periodical or on a newscast
b: matter that is newsworthy
… And an Agency as –
1) a: the office or function of an agent
b: the relationship between a principal and that person's agent
2) the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power : operation
3) a person or thing through which power is exerted or an end is achieved : instrumentality
4) an establishment engaged in doing business for another
5) an administrative division (as of a government)
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines News Agency as “ An organization that supplies news to subscribing newspapers, periodicals, and newscasters.”
Wikipedia’s definition of News Agency goes this way –
A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to organizations in the news trade: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. These are known as wire services or news services.
Britannica Encyclopedia’s Definition of News Agency -
News Agency, also called press agency, press association, wire service, or news service organization that gathers, writes, and distributes news from around a nation or the world to newspapers, periodicals, radio and television broadcasters, government agencies, and other users. It does not generally publish news itself but supplies news to its subscribers, who, by sharing costs, obtain services they could not otherwise afford. All the mass media depend upon the agencies for the bulk of the news, even including those few that have extensive news-gathering resources of their own.
VARIOUS FORMS OF NEWS AGENCIES:
The news agency has a variety of forms. In some large cities, newspapers and radio and television stations have joined forces to obtain routine coverage of news about the police, courts, government offices, and the like. National agencies have extended the area of such coverage by gathering and distributing stock-market quotations, sports results, and election reports. A few agencies have extended their service to include worldwide news.
The service has grown to include news interpretation, special columns, news photographs, audiotape recordings for radio broadcast, and often videotape or motion-picture film for television news reports. Many agencies are cooperatives, and the trend has been in that direction since World War II. Under this form of organization, individual members provide news from their own circulation areas to an agency pool for general use. In major news centres the national and worldwide agencies have their own reporters to cover important events, and they maintain offices to facilitate distribution of their service.
In addition to general news agencies, several specialized services have developed. In the United States alone these number well over 100, including such major ones as Science Service, Religious News Service, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and News Election Service.
Specialized services in other countries include the Swiss Katholische Internationale Presseagentur, which reports news of special interest to Roman Catholics, and the Star News Agency of Pakistan, which supplies news of Muslim interest in English and Urdu.
The major press associations in the United States have expanded their service to include entertainment features, and some feature syndicates provide straight news coverage as a part of their service. The Newspaper Enterprise Association distributes both news and features in the United States.
Despite the plethora of news services, most news printed and broadcast throughout the world each day comes from only a few major agencies, the three largest of which are the Associated Press in the United States, Reuters in Great Britain, and Agence France-Presse in France.
Only these and a few others have the financial resources to station experienced reporters in all areas of the world where news develops regularly (in order to ensure access to well-organized transmission facilities) or to send them wherever news develops unexpectedly. These agencies are also equipped to distribute the service almost instantaneously.
Evolution of News Agencies
As early as the 1820s a news agency, the Association of Morning Newspapers, was formed in New York City to gather incoming reports from Europe. Other local news agencies sprang up, and by 1856 the General News Association—comprising many important New York City papers—was organized.
Out of this agency emerged in the 1870s the New York Associated Press, a cooperative news agency for New York papers that sold copy to daily papers throughout the country; the United Press began in 1882. Ten years later these organizations were merged, but the same year a rival agency, the Associated Press of Illinois, was founded.
Agence France Press (AFP) was founded in 1835 by a Parisian translator and advertising agent, Charles-Louis Havas as Agence Havas. Two of his employees, Julius Reuter and Bernhard Wolff, later set up rival news agencies in London and Berlin respectively. In order to reduce overheads and develop the lucrative advertising side of the business, Havas’s sons, who had succeeded him in 1852, signed agreements with Reuter and Wolff, giving each news agency an exclusive reporting zone in different parts of Europe.
And so, in Europe three international agencies had arisen—Agence Havas of Paris (1835); the Reuter Telegram Company of London (1851), known simply as Reuters; and the Continental Telegraphen Compagnie of Berlin (1849), known as the Wolff Agency.
These began as financial-data services for bankers but extended their coverage to world news. By 1866 national agencies were arising in many European countries; they covered and sold news locally, relying on the major services for coverage and sales abroad.
After the Associated Press of Illinois signed exchange contracts with the worldwide networks, the United Press went under (1897). In 1900 the Associated Press of Illinois, desiring to restrict its membership, reincorporated in New York state and was thereafter known as the Associated Press (AP); in 1915 the United States forbade the agency to restrict its members' use of other services. A Supreme Court decision in 1945 ended the exclusion of members' competitors.
In 1906 William Randolph Hearst founded the International News Service (INS), available to papers of other publishers as well as his own. The United Press Association, usually called United Press (UP) although there was no connection with the earlier organization, became an affiliate of the Scripps-Howard newspapers and sold reports to others.
The AP, UP, and INS grew steadily, and by the 1930s their foreign operations freed them of dependence on the European agencies, which tended to reflect national viewpoints in political news. In 1958 INS was merged with UP, forming United Press International (UPI). After a string of owners in the 1980s, UPI's assets were acquired in 1992 by Middle East Broadcasting Limited.
After World War II many agencies, including Reuters, AP, and Agence France-Presse (the renamed Agence Havas) became cooperatives owned by their member publishers. Notable cooperatives allied with Reuters include the Canadian Press, the Australian Associated Press, and the Press Trust of India.
Government Agencies
Government ownership of news agencies stems from the early 1900s. In 1904 the St. Petersburg (later Petrograd) Telegraph Agency was founded by the Russian government. In 1918, Soviet Russia founded Rosta by merging the telegraph agency with the government press bureau, and in 1925 Rosta became TASS. Today, as ITAR-TASS it is the official news service of Russia and also provides coverage of the other former Soviet republics. In 1915, Germany established a service called Transocean to broadcast war propaganda. The New China News Agency (Xinhua), founded in 1931 as the Red China News Agency, maintains official news and financial service wires, publishes dozens of newspapers and magazines, has its own advertising and public relations firms, and runs a school of journalism. Since 1990 independent news agencies have appeared in Eastern Europe, including Interfax in Russia and A. M. Pres in Romania.
News Transmission
From 1915 until the 1940s, news agencies in the United States transmitted most copy over telephone wires to teletypewriters in newspaper offices. The late 1940s, however, brought the introduction of Teletypesetter machines, which allowed the stories from the agencies, in the form of perforated paper tape, to be fed into typesetting, or linotype, machines, without the use of human operators.
In using Teletypesetters to save labor, publishers ceded to the agencies some of their editing prerogative, thereby standardizing usage and writing style in newspaper stories.
Newspapers moved from linotype to photocomposition in the late 1960s to 1970s. The data is transmitted by telephone or satellite service, and newspapers reconstruct the information in their own format. Most news agencies also offer their clients photographs, news analyses, and special features; for radio and television stations they transmit news-broadcast scripts.
Since the advent of computer technology, many news services have become available on line.
The ability to transmit news rapidly greatly increased during the 20th century. Radioteleprinters that make possible fast automatic transmission of news messages linked all major areas. Picture transmission by radio and high-fidelity wires became well developed. From the major agencies, teletypesetter service, pioneered by the Associated Press in 1951, was available to newspapers wishing to have computerized typesetting done directly from news-service transmissions. By the 21st century, most news agencies had moved the bulk of their operations and transmission to computers.
Commercial services
News agencies can be corporations that sell news (e.g. Thomson Reuters, UPI). Other agencies work cooperatively with large media companies, generating their news centrally and sharing local news stories the major news agencies may chose to pick up and redistribute (i.e. AP, Agence France-Presse (AFP), MYOP). Commercial newswire services charge businesses to distribute their news (e.g. Business Wire, the Hugin Group, Market Wire, PR Newswire, and ABN Newswire).
Governments may also control news agencies: China (Xinhua), Britain, Canada, Russia (ITAR-TASS) and other countries also have government-funded news agencies which also use information from other agencies well.
The major news agencies generally prepare hard news stories and feature articles that can be used by other news organizations with little or no modification, and then sell them to other news organizations. They provide these articles in bulk electronically through wire services (originally they used telegraphy; today they frequently use the Internet). Corporations, individuals, analysts and intelligence agencies may also subscribe.
Internet-based alternative news agencies as a component of the larger alternative media emphasizes a "non-corporate view" that is independent of the pressures of corporate media, business media and government-generated news and releases.
Market effects
Many publicly traded companies solicit business analysis firms to produce favourable reports and then submit these through wire services. These stories often form the basis for public news about a company and may affect stock performance.
List Major news agencies
Agence France-Presse
Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau
Associated Press
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
European Pressphoto Agency
Kyodo News
Reuters
United Press International
Xinhua News Agency
Yonhap
GROWTH OF NEWS AGENCIES AROUND WORLD:
The world agencies have established a variety of relationships with other agencies and with individual news media. Most of them purchase the news services of national or local agencies to supplement news gathered by their own staff representatives at key points.
Reuters, like the Agence France-Presse, supplies a worldwide news file to be distributed by some national agencies along with their domestic news reports. The American services more often contract to deliver their service directly to individual users abroad.
News agencies in communist countries had close ties to their national governments. Each major communist country had its own national news service, and each news service was officially controlled, usually by the minister of information.
TASS, the Soviet news agency, was the principal source of world news for the Soviet Union and its allies; it also made Soviet Communist Party policy known. Communist states outside the Soviet sphere, e.g., China and Yugoslavia, had their own state news services, which were controlled in similar fashion. China's Hsinhua, or New China News Agency, was the largest remaining news agency in a communist country by the late 20th century.
Most other countries have one or more national news agencies. Some depend on a common service, such as the Arab News Agency, which provides news for several states in the Middle East. Others are national newspaper cooperatives, such as the Ritzaus Bureau of Denmark, founded in 1866.
A few, like the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata of Italy, have expanded coverage abroad in a limited degree to supplement their domestic service but still depend on Reuters and Agence France-Presse for much of their foreign news. Germany since 1949 has built Deutsche-Presse Agentur into one of the more important news agencies in Europe, including extensive exchange with other national services.
In Canada the Canadian Press is a cooperative news agency with headquarters in Toronto. The oldest and largest news agency operating exclusively in Britain is the Press Association, founded by provincial newspapers on a cooperative basis in 1868. It began active work on February 5, 1870, when the postal service took over the private telegraph companies that had previously supplied the provincial papers with news. It supplies news to all the London daily and Sunday newspapers, provincial papers, and trade journals and other periodicals.
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse (AFP) is the oldest news agency in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency.
AFP is based in Paris, with regional centres in Washington, Hong Kong, Nicosia, São Paulo, Montevideo and bureaux in 110 countries. It transmits news in French, English, Arabic, Spanish, German, and Portuguese.
History
The agency was founded in 1835 by a Parisian translator and advertising agent, Charles-Louis Havas as Agence Havas. Two of his employees, Julius Reuter and Bernhard Wolff, later set up rival news agencies in London and Berlin respectively.
In order to reduce overheads and develop the lucrative advertising side of the business, Havas’s sons, who had succeeded him in 1852, signed agreements with Reuter and Wolff, giving each news agency an exclusive reporting zone in different parts of Europe. This arrangement lasted until the 1930s, when the invention of short-wave wireless improved and cut communications costs.
To help Havas extend the scope of its reporting at a time of great international tension, the French government financed up to 47% of its investments. When German forces occupied France in 1940, the news agency was taken over by the authorities and renamed the French Information Office (FIO); only the private advertising company retained the name Havas.
On August 20, 1944, as Allied forces moved on Paris, a group of journalists in the French Resistance seized the offices of the FIO and issued the first news dispatch from the liberated city under the name of Agence France-Presse. Established as a state enterprise, AFP devoted the post-war years to developing its network of international correspondents. One of them was the first Western journalist to report the death of Joseph Stalin, on March 6, 1953. AFP was keen to shake off its semi-official status, and on January 10, 1957 the French parliament passed a law establishing its independence. Since that date, the proportion of the agency’s revenues generated by subscriptions from government departments has steadily declined.
In 1982, the agency began to decentralize its editorial decision-making by setting up the first of its four autonomous regional centres, in Hong Kong. Each region has its own budget, administrative director and chief editor. In September 2007, the AFP Foundation was launched to promote higher standards of journalism worldwide.
Status
AFP is a government-chartered public corporation operating under a 1957 law, but is officially a commercial business independent of the French government.
AFP is administered by a CEO and a board comprising 15 members:
Eight representatives of the French press;
Two representatives of the AFP personnel;
Two representatives of the government-owned radio and television;
Three representatives of the government. One is named by the prime minister, another by the minister of finance, and a third by the minister of foreign affairs.
The board elects the CEO for a renewable term of three years. The AFP also has a council charged with ensuring that the agency operates according to its statutes, which mandate absolute independence and neutrality.
Editorially, AFP is governed by a network of senior journalists. By statute, AFP ’s mission is to report events, free of “all influences or considerations likely to impair the exactitude” of its news. And “under no circumstances to pass under the legal or actual control of an ideological, political or economic group.”
The primary client of AFP is the French government, which purchases subscriptions for its various services. In practice, those subscriptions are an indirect subsidy to AFP. The statutes of the agency prohibit direct government subsidies.
Investments
Notable investments include:
AFP GmbH:
AFP GmbH is the subsidiary of AFP in Germany, producing German-language services for local press, internet and corporate clients.
SID:
Sport-Informations-Dienst (SID) is producing a German-language sports service.
Citizenside:
In November 2007, AFP has announced its investment into Scooplive a news photo and video agency online, created in France in 2006. Scooplive became Citizenside after this investment.
REUTERS
Reuters Group Limited (pronounced roi-terz) is a British based news service and former financial market data provider that provides reports from around the world to newspapers and broadcasters. News reporting once accounted for less than 10% of the company's income. Its main focus was on supplying the financial markets with information and trading products. These included market data, such as share prices and currency rates, research and analytics, as well as trading systems that allowed dealers to buy and sell such things as currencies and shares on a computer screen instead of by telephone or on a trading floor like that of the New York Stock Exchange. Among other services, the most notable was analysis of 40,000 companies, debt instruments, and 3 million economic series. Competitors included Bloomberg L.P. and Dow Jones Newswires.
History
Reuters Data Centre, London Paul Julius Reuter noticed that, with the electric telegraph, news no longer required days or weeks to travel long distances. In 1850, the 34-year-old Reuter was based in Aachen, Germany, close to the Netherlands' and Belgian borders, and he began using the newly opened Berlin–Aachen telegraph line to send news to Berlin. However, there was a 76-mile (122 km) gap in the line between Aachen and Brussels, the Belgian capital city and the financial center of that country.
Reuter saw there was an opportunity to speed up news service between Brussels and Berlin by using homing pigeons to bridge that gap in the telegraph lines.
In 1851, Reuter moved to London, England. After failures in 1847 and 1850, attempts by the Submarine Telegraph Company to lay an undersea telegraph cable from Dover to Calais appeared to promise success.
Reuter set up his "Submarine Telegraph" office in October 1851 just before the opening of that undersea cable in November, and he negotiated a contract with the London Stock Exchange to provide stock prices from the continental exchanges in return for access to the London prices, which he then supplied to stockbrokers in Paris, France.
In 1865, Reuter's private firm was restructured, and it became a limited company (a corporation) called the Reuter's Telegram Company. Reuter had been naturalized as a British citizen in 1857.
Reuter's agency built a reputation in Europe for being the first to report news scoops from abroad, like the news of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. After many decades of progress, almost every major news outlet in the world subscribes to the Reuters company's services. It operates in at least 200 cities in 94 countries, supplying news text in about 20 languages.
Reuters was financed as a public company in 1984 on the London Stock Exchange and on the NASDAQ in the USA. However, there were concerns that the company's tradition for objective reporting might be jeopardised if control of the company later fell into the hands of a single shareholder.
To counter that possibility, the constitution of the company at the time of the stock offering included a rule that no individual was allowed to own more than 15% of the company. If this limit is exceeded, the directors can order the shareholder to reduce the holding to less than 15%.
That rule was applied in the late 1980s when Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which already held around 15% of Reuters, bought an Australian news company that also owned stock in Reuters. The acquisition meant that Murdoch then held more than 15%, and then he was compelled to reduce the holding to less than 15% to stay in line with the rules.
At the same time, as a further measure to protect the independence of Reuters news reporting, The Reuters Founders Share Company was set up. This is a company whose sole task is to protect the integrity of the company's news output. It holds one "Founders Share" which can outvote all other shares in the event that an attempt is made to alter any of the rules relating to the Reuters Trust Principles. These principles set out the company's aim to preserve its independence, integrity, and freedom from bias in its news reporting.
Reuters began to grow rapidly in the 1980s, widening the range of its business products and expanding its global reporting network for media, financial and economic services. Recent key product launches include Equities 2000 (1987), Dealing 2000-2 (1992), Business Briefing (1994), Reuters Television for the financial markets (1994), 3000 Series (1996) and the Reuters 3000 Xtra service (1999). In the mid-1990s, the Reuters company engaged in a brief foray in the radio sector - with London Radio's two radio stations, London News 97.3 FM and London News Talk 1152 AM. A Reuters Radio News service was also set up to compete with the Independent Radio News.
In 1995, Reuters established its "Greenhouse Fund" to take minority investments in a range of start-up technology companies, initially in the USA, only.
On 15 May 2007, The Thomson Corporation reached an agreement with Reuters to combine the two companies, in a deal valued at US $17.2 billion. Thomsons now controls about 53% of the new company, named Thomson Reuters. The new chief of Thomson Reuters is Tom Glocer, the former head of Reuters. The earlier rule of 15% ownership (see above) was waived; the reason as given by Pehr Gyllenhammar, the chairman of the Reuters Founders Share Company, was "The future of Reuters takes precedence over the principles.
If Reuters were not strong enough to continue on its own, the principles would have no meaning." citing the recent bad financial performance of the company. On 26 March 2008, shareholders of both organisations agreed the merger. The acquisition was closed on 17 April 2008.
In October 2007, Reuters Market Light, a division of Reuters, launched a mobile phone service for Indian farmers to provide local and customized commodity pricing information, news, and weather updates.
Journalists
Reuters has a team of several thousand journalists who over the years have covered major news events, sometimes at the cost of their lives. In May 2000, Kurt Schork, an American reporter, was killed in an ambush while on assignment in Sierra Leone. In April and August 2003, news cameramen Taras Protsyuk and Mazen Dana were both killed in two separate incidents by US troops in Iraq. During 2004, cameramen Adlan Khasanov in Chechnya and Dhia Najim in Iraq were also killed. In April 2008 Fadel Shana, a cameraman, was killed in the Gaza Strip after he was hit by an Israeli tank using controversial weapons known as flechettes.
The first Reuters journalist to be taken hostage in action was Anthony Grey. Detained while covering the Cultural Revolution in Peking in the late 1960s, said to be in response to the jailing of several Chinese terrorists by the colonial British Government in Hong Kong. He was considered to be the first political hostage of the modern age and was eventually released after almost 2 years solitary confinement. Awarded an OBE by the British Government in recognition of this, he went on to become a best selling author.
In recent years Reuters news service was subject to severe budget cuts.
Fatalities
Name
Nationality
Event Location
Event Date
Kurt Schork
American
Sierra Leone
2000-05-24
Taras Protsyuk
Ukrainian
Iraq
2003-04-08
Mazen Dana
Palestinian
Iraq
2003-08-17
Adlan Khasanov
Chechen
Chechnya
2004-05-09
Dhia Najim
Iraq
2004-11-01
Fadel Shana
Palestinian
Gaza Strip
2008-04-16
Investments
Notable investments include:
Action Images - On September 19, 2005, Reuters purchased North London-based Action Images, a deep collection of sports photography that includes more than 8 million images of which 1.7 million are online.
Application Networks - In June 2006, Reuters acquired Application Networks, Inc., a provider of trade and risk management software based on JRisk, and agrees to acquire Feri Fund Market Information Ltd (FERI FMI) and its fund database subsidiary, FI Datenservice GmbH (FID)
AVT Technologies - In December 2002, Reuters announced that it would acquire AVT Technologies, a specialist in foreign exchange transaction technology. Concurrent with the deal, Reuters established an Automated Dealing Technologies business unit, headed up by Mark Redwood, CEO of AVT Technologies.
Bridge Information Systems - On September 28, 2001, it completed the largest acquisition in its history acquired certain businesses and assets of Bridge Information Systems Inc. Also during the year, the Group acquired 100% of Diagram fip SA and 92% of ProTrader Group LP. In October 2001, the Group disposed of its majority stake in VentureOne Corp.
Clearforest - In June 2007, Reuters acquired Clearforest, a provider of Text Analytics solutions, whose tagging platform and analytical products allow clients to derive business information from textual content.
EcoWin - In November 2005, Reuters acquired EcoWin, a Gothenburg (Sweden) based provider of global fianancial, equities, and economic data.
Factiva - In May 1999, Reuters entered a joint venture with long-time rival, Dow Jones & Company, to form Factiva , a business news and information provider. In December 2006, Reuters sold its 50% share in Factiva to Dow Jones, who is now the sole owner.
Instinet - In May 2001, Instinet completed an IPO on NASDAQ; Reuters sold its majority stake in Instinet to The Nasdaq Stock Market in 2005.
Multex.com Inc. - In March 2003, Reuters acquired Multex.com, Inc., a provider of global financial information.
TIBCO Software - In July 1999,TIBCO Software completed an IPO on NASDAQ; Reuters retains a substantial proportion of the shares. Reuters announced in early 2000 a range of major initiatives designed to accelerate its use of internet technologies, open new markets and migrate its core business to an internet-based model.
Main corporate locations
From 1939, the Reuters corporate headquarters was in London's famous Fleet Street in a building designed for it by Sir Edwin Lutyens, but in 2005 Reuters moved to a larger building in the more modern Canary Wharf. The Reuters Building at 30 South Colonnade is near the One Canada Square tower, Jubilee Park and Canary Wharf tube station. The open space below the Reuters building has since been renamed Reuters Plaza. The company's North American headquarters is the Reuters Building at 3 Times Square, New York. It is on 7th Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets, and was constructed from 1998 to 2001.
Critique
Reuters has a strict policy towards upholding objectiveness and this policy has caused many to comment on the possible insensitivity of its reports covering major global events including: September 11, 2001, attacks. Reuters global news editor Stephen Jukes wrote, "We all know that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and that Reuters upholds the principle that we do not use the word terrorist."
The Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz responded, "After the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and again after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Reuters allowed the events to be described as acts of terror. But as of last week, even that terminology is banned." Reuters later apologized for this characterization of their policy , although they maintained the policy itself.
The September 20, 2004, edition of the The New York Times reported that the Reuters Global Managing Editor, David A. Schlesinger, objected to Canadian newspapers' editing of Reuters articles through inclusion of the word "terrorist," stating that "my goal is to protect our reporters and protect our editorial integrity." Due to this policy, Reuters was careful to only use the word "terrorist" in quotes, whether quotations or scare quotes. However, when reporting the 7 July 2005 London bombings, the service reported, "Police said they suspected terrorists were behind the bombings." The contrast between this and their aforementioned policy was criticized, although by that point Reuters policy was to use such words "when we are quoting someone directly or in indirect speech," and this headline is an example of the latter. The news organization has subsequently used the term "terrorist" without quotations when the article clarifies that it is someone else's words.
Photographs controversies
Reuters was accused of bias against Israel in its coverage of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, in which the company used two doctored photos by a Lebanese freelance photographer Adnan Hajj . On August 7, 2006, Reuters announced it severed all ties with Hajj and said his photographs would be removed from its database.
Press Trust of India
Press Trust Of India (PTI) is a news agency cooperatively owned by Indian newspapers, which joined together to take over the management of the Associated Press of India and the Indian outlets of the Reuters news agency of Great Britain. It began operating in February 1949 and is headquartered in Bombay.
PTI is the largest news agency in India. It is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 450 Indian newspapers and has a staff of more than 1,300. It took over the Indian operations of the Associated Press and Reuters soon after India's independence on August 27, 1947. It provides news coverage and information of the region in both English and Hindi.
All major TV/Radio channels in india and several abroad, including BBC in London, receive the PTI Service. With a staff of over 1,300 including 400 journalists, PTI has over 80 bureaus across the country and foreign correspondents in major cities of the world including Beijing, Dhaka, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Islamabad, Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, London, Moscow, New York, Washington and Sydney.
In addition, about 475 stringers contribute to the news file at home.
It exchanges information with several other news agencies including 100 news agencies based outside India, such as Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, The New York Times Company and Bloomberg for distribution of their news in India, and with the the Associated Press for its Photo Service and International commercial information. PTI exchanges news with nearly 100 news agencies of the world as part of bilateral and multilateral arrangements, including Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool and the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies. Major Indian subscribers of PTI include Times of India and Hindustan Times.
A national nonprofit enterprise, PTI, which operates primarily in English, as do most of India's large dailies, became one of the Third World's largest cooperative news agencies. It employed some 2,000 writers and other specialists in more than 150 offices, with correspondents in important world population centres. In the 1980s PTI underwent a program of modernization and diversification; it computerized many of its operations, introduced services in Hindi and other languages, and established a television facility (1986) as well as the country's first wire photo service (1987).
In 1976 the government declared a state of emergency and required PTI to merge with India's other three major agencies, the English-language United News of India and the multilingual Hindustan Samachar and Samachar Bharati, but in 1978, the four agencies were allowed to start operating independently again.
Services Provided By PTI
English News Service
Available in two forms. The ‘core’ service covers major developments in diverse fields in a compact form. A more comprehensive segmented service allows papers to pick additional inputs from segments of their choice. National/Regional, Economic/Commercial, International, and Sports. Core service puts out about 40,000 words and the full segmented service upto 100,000 words per day.
BHASHA
Bhasha is the Hindi language news service of PTI. With its own network in the Hindi-speaking states and drawing on PTI files, Bhasha puts out about 40,000 words per day.
STOCK SCAN
A screen-based service providing stock market information from major stock exchanges of the country.
NEWS SCAN
Displays news in capsule from on video monitors. Major developments in the country and abroad are covered.
DATA INDIA
A reference weekly providing a digest on the happenings in India, in a user-friendly alphabetical listing.
ECONOMIC SERVICE
A fortnightly journal providing analytical reports on the state of the Indian economy and trends in the corporate world.
PTI MAG
A weekly package of eleven special stories on topics ranging from arts to business to science. Available through the wire service as well as through mail.
SCIENCE SERVICE
Reports on the developments in the fields of science and technology with particular reference to India in a fortnightly journal.
PTI FEATURE
A package of four weekly features on topical national, international and general events. PTI-TV Provides spot coverage and makes corporate documentaries on assignment basis.
PHOTO
Available in two packages to suit the needs of small and big newspapers. PTI Photo provides pictures on the national, foreign and sports scenes via satellite, dial-up and hand delivery. The full colour service of the Associated Press Of America (AP) is also made available through PTI.
ASIA PULSE
An on-line data bank on economic developments and business opportunities in asian countries. Formed by PTI and four other Asian media organisations, Asia Pulse International is registered as a company in Singapore.
History Of PTI
1910 Birth of Associated Press of India, PTI's forerunner floated by K C Roy
1919 Reuters takes over operations of API but still uses API credit line
1945 API registered as a private limited Indian company wholly owned by Reuters
1947, August 27 Press Trust of India incorporated in Madras
1949, February 1 PTI begins news services, taking over operations from API but still maintains links with Reuters.
1953 PTI becomes a free agent, independent of Reuters
1976 PTI Economic Service is launched
1976, February PTI, UNI, Samachar Bharati and Hindustan Samachar merge under pressure during emergency to become 'Samachar'
1978, April PTI and the other three news agencies go back to their original units to restrart independent news operations
1980, July PTI Feature Service launched
1981, October PTI Science Service launched
1982, November PTI launches Scan, on-screen news display service
1984 PTI service launched for subscribers in USA
1985 Computerisation of news operations starts PTI service launched for subscribers in UK
1986, February PTI-TV launched
1986, April PTI-Bhasha launched
1986, August Experimental broadcast of news and pix via Insat-IB begins, Computer system made fully operational
1987, August Stockscan I launched
1987, October PTI photo service launched
1992, August PTI Mag launched
1993, August PTI Graphics service launched
1995, March PTI launches StockScan II
1996, February PTI invests for the first time in a foreign registered Company, Asia Pulse, which provides an on-line data bank on economic opportunities in Asian countries
1997, December PTI introduces photo-dial up facility
1999 March PTI celebrates Golden Jubilee. PTI goes on internet
2003, September PTI launches internet delivery of its news and photo services
THE STORY OF PTI IS VIRTUALLY THE STORY OF INDEPENDENT INDIA.
The run-up to Independence had also thrown up ideas of running free India’s own national news agency as an objective disseminator of information about a resurgent nation, freed of the foreign yoke. “The evolution of the concept of a national news agency was the direct consequence of the spirit of independence that swept the country since the days of the Quit India Movement. “The desire to shake off the imperial domination in the field of news supply was at the heart of this evolving thought,” said Ramnath Goenka, the fearless press baron and freedom fighter.
After two years of consultations and planning among senior journalists, newspaper proprietors and national leaders like Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel, free India’s first national news agency, the Press Trust of India, was incorporated in Madras on August 27, 1947. This was within a fortnight of what Jawaharlal Nehru described as India’s “Tryst With Destiny” at the historic central hall of Parliament on the night of August 14-15.
Though PTI began its operations in 1949, its origin goes back to the early years of the 20th Century when its forerunner - the Associated Press of India (API) - was launched by an enterprising Indian, Keshab Chandra Roy.
The first Indian to function as a Political Correspondent at the British imperial capital, Roy was a high-school dropout who made a success of a journalistic career and rose to be a nominated member of the Central Legislative Assembly as a distinguished journalist. Working for more than one newspaper at a time, including The Tribune of Lahore, the Indian Daily Mail of Bombay and the Amrita Bazar Patrika of Calcutta, Roy found it easy to have a news pooling arrangement with European journalists to carry on with his work. It was from this experience that the idea of a news agency grew in Roy’s mind. Soon he collaborated with three of his professional colleagues - Usha Nath Sen, Durga Das and A.S. Iyengar - to float and run API.
Though the exact time of its birth is somewhat hazy, according to the book ‘Reuter’s Century: 1851-1951' by Graham Storey, it was started in 1910. K C Roy finally gave up in 1919 his brave effort to run an Indian-owned domestic news agency and Reuters became the sole supplier of foreign and domestic news to the government and to the newspapers of India.The London-based Eastern News Agency, owned by Reuters, merely used the name Associated Press of India. API was to be registered as a private limited company, wholly owned by Reuters, much later in September 1945. The seven men who subscribed initially to the shares of PTI were K Srinivasan, Editor, ‘The Hindu’, Madras, Khasa Subba Rau, Editor, ‘Swatantra’, Madras, S.S Vasan, Editor, ‘The Anandavikatan’, Madras, S. Sadanand, Managing Editor, ‘Free Press Journal’, Bombay, C.R. Srinivasan, Editor, ‘Swadesamitran’, Madras, A.A. Hayles, Editor and Director, ‘The Mail’, Madras and S.V. Swamy, Editor, ‘Free Press’, Madras.
Recalling PTI’s takeover of the news operations of the erstwhile API, Goenka wrote: “Sadanand and I were happy that PTI eventually took over the operations of API from February 1, 1949. We were, however, unhappy with the package in terms of which PTI became a junior member of Reuters which retained its monopoly of distributing international news to Indian newspapers.” PTI, registered in 1947, took over news operations from API from February 1, 1949. “When PTI emerged a free agent in 1953, we felt as happy as Jawaharlal did at the end of the interval between India’s attainment of dominion status and its emergence as a Sovereign Republic - an interval during which he chafed at having to couch communications to His Majesty in the phraseology of a subject addressing his liege.
February 1,1949, PTI has reported India’s history as it happened, blow by blow, in the best traditions of news agency journalism, with speed, accuracy and objectivity. The first general elections of free India in 1952, the first Asian Games a year earlier, the war with China in 1962, Pandit Nehru’s death in 1964, the great split of the Indian National Congress in 1969, the 1971 war with Pakistan culminating in the birth of Bangladesh, India’s first nuclear test in 1974, the emergency in 1975, terrorist violence in Punjab in the 1980s, assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 as well as the stirring events of the 1990s, were all reported in detail by PTI journalists, most of them in anonymity.
In the last 50 years, PTI has come a long way, growing in size and stature as the oldest and largest among news agencies of the countries that became free after World War II.
PTI’s Golden Jubilee
“We got independence in August 1947. But independence in news and information, we got only with the establishment of PTI in 1949. That is the significance of PTI and its golden jubilee” President K R Narayanan , chronicling history from partition to the historic bus journey by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Lahore as it happened, PTI celebrates its Golden Jubilee this year. The celebrations were flagged off by the President Mr K R Narayanan by releasing a commemorative stamp on March 5th at the agency’s headquarters in New Delhi.
The Rs 15 multi-coloured and multi-lingual stamp on PTI depicts the Agency’s journey from ticker-tape printers to satellite transmission. According to the Department of Posts, it’s for the first time that an Indian stamp has seven languages. On the 10th of March Vice-President Krishan Kant inaugurated a 12-day Photo-exhibition PTI-Offbeat, tracing the evolution of the Agency’s photo-service and showcasing some of the best moments captured by our lensmen ‘on’ and ‘off the beat.’ The grand old lady of Indian Photography, Homai Vyarawalla was the guest of honour at the exhibition. It will later travel to Calcutta, Madras and Mumbai during the year long cleberations. Celebrating the power of the camera to capture images of the coming generations, the Agency also brought out a coffee-table book “PTI-Offbeat - A Candid View of Everyday Life”.
This was released by the Prime Minister Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the 11th of March.
The highlight of the celebrations, however, was a two-day international seminar on “Information without Frontiers — Breaking Barriers or Invading Cultures” inaugurated by Mr Vajpayee. A host of leading media personalities, bureaucrats and jurists deliberated on subjects like ‘IT Revolution : Impact on Media’, ‘Culture Clashes : Impact on Art, Culture, Theatre and Way of Life’ and ‘Media : Ethics and Responsibility’. The Agency also brought out a Souvenir on the occasion.
Remember News Agencies Are Not Newspaper Syndicates!
Newspaper syndicate also called Press Syndicate, or Feature Syndicate, agency that sells to newspapers and other media special writing and artwork, often written by a noted journalist or eminent authority or drawn by a well-known cartoonist, that cannot be classified as spot coverage of the news. Its fundamental service is to spread the cost of expensive features among as many newspapers (subscribers) as possible.
Press syndicates sell the exclusive rights to a feature to one subscriber in each territory, in contrast to the wire news services (news agency), which offer their reports to all papers in a given area.
Some syndicates specialize in such entertainment features as comic strips, cartoons, columns of oddities or humour, and serialized novels. Typical syndicated features are columns of advice on child rearing, health, running a household, gardening, and such games as bridge.
History Of Newspaper Syndicates
Syndicates came into being in the United States at the end of the Civil War. Individual features, however, had been syndicated as early as 1768 in the Journal of Occurrences, which was circulated by a group of “Boston patriots.” The syndicate filled a need among rural or small-town weekly and daily papers for material that would help them compete with big-city papers.
Three syndicates were in operation in 1865, supplying miscellaneous feature news items and short stories.
In 1870 Tillotson & Son, publishers in Bolton, Eng., began to supply some British papers with serialized fiction. By 1881 Henry Villard, a reporter for the Associated Press (AP), had founded his own syndicate in Washington, D.C., and was soon sending material to the Cincinnati Commercial, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Herald.
About 1884, Charles A. Dana of the New York Sun formed a syndicate to sell short stories by Bret Harte and Henry James. Samuel S. McClure launched a similar venture in the same year. He first offered fiction and secured the rights to several stories by Rudyard Kipling. He also helped to introduce the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and others into the United States. The features offered at that time were mostly literary material and pictures.
An important change came in 1896, however, when the big New York City Sunday newspapers began to produce and publish comic pages. In 1907 the comic strip was introduced in daily papers. This form of art gradually changed the whole character of the business and made it more profitable.
The strips were shipped in matrix form to the subscribers for simultaneous publication. Originally, they were truly “comics” in that they were intended to make readers laugh, but later many became continued stories with no humour.
When Bud Fisher's “Mutt and Jeff” was first bought and published in England in 1920, many British readers scoffed at the idea. It proved successful, and British editors later originated many strips in competition with the American products. By the late 1950s American comic strips were being translated into several languages and sold all over the world.
Many writers, photographers, and graphic artists syndicate their own materials. Some newspapers with especially strong resources syndicate their own coverage, including news, to papers outside their own communities. Examples include the New York Times, with major resources in every news department, and the defunct Chicago Daily News, which was known for its foreign coverage. Papers sometimes syndicate as a team with another newspaper—e.g., the Los Angeles Times–Washington Post syndicate.
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