Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Journalism and Mass Communication

Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Journalism & Mass Communication: Journalism is concerned with collection and dissemination of news through the print media as well as the electronic media. This involves various areas of like reporting, writing, editing, photographing, broadcasting or cable casting news items.

Journalism is mainly divided in - (i) Print Journalism and (ii) Electronic (Audio/Visual) Journalism. Print Journalism includes newspapers, magazines and journals. In print journalism one can work as editors, reporters, columnists, correspondents etc. Electronic journalism includes for Radio, Television and the Web. In the web, skilled people are required to maintain sites of web newspapers (which cater only to the web and do not have print editions). Popular newspapers and magazines also have their own web editions. In electronic journalism one can be a reporter, writer, editor, , correspondent and anchor.

Job Prospects & Career Options

They can find employment with newspapers, periodicals and magazines, central information service, press information bureau, websites, AIR and TV channels like Doordarshan, ZEE TV, Star TV etc. At the same time they can do freelancing. One can also take up this career as a part time employment along with any other field of work.

Journalists can work as editors, reporters, columnists, correspondents, staff or freelance writer, photojournalists, proofreaders, news analysts etc. in print (newspapers and magazines) and electronic (Radio, Television and Web) media.

Editor

In the editing field there are various positions : Chief Editor/Resident Editor: Chief /resident editor is in charge of the over-all functions of the publication. His primary responsibility is to supervise the functions of collection, selection and presentation of news. He reads and corrects copy for publication, decide on the editorial policy and the content of publications. Resident editor is in charge of a particular edition (Eg: Chennai edition, Mumbai edition etc.).Personal attributes: He should have excellent journalistic vision- awareness of the major or minor political and current affairs, communication skills, leadership quality and long term experience as an editor. Sub Editor: They assist chief editor in selecting & sorting the contents. Their job involves re-writing to fit the space assigned, improve the language, insert punctuation etc. They also give headlines and help in page layout. There are number of sub editors for each news paper. The chief sub editor is in charge of the team of sub editors- he assigns work and coordinates and supervises them. He act as a link between the chief editor and sub editors. Reporter: He is the one who reports events as and when it occurs. The reporter is said to be the eyes & ears of the newspaper. Reporter attend press conferences, conduct interviews, visit sites of major occurrence and gather first hand report and present them in an unbiased manner. Their job involves a lot of traveling. A Chief reporter is in charge of the team of reporters, and assigns work to the reporters. Main newspapers employ reporters in all major cities. Writer: A writer chooses themes or subjects for written work, conduct research into the subject, assemble background material and obtain other necessary data. Writers may specialise in- Journalism, fiction writing; children's books, educational textbook writing, historical writing and transferring oral histories into written form, humour or comedy writing and so on. In journalism, writers can be feature writers, leader writers, writers for multimedia and web and so on. Feature writer: Feature writers writes detailed stories or presents commentaries on specific news topics. They research and analyse facts and draw conclusions on a particular topic. They can cover any topic of public interest like interviews, organising data and evidence, feature story leads etc. Feature writing is more descriptive and detailed than news reporting. Photo Journalist or News Photographer: They are the visual reporters. Photo journalists accompany reporters on assignments to take pictures that support a news story, feature or interview. They must know what makes a good news picture; be able to write accurate captions, work well with reporters, be quick and often work

Journalism & Mass Communication