some reporting notes

The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC)

Introduction
The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) is the global trade body and professional institute for agencies and practitioners who provide media evaluation and communication research. Since its formation in London in 1996 with just 7 members, it has grown into a trade body whose purpose is to define and develop the industry on an international scale with better professional standards for both companies and individuals.

The latest initiative is the establishment of the AMEC US Agency Research Leaders Group as our first International Chapter and which has the objective of engaging leading research professionals in new industry thinking. Through this commitment we aim to grow the industry, enabling wider recognition in all countries where members operate. AMEC currently has members in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan,Macedonia, Malaysia, Norway,Portugal, Romania, Russia,Scandinavia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US.

All AMEC Full members are bound by the AMEC Quality Assurance Code and provide professional, independent and impartial communications planning, evaluation and research. They guarantee technical expertise and ensure best practice, best quality and best value to their clients.



Muckrackers
A muckraker is, primarily, a reporter or writer who investigates and publishes truthful reports involving a host of social issues, broadly including crime and corruption and often involving elected officials, political leaders and influential members of business and industry.

These writers focused on a wide range of issues including the monopoly of Standerd Oil; cattle processing and meat packing; patent medicines;child labor; and wages,labor , and working conditions in industry and agriculture. In a number of instances, the revelations of muckraking journalists led to public outcry, governmental and legal investigations, and, in some cases, legislation was enacted to address the issues the writers' identified, such as harmful social conditions; pollution; food and product safety standards; sexual harassment; unfair labor practices; fraud; and other matters. The work of the muckrakers in the early years, and those today, span a wide array of legal, social, ethical and public policy concerns.

The mid 19th Century saw an increase in the kind of reporting that would come to be called "muckraking."By the 1900s, magazines such asColler's Weekly, Munsey's and McClure's were already in wide circulation and read avidly by the growing middle class.

Contemporary muckrakers

* Ben Bagdikian — journalist and major American Media Critic, also the dean emeritus of the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism; author of The Media Monopoly and The New Media Monopoly

* Donald Barlett and James Steele — longtime investigative reporting team, now with Vanity Fair.

* Wayne Barrett — investigative journalist, senior editor of the Village Voice; wrote on mystique and misdeeds in Rudy Giuliani's conduct as mayor of New York City, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 (2006)

* Richard Behar — investigative journalist, two-time winner of the 'Jack Anderson Award'. Anderson himself once praised Behar as "one of the most dogged of our watchdogs"

Noam Chomsky - a high-level, observant, circumspect muckraker working within the academic landscape.


Soft news

News, as in a newspaper or television report, that does not deal with formal or serious topics and events.soft news is background information or human-interest stories. Arts, entertainment and lifestyles were considered soft news. One difference between hard and soft news is the tone of presentation. A hard news story takes a factual approach: What happened? Who was involved? Where and when did it happen? Why?

A soft news story tries instead to entertain or advise the reader. You may have come across newspaper or TV stories that promise "news you can use." Examples might be tips on how to stretch properly before exercising, or what to look for when buying a new computer.

Horse race journalism

Horse race journalism is a term used to describe instances of political journalism of elections that resemble coverage of horse races because of focus on polling data, public perception instead of candidate policy, and almost exclusive reporting on candidate differences rather than similarities. "For journalists, the horse-race metaphor provides a framework for analysis. A horse is judged not by its absolute speed or skill but in its comparison to the speed of other horses, and especially by its wins and losses."


Types Jourmalism

Journalism refers to the news or feature stories (light, entertainment stories) that are expressed either in a descriptive way or concise pattern through different types of media. A journalist reports news, which can be used in print, on television, aired on radio or even published on the Internet. The main purpose of a journalist is to report news with accurate facts. However, throughout the years, there have been different types of journalism developed that have given different dimensions to the field of mass media. Read on to know more about the various types of journalism.


Fashion journalism: Fashion journalism is all about articles or reports related to the fashion world. Journalists are also known as fashion writers or fashion editors. The primary job is to cover the latest in the fashion business or develop lifestyle articles. Such fashion articles can be found in magazines and newspapers. Today, there are many television channels that cater only to fashion, which gives ample opportunity for journalists who have a passion to cover such topics.


News journalism: Here, the primary aim of the journalist is to report news in a straight-forward manner that covers all the required facts. The style is direct with focus on the gist of the story with other necessary points. The news style should be concise and precise. The facts must be crosschecked which makes the news item as authentic as possible without any media bias. Here, the news story can be for the print media, television, radio, etc. Such news pieces often cover politics and social movements. News stories based on political suppression, public movements or abuse of human rights have proved instrumental in effecting many a social change, or giving voice to the oppressed. Similarly, cultural events are also covered in news journalism.


Celebrity journalism: As the name suggests, the journalist is connected to news and events related to celebrities from the entertainment world and also includes celebrities from other fields such as music, sports, dance, art, politics, etc. This journalism is all about news that is related to their professional and personal life. Reporting gossip is one of the angles of celebrity journalism, wherein journalists are often accused of misconstruing news or quotes in a deliberate fashion. This journalism is particularly popular with newspapers, magazines and television.


Investigative journalism: This type of journalism is about unearthing facts and studying cases that may require more efforts, which can take months or even years. Journalists who specialize in investigative journalism create headlines with news that expose scandals. Sometimes, persistent followup of a story proves beneficial to uncover some hitherto unsolved cases. This would require in-depth research from the journalist along with evidence.


Sports journalism: Here, journalists spend hours reporting on a particular sport event. A journalist has to report the accurate facts and statistics related to that event. Interviews with celebrity sport stars are yet one of the interesting features of sports journalism. Although sports-lovers watch the live coverage thanks to the media, there are many people who still enjoy reading or watching in-depth details about the event.


Citizen journalism: Here, it is not the professional journalists who are responsible for the news reports. Any citizen can participate and report news to the media. He/she collects and reports news to the media and participates voluntarily to offer help to the media. They bring to notice issues that may have been missed by media houses.


Environmental journalism: There are many journalists who prefer to cover issues related to the environment and its protection and conservation. Environmental journalists may only report about the news while some work for a cause.


Business and finance journalism: Here, the journalist or reporter covers in-depth reports about the latest in business, launch of products, stock markets etc. There are many shows dedicated only for business news on television whereas in newspapers, one can find a special section dedicated to this subject.



A style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field. The implementation of a style guide provides uniformity in style and formatting of a document.
A set of standards for a specific organization is often known as "house style". Style guides are common for general and specialized use, for the general reading and writing audience, and for students and scholars of various academic disciplines, medicine, journalism, the law, government, business, and industry.


Organizations advocating for social minorities sometimes establish what they believe to be fair and correct language treatment of their audiences.
Some style guides focus on graphic design, focusing on such topics as typography and white space. Web site style guides cover a publication's visual and technical aspects, along with text.
Many style guides are revised periodically to accommodate changes in conventions and usage. The Associated Press, for example, revises its stylebook annually

Types Of Lead
A lead (or an intro) is the beginning paragraph for a story. It is the hardest part to write as it sets the tone and introduces the reader to the rest of the story. A good lead paints a vivid picture of the story with a few words. Not many reporters can produce sharp, original leads. Writers of little talent and scant judgment load their leads with official sources, official titles, official phrases, even official quotes, and produce long-winding, cumbersome and dull leads. If the lead is not effective, the reader may skip the story. It should be appropriate for the story. The lead must be accurate, short and crisp. The lead should reflect the mood of the story. A routine lead is a short summary of an event. But if the story is interesting, a wide varieties of lead can be tried out. This chapter cites several examples from The Professional Journalist and The AP Writing Handbook.

Straight lead (or Summary lead)
A good lead incorporates the inverted pyramid style with the most important facts first. It tells readers what they want to know in a creative manner. If the reader only read the lead, he or she would have a solid grasp of the story. The above accident report can be written in a straight lead. Journalists often resort to summary leads pressed for time.
E.g. Two children at play were killed today when a sports car jumped the curb outside Prospect Park and ran them down. Twelve in the group were injured.
Police Chief J.W. Carmichael attributed the tragedy to reckless driving. The driver, slightly injured, was . . .
Descriptive lead
A descriptive lead describes how an event happened rather than simply telling what the event is about. Eyewitness accounts can provide the background for writing lucid descriptions which help the reader to visualise a news situation.
E.g. BRIGHTON, England (UPI) -- Mrs. Pamela Bransden slowly counted five, snapped into a hypnotic trance, and gave birth to an eight-pound baby. It was as easy as that.
Quotation lead
Quotes frequently are the essential documentation for a lead and should be used immediately after a paraphrase that summarises them. Here paraphrasing the verbatim quotation permits the removal of unnecessary words. But if a verbatim quotation itself is very important or interesting, it can be the lead itself.
E.g. When a fellow engineering student was murdered by John David in his hostel room in a ragging rage, the lead for a follow-up story was a Biblical quotation found on the door of the culprit.
"Peace unto those who enter here."
Question lead
Many editors dislike question lead on the basis that people read newspapers to get answers, and not to be asked questions. But if the question is provocative, it may be used as a lead.
E.g. What is the first thing that a woman buys when she is advised that she won $2,50,000 in a jingle contest?
Personal lead
It involves the use of the first person singular in the lead. Normally such a use is discouraged except for a columnist or such privileged writers.
E.g. (By Reg Murphy, while editor of the Atlanta Constitution, after being released by a kidnapper)
When the tall, heavy, garishly dressed stranger appeared at the door, it was clear this was trouble.
You' lead (or Direct Address lead)
The `You' lead is intended to make a personal appeal to the reader involved in a complicated situation. The second-person approach reaches out to involve the reader and capture his/her attention.
E.g. Ski fans, here's your opportunity!
Contrast lead
To vary monotony, a saga can be split into two sentences -- the first of which refers to the humble beginning and the second to the hero's latest triumph. When Van Cliburn, the pianist, returned from a musical triumph in Moscow, one reporter wrote:
E.g. Harvey Lavan (Van) Cilburn Jr. of Kilgore, Tex., came home from Russia today with 17 pieces of luggage. They bespoke his triumph as pianist in Moscow. He had three when he went over.
Delayed lead (or suspended interest lead)
A situation can be exploited in an interesting way so that an ordinary item stands out. The reporter delves in several paragraphs to find out what had happened. The reader must get the story by reading to the end of the story.
E.g. Dwight David Eisenhower once said he would rather win the Medal of Honour than be president. Dwight Harold Johnson -- who was named for Dwight Eisenhower -- said once to a friend that ``winning the medal has changed my life so much I don't know if I'll ever get my head straight again. But I know this. Nobody's hero forever.''
Friday, April 30, in the drizzle of a Detroit dawn, Dwight Johnson died but not as a hero. He died in the emergency room of a Detroit hospital with three bullet wounds in his side and one in his head. He was shot, according to police, by a store owner he had tried to rob.
Blind identification lead
If the person concerned is not well known in the community, his/her name is less important than other salient facts that identify the person. eg. "a 80-year-old woman" instead of her name.
Anecdotal lead
The anecdotal lead is used when the anecdote is bright and applicable and not too wasteful of space. It brings the reader quickly into a news situation that might not attract his attention if it were routinely written.
E.g. David and Kay Craig's two-year-old marriage is a second one for both and their story is one that is being repeated with increasing frequency across the country.
Each was married for the first time at 18. David's marriage lasted through five years and two children. Kay's first marriage ended in divorce after a year and eight months.
Gag (or funny) lead
A journalist who writes a funny story put up the saddest face in a newsroom. Journalistic homour requires the skilled and practice.
E.g. Here is how an AP reporter wrote when a woman broke her leg trying to climb out of a locked London public toilet: LONDON -- What's a lady do when trapped in a loo?
Literary allusion lead
Parallelling the construction of a nursery rhyme or part of a well-known literary creation can add to variety.
E.g. Mary had a little camera, and everywhere that Mary went the camera was sure to go.
Mary Richards' perseverance in carrying her camera on every trip with her anthropologist husband has resulted in the publication of her first book, a collection of photographs of natives in seldom-visited areas of South America.