T.Y.B.M.M. JOURNALISM semester VI

1. PRESS LAWS AND ETHICS

• Introduction to Law
  • Constitutional law
  • Statutory law
  • Judgment law
  • Substantial and adjectival law
• The Press as the forth estate
• The role of law in regulating journalism-the debate of a libertarian and socially responsible press.
• Need for an autonomous regulatory body
  • Press Council of India – the rationale and vision behind the establishment of the PCI
  • Its structure, functions, history
  • Powers – the debate over punitive powers
  • Dual role in ensuring freedom of the press and regulating it
  • PCI code of conduct for journalists
  • Major cases handled by the PCI
  • Pertinent research reports of the PCI for example on monopoly etc.
• Laws related to freedom of the Press – 19 (1) (a), ‘reasonable restrictions’ 19 (2) and other constraints:
  • Defamation
  • Public order
  • Contempt of court
  • Contempt of parliament
  • Sedition
  • Obscenity, indecent representation of women act
• Laws related to information access
  • Right to information
  • Examining the right to know vs. the right to privacy
• Censorship-the Press during the Emergency and Publication of Objectionable Matters Act.
• Indirect means of censorship Press and Page Act; targeting the Press through the tax laws and other laws, Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act.
• Official Secrets Act
• Indian Evidence Act – real, oral, documentary, primary and secondary evidence
• Confidentiality of sources – the absence of a shield law in India; discussion of the American law
• Laws related to journalism as a business
  • Working journalists act
  • Press and registration of books act
• Copyright
• Ethics
  • Examining the differences between ethics, morals and code of conduct
  • Institutional PR ethics; practitioner and personal ethics
  • Search for standards – guiding principles, situational ethics
• Issue of balance on reporting Crime, Disasters, Conflict, – communal riots or other violence
• Advertiser influence
• Objectivity
• Conflict of interest
• Ownership
• Frankery and fabricating news
• Deception, misrepresentation
• Using shock value in visuals and language
• Seduction-Freebies, perks, travel and stay accommodations
• Ethics in Investigative Journalism
  • Checkbook journalism
  • Confidentiality of sources
  • Issues of consent, using ‘off the record’ material
  • Repercussions of the story on sources’ lives and on the publication itself

2. NICHE JOURNALISM

• Financial Journalism

• • Basic knowledge of the finance system in India; gathering, distribution and allocation of revenue vis-à-vis the central and state governments; finance and planning commission
  • Central and state budgets; budget-making exercise, how to read a budget, concept of zero-budget, importance of public accounts committee
  • Introduction to tax laws, FERA, Industrial Relations Acts, Companies act
  • Sources of news of business, finance and industry governments, chambers of commerce and industries, corporate, trading and industrial executives, share markets, commodities markets, money market
  • Analysis of decisions, company reports and statements, AGMs
  • Satellite network and new trends in business journalism; new information technology; commercial database, ethics in business reporting, business journalism, servant or watchdog; concept of social audit
  • Introduction to major industries, electronics heavy engineering, chemical, steel, cement, power, bio-technology, agro-industries, service and agriculture; their role in the economy
  • Covering stock markets, commodity markets, company meetings, industrial production, exports, imports, financial companies, foreign capital investment, investigating the innumerable tie-up agreements with foreign countries, poor infrastructure development bureaucracy and business tie ups

• Environment

• • Print and broadcast media dealing with the issue
  • How environment is covered in the mainstream press
  • The need for specialize reporting on the are

• Cultural Journalism

• • An introduction to the developments and current trends in:
    • Visual arts
    • Dance
    • Drama
    • Music

• Magazines for women

• • Writing for women’s magazines. A diverse market
  • The difference between ‘serious’ and other women’s magazines
  • Manushi case study
  • What mainstream ‘women’s magazines’ cover and their projection of women

3. BROADCAST AND JOURNALISM

• History of the development of radio journalism; BBC as a case study; radio boom to current decline; current developments with FM and independent radio channels; the underdevelopment if radio with the coming of TV
• The potential of radio as a broadcast medium internationally and nationally; examining radio audiences in the region (AIR’s reach and popularity) and in the nation.
• Radio and news formats-the spot, the report, feature, documentary, docudrama, talk show, interview
• Writing for the radio
• Skills of speaking over the radio as a reporter, presenter, interviewing, narration, conversation; Outside broadcasts and radio conferencing
• Principles of sound and production techniques in radio journalism
• History and development of TV journalism internationally and in India
• TV journalism-local, regional national and international; exploring the potential of the local cable news network; studying CNN as a case study.
• TV news in regional languages- reach, popularity, special coverage
• TV journalism formats; evolution and popularity of new forms in TV; the long feature or documentary, the panel discussion and its functions, the news talk show.
• Scripting news for TV
• Principles of video camera use
• Skills of anchoring or presenting- voicing and delivery, on camera delivery
• Videotape editing
• Examining Broadcast journalism and allegations of ‘dumping down’ of news as a whole; impact on print journalism
• Understanding the power of the image and therefore the ethical considerations of broadcast coverage in times of conflict and disaster stories

4. NEWS MEDIA MANAGEMENT

• News media as a business enterprise
  • Types of ownership
  • Proprietary concerns
• Organizational structure
  • Hierarchy
  • Decision making
  • Inter-relationship between departments
• Financial Management
  • Cost and profitability
    • Costing classification and allocation
    • Nature of cost
    • Factors affecting cost
    • Fixed and variable costs
  • Financial statement analysis
    • P/L,A/s, B/s (vertical analysis)
• Resource and supply chain
  • Newsprint
  • Technology
  • Production process
• Managing resource
  • Advertising revenue building and maintenance
  • Circulation revenue
  • Ways to cut cost and boost revenue
• Marking techniques
  • Brand building
  • Public relations
    • Newspaper’s relation to its community
    • Understanding the target audience
    • Building goodwill
    • Promoting the newspaper’s/site’s services
    • Sales promotional activities
  • Role of research and readership surveys
  • Sales of forecasting and planning
  • Advertising the newspaper/website/channel
• Human Resource Development
• Newspaper management and challenges of liberalization
  • FDI
  • Foreign media entry
• Legal aspects of launching a publication/ site/ channel
  • Press and registration of books act
  • Relevant aspects of company law
• Case studies of successful news media- their proprietors, organizational structure, factors for success

5. INTERNET AND ISSUES IN THE GLOBAL MEDIA

• Global journalism
  • Agents of global journalism – internet, international news agencies, international broadcasting
• Internet journalism
  • Journalism in ‘real time’
  • Interactivity
  • Global problem of global audiences
  • Democrasting communication vertical to horizontal communication
• Reporting and editing for the net
  • Difference between newspaper writing and writing for the net
  • Brevity and providing appropriate links
  • Special interest writing on the net
• Developing your own website
  • Target audience
  • Content and services developing
• Internet design
• Issues of authenticity, propaganda and regressive communication on the net; lack/failure of regulatory laws
• Access to primary documents of government and international agencies; global platform for activist groups
• International news flow
  • The global news agencies
  • Growing global monopolies and their impact on news
  • NWICO, Mac Bridge report
  • Non-aligned news agencies and their downfall
• Politics of representation of the ‘third world’ in international press
  • Political or ideological bias
  • Cultural bias
• International reporting
• Reporting international politics, international relations
  • International conflict Bosnia
  • Disasters
  • Poverty Ethiopian Famine
  • Reporting national events internationally
• Challenges to international journalism
  • Problems of ‘parachute journalism’
  • The need for depth research
  • Operating in hostile conditions
• International law and the role of western media in defining human rights, and rethinking the concepts of human rights from a third world media perspective
• Asian region and the need for greater connectivity
  • Focus on agencies in Asia
  • Case study of Japan which has the greatest rate of news diffusion world wide
  • China and state control of news
  • India – mixed pattern

6. CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

• Environmental issues
  • World without borders
  • Global warming, economic and environmental impact
  • Resource use and sustainability
  • Environmental degradation, ozone depletion, pollution, deforestation
• Universal human Rights- Universal Declaration(1949);Declaration of the right to development(1986);Examining the concept of ‘universal’ human rights and the individual context
• Self-determination- Issues of secession; issues of state and anti state violence
• Population, consumption and sustainability
• Emancipatory movements
  • Trade union
  • Peasants movements (with global vision)
  • Environmental movements Chipko; Rachel Carson’s silent spirit; `72-UN summit on environment
  • Women’s movement
  • Homosexual rights
  • The development debate, anti large dam movements, rehabilitation, development choices, people’s involvement
  • Tribal movements
• State of Polity
  • Decline of law
  • Corruption
  • Nexus between crime and politics
  • Political apathy
  • Authoritarianism by democratic governments
• Positive discriminations and reservations
• Communalism
• Issues of accountability
  • Corporate Bhopal gas tragedy
  • Government accountability