What is journalism?

Luigi Albertini, Editor in chief

of
“Corriere della Sera

“It is better than

working”
 What do Journalists do?

• To inform
and
• to comment
 Search and investigation

• Willi Kinnigheit: “Searching is more

important than writing” and “is a
journalistic activity belonging to the most
interesting tasks”.
 Information on facts first

• Public wants information first

• Your opinion in second level

• Or straight to an editorial
 Archives and record

• Folders with printed material

• Digital in your PC of central Database

 Search and/or investigate before
events
• Press conference, interviews and other
journalistic meetings.

• In making report on politics/politicians archives

and records are a powerful tools you gat ready
to “fight” against contradiction, discrepancy and
lies.

• Take time for keeping archives updated and to

search/investigate.
Formulating, Drawing up and
Editing
Forms of expression:
 News
 Report –Article
 Reportage
 Interview
 Survey - [opinion] poll
 Commentary, Opinion, Statement
 Ironic comment [ary] (Glosse in de)
 Editorial –Leading article
 Selecting in Editing
• Chousing - Select

• Working on the text

• Presenting (the material)

 Presentation
• Newspaper

• Radio

• TV

• Internet
 Organizing and Planning
• Team work and management: a Must
today.
• Growing need of contact with public –
audience.
• Readers’ letters > “Ombuds-Editor”
• www.
• Editorial departments’ Conference
• Contacts with freelances
New editorial departments models

• Newsroom: centralized system where all

the heads of departments meet to
coordinate journalistic activity

• News desk: cross-medial work

 Fields of work of journalist
 Press
 Wireless BRIT (Rundfunk de)
* Radio
* Television
 Online Media
 Cross-media work
 New-agency
 Communication office
 Communication & PR
 Press
Press
 Daily papers (published at least tow times a week)
 Weekly papers – Magazines
 Sunday papers
 Boulevard papers
 Specialized papers
 Advertisement papers
About 2/3 of the journalist work in in local papers, mainly in
countries with regional and federal structure.
 Radio
• Radio is the fastest media
• It stirs fantasy in the mind of listeners who
generate in him/her images with an
identity stringer that in TV
• Radio journalist needs to “chat” both in
studio and on the phone
• “Radiophone” thinking
•
 Television
• Towards a one-man team based on digital
systems
 Online media
• A vertical trend
Weblog
Foto or Videocommunities
YouTube
• In Germany about 3.000 online journalists
plus about the same number of online-PR.
Thousands of crossmedial journalists
 Crossmadial work
• Newsroom

• Newsdesk

• Half of the editorial departments in

Germany work weith Newsroom or
Newsdesk model
 News agency
• Important source, providing more and
more services in addition to news.
 Communication office
• Public institutions

• Private large companies

• Associations

• Limited in objectivity?
 Communication & PR

• Networking

• Style

• Organization
 Departments (Ressorts de)
• Politic
• foreign news (
• Culture
• Regional
• Local
• Economy
• Sport
• Special area: fashion, children,….
………………
Europe?
 Crossmadial teams

• From “Ghetto principle to team work

• High politic <> low local ?

85 % of the readers read local part and

regional papers
Journalist and his/her story. How?
• Three stages.

1. Idea
2. Deepening the topic
3. Writing the text
 Search, investigation…
• A journalist is no Deputy Public Prosecutor

• In investigating, ask, ask, and ask!

• Crate an atmosphere to facilitate answers to your questions.

• Note down important questions before the meeting.

• Read carefully and study original documents of available.

• Journalists might have special right for access to information sources.

• Information overflow, select.
 Useful instruments
• Phonebook with many numbers amd
emails

• PC archives

Exs.: www.news.google.com and …

Lexicon on the desk

 Journalistic presentations

• “Comment is free, but facts are sacred”

(C.P. Scott, Editor in chief, Manchester Guardian)

Clear separation between information

and personal opinion
 News
• What is a news?
• John B. Bogart, local editor of US “Sun”, in
1880s: £When a dog bits a man, that’s not news,
but when a man bites a dog, that’s news”
• In US Journalism: “Man-bites –dog Formula”.
• US: “New is what’s different”
• US: “If you seat on a news you burn your
backside”
 News’ elements
1. Topicality
2. General interests
3. Construction (assembling) The “Ws”
4. Comprehensibility
5. Objectivity

15-20 lines – 1 minute

 A News’s Definition
• A news is a communication “endeavored”
to provide an information of general
interest with objectivity on a fact in a clear
(certain) construction.
 Topicality
• What’s new today?
• Difference between yesterday and today

• Recently discovered

• The EU Court of Auditors has just

discovered that two years ago there was
abuse in managing financial means of the
structural funds.
 General interests

• The general interest is not universal only; it can be

related to Europe, a country, a region, a community…
• A catalog of interests:
• Prominence( EP member in Timisoara)
• Vicinity (our city)
• Feeling , (emotion, something touching)
• Progress, improvement (New incubatory in Timi)
• An impacting decision (EU grant for a important project)
• Conflict (A case at the EU CJ)
• Drama
• Curiosity ( EC Eurobarometer: data 27 EU MS)
 Construction
• Essential, basic comes first

• The “LEAD” must answer to questions that

public is likely to put.

• The following is replenishment,

completion.
 The six Ws + H
1. Who?
2. What?
3. Where?
4. When?
5. Why
6. Which source
7. How
--
Which quotation?

What and Who are usually the most important

We can have many more “small” ws
Which age; what for a profession…

1. Hard news (censorship for EC)

2. Soft news (an EU civil servant who was fired requires special social services)
 Comprehensibility

• Write:
- what you understand
- clearly, vividly
- With precision and accuracy
- Give names: they give color and identity
• Past history, background
• Do not worry to repeat if you have doubts about clarity
• Be attentive with metaphors
• Find the fitting word (keep a good vocabulary on you desk (Deutsch
für Profis; DOP,Rai)
• Banish the “Blähstil” ( He will come in his capacity as Commissioner
– He will come as commissioner.
• Short sentences
• Prefer active
 Objectivity

• From a journalist people expect truthful

reporting!

• Facts, Facts and Facts, which are real and

• complete, entire, thoroughly presented.

• Comments, opinion are welcome, but

separation is a MUST:
 Objectivity…

• Do not gat involve emotionally and mix

narration with opinion.

• “Der Geist is willing, aber das Fleisch ist

schwach”.
• Clear separation doesn’t mean.
• Do not “sell” a personal opinion or
statement like a generalized fact.
 Objectivity…

• If you are impressed by a speech given by

EP’s member in a public arena of
Timisoara thinking that young people will
follow his/her suggestions, don’t report it
as granted but ask young people present
what they think and repot is as their
opinion (as quotations between “inverted
commas” in case of written press.
 Report (Bericht, de)
• R
A Report is a brother of a news, but bigger
and also more mature.

The first sentence mast be the “Lead” and

present the more important fact.

Quotations are good

 A further W
• For whom do I make the repot?
• General or well-directed (gezielt)
• In a general regulation or directive find what is
interesting for Timi but don’t disregard the need
to “educate” people about EU.
• ……the European directive, that contains goals
to be reached and the member states must
implement it accordingly, will provide for
Romania substantial security for its citizens…
 Reportage
• The Reportage is no substitute for news or
report, but a completion, a supplementing.
• The reporter portrays, to gives an
exhaustive account of what he/she has
seen and realized, take accurate notes of
all details.
• As concrete and illustrative as possible.
•
 Reportage…
• A reportage begins with a general aspect
and goes down in details.

• The reportage is not hierarchical.

• Highlight can be in the middle and at the

end too.
 Reportage ….
• A school composition begins with “general” and goes
down with details.

• A Reportage begins with something special and details

come after.

• John Taylor is working in the energy unity of the

European Commission in Brussels, at the fourth floor of
the Berlaymont, heart of the European quarter.
• He is one of the twenty thousand civil servants which
the taxpayers of the 27 EU member states pay for.
 Feature
• Reportage or Feature?

• Between real and abstract.

• Alarm in EP building in Strasburg.

• Policy comes. It’s a mouse.
 Interview
1. Substance: (information about FSCTS)
• To what extend will the directive X reduce the
cost of roaming
2. Opinion:
• What do you think about the Environment
directive?
3. Person:
• Presentation of a person (EC Commissioner);
to outline her/him through his/her answers
outline.
 For an interview:
1. Prepare yourself as good as you can, and
create an atmosphere so that she/he is more
motivated to answer and considers the
“conversation” serious.
2. Conduct a “conversation”: no interrogation and
no chat.
3. Be prepared with questions and do not be
“slave” of her/his preparation; free to react.
4. Put precise questions
 For an interview…
5. Put questions you think they belong to the
field of competence of your interview-part
ner.
6. Do not put many questions all together
(The interview-partner will try to pretend
to forget what he/she would like to
avoid.
7. Interviews among four eyes are usually
more productive that in public.
 A tug-of-war interview?
• Sometimes an interview can become a
tug-of-war (Tauziehn), having
“entertainment value”.

• ?Mr. Barroso, will you accept the

compromise about the Irish referenda?
• Barroso: I can’t answer.
• ?How can it be, you are the EC President?
Correspondent report and analyze
contribution
• The correspondent gives additional
information that he/she can get from the
“ambient” where She/he is (Barroso and
Merkel has a short bilateral conversation
before lunch)
• The correspondent interprets (the position
of Sarkozy was much stronger in
comparison with that of Berlusconi)
 Correspondent report…
• The correspondent analyzes what was tolled in
and interview.

EC President Prodi and Prime minister Berlusconi.

• “He must know by himself his limits” – this Prodi-
words let suppose that the handshake between
the them will be quite cool”.
 Commentary
• Do we have substance for a
commentary?
1. Is the statement really necessary?
2. Does the general public really has
interest for the statement of should it at
lest to be interested?
3. Does the substance belong to the few
important themes for which there is
space/time available?
 Gloss –Ironic Commentary
(Glosse)

• The difference between Gloss and

Commentary is mainly in STYLE

• In a paper is usually in the same place

 EP’s new President
• The European Parliament – composed of 750 members
voted last June in the 27 countries of the Eurooean
Union – has been elected today in Strasbourg with wide
majority a new President.
• He is the 69-years-old former Polish Prime minister Jerzy
Buzek, University professor for Energy Engineering,
Chairman, in 1981, of the 1st National Congress of
Delegates of "Solidarność“.
• Buzek is the first President of the European Parliament to
come from Central and Eastern Europe.
• In 2004 he was elected for the first time member of the
European Institution that he will chair now for two years
and a half, till January 2012, when a new president will be
elected for the remaining two years and a half of the term.
 Buzek este presedinte
• Parlamentul European – alcătuit din 750 de membri votaţi anul
trecut în iunie în cele 27 de ţări ale Uniunii Europene – şi-a ales
astăzi la Strasbourg cu o largă majoritate noul preşedinte.
• Acesta are 69 de ani şi este fostul prim-ministru polonez, Jerzy
Buzek, profesor universitar de Inginerie energetică, cel care a
condus în 1981 primul Congres Naţional al Delegaţilor
"Solidaritatea“.
• Buzek este primul preşedinte al Parlamentului European care
provine din Europa Centrală şi de Est.
• Membru al Parlamentului European începând cu 2004, Buzek va
prezida instituţia europeană pentru următorii doi ani şi jumătate,
până în ianuarie 2012, când un nou preşedinte va fi ales pentru
ceilalţi doi ani şi jumătate care rămân din prezentul mandat.
• Polish MEP Jerzy Buzek (EPP), born in Śmiłowice on 3 July 1940, has been
elected Parliament's President for the next two and half years. The secret
ballot took place today in Strasbourg, during the opening session of the new
EP. Mr Buzek was elected with 555 votes. "It's both an enormous challenge
and a great honour" Buzek said, mentioning the importance of
understanding the needs of citizens, in order to "carry our work properly".
• He began his political career as an activist for the "Solidarity" trade union
movement in Poland. He would later become Prime Minister of his country
between 1997 and 2001. Jerzy Buzek participated in the accession
negotiations and prepared the country for integration into the European
Union.
•
Elected MEP in 2004, after the accession of Poland, Buzek has been
member of EP's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and the
Parliament's delegation for relations with Ukraine. 

•
Prior to the vote he introduced himself to fellow Members by saying "I am a
scientist by profession" related to his background and training in that field.
• Deputatul polonez Jerzy Buzek (Grupul Partidului Popular European (Creştin Democrat), născut in
Śmiłowice la data de 3 iulie 1940, este noul preşedinte al Parlamentului European pentru următorii doi ani
şi jumătate. Domnul Buzek a fost ales în primul tur de scrutin cu 555 de voturi. „Este o mare provocare şi
onoare", a declarat dânsul despre noua funcţie.
• Fost prim-ministru al Poloniei între 1997 şi 2001, Jerzy Buzek a luat parte la negocierile de aderare şi la
pregătirile pentru integrarea Poloniei în Uniunea europeană.
•
Ales deputat european în 2004, domnul Buzek a fost membru al Comisiei pentru Industrie, cercetare şi
energie şi al Delegației Parlamentului European la Comisia parlamentară de cooperare (CPC) UE-
Ucraina.

•
Vorbind despre cele 10 state membre noi, al 13-lea preşedinte a PE consideră alegerea sa ca preşedinte
„un tribut adresat milioanelor de cetăţeni care au luptat pentru democraţie" din statele din estul Europei.

•
După ce i-a mulţumit doamnei deputat Eva-Britt Svensson (Grupul Confederal al Stângii Unite
Europene/Stânga Verde Nordică) pentru candidatura sa, domnul Buzek a vorbit despre importanţa
dezvoltării unor alianţe internaţionale.
•
Noul preşedintele a anunţat că discursul său în care îşi va prezenta programul pentru următorii doi ani şi
jumătate va fi prezentat în cadrul sesiunii plenare din septembrie.
•
Fost lector universitar în ştiinţele tehnologice, Jerzy Buzek este Doctor Honoris Causa al Universităţilor din
Dortmund, din Seul şi din Isparta, precum şi al şcolilor politehnice din Silezia şi Opole.