Editing and Graphics

Introduction
• Editing, a skilled art, is a quality control process in which all materials
– news stories, features, editorial, opinions, pictures, cartoons,
illustrations, maps etc. – billed for publication are professionally
treated for accuracy, brevity, coherence, objectivity, balance, fairness,
clarity, style consistency, while also ensuring compliance with societal
ethical, moral and legal demands.
• Editing goes beyond mere correction of spelling, grammar and
punctuation errors.
• It begins from when a reporter selects what information to include in
his story until the newspaper is ‘put to bed.’
 News Editing Cont’d
• Editing is a refining process that enables a media house to treat its
‘raw materials’ to quality standard that meets the needs of its
readers/audiences as well as societal ethical and legal demands.
• Just as raw cocoa beans are unattractive like processed cocoa
beverages to consumers, raw news stories are also unappealing to
readers until they are refined to meet readership standards.
 Purpose of Editing
Editing is important in media production for the following reasons:
a) To solve or manage the problem of space constraints in print and air
time in b/cast media. Editing helps to eliminate excess materials that
arrive the news room daily.
b) To improve the structure of stories, features, editorials, opinion
articles, which all have peculiar formats, to meet production standards.
c) To keep grammar, spelling and punctuation errors out of print. Only
an error-free media can sustain the loyalty of their readers/listeners
and win over non-readers.
 Purpose of Editing Cont’d
d) To ensure logical sequence and smooth flow of the copy. An
awkward arrangement of sentences, paragraphs, illogical reasoning and
faulty conclusions may hinder a story’s smooth flow.
e) To ensure that names, figures, addresses, facts etc. are accurate.
Inaccurate reports undermine media’s credibility and leads to loss of
readership.
f) To ensure balance and fairness. It’s unethical to publish or air a one-
sided story. Ensure to talk to both sides of a conflict before going to
press.
 Purpose of Editing Cont’d
g) To simplify language. Simplicity doesn’t mean weakness. Edit to meet
the taste of your target audience. Language simplicity is a virtue in media
writing.
h) To ensure objectivity. Objectivity, another ethical demand, teams up
with balance and fairness to make journalism tick.
• Objectivity entails a dispassionate presentation of facts without bias. It
requires separating facts from opinion. Remember, facts are sacred,
opinions are free.
i) To avoid legal pitfalls. Nigeria, like other nations, have extant laws that
spell out what the media can publish, how to publish it and what can’t be
published.
 Purpose of Editing Cont’d
• Any media that ignore such laws may be proscribed or pay heavy
damages that can end their operations.
• Libel and slander, privacy, sedition, contempt of court, copyright,
obscenity, official secret act, newspaper amendment act etc. are some of
the laws guiding what is fit to publish. It’s a world apart from the
lawlessness of the social media.
j) To make every copy conform to the house style. Each media house has
its own rules on news presentation.
• A consistent application of these rules, though sometimes uncodified,
separates The Guardian from Vanguard, The Punch or The Nation. The
house style gives each media outfit its uniqueness.