كيف تستقى الاخبار وكيف تبلغ .. كتاب معلم الصحافة والإنشاء

How to receive news and how to report:

It is difficult to establish a general rule for receiving news, as each subject has special circumstances, but there are matters that must be taken into account in all cases, the most important of which is accuracy. The informant must make sure that every word he writes is true, so that he is able to provide physical evidence that proves any point that is in doubt. This requires the veracity of the news sources. In many cases, the informant is forced to collect parts of the story himself from various sources whose accuracy he does not have much confidence in. In such a case, he has to obtain the facts from the press offices in the ministries, or from the records, data, or people who are closely related to the subject and may be those whom he does not care about, such as couriers and junior employees, because the news appears like dust in a pile of mud. However, this donation is not easy to capture, which makes the modern newspaper need complex and expensive news sections. In order to obtain the true news in its previous sense, strenuous efforts must be made. It is necessary to predict the place where the news will appear in order to obtain it at the required time so that competitors do not precede it, and the wages of local or regional informants and correspondents are calculated according to the number of lines they write, or that they receive a small fixed wage for their work as a whole. Their role requires alerting to the events that occur in the region, which may be of interest to the public, and they are also required to draw the attention of their newspapers to the important local news until the arrival of the special representative. Therefore, the informant must always take into account the following:

1- Gaining people's friendship and trust, as he often needs them. his work tasks.

2_ Not resorting to dishonest methods to reach the news except in a higher national interest, such as the days of war, and avoiding threatening the source unless the news he wants is more important than losing his source.

3 - Looking for a man who knows. One word of the chief is thousands of words of the subordinate.

4- Mentioning the sources of his good news in his stories, protecting them from what offends them, and not fabricating their names on any occasion.

E- To obtain the photos that testify to him personally, or to summon the newspaper's photographer or others if necessary.

6- Accompanying a small tape recorder that can be used to record confidential matters, such as confessions of criminals, politicians, and so on.

When the informant wants to report the news to the competent reference in his newspaper by phone, he must note the following:

1- To communicate the information he has gleaned in the order in which the story should be written. The introduction first, then the details are important because this prevents repetition of news and omission of some points.

2- The topic should not exceed the specified number of words. To prepare his notes before the discussion, and to recite them clearly without humming or repetition, in a calm and clear voice, and to mention the complete facts and in one go only.

If the reporter left the newspaper's office to search for an unexpected catch of news, or to carry out specific instructions and demands that he recorded in his own notebook, then he got something of this or that, he had to immediately rely on writing memos, recording and photocopying, and then contacting the editor from time to time. The specialist over the phone to agree with him on the quantity of columns for each subject he was commissioned to excavate or was found by chance. And while he is free and moving from one place to another, he reads the newspapers that reach his hand, in order to cross out from his list of works every news that has come before him, and to hasten to what he has not preceded. When he returns to his office, he writes down his topics, then sends them by mail, telegraph, or wireless, or delivers them in his hand after preparing them for printing in three copies. He writes in the corner of each of them his name and the source of the news. He keeps one of them for himself, and puts the second in a special file. As for the third He handed it over to make its way between the offices until it reached the printing press. The first person to look at it is the editor of Al-Madinah Affairs, then he sends it to the head of the news department to validate it, and from him it moves on to the reviewer who may rewrite it and put new titles for it, then it is sent to the editorial secretary who determines for each news its place on the internal news page after lengthening or shortening it. It determines the length and width of its headings according to the need, then it ends up with the editor-in-chief, who takes a general look at it to see what is related to politics or general problems and so on.

As for foreign news, it comes to the newspapers through news agencies, or through the foreign correspondents of the newspaper who are spread in different parts of the country, and who are well provided with successive reports. The directions of their countries, in order to hunt down news that interests their people above all else. Each newspaper has a special section for translators who translate it into the local language, then this translation is sent to the reviewer or the editor-in-chief to reformulate the newspaper, and then it is presented to the editor-in-chief to express his opinion on it or comment on it with a special word that constitutes the newspaper’s editorial or its main column.

If the newspaper comes out to its readers in more than one edition, the editors browse the copies of the first edition, so that each one of them leaves for the editor of city affairs a note on possible developments, then they leave the office all except for three or four who are entrusted with the task of waiting for the events that occur during the night to publish them in the following editions. .

It is noted that the exact data and details of an important incident are taken from the latest editions, because the first edition as well as the appendices include the most important and urgent information with the intention of increasing the number of distributions, and the accuracy may be lacking in the speed with which it was issued to the markets.