A brief introduction of English journalism

by andyyoung (student)

The basic definition of Journalism is —“the collection and periodical publishing of news. It includes writing for, editing, and managing such media as the newspaper and the periodical. In other words, it means gathering, evaluating, and disseminating facts of current interest.” Here I would like to give a brief introduction of English journalism.

The first newspapers appeared in Europe in the 17th century. The first regularly published newspaper in English was the Oxford Gazette, which first appeared in 1665. It began publication while the British royal court was in Oxford to avoid the plague in London, and was published twice a week.

At first, to a degree, journalism was used by politic. In 19th century，Joseph Pulitzer, Edward Wyllis Scripps and William Randolph Hearst established newspaper which appeared to the growing populations of the big cities . At the same time, magazines turned up in the need of time in due course. As an outgrowth of social development, radio stations started to report current events in the 1920s.It went without saying that the contents of these mass media became richer and more colorful.

This is a preview of the whole essay

There are usually five basic elements in news: who, what, why, when and where, which draw the public’s attentions most and on which the reporters base to write news. Mass media is the means of communication that can reach many people at a time either by printed materials or electronic waves. It includes newspapers, magazines, books, radios and so on. Newspapers can be classified into two groups: the first one is tabloid, the other one is broadsheet. Newspapers are various in contents, typeface, design of pages and so on. A newspaper front page is the most important pages, because it can cause the reader's attention the most. In general, the English newspaper front page has the following characteristics: front page headlines, with a larger font for the title; almost all the day's main news arranged in the first edition; almost all the front page is matched with pictures; and the front page advertising is very expensive.

Magazine is usually published weekly or monthly. It can be divided into popular magazines, news magazines, academic journals, and entertainment magazines. America's “Newsweek”, “Time”, and “Reader’s Digest” are famous magazines. The British "Economist" and "New Statesman" are both news and comment on the news magazine, which has broad implications. The magazine cover is also very important, because the cover can attract readers and reflect the best characteristics of the magazine.

Organizations that collect, transmit, and distribute news to newspapers, periodicals, television, radio, and other journalistic and mass communications media are called news agencies. America’s main news agencies are the Associated Press and the United Press. Reuters is the UK’s main news agency. Nearly 90% news contents are writing out based on interviewing .Also, people can get information from press conference. In order to collect more news, news agencies formed into shape.

Generally speaking, when journalists report some sensitive content, using the words should be cautious. Otherwise, it is possible to break the law. Journalist should respect professional morality. They should aware that collecting and publish news not only to provide more valuable news, but also to build their professional morality. There are requirements for truth news. First, the news element of five should be exact; second, the news background material should be truth; the third is that the news explanation should be logical.