News gathering process

News gathering process traditionally involves  calling out an editorial meeting for press briefing. This is where reporters are given roles that they will play in various fields, camera men are assigned duties and each person is informed and briefed of what they will cover in the day.
In the field reporters and their camera men go to the sources and start accumulating information. This can be done through observation while writing and recording, listening to what people say for example if it is a meeting, interviewing sources and eye witnesses and being credible enough to have actualities in your news items.
Reporters after gathering news they edit it themselves before taking it to the chief editor in the news room. Here they accumulate pictures, videos and actualities of what was happening in the field, they then take it to the chief editor for verification which includes checking for legalities and checking for errors and mistakes of any kind before publishing or sending it on air.
Due to development in technology, news gathering process has drastically changed. If we narrow down to various media platforms, that is, print media, radio and TV and online journalism, we shall see that today, news gathering process is not as before.

 

 In print media, there is use of digital cameras in the field which can capture very good colored still images and store them in the memory cards. Before, photographers used analogue cameras which involved chemical route in production of photographs. This was hectic and caused delays in picture production where they produced black and white images which were not very clear when published on news papers.
Also in print media, reporters use laptops to write news where they can edit and sometimes computers are able to detect errors and correct them automatically. They can send the news to the editor online for further editing while still in the field. In the editorial room there is use of software that quickens and revolutionizes editorial work in newspaper production. This has improved newspaper work where use of colored texts, graphics and pictures has become so interesting even to the readers. Traditionally everything was done manually and it led to poor production process.
In broadcast media, there is use of digital tools in news gathering process. These includes, digital recorders for radio, digital cameras for TV and digital editing programs such as adobe premier pro and adobe audition.
Radio reporters use portable digital recorders in gathering news and they store the information in memory cards so as to take to the editor for editorial work. Analogue recorders that were used before had some voice distortion and the audio cassettes had an element of wear and tear. This disrupted news presentation where distorted audios are disturbing to the audience.
For TV news gathering process, reporters go to the field with the camera men who shoot live events using digital cameras and stream them live to the TV station as they happen. Where news gathering is not done live, digital cameras also use memory cards and hard disks to store audio and footages. Reporters can give a voice over during editing and combine videos and audio for news presentation purposes.

 

Traditionally, there were analogue video cameras which used tapes. They were huge and heavy to carry and also produced black and white images. Editing tapes included cutting manually with razor blade and joining. This would lead to loss of information where important material was cut and couldn't be retrieved. Tapes also had an element of wear and tear which means they wouldn't last for long.

 

 

Digital editing of news involves undo and redo which means that where editors have removed important material unwantedly they can undo the process and have it back.
News gathering process today can also be done using mobile phones. Here reporters can record both video and audio and send it to the editor via internet. This has easened the news gathering process and have increased its speed.
For online journalism, news gathering process involves even citizen journalists who can collect news and publish it online. Online journalism allows linkages where one news item can be linked with another similar item for background information.Reporters can interact with the audience online and get more credible information before presenting.