Reporting and Editing Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Tie-backs in news reports are used to refresh readers' memory. They are a line or paragraph that links the new story to earlier developments so that the reader can recall the background.

They do not create credibility, find attribution or make a report objective. Those tasks belong to sourcing and balance.

A tie-back usually reads like a sentence such as 'the minister had said last month', and gives the context that a new reader may lack.

Answer: D

Newsrooms are subject to the division of labour, a form of bureaucratisation. Tasks are split among reporters, sub-editors, desk heads and others, with hierarchy and routine.

Cognitive assessment, non-control and generalisation do not describe a formal structure of roles and rules, which is what bureaucracy means.

Weber's idea of bureaucracy, with specialised roles, rules and chains of command, is the frame applied to modern newsrooms.

Answer: D

According to H.J. Gans, the suitability of an event makes it newsworthy. In Deciding What's News he argued that the news organisation's needs and values make some events fit to be selected.

Insignificant, negative and unbalancing do not describe the result of suitability for selection.

Gans listed factors that decide which events become news, such as importance, novelty, and suitability for the format of the medium, and an event that suits these is selected.

Answer: A

A sketch writer is different from a political columnist. A parliamentary sketch writer gives a witty, light account of the day's proceedings, whereas a political columnist writes analysis and opinion.

A witty information supplier, a backbencher and a rare visitor to the press gallery do not stand opposed to the sketch writer in this way.

The two writers' jobs are different: the columnist argues a case on political matters, while the sketch writer entertains with a lively account.

Answer: A

Both statements are true and (R) explains (A), so the first code is the keyed answer. The assertion says news is news because it is news, meaning the audience takes it as given. The reason supplies the explanation: no one tells the audience that news is the selective version of what has happened.

The second code denies that (R) explains (A), but the reason is exactly why the audience accepts news as given. The third and fourth codes call one of the two statements false, which is not the case.