Reporting and Editing Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The official key is (D): the assertion is false and the reason is true. The key does not accept that the global news supply has become multi-agency oriented for variety and verification, whereas the reason, that rising costs of news collection have made it hard for third world agencies, is accepted. The options that make the assertion true are therefore wrong by the key. Judged alone, the statement about the cost of news collection is accepted by the key, and the claim of a multi-agency supply is not.

Answer: B

The assertion is true: Indian media have been giving more attention to soft news of social events and society. The reason is also true, as corporatisation of media and industrialisation of culture are factors in that trend. The official key (B) takes the reason as not the full explanation of the assertion. The other options are wrong because they either treat one of the statements as false or treat the reason as the whole explanation.

Answer: D

Newspapers began regular publication in the early seventeenth century in Germany (1605) first, then Belgium (Antwerp, also 1605), then France (the Gazette in 1631) and then England (the regular weekly news of 1621 to 1622). The order Germany, Belgium, France, England is in option (D). The other options put England or France before Germany and Belgium and so reverse the order. Germany and Belgium both appear in 1605, then France in 1631, so any option placing France or England first must be wrong.

Answer: C

On the official key, the first page of a pullout is known as a sectional page. A pullout is a separate section inserted in a newspaper, and its first page acts like a front page for that section.

'Second front page' is a different idea, a page which carries major news after the front page. 'Pullout page' is not the standard name and 'front section' is a section, not a page. The key gives sectional page. The first page of an inset section carries its own title and is treated as the front of that section.

Answer: A

Hard news is mostly spot news. It deals with events that have just happened or are happening, such as accidents, crimes, speeches and disasters, and it is reported quickly and with immediacy.

Society news, entertainment news and filler news are soft or light content. They are not time-sensitive in the same way, and fillers are used only to fill space. The word hard in hard news refers to its seriousness and urgency, in contrast to soft news that entertains or informs at leisure.

Answer: D

A cross line is a headline composed of a single line. It runs across the full width of the column or the page as one line, unlike a multi-line headline.

A credit line names the source or photographer, a cut line is a caption under an illustration, and a catch line is a short label or slug used to mark a story in production. Only the cross line is a one-line headline. Headline terms are easy to confuse, so it helps to remember that a cross line is set in one line, while a multi-line headline is a deck or a bank.

Answer: C

Cloze is a method of readability testing. In a cloze test words are removed from a passage at regular intervals, and the reader's ability to fill the gaps shows how easily the text can be understood.

It is not a technique of editing, captioning or ending a story. The method was developed to measure how readable material is for its audience. The reader scores correct fills, and a high score shows that the passage is easy for that group to read.

Answer: B

Another name for filler copy is time copy. It is material that is not time-bound and can be used whenever space needs to be filled, in contrast to news that must run at once.

Hard copy is a printed output, slug copy is copy marked with a slug, and casual copy is not the standard term. So the other name for filler copy is time copy. Because it does not depend on the date, a newspaper can keep such copy in hand and use it when a page has a gap.

Answer: B

Journalism that promotes civic commitment and citizen participation in democratic processes is public journalism, also called civic journalism. It tries to involve citizens in setting the news agenda and solving community problems.

Advocacy journalism argues for a cause. Alternative journalism offers a perspective outside the mainstream. Counter media is a term for media that opposes the dominant media. None of these has citizen participation in democracy as its defining aim.

Answer: A

For U.S. journalists, the ideal basis of news reliability is triangulation, confirming a fact through several independent sources before reporting it.

Advocacy means arguing for a cause. Saleability is a commercial test and not reliability. Authority refers to depending on official sources, which is not the American ideal of cross-checking.

Cross checking independent sources protects the journalist from a single source's bias, and is the standard of American newsrooms.