Kerala +2 Journalism flashcards

45 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Inverted pyramid

A news structure that places the most important information first and the least important last, so editors can cut from the bottom without losing essential facts.

Nut graf

The paragraph, usually third to fifth, that explains why the story matters now, what is at stake and how the lead connects to the body.

Summary lead

A single opening sentence that answers the most important of who, what, when, where, why and how, used for hard news stories.

Delayed lead

An opening that withholds the main point to build interest through anecdote, description or quotation, typically used in feature writing.

Attribution verb

The verb introducing a quotation or claim, such as said, claimed, alleged or admitted; each carries a different implied level of doubt or wrongdoing.

News value

A criterion journalists use to judge whether an event is newsworthy, such as proximity, timeliness, impact, prominence, conflict, novelty and human interest.

Galtung and Ruge

Researchers who identified news values including frequency, threshold, unambiguity, meaningfulness, consonance, unexpectedness, continuity, elite nations, elite persons and negativity.

Off the record

An agreement that information supplied by a source cannot be published or used in the story at all, not even without naming the source.

On background

An arrangement in which information may be published but the source is described only by role or status rather than by name.

News beat

A regularly assigned subject area or geographic zone that a reporter covers, building a network of sources and routine access to information.

Right to Information Act

The Indian law of 2005 giving citizens the right to request information from public authorities, widely used by reporters as a documentary source.

Stet

A copy-editing mark meaning ignore the correction and let the original text stand as written.

Kicker

A short line of type placed above the main headline, often used to label a section, add context or introduce a series.

Standfirst

A short introductory paragraph printed between the headline and the body copy that adds context or summarizes the story's angle.

Folio line

The line on a newspaper page carrying the page number, publication name, date and sometimes the section, used for identification and navigation.

Modular layout

A page design approach that arranges content in rectangular blocks on a grid, making pages easier to assemble and read.

Article 19(2)

The constitutional clause permitting reasonable restrictions on free expression on grounds including sovereignty, security, public order, decency, morality, contempt of court and defamation.

Civil defamation elements

A defamatory statement, publication to a third party, reference to the plaintiff and resulting damage; defences include truth, fair comment, privilege and consent.

Absolute privilege

A complete defence to defamation for fair and accurate reports of parliamentary and judicial proceedings, available regardless of malice.

Qualified privilege

A defence for fair and accurate reports of public proceedings that is lost if the publication is proved to be malicious.

Sub judice rule

The principle that comment tending to prejudice pending court proceedings may amount to contempt of court and must be avoided.

Fair dealing

The Section 52 Copyright Act 1957 exception permitting limited use of protected works for criticism, review, reporting current events and private study.

Puttaswamy judgment

The 2017 Supreme Court decision holding privacy to be a fundamental right under Article 21, shaping how journalists handle private information.

Decisive moment

The instant when subject, action and composition align to produce a photograph that captures the meaning of an event.

Anchorage

The way a caption or surrounding text fixes or narrows the meaning of an image, guiding how the viewer interprets it.

IPTC metadata

Embedded data in an image file recording caption, credit, date and rights information, used to preserve attribution and licensing.

AIDA model

An advertising model describing consumer response as Attention, Interest, Desire and Action, used to structure persuasive copy.

GRP

Gross Rating Point, calculated as reach multiplied by frequency, measuring total advertising weight delivered in a media plan.

Unique selling proposition

The single distinctive benefit that sets a product apart from competitors and forms the core claim of an advertising campaign.

Earned versus paid media

Earned media is publicity gained through editorial coverage, while paid media is advertising space or time purchased by the organization.

Two-column AV script

A broadcast script format with visuals listed in the left column and corresponding audio, dialogue and sound cues in the right.

Sound bite

A short, self-contained extract of a speaker's own recorded words used in a broadcast news item or package.

Hypertextuality

The online journalism property of linking stories to related documents, archives and sources, letting readers move non-linearly through information.

Chronolocation

A verification technique that estimates when a video or photo was captured by analysing shadows, weather and other time-dependent cues.

Agenda-setting

The theory that media influence what issues audiences consider important, telling them what to think about rather than what to think.

Cultivation theory

Gerbner's theory that repeated long-term exposure to media, especially television, shapes audiences' perceptions of social reality.

Media literacy

The ability to access, analyse, evaluate, create and act on media messages, including judging authorship, purpose and credibility.

Diffusion of innovations

Rogers' model describing how new ideas and practices spread through a society via innovators, early adopters, majority and laggards.

SITE

The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment of 1975-76, which used satellite television to deliver educational and development programmes to rural Indian villages.

Social responsibility theory

The normative view, associated with the 1947 Hutchins Commission, that press freedom carries obligations of accuracy, fairness and accountability to society.

Watchdog role

The function of the press as an independent monitor that scrutinizes those holding political and economic power on behalf of the public.

Lasswell's functions

Surveillance of the environment, correlation of society's parts in responding to it, and transmission of social heritage; Wright later added entertainment and mobilization.

Rajyasamacharam

The first Malayalam newspaper, published from Thalassery in 1847 under Hermann Gundert, marking the beginning of the vernacular press in Kerala.

Objectivity as method

The professional practice of verification, attribution, balance and separation of fact from opinion, rather than a claim that journalists have no perspective.

Vernacular Press Act 1878

A colonial law that restricted Indian-language newspapers by allowing confiscation of presses and requiring security deposits for seditious material.