Using DTP to publish newspapers!

By Vrinda Manocha

Friday , the 11th of May marked the final session on the Mylapore Times Journalism Course. The class was held at the Mylapore
Times office on C. P. Ramaswamy Road, Alwarpet.

Class at the Mylapore Times Office
First, one of us read out a story from the day's newspaper and resource person D'Souza pointed out the mistakes in it and advised the students to avoid the same. An interesting report was also read out from 'Young World', a supplement of 'The Hindu' , about a similar journalism camp held for a younger age group by the Hippocampus Experience Centre.

This was followed by a discussion on various sources of
information for newspapers from snail mail to e-mail and radios to
phone calls. D' Souza then told the students about the Desktop
Publishing System (DTP) which is used to publish small newspapers. We were also shown the template of the Mylapore Times newspaper created on Adobe Pagemaker and how the reports and pictures were laid out. The 'dummy copy' of the newspaper was also shown, with the columns and spaces for advertisements marked out.

D' Souza also explained the various processes a newspaper goes through from layout to printing and distribution. He printed a page of the newspaper for proof-reading. He spoke about the different types of newspapers such as wall newspapers on street corners in Kolkata and created some amazement among all of us when he passed around a copy of the smallest newspaper in the world, 'Vossa Senhoria'.
This newspaper printed in Brazil measures 1.4 inches by 1 inch. The smallest newspaper in the world

D' Souza encouraged the students to start newspapers in their own schools. We took few photos of the class as keepsake pictures and wound up the camp

On features and freelancing...

Reported by Rhea Banerjee

We began class by discussing in detail the story on the front page of newspapers - three people die in a fire that was set in the Dinakaran newspaper's office in Madurai on Wednesday. We talked about how the day at a newspaper or news channel office can be totally unpredictable. While we were visiting the NDTV studio the previous day, NDTV's Sam Daniel had said that it was a peaceful day, when actually it turned out to be a pretty hectic day minutes after we had left the NDTV office, due to this news development.
Vincent D'Souza took us through the Dinakaran events and the time at NDTV to help us understand how the newspaper fire story had broken the previous day.
We moved on to discuss about features and magazines. We talked about the kind of people required for the features department in newspapers/magazines (people with vast domain knowledge, people who are good at creative writing and people who have good story ideas).
We then talked about the different types of features possible (1) News features; (2) Seasonal theme features; (3) Thematic or specialized features; and (3) Photo features. We discussed each type of feature in detail.
We also talked about freelancers, who do not work under any newspaper or magazine, but contribute articles regularly. We discussed the life of a freelancer. Freelancing is for people who do not wish to work under any organisation but want to keep up with their passion for writing.
We ended the day's class by searching for feature story ideas in the day's newspaper. Anita chose one based on a report on a stove which can use plant oil. Shakti chose one on new designs for silk saris. Priyanka had a similar idea.

Repoter's beat

By Shakti Vyjayanthi

Today's class was on the 'beat' that a reporter has to follow. The class was handled by Vincent D' Souza.
A beat is a regular, continuous and focussed coverage of a particular field. The police beat, the education beat, the sport beat, the arts beat, etc.
He explained how on a 'beat' we keep an eye on all that happens in the field we cover, how we can make new and more contacts and get story ideas. Finally, we looked at the map of our area we had created two weeks ago and talked about how we could cover it like a 'beat'

New Indian Express reporter talks to students

Reported by Anita Srinivasan and Priyanka Aadith

Vincent D'Souza began the day with a reading of a few news reports from The Hindu and then took the students on a journey through the newspaper. The class discussed the various types of articles that were placed on each page of the paper, and spoke of the role of sub-editors and designers.

Vincent went on to explain, in detail, the importance of a sub-editor in a newspaper, being the processor of information coming from the many sources outlined in the previous class.

Our guest for the day was New Indian Express reporter Priyamvatha.P. She began the second session with an informal introduction and went on to draw the students' attention to the article about the Koovagam festival for transgenders. 'The Hindu' had reported this event and that article had been read by Anita Srinivasan the previous day, and incidentally, Priyamvatha had been covering the same story for the Express.

In order to achieve a complete understanding of the festival, Priyamatha began by discussing transgenders and their problems, amid a few giggles from some students. The Koovagam festival for transgenders is the only one of its kind in the world, she said, and so transgenders from all over the world attend it. She also told the students the story of how Krishna took the form of a woman (Mohini) to marry Aravanan, Arjuna's son, to fulfil his last wish of experiencing married life for a day, as he was to be sacrificed, for the Pandavas to win the Mahabharata war.

The festival takes place annually in the Tamil month of Chitrapournami, where thousands of transgenders are 'married' to the Lord. Besides this ceremony, they also participate in fashion shows and compete for titles like 'Rani of Aravani' and 'Miss Koovagam'. Priyamvatha went on to narrate her experience covering the 3-day festival, right from the long drive to Villupuram where the transgenders were staying, to the phase of 'mock widowhood' for the transgenders at the end of the festival. She simultaneously explained to the students the difficulties she faced filing stories and staying in unsafe areas after dark to get interviews from transgenders.

There was a 10-minute question and answer session where the students quizzed Priyamvatha on the best colleges and career paths for journalism.

Contact Priyamvatha on her mobile phone at: 98414 04789. E-mail: priyamjourna@yahoo.co.in

FOCUS ON THE NEWS ROOM

FOCUS ON THE NEWSROOM

REPORTED BY:ANITHA RAMACHANDRAN


The day kicked off with reading the news from the daily newspapers. Bharathy Kannan read about the Vandalur Zoo’s recent development. We then read the city map and found some interesting places in the map of Chennai, which we are asked to, bring regularly to class.
We then had a light chat of the birds we see in the city - it was interesting. Anita Srinivasan read an interesting article about the Koovagam festival which took place a few days ago for trans-genders at the Koothandavar Temple near Villupuram.

We then put off our papers and listened keenly as resource person Vincent D'Souza spoke about the newsroom. We learnt how news comes into the room from various sources. Some of the sources we learnt were from the reporters, press releases, news syndicates, news agencies, from the readers of the paper who also contribute and from blogs on the Internet.

We were told that journalists or reporters must be sensitive, ethical and understand issues and things well. He said that reporters must sense things around them and must ask questions.

We then had a light discussion of the positive and the negative sides of the articles we have been filing so far and are blogged. We discussed what all errors we make in common.

Vincent gave all of us some envelopes for us to look at and observe. Each of us got a special postal cover. What was common?

Each cover was on a landmark event of the city.

Interviewing Skills

Reported by Rhea Banerjee

The day's class started off with Vincent D' Souza making us students read the day's news stories and discussing each story in turn.

A few stories caught our attention but a particularly interesting one was about an event that took place in Virudhunagar, a district of Tamil Nadu, about a hen which had been run over by a motor cyclist. The owner of the hen started abusing the motor cyclist. More people joined in and soon this small incident had turned into a big fight. Many people were injured, properties were destroyed and the police had to come into action.

Vincent went on to discuss the various types of interviews (1) by appointment; (2) in a news conference; (3) on the spot interview; and (4) phone interview.

He also discussed ways to prepare for different kinds of interviews.

After class, we chatted about the different colleges which offer journalism courses. He referred to Asian College of Journalism, Manipal Institute of Communication and courses at city colleges like MOP Vaishnav.

Students 'practise' interviews

By Vrinda Manocha

The Mylapore Time Journalism Course is well on its way into its third week. On Wednesday the 2nd of May, the first hour was conducted by Mr Sathya and Ms. Revathi.

After Mr. D'Souza lectured the students on Tuesday about the types of interviews and tips to plan interviews , they came prepared to conduct mock interviews in class on Wednesday.

Anita Srinivasan and Priyanka interviewing Anitha Ramachandran

Mr. Satya, who works with the publishing company New Horizon Media, first showed the students samples of interviews posted on blogs and websites on his laptop. He was keen to record the mock interviews on a gadget and load it on to the blog later.

The first mock interview was conducted by Rhea Banerjee who was interviewing Vrinda Manocha about the Youth Association formed in Valmiki Nagar. It was recorded by Mr Satya but their voices
were too low and could not be properly heard on playback. They also forgot to give an introduction. Mr. Sathya and Ms. Revathi gave them a few tips to improve themselves.

While Rhea and Vrinda rehearsed their interview, the next batch began theirs. Anita Srinivasan and Priyanka A. questioned Anitha Ramachandran about the Santhome neighbourhood. Their interview went off smoothly . Vrinda and Rhea did a better job on their second try.

Listen to Rhea interviewing Vrinda here : http://www.rogepost.com/n/1581408075

and Anita and Priyanka interviewing Anitha here: http://www.rogepost.com/n/5127060761

The second hour was conducted by Vincent D' Souza who had invited a guest to talk to the class. Abhinaya Mohan who had attended a similar workshop last year and now freelances for the 'Mylapore Times', shared her experiences with the class.

She talked about her difficulties with writing reports such as interviewing hesitant people and making mistakes with information. She gave several examples to illustrate her points and advised the students to manage their time well while writing reports and double check their information. Abhinaya shared tips on how to approach people for an interview.

Though she is going to Class 12 at P.S. Senior Secondary School, Mylapore, Abhinaya said that balancing school and journalism simultaneously had not been much of a problem for her. " Don't
compromise on the quality of school work or journalism, " she advised the students.

Sashi Nair, journalist and editor, lectures

Reported by Bharathy Kannan

Sashi Nair, journalist and editor, lectures

Sashi Nair was a guest at our class on Thursday morning.


He is a journalist and editor.He spoke to us about the basics on journalism. He told us about what a reporter should do that is get information, know about the subject and also entertain the readers.

He gave us the do`s and don`ts in journalism and advised the journalism students gently.He said background for a report could be got through the internet which is very useful for a journalist.

He talked about the disadvantages of the news on television and compared it with the newspaper and Internet. He explained about the 3Cs to be followed by a journalist. A) check facts B) condense C) clarity.

For more details about Sashi Nair click here
http://www2.blogger.com/profile/03810580553347461216

The End of Week 2

Reported by Anita Srinivasan

The day's class kicked off with Vincent D'Souza, the resource person, taking the students through a reading of the day's news stories, which could inspire them to do their own over the weekend.

A particularly interesting one, which the students could relate to, was about how tsunami affected children in Nagapattinam are playing the role of journalists and addressing some hard issues in their monthly magazine. Vincent went on to discuss three assignments - one in San Thome, one in Kottivakkam and one in Besant Nagar - for the weekend and then handed over the next session to Sashi Nair, the guest for the day.

Nair, a man who wears many hats, is a freelance journalist and editor who is currently with a publishing house in Chennai. He started his career in journalism 15 years ago, and used to work with India's leading English daily, The Times of India. His future plans include doing research on newspaper techniques for Ifra, the world's leading association for newspaper and media publishing.

Nair began by giving the students a recap of his previous lecture, and then moved on to explain the importance of using the right 'lead' to begin a story, depending on its the subject. He also discussed writing techniques that added value to a journalist's work, and emphasised on the importance of doing background research while writing reports, and using anecdotes and imagery in features.

He said that the main reason behind the success of international magazines like Time and Reader's Digest was their belief in humanisation, or including people and their opinions in articles. He closed class for the day by answering questions about himself, his college days and work.