Assoc. Prof. Esra Arsan: Journalist Determines The Value Of News

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In the Basic Journalism Workshop which is attended by 12 people from different cities and universities and will continue until September 10, Assoc. Prof. Esra Arsan made a presentation titled, "Introduction to Journalism".

What is the news?

Saying that the notion of news does not have a definiton that is agreed by anyone, she listed the definitions of the concept of news in Turkey:

* "News is a process of information creation.

* News is a factual story.

* News is the new one.

* News is what journalists do."

Stating that the important criteria in news writing are integrity, accuracy, balance and fairness, Arsan also emphasized the role of journalists in the formation of social memory: "The effect of journalists on what is and is not news is anormous. Our job is to deliver people and stories of people by transforming them into information through the language of journalism."

The role of determining the newswothiness belongs to the journalist

"It is also the journalist's role to determine which event is more newsworthy than the other," said Arsan:

* Things that happen for the first time

* Time-outgoing, recurring events

* Routine agendas

* Events that break the routine that no one sees in the routine flow.

He said that the elements of 5W1H (who, what, where, when, how, why) must be in the news report and that "the elements of the event are not always everything." The news elements may be complete but your report should also be balanced and fair," he said.

In the workshop, headline stories of daily newspapers were evaluated.

How to use sources?

The introductory course to journalism continued with the topics of news sources, selection of sources and getting confirmation when writing the news.

"The journalist cannot know everything, she has to ask an expert," said Arsan. Journalists are not sources, they find sources."

The workshop continued with examples on the elements of the news and the questions that should be in the news. A discussion was made on the types of journalism other than hard news and the literary part of journalism.

During the afternoon session, a news writing workshop was held with participants. Participants wrote news reports through three examples given.

The basic journalism workshop program:

September 5 / News Photography-Özcan Yurdalan

September 6 / Rights Oriented Reporting - Journalist Demet Bilge Erkasap

Gender-Oriented Journalism - Journalist Evrim Kepenek

Peace Journalism - Journalist Murat Utku

Journalism Stories From Generation To Generation - Timur Soykan

September 7 Saturday / News Workshop - Journalist Esra Açıkgöz and journalist Demet Bilge Erkasap

September 9 / Usage of Digital Media - Pınar Ilkiz

Tuesday, September 10 / News Evaluation & Certification Ceremony