Reading 1 Parts of Newspaper

Parts or sections of the newspaper include:

• The News Section

• The Opinion Section

• The Entertainment Section

• The Sport Section

• The Classified Section

The following pages will explain what type of information is placed in each part of the newspaper.

The News Section

The News section is always first in a newspaper. News is the reason for the existence of the newspaper so it makes sense that this would be featured most prominently. The front page is usually devoted to stories from the local community, state, national and international news events. The rest of the section will offer both national and international news. Next there is a local news section devoted to newsworthy stories from around the region or city the newspaper covers. A news story always has a lead, which is the first couple of sentences of the article. The lead will always include the most important details of the story: who, what, where, when, why, and how. One can find out what has happened by only reading the lead of an article. News stories are also supposed to remain objective. The standard of objectivity refers to the prevailing ideology of news-gathering and reporting that emphasizes eyewitness accounts of events, corroboration of facts with multiple sources and balance of viewpoints.

Photojournalism

Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such as documentary photography, street photography or celebrity photography) by the qualities of: Timeliness — the images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events. Objectivity — the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone. Narrative — the images combine with other news elements to make facts relatable to the viewer or reader on a cultural level. Like a writer, a photojournalist is a reporter but he or she must often make decisions instantly and carry photographic equipment, often while exposed to significant obstacles (physical danger, weather, crowds).

Opinion Section

Following the local news is the opinion section. Here, the objective, non-biased style of reporting is exchanged for opinion-based editorials.  An editorial is a type of journalism article that is meant to persuade the reader to think a certain way about an issue. Editorials can be written about local, national, or international issues. The opinion section will usually include editorials written by prominent national writers. Also included in this section is letter to the editors, where readers are able to get their opinions and viewpoints about issues published in the paper. Editorial cartoons are always a significant part of this section as well.

Editorial Cartoons

An editorial cartoon, also known as a political cartoon, is an illustration or comic strip containing a political or social message that usually relates to current events or personalities. Recently, many radical or minority issue editorial cartoonists, who would previously have been obscure, have found large audiences on the internet. Cartoons can be very diverse, but there is a certain established style among most of them. Most use visual metaphors and caricatures to explain complicated political situations, and thus sum up a current event with a humorous or emotional picture.