Types of journalism can be categorized based on medium, field, reach, and influence. In terms of medium, journalism includes print (newspapers, magazines), broadcast (radio, television), and web-based formats. Fields of journalism encompass politics, crime, entertainment, business, sports, and more. Journalism is also differentiated by its reach and influence, with print still being the most influential while web-based formats are gaining popularity, especially for topics like technology, sports, and business news. Citizen journalism is also emerging as a less popular format.
2. Who is a journalist -
• In Journalism, a journalist is the one who reports the news he receives from various
sources which can be informed to the general public by way of print, T.V, radio, etc
• .He reports it the way it is without giving any judgments or opinions of his own.
• Journalism is not restricted to just politics or sports, it is very diverse and thus has
many types.
3. Journalismcan categorizedin terms ofthe
medium -
• Print
This includes all the journalism that can be done through print media, which includes
newspapers, magazines, periodicals, journals, etc. Several career options are involved in
the medium even with the advent of the web and broadcast mediums. Opportunities
for writers, proofreaders, columnists, critics, correspondents, etc. Here the audience's
are restricted to the educated lot of people but it has a better reach in terms of target.
• Broadcast
This medium mainly caters to the masses and has a much wider coverage although the
targeting measurement is difficult. Careers here are aplenty. One can work with radio
stations, television networks with opportunities as correspondents, anchors, reporters,
etc.
• Web
Online journalism as it can also be called as, gives you opportunities to work as online
journalists providing content for the internet readers. An advantage of web journalism
is that even a not officially instated journalist or in simpler terms the common man can
too provide news and views by way of his website or blog.
4. Journalism can also be classified in based on the field it is
related to-
Politics
primarily concerned with civil governments and political power. It is frequently
opinionated on by many experts analyzing the several features of current affairs in
relation to the government.
The politician-journalist relationship is both adversarial and symbiotic. It provides the
backdrop for diverse ethical issues which the political Journalist must fight with.
Political journalism has two main types of journalists. One being the traditional
journalist who may have an office with the government and reports news purely based
on the facts without passing their own judgment and political feelings. The other main
type is the opinionated journalist, a reformer, a critic, analyst, and columnist.
Crime
Also referred to as investigative journalism. This type of journalism is about
unearthing facts and studying cases that may require more efforts, which can take
months or even years.
Journalists who specialize in investigative journalism create headlines with news that
expose scandals. Sometimes, persistent follow up of a story proves beneficial to
uncover some hitherto unsolved cases. This would require in-depth research from the
journalist along with evidence.
5. Entertainment and fashion
The entertainment industry includes the lives of the rich and famous, all the gossip,
scandals, etc. But all that is just a part of the entertainment industry journalism. It also
includes all the movie buzz, television show reviews and a whole lot more.
Fashion journalism as the name suggests is all about articles or reports related to the
fashion world. Journalists are also known as fashion writers or fashion editors. The
main job is to cover the latest in the fashion business or develop lifestyle articles. Such
fashion articles can be found in magazines and newspapers.
Today, there are many television channels that cater only to fashion, which gives ample
opportunity for journalists who have a passion to cover such topics.
Another aspect of the entertainment world is the celebrity journalism, in India it Page
3 is considered to have most of the articles in relation to this. The journalist is
connected to news and events related to celebrities from the entertainment world and
also includes celebrities from other fields such as music, sports, dance, art, politics, etc.
This journalism is particularly popular with newspapers, magazines and television.
6. Business and finance
The Business journalist or reporter covers in-depth reports about the latest in
business, launch of products, stock markets etc.
There are many shows on T.V. on channels like CNBC, NDTV dedicated only for
business news, whereas in newspapers, one can find a special sections or even separate
newspapers (DNA money, Economic times).
.
Sports
. Journalists spend hours reporting on a particular sport event.
A journalist has to report the accurate facts and statistics related to that event.
Interviews with celebrity sport stars are yet one of the interesting features of sports
journalism.
Technology
• Here reporters give detailed analysis and reviews of the gadgets.
• The target audience is not that wide though, it is more looked into by the younger
generation as they have higher interest in technology advancements.
7. Defence
This could probably be listed among the most risky type of reporting jobs in the field
of journalism.
These type of journalists report on the military and defense developments of the
country.
Environmental
Environmental journalists include those who just report the proceedings in the
environmental world, but apart from the professionals there are also the social workers
who report and provide environmental information just to help for a cause.
It is not a easy task with respect to the work as it requires a lot of extensive research
and also it is not something that everybody is interested in knowing about.
.
8. Others
• These include other types of journalism which are not spoken about commonly or are
more specific in nature. For example astronomy journalism includes all the scientific
discoveries and inventions taking place in the field of journalism.
• Also, sometimes it is not the professional journalists who are responsible for the news
reports.
• Any citizen can participate and report news to the media. He may have collected and
reported news to the media and participates voluntarily to offer help to the media by
doing his own research.
• They bring to notice issues that may have been missed by media houses
9. Based on the reachof the media,journalismcanbe
-
Most Influential
• This has the highest influence and reach on the people it is targeted at. For example a
lot of politics, crime, business is discussed and written about in print (newspapers,
business magazines like economic times, India today, etc) and also spoken about by
experts on television news and business channels.
• Business and finance is one segment though which is reported on the web too, as the
corporate and professional businessman do not restrict themselves to just the print
and broadcast media. A lot of professionals do a lot of their business research online;
they also keep track of the updates in the stock and commodity markets.
• Technology is widely discussed and reported on the web.. There are several websites
which keep track of the developments in the tech markets. Latest cell phones, laptops,
gaming console, etc are talked about online with several comparisons and analyses
done.
• A lot of citizen journalists by way of bloggers, individual website owners, etc are very
active internet users and have their own followers
• A lot of sports news is read online as the print and broadcast media provides very little
on it compared to the variety of sports that are there on offer. The internet gives the
latest on the match scores, team selections, pre and post match interview reports, etc.
10. Second Popular
• This includes those areas which are capable of being very influential and effective in
the future. Like politics and crime is being more talked about online .The approach is
of a more interactive nature where people can ask questions, give their opinions.
• Although the entertainment, fashion and celebrity news segment is gaining a lot of
prominence in the print and broadcast medium, with separate newspapers and
magazines coming up for that (Bombay times, Film Fare) it is still second in popularity
as compared to the exposure it gets in the west, people still look at newspapers to give
them more of the latest world news and views.
Least Popular
• This includes those mediums which are either not that popular yet or do not really
attract a lot of attention in terms of news.
• Like technology is very less talked about and written about in the broadcast and print
media since majority of the people do not of much knowledge about it.
• So goes with environmental journalism, fashion journalism on the web, sports
journalism in print and citizen journalists too.