Thursday, May 22, 2014 23

T
HE idea of sharing news and
information goes back centuries,
well before there was anything
resembling a modern-day newspaper.
Until the invention of printing, the public
had to be satised with whatever
information it was given by ofcial
sources, or it had to make do with
hearsay and rumour. The early evidence of
an ofcial means of spreading news dates
from 59 BC in in Rome, where a daily
gazette known as the Acta diurna (daily
acts) was published. Carved on metal or
stone, copies were posted around the city
for people to read.
Between 713 and 734, the
Kaiyuan Za Bao, or Court Documents
were produced in China. They were
handwritten on silk.
In 1556 the Government of Venice, in
Italy, published the monthly Notizie scritte.
These were handwritten on paper.
In 1582 there was a private
newspaper published in Beijing, in China.
This may have been the rst printed on
paper.
In 1605 the German newspaper
'Relation' was printed by Johan Carollus.
This is usually regarded as the rst
modern newspaper.
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24 Thursday, May 22, 2014
E
ARLY Australian newspapers
are an important record of
local, state and national events
and their pages are a rich source of
information about a community's
history. Many major newspapers in
circulation today can trace their origins
to publications from the colonial
period. However, the appearance,
content and control of newspapers
in the late 19th century reected
the distinct and often turbulent
environment of the rst Australian
colonies.
M
OST material published
in the rst 20 years of the
New South Wales colony
notied soldiers, convicts and private
settlers of the many rules set by the
Governor. These 'government orders'
were printed on a portable wooden
and iron printing press that had been
carried to the colony on the First Fleet.
The orders were then displayed or
announced aloud in public places and
in churches at the compulsory Sunday
services as more than half of the early
colonists could not read.
T
HE Sydney Gazette was the
only newspaper circulated
in the colony until the
appearance of William Charles
Wentworth's paper, The Australian,
in 1824. The tone of the early issues
of The Sydney Gazette has been
described as 'moral to the point
of priggishness, patriotic to the
point of servility, pompous in a stiff,
eighteenth century fashion'.
(Source: Ferguson, J A, Foster, A G and
Green, H M 1936, The Howes and their press,
The Sunnybrook Press, Sydney, p. 98).
However, government censorship
was lifted in 1824 and within
two years, two rival papers had
emerged.
By the mid-30s, New South Wales
had seven papers, South Australia
had ve weekly papers by 1841
and Tasmania had 11 papers by
1854. By 1886, records show
there were at least 48 daily papers
circulating in Australian states,
however many of these papers only
appeared for a short period.
G
ROWTH in the circulation and
size of newspapers continued
through global conict and urban
development at the end of the 19th
century. Australians began to read
newspapers regularly and consulted
more than one source to satisfy their
increasing desire for news. Signicantly,
the telegraph connected Melbourne,
Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane in 1861,
and Britain was linked to Australia
in 1872. Alongside the telephone's
emergence in the 1880s, telegraphic
transfer helped journalists rapidly receive
and send news across greater distances.
Cheaper wood pulp, improvements
in printing technology, railways and
streamlined news services all enabled a
more efcient and inuential newspaper
industry. The passing of legislation
making education compulsory for
children over the age of six years, such
as the Education Act 1872 (Vic) and the
Public Instruction Act of 1880 (NSW),
led to increases in literacy as more of the
population learnt to read and write.
F
OUR prominent dailies emerged
during this period: The Age,
The Argus, The Sydney
Morning Herald and The Daily
Telegraph. Competition was keen,
and the reporters at The Argus once
handed telegraph operators a copy of
the Bible in an attempt to take over the
wires and prevent other newspapers
from sending their stories.
Clashes with government were not
unusual, and newspapers increasingly
expressed anti-authoritarian opinions.
The Age was launched in 1854, during
the turmoil of Victoria's gold rush era
and prided itself on voicing a radical
viewpoint, including support for the
miners at Ballarat, the eight-hour
working day and reform of land laws.
W
HAT is now Australias oldest
continuously published
newspaper began in 1831,
originally as a weekly under the title,
The Sydney Herald. It can be argued
that it is Australias most important
newspaper, as most of our history can
be read and understood through it,
and because it is the only newspaper
that has been carefully catalogued and
archived.
The paper was founded by
immigrants, Alfred Stephens, Frederick
Stokes and William McGarvie. The
upper classes of the growing colony
respected The Sydney Herald and
were regular buyers of the newspaper.
They were the only people then likely
to buy newspapers, for not only were
they relatively expensive, but also, of
course, they were no use to the many
convicts who were unable to read.
V
ARIETY was introduced within
the text of newspapers through
a more artistic use of white
space and sub-headings, cartoons,
and later photographs. Reports were
shortened and the front page was
increasingly given over to a topical
'leading article'. The Sydney Sun
was the rst daily paper to carry a
news story on its front page in 1910
and Melbourne's Sun News-Pictorial
was the rst daily pictorial tabloid
(newspaper with pictures) in 1922.
I
N November 1800, The Royal
Admiral docked in the colony
carrying a transported convict,
George Howe, who arrived with
printing experience from the West
Indies and London. These valuable
skills were quickly put to work at
the government press, and the
colony's rst locally published book,
a compilation of government orders,
was produced in 1802.
George Howe was also permitted
to print Australia's rst newspaper
from a humble shed located at the
rear of Government House. From
March 5, 1803, The Sydney Gazette
and New South Wales Advertiser
was on sale as a weekly edition
with four portfolio pages of ofcial
material and a limited number of
private notices.
In early editions of the paper, a
colonist could nd shipping news,
auction results, crime reports
and agricultural notices as well
as poems, literature and religious
advice.
To collect local news, the editor
hung a 'slip box' in front of the store
where the paper was issued. News
from abroad arrived on the clipper
ships and was usually 10 to 14
weeks out-of-date by the time it was
published.
The Sydney Gazette, rst published by ex-convict George
Howe in 1803.
Image courtesy of National Archives of Australia: A1200/19,
L16090.
Publishing in the
NSW colony
Beyond government censorship
The emergence of an industry
Rivalry and
conflict
Australias
oldest paper
Changing
formats
George Howe and Australia's
first newspaper
The birth of the
newspaper in Australia
William Kerr, Town clerk of Melbourne
1851-56 and founder of "The Argus"
newspaper.
Image courtesy of State Library of Victoria.

Thursday, May 22, 2014 25
N
EWSROOMS are all different - some are
big, some small; some publish once a
day, some once a week; some publish
online and on the radio as well as in print, others
stick to print. But while the size of the newsroom
may change, and the titles people have in the
newsroom may vary, the fundamentals of how a
newspaper is published are the same everywhere.
The starting point is the story idea. The reporter
may come up with a story idea - maybe from
talking to a contact, reading a council agenda,
observing something on the way to work - and
pitch it to the News Director, whose job it is
to oversee what all the reporters are doing.
Sometimes the chief reporter will assign one or
more stories to the reporter. Often those stories
will have come from the News Diary - a carefully
maintained calendar of newsworthy events such
as conferences, court cases, sporting events,
concerts and parliamentary proceedings.
T
HE News Director will take the days story
ideas to the news conference. There are
generally three conferences a day, one early
in the day, one in the middle of the day which
looks specically at the front page and one closer
to deadline. At the conference the News Director
joins the Editor, Content Director, Digital
Editor, Graphic Designer and other senior staff
to discuss the stories and decide which ones to
pursue and how to go about it.
O
NCE the reporter has enough information
and has checked the facts, its time to write
the story. And all of this is done against
the clock. Newspapers have strict deadlines
for stories because a lot happens to them after
theyve been written and if they are late getting
to the print site then theyll be late getting out to
shops and homes - which could mean fewer sales
and less revenue for the newspaper.
W
HEN a reporters happy with his or her
story it will be led. The story goes
to the Content Director who checks
everything that needs to be in the story is in there
- is it fair, accurate, balanced, the main points
covered and properly explained? If there are any
gaps, the reporter will be asked to do some more
work on the story and le it again.
Once the Content Director is happy with the
story it gets sent into a general news queue.
There, it will be seen by the sub editors.
T
HE Digital Editor will assess the story to
decide whether it should be published on
the website. The story will be modied
to optimise it for web publishing - perhaps a
different headline, the addition of keywords to
help make the story easier to nd online or even
a simpler intro. Then the story will be published
directly on the website. The web editor also
monitors the wires - a steady stream of national
and international news stories provided by news
agencies.
T
HE Sub-Editor cuts stories to size, checks
for accuracy and typos, writes headlines and
captions. At this point the story is on a page
and has a shape - the sub-editor knows how long
its going to be, how big the headline is, what
pictures going with it. The sub-editors job is to
check the story for factual errors and typos, make
the story t the space allocated to it and write the
headline and caption and any other elements on
the page, such as selecting quotes to highlight.
The chief sub may also have given the sub-editor
some direction on what kind of headline to write
and things to watch out for in the text.
Once all the stories on a page have been
subbed and checked, the pages are printed out
and proofread.
T
HE Editor assesses the story to decide
whether and where to use it in the
newspaper. They may re-angle a particular
story, tighten up the story, and send it for a rewrite
if they think it needs more work or if something
new has happened since the story was written.
The Editor also monitors the wires for stories.
Once the News Editor is happy with a story, they
will mark it up with information on what page it
should go on and where, and send it on to the
production team.
W
HEN the pages have been signed off
they are sent to the print site as PDFs.
There the paper is printed, bundled,
labelled and loaded onto trucks and distributed to
homes, newsagents, schools and businesses.
T
HE production team is headed by a Senior
Producer who works with designers,
photographers, layout sub-editors and
text sub-editors. They oversee getting the pages
drawn up, choice of pictures and allocating
stories to slots on the page. The Senior Producer
oversees page layout, checks story for obvious
errors, assigns it to a sub-editor.
Space is allocated on each page for stories,
pictures, ads, headlines. The pages are drawn up
by designers or layout subs, often under direction
from the chief sub. Once the pages are drawn
and the stories are on the page, the chief sub will
assign to a sub-editor.
N
OW its time for the reporter to research
the story or stories assigned to them. That
may involve calling contacts, interviewing
people in person or on the phone, checking
previous stories for background information,
researching facts and gures online, attending a
press conference, interviewing the man on the
street for popular opinion and more.
How the newsroom
actually works
Step 1: News Conference
Step 3: Meeting deadlines
Step 4: Checking the story
Step 5: Going digital
Step 8: Proof, proof, proof!
Step 6: Story potential
Step 9: Ready to print
Step 7: Page layout
Step 2: Research
The newspaper
newsroom
26 Thursday, May 22, 2014
N
EWSPAPERS are referred
to as the daily miracle
because of the number
of steps and pairs of hands
involved in every issue.
To help determine whether a
topic/issue will be of interest,
test it with these nine factors
that determine newsworthiness.
1. Timeliness events that are
immediate.
2. Impact events that are
likely to affect many people.
3. Prominence events
involving well-known people or
institutions.
4. Proximity events
geographically or emotionally
close to people.
5. Conict strife, antagonism,
warfare, challenges.
6. The Unusual things that
are truly different, bizarre,
strange, wondrous.
7. Currency an idea whose
time has come.
8. Necessity the journalist has
discovered something he or she
feels is necessary to disclose.
9. Audience things that
directly impact the local
community we serve.
Newspaper
activities
Step by step Primary School activities
Secondary School activities
General activities
Find as many blends as possible. All
the th words can be pasted on one
page, sh on another, etc.
In order to write a good story,
a reporter must ask probing
questions. Choose an article from
the newspaper. Read it carefully. Jot
down at least ve questions you think
the reporter who wrote it may have
asked.
Cut out pictures of people and
exchange them. With the set you
have, make up occupations for
the people. Tell why you think the
occupation would t that person.
Read through an article and circle
the nouns in red, the verbs in blue
and the adjectives in green.
Survey your classmates or your
family to nd out which sections
of the newspaper are everyones
favourites. Make a graph of the
results. If you were going to add a
new section to the newspaper, what
would it be? Why? Which section do
you think young people read most
often?
Turn to the editorial pages of your
newspaper. Read the letters to
the editor and categorize them by
topic. Count the number of topics.
Then rank those topics in order of
importance to you, with 1 being the
most important. If there are ve topics
total, youll rank them from 1 to 5.
Choose a newspaper article and
paste onto your paper. Now, circle all
the different punctuation marks used
in the story. Make a list of each of the
punctuation marks used.
Make a list of at least 15 descriptive
words you nd in advertisements.
After compiling your list, write one
or two paragraphs describing
something. Use as many of your
descriptive words as you can.
Dene and list the persuasion
techniques used in advertising,
and then nd an example
of each in your newspaper.
Discuss the ads and see which
ad the class likes most and
which is liked least and tell why.
Read a story about a citizen
group that is working to make
a change in your community.
What do the people in the group
want to change? Why do they
think the change is necessary?
How would the change affect
other groups in the community?
Do you agree or
disagree with the goals of the
group? Why?
Find examples of editorials
written to: inform, interpret,
entertain and inuence. Give
reasons for your classication.
Make a list of all the functions
provided by the newspaper.
How does the newspaper
make an impact on the life of a
community?
Rewrite a newspaper story
from the perspective of
someone else mentioned in the
article. How would s/he have
seen things or explained what
happened?
Imagine newspapers are no
longer available. Consider the
impact newspapers have then
list as many changes in our lives
as possible resulting from the
disappearance of newspapers.
Use the list to predict what
would be likely to happen to
our society if newspapers were
no longer available to report
on current events and interpret
their signicance.
Study the Help Wanted ads to
nd a career for which you hope
to be qualied after graduating
from high school or college.
List the qualications needed
for that job and imagine you
have the others necessary.
Write a brief resume with
your objectives, educational
background, employment
history and hobbies and
interests.
Use rocks and a newspaper to create
poetry. You will need:
Small rocks or pebbles
Newspaper
A pair of scissors
Glue or sticky tape
What to do:
Make sure your pebbles are clean.
Cut out words from the newspaper.
Glue them onto the pebbles or
attach with sticky tape.
Choose a number of words
people, places, things, action words,
etc. Here are some ideas:
he; she; to; love; dog; went; walk;
you; happy; in; to; a; my; your;
orange; bike.
Also include punctuation marks
(comma, exclamation mark, full stop,
question mark.)
Now play a game of poetry pebbles.
Arrange your pebbles to create a
poem.
Use this same technique in other
curriculum areas. For instance, create
maths equations, list historical facts in
order etc.