What are Editorials?
An editorial is an article written by or under the direction of the editor of a newspaper or magazine, or a statement broadcast on radio or television. Editorials give opinions on important social, political, economic, or legal issues of the day and intend to persuade readers to agree to a particular point of view.
Editorials reflect the views of the owners, managers or board of directors of media companies. Editorials of major papers are often viewed by readers in terms of their positioning as right (conservative), centre (liberal), or left (socialist) on the political spectrum. Furthermore, editorials usually do not shy from controversy, in the hope of not only presenting the issues to the reading public, but also of drawing response from the public and attracting new readership in the competitive marketplace.
Editorials are typically published on a dedicated page, called the editorial page, which often features letters to the editor from members of the public; the page opposite this page is called the op-ed page and frequently contains opinion pieces by writers not directly affiliated with the publication. However, a newspaper may choose to publish an editorial on the front page. In the English-language press, this occurs rarely and only on topics considered especially important; it is more common, however, in some European countries such as Denmark, Spain, Italy, and France.
Illustrated editorials may appear in the form of editorial cartoons.
Typically, a newspaper's editorial board evaluates which issues are important for their readership to know the newspaper's opinion on.
Many newspapers publish their editorials without the name of the leader writer. Tom Clark, leader-writer for The Guardian, says that it ensures that readers discuss the issue at hand rather than the author. On the other hand, an editorial does reflect the position of a newspaper and the head of the newspaper, the editor, is known by name. Whilst the editor will often not write the editorial themselves, they maintain oversight and retain responsibility.
Why do newspapers have editorials?
In ancient Roman cities the forum was a public square or marketplace where people gathered for judicial activity and public business. The modern editorial page provides such a place for discourse. The editorial stimulates debate and dialogue. It is the newspaper’s participation in its community. It is what Post Editorial Editor Fred Hiatt calls a great “conversation” between the paper and its readers.
Today readers expect news articles to be free of opinion. Citizens, wanting to be informed, expect a fair presentation of the facts. If they want to know a point of view, readers go to the editorials in a separate section of the newspaper. Explain to students the different purposes of news and editorial sections. Early newspapers were partisan, often expressing only the point of view of the owners. News accounts were at times indistinguishable from fiction. In the middle of the 19th century, opinion and commentary moved to the editorial page.
Language of the Editorials:
The language of the editorials is usually formal as they are directed at reading public who is already informed about current events but who wishes to read the wider implications of events in the news.
More importantly the language of the editorials is persuasive. They encourage the readers to form beliefs and ideas and persuade them to influence the value judgements of their readers and convince them to subscribe to a certain ideology.
The editorial of different newspapers are quite diverse in their styles and textual strategies eg: in the selection of lexical items, syncretic structures and modes of argumentation, suggesting a different voice for each newspaper.
The structure of editorials:
The editorial like other types of writing has a conventional organisation or structure. This structure is as follows:
• Headline-It is usually brief and may consist of just one word.
• Summary of the event-The editorial will have to briefly describe the event stating what happened, an introduction of the topic identifying the problem being discussed and giving the readers some background about the subject.
• Evaluation of the event - specifically of actions and actors- It must be spelled out in the editorial what was right or wrong. The editorial uses many evaluative terms in this part like (responsible, irresponsible, ration, worst, best, etc.)
• Practical conclusion- The newspaper readers may expect an answer to the question “What next?”, such questions may be answered by a concluding part of the editorial, that is, by some kind of pragmatic solution.
Editorial Page Make-up:
• Editorial Column: These are the opinions and viewpoints of the editors which in turn, reflect and represent the policies and views of the owners of the newspapers.
• Humorous Columns: The columnist tries to find the humorous aspect in life and write an article that will amuse readers.
• Letters to the Editors: Besides columns, which are often written by professional contributors, there are other opinions in newspapers which are expressed by ordinary people from different social and educational backgrounds.
• Cartoons: The newspaper also uses different codes for presenting news and information. The codes are linguistic, typographic and graphic. The newspaper for this uses cartoons and caricatures to comment and express opinions on current issues in the news.
• Articles: A news article discusses current or recent news of either general interest or of a specific topic.
• Typography: It is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed.
Newspaper Leaders:
A “newspaper leader” is the newspaper’s leading article — the piece of writing intended to promote an opinion. Also called “an editorial.” It’s usually called a “leader” in British usage, but an “editorial” or “leading article” in American usage. Editorials (leaders) are typically published on a dedicated page (the “editorial page”). The “op-ed page” is opposite to that and usually contains opinion pieces by writers not directly hired or associated with the newspaper. If you’re talking about a person, that person wouldn’t be a “newspaper leader” — but more usually the publisher, the editor-in-chief, the managing editor, or similar. An editorial, leading article (US) or leader (UK), is an article written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, such as The New York Times and The Boston Globe, often classify editorials under the heading “opinion".
For Example:
Times of India’s “leader articles” or “editorial articles” are written for the double column to the left, and they are always unsigned. They represent the views of the newspapers and are written by a team of editorial writers who deliberate daily in an editorial conference to determine the paper’s position on a variety of issues and events that might be worth the paper’s comment.
Leader Writers:
A leader writer is a senior journalist in a British newspaper who is chargwith writing the paper's editorial either in the absence of the editor or in cases where the editor chooses not to write editorials because their editorial skills may rest more in management of the company than in writing daily editorials. Some major newspapers have a number of leader writers. Often different individuals may write editorials in their own specialist areas, for example, the political editor would write some or all editorials on political matters, and so on. Leader writers are often also columnists in their newspapers. Outside the UK, leader writers are known as editorial writers.
Some leader writers include:
• Daniel Finkelstein
• Amanda Platell
• Jonathan Freedland
• David Aaronovitch
• Libby Purves
• Matthew Parris
Special Articles:
On occasions of national and/or specific importance, several special articles can be commissioned in the Editorial Page. These are characterised as "special" due to their novel and feature nature. Jutting current affairs and days of national importance may call for newspapers lending special invites to experts in relevant fields. At times, major leaders like the Prime Minister of a country may be invited to take up space in the editorial columns and convey special appeals, perspectives, and opinions on a given issue. On other occasions, the very subject of writing may be "special" in the sense that it deals with a field esoteric in nature. Such articles are very exclusive, occasional, and aimed at attracting a large readership.
Editorial Department:
Newspaper organisation has various departments taking care of a variety of tasks. Each department has a specified function with several staff taking care of each function. Various departments that are a part of a newspaper organisation include:
1. Editorial department
2. Advertising department
3. Circulation department
4. Printing department
5. Administrative department
6. Stores department
7. IT department
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT:
The editorial department forms the backbone of any newspaper organisation. As the name implies, this department is the one responsible for content creation in any newspaper establishment. The main responsibilities of this department is the gathering of news, selecting which news and features get to be published in the paper, editing the news and features that have been selected for publication and then laying them out for print.
Below described are the roles of members of Editorial Department:
Publisher: The publisher is responsible for all of the operations of the newspaper, both editorial and business. The main job of the publisher is to see that the newspaper remains financially healthy.
Editor: The editor is responsible for all of the editorial content of the newspaper and for the budgets and money spent by the editorial side of the newspaper. Often in smaller papers, the publisher and editor is the same person.
Editorial page editor: The editorial page editor is responsible for the editorial page and the "op-ed" page of the newspaper. These pages are where the newspaper's editorials are printed as well as letters to the editor, columns by syndicated columnists and guest columns by local people.
Managing editor: This is the person who is in charge of the day-to-day production of the newspaper.
City Editor- The city editor -sometimes called the metro editor -is in charge of the news coverage of the area in which the newspaper is located. The city editor usually has the largest staff and assigns tasks to most of the local news reporters.
News reporter: A news reporter gathers information about news stories in the local area. There are generally two kinds of reporters: i) a beat reporter,
and ii) a general assignment reporter. A beat reporter covers the same subject or location all the time. The subject is generally of interest to the reporter. Various beats include legal reporting, parliamentary reporting, political reporting, etc. A general assignment reporter, on the other hand, covers any story assigned by the city editor or assistant city editor.
Chief copy editor: The chief copy editor is in charge of the newspaper's copydesk. The people on the copydesk read news stories (and sometimes stories from other sections) to make sure they are written according to the newspaper's standards. The chief copy editor makes final decisions about the copy and is in charge of the staffing of the desk.
Copy editor: A copy editor is specially trained to read the stories that others have written and make sure they conform with the rules of grammar and style. A copy editor also writes headlines and performs other duties that help produce the newspaper every day.
Photo editor: A photo editor is not a photographer, although it is often the case that the photo editor is a former photographer. This editor assigns photographers and helps select the photos that the newspaper prints.
Graphics editor: The graphics editor is the head of the graphics department, sometimes called the "art department." This editor is in charge of all of the graphics and illustrations produced for the newspaper.
Graphics reporter: A graphics reporter researches and designs informational graphics that support news stories the paper. A graphics reporter is an expert in graphic forms and also must be able to local information that can be used to build graphics.
The editorial team attempts at publishing the articles wrapped up in:
(i) Clearness:
There must be no difficulty in finding out and in conveying to the readers what the story means.
(ii) Condensation:
Articles must be condensed to the length assigned to it. Condensation applies to words and not to ideas. Verbal frills may go but the meaning must remain. Condensation is done by substituting short words for long ones-even smaller words tor bigger ones; for example, ‘try’ in place of ‘endeavour’.
(iii) Arrangement:
The notion of arrangement is based on the convention of the Mead’ which puts the important parts first and the least important parts last. It also makes for the sequence of ideas.
(iv) Style:
Although, the style has nothing to do with literary quality. It refers to particular rules which his paper has laid down for spelling, punctuation, capitalisation, abbreviation, use of numerals and the like.
Conclusion:
What are the qualities that distinguish a good editorial? Are there certain essential attributes? What should a good editorial do to a reader, and what not?
These are some crucial questions that every editor, editorial board member, journal and its policy makers decide for themselves and their respective publications.
The very first criterion is that a good editorial is an opinion maker. It must attempt to critically analyse and sift from the various opinions, analyses and evidences floating around. It must present a refreshing perspective on an issue so as to retain balance when writings get opinionated; and/or stir up the crotchety and crusty when scientific/creative stupor sets in. An editorial is predominantly about balance.
An editorial is traditionally written in a literary style. While it is difficult to define what a literary style is, let us say it is one in which thought is well clothed in language. So well that an editorial may make for a literary piece in literature, aside and apart from its factual or scientific content.
Like the dessert after a good meal leaves an, in fact decides the, after taste, a good editorial must also be careful to leave a good after taste. This is one in which the reader is held to the piece and retains his interest right till the end. So the piece has to be sufficiently brief to hold his attention, and equally entertaining to hold his attention so that the wholesome is imbibed.
References:
• https://nie.washingtonpost.com/sites/default/files/Editorial%20Page.pdf
• https://www.slideshare.net/RezaShams2014/newspaper-editorials
• http://studylecturenotes.com/editorial-page-in-newspaper-content-layout purpose/
• https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/frame_found_sr2/tns/tn26.pdf
• https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/leader
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editorial
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_leader_writers
• https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/LEADER-ARTICLE-Where-We-Stand/ articleshow/2700052.cms
• http://www.journogyan.com/2017/02/structure-functions-of-various.html
• https://www.preservearticles.com/journalism/what-are-the-role-of-editorial- department-of-a-newspaper/15717
• https://science.sciencemag.org/content/36/934/718
• https://www.epw.in/special-articles-0
• https://www.quora.com/What-does-a-newspaper-leader-do
• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/oct/23/media.mediaguardian1
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3190447/
PALOMI GUPTA
ROLL NO. 46
DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM
BATCH OF 2022
(These articles are written by students as a part of their assignment exercise during the period of COVID-19. Views expressed are personal. Blog owner does not take any responsibility for their authenticity, correctness or appropriateness and shall not be responsible for any matter arising out of their interpretation.)
