An Analysis of Images and Captions Published in the Hindu and the New Indian Express

Abstract

The modern newspaper is a challenging and multi-faceted organization. Likewise, the roleof a journalist is very significant here. Since reporting is the main job of a journalist, he should haveimagination, clarity of thought, fluency in expression and control over his language. He has tostrictly adhere to various aspects of PrintMedia ethics while imparting aninformation. He shouldensure objectivity, accuracy and truthfulness. He should address personal and public rights. Newsstories need to be handled and processed very carefully and made suitable for being published. Itshould be presented in an attractive,understandable and digestibleform. New formats in reportinghave emerged due to revolutionary innovations and developments in Print Media. A journalist has tobe aware of the changing trends in all areas of reporting. Discovering all relevant facts, selectingand presenting important facts and producing a readable story are very essential in newspaperreporting. Reporters need special skills for presenting a news item. Weaving an accurate, fair,current and comprehensive story are the essential features in reporting. Due to all these, thetechniques involved in the presentation of news items are also undergoing changes to realize therequirements of newspaper readers. Since newspapers have become more and more reader-centeredtoday due to various reasons,different strategies and techniques are used in the dailies forattracting readers of all age groups. A good news story must be combined with an effective story anda perfect image to capture the full information. Photojournalism is a unique form of journalism. It isa powerful tool for communication today. Pictures enhance news stories. The value of an imageconsists in its choice, composition and quality of reproduction. The major considerations for aphotojournalist is ‘what to shoot’, ‘how to frame’ and‘how to depict’ for publishing imageseffectively. Similarly, photo captions, like news pictures, are also an important part of a newspaper.Caption writing is a skill and it should reply to ‘who, doing what, where, when and why’. Sinceprinting images form an integral part of any newspaper nowadays, an attempt has been made in thepaper for analyzing the news photos appear in the two leading English dailies THE HINDU and TheNew Indian Express. Also, the paper proposes to examine the quality of photo captions printed in thetwo newspapers.