Types of Journalism

Journalism is a prime element or source of information in a society; the more effective journalism and media is of a country, the more knowledgeable, informed and progressive are the people of that county. In a democratic country, it is crucial to have a well-formed structure for journalism, to make sure that the democracy in that country functions properly. Journalism’s main purpose is to make the people it is catering to, independent and self-governing. By reporting everything properly through different mediums like, newspaper, television, internet, etc., journalists keep the citizens informed and therefore, help them make the right choices and prudent decisions for themselves. The main motive of the journalism is to help make people form their opinions or provide them with enough information so that they make an informed opinion and not get influenced by the influential elements of the society. Especially the young generation’s foundations of ideas and opinions are developed with the help of the exposure to information by the journalism. What this young generation reads, sees and hears, becomes the basis of their lifelong opinions on various factors affecting their lives. Although in a society, journalism does not enforce the law but its role is nothing less than that, its role is to tell the truth which in fact will help in the process of making the law. Spreading the knowledge is equivalent to making people powerful; powerful over their own situations and on their standing in the society. We can rightly call journalism as the truth carrier in the society. Ideally, it does not let the truth hide from the common people in the society and liberates them, but there are times when even the journalism can be corrupted due to the unrestrained control of the government or the authority in power, over it. Journalism is a very diverse field; it is not just restricted to crime, politics, social news, etc. Mass media is such a versatile field that over the years, journalism has been developed and categorized into many specified types, adding more depth and dimension to the world of media. Journalism can be classified into various types on the basis of its beat, the method of gathering the information and the writing style. In this article, we will discuss the different types of journalism.

 

Different Types Of Journalism

 

Categorized On The Account Of Beats

• Agricultural Journalism: Also known as agricultural communication, it is dedicated to spreading information on agriculture related topics. It deals with the scientific aspect of it, as well as the business part. Information or news about food, fiber, natural resources, renewable energy, rural development, etc. comes under this category. Scientists, businessmen and general consumers, all benefit from the agricultural journalism.
• Arts & Culture Journalism: It is a fast growing journalistic field. In this type of journalism, the main focus is to spread the news and information amongst the audience, about the various forms of art like: film, literature, music, dance, drama, etc. The trends and development in the world of arts is analyzed and reported to the people. Also, the cultural part is well taken care of; the information of one culture to another is spread through this type of journalism. Arts & culture journalism includes: news on languages, history, festivals, etc.
• Celebrity Journalism: This is purely for the entertainment purposes. The audience gets attracted to the lives of celebrities from all walks of life and wants to know each and every little detail of their lives, whether it is their professional life or personal. When the audience demands for such information, then it becomes the duty of the journalism to provide them whatever piece of information they need. Interviews, gossips, etc. comes under the category of celebrity journalism.
• Business Journalism: This type of journalism is dedicated to the business world. Due to the wide-spread globalization, business journalism has found brand new variety and dimensions. Whatever new technological innovation or a product launch takes place in any part of the world, it potentially affects every other economy. To keep people update about these every changing nuances of the business world, the role of business journalism becomes all the more crucial in today’s time and era.
• Crime Journalism: This type of journalism reports the exact occurrence and details of the crimes that takes place in the different parts. It needs a lot of investigation to come up with a well-informed piece of crime news.
• Community Journalism: Community journalism is dedicated to a specified community; the news and events of a particular area, being reported to the people of that particular area.
• Civic Journalism: In this type of journalism, the audience is the important element and the main source of news. The civic journalism is basically reporting of the views and opinions of a group of people or just one person, to the rest of the world, effectively on the topic that affects a large number of people.
• Weather Journalism: People rely for the information on climate and environment on journalism, especially the people from the areas that are often affected by natural disasters, like: tornados, cyclones, volcanoes, hurricanes, etc. In such cases, weather journalism becomes a life saver, informing people about the potential dangers.
• Scientific Journalism: Scientific developments and other information from the world of science is reported to the rest of the world through scientific journalism. It is a very reliable source of information because the people or the journalists informing the audience are in fact scientists themselves or well-educated in that particular field.
• Online Journalism: Also known as the cyber journalism, this is the major reason how the news became a global aspect. The world is joined together through internet, a piece of news from a small corner of the world, with a potential to affect the whole world, becomes a wave on the internet in no amount of time. Online journalism or cyber journalism is the conglomeration of all the other types of journalism, put together in coherency on the internet.
• Fashion Journalism: Fashion is apparently a widespread field in the world. With fashion journalism, people are kept up-to-dated about the new trends and developments in fashion.
• Lifestyle & Food Journalism: This type of journalism caters to the kind of audience that is interested in news on entertainment, music, shopping, décor, designing, gardening, leisure, etc. Food is another important factor in today’s world and people want to be informed about different cuisines, different trends in the food industry, reviews on the restaurants, etc.
• Travel Journalism: Since the boundaries of the world are merging into each other, due to the globalization, people are interested in seeing the world. This type of journalism exposes the different parts of the world to its audience and people benefit from it in the form of getting information about various important practical details about these places, like: attractions, estimated expenditure, living facilities, food, etc.
• Education Journalism: Education Journalism provides the details about the various aspects of the educational sector. Generally, teachers, researchers and students benefit from this type of journalism.
• Environmental Journalism: Environmental safety is a big issue and has become all the more important in today’s scenario. Journalism dedicated to the environment sector, informs the people about the changes, variations and developments in the environment, so that people can make an informed and wise decision, environmentally.
• Medical Journalism: Health, safety, diseases, cures, precautions, etc. fall under this category. It is crucial to spread this news and let common people be informed about it, for their well-being.
• Financial Journalism: Facts and figures of the financial sectors all over the world are covered under this category. It is beneficial for the common man to follow financial journalism, so that he can make an informed decision financially, knowing how the world economy is affecting his life. It is all the more necessary for businessmen to follow financial journalism.
• Political Journalism: This is hardcore journalism with news coverage related to: political leaders, policies, parties, campaigns, events, etc. Again, the journalists try to be as un-opinionated as possible, but this category in journalism is so dynamic and affects the world policies that some of the political journalists are famous for their highly opinionated outlook.
• Sports Journalism: This includes covering a sports event, the performance and opinions of the sportsmen, etc.

 

Categorized On The Basis Of Method

• Ambush Journalism: This is the kind of journalistic method where to gather information on a certain topic is not easy. Therefore, it is pulled out of the people, for the nature of the topic is sensitive.
• Precision Journalism: It is mainly required for the factual reporting, which in fact is full of data and extensive research. With the application of various research methods and techniques, information is collected.
• Analytical Journalism: Investigation is the major technique in gathering information and news in analytical journalism.
• Citizen Journalism: People are the main source of information in this type of journalism. Their opinions and description of the event is the main contributing factor in making an incident or an event, into news.
• Collaborative Journalism: In this method, various news organizations and freelance journalists come together to create one big piece of news or share whatever little parts of the news that they have rights on, with each other and make their own individual stories out of it.
• Gotcha Journalism: It’s a challenging way of gathering the news. It requires a lot of tactic and much educated precision. In this method, the information is gathered by questioning the source in such a way that the taboo questions are answered on its own. This is the technique used in interviewing for controversial topics.
• Drone Journalism: As the name suggests, in this type of journalism, the news is gathered with the help of the device called drones. Photos, videos and news is collected with these drones. In the event of war, natural disasters, etc., a drone is the best possible way to gather information.
• Parachute Journalism: This method calls for going around to different places in the world and gathering information. This is a challenging type of method to collect news in journalism, as a lot many times the journalist may find himself in a completely alien situation, in an unfamiliar country, working in rough situations and working under a tight deadline.
• Participatory Journalism: This method acts as a platform for debates and discussions and people who participate in it become the source of information. It is quite similar to the citizen journalism.

 

Categorized On The Basis Of News Writing Style

• Activist Journalism: The journalist presents his own opinion on the topic of immediate attention.
• Tabloid Journalism: This is the sensationalized news; parts of the news are effectively manipulated. This type of journalism is also known as yellow journalism; the piece of information in this type of news is not fully reliable.
• Graphic Journalism: This is the piece of news that is reported into a form of comic strip. It is generally serious information, presented with a touch of satirical humor.
• Advocacy Journalism: In this type of journalism, the journalists can be openly biased about a particular person, or a group of people. Single-sided opinions are resented in this type of journalism.
• Database Journalism: In this type of journalism, the news is presented as a collection of data in the form of statistics, figures, maps, etc.
• Photojournalism: In this type, photographs are used as stories. Sometimes the photos suffice as stories and sometimes, these pictures are used only to support the written stories.
• Features Journalism: A featured story is generally the kind that is not as immediate as the regular stories. A lot more research and extensive data collection is used in the compilation of a feature.