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Know Your J-Jargon
editorial:
An article in a publication expressing the opinion of its editors or publishers. In newspapers, it typically appears on the editorial page and is edited by the editorial page editor.
Learn more J-Jargon »
J-Jargon
Ever wonder what those words mean? Here are definitions of some of the most common terms in newspapers. Let us know if you want others defined!
Journalism Terms
30
30 A designation used to mark the end of a newspaper story. The symbol # is an alternate designation. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
absolute privilege
absolute privilege The right of legislators, judges and government executives to speak without threat of libel when acting in their official capacities. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
absolutism
absolutism The ethical philosophy that there is a fixed set of principles or laws from which there is no deviation. To the absolutist journalist, the end never justifies the means. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
actual malice
actual malice Reckless disregard of the truth. It is a condition in libel cases. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
actual malice test
actual malice test Protection for reporters to write anything about an officeholder or candidate unless they know that the material is false or they recklessly disregard the truth. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
ad
ad An advertisement. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
add
add A typewritten page of copy following the first page. “First add” would be the second page of typewritten copy. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
advance
advance A report dealing with the subjects and issues to be dealt with in an upcoming meeting or event. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
advertising department
advertising department The department responsible for advertisements. Most advertising departments have classified and display ad sections. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
AJAX
AJAX A bundle of technologies and techniques that allow a web page to do things quietly in the background without reloading the whole page. AJAX is not a programming language, but rather an acronym used to describe that bundle, “Asynchronous Javascript and XML.” AJAX provides much of the functionality associated with Web 2.0. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
algorithm
algorithm A set of instructions or procedures used in order to accomplish a task, such as creating search results in Google. In the context of search, algorithms are used to provide the most relevant results first based on those instructions. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
anchor
anchor A means of associating one object with another. If you click on hypertext on a web page that links you to another place. That hyperext is ‘anchored’ to the link. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
anchor
anchor One in the television studio who ties together the newscast by reading the news and providing transitions from one story to the next. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
Android
Android Usually used in the context of Android phone, Android is a free and open source operating system developed by Google that powers a variety of mobile phones from different manufacturers and carriers. It is a rival of the iPhone platform. In contrast to Apple’s tightly controlled architecture and App Store, Android allows users to install apps from the Android Market and from other channels, such as directly from a developer’s website. http://hackshackers.com/resources/hackshackers-survival-glossary/
anecdotal lead
anecdotal lead A newspaper story beginning that uses humor or an interesting incident. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
anecdote
anecdote An informative and entertaining story within a story. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
angle
angle The focus of, or approach to, a story. The latest development in a continuing controversy, the key play in a football game, or the tragedy of a particular death in a mass disaster may serve as an angle. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
antinomianism
antinomianism The ethical philosophy that recognizes no rules. An antinomian journalist judges every ethical situation on its own merits. Unlike the situation ethicist, the antinomian does not use love of neighbor as an absolute. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
AP
AP The Associated Press, a worldwide news-gathering cooperative owned by its subscribers. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
API (Application Programming Interface)
API (Application Programming Interface) The way computer programs share data and functionality with other computer programs. APIs are an increasingly critical part of the Internet’s interconnection and help distribute and combine content. On the Web, APIs are generally special URLs that give back machine-readable data, in formats like JSON or XML, rather than human-readable data, which is usually HTML. Facebook, Twitter and Google Maps all have APIs that allow other websites or computer programs to use their underlying tools. The New York Times and NPR have also released APIs that allow other programs to draw on archives of movie reviews, restaurant reviews and articles. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
app
app Short for application, a program that runs inside another service. Many mobile phones allow apps to be downloaded, leading to a burgeoning economy for modestly priced software. Can also refer to a program or tool that can be used within a website. Apps generally are built using software toolkits provided by the underlying service, whether it is iPhone or Facebook. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
arraignment
arraignment A court proceeding at which a defendant is informed of the charge. At the proceeding, the defendant is asked to enter a plea, and bail may be set. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
astroturfing
astroturfing Fake “grassroots.” Any attempt by an individual or organization to use websites or comments posted to website — published under false or misleading identities — to create an impression of grassroots support for something, usually in the individual’s or organization’s interest. Online Journalism Review
average
average A term used to describe typical or representative members of a group. In mathematical terms, it refers to the result obtained when a set of numbers is added together, then divided by the number of items in the set. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
background (or on background)
background (or on background) Also known as “not for attribution.” Information that can be attributed to “a police department official” or “a player on the team” who is not named. Adapted from The Washington Post’s Policies on Sources, Quotations, Attribution, and Datelines
backgrounder
backgrounder Story that explains and updates the news. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
beat
beat A reporter’s assigned area of responsibility. A beat may be an institution, such as the courthouse; a geographical area, such as a small town; or a subject, such as science. The term also refers to an exclusive story. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
bias
bias An inclination that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation. In journalism, political bias is the most common complaint.
blog
blog Derivative of “weblog.” A series of entries to an online journal, posted in some chronological order. Sometimes used, incorrectly, by writers to describe discussion forums or even all websites not affiliated with offline publishers. A blog can be written by an individual or a group. It can allow comments to entries or not. Online Journalism Review
blogging
blogging
blotter
blotter An old-fashioned term for the arrest sheet that summarizes the bare facts of an arrest. Today this information is almost always kept in a computer. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
brightener
brightener A story, usually short, that is humorous or pleasing to the reader. It is also called a bright. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
browser cache
browser cache A cache is a storage area on your computer of past content that you have viewed on your browser. When you view a web page, all the text and graphics get downloaded to your cache for viewing. If you should view the same page again later, then you don’t have to download the content again as it can be read directly from your ‘cache’. Often it is necessary to ‘refresh’ your cache, so it forces your browser to update the content from the website rather than reading it directly from your computer. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
bureau
bureau A news-gathering office maintained by a newspaper at other than its central location. Papers may have bureaus in the next county, in the state capital, in Washington, D.C., or in foreign countries. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
bureau chief
bureau chief The director of a newspaper’s news operations in a remote site or bureau. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
business department
business department The newspaper department that handles billing, accounting and related functions. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
business editor
business editor The editor overseeing business coverage for a newspaper.
business reporter
business reporter A reporter that focuses on business-related beats, sometimes assigned by industry or company.
byline
byline A line identifying the author of a story. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
cached link
cached link Just as your browser caches web pages, so do search engines. The last time that a search engine’s spider visits a web page, it stores a snapshot of it just like your browser does using your browser cache. The cached link may not always reflect the most up to date content for that web page. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
cartoonist
cartoonist An cartoonist is an artist who specializes in drawing cartoons. In newspapers, they are generally associated with comic strips.
case sensitive
case sensitive When something is case sensitive, it means that Upper Case (Capital letters) and lower case letters are treated differently (ie. ‘A’ is not ‘a’). If something is not case sensitive, it means that all upper case letters are treated as lower case letters (so ‘A’ is the same as ‘a’). This is especially important with the use of passwords, as if the password was case sensitive then ‘PassWord’ would not be the same as ‘password’. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
CGI
CGI Common Gateway Interface, the most common method that internet programs interact dynamically with users. The function by taking information typed in on a web page and sending it off to another program in Java, Javascript, or Perl or another programming language, and then display result using HTML. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
chain
chain Two or more newspapers owned by a single person or corporation. Also known as a group. The American chain owning the most newspapers is Gannett. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
change of venue
change of venue An order transferring a court proceeding to another jurisdiction for prosecution. This often occurs when a party in a case claims that local media coverage has prejudiced prospective jurors. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
circulation department
circulation department The department responsible for distribution of the newspaper. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
citizen journalism
citizen journalism AKA “grassroots journalism.” The collecting and publication of timely, unique, nonfiction information by individuals without formal journalism training or professional affiliation. Examples include the publication of cell phone photos from a breaking news scene, blog reports covering local government meetings and discussion forums reporting results from international competitions. Online Journalism Review
city/metro editor
city/metro editor The individual (also known as the metropolitan, or metro, editor) in charge of the city desk, which coordinates local news-gathering operations. At some papers the desk also handles regional and state news done by its own reporters. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
civil law
civil law Statutes under which an individual or a group can take action against another individual or group. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
client side
client side Referring to network software where work takes place on the user’s computer, the client, rather than at the central computer, known as the server. Advantages of doing so include speed and bandwidth. An example is Javascript, a programming language that allows developers to build interactivity into websites. The work is done within the browser, rather than at the hosting website. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
clips
clips Stories clipped from your own or other newspapers. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
closed-ended question
closed-ended question A direct question designed to draw a specific response; for example, “Will you be a candidate?” News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
cloud computing
cloud computing A computing model in which information and software are provided on demand from over the Internet rather than staying on local computers. Cloud computing is appealing because companies can reduce the amount they spend on their own computer servers and software but can also quickly and easily expand as the company grows. Examples of cloud computing applications include Google Docs and Yahoo Mail. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
CMS (Content Management System)
CMS (Content Management System) Software designed to organize large amounts of dynamic material for a website, usually consisting of at least templates and a database. It is generally synonymous with online publishing system. The material can include documents, photos or videos. While the first generation of content management systems were custom and proprietary, in recent years there has been a surge in free open-source systems. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
columnist
columnist A person who writes a regular column giving a personal opinion
conditional privilege
conditional privilege See qualified privilege. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
Consumer Price Index
Consumer Price Index A tool used by the government to measure the rate of inflation. CPI figures, reported monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, compare the net change in prices between the current period and a specified base period. Reporters should use this data to accurately reflect the actual costs of goods and services. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
content
content Words, images, video, audio or other material that is stored in a computer system, usually for display. For example, any news material entered into a content management system for display on a website.
content management system (CMS)
content management system (CMS) Is a program or suite of programs to allow the easy update of web pages with little technical knowledge at all. No HTML coding is generally required. Web sites have to be set up to allow CMS updates. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
contributing editor
contributing editor Magazine columnist who works under contract and not as an employee of the magazine. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
control
control The process of structuring an experiment so that the only forces affecting the outcome are the variables you are observing. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
cookie
cookie A line of text recorded on a reader’s computer when that reader requests content from a specific Web domain, either an entire Web page or just an element on a Web page. The cookie includes the name of the domain, a unique visitor number and values for whatever other variables the visited domain wishes to set. The cookie can be read only by a server from the domain that set the cookie. Cookies can be used to track unique visitors to a website, to maintain shopping carts in e-commerce stores and keep visitors logged in to discussion forums and blogs. Online Journalism Review
copy
copy What reporters write. A story is a piece of copy. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
copy chief
copy chief The chief copy editor who oversees final editing of stories and the writing of headlines and captions. See also: news editor.
copy desk
copy desk The desk at which final editing of stories is done, headlines are written and pages are designed. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
copy editing
copy editing the correction of the spelling, grammar, formatting, etc. of printed material and preparation of it for typesetting, printing or online publishing Dictionary
copy editor
copy editor A person who checks, polishes and corrects stories written by reporters. Usually copy editors write headlines for those stories, and sometimes they decide how to arrange stories and pictures on a page. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
cover
cover To keep abreast of significant developments on a beat or to report on a specific event. The reporter covering the police beat may be assigned to cover a murder. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
CPA (Cost Per Action)
CPA (Cost Per Action) A pricing model in which the advertiser is charged for an ad based on how many users take a specific, pre-defined action—such as buying a product from an online store—based on viewing an ad. This is the “gold standard” for advertisers because it most directly matches the cost of an ad to its effectiveness. However, it’s not commonly used since it’s extremely difficult to measure: it is often unclear when or how to attribute an action to a specific ad. (Also sometimes referred to as Cost Per Acquisition.) Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
CPC (Cost Per Click)
CPC (Cost Per Click) A pricing model in which the advertiser is charged for an ad based on how many users click it. This is a common model for “search advertising” (the all-text ads associated with search results) and for text ads in general. CPC is well-suited for “directed” advertising, intended to prompt an immediate response, because a user’s clicking on an ad shows engagement with it. Google AdWords is generally priced on a CPC basis. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
CPM
CPM Cost per thousand impressions (M being the Roman numeral for 1,000). In advertising, the rate than an advertiser will pay a publishers to have his ad displayed on 1,000 page views. Or, the revenue from advertising that a publishers will receive for every 1,000 page views served. Online Journalism Review
Creative Commons
Creative Commons A flexible set of copyright licenses by the non-profit Creative Commons organization that allow content creators to specify which rights they reserve and which they waive regarding their work. The goal is to codify the collaborative spirit of the Internet. There are six main Creative Commons licenses based on four conditions that creators can choose to apply: Attribution, Share Alike, Non-Commercial, and No Derivative Works. The least restrictive of the licenses is Attribution, which grants anyone, from an individual to a large company, the right to distribute, display, or otherwise make use of the work so long as the creator is credited. The most restrictive is Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives, which grants only redistribution. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
criminal law
criminal law Statutes under which a grand jury or an officer of the court can take action against an individual. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
crowdsourcing
crowdsourcing A subset of grassroots journalism. A process in which readers submit individual reports that are collected into a larger dataset for use in reporting a story. Examples include damage reports in earthquakes as well as watchdog efforts to track various elected officials’ stands on an issue. Also known as “distributed news reporting.” Online Journalism Review
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) Instructions used to describe the look and formatting for documents, usually HTML, so that the presentation is separate from the actual content of the document itself. If you watch a web page that loads slowly, you will often see the text first load and then “snap into place” with its look and feel. That look and feel is controlled by the CSS. CSS, which was first introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium in the late 1990s, helped eliminate the clumsy and often repetitive markup in the original HTML syntax. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
cub
cub A beginning reporter. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
curriculum
curriculum Courses offered by an educational institute. Dictionary
cutline
cutline The caption that accompanies a newspaper or magazine photograph. The term dates from the days when photos were reproduced with etched zinc plates, called cuts. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
data visualization
data visualization A growing area of content creation in which information is represented graphically and often interactively. This can be used for subjects as diverse as an analysis of a speech by the president and the popularity of baby names over time. While it has deep roots in academia, data visualization has begun to emerge on content sites as a way to handle the masses of data that are being made public, often by government. Data visualization helps 1) tell a story, 2) allow users to ask their own questions and 3) start conversations. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
database
database A collection of information stored in one central location, that has the ability externally to have information in it queried, inserted, updated, and deleted. Often, this is the source from which data is retrieved from to display products or information dynamically on a website. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
deadline
deadline The time by which a reporter, editor or desk must have completed scheduled work. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
deep background
deep background Information that may be used but that cannot be attributed to either a person or a position. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
delayed-identification lead
delayed-identification lead Opening paragraph of a story in which the “who” is identified by occupation, city, office, or any means other than by name. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
dependent variable
dependent variable See variable. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
design editor
design editor The supervising editor for design of a newspaper.
designer
designer A journalist who creates visually appealing and clear news pages using stories, photos and art.
desk
desk A term used by reporters to refer to the city editor’s or copy editor’s position, as in, “The desk wants this story by noon.” News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
desk assistant
desk assistant Entry-level position in television news rooms. Desk assistants handle routine news assignments such as monitoring wire services and listening to police scanners. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
developing story
developing story One in which newsworthy events occur over several days or weeks. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
dialogue
dialogue A conversation between two or more people, neither of whom normally is the reporter. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
dig
dig To question or investigate thoroughly, as in, “Let’s do some digging into those campaign reports.” News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
diversity
diversity The presence of a wide variety of cultures, opinions, ethnic groups, socio-economic backgrounds, and so on. In U.S. journalism, it typically refers to race.
Django
Django A web framework that is popular among news and information sites, in part due to its origin at Lawrence Journal-World in Kansas. It is written in Python, a sophisticated dynamic language. Major projects built in Django include Disqus, Everyblock.com and TheOnion.com. News applications teams, including those at the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, use the framework to present large data sets online in easily accessible ways. http://hackshackers.com/resources/hackshackers-survival-glossary/
documentary
documentary In-depth coverage of an issue or event, especially in broadcasting. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
domain name
domain name These are human friendly ways of linking an easily rememberable text name to a harder to remember numeric IP address. The Domain Name / IP address combinations are stoed in huge directories on domain name servers. Using the IP address pointed to by a domain name you can then find a computer on the internet or network. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
download
download To copy something from a central location such as a web server to a peripheral location such as your computers hard drive. Copying data from your computer to a central location (or server) is known as Uploading. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
Drupal
Drupal A content management system known for a vibrant open-source community that creates diverse and robust extensions. Drupal is very powerful, but it is somewhat difficult to use for simple tasks when compared to WordPress. Drupal provides options to create a static website, a multi-user blog, an Internet forum or a community website for user-generated content. It is written in PHP and distributed under the GPL open source license. http://hackshackers.com/resources/hackshackers-survival-glossary/
editing
editing To prepare for publication or presentation by changing, correcting or adapting.
editor
editor The top-ranking individual in the news department of a newspaper, also known as the editor in chief. The term may refer as well to those at any level who edit copy. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
editorial
editorial An article in a publication expressing the opinion of its editors or publishers. In newspapers, it typically appears on the editorial page and is edited by the editorial page editor.
editorial cartoonist
editorial cartoonist An artist who works on editorial page cartoons.
editorial cartoons
editorial cartoons An illustration or comic strip containing a political or social message.
editorial department
editorial department The news department of a newspaper, responsible for all content of the newspaper except advertising. At some papers this term refers to the department responsible for the editorial page only. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
editorial page
editorial page The page on which editorials appear.
editorial page editor
editorial page editor The individual in charge of the editorial page and, at larger newspapers, the op-ed (opposite editorial) page. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
editorial writer
editorial writer An individual who writes editorials for a newspaper.
editorialize
editorialize To inject the reporter’s or the newspaper’s opinion into a news story or headline. Most newspapers restrict opinion to analysis stories, columns and editorials. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
education reporter
education reporter A reporter who focuses on students, schools, education and local school boards.
embed
embed A term meaning to place a specific piece of content from one web page inside of another one. This is often done using an embed code (a few lines of HTML and/or Javascript) that you can copy or paste. This is a common way for video content to be spread around the Internet and is increasingly being used for interactive components. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
entertainment journalism
entertainment journalism A type of journalism that focuses on personalities in the motion picture, television and music industries. Some newspapers have special sections dedicated to this.
executive producer
executive producer The television executive with overall responsibility for the look of the television newscast. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
extension (file extension)
extension (file extension) In Windows, DOS and some other operating systems, one or several letters at the end of a filename. Filename extensions usually follow a period (dot) and indicate the type of file. Eg. filename.txt denotes a plain text file, filename.htm or filename.html denotes an HTML file. Some common image extensions are filename.jpg or filename.jpeg or filename.bmp or filename.gif new york web design & web development by flying cow design
Facebook community page
Facebook community page Introduced in April 2010, community pages were created as a counterpart to “official fan pages,” which are built around a specific person, company, organization, product, or brand. In large part, community pages are mostly auto-generated around interests or affiliations found in people’s profiles. There is not a way to actively add content to the page, unlike with Facebook groups. But because they are autogenerated, based on likes, they can quickly build gigantic memberships.
Facebook fan page
Facebook fan page A Facebook profile for a specific person, product, company or organization, usually administered by official representatives. This is different from a Facebook personal page, which must be owned by an individual, and different from a Facebook community page, which is built around an interest not related to a brand, such as “cooking.” It is also different from a Facebook group. Fan pages can gather thousands or millions of fans though “likes,” and official posts by the page administrator generally go into the fans’ news streams. Once a page has more than 25 fans, it can claim a short form URL, such as facebook.com/nytimes or facebook.com/wikileaks. Facebook community and fan pages are strong players in ongoing efforts to bring content to people where they already are, instead of requiring them to come to the content. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
Facebook group
Facebook group Facebook groups are analogous to offline clubs. Unlike Facebook fan pages, groups do not have to be administered by official representatives. In addition, the activity posted in groups does not get pushed into users’ feeds. But as long as it has fewer than 5,000 members, Facebook groups are allowed to mass-message all their members. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
Facebook personal page
Facebook personal page A profile page tied to a single individual. What information is controlled (in theory) by the individual. However, because there is a 5,000-person limit to friends, some celebrities have fan pages instead. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
fair comment and criticism
fair comment and criticism Opinion delivered on the performance of anyone in the public eye. Such opinion is legally protected if reporters do not misstate any of the facts on which they base their comments or criticism, and it is not malicious. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
favorite
favorite A term used with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, and is a feature similar to Netscape’s (and Firefox’s) Bookmarks. It is an easy way of storing a link back to a URL would like to return to. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
feature writer
feature writer A reporter who primarily writes features, often for the newspaper’s feature section, but also for section fronts and the front page.
features
features Extended articles or items about events, persons or circumstances that go into more detail than most. ASNE
features editor
features editor The supervising editor for a newspaper’s feature section, also known as the lifestyle section.
felony
felony Serious crime punishable by death or imprisonment. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
field experiment
field experiment A research technique in which the reporter deliberately takes some action to observe the effects. For example, a perfectly tuned automobile could be taken to several repair shops to find out if the mechanics would invent problems that required fixing. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
field producer
field producer Behind-the-scenes television reporter who often does much of the field work for a network’s on-camera correspondents. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
First Amendment
First Amendment Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech and of the press. It also forbids the establishment of a government religion and guarantees the rights to petition for a redress of grievances and peaceably assemble. It is part of the Bill of Rights.
Flash
Flash A proprietary platform owned by Adobe Systems that allows for drag-and-drop animations, program interactivity, and dynamic displays for the Web. The language used, ActionScript, is owned by Adobe. Creators must use Adobe’s Creative Suite products and web surfers must install a Flash plug-in for their browser. Apple has not allowed Adobe to create a Flash player for the iPhone operating system, which has created a feud between the two companies. HTML5 is emerging as an open alternative to Flash. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
follow
follow A story supplying further information about an item that has already been published; folo is an alternate spelling. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
foreshadowing
foreshadowing A technique of teasing readers with material coming later in the story as a way of encouraging them to keep reading. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
Foursquare
Foursquare One of many mobile services, along with Gowalla, SCVNGR and others, that combines geolocation with game mechanics. Launched in 2009 at SXSW Interactive conference, Foursquare allows users to “check in” at locations (bars, restaurants, playgrounds and more) to inform people in their social networks of their whereabouts while earning badges, collecting points and becoming the “mayor” of certain locations. http://hackshackers.com/resources/hackshackers-survival-glossary/
frames
frames A way that web pages can be divided into sections, each section is treated like a separate window and has its own scrolling. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
framework
framework A software package that makes writing programs easier by providing all the “plumbing” for a particular type of task (like writing a web app), allowing programmers to just “fill in the blanks” with their own project-specific needs. For instance, Web development frameworks like Ruby on Rails (written in Ruby) and Django (written in Python), have built-in support for common web development tasks, such as reading and writing to a database, writing content in html, and so forth. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
free press-fair trial controversy
free press-fair trial controversy The conflict between a defendant’s right to an impartial jury and a reporter’s responsibility to inform the public. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
Freedom of Information Act
Freedom of Information Act A law passed in 1966 to make it easier to obtain information from federal agencies. The law was amended in 1974 to improve access to government records and again in 1996 to include electronic records.
FTP
FTP File Transfer Protocol. A way to quickly transfer files across a network from one location to another. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
future file
future file A collection, filed according to date, of newspaper clippings, letters, notes and other information to remind editors of stories to assign. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
future of journalism
future of journalism Articles and information from leaders who are moving the profession forward.
general manager
general manager The individual responsible for the business operations of a newspaper. Some newspaper chains award this title to the top-ranking local executive. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
geotag
geotag A piece of information that goes with content and contains geographically based information. Commonly used on photo sites such as Flickr or in conjunction with user-generated content, to show where a photo, video or article came from. Expect crossover into social networking sites. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
go-live
go-live The point at which a website or application becomes published on the Internet and is available to the public. See web design methodogy. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
Google AdSense
Google AdSense Google’s online advertising network that allows content publishers to embed a piece of code to display Google ads on their sites. The ads are selected based on the content of the page. Ad revenue is split between Google and the publisher in an undisclosed proportion, generally believed to be two-thirds to the publisher. (Note: ads on Google’s own sites are covered by Google AdWords, not AdSense.) Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
Google AdWords
Google AdWords Google’s text-based flagship advertising product, which provides the lion’s share of the company revenue. Ads are displayed on Google’s own sites based on search terms that users type in, and advertisers pay only when the users click on them. The search terms, called keywords, are purchased by advertisers; availability of a given keyword is based in part on an auction system, and in part on the responsiveness of the audience. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
Google Docs
Google Docs A free online service offered by Google, comprising word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and other software, all of which is “in the cloud.” Users can work collaboratively on documents, editing them simultaneously. The service is increasingly being seen as eroding Microsoft Office’s market share. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
graf
graf A shortened form of paragraph, as in “Give me two grafs on that fire.” News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
graphic artist
graphic artist An individual who creates non-photographic illustrations in a newspaper, including information graphics, maps and illustrations.
graphics editor
graphics editor Usually, the editor responsible for all non-photographic illustrations in a newspaper, including information graphics, maps and illustrations. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
handout
handout See news release. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
hard lead
hard lead A lead that reports a new development or newly discovered fact. See also soft lead. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
hard news
hard news Coverage of the actions of government or business; or the reporting of an event, such as a crime, an accident or a speech. The time element often is important. See also soft news. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
head or header (of an HTML document)
head or header (of an HTML document) Part of a webpage defined by HTML beginning with
and ending with containing the Title, Description, Keywords fields. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
hits
hits Requests for any single file on a Web server. A hit can be a request for a Web page or any element of that page, such as an image, a stylesheet or an external javascript. Therefore, “hits” is a meaningless statistic for measuring Web traffic. A large number of hits on a website might mean that a site uses a lot of images or scripts on its pages, rather than that many people visit the site. “Unique visitors” over a defined period should be used to measure a site’s popularity instead. Online Journalism Review
host, hosting
host, hosting A Computer that delivers files and webpages to browsers or other computer clients. Websites are located on a host (computer) directly connected to the Internet. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) The dominant formatting language used on the World Wide Web to publish text, images and other elements. Invented by Tim Berners Lee in the early 1990s, HTML uses pairs of opening and closing tags (also known as elements), such as
HTML5 The upcoming standard of Hypertext Markup Language, which has added advanced interactive features, such as allowing video to be embedded on a web page. It is gaining in popularity compared to proprietary standards, like Adobe Flash, because it is an open standard and does not require third-party plugins. Using HTML5 will allow web pages to work more like desktop applications. The latest releases of most browsers support HTML5 to varying degrees. HTML5 does not cover CSS and JavaScript, but often when people refer to HTML5, they often are using it as a blanket term, applying not only to changes to the HTML, but also to changes in CSS and JavaScript.
human-interest story
human-interest story A piece valued more for its emotional impact or oddity than for its importance. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
HyperText
HyperText On the World Wide Web, the feature, built into HTML, that allows a text area, image, or other object to become a “link” to another document on the computer or network. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
hypothesis
hypothesis In investigative reporting the statement a reporter expects to be able to prove, as in, “The mayor took a bribe from that massage parlor.” In an experiment the statement of what a researcher hopes to find. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
iframe
iframe An HTML tag that allows for one web page to be wholly included inside another; it is a popular way to create embeddable interactive features. Iframes are usually constructed via JavaScript as a way around web browsers’ security features, which try to prevent JavaScript on one page from quickly talking to JavaScript on an external page. Many security breaches have been designed using iframes. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
immediate-identification lead
immediate-identification lead The opening paragraph of a story in which the “who” is reported by name. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
independent variable
independent variable See variable. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
indictment
indictment A document issued by a grand jury that certifies there is sufficient evidence against a person accused of a crime to warrant holding that person for trial. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
inflation
inflation A term that describes the rising cost of living as time goes by. See also Consumer Price Index. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
information graphic
information graphic A visual representation of data. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
Internet
Internet A huge network of computers that all use the TCP/IP protocol and that originated from the ARPANET project of the late 60’s and early 70’s. An “internet” (lower case i) is any computers connected to each other (a network), and are not part of the Internet unless they use TCP/IP protocols. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
intranet
intranet An “intranet” is a private network inside a company or organization. An intranet may or may not connect to the Internet. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
invasion of privacy
invasion of privacy Violation of a person’s right to be left alone. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
inverted pyramid
inverted pyramid The organization of a news story in which information is arranged in descending order of importance. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
investigative reporter
investigative reporter An individual who reports information that has been concealed, such as evidence of wrongdoing.
investigative reporting
investigative reporting The pursuit of information that has been concealed, such as evidence of wrongdoing. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
IP address or IP number
IP address or IP number (Internet Protocol number or address). A unique number consisting of four parts separated by dots, e.g. 192.168.0.1 Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP address. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
iPad
iPad Released in April 2010, the iPad is Apple’s tablet computing device, akin to a large iPod Touch; it uses the same operating system and development tools as the iPhone. It features a multitouch screen and comes in 3G and wifi versions. An increasing number of news organizations, including The New York Times, Wired and National Geographic, have created special applications designed for the iPad. http://hackshackers.com/resources/hackshackers-survival-glossary/
iPhone
iPhone Apple’s smart phone has sold more than 50 million units worldwide since it launched in 2007. The first smartphone to introduce multitouch screen capability, it is considered in the same vertical as Google’s Android and the Blackberry. The critical mass of iPhones, along with Apple’s pre-existing iTunes infrastructure, allowed Apple to launch the first truly robust marketplace for mobile applications. http://hackshackers.com/resources/hackshackers-survival-glossary/
iPod Touch
iPod Touch Essentially an iPhone without the phone. Slimmer than the iPhone, the iPod touch can play music and run iPhone apps. It connects to the Internet via wifi. http://hackshackers.com/resources/hackshackers-survival-glossary/
ISP or Internet service provider
ISP or Internet service provider A company that sells a service that allows you to connect to the Internet via DSL, cable, modem, or satellite. Most offer you an email address, and can also offer you the ability to create a personal web page. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
Java
Java A programming language invented by Sun Microsystems that was designed to be platform independent (run on many different types of computers) and to provide greater functionality in web pages. Small Java programs are known as “Applets”. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
JavaScript
JavaScript A Web scripting language used to enhance websites; it can make them more interactive without requiring a browser plugin. JavaScript is interpreted by your browser instead of by a web server, otherwise known as a client-side scripting language. JavaScript files generally end in .js. Despite its name, it is not related to the Java language. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
Joomla
Joomla A free, open-source content management built in PHP. It is considered by many programmers as more powerful than WordPress but not as powerful as Drupal. It has many design options. The name Joomla means “all together” in Swahili. http://hackshackers.com/resources/hackshackers-survival-glossary/
journalism ethics
journalism ethics Principles of of good practice to address issues faced by professional journalists. These are most widely known to journalists as their professional “code of ethics” or the “canons of journalism.” See http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=387 for examples of these codes.
journalism professor
journalism professor a teacher at a college or university who teaches the craft of journalism
journalism’s future
journalism’s future The people who are leading the way through uncertain times
keyword(s)
keyword(s) A word searched for in a search engine. Multiple keywords separated by spaces form a keyphrase (or search phrase) when typed into a search engine. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
lay out (v.)
lay out (v.) The process of preparing page drawings to indicate where stories and pictures are to be placed in the newspaper. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
layout (n.)
layout (n.) The completed page drawing, or page dummy. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
layout editor
layout editor See design editor.
lead
lead (1) The first paragraph or first several paragraphs of a newspaper story (sometimes spelled lede); (2) the story given the best display on Page One; (3) a tip. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
lead story
lead story The major story displayed at the top of Page One. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
lead-in
lead-in An introduction to a filmed or recorded excerpt from a news source or from another reporter. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
libel
libel Damage to a person’s reputation caused by a false written statement that brings the person into hatred, contempt or ridicule, or injures his or her business or occupational pursuit. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
link
link The URL imbedded in another document, so that if you click on the highlighted text or button referring to the link, you retrieve the outside URL. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
link “rot”
link “rot” The aging of links. When links are not kept up to date and are not constantly refreshed, they can become out of date. The objects that the links point to may not be at the same locations anymore resulting in ‘missing page’ or ‘link unavailable’ errors. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
location-based services
location-based services A service, usually in a mobile Web or mobile device application, that uses your location in order to perform a certain task, such as finding nearby restaurants, giving you directions, or locating your friends. Foursquare and Gowalla are location-based services. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
maestro
maestro The leader of a news-gathering team. Reporters, copy editors, editors and graphic designers work with a maestro to create special reports. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
makeup editor
makeup editor See design editor.
managing editor
managing editor The individual with primary responsibility for day-to-day operation of the news department. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
margin of error (also called sampling error)
margin of error (also called sampling error) In surveys, the range within which you can be confident of accuracy. A survey with a margin of error of 3 percent, for example, typically has a 95 percent chance of being accurate within 3 percent above or below the exact result. An allowance must be made in any survey for the possibility that the sample questioned may not be exactly like all other members of the population. The margin of error varies with the size of the sample population, and should be reported in every news story about a survey. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
mashup
mashup A combination of data from multiple sources, usually through the use of APIs. An example of a mashup would be an app that shows the locations of all the movie theaters in a particular town on a Google map. It is mashing up one data source (the addresses of movie theaters) with another data source (the geographic location of those addresses on a map). Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
median
median The middle number in a series arranged in order of size; it is often used when an average would be misleading. (If the series has an even number of items, the median consists of the average of the two “middle” numbers.) News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
merchant account
merchant account A bank account that allows for the receipt of credit card funds. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
meta-search engine
meta-search engine A type of Search engine that submits your keyword search to other search engines, returning an agrigate. As not search engine is comprehensive, using a meta-search engine can result in a wide search being performed. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
metadata
metadata Data about data. Examples of metadata include descriptors indicating when information was created, by whom and in what format. Metadata helps to organize information online and make it machine-readable. HTML is an example of metadata – it organizes the data in a web page so browsers can display it sensibly. Web pages often have hidden metadata that helps with their search engine ranks. Photos uploaded to Flickr carry metadata such as time taken, camera model and shutter speed. MP3s have metadata such as the artist name, track title, album name and so on.
mirroring (RAID)
mirroring (RAID) A technique on hard drives of servers where the data is written to two hard drives simultaneously, in effect duplicating the data in two places. This way if one drive dies, the system can automatically use the other copy with no downtime or loss of service. Mirroring is know as Raid Level-1. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
misdemeanors
misdemeanors Minor criminal offenses, including most traffic violations, which usually result in a fine or brief confinement in a local jail. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
mobile
mobile An umbrella term in technology that was long synonymous with cellular phones but has since grown to encompass tablet computing and netbooks. Sometimes the term is used interchangeably with “wireless.” It generally refers to untethered computing devices that can access the Internet over radiofrequency waves, though sometimes also via wi-fi. Mobile technology usually demands a different set of standards — design and otherwise — than desktop computers, and has opened up an entirely new area for geo-aware applications. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
more
more Designation used at the end of a page of copy to indicate there are one or more additional pages. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
morgue
morgue The newspaper library, where published stories, photographs and resource material are stored for reference. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
multi-homing
multi-homing A phrase used to describe when a host is connected to two or more networks simultaneously. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
multiple-element lead
multiple-element lead The opening paragraph of a story that reports two or more newsworthy elements. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
MySQL
MySQL The dominant open-source database management system on the Internet. It is popular because it is a free and flexible alternative to expensive systems like Oracle. Projects that use MySQL include Facebook and Wikipedia. The SQL stands for “Structured Query Language” and “My” is the name of the inventor’s daughter. It is officially pronounced My-S-Q-L, but you will often hear it referred to as “My Sequel.” MySQL is a relational database management system, not a document-oriented database system. http://hackshackers.com/resources/hackshackers-survival-glossary/
narration
narration The telling of a story, usually in chronological order. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
navigation
navigation The means by which a user can click from page to page on a website. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
negligence test
negligence test The legal standard that requires reporters to use the same care in gathering facts and writing a story as any reasonable individual would under similar circumstances. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
network correspondent
network correspondent A television reporter who delivers the news on camera. Network correspondents may or may not do the actual news-gathering for their stories. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
new media
new media The emerging forms of computer-delivered news. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
news conference
news conference An interview session, also called a press conference, in which someone submits to questions from reporters. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
news director
news director The top news executive of a local television station. news release An item, also called a handout or press release, that is sent out by a group or individual seeking publicity. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
news editor
news editor The supervisor of the copy desk. At some newspapers, this title is used for the person in charge of local news-gathering operations. See also: copy chief. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
news executive
news executive An individual with supervisory authority over news coverage in a news organization, generally at the corporate level.
news release
news release An item, also called a handout or press release, that is sent out by a group or individual seeking publicity. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
news room
news room The place, sometimes called the city room, where reporters and editors work. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
news story
news story A story that emphasizes the facts, often written in inverted pyramid style. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
news value
news value How important or interesting a story is. not for attribution Information that may not be ascribed to its source. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
newsgroup
newsgroup A discussion group operated through the Internet. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
not for attribution
not for attribution Also known as “on background.” Information that can be attributed to “a police department official” or “a player on the team” who is not named. Adapted from The Washington Post’s Policies on Sources, Quotations, Attribution, and Datelines
nut paragraph
nut paragraph A paragraph that summarizes the key element or elements of the story. Usually found in a story not written in inverted pyramid form. Also called a nut graf. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
obscenity
obscenity A word or phrase usually referring to sexual parts or functions in an offensive way. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
off the record
off the record Usually means, “Don’t quote me.” Some sources and reporters, however, use it to mean, “Don’t print this.” Phrases with similar, and equally ambiguous, meanings are “not for attribution” and “for background only.” News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
off-camera reporter
off-camera reporter One who gathers news for television but does not report on the air. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
ombudsman/public editor
ombudsman/public editor A neutral individual employed by a news organization to receive, investigate, report on and (in some instances) resolve reader or viewer complaints against that organization.
on-air talent
on-air talent Broadcast reporters and anchors who appear on the air.
online producer
online producer Someone who creates online pages, sometimes using existing newspaper content and sometimes creating new content.
op-ed page
op-ed page The page opposite the editorial page, frequently reserved for columns, letters to the editor and personality profiles. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
open source
open source A philosophy and a means of developing and licensing software and other copyrighted works so that others are free to inspect, use and adapt the original source material. There are many open source licenses. Some licenses are permissive, allowing inclusion in proprietary works, while others require that the resulting derivative works remain under the same license if distributed. Many popular technologies used in content distribution, including languages and publishing platforms, are open source. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
open source reporting
open source reporting A method in which reporters, or readers working as reporters, make their source list and gathered information public while they are working on their report, instead of merely revealing selected information from their newsgathering available in a traditional report at the conclusion of the project. Online Journalism Review
open source software
open source software Software for which the uncompiled source code of the program is freely available for users to see and modify. Open source software is typically made available to users for free, under the General Public License [GPL]. Online Journalism Review
open-ended question
open-ended question One that permits the respondent some latitude in the answer; for example, “How did you get involved in politics?” News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
open-meetings laws
open-meetings laws State and federal laws, often called sunshine laws, guaranteeing access to meetings of public officials. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
open-records laws
open-records laws State and federal laws guaranteeing access to many-but not all-kinds of government records. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
operating system
operating system A basic layer of software that controls computer hardware, allowing other applications to be built on it. The most popular operating systems today for desktop computers are the various versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and the open-source Linux. Smart phones also have operating systems. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
page designer
page designer One who designs newspaper or magazine pages. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
parallelism
parallelism A technique of presenting ideas in similar grammatical forms. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
paraphrase
paraphrase A paraphrase digests, condenses and clarifies a quotation to convey the meaning more precisely or succinctly than the way in which the speaker’s words express it. Quotation marks are eliminated. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
participant observation
participant observation A research technique in which the reporter joins in the activity he or she wants to write about. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
Payment Gateway
Payment Gateway A means to allow the secure transfer of credit card funds from users on your website to your merchant account. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
payola
payola Money or gifts given in the expectation of favors from journalists. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
PDF (.pdf) file
PDF (.pdf) file Abbreviation for Portable Document Format, a file format developed by Adobe Systems, that is used to capture almost any kind of document with the formatting in the original. Viewing a PDF file requires Acrobat Reader. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
per capita
per capita Latin term meaning “by heads.” It is determined by dividing a total figure-such as a budget-by the number of people to which it applies. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
percentage
percentage Mathematical way to express the portion of a whole. Literally means a given part of every hundred. Determined by taking the number of the portion, dividing by the number of the whole, and moving the decimal over two places. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
photo chief
photo chief Someone who supervises the photography department of a newspaper. See also: photo editor.
photo editor
photo editor The individual who advises editors on the use of photographs in the newspaper. The photo editor also may supervise the photography department. See also: photo chief. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
photographer
photographer Someone who takes photographs professionally.
photography
photography The process of capturing optical images on photosensitive materials, whether they are chemical or electronic in nature.
piece
piece See story. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
plagiarism
plagiarism The use of any part of another’s writing and passing it off as your own. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
platform
platform The hardware or software that other applications are built upon. Computing platforms include Windows PC and Macintosh. Mobile platforms include Android, iPhone and Palm’s webOS. More recently, in an extension of its commonly used definition, Facebook has created a “platform,” allowing developers to build applications on top of it. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
play
play A shortened form of display. A good story may be played at the top of Page One; a weak one may be played inside. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
plug-in
plug-in An application built into a browser or added to a browser to enable it to interact with a special file type (such as a movie, sound file, Word document, etc.) new york web design & web development by flying cow design
poll
poll The measurement of opinion by questioning members of some small group chosen at random so as to be representative of the entire group. A poll is also referred to as a survey or public opinion poll. See also randomization. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
population
population In scientific language the whole group being studied. Depending on the study the population may be, for example, voters in St. Louis, physicians in California or all residents of the United States. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
PPC
PPC Pay per click. An advertising system, such as Google’s AdWords/AdSense, where advertisers pay publishers each time a reader clicks on their ads, and only when the ads are clicked on. Online Journalism Review
preliminary hearing
preliminary hearing A court hearing held to determine whether there is probable cause that a defendant committed a crime and whether the defendant should be bound over for grand jury action or trial in a higher court. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
press
press The machine that prints the newspaper. Also a synonym for journalism, as in the phrase “freedom of the press.” Sometimes used to denote print journalism, as distinguished from broadcast journalism. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
press agent
press agent A person hired to gain publicity for a client. The tactics used, often called press agentry, might include the staging of interviews or stunts designed to attract the attention of reporters. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
press box
press box The section of a stadium or arena set aside for reporters. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
press conference
press conference See news conference.
press release
press release See news release News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
prior restraint
prior restraint Blocking a story before it is published or broadcast.
privilege
privilege A defense against libel that claims the right to repeat what government officials say or do in their official capacities. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
producer
producer Television news specialists who produce individual newscasts and report to the executive producer. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
production department
production department The department of the newspaper that transforms the work of the news and advertising departments into the finished product. The composing room and press room are key sections of this department. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
profanity
profanity A word or phrase contemptuously referring to the deity or to beings regarded as divine; a sacrilegious expression. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
profile
profile A story intended to reveal the personality or character of an institution or person. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
programming language
programming language A special type of language used to unambiguously instruct a computer how to perform tasks. Programming languages are used by software developers to create applications, including those for the web, for mobile phones, and for desktop operating systems. C, C++, Objective C, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby are examples. HTML and XML are not programming languages, they are markup languages. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
proportion
proportion Puts something in proper relation to something else-explains specific numbers in the news by relating them to the size or magnitude of the whole. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
public figure
public figure A person who has assumed a role of prominence in the affairs of society and who has persuasive power and influence in a community or who has thrust himself or herself to the forefront of a public controversy. Courts have given journalists more latitude in reporting on public figures. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
public journalism
public journalism The new (or rediscovered) approach to journalism that emphasizes connections with the community rather than separation from it. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
publisher
publisher The top-ranking executive of a newspaper. This title often is assumed by the owner, although chains sometimes designate as publisher the top local executive. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize The most prestigious of journalism awards. It was established by Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
qualified privilege
qualified privilege The right to report what government officials say or do in their official capacities if the report is full, fair and accurate. Also called conditional privilege. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
quote
quote As a noun, the term refers to a source’s exact words, as in, “I have a great quote here.” As a verb, it means to report those words inside quotation marks. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
randomization
randomization The mathematical process used to assure that every member of a population being studied has an equal chance of being chosen for questioning or observation. See also poll. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
rate
rate The amount or degree of something measured in relation to a unit of something else or to a specified scale. In statistics, rate often expresses the incidence of a condition per 100,000 people, such as a murder or suicide rate. Rate also can reflect the speed at which something is changing, such as inflation or the percentage increase in a budget each year. See also per capita. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
records column
records column The part of the newspaper featured regularly that contains such information as routine police and fire news, births, obituaries, marriages and divorces. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
recruiter
recruiter A specialized newsroom editor who works to woo newly graduated journalists and those from other newsrooms into joining his or her news organization.
relational database
relational database A piece of software that stores data in a series of tables, with relationships defined between them. A news story might have columns for a headline, date, text and author, where author points to another table containing the author’s first name, last name and email address. Information must be structured, but this allows for powerful queries. Examples include MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server and SQLite. Most modern websites use some kind of relational database to store content. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
reporter
reporter A person whose job it is to gather and write the news for a publication or a broadcast outlet. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
rewrite
rewrite To write a story again in an effort to improve it. It also means to take information over the telephone from a reporter in the field and mold it into a story. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
roundup
roundup A story including a number of related events. After a storm, for example, a reporter might do a roundup of accidents, power outages and other consequences of the storm. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) A standard for websites to push their content to readers through Web formats to create regular updates through a “feed reader” or “RSS Reader.” The symbol is generally a orange square with radiating white quarter circles. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
sample
sample A portion of a group, or population, chosen for study as representative of the entire group. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
scenic lead
scenic lead A lead that concentrates on a description of an environment. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
script
script A script is a type of programming language that can be used to retrieve and display information on web pages. Scripts can be used to communicate with databases, process Forms (boxes) and other web page interaction. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
scripting language
scripting language A programming language designed to be easy to use for everyday or administrative tasks. It may involve trade-offs such as sacrificing some performance for ease of programming. Popular scripting languages include PHP, Perl, Python and Ruby. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
search engine optimization (SEO)
search engine optimization (SEO) A set of practices that attempt to make a website more attractive to search engines, thereby encouraging higher rankings. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
second-cycle story
second-cycle story A second version of a story already published, also called a second-day story. It usually has new information or a new angle. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
section 508
section 508 Web Site enabled technologies to aid those with disabilities. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) A type of marketing that involves raising a company or product’s visibility in search engines by paying to have it appear in search results for a given word. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
senior editor
senior editor One who edits sections of major magazines. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
senior writer
senior writer A title reserved for a magazine’s best and most experienced reporters. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) A suite of techniques for improving how a website ranks on search engines such as Google. SEO is often divided into “white hat” techniques, which (to simplify) try to boost ranking by improving the quality of a website, and “black hat” techniques, which try to trick search engines into thinking a page is of higher quality than it actually is. SEO can also refer to individuals and companies that offer to provide search engine optimization for websites. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
series
series Two or more stories on the same or related subjects, published on a predetermined schedule. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
server, web server
server, web server A computer on the Internet and having an IP address, that it can provide documents and files via the World Wide Web. They are also known as a ‘Host’. Many websites operating from one web server is called shared hosting. A single website on a single web server is called dedicated hosting. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
server-side
server-side Something that operates on the “server” computer (supplying the web page), in contrast to the “client” computer (receives and views the web page). Usually it is something that supplies dynamic content. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
service journalism
service journalism An aspect or type of journalism that recognizes usefulness as one of the criteria of news. Taking into consideration content and presentation, service journalism presents useful information in a usable way, for instance, placing key information in a list or graphic box. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
set-up
set-up In broadcasting, an introductory statement to pique the interest of listeners or viewers. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
shield laws
shield laws Legislation giving journalists the right to protect the identity of sources. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
shovelware
shovelware Publishing stories from one media, usually a print newspaper, in another, usually a website, without substantially altering the content. Newspaper websites without online original content, such as blogs, midday updates, discussions and video, are derisively called “shovelware.” Online Journalism Review
sidebar
sidebar A secondary story intended to be run with a major story on the same topic. A story about a disaster, for example, may have a sidebar that tells what happened to a single victim. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
site or website
site or website A collection of related web pages hosted on a web server. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
situation ethics
situation ethics The philosophy that recognizes that a set of rules can be broken when circumstances dictate the community will be served better by it. For example, a journalist who believes it normally unethical to deceive a news source may be willing to conceal his or her identity to infiltrate a group operating illegally. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
slug
slug A word that identifies a story as it is processed through the newspaper plant. It is usually placed in the upper left-hand corner of each take of the story. See also take. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
smartphone
smartphone A mobile phone with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a basic cell phone. A smartphone is as a handheld computer integrated within a mobile phone. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
sniff
sniff The preliminary phase of an investigation. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
social media
social media A broad term referring to the wide swath of content creation and consumption that is enabled by the many-to-many distributed infrastructure of the Internet. Social media generally allows three stages of interaction with content: 1) producing, 2) consuming and 3) sharing. Social media includes blogging, wikis, video-sharing sites like YouTube, photo-sharing sites like Flickr and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
sock puppetry
sock puppetry An attempt by a Web writer to make a site look more popular than it is by posting comments under multiple aliases. Reference comes from comedians who wear a sock puppet on one hand to carry two sides of a conversation by themselves. Can be considered a form of “astroturfing.” Online Journalism Review
soft lead
soft lead A lead that uses a quote, anecdote or other literary device to attract the reader. See also hard lead. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
soft news
soft news Stories about trends, personalities or lifestyles. The time element usually is not important. See also hard news. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
sources
sources People or records from which a reporter gets information. The term often is used to describe persons, as opposed to documents. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
spider
spider Computer robot programs, referred to sometimes as “crawlers” or “Bots” that are used by search engines to search the World Wide Web. They are also used by spammers to harvest email addresses from web pages to add to spam lists. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
sports editor
sports editor A person who supervises sports coverage for a newspaper.
sports reporter
sports reporter An individual who reports on sports and sporting events.
spot news
spot news A timely report of an event that is unfolding at the moment. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
spreadsheet
spreadsheet Computer program adept at managing numbers. Often used for budgets. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
story
story The term most journalists use for a newspaper article. Another synonym is piece, as in, “I saw your piece on the mayor.” A long story may be called a takeout or a blockbuster. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
stringer
stringer Someone who works part-time for a news organization on an as-needed basis. Often sporting events or international events are covered by stringers.
structured thesaurus
structured thesaurus A group of preferred terms created for editorial use to normalize and more effectively classify content. For example, the AP Stylebook is similar to (but includes more rules than) a structured thesaurus in that it gives writers preferred terms to use and standards to follow, so everyone following AP Style writes the word “website” the same way. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
style sheet
style sheet A set of instructions to a Web browser on how to display various elements on a Web page. Style sheets can declare font styles, image positioning, page layout and mouse behavior across a Web page. Online Journalism Review
stylebook
stylebook A book of standard usage within newspaper text. It includes rules on grammar, punctuation, capitalization and abbreviation. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
substantial truth
substantial truth The correctness of the essential elements of a story. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
summary lead
summary lead The first paragraph of a news story in which the writer presents a synopsis of two or more actions rather than focusing on any one of them. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
sunshine laws
sunshine laws See open-meetings laws. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
tag
tag A common type of metadata used to describe a piece of content that associates it with other content that has the same tag. Tags can be specific terms, people, locations, etc. used in the content it is describing, or more general terms that may not be explicitly stated, such as themes. The term “tag” is also used in the context of markup languages, such as
take A page of copy for newspaper use. On breaking stories, wire services sometimes send stories in “takes” where only pieces of a story are sent at a time — 1st Take, 2nd Take, etc.
TCP/IP transmission control protocol/Internet protocol)
TCP/IP transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
telnet
telnet Internet service allowing one computer to remotely log onto another computer. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
tickler
tickler A file of upcoming events kept on paper or computer at the assignment desks of most news organizations. See also futures file. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
tie-back
tie-back The sentence or sentences relating a story to events covered in a previous story. Used in follow-up or continuing stories or in parts of a series of stories. Also, the technique of referring to the opening in the ending of the story. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
tip
tip A fragment of information that may lead to a story; also called a lead. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
transition
transition A word, phrase, sentence or paragraph that moves the reader from one thought to the next and shows the relationship between them. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
troll
troll A person who posts to an online forum or blog to provoke a hostile response from other readers. Online Journalism Review
Twitter
Twitter A microblogging service where users can send messages limited to 140 characters. Launched in 2007, Twitter became popular in part because it had a set of APIs that allowed other developers to build tools on top if it. Twitter users came up with their own conventions, including the @ symbol to denote user names (@youthjournalism), and #, the hashtag, to denote subjects (#teens). Twitter computes Trending Topics, which give a real-time view into the most talked about topics on the service. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
UI (User Interface)
UI (User Interface) The part of a software application or website that users see and interact with, which takes into account the visual design and the structure of the program. While graphic design is an element of user interface design, it is only a portion of the consideration. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
undercover reporting
undercover reporting A technique in which a reporter pretends to be someone else in order to gain access to otherwise unobtainable information. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
unique visitors
unique visitors Originally, the number of unique IP addresses from which requests for content were made a Web server over some defined period of time (usually per day, week or month). Due to the use of proxy servers, a more accurate count of unique visitors can be made by setting cookies to each site visitor and recording how many unique cookie identities visited the site over a period. Online Journalism Review
universal desk
universal desk A copy desk that edits material for all editorial departments of a newspaper. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
update
update A type of follow that reports on a development related to an earlier story. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
URL
URL Uniform Resource Locator. Is an address to find a certain document on a certain computer on a network. Consists of five parts: File Type, domain Name, Folder(s), file name, File Extension. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Often used interchangeably with the “address” of a web page. All URLs are URIs, but not vice versa. While people are familar with URLs as a way to see web pages, computer programs often use URLs to pass each other machine-readable content, such as RSS feeds or Twitter information. In addition, words that appear in URLs often help boost search rankings, which is why many content sites are now shifting to URLs with headlines as opposed to data strings. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
usability
usability A set of properties that makes something easy to use. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
UseNet
UseNet Is a network of tens of thousands bulletinboard like forums known as “newsgroups.” new york web design & web development by flying cow design
variable
variable In an experiment, one of the elements being observed. The independent variable is what is thought to be a cause; the dependent variable is the effect of that cause. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
videographer
videographer A television camera operator. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
videoprompter
videoprompter A mechanical or electronic device that projects broadcast copy next to the television camera lens so that a newscaster can read it while appearing to look straight into the lens. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
vulgarity
vulgarity A word or phrase dealing with excretory matters in a less-than-polite way. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 Referring to the generation of Internet technologies that allow for interactivity and collaboration on websites. In contrast to Web 1.0 (roughly the first decade of the World Wide Web) where static content was downloaded into the browser and read, Web 2.0 uses the Internet as the platform. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
widget
widget A portable application that can be embedded into a third-party site by cutting and pasting snippets of code. Common web widgets include a Twitter box that can sit on a blog, or a small Google Map that sits within an invitation. Desktop widgets, such as ones offered for the Macintosh Dashboard or by Yahoo!, can be placed on the desktop of a computer, such as for weather or stocks. Similarly, Android offers the ability to add widgets to the home screens. Many news organizations, including sites on my.hsj.org, offer widgets. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
wiki
wiki A website with pages that can be easily edited by visitors using their web browser, but generally now gaining acceptance as a prefix to mean “collaborative.” Ward Cunningham created the first wiki, naming it WikiWikiWeb after the Hawaiian word for “quick.” A wiki enables the audience to contribute to a knowledge base on a topic or share information within an organization, like a newsroom. The best-known wiki, Wikipedia, launched in 2000. Hacks/Hackers Survival Glossary.
wrap-up
wrap-up The completion of commentary that comes at the end of a taped segment in broadcasting; a strong ending to a report. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.
writing coach
writing coach A person who helps train staffers on a newspaper how to write better.
XHTML
XHTML A variant of HTML. Stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language is a hybrid between HTML and XML that is more universally acceptable in Web pages and search engines than XML. new york web design & web development by flying cow design
XML (Extensible Markup Language)
XML (Extensible Markup Language) A set of rules for encoding documents and data that goes beyond HTML capacities. Whereas HTML is generally concerned with the semantic structure of documents, XML allows other information to be defined and passed such as