Media Vocabulary
| ARTICLE | a story based on the facts |
| BIAS | when an editor or reporter expresses a personal point of view in a news article or in a series of articles |
| BYLINE | a line at the beginning of a news article giving the writer’s name |
| CAPTION | a sentence or phrase under a picture to identify or describe the picture |
| COLUMN | a regular article or feature in a newspaper or magazine |
| COLUMNIST | a person who writes a regular (daily or weekly) article for a newspaper or magazine, such as a political columnist or a sports columnist |
| CORRESPONDENT | a person employed by a news organization to gather, report, or contribute news, articles, etc., regularly from a distant place |
| CREDIBLE | believable; worthy of belief or confidence; trustworthy |
| DATELINE | ususally comes after the byline, gives the when (date) and where (city) the story took place (if confined to a specific city/country) |
| EDITOR | the head of a news organization; person who chooses the articles that will be printed each day |
| EDITORIAL | article written by the editor giving his opinion on a problem or event |
| ETHICAL | pertaining to or dealing with morals; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct |
| EYEWITNESS | a person who sees an occurrence with his own eyes and is able to give a firsthand account of it |
| FEATURE | a special or regular article, usually displayed prominently |
| FRONT PAGE | the first page of a paper, usually carrying the most important story |
| HEADLINE | title of any newspaper article |
| INTEGRITY | soundness or moral character; honesty |
| JOURNALIST | a person who writes articles for a news organization |
| LIBEL | a lie that causes damage (misrepresents damagingly) |
| the MEDIA | all the means of mass communication (newspapers, TV, radio, websites, magazines) |
| NEWS | a report of a recent event; what is reported about a recent event or events |
| NEWS SERVICES | news companies that have their own reporters. They sell their articles to the media. The Associated Press (AP) is the top news service used in the U.S. United Press International (UPI), Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) are also used by the media. |
| OBJECTIVE | not affected by personal feelings or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased |
| 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 a news organization |
| OPINION | a person’s thoughts about a particular subject; a subjective point of view |
| PLAGIARIZE | to put forth as original to oneself the ideas or words of another |
| the PRESS | all the media and agencies that print, broadcast, or gather and transmit news |
| REPORTER | a person who gathers and reports news for a news organization |
| SLANDER | a false report maliciously uttered and tending to injure the reputation of a person |
| SOURCE | someone who gives a reporter information; a supplier of information |
| SUBJECTIVE | based on personal feelings |
| STORY | a news article or report |