Film Censorship

Film censorship is carried out by various countries to differing degrees, sometimes as
a result of powerful or relentless lobbying by organizations or individuals. Films that are
banned in a particular country change over time.
A motion picture rating system is designated to classify films with regard to suitability
for audiences in terms of issues such as sex, violence, substance abuse, profanity, impudence
or other types of mature content. A particular issued rating can be called a certification,
classification, certificate or rating.
The Central Board of Film Certification (often referred to as the Censor Board) is a
statutory censorship and classification body under the Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting, Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films
under the provisions of the Cinematograph Act 1952". It assigns certifications to films,
television shows, television ads, and publications for exhibition, sale or hire in India. Films
can be publicly exhibited in India only after they are certified by the Board.

came to India in 1896 when the first show at Watson hotel, Bombay
by Lumière Brothers was presented in July. As the first film in India (Raja Harishchandra) was
produced in 1913 by Dadasaheb Phalke, Indian Cinematograph Act was passed and came into
effect only in 1920. Censor Boards were placed under police chiefs in cities of Madras,
Bombay, Calcutta, Lahore and Rangoon. Regional censors were independent.
After Independence autonomy of regional censors was abolished and they were brought
under the Bombay Board of Film Censors. With implementation of Cinematograph Act, 1952,
the board was unified and reconstituted, as the Central Board of Film Censors. Cinematograph
(Certification) Rules were revised in 1983 and since then the Central Board of Film
Censors became known as the Central Board of Film Certification.
The CBFC currently issues the following certificates:
1. U- Universal
Unrestricted Public Exhibition throughout India, suitable for all age groups. Films under this
category should not upset children over 4. This rating is similar to the MPAA's G and PG and
the BBFC's U and PG ratings. Such films may contain educational, social or family-oriented
themes. Films under this category may also contain fantasy violence and/or mild bad
language.
2. UA- Parental Guidance
All ages admitted, but it is advised that children below 12 be accompanied by a parent as the
theme or content may be considered intense or inappropriate for young children. This rating
is similar to the MPAA's PG and PG-13 and the BBFC's PG and 12A ratings. Films under this
category may contain mature themes, sexual references, mild sex scenes, violence with brief
gory images and/or infrequent use of crude language.
3. A- Adults Only
Restricted to adult audiences (18 years or over). This rating is similar to the MPAA's R and
the BBFC's 15 ratings. Nobody below the age of 18 may buy/rent an A
rated DVD, VHS, UMD or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this
category may contain adult/disturbing themes, frequent crude language, brutal violence with
blood and gore, strong sex scenes and/or scenes of drug abuse which is considered unsuitable
for minors.
4. S- Restricted to any special class of persons. This rating signifies that the film is meant
for a specialised audience, such as doctors.

Film production

Film production involves several major stages:
1. Development — the first stage in which the ideas for the film are created, rights to
books/plays are bought etc., and the screenplay is written. Financing for the project has to
be sought and green lit.
2. Pre-production—Preparations are made for the shoot, in which cast and film crew are
hired, locations are selected, and sets are built.
3. Production— the raw elements for the film are recorded during the film shoot.
4. Post-Production—the images sound, and visual effects of the recorded film are edited.
5. Distribution—the finished film is distributed and screened in cinemas and/or released
on DVD.

Development
In this stage, the project's producer selects a story, which may come from a book or
a play or another film or a true story or an original idea, etc. After identifying a theme or
underlying message, the producer works with writers to prepare a synopsis. Next they
produce a step outline, which breaks the story down into one-paragraph scenes that
concentrate on dramatic structure. Then, they prepare a treatment, a 25-to-30-page
description of the story, its mood, and characters. This usually has little dialogue and stage
direction, but often contains drawings that help visualize key points. Next,
a screenwriter writes a screenplay over a period of several months. A film distributor may be
contacted at an early stage to assess the likely market and potential financial success of the
film. Hollywood distributors adopt a hard-headed business approach and consider factors
such as the film genre, the target audience, the historical success of similar films, the actors
who might appear in the film, and potential directors. All these factors imply a certain appeal
of the film to a possible audience. Not all films make a profit from the theatrical release alone,
so film companies take DVD sales and worldwide distribution rights into account.
Pre-production
In pre-production, every step of actually creating the film is carefully designed and
planned. The production company is created and a production office established. The film is
pre-visualized by the director, and may be storyboarded with the help
of illustrators and concept artists. A production budget is drawn up to plan expenditures for
the film. For major productions, insurance is procured to protect against accidents.
Storyboard is a visualizing method that creates a blueprint of what the shot sequence
should be. The visual images are drawn or made by programs such as Photoshop. There may
also be a written caption as needed for each shot. The director is primarily responsible for the
storytelling, creative decisions and acting of the film. The unit production manager manages
the production budget and production schedule. They also report, on behalf of the production
office, to the studio executives or financiers of the film.
In production, the video production/film is created and shot. More crew will be
recruited at this stage, such as the property master, script supervisor, assistant directors,
stills photographer, picture editor, and sound editors. These are just the most common roles
in filmmaking; the production office will be free to create any unique blend of roles to suit the
various responsibilities possible during the production of a film.
Post-production
Here the video/film is assembled by the video/film editor. The shot film material is
edited. The production sound (dialogue) is also edited; music tracks and songs are composed
and recorded if a film is sought to have a score; sound effects are designed and recorded. Any
computer-graphic visual effects are digitally added. Finally, all sound elements are mixed into
"stems", which are then married to picture, and the film is fully completed ("locked").
Distribution
This is the final stage, where the film is released to cinemas or, occasionally, to consumer
media (DVD, VCD, VHS, Blu-ray) or direct download from a provider. The film is duplicated as
required and distributed to cinemas for exhibition (screening). Press kits, posters, and other
advertising materials are published and the film is advertised and promoted. Film
distributors usually release a film with a launch party, press release, interviews with the
press, press preview screenings, and film festival screenings. Most films have a website. The
film plays at selected cinemas and the DVD typically is released a few months later. The
distribution rights for the film and DVD are also usually sold for worldwide distribution. The
distributor and the production company share profits.
Filmmaking also takes place outside of the mainstream and is commonly
called independent filmmaking. Since the introduction of DV technology, the means of
production have become more democratized. Filmmakers can conceivably shoot and edit a
film, create and edit the sound and music, and mix the final cut on a home computer.
However, while the means of production may be democratized, financing, traditional
distribution and marketing remain difficult to accomplish outside the traditional system. In
the past, most independent filmmakers have relied on film festivals to get their films noticed
and sold for distribution. However, the Internet has allowed for relatively inexpensive
distribution of independent films. As a result several companies have emerged to assist
filmmakers in getting independent movies seen and sold via mainstream internet
marketplaces, oftentimes adjacent to popular Hollywood titles. With internet movie
distribution, independent filmmakers who fail to garner a traditional distribution deal now
have the ability to reach global audiences.
The distribution of a film (or movie) is the process through which a movie is made available
to watch for an audience by a film distributor.

Mise-en-scène (Film Studies)

Mise-en-scène is a French term which means, literally, "put in the scene." For film, it has
a broader meaning, and refers to almost everything that goes into the composition of the shot,
including the composition itself: framing, movement of the camera and characters, lighting,
set design and general visual environment, even sound as it helps elaborate the
composition. Mise-en-scène can be defined as the articulation of cinematic space, and it is
precisely space that it is about. Mise-en-scène is an expression used to describe
the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or
"telling a story" both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage
design, and in poetically artful ways through direction. Mise-en-scène has been called film
criticism's "grand undefined term".
When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before
the camera and its arrangement—composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, sounds, and
lighting. The “mise-en-scène”, along with the cinematography and editing of a film, influence
the verisimilitude of a film in the eyes of its viewers. The various elements of design help
express a film’s vision by generating a sense of time and space, as well as setting a mood, and
sometimes suggesting a character’s state of mind. “Mise-en-scène” also includes the
composition, which consists of the positioning and movement of actors, as well as objects, in
the shot. in French film credits, the
director's title is metteur en scène, "placer on scene."

brief history of media in india

CENTENARIAN NEWSPAPERS OF INDIA
The Times of India – 1861
Amrit Bazar Patrika – 1868
Pioneer - 1872
The Statesman - 1875
The Hindu - 1878

RADIO
- Amateur Radio Club started local broadcasting in 1924 at Madras
- Indian Broadcasting co.(private) 1927- Bombay and Calcutta
- Indian State Broadcasting Service – 1930
- Name changed as All India Radio (AIR) / Aakashbani
- Before independence AIR stations in Hyderabad, Baroda, Mysore, Trivandrum, Aurangabad, Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Lukhnow, Pesawar and Dhaka
- During second World War radio became more popular in India
- After independence AIR was a major tool to dissiminate govt. information
- AIR as an ‘ electronic ambassador’ in abroad
- Now AIR have more than 200 stations covering 90% of the land and 97% of the population
- News in 24 languages including Hindi, English and many other languages of India
- From 1997 broadcasting is beeing regulated by an autonomous corporation under Prasar Bharati Act
- 12 radio sets / 100 people

TELEVISION
- Door Darshan (DD) started as an experiment in 1959 from New Delhi, for educational purpose
- Regular broadcasting started from 1965 from New Delhi
- Indian Space Research Organization borrowed a satellite from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in 1975
- Community TV sets in 2,400 villages
- Colour broadcasting from 1982 on the eve of Asian Games held in New Delhi
- 40 different broadcasting centers
- covers 70% of land and 87% 0f population
- programs in about a dozen languages
- 6.5 tv sets / 100 people
- after 1995 many private channels
- all TV broadcasting regulated by Prasar Bharati Act

NEWS AGENCIES
- Press Trust of India (PTI) 1947
- Hindustan Samachar 1948
- United News of India (UNI)- 1961
- Samachar Bharati –1965
Hindustan Samachar and Samachar Bharati produce news in various Indian languages while PTI and UNI in English

- Press Information Bureau (PIB), under Ministry of Information, provides government news and information in English, Hindi, Urdu and 13 regional languages.

Recent Trends in Online Journalism

No longer are journalists and the news constrained by the technical limitations of analog media boundaries of print, television, or radio. Instead all modalities of human communication are available for telling the story in the most compelling interactive, on- demand, and customized  fashion  possible.  
Of course, newsroom traditions and training, as well as newsroom economics, may ultimately determine whether journalists fully utilize these online capabilities to create better, more complete and conceptualized news reports. Nevertheless, the technology makes improved journalism possible. For example “Apbonline” is a news website covering crime throughout the United States and internationally. It is an internet-original, or purely online, news product; it has no print or broadcast parent. Not just confined to text reporting, the site utilized interactivity, images. It also illustrates the unique capabilities of online news. 
A 1998 study places these findings in the context of online journalism, reveals that the 80 percent of adult Americans who use online media rate online news sources as just as credible as traditional news providers.
The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and computer set the stage for this unprecedented integration of capabilities. The Internet is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location.

Information Super Highway

The Information superhighway is a term that is sometimes used to describe the Internet.
Nam June Paik, a 20th century South Korean born American video artist, claims to have coined the term in 1974. “I used the term (information superhighway) in a study I wrote for the Rockefeller Foundation in 1974. I thought: if you create a highway, then people are going to invent cars. That's dialectics. If you create electronic highways, something has to happen.” The term was popularized by former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore in the early 1990s in a speech outlining plans to build a high-speed national data communications network. 

 

Information superhighway is a popular collective name for the Internet and other related large-scale computer networks. 
The information superhighway can be defined as ‘an information and communication technology network, which delivers all kinds of electronic services-audio, video, text, and data, to households and businesses. It is usually assumed that the network will allow for two-way communication, which can deliver ‘narrow-band’ services like telephone calls as well as ‘broad-band’ capabilities such as video-on-demand, teleshopping, and other ‘interactive TV’ multi-media applications. Services on the superhighway can be one-to-one (telephone, electronic, mail, fax, etc) one-to-many (broadcasting, interactive TV, videoconferencing, etc); or many-to-many (bulletin-boards and forums on the internet). 
The example of the ‘information Superhighway’ is the internet, which had its roots in the need during the mid-1960s for linking military computer researchers in the United States. Commercialisation of the networks began when the internet was opened up to the priviate service providers like Prodigy, Delphi, Genie, America Online (AOL) and Compuserve. The World Wide Web was developed at the European center for Particle Research in 1989, but took off only in 1993 when software developed at the University of Illinois and subsequently elsewhere, created ‘browsers’ and graphical interfaces making the search and interrogation of ‘pages’ on the WWW possible. Hundreds of ‘sites’ were placed on the Web.

Cyber Space

Cyberspace is a domain characterized by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum to store, modify, and exchange data via networked systems and associated physical infrastructures. The term originates in science fiction, where it also includes various kinds of virtual reality experienced by deeply immersed computer users or by entities who exist inside computer systems.
Cyberspace is a metaphor for describing the non-physical terrain created by computer systems. Online systems, for example, create a cyberspace within which people can communicate with one another (via e-mail), do research, or simply window shop. Like physical space, cyberspace contains objects (files, mail messages, graphics, etc.) and different modes of transportation and delivery. Unlike real space, though, exploring cyberspace does not require any physical movement other than pressing keys on a keyboard or moving a mouse. 
Some programs, particularly computer games, are designed to create a special cyberspace, one that resembles physical reality in some ways but defies it in others. In its extreme form, called virtual reality, users are presented with visual, auditory, and even tactile feedback that makes cyberspace feel real

FREELANCE JOURNALISM

FREELANCE JOURNALISM-

A freelancer or  freelance journalist is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular newspaper for  long term. Payment for freelance work also varies greatly. Freelancers may charge by a per word publish, per article or on a per-project basis.

Freelancers generally enjoy a greater variety of assignments than in regular employment, and—subject to the need to earn a regular income—usually have more freedom to choose their work schedule. The experience can also lead to a broad portfolio of work and the establishment of a network of clients.

The major drawback is the uncertainty of work and thus income, and in lack of company benefits such as a pension, health insurance , paid holidays and bonuses.  But Many freelancers  in journalism, regard themselves as having greater income security through the diversity of outlets—the loss of any one of which leads to the loss of only a portion of income, rather than its totality as with salaried employees.

Freelance journalism is one of the more hectic forms of freelance writing. A freelancer needs to be comfortable with spending much time hunting down stories, traveling from place to place, and writing under short deadlines. Freelance journalist has  opportunities for personal creativity.

When we talk about freelance journalism, we need to distinguish between two types: newspaper journalism and magazine journalism. As a rule, newspaper journalism involves a much narrower range of subject matter than magazine journalism, significantly shorter articles, and a greater focus on form. Typical newspaper articles follow a hierarchical format: the most pertinent information first, the least pertinent last.

manuplation of news & bias in news

Media Manipulation

The media is manipulated in all manners, for example through professional public relations (PR), and covert and overt government propaganda which disseminates propaganda as news. What are often deemed as credible news sources can often knowingly or unknowingly be pushing political agendas and propaganda.

Media manipulation is a series of related techniques in which partisans create an image or argument that favours their particular interests.^[1] Such tactics may include the use of logical fallacies and propaganda techniques, and often involve the suppression of information or points of view by crowding them out, by inducing other people or groups of people to stop listening to certain arguments, or by simply diverting attention elsewhere.

BIAS IN NEWS

Media bias is the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and degree of media bias in various countries is widely disputed.

Practical limitations to media neutrality include the inability of journalists to report all available stories and facts, and the requirement that selected facts be linked into a coherent narrative.

The most commonly discussed forms of bias occur when the media support or attack a particular political party, candidate, or ideology, but other common forms of bias include

• Advertising bias, when stories are selected or slanted to please advertisers.

• Corporate bias, when stories are selected or slanted to please corporate owners of media.

• Mainstream bias, a tendency to report what everyone else is reporting, and to avoid stories that will offend anyone.

Cultural Reporting

Culture reporting

The term “The Culture Beat” refers to the way a newspaper will assign reporters to cover various sites where news originates-city hall, the police reports, sports, entertainment, local, etc.

Culture reporting is characterized by its punchy style, rough language, and

ostensible disregard for conventional journalistic writing forms and customs. The reporter attempts to present a multi-disciplinary perspective on a particular story, drawing from popular culture, sports, political, philosophical and literary sources. It is styled eclectic or untraditional. Culture reporting remains a feature of popular magazines. It has a good deal of entertainment value.

Culture reporting also focuses on the personal lives of people, primarily celebrities, including movie and stage actors, musical artists, models and photographers, other notable people in the entertainment industry, as well as people who seek attention, such as politicians, and people thrust into the attention of the public, such as people who do something newsworthy.

Culture reporting today is the province of newspaper gossip columnists and gossip magazines and has become the focus of national tabloid newspapers .  It differs from feature writing in that it focuses on people who are either already famous or are especially attractive, and in that it often covers celebrities obsessively, to the point of these journalists behaving unethically in order to provide coverage. Paparazzi, photographers who would follow celebrities incessantly to obtain potentially embarrassing photographs, have come to characterize celebrity journalism.

It is the most common kind of reporting where reporters are placed at the most strategic news-breaking points like hospitals, courtrooms, police headquarters, airports, railway stations, universities, government and corporate offices and health and recreation centers. Unlike editorial writing, the culture reporting is impersonal.

A culture reporter is should essentially be an honest storyteller, who should rise above his prejudices and subjectivity. He should be fair and impartial and present in all aspects of the story. Complete objectivity may be required as the primary job of a reporter in any beat is to tell the truth.

crime reporting

Crime reporting

There are tremendous public interests in crime stories and no newspaper can afford to ignore them without damage to circulation and credibility. Crime is a part of life and it is newspaper’s duty to inform the readers of what crimes are going on in their city, state or country. However, crime reporting should not aim at satisfying morbid curiosity or sensation mongering. Although crime reporting is usually assigned to one of the junior reporters in a newspaper, it is a highly responsible and specialized job. The reporter should not only have the ability to sift the grain from the chaff, and the truth from lies, he should also have good contacts in the police and other departments of the administration as well as working knowledge of the penal codes and law on libel and other relevant matters.

Besides, he must observe a code of honour. He should be as objective and as humanly as possible so as to avoid resorting to sensationalism or cheap gimmicks to catch the attention of the readers or the viewers. He should not suppress news of public interest. Nor should he seek to settle personal scores with police officers or lawyers or judges. And he must be careful that in the course of his work, he does not unnecessarily invade a citizen’s privacy.

There has been much criticism of press reporting of crime and not all of it is

baseless. Some reporters have been found guilty of unethical standards, thus causing much pain and sorrow to their victims or their families and friends. Crime Reporters try to glorify the activities of criminals or sometimes make heroes of them. This practice should be discouraged as much as a resort to sensationalism.

The crime reporter much never violates standards of decency and good news taste. There are several types of crime news-murders, fires, accidents, robberies, burglaries, fraud, blackmail, kidnapping, rape, etc.

There are a few fundamental precautions which a crime reporter must take

account of:

• The first is that the police and prosecutors rarely will give them information on a silver platter. That means, a tremendous amount of interviewing and research must be done in a very short time so that a coherent story may be written

• There is no guarantee of police accuracy; and therefore police versions of

names, addresses and other facts must be checked

• Police and journalistic terminology are not identical. The legal term for a

slaying is a homicide, but many news organizations loosely and incorrectly

refer to such crimes automatically as murder.