Style Guide for International Press Delegation

Transcription

1 Style Guide for International Press Delegation For more details on IGITMUN 2012 Log on to:

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Inspiration 2. Purpose 3. Role of IPD at IGITMUN 4. Personnel Responsibilities 5. Publications Timetable 6. Reporting Etiquette 7. Style Manual INSPIRATION At IGITMUN 2012, it was our primary underlying thought to simulate an International Press which rises above all other previous media simulations in editorial quality and structure. The entire idea behind creating The Peace Herald was not to nurture peace, but to be able to justify why peace is, and has been the finest solution to any problem. We did not want a press that mocks, pretends or ridicules for the benefit of controversial heat, but a team of the most skilled editors and reporters from the entire MUN circuit to create a newsletter that could set a universal benchmark. At IGITMUN 2012, we expect The Peace Herald to be the closest thing that ever came to an ideal, editorially unsurpassed and aesthetically the greatest newsletter. PURPOSE The International Press Delegation serves the role of Press Corps at IGITMUN 2012 and aims to deliver a first-rate newsletter for the reading of the International delegation and the Secretariat. Each reporter will investigate specific committee and council activities. Their articles will be disseminated to all councils several times throughout the conference in The Peace Herald, a daily newsletter produced by the IPD and the Secretariat. ROLE OF IPD AT IGITMUN In a conventional news-agency simulation, the reporters would typically adopt the perspectives and styles of its native agency. For instance, a Reuters group simulation will report differently in comparison to Al Jazeera, or a CNN simulation. At IGITMUN, we ve decided to simulate a form of an associated press, in-house from United Nations that must have despite all liberties of thought and expression, an unbiased fashion of reporting. Therefore, IPD members are not supposed to write in-character for any news agency of nativity, but as International Press. All reporters and photographers shall be a part of a multi-national, International Press Corps. Similarly, all personal preferences and biases of reporters must also be avoided during reporting process. The Peace Herald will present information to world delegation in various forms: 1. News Articles: The bulk of writing for The Peace Herald will consist of news reporting, drawing upon debates, caucuses, resolutions, press releases and interviews observed by the Reporters in the various IGITMUN council simulations. Depending on the availability of personnel, individual

3 Reporters will be assigned a beat of one or more committee/council simulations on which to report, and may be assigned to conduct interviews during tea or lunch. 2. Reporting for Special Conference Events: Occasionally, opportunities arise in which Reporters may work together in reporting unique or significant events at IGITMUN. Such reports may include group or personal interviews with keynote speakers, key IGITMUN Secretariat members or a press conference held by one or more delegations at the conference, or the Council as a whole, in which case the press conference must be requested upon by the reporter present within the council. All chief reporters have the liberty to conduct a press conference at the end of the day, if they deem it necessary and the IGITMUN Secretariat must be informed of the same in writing by the chief reporter. 3. Editorials and Op-Eds: Editors and Directors of International Press may choose to write Editorials on one or more of the debates on-going in the council. Reporters may write Op-Eds for the newsletter after they have finished reporting from the council, which may include their take on the agenda. Editorials or Op-Eds do not have to contain any information on what happened in the council/committee but concerns what the author thinks of the discussion at hand. Editorials and Op- Eds have to be very high in standards of writing and expression, and publication shall be at the subject of discretion of the Editorial Board. In clear words, Editorials and Op-Eds differ from News articles in matters of substance than events. 4. Advertisements and Snippets: In The Peace Herald, all activities that happened during committee sessions or otherwise, and bears pertinence only to humour and entertainment of the delegations shall be included as Snippets. These may even include Caricatures drawn by members of the International Press Delegation, specifically assigned to this purpose. It must be noted that in times of an emergency declaration more substantial to the conference, such Advertisements may have to be chucked following the Chicago Order of Substance in matters of Press, written in Announcements: The Peace Herald may contain announcements by the Secretariat. The nature of the announcements must follow diplomatic courtesy in order to attain editorial censorship from the IPD. These announcements must be submitted an hour before the publication of the newsletter. 6. Press Releases: Representatives at IGITMUN may obtain forms for submission of Press Releases to the The Peace Herald. Press Releases must observe the dictates of diplomatic courtesy and must relate to matters of substance within the IGITMUN simulations. Final approval for all Press Releases shall be determined by the Editor-in-Chief. 7. Letters to Editors: All delegations shall be free to send letters to editors via the reporter present in their council; however their publication shall depend on their substance and subject to willingness of the editorial board. Letters must observe the dictates of diplomatic courtesy and must relate to matters of substance within the IGITMUN simulations. PERSONNEL RESPONSIBILITIES International Press includes Reporters, Photographers, Editors and Layout planners. Reporters: IPD Reporters are not required to have any previous experience in journalism. All necessary skills will be taught at the beginning of the IGITMUN conference. Reporters are expected to have read this document and to be thoroughly familiar with the Style Manual (last section) and should be able to write effectively in English. Since all article submissions will be edited by members of editorial board, Reporters are not expected to write flawlessly; however, on-the-job training and editorial review should help reporters in improving their style as IGITMUN proceeds. Reporters will be individually assigned to a regular beat of one or more IGITMUN simulations in which they should observe debate, listen to caucus discussions, interview representatives and examine draft resolutions. Each issue of the The Peace Herald should contain an article discussing the salient features of the

4 progress in each IGITMUN simulations. All reporters must adhere to Chicago Manual of Style, and especially Chicago Order of Substance. All reporters must also write while observing the dictates of Diplomatic Courtesy. No reporter shall sit inside a council/committee without the Reporter Placard. All reporters are to maintain silence and should not interrupt procedure. A reporter must not raise placard during procedural voting. A conventional News Articles must at least be 400 words in strength. With a 50 word summary (A Sample article, written by Siddharth Soni while being a reporter at AHLCON MUN 2012 is attached below for reference) Editors: Editors of the The Peace Herald are responsible for all spelling, grammatical and style corrections to all articles for each issue. Generally, more than one Secretariat member will assist in the editing process, but final responsibility for this task lies with the Editors. The layout planner will assist and edit photos, assist in copy editing and addressing consistency in style. The Editors will also moderate meetings of the Editorial Board and will coordinate the schedules and assignments of the Reporters. Photographers: Photographers of the IPD click photographs exclusively for the The Peace Herald and should follow certain guidelines: All photographs must follow the Rule of Thirds wherever possible, and should not be clicked in Monochrome or Sepia. Editing will be subject to the decision of the editorial board in case they deem it necessary. There must be at least 10 photographs showing all members of a council/committee, with different perspectives. At least three of them should be at the time of a moderated caucus or a procedural vote when placards are raised. Each photographer has a limitation of maximum of 100 photographs per council. PUBLICATIONS TIMELINE At least three issues of The Peace Herald will be published during the IGITMUN conference. The publication will adhere to certain strict time patterns. Primary Deadline is usually 2 hours before the end of the committee session for a day. At this stage, most of the articles and photographs should be submitted to the editorial board for editorial purposes. All edits must be returned to the submitting reporter for alteration. Secondary Deadline is usually 1 hour before the end of the committee session for a day. At this stage, the final design bearing edited articles and other content must be submitted to the Secretariat for printing. Press Time is the time taken by the Secretariat for printing and distribution. PATTERN OF PUBLICATION Volume 1 (Issue 1: Introductory, Issue 2: Day 1) Volume 2 (Issue 2: Day 2) The International Press must gather in the IP Operation Room during Lunch and Tea Breaks. REPORTING ETIQUETTE Reporters are entrusted with delivering accurate and objective conference news through thorough, objective, and courteous investigation. Conference is designed for reporters to have broad freedom in reporting. Reporters will report in a manner that exhibits a spirit of diplomatic courtesy in all simulations and are encouraged to address any concerns or questions with an IPD staff person/ USG International Press. No reporter should be present in a council/committee during Voting Bloc or Justice Process in International Court of Justice.

5 REPORTING FORMAT: SAMPLE REPORT Security Council mulls over Somaliland - (Heading, Precise and Impactful) The conflict situation in Somalia has taken the International Community by a surprise, and received interesting stances from various governments. Siddharth Soni reports live from UN Security Council. ^^ (Summary in less than 50 words) Given the very intense and penetrating nature of the UN Security Council, the executive board decided to begin the session with an introduction of delegates and an informal session addressing any concerns with rules of procedures delegates may have. However, the council soon transitioned into a formal debate with the delegate of Gabon raising the motion to set up the General Speaker s List on the internationally stifling subject of military situation in Somalia. Most delegates in their General Speaker s List explicated their national stance on the situation in Somalia Delegate of United States of America encouraged minimum involvement of alien nations to solve the situation but encouraged enhanced cooperation between African nations to police trade of arms in order to handicap terrorist organizations like Al Shabaab from exercising terror. Delegate of Bosnia expressed grave concerns about the famine that quite paralyzed Somalian people, while expressing empathy. However, many other delegates weren t too empathetic to the situation and the delegate of Gabon harshly criticized the feeble state of Somalian government, its lack of transparency and its abuse of social and political human rights for the current condition of Somalia. After the council elapsed into an Un-moderated caucus to really identify the situation in Nigeria, the formal debate resumed with an update from Reuters. The report read, NASDAQ dipped 3.2% and occupied Wall Street protests were observed. Massive civil society protests were observed in United Kingdom demanding the British government to withdraw itself from European Union. Another part of the Reuters report read, Yemen: Thousands of women stepped to the streets and burnt Burkha in protest against the government s brutal crackdown against population. Gulf Cooperation Council condemns the burning down of Burkha. The Chairperson of the UN Security Council reaffirmed, Currently these protests are not a direct threat to International Peace and Security but as members of the SC we can t be oblivious to the events happening in the world. But later in the deliberation, when Delegate of France was making his presidential statement, another news report stating the arrest of Islamic women in France in light of recent events in Yemen startled the council. As the flow of debate resumed back towards the condition in Somalia, Delegate of Bosnia raised the issue of Female Genital Mutilation practiced by Militant organizations. However, such concerns were left unsolved by the council in light of various news updates that came the council s way. The UN Security council briefly deliberated upon the gulf nations taking international dominance, refraining from Somalian predicament at hand. Howsoever, disturbing the entire situation in Somalia is; the answer to the question of Somalian peace remains ambiguous on the first day of the Security Council. The Delegate of Somalia however, on being asked by the International Press about the view on committee smilingly said, at United Nations, we believe Somalia will find its answer and come to a very strong resolution also identifying other issues like Nuclear waste dumping in Somalian waters. ^^ (Article in 400 words) # # # ^^ To mark the end of the report

6 STYLE MANUAL The guiding element of reporting style is to engage the reader with the most interesting and important information on a topic at the beginning of the article. This style is often referred to as inverted pyramid. This suggests that the broadest information is contained at the beginning (the base of the pyramid), then the article becomes more detailed and specific as it progresses (the middle and apex of the pyramid). Finally, a well-written article will conclude with a final statement reiterating the importance and significance of the event being reported. It is important to note that the inverted pyramid style of writing does not come naturally to even the most experienced writers of prose and narrative - this style requires practice. For beginners, it is recommended that the article be written without consideration to journalistic style, then during editing the information in the draft may be rearranged to conform with journalistic style. Finally, it is recommended that the first paragraph of the article (the base of the pyramid containing an attention-grabbing summary of the article) be written after the rest of the article, thus assisting the Reporter in organizing a hard-hitting summary of the story. When organizing any printed material (including periodical publications such as the The Peace Herald) it is extremely important to remain consistent in the usage of style. The appearance of the paper should be consistent in headline formatting, margins and by-lines. Beginning on the next page, the conventions of style which will be applied to the The Peace Herald are listed alphabetically. Some of these elements will vary among different journalistic sources while others are standard applications of English grammar. Any additional questions regarding consistency of style should be brought to the Editors or Publisher. All Reporters are expected to be familiar with this Style Manual. ELEMENTS OF STYLE Abbreviations. No periods should be used separating letters of an abbreviated organization or agency. Only standard acronyms and approved abbreviations should be used. If questions arise see the Editor or Publisher. Some example abbreviations include: IGITMUN, CS, DS, ECOSOC, FAO, GA, HG, HSC, ICJ, IPD, NATO, UK, UN, US, USSR. Amendments. Each amendment receives a designation letter at the end of the resolution number. For example, the second amendment for a resolution in the Fifth Committee might be summarized as 5 th /II/3/B. Apostrophes. This punctuation mark will only be used to indicate possessive nouns or secondary quotations. Apostrophes are never used to indicate pluralisation. Currency. Dollar values are displayed with the appropriate currency symbol. Values on orders at or greater than one million are summarized, for example $54,000, $135,000 or $214 million. Indian Rupees shall be written as INR and not Rs. Capitalization. Nowhere shall anything but Abbreviations be capitalized. Boldface text. There is no situation in which boldface should be used in an article. Headlines and article titles may be bolded by the Publisher. Books and print sources. Names of all books and print sources should be capitalized and italicized, such as the The Peace Herald, New York Times and The Economist. Dates. IGITMUN uses the European style of written dates: Day Month Year (no commas or abbreviations). Developing nations. Within the international community, the use of the term third world is actively discouraged. No nation will be referred to as Third World.

7 Diplomatic courtesy. While Reporters are encouraged to faithfully report on the statements of representatives within each IGITMUN simulation, no quotation should violate the dictates of diplomatic courtesy. All articles, editorials, letters, press releases and personals to be included in the The Peace Herald will be carefully edited to ensure that all content remains courteous to all participants at IGITMUN. If a Reporter feels that a quotation by a representative is discourteous, the representative should be encouraged to rephrase the statement in a more courteous fashion or risk having it omitted from the Reporter s article. Hyphenation. Hyphens should only be applied according to American English grammar. If questions arise, consult the Editor or Publisher. Examples of typically hyphenated prefixes include non-, sub- and ex-. Some compound words are hyphenated as well, such as socio-political. Member States. In print, references to United Nations "Member States" should be initially capitalized. Names. Reporters should never guess the spelling of a person s name to be reported. Verbal verification is mandatory on all named sources. Also note that all participants at IGITMUN wear credentials with their names prominently displayed. Naturally, all proper names are capitalized. National references. When referring to any UN Member State or Observer, standard UN country names should be used. These names match those with which each nation signed the UN Charter. For example, the People s Republic of China should always be referred to as China. Additionally, some national names are longer than those commonly used. For example, Libya is recognized at the UN as Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Numerals. Any numeral ten or less should be spelled out in English. Numerals over ten are reported using standard Arabic numerals, such as Numerals with five or more digits should include commas, such as 1,345,000. Fractions and decimal numbers should be reported as decimal numerals or percentages, such as 0.5 or 50% (rather than one half or 1/2 ). Roman numerals are used only when referring to a source which was originally designated using Roman numerals, such as Chapter VII of the UN Charter (articles of the UN Charter are written as Article 7 ). Ordinal numerals are spelled out within the text of an article, such as the First Committee of the General Assembly. In article headings or titles, the Publisher may choose to use ordinal abbreviations, such as 1 st Committee. Percentages. Percent symbols will be used to report percentages, for example 35.8%. Quotation marks. As per standard English grammar, punctuation at the conclusion of quotation must always be included inside the closing quotation mark. Quotations. All quoted statements within articles should be incorporated grammatically into the sentence being written. Additional capitalizations should be avoided. If only part of a sentence is being used in a quotation, an ellipsis (i.e.:...) should be used to indicate the omitted portions of the statement. If the ellipsis comes at the end of a sentence, it should have a period at the end as well within the quotation marks (... ) to indicate the conclusion of a sentence. If, within a quotation, the speaker uses an abbreviation or reference which would be unclear to the reader, the Reporter may interject a clarification within brackets (i.e.:[...]). This indicates that the bracketed information is not a direct quotation; rather it is a clarification on the part of the author. As an illustration of these rules, consider the following example. Amb. Kamal explained that...while the matters are being studied by the UN, there is a commitment by the UN, such as the UNV [United Nations Volunteers], to take part in conflict zones. Spacing. One space is used to separate words, as well as following commas, semicolons, colons and periods. Since the The Peace Herald is published in a variable width font, two spaces between sentences will not be necessary. Spelling. Reporters should be sure to spell check all copy before the primary editorial deadline. This will greatly assist the Editor. Common spelling errors which apply to The Peace Herald include:

8 Dais: This is the raised platform on which the moderators of a committee/council areseated. Commonly this platform is misspelled as dias, however Dias was actually a Portuguese explorer who discovered the Cape of Good Hope. Titles. The categories of title to be used include: Standard professional titles: Periods will be used on abbreviated titles, such as Mr., Ms., Amb., Dr., Pres. UN titles: These titles will not be abbreviated. UN and IGITMUN official titles include Secretary General, Under Secretary General, Director General, Assistant Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General. Secretary General shall never be abbreviated as Sec Gen. *** AUTHOR S NOTE The International Press may be called for an orientation session before the conference begins, and all reporters are expected to research thoroughly on both the committee agendas. All reporters are expected to carry a laptop with working internet, because we shall be working closely, and in realtime using the Google Docs Shared Work Environment during the conference to avoid all the hassle involved with flash drives. All reporters are given their personalized addresses during the conference (for example reporter-nsg@igitmun.com) and must work in Google Docs Work Environment using the same. More on our workflow will be elaborated during the pre-conference orientation session. Also, we are trying hard to offset enough money to create a Tabloid size newsletter printed in offset. The International Press is competitive, and we have a good cash prize for both the best reporter and the best photographer. With best wishes for the entire International Press; Siddharth Soni Head of International Press Purvasha Mansharamani Editor-in-Chief For more information head-ip@igitmun.com editor-in-chief@igitmun.com