- papers, and the persons they write about, but also contributes
toward forming the readers' opinions, they will consider carefully whether or not they can afford to permit haste and carelessness to impair the completeness and accuracy of their work. Although they are at the foot of the journalistic ladder when they begin their work, reporters and correspondents should realize that upon the character of their work in gathering and writing the news depend, to some extent, at least, the opinions of the citizens and voters who read their paper.
How Editors Determine the News Policy. The editors of the news, by determining what shall be printed and how it shall be printed, naturally have greater responsibility for the general character of the newspaper than have the reporters. The editor's failure to verify facts in the work of reporters and correspondents means that any errors in such work receive his approval and he thereby becomes responsible for them. The results of faithful, accurate reporting, on the other hand, may be entirely destroyed by the editor's efforts to make the news more striking and sensational. By their instructions to reporters, correspondents, and copy-readers, editors directly determine the character of the newspaper. When an editor tells a reporter, a rewrite man, or a copy-reader to play up a certain "feature" in a news story, he determines to a considerable extent what the effect of that piece of news will be upon the readers. By cutting out important details, by shifting the emphasis from one particular to another, by inserting a word here and there, editors and copy-readers may completely alter the impression made by the news. The size and character of the headline given a story produce quite as great an impression on the reader as the story itself. Headlines, as has already been pointed out, have played no small part in so-called "yellow
