Descriptionary

suicide bomber one who straps bombs to himself or herself and blows up a group of people or a build­ing, such as a government facility, to further a mili­tant cause.

summit an international conference of the highest- ranking government officials.

superpower any nation with exceptional political, economic, and military clout.

Taliban a radical Islamic group that ruled Afghani­stan from 1996 to 2001 and, after removal by military forces, continued to disrupt the new Afghan govern­ment and additionally worked to take over a portion of Pakistan, specifically the Swat Valley, in 2009. The group is most notorious for implementing a severe form of sharia, law that forbids women from being educated and, among other proscriptions, bans televi­sion, movies, dancing, kite flying, and beard trimming.

tariff a government-imposed tax on an imported good.

territorial waters waters falling within a state's jurisdiction, specifically within 3 miles, or 4.8 kilome­ters, from shore.

third world the poor or developing nations of Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.

trade balance an equal or near-equal ratio between nations of imports to exports.

treaty a legal agreement between two nations, usu­ally concerning the maintenance of peace and trade.

United Nations an international organization formed after World War II to seek peaceful solu­tions to conflicts and to facilitate trade, cultural, and humanitarian exchanges between nations.

warsaw Pact also known as the Warsaw Treaty Organization, an alliance formed by Albania, Bul­garia, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union in 1955 for mutual protection against NATO and democratic expansion, dissolved in 1991.

publishing and journalism

Afghanistanism journalist's term for the avoiding of local controversy by focusing news coverage on distant lands.

allege one of the most frequently used hedge words of journalists who wish to avoid being sued for libel. See Lindley rule.

angle a story's point of view or perspective. AP Associated Press.

blacksmith an uninspired but industrious reporter who simply pounds out stories day after day.

blue-pencil to edit; to make corrections in a manuscript.

bogus fillers or stock features to be replaced by hard news in a later edition of a daily newspaper.

boil down to condense a story.

bootjacking the hawking of newspapers on the street. break where a newspaper story stops on one page to be continued on another page.

bright a brief, light human-interest story.

bulldog the early edition of a daily newspaper, usu­ally printed the night before.

bullpup the first edition of a Sunday newspaper, a portion of which may be printed well before Sunday.

bury a story to place a story on an inner page of a newspaper.

byline the reporter's name, which appears above the beginning of a story.

canned copy press releases, publicity releases, fea­tures from syndicates—any prewritten material. Also known as A-copy or handouts.

circulation the average number of copies of a news­paper or magazine sold in a given period.

city editor the newspaper editor who covers city news; he or she works in the city room.

clean highly polished and needing little or no editing.

cold dope statistics.

colored story a biased or slanted piece of reporting.

comma chaser slang for a copy editor.

copy any written or illustrated material to be printed.

copyboy/copygirl one who runs errands; a gofer in a newsroom.

copy editor the editor who checks for style, gram­mar, and other errors, and makes corrections in man­uscripts for the printer.

correspondent a reporter who sends in news stories from remote locations.

crusade a journalist's dedicated effort to expose some wrongdoing, such as government corruption.

cub a new, inexperienced reporter.

date file a file of important anniversaries, holidays, and upcoming events to be covered.

dateline at the beginning of a newspaper story, the line indicating the story's point of origin. Formerly, the dateline included the date.

deadline the day or time a story must be submitted for publication.

dirty heavily edited and marked.

editorial a personal opinion column. Also, all writ­ten copy other than advertising.

editorializing a reporter's insertion of a personal viewpoint in a story.

fair comment the legal right of a reporter to report the facts of a story as he or she understands them to be as long as the facts are presented fairly and with­out malice.

feature a large article or story, usually of human interest and not necessarily newsworthy.

filler short, stock items, used to fill space in a news­paper or magazine.