Reporting Fundamentals

When I think of real reporting, traditional images of hard-hitting journalists spin through my mind: mad men with a sharp mind and a keen eye for a story, chasing leads like a shark hones in on the scent of blood in the ocean.

But after these imaginings fade away, the reality of the modern journalist sinks in. The modern journalist is more difficult to define – one must be a savvy jack-of-all-trades, writing convergent stories over a variety of different platforms.

The conclusion I have come to is that; today, a journalist is one who must use all types of multimedia to their advantage. A journalist is someone who markets the world to everybody else – it is the journalist’s job to select, package and present what are believed to be the important details to the rest of the world.

Again, this analogy is vague. How do they actually do it? How does one differentiate between what is news and what isn’t?

But how do we use these to our advantage and package information to our audience? So far, we have looked at agenda, convergence, newsworthiness, and the motivations of public and commercial media firms. We have learnt about these practices in class, but how do we use them ourselves? And how do we use them effectively?

Well it all starts with reporting basics, and that is what this weeks lecture was a looked at – the fundamental dos and don’ts of reporting and writing.

SOURCES: Always try and get to the root of your source (unless the fact is common knowledge). Don’t do a quick online search and consider it ‘researched’. To maintain accuracy and credibility, one must be concrete in their own facts – so speak to the sources directly – do not just use press releases for information. Do as much research as possible; otherwise you may end up looking like a fool.

ON THE RECORD: Make it clear that any interviews you may take with your sources are ‘on the record’ before you start. That way, you can set clear boundaries to avoid problems when the story is published.  

Make sure you and your interviewee understand the differences between on the record (something you can attach your sources name to) off the record (information you cannot attach your sources name to) and background information (for your understanding/may not be published Confirm that with your source though… you may get lucky).

Information that sources have provided can sometimes be valuable and important information – and that is why your source isn’t comfortable with being quoted on that. In these instances you can use that information to perhaps uncover other sources who are willing to talk or your source could be an

ANONYMOUS SOURCE: Unless the public interest on a topic is incredibly high, try not to use anonymous sources. They can be misleading, as being an anonymous source means there is no risk to them directly. Remember, your credibility always comes down to the credibility of sources. There have been many famous stories that have suffered due to misinformation from anonymous sources. Tread carefully here.

QUOTING:  Be aware of your use of quotation marks. When you quote a full sentence, the quotation marks always come after the punctuation. ‘Like this.’

When you are quoting someone partially (only quoting a few words), the quotation marks are put around ‘those words’ only.

Or if you were quoting somebody retelling something someone had said, like a quote within a quote, the quote is opened/closed with singular quote marks and the quote inside that quote is opened/closed with double quote marks, like as follows: ‘She told me a quote within a quote “looks like this”. You use double quote marks instead of singular ones.’

TERMS:

Said:  don’t be afraid to use this. Some writers become concerned that they overuse this word – you should abuse the hell out of it. It is concise and there is no room for misinterpretation.

According to: Sometimes these two little words can make your source seem unreliable in their facts, even if you do just mean that is what your source said.  Be careful of wording in general; make sure that your words come across as you mean them.

Adverbs in general – they communicate judgement into your writing, which is something unwanted in a news article. Remember: It is a journalist’s role to present the facts of a story – not to spin it according to your views.

TENSES: depending subject matter of your article, be aware of your use of present, past and future tenses. Make sure the tense you use matches up with the facts and events occurring. Depending on what platform your article will be published will help you differentiate what is appropriate.

For example, online news in constantly being updated and is ever changing, so that would need to be present tense.  News reported on the television is reporting on something that has already occurred, hence the correct tense in this case would be past tense.

INVERTED PYRAMID: Todays’ newsreaders are a fickle lot. Using the inverted pyramid will increase hope that your story will snag the attention of your audience. The inverted pyramid style of writing basically means that unlike a story of fiction – which has a beginning middle and an end – you start from the end and work your way forward. This means your reader’s attention is grabbed by whatever big event or hot topic you are reporting on. Newsreaders don’t want to have to sift through 200 words of lead up before they get to the crux of what they wish to read – if you write like this, especially in an online news publication, your readership is likely to be minor.

These basic writing techniques are compulsory if you wish to be taken seriously – they are the basis required to start effectively producing pieces that will really be of interest to an audience. Without these basics, you risk anything you write to look like ‘amateur-hour’. Remember to build on these basics and a savvy, hard-hitting, shark journalist may very well be the person you will someday be.