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Reporting

Reporting. Digging for info. Reporter’s job is to gather info that helps people understand events that affect them Reporters keep digging until they get to the bottom of things – the truth of the event Nose for news – helps reveal info for stories. Reporting.

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Reporting

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Reporting

  2. Digging for info • Reporter’s job is to gather info that helps people understand events that affect them • Reporters keep digging until they get to the bottom of things – the truth of the event • Nose for news – helps reveal info for stories

  3. Reporting • The process of gathering important material through a variety of means – observation, interviews, examination of documents, use of databases and Internet sources – and subjecting the material to verification and analysis

  4. Three layers of reporting: • Surface facts – press releases, handouts, speeches • Reporting enterprise – verification, investigative reporting, coverage of spontaneous events, background • Interpretation and analysis – significance, causes, consequences

  5. Surface facts • Layer I story: • The careful and accurate transcription of material from a source – the record, the speech, the news conference • The source for the facts used in most news stories. • Info comes from material that begins with and is controlled by the source • Story relies almost completely on info a source has supplied

  6. Layer I reporting • The reporter • Tries to observe events • Is alert to the media event, an action staged to attract media attention • Relays info from a source • Sorts out and rearranges the delivered facts, verifies addresses and dates and checks spelling of names • Most stories are based on source-originated material

  7. More Layer I reporting • Journalists report on: • City council meetings • Legislative hearings • United Way fundraising drives • Street closings • Traffic accidents • Basketball games • Appointments of new college presidents • Verdicts at trial

  8. More on Layer I • Coverage is essential • Provides reporting of public affairs • Provides public with access to the statements and activities of its officials • Helps make for responsive government • Material is easily and quickly available, but reporter can be manipulated

  9. Fake events • TV’s need for pictures helped create staged media events • Sources learned to stage events for the press • Events look spontaneous, but actually controlled by the source • Source plans, plants or incites event to be reported

  10. Media manipulation • Sources in government and politics routinely orchestrate media events • Info increasingly is generated by people who wish to promote something – a product, a cause, a candidate • The press becomes a conduit for junk mail

  11. Trial balloons • A way to manipulate the media • Here’s how it works: • Give reporters inside info • Material to be used without attribution • Info is published • Public reaction is gauged • If public rejects idea, no one is blamed because there was no source

  12. Dangers of Layer I • Often hard to distinguish between journalism and PR • Media events • To combat dangers, double check all info

  13. Internet as source • When using the Web, journalist is operating with unverified, source-originated material – that may be correct or may be downright wrong or have ulterior motives • Layer I reporting – be careful

  14. Reportorial enterprise • Verification, background checking, direct observation and enterprise reporting amplify and correct material from sources

  15. Layer II • Reporters initiate the gathering of info • Dig for more info than what a source hands them • When story moves beyond control of those trying to manage it, the reporter has gone to Layer II • News conference: • Announced statement – Layer I • Q and A later – Layer II

  16. Layer II • Reporter digs deeper to ask probing questions • Seek out truth for people who can’t see or understand the events that affect them

  17. Investigative reporting • IRs dig the deepest in Layer II • IR work falls into two categories: • Checking on illegal activities • Looking into systematic abuses

  18. Finding sources • Two basic types: • Physical • Examples: databases of political campaign donations • Minutes of city council meetings • Human

  19. Layer III reporting • Competent reporters encouraged to tell readers how and why something happened • Describe the causes and consequences • Analyze and interpret • Tells people how things work, why they work or why they don’t work

  20. Advice • Be ready for a breaking news story by being up-to-date on what’s going on in your community • Look for stories everywhere • Always check all names in the phone book, a city directory or the library • Follow the money. Where does it come from, where is it going and who’s handling it

  21. More advice • Do what you don’t want to do or are afraid to do or you’ll never be able to dig into a story • Question assumptions • Above all else: QUESTION AUTHORITY • Just because someone has a title or a degree doesn’t mean the person can’t err

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