SEMINARS Passia Seminar 1999 Media and Communication Skills

 

 

How Journalists Work –News Gathering and Research

Rami G. Khouri

 

 

 If you hope to make use of the mass media and journalists to further the goals of your organization, you should know how the news media works, and specifically how reporters and editors go about doing their job. The following is an overview of how journalists work (in an ideal world) to pro­duce good news stories or features. Most of these principles will be impor­tant for you in your dealings with the press, but these principles are also valid for the production of your own informational materials.

 

 

I.  What do you write about in the press?

 

What is news? What should be included in a newspaper? The two are not always the same thing. News is information about an event or a statement that is either new or important (important meaning that it will have some impact on the quality of people's well-being or future quality of life, in the material or psychological sense). Sometimes we print material that is not news, because it is not new or important; but it is published for some other reason. These other reasons reflect three related issues:

 

 

1.      The nature and purpose of the newspaper (or any other press organi­zation, such as a television or radio station, a magazine, newsletter, etc.). Publications, decide to publish news on the basis of their profes­sional goals and focus of interest, which can be: politics, ideology, na­tionalism, economics, sports, religion, culture, sensationalism, light entertainment, personal promotion of the owner, or pure financial profit. A paper will publish material that is not necessarily news, in the strict sense of not being new and important, if it meets any of the above goals. These 'news values' are important to know for every pub­lication and every journalist.

 

2.      The nature of the news item itself. Four elements determine if a piece of news or any article will be printed:

 

a)     Is it new?

b)     Is it important?

c)      Does it entertain the reader?

d)     Does it contribute to the professional goals of the publication?

 

3.      The nature and role of the press as a whole. The press in any society plays any or all of the following roles:

 

a)     to inform people with basic facts;

b)     to explain and analyze events;

c)      to entertain and amuse, perhaps to shock;

d)     to play a role of political accountability and checks-and-balances; keeping watch over the government, the private sector, the non-governmental organizations and civil society, and other sectors of the mass media.

 

 

II.  How is News and Other Material Presented

   and Published?

 

A publication that decides to publish information about a subject has the option of dealing with it in many different ways, reflecting the above factors that define the aim of the paper and the press sector as a whole in that society. The journalist and the publication play the role of a gate-keeper, deciding which events in society will be covered, published and brought to the attention of readers, and which items will be ignored and left out of the press. A newspaper has different ways to treat any subject or event:

 

a)     a straightforward news item;

b)     a feature story or investigative, in-depth article;

c)      a news analysis;

d)     an interview or personality profile;

e)     an opinion column or editorial;

f)        a photo-story;

g)     a series of articles.

 

 

Other factors that determine the impact of a piece of news or article are (in a newspaper): the page on which it is published, its place at the top or bottom of the page, the size of the headline and the text, the use of photos or illustrations, and whether the news is followed up with other coverage on other days.

 

 

Iii. Principles that Determine the Quality and

   Credibility of a News Story or Feature Story

 

1.   Accuracy: This is the most important of all journalistic principles. Facts must be checked by the writer to be sure they are accurate, even if they are obtained from a credible source. The reporter-writer is fully re­sponsible for the accuracy of the information in the story he/she writes. Any story should be reviewed for accuracy by the writer before it is submitted to the editors, and the writer should be confident that he/ she can defend the story if the story is challenged after it is published.

 

2.   Balance: Any story with a controversy in it should be presented to the reader in a balanced manner, giving both sides of the story. One side may be given more weight, but the reader must be treated with respect and told that two sides exist, so he can decide himself which side to believe. If a journalist wants to write a story that is mainly designed to present an opin­ion, this should be done in a personal opinion column or an editorial, and not in news stones or features.

 

3.   Depth and comprehensiveness: Complex stories must be told with their full depth and in a comprehensive manner, so that the reader is given the full picture of what happened. Incomplete coverage will reduce the credibil­ity and impact of the newspaper.

 

4.   Background: The full background to any story should be given so that the reader who is new to the story has a full idea of what happened before. Most news stories have some background to them and the reader needs this background to be able to fully understand the story.

 

5.   Consequences and implications: The reader must be told about the fu­ture consequences and implications of the story, and why the story is im­portant.

 

6.   Organization of news story or article: An article should be organized and written in a manner that makes it easy for the reader to grasp the important facts and move through the text with ease. This requires the following:

 

a)     inverted pyramid style, with the most important facts at the be­ginning and the less important facts later on;

b)     using relatively short sentences and grouping two or three short sentences in a single paragraph;

c)      bringing up one new idea in each paragraph.

 

7.  Style of writing: The writing style should make it easy for the reader to keep reading and absorb information. This can involve the following:

 

a)     using lively quotations;

b)     focusing on the human interest angle and writing about real people and their experiences;

c)      anticipating the questions the ordinary reader will ask and giv­ing the answers in the story.

 

The combination of the above factors and principles in a story will make it professionally of good quality, and thus will make the article credible to the reader. Credibility is essential for the success of any publication, especially in today's competitive commercial market. Only a newspaper that is credi­ble can have an impact on its readers and society as a whole.

 

 

 

IV. How to Research and Write a Comprehensive,

   Credible News Article or Feature Story

 

 

1. Define the assignment and goal before doing anything else: What is the main issue to be covered, what are the main questions to be answered? The assignment and goal may change as you do the reporting, but it is important to start with a clear focus on what you aim to write about.

 

2. Prepare for your fieldwork by doing appropriate homework and research:

 

a)   read any available background material in books, encyclopae­dias, on the Internet, in press archives, etc.;

b)   talk to colleagues or specialists in the field about the story and get information from them about issues to cover and people to interview;

c)   refine the basic questions to be answered, events to be cov­ered, places to visit, and people to interview.

 

3.  Obtain and read any available material about the subject (e.g., press releases, communiqués or recent newspaper stones or interviews), in order to have the latest available information.

 

4.  Attend events in person: observe actions and events, note statements, made and identify the mood and atmosphere of the event and people in­volved.

 

5.  Interview relevant people to obtain both information/facts and opin­ion/analysis. Make sure to get different viewpoints if the issue being cov­ered is controversial, and that the people you interview are credible and speak with authority. Do telephone or e-mail interviews if you cannot see the people in person for some reason.

 

6.  Analyze the facts and opinions you have obtained and think about the material you have obtained; discuss the material with colleagues or friends before starting to write. Determine what is new and important, and what is the key point you want to convey to the reader.

 

7.  Decide how the material you gathered will be presented in the newspa­per - as a news story, feature, analysis, interview, profile, investigative re­port, personal column, editorial, photo story, series of articles, etc. Consult with your editor on how the material is best presented to the public.

 

8. Make a simple outline for the story that includes:

 

a)     the key point that will be put in the lead of the article and the secondary details that will follow the lead;

b)     people who will be quoted;

c)      any human interest angle to be included in the story;

d)     background information;

e)     future implications and consequences of the story.

 

9.  Write the article, making sure it is accurate, balanced, fair, clear, and comprehensive. If anything is missing or unclear, use the phone to get more information.

 

10. Revise the article yourself, after sharing it with colleagues, your edi­tor, friends, or family members. Make sure that you can defend the article for accuracy and balance if someone might challenge the arti­cle after it is pub­lished. Ask yourself always before submitting a story for publication: could you defend the accuracy, balance and fairness of this article in a court of law?

 

11. After the article is published, get feedback from colleagues, friends or people whom you interviewed, quoted, wrote about, or obtained in­formation from. Send a copy of the article to key contacts if it is par­ticularly important or about a controversial subject; ask your contacts if the article was accu­rate and fair, and thank them for their coopera­tion (so that they will respect your professionalism, and cooperate with you the next time you need them as news sources).

 

12. Read articles in other publications about the same subject and com­pare their coverage to yours. Did they have a different angle or focus? Did they identify important issues that you missed? Did they interview good people that you missed?