Chapter objectives

This chapter explores some issues about which beginning reporters might have questions, such as:

After reading the chapter, you should not only have a better idea about whether you want to be a journalist, you should also have a greater understanding of what it will take to succeed. Don’t be too worried if you find that you don’t want to be a reporter; everything you learn in a journalism course at university will provide you with valuable and transferable skills that are applicable in many professions and work situations.

One of the most confusing questions we get asked most days is: What does it mean to be a journalist today? Is journalism just ‘a collection of practices that can be done by anyone’? Even 10 years ago, this was not really a question; the ‘news 2.0’ tsunami had not really hit the newsroom yet, and journalism was something that journalists did on behalf of everyone else. There was the journalist inside the news organisation and the audience outside. But then a whole new DIY style began to emerge. It had its powerful moment of creation during protests against the ‘new world order’ in Seattle in 1999. Anti-capitalist protestors wanted to demonstrate at the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit, and they also felt that their message would not be reported accurately (if at all) by the mainstream media. So, instead of relying on the mainstream media, the activists decided to create their own global media: the Indymedia movement was born. In the decade since, we have seen the rise of so-called ‘citizen journalism’ and do-it-yourself broadcasting in the form of YouTube, blogs and now Twitter.

Chapter objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be confident about the following:

Every journalist needs to understand the issues around defamation. The purpose must be to ‘get away with’ as much as possible – to use the law and the defences to defamation as a tool to publish, not as a brake on the flow of information that is in the public interest. This chapter is not a substitute for detailed study of the laws of defamation; it is a guide to keeping you (and your publication) out of trouble.

Reputation damage: A costly legal business

The basketball player Charles Barkley could dunk the ball and dribble; he also has a good sense of humour. Defamation laws protect people’s reputation – their good name (assuming they have one, of course). Wrongly harming or damaging a person’s reputation can be a serious problem too. What all this means is that while it may be possible to publish all kinds of material before the ‘course of justice’ has commenced or after it has concluded, and not be found to be in contempt, what you publish could still be defamatory. And someone may sue you. So even when there is no ‘course of justice’ running, you still need to be careful about the things you publish.

Chapter objectives

The aims of this chapter are to:

What does it mean to be professional?

This statement, in the Foreword to Modern Journalism, is perhaps the first articulation of how the profession of journalism was born (or, if you like, made). But the sub-title used by the authors in this 1931 edition was ‘A Complete Guide to the Newspaper Craft’. Throughout the twentieth century, journalism slowly made the transition from craft to trade to profession, and the education of young reporters – both inside and outside the newsroom – was a major factor in that change. Even in 1931, the English reporter was being exhorted to ‘respect his [sic.] profession’ and to ‘regard himself as a trustee for English language’. H.A. Gwynne wrote that these two principles were ‘the foundations of journalism’.

Chapter objectives

After reading this chapter, you should have an understanding of basic ethical issues and some knowledge of how to resolve ethical dilemmas. In particular, the chapter should help you with the following:

This chapter is an introduction to dealing with ethical issues. Every day in every journalism class, and certainly every day in the newsroom, you will be confronted with decisions that require some degree of thinking about media ethics. Some are simple and straightforward; others may embroil you in hours, days or even weeks of discussion. Some may seem irresolvable. It can never hurt to invest some time reading a comprehensive book about journalism ethics.

Chapter objectives

Knowing where to find information is a crucial journalistic skill. In this chapter, we introduce a number of research skills:

We start with research because if you want to be a journalist you have to have information to report. Journalism is about observation, facts and analysis; it usually starts with events that people need to know about.

Sir Harold Evans knows what he’s talking about, having edited both The Times and The Sunday Times in London, as well as working for The Guardian, the BBC and prestigious publishers in the United States. He has also written eight textbooks on journalism, editing and photojournalism among a total of some 24 books. Now in his mid-eighties, Sir Harold is editor-at-large with the Reuters news agency. A clue to the question ‘How do you know it’s news?’ lies in Evans’ first two points: ‘necessary information’ or ‘unusual events’. It must then be backed up by reference to ‘observable facts’. If the information you have meets these criteria, then it is very probably capable of being news.

Chapter objectives

In this chapter you will discover the following:

News organisations want more from their reporters than just an ability to write news stories. They want people who can also write well– to satisfy those who want more from their news outlet than just the news. This chapter is about introducing some style and flair into your writing. This is not a licence to go ‘crazy’ and come over all ‘experimental’, but it is a form of permission to flex your writing muscle and exercise your imagination.

Writing well is not just writing

Good writing is all but invisible. You know it’s there only because what you are reading or hearing has a flow, a rhythm and a beat that make you want more. It holds your attention, but without drawing attention to itself. It is an artform. According to research findings presented a few years ago at an annual Journalism Education Association conference, both print and electronic media recruiters said they prized journalism graduates who could write well over those with a command of technology (Nankervis, 2005 ). Other research into the journalism job market also suggests that editors want reporters who can write for several media platforms and also for the time-rich reader – this is in line with international studies too.

Chapter objectives

This chapter should provide you with an understanding of the following:

The morning newspaper reader, feet up and coffee by their elbow or head buried in the day’s news on the train to work, is unlikely to even consider the part sub-editors have played in the stories they are reading. After all, the bylines give the reporters’ names and, if they look very closely, tiny credits will tell them who took the photographs. As far as they are concerned, it’s thanks to the reporter and the photographer that today’s news has been brought to light. To a large extent, they’re right.

However, there is a very important stage between the gathering of the news and its consumption by the public – the processing of that material – that goes largely unnoticed. And the subeditor who did it will have had a huge say on its final form. Without the sub’s approval, in fact, the story wouldn’t even make the paper. The sub-editors’ department is where all the news material of the day – stories, features, opinion pieces, photos, graphics and so on – is collected and sorted, assessed and ranked, and approved or discarded. Then the processing of what will appear in the paper begins. There are a number of things involved: editing the stories, photo editing, the production of headlines, captions and graphics, the laying out of pages and so on. (Once upon a time subeditors were either copy subs or layout subs, but in the computer age they tend to do both jobs.)

Chapter objectives

After reading this chapter, you should have a greater understanding of the following issues:

This chapter is about taking everything you know about journalism and news-writing and applying it to online media. It’s a racing certainty that you are familiar with the online world: the explosion of online, multimedia and mobile journalism in recent years has meant that this area of knowledge has expanded rapidly, and continues to do so. The best way to keep up is by following online debates and social media forums where these issues are being talked about. This chapter aims to introduce a newsy perspective to your online interaction.

Chapter objectives

After reading this chapter, you should understand the following:

Doing research for journalism usually involves using a combination of research skills, so unpacking them here is somewhat artificial. Much of what is described or suggested here might take seconds, or could develop into a major investigation taking days or even months. Throughout, however, it is vital to remember that you are a journalist and your core business is stories. This chapter introduces the research process upon which all good journalism relies. As information or ‘knowledge’ workers, journalists need a high level of information literacy.

News does not just fall into the lap of a journalist. This is true despite the endless tsunami of media announcements, press releases and tip-offs that pour into the newsroom every day. As the writers of Modern Journalism expressed it in 1931, most of this material is not really news at all; it is ‘too trivial in content to be so dignified’. A good reporter and a competent editor will know that all the information must be sifted, sorted and given an angle before it can become news; it has to be important or interesting – or preferably both: ‘News may be important without being interesting, and the converse applies,’ Modern Journalism tell us, but without our ability to know whether it is either, we will not know news even if it is right under our noses.