February 22, 2012

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Finding Stories in Your Own Backyard

SAN FRANCISCO - SEPTEMBER 30: A stack of news... 

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Any aspiring journalist knows that finding stories to get your foot in the door for covering the news can be a daunting task. With your writing skills and a little persistence, you can start to make a splash. Look no further than your own hometown for a treasure trove of exciting stories.

Town Hall
Your own local government is a great source of stories. To get started, find your town hall’s website, and check for upcoming meetings and agendas. Do some background research on issues that interest you and then head over to the meeting to get your story.

Police Precinct
If crime reporting is your thing, finding stories is as easy as investigating at your police precinct. Call ahead first, then head over. Get to know the police chief, detectives, and beat cops if you have the opportunity.

High School Sports
Many top sportswriters got their start in the news by covering high school sports events…and you can certainly do the same. Check the high school’s website for schedules, and then start covering the events!

Art Galleries and Performing Arts Venues
New exhibits with local up-and-comers are a great way for you to get your foot in the door. Review an exhibit or show, and then interview the artist. You’ll have crafted an exciting article, and who knows, maybe this artist is the next big thing.

Local Colleges
Local colleges and universities host lectures, concerts, and forums that are often free and open to the public. Check your college’s website for a listing of these types of events, go down to one that interests you, and then write your newsworthy masterpiece.

Filed Under: Journalism, News Tagged With: , ,

Making Someone Feel Comfortable When Giving an Interview

An interview for television. 

Image via Wikipedia

Most people would be flattered to give an interview. However, the process of actually talking to someone on camera or being recorded can be rather unnerving. To get a really good interview it is important to help whomever you are interviewing feel at ease.

To put the person you are interviewing at ease it would be a good idea to let them know what you will be interviewing them about before they actually go on camera. On professional news shows, the people being interviewed have usually spoke with the person that is interviewing them beforehand to go over the questions. Chances are, the person you are interviewing already has some idea of what you will be discussing, but to put them ease you might give them a list of questions that you will be asking so they can better prepare for the interview.

Whether you are interviewing the person using a voice recorder or are interviewing someone on camera it would be wise to ask the person a few test questions before getting to the important questions. Many people are nervous to be recorded but they will relax after a few moments. So before getting to the important questions, ask the person you are interviewing some basic questions that are easy to answer. Many professional news show use this technique to make people feel at ease. Before getting to the heart of the matter of what they are discussing they usually do general questions to help the person feel at ease. Usually, the general questions are edited out before the interview is aired.

Filed Under: Journalism, News Tagged With: , ,

Key Steps To Writing New Articles

Writing any news article is a process, a logical sequence of steps, you follow each time you write. Whether you are just starting out or are an experienced professional you will go through the same basic steps.

1)    Gather the news that you will be reporting. You are looking for details that will give meaning or clarify the concepts. You must have facts to write the article.
2)    Determine your dominant idea. This will become the reason to write your article. You will focus on this idea and use your facts to illustrate and substantiate your idea. Without your dominant idea your article will tend to meander around without any sense of going anywhere.
3)    As you work with your dominant idea you gather your facts and determine which ones keep your story moving towards or substantiate that idea. Discard all facts that are irrelevant to your theme.
4)    Write your story. Write the whole story as quickly as you can.
5)    Reread your story. Begin to edit for flow, content, grammar and spelling. Spell check does not catch all misspelled words. Edit to make your story more powerful and compelling. Step away from the article for awhile and then edit it again. Your words are just that, words. They are not your babies. You can cut them out and re-arrange them and no one will be hurt. Be brutal to your words.
6)    Writing a story is almost never a five step process, always done in the same order. As you gather the news you are looking for your theme and you often will visualize the article in your mind’s eye. Editing the article often brings discarded facts back into the story. Be flexible.

Filed Under: Journalism, News Tagged With: , ,

The Myth of Opionionless News Reporting

Every unbiased article that has ever been written has been biased. Journalists have been trained to report the news in a balanced and unbiased format. Nonetheless, the quotes they use and the adding or removing of content will influence the bias of the article.

We as a human race are biased. We all have opinions. As journalists write articles they process everything they are writing through these biases and opinions. As they write an article their natural bias and opinion will be masked from them and will appear as normal clean journalism, without opinion…to them.

In the old TV show, Sergeant Joe Friday would state, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”  And the facts would be laced with her opinions and emotions. His questions would bring out those opinions and emotions. To find the truth as Friday saw it, he had to know the bias to better understand the truth.

This is still true today. While watching any newscast the political leaning of any network can easily be seen. It then becomes easier to see bias and know that bias will impact the opinions or supposed non-opinions of the newscast.

How does a station or any news agency become politically biased one way or the other? The owner, directors and editors control the content flowing through the facility. If the station is conservative then when a liberal turns in their non-biased article, the conservative infrastructure sees the “blatant” liberalism and requests the article be written without the liberal bent. Swap conservative and liberal for the liberal news agency and you will have the same thing happening the other way.

If a news agency is known as liberal or conservative in nature then it becomes easier to recognize that natural bias in the factual reporting of the agency. The viewers can then better gage the reality of the information and filter it within their own biases and opinions.

Filed Under: Journalism, News Tagged With: , ,

Citizen Journalism Outlets

Quoted in Buffalo News on the local citizen jo...

Image by inju via Flickr

Recent trends in the newspaper industry have seen the demise of many printed dailies while their online counterparts are flourishing. The advent of Internet news sites and the accessibility of blogging programs and applications has given birth to a new type of journalist: the citizen journalist. These involved and interested individuals are filling a gap in American news media by publishing news as it happens, opinion and editorial-type pieces and anything else they choose to share with their readers. While many in the publishing industry are mourning the death of a number of daily newspapers, others are taking advantage of the current climate and becoming citizen journalists.

One of the biggest complaints against citizen journalism is the lack of education or training that these independents receive. However, with such a tough crowd reading their every word, it stands to reason that only the most literal and insightful citizen journalists will garner much of an audience. That fact alone speaks to the concern of an uneducated journalist. Also, while jobs are lost in the newspaper industry, citizen journalists are able to earn a tidy living by selling advertising on their blogs. Even those who refuse to write for an established news source and only publish their pieces on their own websites can earn a nice annual salary.

C​itizen journalism is not just an American phenomena. There are a number of citizen journalism outlets in nearly every country of the world. In countries where the media is governmentally controlled, citizen journalist may have a great deal more freedom in what they can publish and the opinions they are able to communicate. This may be the most compelling argument for citizen journalism. Additionally, the participatory nature of blogs, with their comments and responding blog posts, contributes to a much more involved populace in the news and current events. While there remains criticism of the citizen journalist’s claim to objectivity, their power within our communities cannot be disputed.

Filed Under: Career, Journalism Tagged With: ,

Are Bloggers Journalist?

These days anyone can claim to be a writer or journalist. The Internet gives every one an opportunity to write. Many blogs are written and maintained by journalists as a means to get their work out to the public. There are millions of blogs written by every day people that do not have an education in journalism or any formal writing training. Some of these blogs are news blogs, in which the writer provides commentary on published news events.

The Merriam-Webster definition of journalism is:

a: a person engaged in journalism; especially a writer or editor for a news medium

b: a writer who aims at a mass audience

By this definition, bloggers are journalist. However, they may not be good journalist. The Internet has changed the way we do many things. It has also changed journalism.

The majority of bloggers would never consider referring to themselves as journalist or at least not a professional journalist. Many bloggers do appeal to a mass audience and are quite successful. Many journalists may actually envy many of the successful bloggers.

Most people relate journalists with news reporting and few people would consider bloggers as journalists. In addition, most bloggers typically offer commentary on a journalist’s story. It is rare that a blogger breaks a news story to the public.

The Internet blurs the line between blogger and journalist. It also provides the vehicle for people to become writers and for journalist to publish work in the hopes of landing a great job. The Internet provides a place where everyone and anyone can express and opinion or an idea. Publishing on the Internet is a favorite past time of millions of people.

You only need to search once on a topic to realize the millions of articles that are on the Internet. Most will never be read since most people rarely advance to page two of search engines.

Filed Under: General, Journalism Tagged With: , ,

Growing Problem of Plagiarism among Journalist

Plagiarism is essentially copying another person’s work and claiming it as your own. Many people have plagiarized without realizing they have done so. It is actually easy to do. You may read material for research and when writing your work, you may inadvertently pass off your work as original. This happens every day all around the world.

Many public officials have faced plagiarism scandals and in the past few years, numerous journalists have been caught in scandals. The problem seems to be growing among journalist. Many of them resigned from jobs at prestigious newspapers.

Getting caught plagiarizing can sometimes end a career in journalism. This is not necessarily the case for public officials. One man that was involved in a plagiarism scandal is now Vice President of the United States. For journalist the penalty for such an offense is immediate dismissal and an end to a promising career. Although, there are some journalists that did recover from their plagiarism scandal. It does, however, take years of hard work to regain the status of a reputable journalist.

Plagiarism on the Internet is so common that anti-plagiarism software has been developed. There are numerous plagiarism checkers that can quickly search the Internet for possible violations. Journalists know this and yet they still risk their careers and plagiarize an article.

To avoid plagiarism, you simply have to give credit to the person whose work you are using to write your article. Journalists have a difficult time coming up with a valid excuse. Many journalists may take the risk hoping they will not be caught. Journalists are competitive and the dream of every journalist is to get that one big story that will catapult their career.

If you are dedicated to your profession, the big story will come. Plagiarizing will only destroy a career.

Filed Under: Career, Journalism Tagged With: , ,

Making a Living as a Journalist or Writer

Each year thousands of graduates armed with degrees in journalism or English, set off on the path to becoming a great writer. Their minds are filled with ideas for investigative reports or the next American novel. They search the Internet and job boards scouring the ads for promising writing jobs. Resumes are sent to newspapers, magazines and television stations.

In the meantime, student loans are coming due and rent needs to be paid. So, many of them end up with jobs they are not really interested but it pays the bills. Their hopes are quickly crushed and they wonder if they will ever write again.

Many will set up blogs in the hopes of creating a massive following and racking up GoogleAdsense dollars. Months go by and they realize all of their efforts only made them $7.63 in adsense dollars. Not even close to the $100 payout requirement.

Out of desperation, they succumb to signing up with an Internet content provider to make extra cash doing what they love. Diving into the work, they diligently write article after article. The joy they feel from being a paid writer is immeasurable.

The joy quickly turns to frustration. How many articles can one write about “Favorite Cookie Recipes” or “How to Get a Date.” The rent is due again and articles must be written to be paid. They hope their hard work will pay off one day and their dreams will manifest into reality. Writing is in their blood and at least writing content is great practice.

There are advantages to selling their writing skills. They can work at home and work when they choose. No need to take a shower, just roll out of bed and start writing. It is a world only writers understand and few others know exists. The world of writers and journalists is competitive. The jobs are few.

Filed Under: Career, Journalism Tagged With: , ,

Yellow Journalism

Yellow Journalism is a term that was coined back in 1897 when two newspapers battled it out for a larger share of circulation. As the newspapers compete against each other, the use of outrageous headlines increased.

Many of today’s gossip rags are considered yellow journalism. This type of journalism is rarely based on solid facts. The stories are dramatized and written specifically to entice readers to purchase the paper. This is like fiction under the guise of real news.

Yellow journalism papers will print any story they believe will increase circulation. It matters not that the story is almost a complete fabrication. The point is to sell papers and sell as many as possible.

Many yellow journalism papers resort to outrageous headlines that often use scare tactics to engage readers so they will buy a paper. These types of newspapers do not spend time on fact checking or verifying sources. This is a different level of journalism that is only interested in making money selling their newspaper.

Millions of people find some of these yellow journalism papers entertaining. The stories are ridiculous and the average person realizes the story is fabricated. Most people do not take any of these papers seriously. However, there is a great deal of yellow journalism on the Internet.

Many people are unable to distinguish the validity of some of the stories that appear on the Internet. Unfortunately, many people believe much of what they read even though the story is not verified in any way. The story may be a valid news story; however, yellow journalists will interject information that is not factual to promote an agenda.

Yellow journalism is alive and well in some of the nation’s most popular gossip rags and on the Internet. It is only harmful when it presents itself as authentic news.

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