Essential Rules for Journalists
Do No Harm
Turn Your Brain On!
Develop -- and Listen To -- that Little
Voice in Your Head
Also:
Get it Right
When you Mess up, ‘Fess up
Good reporters
must be …
Engaged in the world around them
Articulate
Engaged reporters
are …
Curious
Empathetic
Articulate reporters …
Use words effectively and correctly.
He only punched his brother.
He punched only his brother.
Organize elements of a story in a logical
and dramatic manner.
Chapter One
Journalism Today
Media convergence
Taking advantage of the Internet
TV, Newspapers partnering to gather news
Sharing resources: pros and cons
Convergence is ...
Media outlets sharing facilities, resources,
personnel and content.
Digital journalism
330 million Internet users worldwide
60 million newspaper Web users
Newspaper Web audiences are growing at
nearly twice the rate of all online
audiences.
Old and new
Emerging technologies create new ways of
producing news. (Multi-media)
Technology is driving news outlets back to
their roots -- covering local news.
Citizen journalism
What is citizen journalism and what’s good
about it?
Citizens contributing content – photos, text
On News sites or own sites
Citizen journalism
Supplements the work of traditional
reporters and photographers.
Helps the audience feel more connected to
the news outlet and the community.
Pushes media outlets to cover local news
better.
Training journalists
today
Traditional writing/reporting and/or digital skills
Chip Scanlan from Poynter: “The most
essential tools for journalists aren’t
dependent on a computer chip, but a
reporter’s mind and heart…the tools of
curiosity, integrity and empathy, plus the
storyteller’s tools – scene, metaphor, and
imagery.”
This class should ...
Help you learn and employ
Journalistic critical thinking
Sound news judgment
Strong newsgathering and writing skills.
Rules for this class
The Basics: Format, Copy Editing & AP
Style
News story format
You will submit an electronic version of all
your writing assignments, either as an
email attachment or as a blog.
When emailing an
electronic
attachment...
Double-space and leave a 1-inch margin
on either side and on the top and bottom of
every page.
Put your NAME, the DATE the story is DUE
and a SLUG in the
Upper-LEFT-hand corner of the first page.
What’s a slug?
A one- or two-word name for your story.
Unique and specific.
Helps editors track the story through the
publishing process.
Most news outlets use additional “naming
conventions” so that a common slug can be
re-used from day to day:
IraqMain0808r
When printing ...
Begin your story about a third of the way
down the page.
Indent each paragraph a half-inch.
Use left justification and do not hyphenate
words at the end of a line.
If a story is more than one page long, type
or write “more” at the bottom of the page,
center it and put dashes around it.
Electronic
versions...
At the top of each successive page, type
your last name, the slug and the page
number in the upper-RIGHT-hand corner of
the page.
At the end of the story, use one of these
symbols:
-30-
OR
###
News jargon
graf = paragraph
lede = lead
copy = a story or the text in it
cutline = caption
AP Style, Accuracy
Summary of AP Style in Appendix B –
abbreviations, spellings, capitalization etc
Always check people’s name spellings
during interview, Use Appendix A in book
for class exercises