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

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

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

Surface facts

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

Layer I reporting

The reporterTries to observe eventsIs alert to the media event, an action staged to attract media attentionRelays info from a sourceSorts out and rearranges the delivered facts, verifies addresses and dates and checks spelling of namesMost stories are based on source-originated material

More Layer I reporting

Journalists report on:City council meetingsLegislative hearingsUnited Way fundraising drivesStreet closingsTraffic accidentsBasketball gamesAppointments of new college presidentsVerdicts at trial

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

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

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

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

Dangers of Layer I

Often hard to distinguish between journalism and PR

Media events

To combat dangers, double check all info

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

Reportorial enterprise

Verification, background checking, direct observation and enterprise reporting amplify and correct material from sources

Layer II

Reporters initiate the gathering of infoDig for more info than what a source hands themWhen story moves beyond control of those trying to manage it, the reporter has gone to Layer IINews conference:

Announced statement – Layer IQ and A later – Layer II

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

Investigative reporting

IRs dig the deepest in Layer II

IR work falls into two categories:Checking on illegal activities

Looking into systematic abuses

Finding sources

Two basic types:Physical

Examples: databases of political campaign donations

Minutes of city council meetings

Human

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

Advice

Be ready for a breaking news story by being up-to-date on what’s going on in your communityLook for stories everywhereAlways 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

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 storyQuestion assumptionsAbove all else: QUESTION AUTHORITY

Just because someone has a title or a degree doesn’t mean the person can’t err