The Universal Journalist

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgements......Page 8
Preface......Page 9
1. What Makes a Good Reporter?......Page 12
Attitudes......Page 14
Character......Page 22
A great reporter......Page 23
Owners’ priorities......Page 27
The journalistic culture......Page 30
Readers’ values......Page 32
3. What Is News?......Page 36
News value factors......Page 37
A sliding scale for stories......Page 43
Beauty and news values......Page 45
The habits of successful reporters......Page 47
News editors......Page 54
Non-obvious sources......Page 55
Stories that good reporters avoid......Page 59
5. Research......Page 61
What you should be looking for......Page 62
Where to get it......Page 65
Researching online......Page 67
Printed sources......Page 71
Research as a foreign correspondent......Page 72
Guidelines for dealing with any source......Page 74
Official sources......Page 76
Handling unauthorised sources......Page 79
Unattributable sources ‘off the record’......Page 81
Getting too close to sources......Page 82
How to approach people......Page 84
The most useful questions in journalism......Page 91
Questioning uneasy sources......Page 92
Questioning elusive, evasive and hostile sources......Page 96
Press conferences......Page 99
Celebrity interviews......Page 100
8. Reporting Numbers and Statistics......Page 102
Questioning data......Page 103
The uses and abuses of statistics......Page 106
Distribution......Page 107
Percentages......Page 108
Per head......Page 109
Surveys......Page 110
Opinion polls......Page 113
Correlation......Page 114
Real versus apparent rise......Page 116
Phoney science......Page 117
What is investigative reporting?......Page 119
Productive areas to investigate......Page 121
Investigative reporting skills......Page 122
How to run investigative operations......Page 127
10. How To Cover Major Incidents......Page 132
How to make sure your coverage of a disaster doesn’t turn into one......Page 135
Death tolls......Page 139
The death call......Page 140
All reporters are tough, aren’t they?......Page 142
11. Mistakes, Corrections and Hoaxes......Page 144
Mistakes......Page 145
How should you respond to mistakes?......Page 150
Great newspaper hoaxes......Page 152
12. Ethics......Page 156
General guidelines......Page 158
Grey areas......Page 165
13. Writing for Newspapers......Page 169
Planning......Page 170
Clarity......Page 171
Fresh language......Page 174
Honesty......Page 177
Precision......Page 180
Suitability......Page 184
Efficiency......Page 186
Revision......Page 189
The joys of writing......Page 190
How to write sharp intros......Page 191
Hard news approach......Page 195
Other approaches......Page 196
A word about feature intros......Page 203
15. Construction and Description......Page 205
Construction guidelines......Page 206
Payoffs......Page 209
Attribution......Page 210
Description......Page 213
16. Handling Quotes......Page 220
When do you use quotes?......Page 221
Accuracy......Page 222
Efficiency......Page 224
Attributing quotes......Page 225
Inventing quotes......Page 227
17. Different Ways To Tell A Story......Page 230
Different approaches......Page 231
Comment in news stories......Page 236
The big I......Page 239
Analysis......Page 241
Obituaries......Page 242
Leaders or editorial opinion pieces......Page 243
Columnists......Page 246
Reviews......Page 247
Hard work......Page 249
The application of intelligence......Page 250
Meticulousness......Page 251
Consuming appetite for books......Page 252
Obsessive nature......Page 253
Reading for Journalists......Page 255
Index......Page 258