From our overstocked archives
[Del
Marbrook kindly featured your editor on the Student
Operated Press site and an associated podcast. As
part of the project, I sent along a few suggestions
for young journalists]
Sam Smith,
2007- The basic
rules of good journalism are fairly simple: tell the
story right, tell it well and, in the words of the
late New Yorker editor, Harold Ross, 'if you can't
be funny, be interesting.'
Journalism
is to thought and understanding as the indictment is
to the trial, the hypothesis to the truth, the
estimate to the audit. It is the first cry for help,
the hand groping for the light switch in the dark,
the returns before the outlying precincts have been
heard from.
Serve not
as an expert but rather in the more modest and
constructive role of being the surrogate eyes and
ears of the reader. Consider yourself a guide who
has traveled this trail several times before and
thus might remember where the clean water is to be
found, the names of some of the rarer plants and
possibly even a shortcut home.
Help
citizens tell their government what to think instead
of helping government tell the people what to think.
Serve your readers, not your sources.
The
greatest power of the mass media is the power to
ignore. The worst thing about this power is that you
may not even know you're using it.
Contrary to
the view of many editors, most people still like
finding out who, what, when, where, why and how more
than hearing in the first sentence how it all
affected Roberta Mellencamp, 46, of East Quincy. Try
to sneak the news as near the beginning of the story
as your editor will allow.
News is
something that has happened, something that is
happening or something that is going to happen. News
is not what someone said about what is happening nor
what someone perceived was going to happen nor what
the editors thought the impact of something
happening would be on its readership
One of the
traits of a good reporter is boundless curiosity. If
you can pass a bulletin board without looking at it,
you may be in the wrong trade.
Reporters
don't have to be smart; they just have to know how
to find smart people.
Strive to
match A.J. Liebling's boast: 'I can write faster
than anyone who can write better and I can write
better than anyone who can write faster.'
Objectivity,
it has been said, is just the ideology of
journalism. I've never met an objective journalist
because every one of them has been a human. Try
going after the truth instead. It's an easier and
more fulfilling goal.
The best
way to get past writer's block is to write crap.
Then, the next morning, save what isn't crap and
finish the story.
Don't be
afraid of seeming a bit dumb. It's a good way of
getting both the kind and the pompous to open up to
you.
Think of
journalism not as a profession but as a trade, a
craft or an art. Your copy will be a lot better as a
result.
Avoid the
rituals of journalism whenever your boss will let
you. For example, news conferences are just a way to
keep large numbers of journalists away from the news
for awhile. Eugene McCarthy once said that reporters
were like blackbirds on a telephone wire. One flies
off and they all fly off. If you have a choice, do
something else.
Study
anthropology. The greatest unintended bias in
journalism comes from being a part of a culture
different from that about which you are writing.
If
something happens that makes you say, 'Holy shit!,'
it may well be news. Check it out.
Act like a
homicide detective. Follow and report the evidence
but only as far as it takes you. Be prepared for
lots of unsolved stories.
I.F. Stone
noted that most of what the government does wrong it
does out in the open. Don't assume that the story is
buried. It may just be on page 27 of the report.
Repeat what
people say to you as a question and often they'll
think you haven't understood and will try to explain
it better to you.
G. K.
Chesterton said that 'journalism consists largely in
saying 'Lord Jones died' to people who never knew
that Lord Jones was alive. If you're writing well
about Lord Jones that will no longer be true by the
end of the story.
Learn to
hear the real story and best quotes as you interview
someone. If you approach an interview just as a
stenographer, you'll be so busy writing you may miss
your own story.
Some of the
best stories out there are numbers. Most journalists
are educated in the social sciences or English and
so tend to ignore numbers. Some even treat them as
just another adjective. Go after numbers as if you
were an IRS agent and you'll be surprised how many
scoops result.
Following
some of the above may get you fired. Find out which
before it happens.
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