Ask the almost journalist who wants to ask the journalist

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Oh, and to follow up on the ‘skills a journalist must have’ thing.

Grammar, punctuation, and so forth are important. VERY important.

But in my experience the single most important skill for a journalist (especially for a journalist with daily deadlines) is to be able to write on cue. Far more journalism careers are aborted because the writer can’t write on demand than ever succeed.

Remember, it isn’t art (though it can be) and you’re going to make your editor (who controls you future) much happier if you get them something they need to mark up a lot than if you say ‘I didn’t get it done’. That’s a death knell right there.

And when you can write good, coherent well-written copy on demand?

Then you will be a journalist, my son.

22

Thank you so much for the feedback. As far as I’m concerned - let it rip - constructive criticism and all. It’s really appreciated. For the record, I didn’t misrepresent myself in any way - the paper knows I have no experience reporting (it’s a small town thing) and are willing to train me. Any pointers you all can give are most appreciated. I’ve only been there three weeks, but I feel as though it was a great move.

Next question: Is it okay to call sources that I’ve previously called for factual clarity even though a current story doesn’t pertain to them? For example, I spoke to a marine biologist, who was really informative. Is it ok to put him in my contact list and give him a call in the future?

23

I admit I’m fascinated by this thread.

Yes, YES YES!!! They’re in your contacts. As long as you don’t go to the well too often you’ll definitely want to use them as your ‘experts’ in the field. Don’t even be shy about it.

And when you feel you ARE overusing? Make sure to be effusively grateful.

24

Good call, Jonathan Chance! (And a slight hijack to say, wha? Do we live parallel lives? You live in Ohio now. I’m from Ohio. We both enjoy our XM radios, and btw, thanks for turning me on to Lucy – love that channel. And we’re both journalist types. Huh.)

I echo that speed is important. Once you’ve written enough straight news stories you’ll be able to do them in your sleep, but at first it seems a bit tricky.

Here’s a brief anecdote from my days in Journalism School. (Went to one of the best schools in the country, according to my alumni association.)

In the first, basic news reporting class, the week of finals was known as “Speed Week.” We’d been taught to write just about every kind of straight news story, and had plenty of practice. This was circa 1988 (ish) so I should point out this was done on typewriters.

The rules were: your grade was based on how many news stories you could crank out in one hour, all five days that week. Severe points were taken off if you misspelled a word, and you’d fail the class if you misspelled a name. You were allowed an AP Stylebook and a dictionary to refer to. Each day, you’d come into class and the prof would hand out the first assignment – generally a flyer with some basic facts, or he might give it verbally. As you finished one story, you handed it in and he’d give you the next one. Continue cranking out stories until the last hour on Friday, then hold your breath until the grades came out. (Upon re-reading, that was a great exercize and maybe that really was a great J-School!)

Day One consisted of obituaries and some Brief/Digest type stories. Short stuff. The third obit was for a Czech. person who had a gajillion family members. Remember that part about failing the class if you misspelled a name? Egad!

Day Two was a front page type story, a little longer than those before. Two or three if you could crank 'em out in an hour.

Day Three started branching out into other sections of the “paper”. There might be a straight-news sports story, something a little closer to a feature, etc.

This continued all week and was pretty brutal. Until I got to my senior level classes and discovered that Speed Week was a cake walk! YMMV.

25

Sat on Cookie –

Where is the symbol -30- still used?

Best regards,

Mooney252

26

Of course you can keep contacting him. But I might recommend that you ask him for other individuals in his field that might be willing to give you information also. The same name in every story on a subject can cause your readers to question both your and his knowledge. The old “familiarity breeds contempt” thing, I imagine.

I have had readers ask if we had “Dr. Jones” under contract since we used him so much on this or that topic.

TV

27

Believe it or not, there is no “formal rule” on how to show a story is finished. Some old typewriter-era journalists still use -30- because, well, because they always have. Some younger reporters use it because their old boss used it, or because it smackls a little of the romantic “Front Page” era. Others use oOo or OOO. Some simply type -end-. I personally prefer ###.

The only guiding principle seems to be that you a) are consistent and b) use some sort of mark that can’t be misunderstood as being a typo or another word.

Sat on Cookie, I just got off the phone with a reporter. When I felt he had drained all the information out that I could give him, I refered him to another source. Keep track of things like that. You can NEVER have too many contacts.

28

Well, I could ask a million more questions but I’d love for some other “askers” to step up. I’d like this to be an equal-poster thread, not just “Cookie help.”

(Plus, I’m taking Jonathan Chance’s cue and don’t want to keep dipping too far into the well here).

29

No, ask away. I’m enjoying the living snot out of this.

Get this: I learned -30- to end a story and ### to end a press release.

Note: I was only a mass comm minor. And I’ve straddled the ‘report the news’ and ‘make money off the news’ line all my life.

It’s like I’m only slightly a weasel.

30

Ok. My next question is: Are there appropriate places (versus inappropriate places) to meet people? For example, I was contacting the city council members to introduce myself and one of the members wanted to meet at 5:00 at a bar/restaurant. I know that I would have nothing alcoholic and I know that I would not let her pay for my soda, but is that usual?

31

If you met the same person at the same place at high noon and ordered lunch, there’d be nothing at all inappropriate, and I don’t think there’s anything inappropriate about 5:00 p.m., either.

Order an appetizer – you can’t expense it if it’s only cocktails.

32

My broadcast writing professor will NOT accept late work, for ANY reason. If you’re not there at the start of class, with your homework, it gets a zero. His rationale is that our future editors will not accept late work, so why should he? His grading standards are merciless, too. If you’re getting an “A” in the course, you’re basically doing professional-caliber work.

Robin

33

My feelings are, as long as it’s safe for my reporter, it is generally OK by me. I’ve had reporters go into strip clubs to get interviews and as long as the reporter was not overly uncomfortable with it, I felt it was fine.

Actually I have a bit more discomfort about my reporters going into private homes to interview or meet individuals than anything else.

By the way, I very much commend your not letting your story subject pay for your soft drink. Sometimes that is a very hard ethical rule to maintain, but in my mind it is a very good one to hold on to.

TV

34

Lest you think it’s all glamour…

This is the level of stuff you can expect to be assigned out of J-school.

Enjoy!

:slight_smile:

35

Another sorta-journalist checking in; I maintain the Web site at the paper.

I don’t do Web design or anything like that; I do the actual get-down-in-it posting of the daily news, plus constantly scanning the wire and staying in touch with the Metro desk in case something’s breaking that needs to go live. I also decide how the stories will be arranged on the site each day: what goes up top, what gets art, what gets a full hed and abstract, what just gets a hed blurb, what needs links to other stories/sites, what gets a poll or a forum topic, what’s got an archive, &c., &c.

Am I a journalist? I’m not sure, but my boss said I was once, so I’ll take his word for it.

So I can answer questions about Internet journalism if anyone has them. I can’t, however, help with the type of stuff you learn in journalism school; I have a Master’s in Literature and just sort of backed into this racket a few years ago.

36

In order to avoid redundancy, I’m proposing an official “I Lick All of Your Boots” thank you. (and no crass “lick” jokes, please – we’re professionals, after all :wink:

Next question: What is the “right” amount of feedback to give when interviewing people? Or maybe I should ask, what is considered too much feedback? For example, if a friend of mine is relating a story, I may do the whole…“oh no…really? get out!” thing. Obviously, I’m not going to do that in an interview, but I don’t want to sit there stone-faced either. I suppose some interviewers could come off like your best friend and then write a scathing article, but that’s not me. What is correct and ethical?

37

Ideally? Nothing. Remember, it’s your job to be objective.

You need to know how to get more information out of the interview subject without encouraging or discouraging them.

You’ll learn (oh yes you will) how to frame your questions in such a way that the subject can’t give you a yes or no answer. And you’ll learn to hit follow up questions (and to have them ready before you ask the leading question.

“And why do you think that?”

“And then what happened?”

“And what comes next?”

“And what do you think the effect of this will be?”

It’s not your job to insert yourself into the process at all (unless you get a column, which is not an impossibility at a small paper).

As for those small converstational pauses to keep things moving I’d say you can go with ‘Mm-hm’, “Go on”, “Right, then what?” and such like.

You can also maintain the effect of a dialogue by asking about specific quotes and such. Sort of making your side the mechanics of the process rather than your opinions.

38

Oh, and I hate those people who smile while they sharpen the knives.

For what it’s worth.

I think I might have come on too strong up there. If you’re assigned a puff piece like interviewing the local homecoming Queen or something go ahead and be friendly and happy, what the hell. Just don’t let it keep you from slamming her if she opens up to you and says ‘Those Damn Jews!’ or something.

I’ll trust you know what to do when a public figure says something like that on the record…

:cool:

39

Jonathan Chance thanks, really. More questions to follow as long as you guys will have me…

40

My tip: it’s a given that you must do your research before interviewing. However, there may be times when you’re asked at short notice to report on something for which you have no preparation. So in this case don’t be shy - your readers and you will probably be starting from the same position of ignorance. Your subject will be the person who actually knows about the subject, so ask him/her to explain the basics before you continue with the interview’s specifics (though if this happens, make sure to double-check afterwards as the subject may be feeding you their own agenda).

BTW, most of the reporters I know can’t spell or punctuate for shit. I think this is shameful, and was always very particular about handing in good copy; if questioned, this kind of reporter will usually say “that’s what subeditors are for”. However, if you end up, like me, writing features, press releases, and marketing brochures, then you won’t have a subeditor to help you. (Anecdotally, others in my department take about 3 hours to write a press release that then needs serious editing; I take about 20 minutes and all that’s usually needed is one proofread.)