-- factual and accurate.

Chief goal of the journalist: Obtaining and disseminating accurate information is the chief goal of journalists.

-- Much of the process that journalists use to gather information is mean to ensure the accuracy of the information they have.

Significance

-- Information should be meaningful to a sizeable number of people. The fact that your pet (dog, cat, rabbit, whatever) is sick is important to you and your family, but it is not meaningful to those outside your immediate circle.

If your pet is being affected by a condition that is affecting many other pets, however, that information is significant, and it is something that a journalist might be interested in.

-- Not everything that appears in the news media is of interest to everyone, of course. The comings and goings of many celebrities are of absolutely no interest or importance to many, many people. Yet, we will hear about them because there are a significant number of people (you, perhaps) who want to know this information.

Judging how interesting information is to an audience is tricky business for journalists. They must often go beyond their personal interests and inclinations and be aware that there are many people who expect the news media to provide information about a wide range of topics. Sports is a case in point. Many people care nothing for sports and will never read a sports story or listen to a sports broadcast. Yet, obviously, sports gets major attention from the news media because there are enough people who are interested in it to make a difference to news organizations. And there are enough people who are not only interested but deeply interested for sports to be a major part of the news media's offerings.

Journalists should develop a wide range of interests, but they should also recognize the audience's interests range far more widely than their personal interests.

-- the most up to date information that is available about an event or topic.

This factor of the timeliness of the information is terribly important for news organizations and for the journalists themselves. It is an important part of modern journalism that information be the latest, most up-to-date information that can be obtained.

And by up-to-date, what we really mean is up-to-the minute.

Old news is not news. What happened last week is not nearly as interesting to the journalist as what happened yesterday. And what happened yesterday is not as interesting as what happened in the last hour or the last give minutes.

That is one of the things that makes journalism so difficult. Journalists are in a constant race to shorten the amount of time between obtaining and disseminating information, and that is especially as the web as become a major medium of journalism. The web is always on and always available. Audiences expect the web of be consistently and constantly updated with new information.

Verification

Journalism distinguishes itself from other writing through the concept of verification. The "discipline of verification," a term coined by Bill Kovich and Tom Rosentiel, authors of The Elements of Journalism, allows journalism to rise to the level of believability that few other forms of information presentation have.

Verification - making sure you are right in what you say. It is making sure you are accurate in every detail of what you write.

And why is it so important?

Journalists and news organizations consistently try to develop a reputation for credibility. They want what they say to be believed by the reader or listener, whether the news consumer agrees with it or not. They reason that they can do this only by making extra and sometimes extraordinary efforts to verify the information they present to the consumer. Over time, they think, the consumers will come to trust them.

This all may sound logical and straightforward, and in many ways it is. If you develop a reputation for honesty among your friends, you will be believed when you tell them something.

But in the process of journalism -- when reporters are working on several stories at once and facing daily deadline pressures -- verifying information so that it rises to the standards of the profession is a difficult and frustrating task.

Every reporter develops ways to verify information efficiently, but there are some general principles and techniques that all reporters use.

Verify basic information such as the spelling of names, the exact wording of titles, making sure direct quotations are exactly the words that were spoken, and other basic tenets. The verification usually is done by the reporter asking the source.

Always ask a source how to spell his or her name. Always. It is not insulting or irritating to do so. Rather, it shows that you are trying to be careful. Misspelling someone's name is a serious error and WILL insult a source and demonstrate that you do not have the discipline to be a journalist.

Ask the source his or her job title if that is relevant to the story. In fact, any information that you plan to use about the source, you should verify with the source. And if you doubt what the source has told you, you should try to find that information from an independent source.

Notice that in most straight news reports, most of the information in the report is attributed to some source. Attribution is a part of the writing style of the journalist. There are ways to properly attribute information that do not intrude into the writing, and the journalist must learn these techniques.

One common technique: finding the same information from two independent sources. If two people who haven't had contact with each other are telling you the same thing, chances are that information is more believable. Having multiple sources does not always ensure that the information is correct, but it is a step in the right direction.

Another technique to evaluate the source of the information, not just the information itself. Does the source have some special knowledge? Is the source in a position to know the information that the reporter needs? Finding the best sources of information and judging the credibility of the source is one of the major jobs of the reporter.

Evaluating the information itself is a natural part of the verification process. How likely and logical is the information? Does what the source say make sense? Some reporters use the expression "smell test" for information. Does information pass the "small test"; that is, does it seem right on its face or is there something amiss or askew that needs to be questioned or checked out?

Vital to this process is being able to think logically and analytically. Is one thing related to another? Is something caused by something else? A reporter is constantly putting information to these tests.

-- Reporters are skeptical of what they read, hear and see. They are always on a quest to "check it out."

Also vital to this process is the accumulated knowledge that reporters carry in their heads. Reporters should know as much about as many things as possible. They should read widely. They should talk with interest to many people. They should learn to listen actively and ask questions that will elicit information from people. And they should try to keep information in their heads so that they can be more efficient in the process of verification.

In addition to a wide range of general knowledge, reporters develop specialties in topics that are of interest to them. These topics can include anything -- music, sports, video games, cars, science, literature and poetry, or any number of other subjects. As a college school student, it's not too early think about what specialties you might want to develop. The decisions that you make at this point are not ones that you are stuck with. You can always change your mind and go on to other things that might catch your interest. The important thing is to start doing this now.

Finally, those reporters who work in traditional news organizations find that they have a partner in the process of verification. That partner is the editor (and sometimes several editors). Editors raise questions about the information the reporter has. They suggest ways information can be verified. They bring their accumulated knowledge and experience to the process. They set the standards of information verification for the next organization.