Reporters like to be there.

Nothing gives a reporter more satisfaction than being present when news is happening.

Reporters are trained to be observers, to witness those events that the general public cannot attend. Ultimately, reporters prove their worth and the value of the profession of journalism by being where news is happening and by interpreting those events for the audience.

Television cameras operated by videographers and video cameras operated by amateurs are ubiquitous. Rarely does anything of any importance, it seems, occur without be captured on camera.

But pictures, even moving pictures, can only tell us so much about an event and can add just a limited amount to our understanding of the things that happen in our world. We need reporters to identify, to explain, to offer background, and to give us context for what we may see.

Being there is part of the reporter’s job.

But on-the-scene reporter is not an easy task. It demands training, experience, planning, intellectual acumen and physical energy. To cover an event well, reporters must plan as much as possible, they must use their instincts to find out the information they need, and they have to rely on the experience they have acquired as journalists. All of these things make great demands on reporters.

Three kinds of events occur that reporters must cover: staged events; spontaneous events; and events that are a mixture of the two.

Staged event - one that is planned and about which information can be gained before the event occurs. A staged event might be a concert, a political speech, an awards ceremony or a grand opening. These events are usually managed by a person or organization and have a purpose that benefits whoever is producing the event. These are the easiest for the journalist to plan, often because the producers of the event want news coverage and will be cooperative with the journalists.

Journalists who cover staged events should contact the producers beforehand to get the who, what, when and where of the event. They should make sure that there are arrangements to accommodate journalists by finding out what access journalists will have to the areas of the event, to whom the journalists can talk to, the timing and scheduling of the event and so on.

Journalists should check with the producers to see if there are any special rules in covering the event and to see if those rules are acceptable. Sometimes producers will want to limit coverage or will try to make sure that events are reported in a particular way. Journalists should not agree to attend and cover staged events if the conditions intrude on their freedom to write and say what they want about the event.

One particularly important thing to check on with a staged event is to find what electronic and wireless availability there is in case journalists what to report live from the scene via the web.

Spontaneous event - when something unexpected and significant occurrs that involves more than a few people: a fire, an explosion at a factory, a major traffic jam caused by a wreck, a tornado that destorys property, etc. While many spontaneous events are bad news, that is not always the case.

Still, a spontaneous event is more likely to involve tragedy than not. Journalists must be ready to cover such events with all of the professionalism and objectivity they can display. They must remember that they are witnesses and should not get caught up in the moment and its emotions.

In covering a spontaneous event, journalists should try to get as close to the event’s location as possible. When the event is a crime or natural disaster, this may not be easy, and journalists should always carry some form of identification that shows they are reporters working as media professionals. Police and emergency workers are more cooperative in allowing reporters access when they are convinced the reporters are professionals.

• On September 11, 2001, CNN reporter David Mattingly was visiting family in Pennsylvania when he hear the news of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. He then realized he was about two hours away from where a plane hijacked by terrorists had crashed. He drove there immediately but did not have any identification that would show he was a reporter. He talked with the police guarding the crash scene and convinced them to let him have access to the scene by showing them his Georgia license tags (CNN headquarters is in Atlanta) and a CNN baseball cap that he had in the back seat of his vehicle. (See James Glen Stovall, Journalism: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How, Allyn and Bacon, 2005.)

Reporters covering spontaneous events try to find officials in charge of the scene so they can get the latest information. They also try to find eyewitnesses to the event and interview them. Finally, they try to find people who have been affected by the event and talk with them about the ways in which the event has altered their lives.

As with any interview situation, they should identify themselves and make sure that people understand they are talking with a member of the news media and that they may be quoted if they continue the conversation. They should take additional care for those who are grieving to make sure they do not take advantage of their vulnerability. And, if they are asked by those in grief to be left alone, they should honor that request.

Mixed event - one that has both elements of spontaneity and planning. An event might be planned, but its outcome may be in doubt. A sporting event such as football game is a good example. Journalists know generally what will happen at such events, but they still need to be there to witness the action and record the outcome.

Speech stories

One event that you will be asked to observe and cover is the speech story.

Tips for covering speech stories:

Do background research on the speaker.



Do background research on the topic. What is the speaker talking about and why? What would be interesting to your readers about the topic?



At the speech itself, put yourself in a place where you can hear.



Take a digital recorder and use it.



Take notes - good detailed notes. This will make it easier for you to write your story. The digital recorder is just a backup to help you get the direct quotations exactly right.



Listen for the lead.



Check out this example of a speech story on JPROF.

Judging credibility

As individuals, we can submerge ourselves with information about the most esoteric topics. Select any search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and any topic (baseball, beekeeping, books, etc.), and within second you will be overcome with so much information that you could spend the rest of your day sorting through it.

As individuals, we need help in sorting through the maze of conflicting facts, statements, assertions, advice, commands, intelligence, etc., so that we can understand what is important and useful for use and for our society.

Journalists are there to help us.

One of the major jobs of the journalist is to find information that is true, important, useful and interesting.

Journalists must not only gather information but must also develop ways to judge the credibility of the information they acquire. They do this by systematically judging the credibility of their sources. This is an ongoing process and intimately a part of the work of the reporter.

How do journalists know if something they read or hear is accurate and important?

Journalists try to find experts on the topic they are research. Lots of people may have opinions about a topic. Experts have facts and knowledge.

Experts are people who are generally acknowledged by their education or experience to have facts and knowledge about a topic. Experts are the people whose business it is to know about a topic. They may even be people who make their living by having this knowledge.

• Problem: Let’s say you had to find out the value of a Barbie doll manufactured in the late 1950s or early 1960s. How would you do that? Who would know? Whom would you call? Who would be the expert in something like that? Re-read the previous paragraph and see if that gives you a clue.

Experts on variety of topics can be found anywhere and everywhere. Journalists often look to colleges and universities and to government agencies to find experts because of the broad base of their interest and knowledge. People in these places are in the business of acquiring knowledge and information and applying that knowledge to situations or passing that knowledge on to others.

If you have a local college or university close by, you should look on the web site at the list of departments (English, biology, physics, business, etc.) within the institution. The faculty within each of these departments can be considered experts on many topics within the broad subject area of the department.

Another type of person that journalists go to for information because of their built-in credibility are officials. Officials are people who are in charge. They have titles and responsibilities, and the assumption is that they know more than people who are not in charge. For instance:

• a chief of police knows more about law enforcement than other people in the city or county;
• a president of the Parent-Teachers Association knows more about the fund-raising efforts of the PTA than anyone else;
• the director of the local orchestra knows more about the programs the orchestra will present this season than anyone else.

Because there are different levels that officials have within organizations, the top official may not always be the most credible person – the person with the best information – about a specific topic that the organization oversees. There may be some lower-ranking official who has more knowledge or experience about a certain area. In fact, reporters often learn that clerks and secretaries know more about what is going on than their bosses.

A third kind of person that journalists may seek out in researching an article are persons who have an interest in the topic at hand. By that we mean not just people who are interested in something but those people whose lives, businesses, families or activities are affected by the topic. People who “have an interest” are likely to have information, experience and even expertise in a certain topic.

But because they have an interest, journalists must take care in using the information they provide. Journalists must judge whether or not this interest has affected the amount of information they are willing to give or the interpretation they put on that information. In order to make this judgment, journalists must know what the interest is and how likely the sources are to let this interest affect their information.

In politics, this is called “spin,” and the journalist must judge what kind of spin the source is putting on the information.

(This is the reason that many people, including possibly some of your professors, do not believe Wikipedia.com provides good information. The problem with Wikipedia is that you do not KNOW who is writing and editing the information. Consequently, you are unable to check to see if there is any “spin” that you should be aware of.)

As a part of the reporting process, journalists learn to listen carefully, evaluate information and sources, test that information against their own logic and insights, check the information with alternative sources and present the information to other journalists (editors) within their news organization. As they gain more reporting experience, they develop their own instincts, and they learn what sources are the most credible and which ones can be trusted, so that the process become more efficient.

Weekly news quiz

You can find some of the quiz questions that might be asked in lecture here.