1. Understand your news;
2. Questions to ask yourself
Title
- 2 lines max;
- No uninformative verbs in past tense;
- Verb in active form, relevant info
- Can be less neutral, more eye-catching;
- No question or exclamation signs;
- No abstract phrases. Sacrifice creativity info;
- Title and lead are to be different.
Lead
- Explaining title with more info;
- 40-45 words;
- Lead should be read ‘with one breathe’;
- No official constructions – first tell what has happened & what it means for a reader.
Text
- 4-5 paragraphs are ideal for a brief news update;
-5-6 lines per paragraph are lovely;
- Min. adjectives, Simple sentence construction;
- First 2 or 3 paragraphs are the news;
- Readers like quotes, direct speech;
- Name your sources.
Remember
People don’t want to read, they want to know.
People don’t want to wait/ spend time on words.
Robots also don’t want to do your job sorting out what is important in your text.
Be prepared to:
- inadequate reaction;
- updates/ corrections.
Online media can have a status of a mass media outlet, or not have it.
Online journalist bears responsibility for the info he/she publishes.
Lecture 5
Journalism Ethics and Standards
Major standards
- Credibility (достоверность)
- Impartiality (беспристрастность)
- Balance (сбалансированность)
- Comprehensiveness (полнота инф)
- Ethics – non-discrimination, hate speech, reporting on litigation, political campaigns etc.
Credibility
- proved & checked facts;
- info got directly from sources;
- authoritative sources used, documents;
- minimized anonymous sources.
Accuracy
Be as accurate as possible and seek reliable sources.
- Also correct spelling of people’s and organizations’ names, documents;
- Accurate quotation;
- Precise quantitative data;
- Abbreviations (deciphered).
Impartiality
- You are not smarter than a reader;
- Respect their opinion;
- Don’t make judgements for the readers, audience must decide whether to believe these sources or not;
- Unbiasedness, neutrality = inadmissibility of the author’s opinion, preferences to any side reported.
Soviet paternalist/ buddy-buddy style
Remaining unbiased helps you to report the truth and remain free, because it is almost never libel.
Balance
Give an opportunity to comment to both sides of the covered conflict/ problem. Don’t favor any of the sides.
Comprehensiveness
- Give as many facts as possible;
- Answer all possible questions
- Each fact increases quality of the article, discloses the topic better, arouses more trust in a reader.
Harm limitation principle
Ethical dilemma may refer to sensitive issues (children, inexperienced sources, vulnerable).
Avoiding Stigmatization & Discrimination.
Public Interest
It shouldn’t affect the public interest principle, which can at times justify intrusion into privacy.
Ethical reporting on suspects
A person is not a suspect before the charges are filled.
Suspects have the right to a fair trial:
- Defendants at trial are treated only as having “allegedly” committed crimes until conviction.
- It is possible after – if there is serious controversy about wrongful conviction.
Media bias
- Political issues;
- Sensationalism;
- Infotainment;
- Reduced professionalization;
- Deliberate manipulation;
- Selective reporting;
- Double standards.
Basic standards of Writing
- One topic in focus, but shown from various angles.
- Reader should explore the topic, its background, consequences & solutions.
- Answer the most important questions first.
- Title and lead should present the topic clearly.
- Material should be logically structured.
- Stick to one genre.
- Terms, names, abbreviations should be explained reader.
- Don’t overload text with quotations.
Common mistakes
- Ignore what raw data are used;
- Fail to compare to other similar countries;
- Fail to compare to other years by the certain country;
- Look only at the rank, not the index;
- Fail to analyze sub-indices and their dynamics.
Lecture 6