Sebuah kesempatan yang langka untuk bergabung dengan majalah bisnis SWA. Kelompok Media Majalah SWA mengundang anda para professional muda yang menyukai tantangan, untuk bergabung bersama kami sebagai :
Reporter (REP)
(Jakarta Raya)
Responsibilities:
Deskripsi pekerjaan :
Melakukan aktifitas Peliputan (usulan peliputan, menghubungi narasumber, wawancara narasumber, penulisan hasil peliputan)
Membina jaringan dan komunitas
Requirements:
Kualifikasi :
Pendidikan S1
Memiliki minat yang tinggi dalam bidang jurnalistik
Memiliki pengetahuan dan minat terkait dengan ekonomi dan bisnis
Menguasai Bahasa Inggris (lisan & tulisan)
Lebih disukai berpengalaman di Media Cetak / Media Online
Fresh graduate diperkenankan untuk melamar
Menyertakan contoh tulisan / artikel mengenai ekonomi dan bisnis (5000 karakter)
Kirimkan surat lamaran dilengkapi CV, fotokopi KTP, fotokopi ijazah, transkrip nilai & pasfoto terbaru Anda ke alamat :
Kelompok Media Majalah SWA
Jl. Taman Tanah Abang III No. 23
Jakarta Pusat 10160
Or email to:atau ke alamat email :
hrd@swamail.com
Dimuat di Jobstreet.com dengan batas waktu aplikasi Anda diterima tanggal 13 Juli 2011. Silahkan langsung mendaftar ke jobstreet.com untuk korespondensi yang lebih mudah.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Broadcast News Producing
Broadcast News Producing is one of the first comprehensive texts in its field. While until now most broadcast journalism textbooks have been geared toward students who want careers on-camera, Broadcast News Producing goes behind the camera to teach students the hows and whys of putting together compelling news programs for television, radio, and the Internet.
This text lays the groundwork for good producing, giving the reader an insider's perspective on newsroom structure and the producer's role. It takes students step-by-step through the producing process, providing a guide to putting together a successful newscast. The book also addresses critical issues that face today's producers, including ethics, newsroom leadership, staff management, resource management, newsroom relationships, and career planning.
Key Features
* Combines the practical skills and techniques needed in today's broadcast news production with timely theoretical and ethical issues facing producers.
* Serves as a guide to running campus radio and television programs, complete with step-by-step instructions and examples on how to run a news program from start to finish.
* Reinforces teaching points through graphics, tables, charts, and photos.
* Gives readers an insider’s view of broadcast production through question-and-answer interviews with current and former broadcast news producers.
* Focuses separate sections on producing news programs for television, radio, and the Internet; and on producing specialized broadcast news segments such as sports, weather, live reports, debates, roundtable discussions, and call-in shows.
Broadcast News Producing is an ideal textbook for undergraduate journalism courses in broadcast news and mass communications. It is also recommended as a reference for secondary school and college newsrooms, where it can be used as a guide to running a campus news program.
Chapter 1- What is a Producer?
Newsroom Structure
What Else Does a Producer Do?
The Producer's Role in the Newsroom
Thinking More About It
Chapter 2- Producing Today's News
The Evolution of News Producing
Network News
Implications for Local Producers
Thinking More About It
Chapter 3- The Producing Process
Story Ideas and Value
Rundowns
Skeleton Rundowns
Blocks and Stacking
Finishing Strong
Scripting
In the Control Room
Thinking More About It
Chapter 4- Writing
Overview
Summary
Thinking More About It
Chapter 5- Producing for Television
Alternative News Formats
Alternative News Strategies
Breaking News
Summary
Thinking More About It
Chapter 6- Weather and Sports
Weather
Sports
Thinking More About It
Chapter 7- Producing for Radio and the Internet
Radio
The Internet
Thinking More About It
Chapter 8- Surviving the Newsroom
Theories X, Y and Z
Newsroom Relationships
Personal Relationships
Thinking More About It
Chapter 9- Issues in Producing
Quality vs. Ratings
Live Reporting
News Cutbacks
Market Size
Ethics
Consultants
Thinking More About It
Chapter 10- The Job Market
Finding a Producing Job
The Job Search Process
Summary
Thinking More About It
Source: http://www.sagepub.com/
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Characteristics of online news
A number of print papers now have online news sites also.
Visitors, called "traffic", to online sites have become an important metric for publishers.
Fewer news services actually gather news. "New actors are i) news organisations which only provide news online (so-called pure-players), ii) search engines which are often also a form of news aggregation, iii) Internet portals with news services, iv) social networks or communication services such as Twitter, v) other news aggregators, vi) providers focused on mobile news alone, vii) new online advertising groups, viii) hardware and services providers."
"In the online context, the production and dissemination of news is much more interactive and multi-directional, rather than linear. News is constantly updated, with journalists and other news contributors monitoring, distilling and repackaging information."
News wires, freelance journalists, photographers, or camera-teams, who do gather news, may cut out "middlemen" - publishers, print newspapers - and go directly to online services willing to pay.
"Device or network service providers, which did not play any role in the past, also control access to end consumers and have a large degree of bargaining power with content providers. Similarly to other digital content industries, new types of intermediaries and standards are emerging. Users may also increasingly become diffusers, commentators and creators of news."
Revenues online may be small, but there are few fixed costs. Direct reader subscriptions and pay-per-item attempts have not been widely successful. Some news sites are using donor or trustee support.
Internet and News
Visitors, called "traffic", to online sites have become an important metric for publishers.
Fewer news services actually gather news. "New actors are i) news organisations which only provide news online (so-called pure-players), ii) search engines which are often also a form of news aggregation, iii) Internet portals with news services, iv) social networks or communication services such as Twitter, v) other news aggregators, vi) providers focused on mobile news alone, vii) new online advertising groups, viii) hardware and services providers."
"In the online context, the production and dissemination of news is much more interactive and multi-directional, rather than linear. News is constantly updated, with journalists and other news contributors monitoring, distilling and repackaging information."
News wires, freelance journalists, photographers, or camera-teams, who do gather news, may cut out "middlemen" - publishers, print newspapers - and go directly to online services willing to pay.
"Device or network service providers, which did not play any role in the past, also control access to end consumers and have a large degree of bargaining power with content providers. Similarly to other digital content industries, new types of intermediaries and standards are emerging. Users may also increasingly become diffusers, commentators and creators of news."
Revenues online may be small, but there are few fixed costs. Direct reader subscriptions and pay-per-item attempts have not been widely successful. Some news sites are using donor or trustee support.
Internet and News
Friday, February 18, 2011
25 things journalists can do to future-proof their careers
So here, in no particular order, are some suggestions that I often pass on to journalists who want to learn practical new skills and expand their horizons:
Start a blog. Publishing anything on the internet used to be difficult, due to content management systems that were about as user friendly as Satan. They left a bad taste, but it's all change nowadays. It has never been easier to publish all kinds of content online. You don’t believe me? Try Posterous, which allows you to post articles online via email. Start your own personal blog today. Or better still, start a subject-themed blog. This will be very empowering if you haven’t done it before. Posterous will have you blogging within five minutes, and you don't even need to register and sign in to start publishing.
Collaborate. If you’re worried about not having enough time to maintain a blog, then why not collaborate with some other people, or join an existing blog or some other publication? It will help broaden your experience, your CV, and is especially useful for offline writers looking to accumulate some online skills. People can achieve so much more when they work together.
Big up yourself. You may choose not to blog, but you should definitely have a portfolio site. Show off your skills and experience, and link to your work via your own online portfolio. There’s no reason not to.
Write about your passion. And we’re back to the first point, about starting a blog. I know a number of offline journalists who are stuck in rut, writing news stories that they’re not remotely interested in. People rarely become journalists unless they like to write, so why not start enjoying it again? What’s stopping you from writing about something that you love? Try to write about a passion at least once a week. It will help build out your portfolio. You’ll feel happier about your work. You’ll be able to express your opinions. And you may engineer a way out of a dead end job.
Read more here
Start a blog. Publishing anything on the internet used to be difficult, due to content management systems that were about as user friendly as Satan. They left a bad taste, but it's all change nowadays. It has never been easier to publish all kinds of content online. You don’t believe me? Try Posterous, which allows you to post articles online via email. Start your own personal blog today. Or better still, start a subject-themed blog. This will be very empowering if you haven’t done it before. Posterous will have you blogging within five minutes, and you don't even need to register and sign in to start publishing.
Collaborate. If you’re worried about not having enough time to maintain a blog, then why not collaborate with some other people, or join an existing blog or some other publication? It will help broaden your experience, your CV, and is especially useful for offline writers looking to accumulate some online skills. People can achieve so much more when they work together.
Big up yourself. You may choose not to blog, but you should definitely have a portfolio site. Show off your skills and experience, and link to your work via your own online portfolio. There’s no reason not to.
Write about your passion. And we’re back to the first point, about starting a blog. I know a number of offline journalists who are stuck in rut, writing news stories that they’re not remotely interested in. People rarely become journalists unless they like to write, so why not start enjoying it again? What’s stopping you from writing about something that you love? Try to write about a passion at least once a week. It will help build out your portfolio. You’ll feel happier about your work. You’ll be able to express your opinions. And you may engineer a way out of a dead end job.
Read more here
Handbook for the Radio Journalism Course in Political Reporting
Author
Ivor Gaber
Paul Kavuma
Stephen Eriaku
Publication Date
January 1, 2005
Summary
This handbook was produced by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) to accompany the Uganda Radio Network Advanced Radio Journalism Course, which was run throughout Uganda for freelance radio journalists. The handbook, which follows the day-by-day course programme, contains transcripts of PowerPoint presentations plus additional supporting material.
The handbook has three chapters:
Section One: Radio Journalism
* Radio, journalists and the audience
* News reporting
* Radio interviews and press conferences
* Writing for radio and voicework
* From journalism to radio: production
* Uganda radio network and internet
Section Two: Politics, Elections and The Media
* Covering elections
* Surviving the election
* The Africa experience
Section Three: Radio Production
* Field recording
* The I-River
* Editing for radio
* Digital editing
read here
Ivor Gaber
Paul Kavuma
Stephen Eriaku
Publication Date
January 1, 2005
Summary
This handbook was produced by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) to accompany the Uganda Radio Network Advanced Radio Journalism Course, which was run throughout Uganda for freelance radio journalists. The handbook, which follows the day-by-day course programme, contains transcripts of PowerPoint presentations plus additional supporting material.
The handbook has three chapters:
Section One: Radio Journalism
* Radio, journalists and the audience
* News reporting
* Radio interviews and press conferences
* Writing for radio and voicework
* From journalism to radio: production
* Uganda radio network and internet
Section Two: Politics, Elections and The Media
* Covering elections
* Surviving the election
* The Africa experience
Section Three: Radio Production
* Field recording
* The I-River
* Editing for radio
* Digital editing
read here
The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy
The business of journalism is widely held to be in a terminal crisis today, in particular because the rise of the internet has drained audience attention and advertising revenue away from existing media platforms. This book, the first systematic international overview of how the news industry is dealing with current changes, counters such simplistic predictions of the supposedly technologically determined death of the news industry. It offers instead nuanced scrutiny of the threats and opportunities facing legacy news organisations across the world in countries as diverse as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland, Brazil, and India as they transition to an
increasingly convergent media landscape.
The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy establishes that this is no time for fatalism, but for a renewed commitment to journalism and its role in democracy – from journalists themselves and from media managers and policy-makers, all of whom can learn from professional, commercial, and policy developments beyond their own countries, developments such as those analysed here.
The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy, as the only rigorous global survey of a situation usually discussed on the basis of anecdote and unproved assertion, is an indispensable and necessary work. It ought to open the way for real progress in reinventing journalism.
Nicholas Lemann, Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
This is a very detailed and rich analysis of the structural changes in today’s business of journalism: the media in many countries face a deep crisis caused both by new technologies and more general economic circumstances while in others they are experiencing rapid growth. In both cases the entire structure of the field is undergoing a dramatic change in terms of professional practice and in how media are organized and run. This book represents an indispensable tool for all those who want to understand where journalism and democracy are going today.
Paolo Mancini, Professor at Università di Perugia and co-author of Comparing Media Systems (Cambridge, 2004)
Read more
increasingly convergent media landscape.
The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy establishes that this is no time for fatalism, but for a renewed commitment to journalism and its role in democracy – from journalists themselves and from media managers and policy-makers, all of whom can learn from professional, commercial, and policy developments beyond their own countries, developments such as those analysed here.
The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy, as the only rigorous global survey of a situation usually discussed on the basis of anecdote and unproved assertion, is an indispensable and necessary work. It ought to open the way for real progress in reinventing journalism.
Nicholas Lemann, Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
This is a very detailed and rich analysis of the structural changes in today’s business of journalism: the media in many countries face a deep crisis caused both by new technologies and more general economic circumstances while in others they are experiencing rapid growth. In both cases the entire structure of the field is undergoing a dramatic change in terms of professional practice and in how media are organized and run. This book represents an indispensable tool for all those who want to understand where journalism and democracy are going today.
Paolo Mancini, Professor at Università di Perugia and co-author of Comparing Media Systems (Cambridge, 2004)
Read more
13 Simple Journalist Techniques For Effective Interviews
The interview is a staple of the travel journalists’ repertoire.
Journalism is a creative job. Despite all the professors who told me articles were a fixed formula plugged up with simple facts and despite the avalanche of clichéd crap that passes for most mainstream journalism, I stand by that statement.
The finished product may be a piece of writing that you craft, but the material a result of the interviews you conduct.
Like any creative profession, you use your perception to re-interpret the world around you. You try to engage an audience with ideas and issues-you create something meaningful from all the incoherent information and noise out there.
But here’s the catch: good journalism is dependent on a total stranger’s cooperation and participation.
At the heart of this issue is the interview. The finished product may be a piece of writing that you craft, but the material a result of the interviews you conduct.
And while sources vary-some people know exactly what they want to say while others love to make you sweat for a basic quote-how you conduct the interview has more to do with the outcome than anything.
It’s odd that so much emphasis is put on teaching journalists how to write an article when that skill is useless without also teaching journalists how to develop strong interview techniques.
In an effort to help other aspiring reporters develop this crucial skill-I brought together some of my colleagues and journalist friends to ask them what interview tips they think are most helpful:
#1 – Find a good location
Avoid Starbucks! It’s often easiest to suggest a centrally located corporate coffee shop but if there is any way you can interview in a place that has some relevance to the story or your subject you’ll have much greater success.
Not only because you’ll gain a further sense of context, people are often more comfortable (and open) when they’re in a familiar place or what feels like “their territory.”
Ask to meet at your subject’s house, work, or the location of an incident relevant to the story. Even meeting at the interviewee’s favorite restaurant is more interesting than a Starbucks.
#2 – Prepare Your Goals Ahead
Know what questions you’re going to ask and why you’re going to ask them.
Heading to an interview with a sense of what you want to get out of it (a colorful re-enactment of an event, an on-the-record opinion on the issue you’re covering, general background, etc.) is critical to conducting a successful interview.
You should already be thinking about what you want your piece to look like and what you need from this interview to get your article closer to that end result.
#3 – Write down your questions
Be sure and bring prepared questions with you. I usually go into an interview with twice as many questions than I expect to ask. The security of knowing that I’m not going to get stuck helps my confidence and you never know what question will get you the information you’re really looking for.
#4 – Work on your flow
portrait of african womanThis is probably the most challenging, but also the most important interview skill you can develop.
You want to strike a balance between a conversation (which helps make your subject feel comfortable and aids candor) and getting the job done. As your subject is answering your question, be thinking about what you’ll ask next and why.
The flow of questions needs to seem natural and conversational, don’t spin your subject off on a completely different topic just because that’s the next question on your list-think about segue’s and transitions.
This way your subject doesn’t feel forced to give you sound bites and may open up a little (particularly important for anyone working on an audio piece where you may need blocks of the raw interview).
#5 – Think about the medium
Interviewing techniques defiantly vary for different mediums. If you’re interviewing for audio or video you want to ask two part questions which encourages subjects to talk for longer blocks of time.
Conversely, when you’re interviewing for print, try and break questions up so you can get shorter and more concise answers (easier for taking notes and for quoting later). You can be more conversational with interviews for print, you can say “yeah,” and “uh-huh,” etc.
Not doing this is one of the biggest challenges when you’re interviewing for audio. Nodding and smiling accomplishes the same sort of conversational encouragement and keeps your tape clean.
Another great trick for audio interviews is to have your subject re-enact the story. It makes for good sound and helps you avoid having too much of your own narration later on.
#6 – Bring a buddy
I find having a second person as a note taker and extra set of ears can be very useful.
If you don’t think another person will overwhelm or distract your subject (I find that is pretty rare) it can be a lifesaver to have that second set of notes to check your quotes and information.
#7 – Avoid Obsessing
portrait of a guyWhile good notes and recording are very important, you can do yourself a disservice by obsessing about recording every little detail of what your subject says.
As you’re interviewing you should be able to discern the gems from the chatter-focus on the quotes and info you know you’re going to use and make sure you get that right!
#8 – Be a little annoying
Don’t be afraid to relentlessly revisit a question or topic that you feel hasn’t been properly addressed by the interviewee. Sometimes people need time to warm up to you or a topic, or will respond better if your question is worded differently. Keep trying.
#9 – Be a little sneaky
Continue taking notes even after the interview is officially over. Sometimes people say the most revealing or intimate things when they feel that they’re out of the “hot seat.” If they don’t say “off the record,” it’s all game.
#10 – Empower them
A great question to ask if you don’t fully understand the perspective of your interviewee is “what is your ideal solution/resolution?” Obviously this only works in certain circumstances, but when appropriate it can help clarify a person’s point of view or opinion.
#11 – Work them up
portrait of bedouin manAnother great question is “Why do you care about this issue?” This can be an effective way to get a strong and emotional quote about why the topic you’re covering is so important.
You can also ask for the turning point in a story, the moment when everything changed or catalyzed. This can help you shape the narrative of your story as well.
#12 – Endure awkward silences
I know this is totally counterintuitive. My instinct is to keep chattering and asking questions to keep people feeling comfortable, but sometimes, especially when you’re dealing with sensitive subjects, you need to shut up and wait.
Ask your question, let them give you the rehearsed and generic answer, then sit there quietly and see what comes next. You’d be amazed how often this technique yields powerful results.
#13 – Ask for what you need
Seriously, sometimes interviewees are frustrating not because they’re trying to bust your chops but just don’t understand what you want from them.
I find that many interview subjects get a kick out of having you “pull back the curtain” a little and tell them about your process.
You can say, “Listen, I really need a quote from you encapsulating your feelings on this issue,” or “I really need you to walk me through the chronology of this,” or even, “I really need you to take me to a location that is relevant to this issue so I can set a scene.”
For the most part people want to be helpful and you just need to tell them how they can.
***
As you gain more experience interviewing, you’ll hone your own techniques. Your personality as an interviewer also plays a huge role in how you develop your approach.
In the meantime use these hints to help you mine the information you need to get down to the creative business of crafting a great piece of journalism.
Read more
Journalism is a creative job. Despite all the professors who told me articles were a fixed formula plugged up with simple facts and despite the avalanche of clichéd crap that passes for most mainstream journalism, I stand by that statement.
The finished product may be a piece of writing that you craft, but the material a result of the interviews you conduct.
Like any creative profession, you use your perception to re-interpret the world around you. You try to engage an audience with ideas and issues-you create something meaningful from all the incoherent information and noise out there.
But here’s the catch: good journalism is dependent on a total stranger’s cooperation and participation.
At the heart of this issue is the interview. The finished product may be a piece of writing that you craft, but the material a result of the interviews you conduct.
And while sources vary-some people know exactly what they want to say while others love to make you sweat for a basic quote-how you conduct the interview has more to do with the outcome than anything.
It’s odd that so much emphasis is put on teaching journalists how to write an article when that skill is useless without also teaching journalists how to develop strong interview techniques.
In an effort to help other aspiring reporters develop this crucial skill-I brought together some of my colleagues and journalist friends to ask them what interview tips they think are most helpful:
#1 – Find a good location
Avoid Starbucks! It’s often easiest to suggest a centrally located corporate coffee shop but if there is any way you can interview in a place that has some relevance to the story or your subject you’ll have much greater success.
Not only because you’ll gain a further sense of context, people are often more comfortable (and open) when they’re in a familiar place or what feels like “their territory.”
Ask to meet at your subject’s house, work, or the location of an incident relevant to the story. Even meeting at the interviewee’s favorite restaurant is more interesting than a Starbucks.
#2 – Prepare Your Goals Ahead
Know what questions you’re going to ask and why you’re going to ask them.
Heading to an interview with a sense of what you want to get out of it (a colorful re-enactment of an event, an on-the-record opinion on the issue you’re covering, general background, etc.) is critical to conducting a successful interview.
You should already be thinking about what you want your piece to look like and what you need from this interview to get your article closer to that end result.
#3 – Write down your questions
Be sure and bring prepared questions with you. I usually go into an interview with twice as many questions than I expect to ask. The security of knowing that I’m not going to get stuck helps my confidence and you never know what question will get you the information you’re really looking for.
#4 – Work on your flow
portrait of african womanThis is probably the most challenging, but also the most important interview skill you can develop.
You want to strike a balance between a conversation (which helps make your subject feel comfortable and aids candor) and getting the job done. As your subject is answering your question, be thinking about what you’ll ask next and why.
The flow of questions needs to seem natural and conversational, don’t spin your subject off on a completely different topic just because that’s the next question on your list-think about segue’s and transitions.
This way your subject doesn’t feel forced to give you sound bites and may open up a little (particularly important for anyone working on an audio piece where you may need blocks of the raw interview).
#5 – Think about the medium
Interviewing techniques defiantly vary for different mediums. If you’re interviewing for audio or video you want to ask two part questions which encourages subjects to talk for longer blocks of time.
Conversely, when you’re interviewing for print, try and break questions up so you can get shorter and more concise answers (easier for taking notes and for quoting later). You can be more conversational with interviews for print, you can say “yeah,” and “uh-huh,” etc.
Not doing this is one of the biggest challenges when you’re interviewing for audio. Nodding and smiling accomplishes the same sort of conversational encouragement and keeps your tape clean.
Another great trick for audio interviews is to have your subject re-enact the story. It makes for good sound and helps you avoid having too much of your own narration later on.
#6 – Bring a buddy
I find having a second person as a note taker and extra set of ears can be very useful.
If you don’t think another person will overwhelm or distract your subject (I find that is pretty rare) it can be a lifesaver to have that second set of notes to check your quotes and information.
#7 – Avoid Obsessing
portrait of a guyWhile good notes and recording are very important, you can do yourself a disservice by obsessing about recording every little detail of what your subject says.
As you’re interviewing you should be able to discern the gems from the chatter-focus on the quotes and info you know you’re going to use and make sure you get that right!
#8 – Be a little annoying
Don’t be afraid to relentlessly revisit a question or topic that you feel hasn’t been properly addressed by the interviewee. Sometimes people need time to warm up to you or a topic, or will respond better if your question is worded differently. Keep trying.
#9 – Be a little sneaky
Continue taking notes even after the interview is officially over. Sometimes people say the most revealing or intimate things when they feel that they’re out of the “hot seat.” If they don’t say “off the record,” it’s all game.
#10 – Empower them
A great question to ask if you don’t fully understand the perspective of your interviewee is “what is your ideal solution/resolution?” Obviously this only works in certain circumstances, but when appropriate it can help clarify a person’s point of view or opinion.
#11 – Work them up
portrait of bedouin manAnother great question is “Why do you care about this issue?” This can be an effective way to get a strong and emotional quote about why the topic you’re covering is so important.
You can also ask for the turning point in a story, the moment when everything changed or catalyzed. This can help you shape the narrative of your story as well.
#12 – Endure awkward silences
I know this is totally counterintuitive. My instinct is to keep chattering and asking questions to keep people feeling comfortable, but sometimes, especially when you’re dealing with sensitive subjects, you need to shut up and wait.
Ask your question, let them give you the rehearsed and generic answer, then sit there quietly and see what comes next. You’d be amazed how often this technique yields powerful results.
#13 – Ask for what you need
Seriously, sometimes interviewees are frustrating not because they’re trying to bust your chops but just don’t understand what you want from them.
I find that many interview subjects get a kick out of having you “pull back the curtain” a little and tell them about your process.
You can say, “Listen, I really need a quote from you encapsulating your feelings on this issue,” or “I really need you to walk me through the chronology of this,” or even, “I really need you to take me to a location that is relevant to this issue so I can set a scene.”
For the most part people want to be helpful and you just need to tell them how they can.
***
As you gain more experience interviewing, you’ll hone your own techniques. Your personality as an interviewer also plays a huge role in how you develop your approach.
In the meantime use these hints to help you mine the information you need to get down to the creative business of crafting a great piece of journalism.
Read more
Thursday, February 17, 2011
24 tips for journalistic productivity
1: Your foot soldiers and spys
Make friends with anyone who drives or walks around your patch every day
They will spot changes and notice the unusual. Those delivering mail, newspapers and milk are particularly useful contacts.
2: Window shopping
Always look carefully at all the adverts posted in local shops
Local meetings, lost and found items; in fact all the standard hand-written classified adverts could turn into a story. Many are rich pickings, but you may have to jot down the numbers and make a few calls before that becomes apparent.
3: Everyone has a story to tell
Interview people - anyone: Everyone has a story
Start with public figures, but expand to include everyone. Artists, retired academics, shop keepers, business leaders, union leaders, a cleaner, a road sweeper. Plan your interview strategy. Draw up a list. Create a diary. Do at least one interview a week. Some may be rubbish and may never be used. Others could be explosive.
4: Daily calls
Visit the emergency services regularly
It used to be called ‘doing the calls’ on my first newspaper. Every day one of us would be sent to call at the front desk of the local police, fire and ambulance station. We could have done it on the phone, but we wouldn’t have got half the tip offs had we not knocked on doors and discuss events over a cup of tea.
5: What’s on at the local court
Court listings are great sources for upcoming stories
Of course you have to be careful here in terms of legal issues. But if you know your patch you will know some of the names listed. This source of stories is more about being aware and alert. Always ensure you have the court listings.
6: Planning and development
Look closely at appeals, there is usually a good story
The local planning office is often a source of great stories. It will tell you what’s been approved, rejected and appealed. Check the names of the developers. Look through the records. Jot down the areas where there is an appeal underway. Go there and talk to local residents about why they think the original plans were turned down. Keep digging; you will find some great stories in the local planning department. Look out for new buildings and go through the records to track the planning process. Look for the unusual.
7: Original surveys
Don't be afraid to carry out your own survey on a local issue
Buy a cheap clipboard and write 10 questions on a current burning local issue. Then go out to shopping areas, railway stations etc and invite people to take part. Try to interview 100 people. Read it all back and think through what the survey is telling you. Think about who you should talk to next to make your research into a story.
8: Local concerns
Listen to your audience to find out what they want you to cover
Again, get out in the street and ask people what concerns them most, what they would like to see changed, what annoys them the most, what they would like to see happen in the town. What they like, what they don’t like.
9: A year ago today
Create your own, unique, forward planning diary
Recording recent history: Keep your own news diary each year and jot down all the stories you covered along with relevant contact details. Then always look back at what you were covering six months and a year ago. Check with the contacts you spoke to in the past. Ask them whether anything has changed. A responsible journalist will always follow up on important stories. Your follow up will probably present you with a new exclusive – and you will have some great archive material to support the news update.
10: Local statistics and trends
Statistics are stories, not just numbers
Turn numbers into stories. Think through how the town you are working in compares with neighbouring towns in key areas, such as whether it is growing, shrinking, has more or fewer people in work, has a younger or older average age, has more expensive or cheaper property etc. Talk to local politicians about what they are doing about it. Don’t just take the statistics at face value. Ask questions. Keep nagging like a small child until those with the information give you the sweets you want.
Read more here
Make friends with anyone who drives or walks around your patch every day
They will spot changes and notice the unusual. Those delivering mail, newspapers and milk are particularly useful contacts.
2: Window shopping
Always look carefully at all the adverts posted in local shops
Local meetings, lost and found items; in fact all the standard hand-written classified adverts could turn into a story. Many are rich pickings, but you may have to jot down the numbers and make a few calls before that becomes apparent.
3: Everyone has a story to tell
Interview people - anyone: Everyone has a story
Start with public figures, but expand to include everyone. Artists, retired academics, shop keepers, business leaders, union leaders, a cleaner, a road sweeper. Plan your interview strategy. Draw up a list. Create a diary. Do at least one interview a week. Some may be rubbish and may never be used. Others could be explosive.
4: Daily calls
Visit the emergency services regularly
It used to be called ‘doing the calls’ on my first newspaper. Every day one of us would be sent to call at the front desk of the local police, fire and ambulance station. We could have done it on the phone, but we wouldn’t have got half the tip offs had we not knocked on doors and discuss events over a cup of tea.
5: What’s on at the local court
Court listings are great sources for upcoming stories
Of course you have to be careful here in terms of legal issues. But if you know your patch you will know some of the names listed. This source of stories is more about being aware and alert. Always ensure you have the court listings.
6: Planning and development
Look closely at appeals, there is usually a good story
The local planning office is often a source of great stories. It will tell you what’s been approved, rejected and appealed. Check the names of the developers. Look through the records. Jot down the areas where there is an appeal underway. Go there and talk to local residents about why they think the original plans were turned down. Keep digging; you will find some great stories in the local planning department. Look out for new buildings and go through the records to track the planning process. Look for the unusual.
7: Original surveys
Don't be afraid to carry out your own survey on a local issue
Buy a cheap clipboard and write 10 questions on a current burning local issue. Then go out to shopping areas, railway stations etc and invite people to take part. Try to interview 100 people. Read it all back and think through what the survey is telling you. Think about who you should talk to next to make your research into a story.
8: Local concerns
Listen to your audience to find out what they want you to cover
Again, get out in the street and ask people what concerns them most, what they would like to see changed, what annoys them the most, what they would like to see happen in the town. What they like, what they don’t like.
9: A year ago today
Create your own, unique, forward planning diary
Recording recent history: Keep your own news diary each year and jot down all the stories you covered along with relevant contact details. Then always look back at what you were covering six months and a year ago. Check with the contacts you spoke to in the past. Ask them whether anything has changed. A responsible journalist will always follow up on important stories. Your follow up will probably present you with a new exclusive – and you will have some great archive material to support the news update.
10: Local statistics and trends
Statistics are stories, not just numbers
Turn numbers into stories. Think through how the town you are working in compares with neighbouring towns in key areas, such as whether it is growing, shrinking, has more or fewer people in work, has a younger or older average age, has more expensive or cheaper property etc. Talk to local politicians about what they are doing about it. Don’t just take the statistics at face value. Ask questions. Keep nagging like a small child until those with the information give you the sweets you want.
Read more here
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Good journalists
Intelligence: to be able to understand complex issues.
Knowledge: broad general knowledge and experience in order to understand a number of different areas and have the ability to go from one area to another easily.
Effective: the ability to get things done; work under pressure; work well with others under pressure; be well organized.
Curiosity: the need to be curious enough to go beyond the surface; look at things in a questioning manner; to seek information to find out about people, events, activities and to understand them; to be skeptical at times.
Comprehension: the ability to analyze information, sort the important from the unimportant; understand what you're writing about.
Judgment: gather information and learn to sort the important from the unimportant effectively; be able to weed out information, determining what readers need to know, what will make a complete, accurate article.
Persistent: knowing when to continue to seek or push for information, when to give up; the need to be energetic; not stopping just because someone says "no" (remember reporters Woodward and Bernstein and the obstacles they encountered unraveling the Watergate scandal, which forced the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1974).
Literacy: grammatical skills; reading ability coupled with comprehension; acceptable writing skills.
Motivation: the drive to work beyond the normal 8-hour day; journalists must cover the story when it occurs; news is a perishable commodity.
Personal Stability: keeping your head when the world around seems to be falling apart; ability to remain professional and do the job even though you may be witnessing unpleasantness. One still-famous example is the radio reporter who was broadcasting when a large dirigible (blimp), the Hindenburg, exploded just before landing in 1937 in New Jersey. Although emotional, he kept reporting. In addition, the more stable you are, the more apt you are to treat people fairly and write objectively.
Read more
Knowledge: broad general knowledge and experience in order to understand a number of different areas and have the ability to go from one area to another easily.
Effective: the ability to get things done; work under pressure; work well with others under pressure; be well organized.
Curiosity: the need to be curious enough to go beyond the surface; look at things in a questioning manner; to seek information to find out about people, events, activities and to understand them; to be skeptical at times.
Comprehension: the ability to analyze information, sort the important from the unimportant; understand what you're writing about.
Judgment: gather information and learn to sort the important from the unimportant effectively; be able to weed out information, determining what readers need to know, what will make a complete, accurate article.
Persistent: knowing when to continue to seek or push for information, when to give up; the need to be energetic; not stopping just because someone says "no" (remember reporters Woodward and Bernstein and the obstacles they encountered unraveling the Watergate scandal, which forced the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1974).
Literacy: grammatical skills; reading ability coupled with comprehension; acceptable writing skills.
Motivation: the drive to work beyond the normal 8-hour day; journalists must cover the story when it occurs; news is a perishable commodity.
Personal Stability: keeping your head when the world around seems to be falling apart; ability to remain professional and do the job even though you may be witnessing unpleasantness. One still-famous example is the radio reporter who was broadcasting when a large dirigible (blimp), the Hindenburg, exploded just before landing in 1937 in New Jersey. Although emotional, he kept reporting. In addition, the more stable you are, the more apt you are to treat people fairly and write objectively.
Read more
Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio and Television News
Covers the trends that have reshaped the world of journalism: convergence, multiskilling, citizen journalism, podcasting, online journalism, and more
An indispensible and comprehensive introduction to the field of broadcast journalism
The leading text in the broadcast journalism field
Fundamentals of Broadcast Journalism, such as news gathering, news writing, news reading, interviewing, making programmes
Up-to-date practical manual for beginning reporters hoping to enter the arenas of radio and television news
Description This newest edition of Broadcast Journalism continues its long tradition of covering the basics of broadcasting from gathering news sources, interviewing, putting together a programme, news writing, reporting, editing, working in the studio, conducting live reports, and more. Two new authors have joined forces in this new edition to present behind the scenes perspectives on multimedia broadcast news, where it is heading, and how you get there.
Technology is meshing global and local news. Constant interactivity between on-the-scene reporting and nearly instantaneous broadcasting to the world has changed the very nature of how broadcast journalists must think, act, write and report on a 24/7 basis. This new edition takes up this digital workflow and convergence. Students of broadcast journalism and professors alike will find that the sixth edition of Broadcast Journalism is completely up-to-date.
Includes new photos, quotations, and coverage of convergent journalism, podcasting, multimedia journalism, citizen journalism, and more!
Readership Aspiring radio and TV reporters and journalists; students on journalism and broadcasting courses.
Author Information By Andrew Boyd , Journalist in radio, TV and online. Reporting credits include Channel 4's Dispatches. He has taught and developed three award-winning courses in broadcast journalism and has trained many of today's top names in reporting.; Peter Stewart , Works in the BBC's newsroom for Radio Kent and South East Today.; and Ray Alexander , Manager & Lead Trainer for Television Journalism, BBC Training
Table of Contents
Preface
SECTION ONE: THE PRINCIPLES OF BROADCAST JOURNALISM
A CAREER IN BROADCAST JOURNALISM
Why bother'
Writing Skills
Qualities in the broadcast journalist
Getting A Foot Into The Door
The interview
Multi-tasking
Surviving Editorial Meetings
Formal and practical training for broadcast journalism
WHAT MAKES NEWS'
Audience: What Matters To Me'
News You Can Use
Where did it happen'
Relevance
Immediacy
Interest
Drama and Impact
Entertainment and Celebs
New, true and interesting
Different Types of News
Emergencies
Crime
Government
Planning and developments
Conflict and controversy
Pressure and lobby groups
Industry and business
Health and Medicine
Human interest
Sport
Seasonal news
Special local interest
Weather
Traffic
Animals
The Final Checklist
SECTION TWO: NEWSGATHERING
ETHICS AND RESPONSIBILITY
Regulation
The Law
Being Web Wise
The Myth Of Objectivity
Children
Ethics In Citizen Journalism
Reporting civil disorder
Camera bias
Sensationalism
Privacy and voyeurism
NEWS SOURCES
Reporters
Stories from Consumers
Hoaxes
Contacts and Sources
Newsroom Diary
Files
Check Calls
Emergency Services Radio
Politicians
Pressure Groups
Staged Events
News Releases
Syndicated recordings Freelances
Wire Services and News Agencies
The Network
Other News Media Cross-Platform Material
GETTING THE STORY
Newsroom Conference
Copytasting
Balance of News
Visuals and Actuality
The Brief
The Angle
Chasing the Contact
Staged News Conferences
Beating the Clock
Work to Sequence
Don't Panic
SECTION THREE: WRITING FOR BROADCAST
CONVERSATIONAL WRITING
Telling the Story
Writing for a Mass Audience
No Second Chance
Confusing Clauses
Inverted Sentences
Plain English
Familiar Words
Easy Listening
Accurate English
Keep It Concrete
Make It Interesting
Contractions
NEWSWRITING
The News Angle
Multi-Angled Stories
Hard News Formula
The Intro
Placing Key Words
Features Openers
Developing the Story
The WHAT formula Signposting
Last Line
Last Words
Accuracy
BROADCAST STYLE BOOK
Cliches
Journalese
Hyperbole
Adjectives
Quotations
Attribution
Contentious Statements
Immediacy
Active
Positive
Redundancies
Repetition
Homonyms
Singular or Plural'
Pronouns
Punctuation
Spelling
Abbreviations
Figures
Proof Reading
Ambiguity
SECTION FOUR: INTERVIEWING
THE INTERVIEW
The Interviewer's Skill
Different Types of Interview'
A Disaster Story? Hard News
Informational
Investigative
Adversarial
Interpretative
Personal
Emotional
Entertainment
Actuality Only
The Disaster Story Continues
SETTING UP THE INTERVIEW
Background
A Plan of Campaign - The Questions
Get Your Facts Right
Fit the Brief
Check Arrangements
Approach
The Questions
Winding Up the Interview
Being Interviewed Yourself: The Q & A
FROM 2-MINUTE HEADLINES TO 24-HOUR NEWS
The Bulletin
News Programmes
Documentary
Verite
24-Hour News
Who Does What'
SECTION FIVE: THE NEWS PROGRAMME
ITEM SELECTION AND ORDER
'A Fair Picture . . .'
Second Thoughts
Item Order
Local Considerations
Foreign Coverage
Producing a Running Order
PUTTING THE SHOW TOGETHER
Winning an Audience - The Openers
Keeping and Audience - Headlines and Promotions
Actuality
Pictures
Graphics
Programme Balance - Being All Things to All People
And Now the Good News'
MAKING THE PROGRAMME FIT
Cutting
Filling
Backtiming
SECTION SIX: PRESENTING THE NEWS
NEWS ANCHORS AND PRESENTERS
The Talent
Qualities of a Newscaster
More Than Just a Newsreader . . .
Professionalism
Voice
'ON AIR!'
Performance
Prescence
Getting Through to the Audience - Rapport
Know Your Material
Ad-Libs
The Gate
Making a Swift Recovery
Corpsing
Relaxation
NEWSREADING MECHANICS
Speed
Breathing
Projection
Emphasis
Pitch
Microphone Technique
Using the Prompter
Noise, Noise, Noise
Bringing the Story to Life
SECTION SEVEN: RADIO NEWS COVERAGE
STORY TREATMENT
Breaking News (Bulletin US)
Headline
Copy Story
Voicer or Voice Report
Teaser or Taster
Voice Report from the Scene
Interview
Newsclip
Package
Mini-Wrap or Bulletin Wrap
SECTION EIGHT THE EQUIPMENT
RECORDING
Principles of Recording
Using Portable Sound Recorders
Digital Recorders
Before the Interview
EDITING
'You Can't See the Join'
Unethical Editing
Basic Production
Multi-Tracking
Studio Mixing
Types of Fade
THE STUDIO
On-Air Studio
Talks Studio
The Contributions Studio
Remote Studios
Radio Car
Outside Broadcast Vehicle
Mobile Phones
Obscenity Button
SECTION NINE: TELEVISION
THE NEVER ENDING STORY - THE SHARING TELEVISION NEWSROOM
Television Newsrooms And The News Story
Advantages and Disadvantages
In and Out
A newsroom core server
Order from chaos - the journalist's most basic need-to-know
TV Script Types
Live Breaking News - 24/7 Newsroom
The role of UGC (User Generated Content) and the 24-hour newsroom
Types of citizen journalism
SCRIPTING TELEVISION JOURNALISM
The Intro (Cue or Link)
Complement The Pictures With The Narrative
Writing To Sound
Keep Detail To A Minimum
The Television News Package
Balancing Words With Pictures
Using Archive Pictures
The Bottom Line
GATHERING TELEVISION NEWS
Filming for TV Journalism
Cameraman/Camerawoman/Cameraperson!
Sound Recordist
Lighting technician
The Video Journalist checklist
The Journalist as advance guard - a Recce
CAMERA SHOTS
Hold the shots
Grab action shots first
Shoot for impact
Shoot in sequences
Context
Sound
Sound-bites and interviewee clips
Cutaways and bridge shots
Reverses
The Line
Continuity
Piece to Camera (PTC) also known as Stand Uppers
Special film equipment
EDITING THE SOUND AND PICTURES
Sequence of shots
Shot Length
Telescoping the action
Desktop Editing
The craft editor
The timer (time code)
The edit controller
Video mixing
Recording the commentary
Audio mixing
Editing shots for interviews
Using music
GOING LIVE - LIVE TV REPORTING IN VISION
What works well'
What works less well'
Top Tips
GRAPHICS AND DIGITAL DISPLAY VISUALS
Stills and frame grabs
Writing to still pictures and screen insets
Overlays and Chromakey (CSO)
Big Screen Video Wall
Acronyms in Visuals
PRESENTING TELEVISION NEWS
Qualities of the television news presenter
What To Wear
Men And Their Ties
Colours and fabrics
Autoscript
"Fill For Ten Seconds!"
Nerves
Make Up and Perception
"Coming up"
THE TELEVISION NEWS STUDIO
Standby for transmission
The Set
Lighting
Cameras
Sound
The floor manager
Control Room
The Director
Running order and the studio
THE ELEMENTS OF JOURNALISM
What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect - Introduction
June 19, 2006
by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel
INTRODUCTION
As anthropologists began comparing notes on the world's few remaining primitive cultures, they discovered something unexpected. From the most isolated tribal societies in Africa to the most distant islands in the Pacific, people shared essentially the same definition of what is news. They shared the same kind of gossip. They even looked for the same qualities in the messengers they picked to gather and deliver their news. They wanted people who could run swiftly over the next hill, accurately gather information, and engagingly retell it. Historians have pieced together that the same basic news values have held constant through time. "Humans have exchanged a similar mix of news . . . throughout history and across cultures," historian Mitchell Stephens has written.1
How do we explain the mystery of this consistency? The answer, historians and sociologists have concluded, is that news satisfies a basic human impulse. People have an intrinsic need -- an instinct -- to know what is occurring beyond their direct experience.2 Being aware of events we cannot see for ourselves engenders a sense of security, control, and confidence. One writer has called it "a hunger for human awareness."3
One of the first things people do when meeting a friend or acquaintance is share information. "Have you heard about . . . ?" We want to know if they've heard what we have, and if they heard it the same way. There is a thrill in a shared sense of discovery. We form relationships, choose friends, make character judgments, based partly on whether someone reacts to information the same way we do.
When the flow of news is obstructed, "a darkness falls," and anxiety grows.4 The world, in effect, becomes too quiet. We feel alone. John McCain, the U.S. senator from Arizona, writes that in his five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi, what he missed most was not comfort, food, freedom, or even his family and friends. "The thing I missed most was information -- free uncensored, undistorted, abundant information."5
Call it the Awareness Instinct.
We need news to live our lives, to protect ourselves, bond with each other, identify friends and enemies. Journalism is simply the system societies generate to supply this news. That is why we care about the character of news and journalism we get: they influence the quality of our lives, our thoughts, and our culture. Writer Thomas Cahill, the author of several popular books on the history of religion, has put it this way: you can tell "the worldview of a people . . . the invisible fears and desires . . . in a culture's stories."6
At a moment of revolution in communications, what do the stories we tell say about our worldview, our fears, desires, and values?
This book began on a rainy Saturday in June 1997, when twenty-five journalists gathered at the Harvard Faculty Club. Around the long table sat editors of several of the nation's top newspapers, as well as some of the most influential names in television and radio, several of the top journalism educators, and some of the country's most prominent authors. They were there because they thought something was seriously wrong with their profession. They barely recognized what they considered journalism in much of the work of their colleagues. Instead of serving a larger public interest, they feared, their profession was damaging it.
The public, in turn, increasingly distrusted journalists, even hated them. And it would only get worse. By 1999, just 21% of Americans would think the press cared about people, down from 41% in 1985.7 Only 58% would respect the press's watchdog role, a drop from 67% in 1985. Less than half, just 45%, would think the press protected democracy. That percentage had been nearly ten points higher in 1985.8
What was different that day in Cambridge was that many of the journalists in the room -- and around the country -- were beginning to agree with the public. "In the newsroom we no longer talk about journalism," said Max King, then editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "We are consumed with business pressure and the bottom line," agreed another editor. News was becoming entertainment and entertainment news. Journalists' bonuses were increasingly tied to the company's profit margins, not the quality of their work. Finally, Columbia University professor James Carey offered what many recalled as a summation: "The problem is that you see journalism disappearing inside the larger world of communications. What you yearn to do is recover journalism from that larger world."
Implied in that was something more important. If journalism -- the system by which we get our news -- was being subsumed, what would replace it? Advertising? Entertainment? E-commerce? Propaganda? Some new hybrid of all these? And what would the consequence be?
The answers matter, the group thought, to the public and news-people both. Journalism provides something unique to a culture -- independent, reliable, accurate, and comprehensive information that citizens require to be free. A journalism that is asked to provide something other than that subverts democratic culture. This is what happens when governments control the news, as in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. We're seeing it again in places like Singapore, where news is controlled to encourage capitalism but discourage participation in public life. Something akin to this may be taking root in the United States in a more purely commercial form, as when news outlets owned by larger corporations are used to promote their conglomerate parent's products, to engage in subtle lobbying or corporate rivalry, or are intermingled with advertising to boost profits. The issue isn't just the loss of journalism. At stake is whether, as citizens, we have access to independent information that makes it possible for us to take part in governing ourselves.
The group decided on a plan: engage journalists and the public in a careful examination of what journalism was supposed to be. We set out to answer two questions. If newspeople thought journalism was somehow different from other forms of communication, how was it different? If they thought journalism needed to change but that some core principles needed to endure, what were those principles?
Over the next two years, the group, now calling itself the Committee of Concerned Journalists, organized the most sustained, systematic, and comprehensive examination ever conducted by journalists of news gathering and its responsibilities. We held 21 public forums attended by 3,000 people and involving testimony from more than 300 journalists. We partnered with a team of university researchers who conducted more than a hundred three-and-a-half-hour interviews with journalists about their values. We produced two surveys of journalists about their principles. We held a summit of First Amendment and journalism scholars. With the Project for Excellence in Journalism we produced nearly a dozen content studies of news reporting. We studied the history of those journalists who came before us.
This book is the fruit of that examination. It is not an argument. It is, rather, a description of the theory and culture of journalism that emerged from three years of listening to citizens and journalists, from our empirical studies, and from our reading of the history of the profession as it evolved in the United States.
We learned, among other things, that society expects journalists to apply this theory, and citizens to understand it, though it is seldom studied or clearly articulated. This lack of clarity, for both citizens and newspeople, has weakened journalism and is now weakening democratic society. Unless we can grasp and reclaim the theory of a free press, journalists risk allowing their profession to disappear. In that sense, the crisis of our culture, and our journalism, is a crisis of conviction.
There are, we have distilled from our search, some clear principles that journalists agree on -- and that citizens have a right to expect. They are principles that have ebbed and flowed over time, but they have always in some manner been evident. They are the elements of journalism.
The first among them is that the purpose of journalism is to provide people with the information they need to be free and self-governing.
To fulfill this task:
Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
Its first loyalty is to citizens.
Its essence is a discipline of verification.
Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
Why these nine? Some readers will think items are missing here. Where is fairness? Where is balance? After synthesizing what we learned, it became clear that a number of familiar and even useful ideas -- including fairness and balance -- are too vague to rise to the level of essential elements of the profession. Others may say this list is nothing new. To the contrary, we discovered that many ideas about the elements of journalism are wrapped in myth and misconception. The notion that journalists should be protected by a wall between business and news is one myth. That independence requires journalists be neutral is another. The concept of objectivity has been so mangled it now is usually used to describe the very problem it was conceived to correct.
Nor is this the first moment that the way we get news has gone through momentous transition. It has happened each time there is a period of significant, social, economic, and technological change. It occurred in the 1830s and 1840s with the arrival of the telegraph, in the 1880s with the drop in prices of paper and the influx of immigrants. It occurred again in the 1920s with the invention of radio and the rise of the tabloids and the culture of gossip and celebrity. And it occurred with the invention of television and the arrival of the Cold War.
It is occurring now with the advent of cable followed by the Internet. The collision this time may be more dramatic. For the first time in our history, the news increasingly is produced by companies outside journalism, and this new economic organization is important. We are facing the possibility that independent news will be replaced by self- interested commercialism posing as news. If that occurs, we will lose the press as an independent institution, free to monitor the other powerful forces and institutions in society.
In the new century, one of the most profound questions for democratic society is whether an independent press survives. The answer will depend on whether journalists have the clarity and conviction to articulate what an independent press means, and whether, as citizens, the rest of us care.
This book is intended as a first step in helping journalists articulate those values and helping citizens create a demand for a journalism connected to the principles that spawned the free press in the first place.
[top]
ENDNOTES
1. Mitchell Stephens, History of News: From the Drum to the Satellite (New York: Viking Press, 1988), 34.
2. Harvey Molotch and Marilyn Lester, "News as Purposive Behavior: On the Strategic Use of Routine Events, Accidents and Scandal," American Sociological Review, 39, February 1974, 101-112.
3. Stephens, History of News, 18.
4. Ibid.
5. John McCain, with Mark Salter, Faith of My Fathers (New York: Random House, 1999), 221.
6. Thomas Cahill, The Gift of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (New York: Nan A. Talese/Anchor Books, 1998), 17.
7. Committee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ) and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, "Striking the Balance: Audience Interests, Business Pressures and Journalists' Values" (March 1999), 79.
8. Ibid.
June 19, 2006
by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel
INTRODUCTION
As anthropologists began comparing notes on the world's few remaining primitive cultures, they discovered something unexpected. From the most isolated tribal societies in Africa to the most distant islands in the Pacific, people shared essentially the same definition of what is news. They shared the same kind of gossip. They even looked for the same qualities in the messengers they picked to gather and deliver their news. They wanted people who could run swiftly over the next hill, accurately gather information, and engagingly retell it. Historians have pieced together that the same basic news values have held constant through time. "Humans have exchanged a similar mix of news . . . throughout history and across cultures," historian Mitchell Stephens has written.1
How do we explain the mystery of this consistency? The answer, historians and sociologists have concluded, is that news satisfies a basic human impulse. People have an intrinsic need -- an instinct -- to know what is occurring beyond their direct experience.2 Being aware of events we cannot see for ourselves engenders a sense of security, control, and confidence. One writer has called it "a hunger for human awareness."3
One of the first things people do when meeting a friend or acquaintance is share information. "Have you heard about . . . ?" We want to know if they've heard what we have, and if they heard it the same way. There is a thrill in a shared sense of discovery. We form relationships, choose friends, make character judgments, based partly on whether someone reacts to information the same way we do.
When the flow of news is obstructed, "a darkness falls," and anxiety grows.4 The world, in effect, becomes too quiet. We feel alone. John McCain, the U.S. senator from Arizona, writes that in his five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi, what he missed most was not comfort, food, freedom, or even his family and friends. "The thing I missed most was information -- free uncensored, undistorted, abundant information."5
Call it the Awareness Instinct.
We need news to live our lives, to protect ourselves, bond with each other, identify friends and enemies. Journalism is simply the system societies generate to supply this news. That is why we care about the character of news and journalism we get: they influence the quality of our lives, our thoughts, and our culture. Writer Thomas Cahill, the author of several popular books on the history of religion, has put it this way: you can tell "the worldview of a people . . . the invisible fears and desires . . . in a culture's stories."6
At a moment of revolution in communications, what do the stories we tell say about our worldview, our fears, desires, and values?
This book began on a rainy Saturday in June 1997, when twenty-five journalists gathered at the Harvard Faculty Club. Around the long table sat editors of several of the nation's top newspapers, as well as some of the most influential names in television and radio, several of the top journalism educators, and some of the country's most prominent authors. They were there because they thought something was seriously wrong with their profession. They barely recognized what they considered journalism in much of the work of their colleagues. Instead of serving a larger public interest, they feared, their profession was damaging it.
The public, in turn, increasingly distrusted journalists, even hated them. And it would only get worse. By 1999, just 21% of Americans would think the press cared about people, down from 41% in 1985.7 Only 58% would respect the press's watchdog role, a drop from 67% in 1985. Less than half, just 45%, would think the press protected democracy. That percentage had been nearly ten points higher in 1985.8
What was different that day in Cambridge was that many of the journalists in the room -- and around the country -- were beginning to agree with the public. "In the newsroom we no longer talk about journalism," said Max King, then editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "We are consumed with business pressure and the bottom line," agreed another editor. News was becoming entertainment and entertainment news. Journalists' bonuses were increasingly tied to the company's profit margins, not the quality of their work. Finally, Columbia University professor James Carey offered what many recalled as a summation: "The problem is that you see journalism disappearing inside the larger world of communications. What you yearn to do is recover journalism from that larger world."
Implied in that was something more important. If journalism -- the system by which we get our news -- was being subsumed, what would replace it? Advertising? Entertainment? E-commerce? Propaganda? Some new hybrid of all these? And what would the consequence be?
The answers matter, the group thought, to the public and news-people both. Journalism provides something unique to a culture -- independent, reliable, accurate, and comprehensive information that citizens require to be free. A journalism that is asked to provide something other than that subverts democratic culture. This is what happens when governments control the news, as in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. We're seeing it again in places like Singapore, where news is controlled to encourage capitalism but discourage participation in public life. Something akin to this may be taking root in the United States in a more purely commercial form, as when news outlets owned by larger corporations are used to promote their conglomerate parent's products, to engage in subtle lobbying or corporate rivalry, or are intermingled with advertising to boost profits. The issue isn't just the loss of journalism. At stake is whether, as citizens, we have access to independent information that makes it possible for us to take part in governing ourselves.
The group decided on a plan: engage journalists and the public in a careful examination of what journalism was supposed to be. We set out to answer two questions. If newspeople thought journalism was somehow different from other forms of communication, how was it different? If they thought journalism needed to change but that some core principles needed to endure, what were those principles?
Over the next two years, the group, now calling itself the Committee of Concerned Journalists, organized the most sustained, systematic, and comprehensive examination ever conducted by journalists of news gathering and its responsibilities. We held 21 public forums attended by 3,000 people and involving testimony from more than 300 journalists. We partnered with a team of university researchers who conducted more than a hundred three-and-a-half-hour interviews with journalists about their values. We produced two surveys of journalists about their principles. We held a summit of First Amendment and journalism scholars. With the Project for Excellence in Journalism we produced nearly a dozen content studies of news reporting. We studied the history of those journalists who came before us.
This book is the fruit of that examination. It is not an argument. It is, rather, a description of the theory and culture of journalism that emerged from three years of listening to citizens and journalists, from our empirical studies, and from our reading of the history of the profession as it evolved in the United States.
We learned, among other things, that society expects journalists to apply this theory, and citizens to understand it, though it is seldom studied or clearly articulated. This lack of clarity, for both citizens and newspeople, has weakened journalism and is now weakening democratic society. Unless we can grasp and reclaim the theory of a free press, journalists risk allowing their profession to disappear. In that sense, the crisis of our culture, and our journalism, is a crisis of conviction.
There are, we have distilled from our search, some clear principles that journalists agree on -- and that citizens have a right to expect. They are principles that have ebbed and flowed over time, but they have always in some manner been evident. They are the elements of journalism.
The first among them is that the purpose of journalism is to provide people with the information they need to be free and self-governing.
To fulfill this task:
Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
Its first loyalty is to citizens.
Its essence is a discipline of verification.
Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
Why these nine? Some readers will think items are missing here. Where is fairness? Where is balance? After synthesizing what we learned, it became clear that a number of familiar and even useful ideas -- including fairness and balance -- are too vague to rise to the level of essential elements of the profession. Others may say this list is nothing new. To the contrary, we discovered that many ideas about the elements of journalism are wrapped in myth and misconception. The notion that journalists should be protected by a wall between business and news is one myth. That independence requires journalists be neutral is another. The concept of objectivity has been so mangled it now is usually used to describe the very problem it was conceived to correct.
Nor is this the first moment that the way we get news has gone through momentous transition. It has happened each time there is a period of significant, social, economic, and technological change. It occurred in the 1830s and 1840s with the arrival of the telegraph, in the 1880s with the drop in prices of paper and the influx of immigrants. It occurred again in the 1920s with the invention of radio and the rise of the tabloids and the culture of gossip and celebrity. And it occurred with the invention of television and the arrival of the Cold War.
It is occurring now with the advent of cable followed by the Internet. The collision this time may be more dramatic. For the first time in our history, the news increasingly is produced by companies outside journalism, and this new economic organization is important. We are facing the possibility that independent news will be replaced by self- interested commercialism posing as news. If that occurs, we will lose the press as an independent institution, free to monitor the other powerful forces and institutions in society.
In the new century, one of the most profound questions for democratic society is whether an independent press survives. The answer will depend on whether journalists have the clarity and conviction to articulate what an independent press means, and whether, as citizens, the rest of us care.
This book is intended as a first step in helping journalists articulate those values and helping citizens create a demand for a journalism connected to the principles that spawned the free press in the first place.
[top]
ENDNOTES
1. Mitchell Stephens, History of News: From the Drum to the Satellite (New York: Viking Press, 1988), 34.
2. Harvey Molotch and Marilyn Lester, "News as Purposive Behavior: On the Strategic Use of Routine Events, Accidents and Scandal," American Sociological Review, 39, February 1974, 101-112.
3. Stephens, History of News, 18.
4. Ibid.
5. John McCain, with Mark Salter, Faith of My Fathers (New York: Random House, 1999), 221.
6. Thomas Cahill, The Gift of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (New York: Nan A. Talese/Anchor Books, 1998), 17.
7. Committee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ) and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, "Striking the Balance: Audience Interests, Business Pressures and Journalists' Values" (March 1999), 79.
8. Ibid.
Journalist
The collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts.
Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast.
The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.
American Heritage Dictionary:
Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast.
The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.
American Heritage Dictionary:
Broadcast journalist
Broadcast journalists are responsible for investigating, gathering and reporting on news and current affairs. They are expected to present this information in a fair, balanced and accurate way through news bulletins, documentaries and other factual programmes for radio, television and online broadcast.
Skillset (Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries) (http://www.skillset.org) defines broadcast journalism as 'the collection, verification and analysis of events which affect people'. The work of a broadcast journalist shapes people's perceptions of the world in which they live and therefore has a far-reaching impact.
Broadcast journalists can fill a number of roles within the media including editor, reporter, presenter/news anchor, producer and correspondent.
Typical work activities
Although exact duties and responsibilities will vary from role to role and between radio, television and the internet, broadcast journalists will generally be involved in many of the following duties, on a daily basis:
generating ideas for stories/features and following leads from news agencies, the police, the public, press conferences and other sources;
pitching ideas to editors and commissioners;
researching and collating evidence and information to support a story using relevant information sources (internet, archives, databases, etc);
writing scripts for bulletins, headlines and reports which adhere to legal and contractual guidelines;
selecting appropriate locations, pictures and sound and exercising editorial judgement on the best angle to approach a story from;
identifying necessary resources and deploying/managing technical crews for location shoots, including sound operators and camera crew;
providing directorial input, advising crews on what to film or record;
using portable digital video (DV) cameras and other equipment to record material and appropriate editing software to produce complete packages for broadcast;
preparing and presenting material 'on air' for both pre-recorded and live pieces;
identifying potential interviewees, briefing them, preparing interview questions and conducting both live and recorded interviews;
preparing timings for each news item and monitoring these during broadcast;
deciding on the running order for bulletins and making any necessary changes during broadcast;
developing and maintaining local contacts and assuming a public relations role.
Skillset (Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries) (http://www.skillset.org) has developed a set of national occupational standards which details the responsibilities expected from broadcast journalists.
Work conditions
Range of typical starting salaries: £13,000 - £22,000. Starting salaries vary significantly between local and national broadcasters (salary data collected Feb 09).
Range of typical salaries at senior level/with experience (e.g. after 10 - 15 years in the role): £22,000- £52,000 but can be over £100,000 in exceptional cases (salary data collected Feb 09). Wages differ widely depending on the employer and the location. The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk) estimates that the basic average salary at this level is approximately £30,000.
Pay tends to be higher in television than radio. Independent local radio posts tend to offer the lowest starting salaries. Additional allowances may be paid for shift work and unsocial hours and a London weighting may be available. Freelance reporters are often on individually negotiated contracts.
Working hours typically include regular unsocial hours. Shift work is common, starting early to cover regional news on breakfast radio/television shows or working mid-morning until late evening for afternoon/evening bulletins. Weekend work is often required and most broadcasters do not take public holidays. On-air presenters are less likely to go out on location to cover stories and their working hours may be more predictable/social.
The media is a volatile industry, characterised by short-term contract employment. Many broadcast journalists may be freelance and may have to relocate or travel according to availability of work.
Diversity in the media is still an issue. The 2006 census from Skillset (Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries) (http://www.skillset.org) estimated that only 38% of the workforce were women, 7% from minority ethnic groups and employees with disabilities accounted for only 1% of the workforce. However, initiatives such as BBC Extend (http://www.bbc.co.uk/jobs/extend/) , Cultural Diversity Network (http://www.culturaldiversitynetwork.co.uk) , Journalism Diversity Fund (http://www.journalismdiversityfund.com) and George Viner Memorial Fund (http://www.georgeviner.org.uk) . are attempting to address this concern and according to the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in 2007, the proportion of people from minority ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities employed in broadcasting appeared to be gradually increasing.
Job opportunities can be found across the UK. Work for network stations will tend to be London or regionally based. There are usually more opportunities at local level, through regional stations. Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) has opened many new opportunities across radio and television.
The work can be stressful and pressurised; broadcast journalists always work to strict deadlines and need to react as and when a story breaks. The work sometimes involves interacting with people at moments of crisis or tragedy which can be emotionally challenging.
There is frequent travel within a working day and absence from home at night. Overseas work or travel is occasional but more common for specialist correspondents.
Entry requirements
There are three main entry routes into broadcast journalism:
direct entry into a traineeship (though positions are scarce);
moving across from print journalism (usually for those with several years' experience);
'pre-entry' by completing an accredited degree or postgraduate qualification (most popular route).
Although this area of work is open to all graduates, a degree in journalism, or business, finance/economics or government/politics may increase your chances, particularly if wishing to pursue a career as a special correspondent. The industry is divided over the value of undergraduate journalism and media studies degrees, so it is worth investigating which courses have industry recognition or recommendation and studying the success rates of their alumni. Details of relevant courses can be obtained from the following accrediting bodies: National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) (http://www.nctj.com) ; and the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (http://www.bjtc.org.uk) .
Entry is not usually possible with an HND only.
Postgraduate entry is the most common route to this profession. The BJTC and NCTJ also accredit postgraduate courses which offer both theoretical and practical training. Information about funding for postgraduate study is available from Broadcast Journalism Training Council (http://www.bjtc.org.uk) (BJTC) and from the journalism department at City University (http://www.city.ac.uk) .
In recent years, the media has introduced a number of initiatives, such as the Journalism Diversity Fund (http://www.journalismdiversityfund.com) , to encourage applications from traditionally under-represented groups. Support is, therefore, available for those who may not have studied in higher education. Details of many schemes are available through the Cultural Diversity Network (http://www.culturaldiversitynetwork.co.uk) .
Potential candidates will need to show evidence of some or all of the following:
an interest in news, current affairs and a good general knowledge;
excellent written communication;
good oral communication, with an authoritative voice, confidence in front of a camera and an 'on air' presence;
an understanding of appropriate technical equipment and relevant editing software;
ability to work under pressure, both within teams and individually;
outstanding analytical skills and ability to absorb, extract and present information in a clear and understandable way;
an interest in people/building rapports, able to handle interactions with sensitivity, empathy and diplomacy;
an eye for a story, with an ability to generate original ideas and the confidence to pitch to senior editors;
resourcefulness and creative problem-solving skills.
Work experience, whether paid or unpaid, can be a useful way to develop these skills. The BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk) and Independent Television (ITV) (http://www.itv.com) regional news both run small sponsored news traineeship schemes. Competition for both traineeships and unpaid work placements at larger network stations is fierce. Making direct approaches to individual editors or producers may therefore prove more fruitful than applying via recruitment departments, as may focusing on local stations. Local press, hospital radio and community media (Community Media Association (http://www.commedia.org.uk) ) are excellent training grounds, as is any involvement in student media (largely magazine, newspaper or radio). Applications, even for work experience, will be stronger if accompanied by demo tapes or cuttings and student media is an ideal place to start building a portfolio. Make yourself known to as many people as possible, be flexible and available at all times. Volunteer to get involved wherever you can and do not be afraid to be pro-active.
There are no age restrictions for entry. Skills, experience and qualifications are the main criteria for selection. It is illegal for employers to discriminate against candidates on the grounds of age, gender, race, disability, sexual orientation or religious faith. For more information on equality and diversity in the job market see handling discrimination.
For more information, see work experience (www.prospects.ac.uk/workexperience) and find courses and research (www.prospects.ac.uk/pg).
Training
If entry has been via an accredited course, it will be expected that the necessary basic training needed to practise in the profession will have been covered. For those who have not come via this route, gaining an understanding of media law and health and safety is normally considered an immediate training need. A substantial amount of training will be informal and 'on the job'. It is usual for trainee journalists to initially be assigned basic tasks such as working autocues and fetching tapes, gaining an insight into the whole process, before they move into more specific and responsible roles.
As budgets are stretched, multi-skilling is becoming more prevalent in the media. Many broadcast journalists find that they can now be responsible for recording and editing their own footage. Acquiring knowledge and understanding of technical equipment and relevant software is, therefore, currently a key training need and many employers will require/support training in these areas.
The media is a fast-paced, ever-evolving industry. Its professional bodies (Skillset (Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries) (http://www.skillset.org) , National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) (http://www.nctj.com) and National Union of Journalists (NUJ) (http://www.nuj.org.uk) ) recognise the need to support journalists in their continual professional development in order to stay ahead of the game. Short courses include: negotiating contracts; public relations; sub-editing; interviewing skills; as well as new technologies.
The Media Courses and Multimedia Courses Directory (http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/talkscourses/mediacourses/) , compiled by Skillset and BFI, lists over 6,000 available courses. Others can be found through Journalism.co.uk (http://www.journalism.co.uk) or BBC Academy (http://www.bbctraining.com) including some free online courses.
Career development
Broadcast journalists who start in television will often begin as newsroom assistants or researchers, before moving into a reporting role. As experience is gained, there is scope to specialise; some may choose to focus on pursuing a senior broadcast journalist role with responsibility for managing news staff and budgets while others may prefer to become a studio-based news anchor or presenter. Another route may be to specialise to become a correspondent. The ultimate aim for the latter may be to secure a position as a senior correspondent on network news, though these positions are highly coveted and few and far between.
Investigative journalism or documentary journalism are also possible career development options. Those who wish to move behind the scenes may aspire to become programme editors/sub-editors or producers.
Radio differs slightly in that trainees are normally given greater responsibility earlier on. Depending on the size of the station, they may even find that they have sole responsibility for a newsroom from the outset. Progression would normally be to positions with larger commercial or network stations or across into television and then as above.
Typical employers
Employers of broadcast journalists include:
BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk)
Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com)
ITN (http://www.itn.co.uk)
Independent Television (ITV) (http://www.itv.com)
Channel 4 Television (http://www.channel4.com)
Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) (http://www.s4c.co.uk)
Five TV (http://about.five.tv/)
independent production companies
international news agencies such as Reuters (http://today.reuters.com)
digital, cable and satellite networks.
Competition for jobs with network broadcasters is extremely tough. However, digital broadcasting has created new openings for broadcast journalists, with the arrival of 24-hour news channels and niche programming and increased opportunities in ethnic broadcasting.
Employers from the radio sector include BBC national and regional stations, as well as local and national commercial radio stations, (see The Local Radio Company (http://www.thelocalradiocompany.com) or RadioCentre (http://www.radiocentre.org) for contact details).
Sources of vacancies
Search graduate jobs (www.prospects.ac.uk/links/jobvacs).
BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk)
Broadcast Journalism Training Council (http://www.bjtc.org.uk) .
Broadcast (http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk) and Broadcast Freelancer (http://www.broadcastfreelancer.com)
Campaign (http://www.campaignlive.co.uk)
Guardian Jobs (http://jobs.guardian.co.uk) - Mondays and Saturdays
Hold the Front Page (http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk)
The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk)
ITV Jobs (http://www.itvjobs.com)
Journalism.co.uk (http://www.journalism.co.uk)
Media Week (http://www.mediaweek.co.uk)
Press Gazette (http://www.pressgazette.co.uk)
There are a small number of recruitment agencies specialising in journalism, including The Media Network (http://www.tmn.co.uk) . Some presenters may use an agent.
See also job hunting tips (www.prospects.ac.uk/links/jobhunt) and applications, CVs and interviews (www.prospects.ac.uk/links/appsinterviews).
Skillset (Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries) (http://www.skillset.org) defines broadcast journalism as 'the collection, verification and analysis of events which affect people'. The work of a broadcast journalist shapes people's perceptions of the world in which they live and therefore has a far-reaching impact.
Broadcast journalists can fill a number of roles within the media including editor, reporter, presenter/news anchor, producer and correspondent.
Typical work activities
Although exact duties and responsibilities will vary from role to role and between radio, television and the internet, broadcast journalists will generally be involved in many of the following duties, on a daily basis:
generating ideas for stories/features and following leads from news agencies, the police, the public, press conferences and other sources;
pitching ideas to editors and commissioners;
researching and collating evidence and information to support a story using relevant information sources (internet, archives, databases, etc);
writing scripts for bulletins, headlines and reports which adhere to legal and contractual guidelines;
selecting appropriate locations, pictures and sound and exercising editorial judgement on the best angle to approach a story from;
identifying necessary resources and deploying/managing technical crews for location shoots, including sound operators and camera crew;
providing directorial input, advising crews on what to film or record;
using portable digital video (DV) cameras and other equipment to record material and appropriate editing software to produce complete packages for broadcast;
preparing and presenting material 'on air' for both pre-recorded and live pieces;
identifying potential interviewees, briefing them, preparing interview questions and conducting both live and recorded interviews;
preparing timings for each news item and monitoring these during broadcast;
deciding on the running order for bulletins and making any necessary changes during broadcast;
developing and maintaining local contacts and assuming a public relations role.
Skillset (Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries) (http://www.skillset.org) has developed a set of national occupational standards which details the responsibilities expected from broadcast journalists.
Work conditions
Range of typical starting salaries: £13,000 - £22,000. Starting salaries vary significantly between local and national broadcasters (salary data collected Feb 09).
Range of typical salaries at senior level/with experience (e.g. after 10 - 15 years in the role): £22,000- £52,000 but can be over £100,000 in exceptional cases (salary data collected Feb 09). Wages differ widely depending on the employer and the location. The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk) estimates that the basic average salary at this level is approximately £30,000.
Pay tends to be higher in television than radio. Independent local radio posts tend to offer the lowest starting salaries. Additional allowances may be paid for shift work and unsocial hours and a London weighting may be available. Freelance reporters are often on individually negotiated contracts.
Working hours typically include regular unsocial hours. Shift work is common, starting early to cover regional news on breakfast radio/television shows or working mid-morning until late evening for afternoon/evening bulletins. Weekend work is often required and most broadcasters do not take public holidays. On-air presenters are less likely to go out on location to cover stories and their working hours may be more predictable/social.
The media is a volatile industry, characterised by short-term contract employment. Many broadcast journalists may be freelance and may have to relocate or travel according to availability of work.
Diversity in the media is still an issue. The 2006 census from Skillset (Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries) (http://www.skillset.org) estimated that only 38% of the workforce were women, 7% from minority ethnic groups and employees with disabilities accounted for only 1% of the workforce. However, initiatives such as BBC Extend (http://www.bbc.co.uk/jobs/extend/) , Cultural Diversity Network (http://www.culturaldiversitynetwork.co.uk) , Journalism Diversity Fund (http://www.journalismdiversityfund.com) and George Viner Memorial Fund (http://www.georgeviner.org.uk) . are attempting to address this concern and according to the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in 2007, the proportion of people from minority ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities employed in broadcasting appeared to be gradually increasing.
Job opportunities can be found across the UK. Work for network stations will tend to be London or regionally based. There are usually more opportunities at local level, through regional stations. Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) has opened many new opportunities across radio and television.
The work can be stressful and pressurised; broadcast journalists always work to strict deadlines and need to react as and when a story breaks. The work sometimes involves interacting with people at moments of crisis or tragedy which can be emotionally challenging.
There is frequent travel within a working day and absence from home at night. Overseas work or travel is occasional but more common for specialist correspondents.
Entry requirements
There are three main entry routes into broadcast journalism:
direct entry into a traineeship (though positions are scarce);
moving across from print journalism (usually for those with several years' experience);
'pre-entry' by completing an accredited degree or postgraduate qualification (most popular route).
Although this area of work is open to all graduates, a degree in journalism, or business, finance/economics or government/politics may increase your chances, particularly if wishing to pursue a career as a special correspondent. The industry is divided over the value of undergraduate journalism and media studies degrees, so it is worth investigating which courses have industry recognition or recommendation and studying the success rates of their alumni. Details of relevant courses can be obtained from the following accrediting bodies: National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) (http://www.nctj.com) ; and the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (http://www.bjtc.org.uk) .
Entry is not usually possible with an HND only.
Postgraduate entry is the most common route to this profession. The BJTC and NCTJ also accredit postgraduate courses which offer both theoretical and practical training. Information about funding for postgraduate study is available from Broadcast Journalism Training Council (http://www.bjtc.org.uk) (BJTC) and from the journalism department at City University (http://www.city.ac.uk) .
In recent years, the media has introduced a number of initiatives, such as the Journalism Diversity Fund (http://www.journalismdiversityfund.com) , to encourage applications from traditionally under-represented groups. Support is, therefore, available for those who may not have studied in higher education. Details of many schemes are available through the Cultural Diversity Network (http://www.culturaldiversitynetwork.co.uk) .
Potential candidates will need to show evidence of some or all of the following:
an interest in news, current affairs and a good general knowledge;
excellent written communication;
good oral communication, with an authoritative voice, confidence in front of a camera and an 'on air' presence;
an understanding of appropriate technical equipment and relevant editing software;
ability to work under pressure, both within teams and individually;
outstanding analytical skills and ability to absorb, extract and present information in a clear and understandable way;
an interest in people/building rapports, able to handle interactions with sensitivity, empathy and diplomacy;
an eye for a story, with an ability to generate original ideas and the confidence to pitch to senior editors;
resourcefulness and creative problem-solving skills.
Work experience, whether paid or unpaid, can be a useful way to develop these skills. The BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk) and Independent Television (ITV) (http://www.itv.com) regional news both run small sponsored news traineeship schemes. Competition for both traineeships and unpaid work placements at larger network stations is fierce. Making direct approaches to individual editors or producers may therefore prove more fruitful than applying via recruitment departments, as may focusing on local stations. Local press, hospital radio and community media (Community Media Association (http://www.commedia.org.uk) ) are excellent training grounds, as is any involvement in student media (largely magazine, newspaper or radio). Applications, even for work experience, will be stronger if accompanied by demo tapes or cuttings and student media is an ideal place to start building a portfolio. Make yourself known to as many people as possible, be flexible and available at all times. Volunteer to get involved wherever you can and do not be afraid to be pro-active.
There are no age restrictions for entry. Skills, experience and qualifications are the main criteria for selection. It is illegal for employers to discriminate against candidates on the grounds of age, gender, race, disability, sexual orientation or religious faith. For more information on equality and diversity in the job market see handling discrimination.
For more information, see work experience (www.prospects.ac.uk/workexperience) and find courses and research (www.prospects.ac.uk/pg).
Training
If entry has been via an accredited course, it will be expected that the necessary basic training needed to practise in the profession will have been covered. For those who have not come via this route, gaining an understanding of media law and health and safety is normally considered an immediate training need. A substantial amount of training will be informal and 'on the job'. It is usual for trainee journalists to initially be assigned basic tasks such as working autocues and fetching tapes, gaining an insight into the whole process, before they move into more specific and responsible roles.
As budgets are stretched, multi-skilling is becoming more prevalent in the media. Many broadcast journalists find that they can now be responsible for recording and editing their own footage. Acquiring knowledge and understanding of technical equipment and relevant software is, therefore, currently a key training need and many employers will require/support training in these areas.
The media is a fast-paced, ever-evolving industry. Its professional bodies (Skillset (Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries) (http://www.skillset.org) , National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) (http://www.nctj.com) and National Union of Journalists (NUJ) (http://www.nuj.org.uk) ) recognise the need to support journalists in their continual professional development in order to stay ahead of the game. Short courses include: negotiating contracts; public relations; sub-editing; interviewing skills; as well as new technologies.
The Media Courses and Multimedia Courses Directory (http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/talkscourses/mediacourses/) , compiled by Skillset and BFI, lists over 6,000 available courses. Others can be found through Journalism.co.uk (http://www.journalism.co.uk) or BBC Academy (http://www.bbctraining.com) including some free online courses.
Career development
Broadcast journalists who start in television will often begin as newsroom assistants or researchers, before moving into a reporting role. As experience is gained, there is scope to specialise; some may choose to focus on pursuing a senior broadcast journalist role with responsibility for managing news staff and budgets while others may prefer to become a studio-based news anchor or presenter. Another route may be to specialise to become a correspondent. The ultimate aim for the latter may be to secure a position as a senior correspondent on network news, though these positions are highly coveted and few and far between.
Investigative journalism or documentary journalism are also possible career development options. Those who wish to move behind the scenes may aspire to become programme editors/sub-editors or producers.
Radio differs slightly in that trainees are normally given greater responsibility earlier on. Depending on the size of the station, they may even find that they have sole responsibility for a newsroom from the outset. Progression would normally be to positions with larger commercial or network stations or across into television and then as above.
Typical employers
Employers of broadcast journalists include:
BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk)
Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com)
ITN (http://www.itn.co.uk)
Independent Television (ITV) (http://www.itv.com)
Channel 4 Television (http://www.channel4.com)
Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) (http://www.s4c.co.uk)
Five TV (http://about.five.tv/)
independent production companies
international news agencies such as Reuters (http://today.reuters.com)
digital, cable and satellite networks.
Competition for jobs with network broadcasters is extremely tough. However, digital broadcasting has created new openings for broadcast journalists, with the arrival of 24-hour news channels and niche programming and increased opportunities in ethnic broadcasting.
Employers from the radio sector include BBC national and regional stations, as well as local and national commercial radio stations, (see The Local Radio Company (http://www.thelocalradiocompany.com) or RadioCentre (http://www.radiocentre.org) for contact details).
Sources of vacancies
Search graduate jobs (www.prospects.ac.uk/links/jobvacs).
BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk)
Broadcast Journalism Training Council (http://www.bjtc.org.uk) .
Broadcast (http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk) and Broadcast Freelancer (http://www.broadcastfreelancer.com)
Campaign (http://www.campaignlive.co.uk)
Guardian Jobs (http://jobs.guardian.co.uk) - Mondays and Saturdays
Hold the Front Page (http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk)
The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk)
ITV Jobs (http://www.itvjobs.com)
Journalism.co.uk (http://www.journalism.co.uk)
Media Week (http://www.mediaweek.co.uk)
Press Gazette (http://www.pressgazette.co.uk)
There are a small number of recruitment agencies specialising in journalism, including The Media Network (http://www.tmn.co.uk) . Some presenters may use an agent.
See also job hunting tips (www.prospects.ac.uk/links/jobhunt) and applications, CVs and interviews (www.prospects.ac.uk/links/appsinterviews).
Qualities of a good radio journalist
There has rarely been a better time to start in radio. More people are
employed in radio in the UK than in television. The industry is growing
Working in radio
fast and the main problem facing many editors is finding sufficient staff
and freelancers who can do the job. Note the words ‘who can do the job’.
There is no shortage of people who would like to do it. Sadly, not all of
them have abilities to match their ambition.
It is essential that you should know what you want to do. The first letters
to be rejected by radio stations usually start: ‘I would be willing to do
anything, including making the tea.’ The writers of such letters believe
they are increasing their chances of employment by showing versatility. In
fact, people who are too dazzled by radio in general are unlikely to be
much use in practice.
Apart from journalists, the other major on-air performers are the presenters.
The term ‘presenter’ can cover all kinds of broadcasting, from being a
DJ on a fast-moving dance show to reading the shipping forecast on Radio
Four. On BBC local radio stations, the presenters of the main programmes
at breakfast, lunch and drive time are usually experienced journalists.
A competent radio journalist has to combine the traditional talents of the
reporter with the newer skills. Some know a little about a lot. Others, like
specialist reporters, know a lot about a little. Traditional talents mean an
ability to write clear, easily understood English, a knack of summarizing
complicated situations, asking pertinent but pithy questions and – most
important of all – a ‘nose for news’ or knowing what makes a good
news story.
In addition, the radio journalist must feel at home with technical equipment
and digital editing techniques. This means hard disk editing, recording
links and packages, reading self-op live bulletins on air and conducting
interviews. If many of these terms mean nothing, do not worry. They are
all explained later.
The good radio journalist is flexible, technically competent, capable of
working under extreme time pressure, able to prioritize and juggle dealing
with a major disaster and a funny story in the same hour. Journalists must
also be able to think well on their feet, perhaps recording an interview or
writing details of a court case story literally a few seconds before they are
due on air.
The quality of imagination in a radio journalist does not mean the quality
of making up stories, but having ideas for news stories and their treatments,
as well as seeing newsworthy possibilities in unpromising places,
like apparently endless council meeting minutes and agendas.
Basic Radio Journalism
Paul Chantler and Peter Stewart
employed in radio in the UK than in television. The industry is growing
Working in radio
fast and the main problem facing many editors is finding sufficient staff
and freelancers who can do the job. Note the words ‘who can do the job’.
There is no shortage of people who would like to do it. Sadly, not all of
them have abilities to match their ambition.
It is essential that you should know what you want to do. The first letters
to be rejected by radio stations usually start: ‘I would be willing to do
anything, including making the tea.’ The writers of such letters believe
they are increasing their chances of employment by showing versatility. In
fact, people who are too dazzled by radio in general are unlikely to be
much use in practice.
Apart from journalists, the other major on-air performers are the presenters.
The term ‘presenter’ can cover all kinds of broadcasting, from being a
DJ on a fast-moving dance show to reading the shipping forecast on Radio
Four. On BBC local radio stations, the presenters of the main programmes
at breakfast, lunch and drive time are usually experienced journalists.
A competent radio journalist has to combine the traditional talents of the
reporter with the newer skills. Some know a little about a lot. Others, like
specialist reporters, know a lot about a little. Traditional talents mean an
ability to write clear, easily understood English, a knack of summarizing
complicated situations, asking pertinent but pithy questions and – most
important of all – a ‘nose for news’ or knowing what makes a good
news story.
In addition, the radio journalist must feel at home with technical equipment
and digital editing techniques. This means hard disk editing, recording
links and packages, reading self-op live bulletins on air and conducting
interviews. If many of these terms mean nothing, do not worry. They are
all explained later.
The good radio journalist is flexible, technically competent, capable of
working under extreme time pressure, able to prioritize and juggle dealing
with a major disaster and a funny story in the same hour. Journalists must
also be able to think well on their feet, perhaps recording an interview or
writing details of a court case story literally a few seconds before they are
due on air.
The quality of imagination in a radio journalist does not mean the quality
of making up stories, but having ideas for news stories and their treatments,
as well as seeing newsworthy possibilities in unpromising places,
like apparently endless council meeting minutes and agendas.
Basic Radio Journalism
Paul Chantler and Peter Stewart
Understanding Radio
People listen to radio news when they need to know quickly what is going
on. They realize that because radio news is so simple and short, it is up to
date and has to concentrate simply on reporting the facts.
Speed and simplicity
Radio is probably at its best when it is ‘live’ or reacting to an event
happening ‘now’. Because there are relatively few technicalities, a news
story can be on the air in seconds and updated as it develops. Radio works
best with news stories which require a quick reaction. There is a flexibility
which exists in no other media because comparatively few people are
involved in the process.
Radio can simply be one person and a telephone. There are no cameras,
lights or production assistants. Usually, it is just one broadcaster and a
microphone or telephone separating him or her from the listener. You
should always strive to make use of radio’s greatest assets – speed and
simplicity.
Making pictures
Radio is the best medium to stimulate the imagination. By doing what
radio does best – getting on the air from a scene quickly and describing
the event so the listener can visualize what is happening – you are using
the most powerful tools you possess: immediacy and imagery.
The listener is always trying to imagine what he or she hears and what is
being described. These pictures are emotional – such as the tearful voice
of a mother appealing for information about her missing teenage daughter.
Pictures on radio are not limited by the size of the screen; they are any
size you wish.
Person-to-person
Radio is a very personal medium. The broadcaster is usually speaking
directly to the listener. This is why it is so important to think of the audience
as singular. When you talk on the radio, you are not broadcasting to the
masses through a gigantic public address system. You are talking to one
person in the way you would speak if you were holding a conversation
over a cup of coffee or pint of beer.
Radio also allows the full emotions of the human voice to be heard, from
laughter through anger and pain to compassion. The sound of a voice can
convey far more than reported speech. This is because the way something
is being said is just as important as what is being said.
Localness
The biggest strength of broadcasting news on local radio is that it gives a
station its sense of being truly local. Local radio stations aiming for a
broad audience ignore news at their peril. In an increasingly competitive
marketplace, news is one of the few things which makes a local station
sound distinctive and ‘close to you’.
News from ‘around the corner’ is often just as important to a listener as
news from around the world – if not more so in many cases. However,
there is a danger of becoming too local. Policy judgements have to be
made about what is local and what is too parochial or parish pump. Local
radio news bulletins are not audio versions of local newspapers, for
reasons of space if nothing else. The judgement of how local is local is an
important one. For example, a story about a cat up a tree is too parochial
for all radio stations. The same story about a firefighter being killed while
trying to rescue the cat is not only a good local story, it is almost certainly
a national one as well.
Basic Radio Journalism
Paul Chantler and Peter Stewart
on. They realize that because radio news is so simple and short, it is up to
date and has to concentrate simply on reporting the facts.
Speed and simplicity
Radio is probably at its best when it is ‘live’ or reacting to an event
happening ‘now’. Because there are relatively few technicalities, a news
story can be on the air in seconds and updated as it develops. Radio works
best with news stories which require a quick reaction. There is a flexibility
which exists in no other media because comparatively few people are
involved in the process.
Radio can simply be one person and a telephone. There are no cameras,
lights or production assistants. Usually, it is just one broadcaster and a
microphone or telephone separating him or her from the listener. You
should always strive to make use of radio’s greatest assets – speed and
simplicity.
Making pictures
Radio is the best medium to stimulate the imagination. By doing what
radio does best – getting on the air from a scene quickly and describing
the event so the listener can visualize what is happening – you are using
the most powerful tools you possess: immediacy and imagery.
The listener is always trying to imagine what he or she hears and what is
being described. These pictures are emotional – such as the tearful voice
of a mother appealing for information about her missing teenage daughter.
Pictures on radio are not limited by the size of the screen; they are any
size you wish.
Person-to-person
Radio is a very personal medium. The broadcaster is usually speaking
directly to the listener. This is why it is so important to think of the audience
as singular. When you talk on the radio, you are not broadcasting to the
masses through a gigantic public address system. You are talking to one
person in the way you would speak if you were holding a conversation
over a cup of coffee or pint of beer.
Radio also allows the full emotions of the human voice to be heard, from
laughter through anger and pain to compassion. The sound of a voice can
convey far more than reported speech. This is because the way something
is being said is just as important as what is being said.
Localness
The biggest strength of broadcasting news on local radio is that it gives a
station its sense of being truly local. Local radio stations aiming for a
broad audience ignore news at their peril. In an increasingly competitive
marketplace, news is one of the few things which makes a local station
sound distinctive and ‘close to you’.
News from ‘around the corner’ is often just as important to a listener as
news from around the world – if not more so in many cases. However,
there is a danger of becoming too local. Policy judgements have to be
made about what is local and what is too parochial or parish pump. Local
radio news bulletins are not audio versions of local newspapers, for
reasons of space if nothing else. The judgement of how local is local is an
important one. For example, a story about a cat up a tree is too parochial
for all radio stations. The same story about a firefighter being killed while
trying to rescue the cat is not only a good local story, it is almost certainly
a national one as well.
Basic Radio Journalism
Paul Chantler and Peter Stewart
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Three tools Journalism 101 should introduce to students
Three tools Journalism 101 should introduce to students
NOVEMBER 16, 2010 BY JOSHUA LYNCH ADD COMMENT SHARE
The AP Stylebook may be handy, but it's not the only tool Journalism 101 students should be handed. Photo by Lee Bennett on Flickr.
Looking back at my college education, I’m left wishing that I had been introduced to some tools a bit earlier. Instead of being set up as a life-long learner and digital journalist, I was required to buy an Associated Press Stylebook and spent my time practicing how to bang out different types of ledes that blend into different story structures.
That material is not complex, but some people have the knack for it and lots don’t. The camp of students that does get it right away (and is already practicing it at the student paper or internships) suffers through the rest of the semester while professors patiently try teaching the same things in different ways to students who don’t get it. Years later, as graduation approached, I realized lots of the students who had held back the class because they didn’t understand the basics were either no longer in the program—or still couldn’t write a good hard news lead and a basic inverted pyramid.
The attitude was that everything worth learning could be gained by religiously attending class and doing one or two internships.
I can’t help wondering what I would have already learned independently had my journalism professors introduced me to these three tools for learning journalism:
1. Blogging
Throughout my journalism program, professors required students to start up a blog, usually using Blogger, and use it for a variety of purposes, including actually blogging about a neighborhood or topic a few times during the course or just posting assignments to it in an effort to go paperless and encourage online discourse between classmates.
What I wish would have happened is that my professors across courses worked to graduate bloggers. That means introducing us to good blogging software (so definitely not Blogger) and guiding us through setting up those blogs (buying domains, setting up hosting, etc.); focusing in on a blogging topic that we were passionate about and would blog about; continually emphasizing blogging best practice along with print journalism techniques; and working across classes and the program to start and stick with one blog.
Blogging would be a like a whole new classroom for journalism students, and the benefits would be many, including: introducing students to essential technology for web publishing, teaching them to network through the Internet effectively and giving them practice writing in a less formal, conversational manner for web readers.
2. RSS Reader
Sure, many programs have classes that require students to read their local newspaper and even take quizzes on the news. It’s an effective way to force students to start a news-reading habit if they didn’t have one already. But it also pretends that there aren’t plenty of other sources out there that will help students pick up journalism skills—namely blogs about social media, new media, journalism, etc. Having students read blogs like Mindy McAdams’ Teaching Online Journalism blog is like enrolling them in a whole new journalism class.
3. Twitter and other social media
Twitter was in its infancy when I was entering my journalism program, but now that it’s widely accepted as an excellent tool for many tasks in journalism, it’s time journalism professors learn about it themselves and then get students using it as a networking tool, social version of an RSS reader, and a method of sourcing stories and engaging with audiences.
Read more
NOVEMBER 16, 2010 BY JOSHUA LYNCH ADD COMMENT SHARE
The AP Stylebook may be handy, but it's not the only tool Journalism 101 students should be handed. Photo by Lee Bennett on Flickr.
Looking back at my college education, I’m left wishing that I had been introduced to some tools a bit earlier. Instead of being set up as a life-long learner and digital journalist, I was required to buy an Associated Press Stylebook and spent my time practicing how to bang out different types of ledes that blend into different story structures.
That material is not complex, but some people have the knack for it and lots don’t. The camp of students that does get it right away (and is already practicing it at the student paper or internships) suffers through the rest of the semester while professors patiently try teaching the same things in different ways to students who don’t get it. Years later, as graduation approached, I realized lots of the students who had held back the class because they didn’t understand the basics were either no longer in the program—or still couldn’t write a good hard news lead and a basic inverted pyramid.
The attitude was that everything worth learning could be gained by religiously attending class and doing one or two internships.
I can’t help wondering what I would have already learned independently had my journalism professors introduced me to these three tools for learning journalism:
1. Blogging
Throughout my journalism program, professors required students to start up a blog, usually using Blogger, and use it for a variety of purposes, including actually blogging about a neighborhood or topic a few times during the course or just posting assignments to it in an effort to go paperless and encourage online discourse between classmates.
What I wish would have happened is that my professors across courses worked to graduate bloggers. That means introducing us to good blogging software (so definitely not Blogger) and guiding us through setting up those blogs (buying domains, setting up hosting, etc.); focusing in on a blogging topic that we were passionate about and would blog about; continually emphasizing blogging best practice along with print journalism techniques; and working across classes and the program to start and stick with one blog.
Blogging would be a like a whole new classroom for journalism students, and the benefits would be many, including: introducing students to essential technology for web publishing, teaching them to network through the Internet effectively and giving them practice writing in a less formal, conversational manner for web readers.
2. RSS Reader
Sure, many programs have classes that require students to read their local newspaper and even take quizzes on the news. It’s an effective way to force students to start a news-reading habit if they didn’t have one already. But it also pretends that there aren’t plenty of other sources out there that will help students pick up journalism skills—namely blogs about social media, new media, journalism, etc. Having students read blogs like Mindy McAdams’ Teaching Online Journalism blog is like enrolling them in a whole new journalism class.
3. Twitter and other social media
Twitter was in its infancy when I was entering my journalism program, but now that it’s widely accepted as an excellent tool for many tasks in journalism, it’s time journalism professors learn about it themselves and then get students using it as a networking tool, social version of an RSS reader, and a method of sourcing stories and engaging with audiences.
Read more
Eight trends for journalism in 2011
Trend 1: Tivo for news
Trend 2: More sharing of content, in both directions
Trend 3: The singles model for news
Trend 4: We’ll do it live
Trend 6: Trimming back in nonprofits
Trend 7: New front pages
Trend 8: A shift in Google results
Read More here
Trend 2: More sharing of content, in both directions
Trend 3: The singles model for news
Trend 4: We’ll do it live
Trend 6: Trimming back in nonprofits
Trend 7: New front pages
Trend 8: A shift in Google results
Read More here
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