1. Introduction Shall I tell you a story? A journalist once asked me what I thought the duty of a journalist was. I said it was to be objective, to ask questions and to report the facts. He said that didn’t sound very real, because reporters are often biased towards the people they are writing about and don’t always report the facts accurately. I said that if he is a reporter, he should ask questions and report facts. He said no, he was supposed to be objective and only report the facts as they were perceived by his readers. I told him maybe I could put it like this: If a journalist is not objective then his or her job is pointless. So if he or she does not have an interest in the subject matter, then it becomes useless for them to write about it. He then goes on to say if journalists do not have an interest in the subject matter, then why do they write about it? How can they possibly know what is useful for their readers? It’s just confusing that people have different opinions o...
1. Intro I have been a journalist for over 20 years. I have seen many people write their stories. Many of them are not good. Some are even worse than bad. But it is still possible to write good news pieces. Many other journalists are pretty good at it, and some even quite good, but for the most part, if you want to write a good news story you need to learn how to do it . A couple of things are also important: 1) You should start with the basics – that is, the fundamentals of journalism (which include breaking news, interviews with people who know what they’re talking about, and so on). 2) You should first learn how to structure your story. That means knowing when and where you can use quotes and when you must use direct quotes. 3) You should learn how to clearly define your point of view (or take-away). 4) You should also learn how to develop an argument or case against your opponent’s point of view (i.e., “the case against…” or “the case for…”). 5) Finally, you should learn how ...