what is journalism assignment

Journalism | Definition, Purpose & Types

Corrie Whitmer has worked in the professional writing field for four years. She has a master’s degree in professional writing from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has been published in Pharmacy Today magazine and Unfading Daydream.

Ashley has a JD degree and is an attorney. She has extensive experience as a prosecutor and legal writer, and she has taught and written various law courses.

Maria has taught University level psychology and mathematics courses for over 20 years. They have a Doctorate in Education from Nova Southeastern University, a Master of Arts in Human Factors Psychology from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Flagler College.

Table of Contents

What is journalism, the purpose of journalism, why is journalism important, journalism terms.

• Types of Journalism

What Do Journalists Do?

Lesson summary, critique the journalist.

In this activity, students will use what they have learned to critique multiple styles of journalism.

• Popular magazines (Teen Fashion, Psychology Today, People)
• Newspapers (local and nationally recognized)
• Other periodicals/news magazines (Wall Street Journal, News Day)
• Internet published news sites

Instructions

• Choose at least three articles from different styles of journalistic reporting. Make sure at least one is from a popular magazine and one is from an internet news site.
• The answers to the five 'Ws' given in the lesson.
• The level of objectivity and lack of bias apparent in the article.
• Evidence of verification attempts and accuracy in reporting.
• Were they all as good at answering the five main questions?
• Did they all show objectivity and lack of bias?
• Were they all verified and accurate?
• Do you think newspapers offer more journalistic attributes than magazine articles do? Why or why not?
• Does it matter how well known the source of the material is? Why or why not?
• Finally, reflect on how journalists can influence their readers through the use of, or lack of use of, good journalism.
• How does this rather suspect source compare to the others you have chosen?
• Does it pass the requirements of objectivity, bias, verification and accuracy?
• The five Ws are answered in this article, but in vague terms such as 'last year' instead of a specific date.
• The journalist does not seem to exhibit any bias and the writing is objective, giving both sides of the issue.
• Verification is the area in which this piece of journalism weakens drastically. The author verifies information through unnamed sources that have dubious links to the main subjects of the article. It is impossible to tell if the information is accurate based on this article.

What do journalists do on a daily basis?

What journalists do every day varies heavily by what type of journalism they do. However, all journalists do research, talk to sources, and organize information into informative stories.

What skills do you need to be a journalist?

Journalists need to be able to do investigations, conduct interviews, and put information together in ways that make sense. Thus, they need to be excellent at research, one-on-one communication, and writing.

What is the role of a journalist?

Journalists gather information on a topic and then organize it into an engaging and clear story. They may do this for a newspaper, a TV news outlet, a podcast, or any other communication media.

What is the main purpose of journalism?

The main purpose of journalism is to provide the public with accurate, timely information about the world. Journalists inform their audience by reporting on what is most relevant to them.

A basic journalism definition is the gathering, assembling, and presentation of news . Journalists produce many different types of content for various media, but their work is tied together by the fact that they all focus on nonfiction information related in some way to current events. Additionally, journalism is usually performed in association with some sort of news outlet that gathers journalistic pieces and provides them to the public.

So, as an example, a nonfiction article on a recent election would qualify as journalism, while a nonfiction discussion of construction methods used by the Aztec Empire would not. However, an archaeological dig discovering new information about Aztec construction would be an appropriate topic for a journalism piece. Exactly how recent the news imparted in a journalism piece is varies heavily, but in general journalistic pieces will be tied to something recent enough that it could have an impact on reader's lives in some way.

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• 0:02 What Is Journalism?
• 2:05 The Role of Journalism
• 3:03 Objectivity & Bias
• 5:09 Verification & Accuracy
• 6:11 Lesson Summary

When producing pieces, journalists work to providing the public with information that is relevant to their lives. It is important that journalism is not only accurate but also useful. The best journalism informs about events, issues, and people that impact society or affect daily life.

In a democratic society, journalism takes on the additional role of ensuring that citizens have the information they need to understand their government and vote in their best interests. Democratic societies function best when the voters understand the candidates and the issues at play in their elections; journalism is key to disseminating this information. In addition to providing information to voters, journalists can uncover corruption and act as whistleblowers.

Journalism is an essential component of a democratic society. Nations with freedom of the press tend to function better than those with restrictions on journalists. Countries with extensive restrictions on their press are often not democratic at all.

Journalists call the first part of a written news piece the lede (also spelled lead). Ledes vary in length from a single sentence to a paragraph, but all are written with the purpose of drawing readers into their story. The most common structure for a news story is the inverted pyramid (also called funnel), in which the information in the piece is organized from most to least important.

Journalists also have specialized words for various parts of the journalistic process. For example, doing research for a story is called investigating , providing detailed nonfiction information on a topic is reporting , and getting information from someone by talking to them is called interviewing . People interviewed for a story are known as sources . A press conference is an event at which a politician or public figure speaks to a large number of journalists at once.

A key concept within journalism is the "Five W's" used by journalists. These five questions guide journalists while they identify, investigate, and report on news. The "Five W's" are:

• Who: Who was involved?
• What: What occurred?
• Where: Where did this occur?
• When: When did it happen?
• Why: Why did it happen?

A good news story should address every one of these questions.

There are as many types of journalists as there are journalistic subjects. Here are some common types of reporters who work for news media, along with definitions of their areas of focus.

• Breaking news reporters cover recent events of public interest. They can be considered generalists, and often write about a variety of subjects. These journalists are the ones most people think of when asked about the definition of a reporter
• Investigative reporters produce detailed, long-form reports on subjects that are poorly or incompletely understood by the general public. Most, but not all, investigative reporting focuses on corruption or systemic failure in governments or the private sector.
• Crime reporters focus on news about criminal justice. They cover arrests and trials, as well as trends among criminals and how citizens can protect themselves from various crimes.
• Politics reporters focus specifically on political topics. Their work encompasses elections, new laws, political scandals, and other subjects related to the government
• Health and Wellness journalists focus on news that is relevant to health and healthcare. Their articles concern research into various diseases, dieting trends, new information about various medications, and other topics relevant to public health.
• Arts and Lifestyle reporters focus on culture, media, and leisure topics. These reporters produce content such as movie reviews, recipes, articles on interior design, and advice columns.
• Sports reporters cover sports, from local children's leagues all the way up to the Olympics .
• Celebrity reporters write about prominent people, including actors, musicians, and influencers. They may conduct interviews with their subjects or simply report on their recent actions.
• Editorial, opinion, and op-ed writers produce articles with a clear, stated bias, often with the goal of persuading readers to agree with their opinions. Some media organizations keep an opinion writer on staff, while others rely on guest writers for this content.

There are dozens of different ways to communicate news, meaning that journalism jobs vary heavily depending on what news medium the journalist is working in and what kind of news they report on. However, almost all journalism jobs have some tasks in common. Journalists across mediums work to identify interesting news, do research on the subject of their stories, and identify potential interview subjects. Nearly all journalists conduct interviews, arrange the information they've gathered into a coherent story, and then work with editors to ensure that their work is high quality.

A sports journalist who works for a local paper might start this process by checking the local sports schedule. They attend games, interview coaches and players, and possibly even take some of their own photographs. After submitting a draft to their editor, they incorporate any suggestions the editor made and then submit their work for publication. At any given moment, they are probably working on several stories at once.

A politics journalist who works for a national news show would similarly work on multiple stories at once. But their stories would start with official press releases or social media posts from politicians. Unlike the local sports journalist, who typically takes notes or makes an audio recording of interviews, they conduct interviews on camera, some of them live. Their editing process involves splicing interview clips together into a brief, informative story.

The Role of a Journalist

Journalists are responsible for providing their audience with timely, factual information about the world around them. They gather information and present it to their audience in a logical and engaging way. Because they report on news, journalists are sometimes also called reporters . The definition of reporter and that of journalist are usually interchangeable, but the latter is considered more formal.

Journalists do not work alone; they collaborate with people in other roles to get out the news. But while both a news producer and a journalist have a role in deciding what news will be presented and how, the journalist is the one who actually does the investigation. Similarly, newscasters play a big role in presenting the news, but they are only journalists if they are also the ones responsible for gathering the information they present.

The news industry id often referred to as the media . A news media definition would be the entirety of outlets engaged in the business of delivering the news through print, broadcast and online vehicles.

Objectivity and Accuracy

Journalism is valuable to society because, in its best form, it provides the public with trustworthy information about current events. As a result, journalists often prioritize objectivity and balance while discussing the news. When a journalist talks about being objective, they mean ensuring that they are presenting news in a way that doesn't incorporate their own emotions or seek to influence those of the reader. Balance in a news story means that if the news story discusses a contentious topic, all sides of the issue are given equal attention. Reputable journalists are very careful about avoiding even the appearance of bias; they know that if they fail to be objective and balanced in their reporting, their audience will no longer trust them.

To ensure the accuracy of their work, journalists also put emphasis on verification . In other words, they strive to ensure that any information they present can be backed up, preferably with multiple sources. This ensures that the work they do is accurate, or truthful.

When journalists neglect these values, the results are often serious. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Fox News repeatedly released false or misleading stories and social media posts that were critical of the COVID-19 vaccine and vaccine mandates. These stories ultimately contributed to vaccine skepticism and refusal in the US. In addition to incorrect reports from respected outlets, modern social media is full of completely fabricated news, often from made-up outlets, that is passed around without context or fact-checking.

In contrast, when a responsible journalist notices that they have presented something untrue as fact, they will often print a retraction . Retractions are corrections to published stories that often appear at the end of the piece.

Journalism is the name for a profession in which people gather information, put it together in ways that are easy to understand, and present it to the public. Journalists specifically focus on providing factual accounts related to recent events. Journalists use a variety of different types of media to convey information, but they share a primary goal of informing media consumers. In democracies, journalism is also critical to ensuring that voters are informed about their government and the issues at play in elections. More democratic societies generally have better protections on freedom of the press.

Journalists call the first section of a news article the lede , while the typical structure of an article is called the inverted pyramid. Journalists refer to the process of researching for a story as investigating , while they call talking to someone as part of that research an interview . The people they interview are called sources, and a meeting during which a public feature speaks to many journalists at once is a press conference. Journalists also use a set of questions known as the "Five W's" (who, what, where, when and why) as a structure for gathering and organizing information.

There are a variety of different types of reporters, each focused on different types of news. The precise tasks a journalist does each day vary heavily depending on their medium and the type of journalism they do, but all journalists gather information, craft it into a coherent story, and present it to the public. As journalists are responsible for reporting on news, they are also known as reporters.

Objectivity and balance are extremely important to journalists. An objective reporter avoids any choices that could indicate that their opinions are affecting how they cover a topic. Meanwhile, balance means showcasing every side of any issue they discuss. Journalists also endeavor to provide accurate information by ensuring that their stories can be verified by multiple sources. Journalists who are careless about accuracy and bias can do real damage. If a journalist publishes something false, the correct thing for them to do is to issue a retraction that acknowledges the issues with what they initially published.

Video Transcript

What is journalism.

One person was taken to the Burn Center at Parkland Hospital after flames ripped through an East Dallas apartment complex.

This was the first line of a current newspaper article. Did you read a newspaper this morning? Maybe you watched the news on television or heard headlines broadcast on the radio. These are forms of journalism . Journalism is the act of gathering and presenting news and information. The term 'journalism' also refers to the news and information itself. It's important to notice the variety of information media today. The news and information can be presented in many different ways, including articles, reports, broadcasts, or even tweets.

Journalism is a form of communication, but it's distinct from other forms. It is unique because it's a one-way message, or story, from the journalist to the audience. It's most unique because the message isn't the journalist's personal story or subjective thoughts. Instead, the journalist acts as a conduit, narrating an objective story about something that happened or is happening, based on his or her observations and discoveries. This type of storytelling comes in many different forms, including:

• Breaking news
• Feature stories
• Investigative reports

Journalism's unique storytelling comes in the form of reporting. To report simply means to convey the facts of the story. Even in editorials and reviews, the journalist is conveying facts about the experience. The story can be analytical or interpretive and still be journalism. In general, reporting comes from interviewing, studying, examining, documenting, assessing, and researching. New journalists are often taught to report on the five Ws , so you'll notice that most pieces of journalism include some or all of these:

• Who was it?
• What did they do?
• Where were they?
• When did it happen?
• Why did it happen?

The Role of Journalism

Journalism serves many different roles. Foremost, it serves to inform the public. It's an open medium, meaning the intended audience includes the entire community or public. Once the journalist reports the information - or sends the communication - that information is available to anyone wishing to receive it.

For that reason, journalism is an essential component in a democratic society. The freer the society, like the United States, the more news and information is available to the public. Citizens tend to be well-informed on issues affecting their communities, government, and everyday dealings. On the other hand, North Korea allows only limited access to independent news sources and almost no access to the Internet. The vast majority of news and information comes from the official Korean Central News Agency, which reports mainly on statements from the political leadership. This leaves citizens with only one, filtered point of view.

Objectivity & Bias

This type of bias is a key issue in journalism. Journalism is based on objectivity , meaning journalists must make every effort to report the news and information without allowing their preconceptions to influence the stories. There's a general acceptance that journalists, like all people, have inherent personal and cultural biases. These prejudices can be positive, negative, or neutral, and many are subconscious. Some biases are even thought to be organization-wide. For example, many people believe Fox News is biased toward the Republican Party, while MSNBC is biased toward the Democratic Party.

In the early 1900s, especially in the 1920s, there was a concerted push toward greater objectivity in journalism. After years of political propaganda and reporting based simply on 'realism', experts pushed for a consistent process for testing information that more closely resembled a scientific method.

When previously using a theory of realism, journalists were only tasked with finding and presenting the information. The common belief was that the truth would naturally surface through the conveyance of facts in the proper order - from most important to least important. However, the 'facts' were often slanted and ordered according to the journalist's prejudices.

Using a theory of objectivity, the facts are tested prior to reporting so that the information is conveyed in a transparent manner. This might mean the journalist manages his or her bias, rather than completely removing it. For example, this lesson expresses a bias toward a free society with an open media forum. To be transparent simply means to present the facts so that the audience can decide for themselves what to believe.

Today's journalism students are taught to study the evidence, check their sources, and validate all information. There isn't a common method for achieving objectivity, though most journalists say they've learned the art of objective reporting by working with and observing other, more seasoned journalists.

Verification & Accuracy

The main goal is to present truthful and accurate information through verification , or making sure that the information is accurate. This requires not just gathering and presenting, but assessing.

Many experts believe accuracy to be the first tenet of journalism. Journalism is a conveyance of facts, and is therefore non-fiction. Journalists and organizations lose credibility when they misrepresent the facts. For example, CNN and several other news organizations came under fire when they prematurely announced an arrest had been made in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. In fact, the arrest was made more than two days later.

One way to achieve accuracy is, again, through transparency. Journalists are encouraged to give their audiences all of the information they gathered. This might mean gathering sources from many different sides of an issue, and admitting what they don't know about a story. That way, audiences can verify the information for themselves.

Journalism is the act of gathering and presenting news and information, though the term is also used to refer to the news and information itself. It's a type of storytelling that comes in many different forms and is a key component to a democratic society.

Journalism can come in many forms, from newspaper articles to live tweets at an event. Journalists are taught to focus on the five Ws which are the who, what, where, why, and when of a story.

However, journalists must be careful to manage bias and report with objectivity , or a management or lack of personal or cultural bias. This means journalists must make every effort to convey information without allowing their preconceptions to influence the stories. To boost credibility, journalists must verify , or make sure of the accuracy of their information so they report with accuracy. This means they must assess the information before presenting it.

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Teaching Journalism: 5 Journalism Lessons and Activities

You and your students will absolutely love these journalism lessons! The beginning of a new school year can be hectic for journalism teachers who are tasked with simultaneously teaching new journalism students who don’t have any journalism experience while also planning and publishing content for the school newspaper.

If your class is anything like mine, it is a mix of returning and new students. This year, I only have three returning students, so it is almost like I am starting entirely from scratch.

Here are 5 journalism lessons to teach at the beginning of the year

1. staff interview activity.

One of the very first assignments I have my students do is partner up with a fellow staff member that they don’t know and interview them. This activity works on two things: first, it helps the class get to know one another. Secondly, it helps students proactive their interviewing skills in a low-stakes environment.

For this activity, I have students come up with 10 interview questions, interview one another and do a quick write-up so that students can have practice recording their interviews.

Before this activity, I go over interviewing skills with my students. We discuss the dos and don’ts of interviewing, we brainstorm good interviewing questions, and we talk about the need to go beyond simple answer questions.

2. Staff Bio

Another great activity for the beginning of the year is to have students write their staff bio. This provides students with an opportunity to write in the third person while also providing the most important information.

For my staff bios, I give students 80-100 words. I have them write their bios in the third person and in the present tense.

3. Collaborative News Story

For our first news story of the school year, I like to write one collaboratively as a staff. We go over the basics of journalism writing and then write together in one Google Doc. I do this as a learning activity so that new staff can see how we write journalistically. First, I have students work together in small groups to write the lead. Then, as a class, we craft one together. From there, we move on to building the story.

As we write the story, as a staff, we can then see what kind of information we need. I assign small groups of students to interview people and find quotes. Those groups then add that information to the story.

Once it is written, we edit and review the story together before it is published. This activity is particularly helpful because students get to see how we format quotes in our stories, how we refer to students and teachers in our stories, and how we go about the news-gathering process.

Once our collaborative story is done, new staff then have the green light to begin writing their own stories.

4. The News Determinants

You can also read more in-depth about the news determinants with this blog post about teaching the five news determinants .

5. AP Style Writing

As students are writing their first stories, I like to teach students about AP Style . I use this instructional presentation, and students assemble their AP Style mini flip books that they use as a reference all year long.

The news determinants and AP Style lessons are included in my journalism curriculum with many other resources that will make teaching and advising the middle school or high school newspaper much easier.

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Journalism Online

Real Information For Real People

What is Journalism? 7 Answers for Future Journalists

Most of us know the Five Ws (and H) that are otherwise known as reporters’ questions. Did you know WHO developed them? We give credit to an English rhetorician named Thomas Wilson (1524-1581). He introduced the method in 1560, calling them the “seven circumstances” of medieval rhetoric. In his version, the seven questions were who, what, where, by what or whose help did events occur. Next are why, how, and when. Combined, these questions form the foundation of journalism.

In the centuries since, journalism has developed into both an art form as well as a formal profession. What is Journalism? It’s far more than just reporting. Being a journalist means embracing an identity that involves a specific set of values that journalists and reporters have clung to through every historical, political, and cultural change since the Middle Ages.

WHAT Is Journalism?

As a discipline, Journalism is the gathering, preparation, and distribution of news, features, and commentary. Delivery platforms are print as well as digital media. Printed media includes traditional newspapers, books, and magazines. Electronic media consists of a myriad of outlets, including blogs, podcasts, social media, radio, and television.

In all elective democracies, journalism is a professional identity for journalists who identify their role within society as an exclusive one. In the United States and other democratic nations, journalists have vehemently defended their profession, ethics, and ideology.

WHEN Does Journalism Support Democracy?

The link between democratic societies and journalism generates more questions about the nature of the profession. It also makes you wonder how and why the definition of journalism changes along with history. Journalism aids in the democratic process by reporting political and societal events. Through reporting, citizens understand current campaign happenings, debate results, and voting activities. In doing so, they also hold the government accountable.

Journalists also force citizens and the government alike to address public interest issues that the society would otherwise not see. Such issues become detrimental to freedom and democracy when we fail to address them. Thus, the media helps society to evolve and balance itself. At the local level, it creates public forums, disseminates information to citizens, and acts as a conduit of sorts for processes that healthy societies need to thrive.

All this works together to create tolerances that, in turn, foster cultural diversity. By keeping the people informed, journalism keeps people united and aligned.

WHERE Do We See the Cultural Impact of Journalism?

Aside from gathering and reporting information, Journalism impacts culture because it interacts with the arts and other disciplines. Whatever art, literature, music, or other cultural event is happening, media brings it to the people’s attention. Through event calendars, reviews, editorials, and so on, people are aware of performances, rituals, and creative offerings that would otherwise go unnoticed. This is how journalism contributes to the culture, adding to the greater good.

WHEN Did the Definition of Journalism Change?

The values and ideology within the field of Journalism adapt to cultural and technological change. After all, you now know that Journalism is far more than just obtaining and delivering news. American society grows more multicultural and diverse each year, let alone each decade. Also, the explosion of multimedia has challenged the very definition of Journalism.

The Twentieth Century changed more than just the delivery platforms for distributing the news. Through radio and television news, journalists could report the news instantly. No longer did we have to wait for the morning headlines. Listeners and viewers could tune into scheduled broadcasts. Emerging news stories were reported through emergency broadcasts.

Journalism and Social Media

With the advent of the Internet came the rise of social media. Legitimate as well as non-credible (“ yellow journalism ” and fake news) stories could be instantaneously shared with millions of people across social networks. Because like-minded people tend to post images and stories of their related interests, bias is created.

Also, the established integrity that journalists and investigative reporters embrace is called into question as more and more online sites and publications pop up without established credibility. Many feel that multimedia platforms are chiseling away at the traditional expectation that a professional journalist meticulously checks all the facts before publishing. On the other hand, the race to break a story first puts incredible pressure on reporters. Being the first to deliver is itself another form of credibility that, ironically, threatens the integrity of the profession.

One can post a fake news story with relative ease, and this poses a threat to the profession. Some go as far as to say that it threatens a free press and democracy itself.

What do you think? Where does Facebook and Twitter fit into your understanding of Journalism? Share your opinion in the comments!

WHY Consider a Career in Journalism?

Journalism is a challenging career, to say the least. However, it’s also a career that carries a great deal of personal integrity and professional identity. If you’re naturally inquisitive, or a storyteller by nature, you’re primed for a career as a reporter.

Successful reporters find themselves sent to places unknown. Depending on your specialty, you may even travel to unstable places. Or, you may be sent on an assignment with little notice. If all this seems exciting rather than upsetting, then Journalism may indeed be for you.

Journalists spend the majority of their time talking with people. If you’re good at interviewing and establishing the rapport needed to get answers, then you have a skill worth developing. Gathering sources and other information means you’ll be moving throughout the day. So, if your ideal job is NOT in a cubicle for 8.5 hours a day, remember that a journalist’s desk is almost always unoccupied.

Journalism requires you to be passionate about your work. It’s demanding but rewarding when you think about the integrity you’re pouring into every word of every article.

HOW Do I Become a Journalist?

Aside from the characteristics we discussed in the previous section, you do need a few other things to become a journalist. First, you need writing experience, even if it’s just practice. You’ll also need a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.

Once you are in the field, understand that most of the work falls under contracting and freelance. If you’re willing to move to a media hub like New York City, Atlanta, or Washington DC, you’re more likely to find a salaried position. A word of warning, however, reporter jobs for print publications are shrinking in number.

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Recent News

journalism , the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary and feature materials through such print and electronic media as newspapers , magazines , books , blogs , webcasts, podcasts, social networking and social media sites, and e-mail as well as through radio , motion pictures , and television . The word journalism was originally applied to the reportage of current events in printed form, specifically newspapers, but with the advent of radio, television, and the Internet in the 20th century the use of the term broadened to include all printed and electronic communication dealing with current affairs.

The earliest known journalistic product was a news sheet circulated in ancient Rome: the Acta Diurna , said to date from before 59 bce . The Acta Diurna recorded important daily events such as public speeches. It was published daily and hung in prominent places. In China during the Tang dynasty , a court circular called a bao , or “report,” was issued to government officials. This gazette appeared in various forms and under various names more or less continually to the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911. The first regularly published newspapers appeared in German cities and in Antwerp about 1609. The first English newspaper, the Weekly Newes , was published in 1622. One of the first daily newspapers, The Daily Courant , appeared in 1702.

At first hindered by government-imposed censorship , taxes, and other restrictions, newspapers in the 18th century came to enjoy the reportorial freedom and indispensable function that they have retained to the present day. The growing demand for newspapers owing to the spread of literacy and the introduction of steam- and then electric-driven presses caused the daily circulation of newspapers to rise from the thousands to the hundreds of thousands and eventually to the millions.

Magazines , which had started in the 17th century as learned journals, began to feature opinion-forming articles on current affairs, such as those in the Tatler (1709–11) and the Spectator (1711–12). Appearing in the 1830s were cheap mass-circulation magazines aimed at a wider and less well-educated public, as well as illustrated and women’s magazines. The cost of large-scale news gathering led to the formation of news agencies , organizations that sold their international journalistic reporting to many different individual newspapers and magazines. The invention of the telegraph and then radio and television brought about a great increase in the speed and timeliness of journalistic activity and, at the same time, provided massive new outlets and audiences for their electronically distributed products. In the late 20th century, satellites and later the Internet were used for the long-distance transmission of journalistic information.

Journalism in the 20th century was marked by a growing sense of professionalism . There were four important factors in this trend: (1) the increasing organization of working journalists, (2) specialized education for journalism, (3) a growing literature dealing with the history , problems, and techniques of mass communication , and (4) an increasing sense of social responsibility on the part of journalists.

An organization of journalists began as early as 1883, with the foundation of England’s chartered Institute of Journalists. Like the American Newspaper Guild, organized in 1933, and the Fédération Nationale de la Presse Française, the institute functioned as both a trade union and a professional organization.

Before the latter part of the 19th century, most journalists learned their craft as apprentices, beginning as copyboys or cub reporters. The first university course in journalism was given at the University of Missouri (Columbia) in 1879–84. In 1912 Columbia University in New York City established the first graduate program in journalism, endowed by a grant from the New York City editor and publisher Joseph Pulitzer . It was recognized that the growing complexity of news reporting and newspaper operation required a great deal of specialized training. Editors also found that in-depth reporting of special types of news, such as political affairs, business, economics , and science , often demanded reporters with education in these areas. The advent of motion pictures, radio, and television as news media called for an ever-increasing battery of new skills and techniques in gathering and presenting the news. By the 1950s, courses in journalism or communications were commonly offered in colleges.

The literature of the subject—which in 1900 was limited to two textbooks, a few collections of lectures and essays, and a small number of histories and biographies—became copious and varied by the late 20th century. It ranged from histories of journalism to texts for reporters and photographers and books of conviction and debate by journalists on journalistic capabilities, methods, and ethics .

Concern for social responsibility in journalism was largely a product of the late 19th and 20th centuries. The earliest newspapers and journals were generally violently partisan in politics and considered that the fulfillment of their social responsibility lay in proselytizing their own party’s position and denouncing that of the opposition. As the reading public grew, however, the newspapers grew in size and wealth and became increasingly independent. Newspapers began to mount their own popular and sensational “crusades” in order to increase their circulation. The culmination of this trend was the competition between two New York City papers, the World and the Journal , in the 1890s ( see yellow journalism ).

The sense of social responsibility made notable growth as a result of specialized education and widespread discussion of press responsibilities in books and periodicals and at the meetings of the associations. Such reports as that of the Royal Commission on the Press (1949) in Great Britain and the less extensive A Free and Responsible Press (1947) by an unofficial Commission on the Freedom of the Press in the United States did much to stimulate self-examination on the part of practicing journalists.

By the late 20th century, studies showed that journalists as a group were generally idealistic about their role in bringing the facts to the public in an impartial manner. Various societies of journalists issued statements of ethics, of which that of the American Society of Newspaper Editors is perhaps best known.

Although the core of journalism has always been the news, the latter word has acquired so many secondary meanings that the term “ hard news ” gained currency to distinguish items of definite news value from others of marginal significance. This was largely a consequence of the advent of radio and television reporting, which brought news bulletins to the public with a speed that the press could not hope to match. To hold their audience, newspapers provided increasing quantities of interpretive material—articles on the background of the news, personality sketches, and columns of timely comment by writers skilled in presenting opinion in readable form. By the mid-1960s most newspapers, particularly evening and Sunday editions, were relying heavily on magazine techniques, except for their content of “hard news,” where the traditional rule of objectivity still applied. Newsmagazines in much of their reporting were blending news with editorial comment.

Journalism in book form has a short but vivid history. The proliferation of paperback books during the decades after World War II gave impetus to the journalistic book, exemplified by works reporting and analyzing election campaigns, political scandals, and world affairs in general, and the “new journalism” of such authors as Truman Capote , Tom Wolfe , and Norman Mailer .

The 20th century saw a renewal of the strictures and limitations imposed upon the press by governments. In countries with communist governments, the press was owned by the state, and journalists and editors were government employees. Under such a system, the prime function of the press to report the news was combined with the duty to uphold and support the national ideology and the declared goals of the state. This led to a situation in which the positive achievements of communist states were stressed by the media, while their failings were underreported or ignored. This rigorous censorship pervaded journalism in communist countries.

In noncommunist developing countries , the press enjoyed varying degrees of freedom, ranging from the discreet and occasional use of self-censorship on matters embarrassing to the home government to a strict and omnipresent censorship akin to that of communist countries. The press enjoyed the maximum amount of freedom in most English-speaking countries and in the countries of western Europe.

Whereas traditional journalism originated during a time when information was scarce and thus highly in demand, 21st-century journalism faced an information-saturated market in which news had been, to some degree , devalued by its overabundance. Advances such as satellite and digital technology and the Internet made information more plentiful and accessible and thereby stiffened journalistic competition. To meet increasing consumer demand for up-to-the-minute and highly detailed reporting, media outlets developed alternative channels of dissemination, such as online distribution, electronic mailings, and direct interaction with the public via forums, blogs, user-generated content, and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter .

In the second decade of the 21st century, social media platforms in particular facilitated the spread of politically oriented “fake news,” a kind of disinformation produced by for-profit Web sites posing as legitimate news organizations and designed to attract (and mislead) certain readers by exploiting entrenched partisan biases. During the campaign for the U.S. presidential election of 2016 and after his election as president in that year, Donald J. Trump regularly used the term “fake news” to disparage news reports, including by established and reputable media organizations, that contained negative information about him.

Lesson Plan November 17, 2017

The Paradise Papers: A Lesson in Investigative Journalism

Printable PDFs/Word Documents for this Lesson:

• Full lesson for students [PDF] [Word]
• Project Description for the Paradise Papers [PDF]

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

• Describe the process, identify the purpose, and evaluate the impact of investigative journalism
• Evaluate the use of different types of media in acheiving particular aims
• Create a resource that clearly and engagingly conveys information about the Paradise Papers

BREAKING NEWS! On your desk, you will find an envelope with a number written on it and a note card inside. On that note card, there is a tip —a piece of news about your school, neighborhood, or community that someone powerful doesn't want you to know. Your source (the person who left the envelope for you) has chosen to remain anonymous, meaning you don't know who they are. Your source's information might be true or untrue.

1. Brainstorm on your own:

• What steps could you take to determine whether this information is true and what the fuller story behind it is?
• What would be the benefits and drawbacks of keeping this information secret while you investigated it further?
• If you shared this information, who would be affected and how?

2. Find a partner who has an envelope with the same number as your own. Take 3 minutes to merge the steps you brainstormed into a single action plan, and discuss how you can most effectively work together. Then, take another two minutes to discuss what you will do with the information once you have thoroughly investigated it.

3. Discuss as a class:

• What advantages and disadvantages can you see to working with a partner on your investigation?

A few students should share their tip, plan for investigation, and plan for distributing information. The class can then discuss the potential impact of that story.

Introducing the Lesson:

UNESCO defines investigative journalism as "the unveiling of matters that are concealed either deliberately by someone in a position of power, or accidentally, behind a chaotic mass of facts and circumstances - and the analysis and exposure of all relevant facts to the public."

Investigative reporting projects can begin in many ways. Sometimes, a journalist notices a problem or something suspicious themselves and decides to research it some more. Other times, they receive a tip from a source and work to determine whether it is true and what the full story is. In still other cases, a source might provide a leak (send secret information), supplying all the necessary documentation, but requiring the journalist to piece together a narrative from the information and find a way to present it to the public.

• Are you familiar with any investigative journalism stories?
• What do you think is the difference between investigative journalism and other types of journalism?

Today, we are going to learn more about investigative journalists and their work by examining the Paradise Papers, a project from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). This project exposes how political leaders, businesspeople, and the wealthy elite around the world use offshore entities to avoid taxes and cover up wrongdoing. With about 400 journalists working on 6 continents and in 30 languages to examine 13.4 million files for nearly an entire year, it is one of the largest investigative journalism projects in history.

Following this lesson, you will create a resource to clearly and engagingly convey information you have learned from the Paradise Papers to a lay audience, a vital part of investigative journalism.

Introducing Resource 1: " The True Story Behind the Secret Nine-Month Paradise Papers Investigation "

1. After watching the video, work individually or with a partner to create a short summary of what the Paradise Papers are and why they matter.

2. In the video,  ICIJ Deputy Director Marina Walker says, "At ICIJ, the mission is to uncover those urgent stories of public interest that go beyond what any particular journalist or media organization can accomplish on his or her own." Consider:

• What is the ICIJ? How does it differ from other news outlets/organizations you are familiar with?
• How would you define a "story of public interest"?
• Why does the ICIJ work with journalists based all over the world?

3. This video introduces many reporters and shows them doing the behind-the-scenes work of investigative journalism. Discuss as a class:

• How would you describe the day-to-day work of an investigative journalist, based on what the video showed? What are their workplaces like? Did anything surprise you?
• What skills do you think are essential for an investigative journalist to have, and why?
• How does the job differ for journalists in different countries?
• What are some of the dangers of investigative journalism, and how do journalists cope with them?
• Investigative journalist Will Fitzgibbon mentions ICIJ's emphasis on releasing all information simultaneously as a team. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages to reporting this way?

Introducing Resource 2: Paradise Papers

1. Read the project description of the Paradise Papers on the Pulitzer Center website. Discuss: how do the summary and statement of import you wrote with your partner compare?

2. Next, explore the interactive within the project, " Paradise Papers: The Influencers ."

• What is your initial reaction to the interactive? How does it make you feel?
• Click through to read the stories about Wilbur Ross. What sections are included in the story, and what purpose do they serve? Do you find the information convincing? Easy to understand? Interesting?
• Take a look at one of the supporting documents . What is your initial reaction? How does it make you feel?
• What do you think the purpose of this interactive is? How effective is it in serving this purpose?

Activity and Discussion:

1. Summarize each of the following political cartoons in your own words:

It's unlikely that any private citizen is going to sit down and read 13.4 million files, no matter how significant their value. As such, it is the job of the investigative reporters involved to mine that data for digestible, engaging stories that the public needs and wants to hear.

2. Explore the Paradise Papers investigation on the Pulitzer Center and ICIJ websites. Make a list of the different ways the ICIJ has found to tell this story.

3. In small groups, compare your lists. Consider:

• For each item on your list, who do you think the target audience is?
• What do you think are the most effective ways in which the stories of the Paradise Papers have been told thus far?
• Can you identify any audience(s) these stories are unlikely to reach as a result of the ways it is currently being told?
• What additional ways would it be possible to tell these stories?
• What impacts have the Paradise Papers had already, and what further impact can you foresee?

4. Each group should share their main takeaway(s) from their conversation with the class.

Extension Activity:

1. Building on your final discussion, identify a target audience that you think should know about the Paradise Papers investigation. Create a resource that summarizes the following in a way that will resonate with your target audience:

• What are the Paradise Papers?
• Why are they important?
• How did journalists investigate the story?

You can create a video, infographic, lesson plan, or any other resource. You may alternatively plan a large-scale resource (for example, a museum installation or a play) that you describe in detail but do not execute.

2. Present your resource to the class. Following your presentation, discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and possible impact of such a resource.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.7

Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.2

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

Examples of tips you can write in students’ envelopes include:

• The company that supplies your school cafeteria with vegetables has continued selling spinach that might be contaminated with E. coli bacteria despite a recent recall.
• The recycling at the biggest company in your town does not actually get recycled at all; instead, the company sends it off to the landfill while claiming state tax benefits on the recycling equipment and process costs they don’t, in reality, have.
• Maintenance staff at your school is being paid less than minimum wage.

Ensure that students know these are hypothetical examples and not real tips.

To better understand the purpose/impact of this type of reporting and to contextualize the Paradise Papers, it may be useful for students to have some background in U.S. investigative journalism history. To assign as homework or review as a class, this list of noteworthy moments for investigative reporting in the U.S. from the Brookings Institution is one starting place.

Introducing Resource 1: “The True Story Behind the Secret Nine-Month Paradise Papers Investigation”

Depending on time constraints, students can be assigned to watch this video before class, or an excerpt (i.e. 0:00-12:50) can be screened.

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Expert Commentary

Basic newswriting: Learn how to originate, research and write breaking-news stories

Syllabus for semester-long course on the fundamentals of covering and writing the news, including how identify a story, gather information efficiently and place it in a meaningful context.

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by The Journalist's Resource, The Journalist's Resource January 22, 2010

This <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org/home/syllabus-covering-the-news/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org">The Journalist's Resource</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cropped-jr-favicon-150x150.png" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;">

This course introduces tomorrow’s journalists to the fundamentals of covering and writing news. Mastering these skills is no simple task. In an Internet age of instantaneous access, demand for high-quality accounts of fast-breaking news has never been greater. Nor has the temptation to cut corners and deliver something less.

To resist this temptation, reporters must acquire skills to identify a story and its essential elements, gather information efficiently, place it in a meaningful context, and write concise and compelling accounts, sometimes at breathtaking speed. The readings, discussions, exercises and assignments of this course are designed to help students acquire such skills and understand how to exercise them wisely.

Photo: Memorial to four slain Lakewood, Wash., police officers. The Seattle Times earned the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for their coverage of the crime.

Course objective

To give students the background and skills needed to originate, research, focus and craft clear, compelling and contextual accounts of breaking news in a deadline environment.

Learning objectives

• Build an understanding of the role news plays in American democracy.
• Discuss basic journalistic principles such as accuracy, integrity and fairness.
• Evaluate how practices such as rooting and stereotyping can undermine them.
• Analyze what kinds of information make news and why.
• Evaluate the elements of news by deconstructing award-winning stories.
• Evaluate the sources and resources from which news content is drawn.
• Analyze how information is attributed, quoted and paraphrased in news.
• Gain competence in focusing a story’s dominant theme in a single sentence.
• Introduce the structure, style and language of basic news writing.
• Gain competence in building basic news stories, from lead through their close.
• Gain confidence and competence in writing under deadline pressure.
• Practice how to identify, background and contact appropriate sources.
• Discuss and apply the skills needed to interview effectively.
• Analyze data and how it is used and abused in news coverage.
• Review basic math skills needed to evaluate and use statistics in news.
• Report and write basic stories about news events on deadline.

Suggested reading

• A standard textbook of the instructor’s choosing.
• America ‘s Best Newspaper Writing , Roy Peter Clark and Christopher Scanlan, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006
• The Elements of Journalism , Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, Three Rivers Press, 2001.
• Talk Straight, Listen Carefully: The Art of Interviewing , M.L. Stein and Susan E. Paterno, Iowa State University Press, 2001
• Math Tools for Journalists , Kathleen Woodruff Wickham, Marion Street Press, Inc., 2002
• On Writing Well: 30th Anniversary Edition , William Zinsser, Collins, 2006
• Associated Press Stylebook 2009 , Associated Press, Basic Books, 2009

Weekly schedule and exercises (13-week course)

We encourage faculty to assign students to read on their own Kovach and Rosentiel’s The Elements of Journalism in its entirety during the early phase of the course. Only a few chapters of their book are explicitly assigned for the class sessions listed below.

The assumption for this syllabus is that the class meets twice weekly.

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Weeks 13/14

Week 1: Why journalism matters

Previous week | Next week | Back to top

Class 1: The role of journalism in society

The word journalism elicits considerable confusion in contemporary American society. Citizens often confuse the role of reporting with that of advocacy. They mistake those who promote opinions or push their personal agendas on cable news or in the blogosphere for those who report. But reporters play a different role: that of gatherer of evidence, unbiased and unvarnished, placed in a context of past events that gives current events weight beyond the ways opinion leaders or propagandists might misinterpret or exploit them.

This session’s discussion will focus on the traditional role of journalism eloquently summarized by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in The Elements of Journalism . The class will then examine whether they believe that the journalist’s role has changed or needs to change in today’s news environment. What is the reporter’s role in contemporary society? Is objectivity, sometimes called fairness, an antiquated concept or an essential one, as the authors argue, for maintaining a democratic society? How has the term been subverted? What are the reporter’s fundamental responsibilities? This discussion will touch on such fundamental issues as journalists’ obligation to the truth, their loyalty to the citizens who are their audience and the demands of their discipline to verify information, act independently, provide a forum for public discourse and seek not only competing viewpoints but carefully vetted facts that help establish which viewpoints are grounded in evidence.

Reading: Kovach and Rosenstiel, Chapter 1, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignments:

• Students should compare the news reporting on a breaking political story in The Wall Street Journal , considered editorially conservative, and The New York Times , considered editorially liberal. They should write a two-page memo that considers the following questions: Do the stories emphasize the same information? Does either story appear to slant the news toward a particular perspective? How? Do the stories support the notion of fact-based journalism and unbiased reporting or do they appear to infuse opinion into news? Students should provide specific examples that support their conclusions.
• Students should look for an example of reporting in any medium in which reporters appear have compromised the notion of fairness to intentionally or inadvertently espouse a point of view. What impact did the incorporation of such material have on the story? Did its inclusion have any effect on the reader’s perception of the story?

Class 2: Objectivity, fairness and contemporary confusion about both

In his book Discovering the News , Michael Schudson traced the roots of objectivity to the era following World War I and a desire by journalists to guard against the rapid growth of public relations practitioners intent on spinning the news. Objectivity was, and remains, an ideal, a method for guarding against spin and personal bias by examining all sides of a story and testing claims through a process of evidentiary verification. Practiced well, it attempts to find where something approaching truth lies in a sea of conflicting views. Today, objectivity often is mistaken for tit-for-tat journalism, in which the reporters only responsibility is to give equal weight to the conflicting views of different parties without regard for which, if any, are saying something approximating truth. This definition cedes the journalist’s responsibility to seek and verify evidence that informs the citizenry.

Focusing on the “Journalism of Verification” chapter in The Elements of Journalism , this class will review the evolution and transformation of concepts of objectivity and fairness and, using the homework assignment, consider how objectivity is being practiced and sometimes skewed in the contemporary new media.

Reading: Kovach and Rosenstiel, Chapter 4, and relevant pages of the course text.

Assignment: Students should evaluate stories on the front page and metro front of their daily newspaper. In a two-page memo, they should describe what elements of news judgment made the stories worthy of significant coverage and play. Finally, they should analyze whether, based on what else is in the paper, they believe the editors reached the right decision.

Week 2: Where news comes from

Class 1: News judgment

When editors sit down together to choose the top stories, they use experience and intuition. The beginner journalist, however, can acquire a sense of news judgment by evaluating news decisions through the filter of a variety of factors that influence news play. These factors range from traditional measures such as when the story took place and how close it was to the local readership area to more contemporary ones, such as the story’s educational value.

Using the assignment and the reading, students should evaluate what kinds of information make for interesting news stories and why.

In this session, instructors might consider discussing the layers of news from the simplest breaking news event to the purely enterprise investigative story.

Assignment: Students should read and deconstruct coverage of a major news event. One excellent source for quality examples is the site of the Pulitzer Prizes , which has a category for breaking news reporting. All students should read the same article (assigned by the instructor), and write a two- or three-page memo that describes how the story is organized, what information it contains and what sources of information it uses, both human and digital. Among the questions they should ask are:

• Does the first (or lead) paragraph summarize the dominant point?
• What specific information does the lead include?
• What does it leave out?
• How do the second and third paragraphs relate to the first paragraph and the information it contains? Do they give unrelated information, information that provides further details about what’s established in the lead paragraph or both?
• Does the story at any time place the news into a broader context of similar events or past events? If so, when and how?
• What information in the story is attributed , specifically tied to an individual or to documentary information from which it was taken? What information is not attributed? Where does the information appear in the sentence? Give examples of some of the ways the sources of information are identified? Give examples of the verbs of attribution that are chosen.
• Where and how often in the story are people quoted, their exact words placed in quotation marks? What kind of information tends to be quoted — basic facts or more colorful commentary? What information that’s attributed is paraphrased , summing up what someone said but not in their exact words.
• How is the story organized — by theme, by geography, by chronology (time) or by some other means?
• What human sources are used in the story? Are some authorities? Are some experts? Are some ordinary people affected by the event? Who are some of the people in each category? What do they contribute to the story? Does the reporter (or reporters) rely on a single source or a wide range? Why do you think that’s the case?
• What specific facts and details make the story more vivid to you? How do you think the reporter was able to gather those details?
• What documents (paper or digital) are detailed in the story? Do they lend authority to the story? Why or why not?
• Is any specific data (numbers, statistics) used in the story? What does it lend to the story? Would you be satisfied substituting words such as “many” or “few” for the specific numbers and statistics used? Why or why not?

Class 2: Deconstructing the story

By carefully deconstructing major news stories, students will begin to internalize some of the major principles of this course, from crafting and supporting the lead of a story to spreading a wide and authoritative net for information. This class will focus on the lessons of a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Reading: Clark/Scanlan, Pages 287-294

Assignment: Writers typically draft a focus statement after conceiving an idea and conducting preliminary research or reporting. This focus statement helps to set the direction of reporting and writing. Sometimes reporting dictates a change of direction. But the statement itself keeps the reporter from getting off course. Focus statements typically are 50 words or less and summarize the story’s central point. They work best when driven by a strong, active verb and written after preliminary reporting.

• Students should write a focus statement that encapsulates the news of the Pulitzer Prize winning reporting the class critiqued.

Week 3: Finding the focus, building the lead

Class 1: News writing as a process

Student reporters often conceive of writing as something that begins only after all their reporting is finished. Such an approach often leaves gaps in information and leads the reporter to search broadly instead of with targeted depth. The best reporters begin thinking about story the minute they get an assignment. The approach they envision for telling the story informs their choice of whom they seek interviews with and what information they gather. This class will introduce students to writing as a process that begins with story concept and continues through initial research, focus, reporting, organizing and outlining, drafting and revising.

During this session, the class will review the focus statements written for homework in small breakout groups and then as a class. Professors are encouraged to draft and hand out a mock or real press release or hold a mock press conference from which students can draft a focus statement.

Reading: Zinsser, pages 1-45, Clark/Scanlan, pages 294-302, and relevant pages of the course text

Class 2: The language of news

Newswriting has its own sentence structure and syntax. Most sentences branch rightward, following a pattern of subject/active verb/object. Reporters choose simple, familiar words. They write spare, concise sentences. They try to make a single point in each. But journalistic writing is specific and concrete. While reporters generally avoid formal or fancy word choices and complex sentence structures, they do not write in generalities. They convey information. Each sentence builds on what came before. This class will center on the language of news, evaluating the language in selections from America’s Best Newspaper Writing , local newspapers or the Pulitzers.

Reading: Relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should choose a traditional news lead they like and one they do not like from a local or national newspaper. In a one- or two-page memo, they should print the leads, summarize the stories and evaluate why they believe the leads were effective or not.

Week 4: Crafting the first sentence

Class 1: The lead

No sentence counts more than a story’s first sentence. In most direct news stories, it stands alone as the story’s lead. It must summarize the news, establish the storyline, convey specific information and do all this simply and succinctly. Readers confused or bored by the lead read no further. It takes practice to craft clear, concise and conversational leads. This week will be devoted to that practice.

Students should discuss the assigned leads in groups of three or four, with each group choosing one lead to read to the entire class. The class should then discuss the elements of effective leads (active voice; active verb; single, dominant theme; simple sentences) and write leads in practice exercises.

Assignment: Have students revise the leads they wrote in class and craft a second lead from fact patterns.

Class 2: The lead continued

Some leads snap or entice instead of summarize. When the news is neither urgent nor earnest, these can work well. Though this class will introduce students to other kinds of leads, instructors should continue to emphasize traditional leads, typically found atop breaking news stories.

Class time should largely be devoted to writing traditional news leads under a 15-minute deadline pressure. Students should then be encouraged to read their own leads aloud and critique classmates’ leads. At least one such exercise might focus on students writing a traditional lead and a less traditional lead from the same information.

Assignment: Students should find a political or international story that includes various types (direct and indirect) and levels (on-the-record, not for attribution and deep background) of attribution. They should write a one- or two-page memo describing and evaluating the attribution. Did the reporter make clear the affiliation of those who expressed opinions? Is information attributed to specific people by name? Are anonymous figures given the opportunity to criticize others by name? Is that fair?

Week 5: Establishing the credibility of news

Class 1: Attribution

All news is based on information, painstakingly gathered, verified and checked again. Even so, “truth” is an elusive concept. What reporters cobble together instead are facts and assertions drawn from interviews and documentary evidence.

To lend authority to this information and tell readers from where it comes, reporters attribute all information that is not established fact. It is neither necessary, for example, to attribute that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was first elected president in 1932 nor that he was elected four times. On the other hand, it would be necessary to attribute, at least indirectly, the claim that he was one of America’s best presidents. Why? Because that assertion is a matter of opinion.

In this session, students should learn about different levels of attribution, where attribution is best placed in a sentence, and why it can be crucial for the protection of the accused, the credibility of reporters and the authoritativeness of the story.

Assignment: Working from a fact pattern, students should write a lead that demands attribution.

Class 2: Quoting and paraphrasing

“Great quote,” ranks closely behind “great lead” in the pecking order of journalistic praise. Reporters listen for great quotes as intensely as piano tuners listen for the perfect pitch of middle C. But what makes a great quote? And when should reporters paraphrase instead?

This class should cover a range of issues surrounding the quoted word from what it is used to convey (color and emotion, not basic information) to how frequently quotes should be used and how long they should run on. Other issues include the use and abuse of partial quotes, when a quote is not a quote, and how to deal with rambling and ungrammatical subjects.

As an exercise, students might either interview the instructor or a classmate about an exciting personal experience. After their interviews, they should review their notes choose what they consider the three best quotes to include a story on the subject. They should then discuss why they chose them.

Assignment: After completing the reading, students should analyze a summary news story no more than 15 paragraphs long. In a two- or three-page memo, they should reprint the story and then evaluate whether the lead summarizes the news, whether the subsequent paragraphs elaborate on or “support” the lead, whether the story has a lead quote, whether it attributes effectively, whether it provides any context for the news and whether and how it incorporates secondary themes.

Week 6: The building blocks of basic stories

Class 1: Supporting the lead

Unlike stories told around a campfire or dinner table, news stories front load information. Such a structure delivers the most important information first and the least important last. If a news lead summarizes, the subsequent few paragraphs support or elaborate by providing details the lead may have merely suggested. So, for example, a story might lead with news that a 27-year-old unemployed chef has been arrested on charges of robbing the desk clerk of an upscale hotel near closing time. The second paragraph would “support” this lead with detail. It would name the arrested chef, identify the hotel and its address, elaborate on the charges and, perhaps, say exactly when the robbery took place and how. (It would not immediately name the desk clerk; too many specifics at once clutter the story.)

Wire service stories use a standard structure in building their stories. First comes the lead sentence. Then comes a sentence or two of lead support. Then comes a lead quote — spoken words that reinforce the story’s direction, emphasize the main theme and add color. During this class students should practice writing the lead through the lead quote on deadline. They should then read assignments aloud for critique by classmates and the professor.

Assignment: Using a fact pattern assigned by the instructor or taken from a text, students should write a story from the lead through the lead quote. They should determine whether the story needs context to support the lead and, if so, include it.

Class 2: When context matters

Sometimes a story’s importance rests on what came before. If one fancy restaurant closes its doors in the face of the faltering economy, it may warrant a few paragraphs mention. If it’s the fourth restaurant to close on the same block in the last two weeks, that’s likely front-page news. If two other restaurants closed last year, that might be worth noting in the story’s last sentence. It is far less important. Patterns provide context and, when significant, generally are mentioned either as part of the lead or in the support paragraph that immediately follows. This class will look at the difference between context — information needed near the top of a story to establish its significance as part of a broader pattern, and background — information that gives historical perspective but doesn’t define the news at hand.

Assignment: The course to this point has focused on writing the news. But reporters, of course, usually can’t write until they’ve reported. This typically starts with background research to establish what has come before, what hasn’t been covered well and who speaks with authority on an issue. Using databases such as Lexis/Nexis, students should background or read specific articles about an issue in science or policy that either is highlighted in the Policy Areas section of Journalist’s Resource website or is currently being researched on your campus. They should engage in this assignment knowing that a new development on the topic will be brought to light when they arrive at the next class.

Week 7: The reporter at work

Class 1: Research

Discuss the homework assignment. Where do reporters look to background an issue? How do they find documents, sources and resources that enable them to gather good information or identify key people who can help provide it? After the discussion, students should be given a study from the Policy Areas section of Journalist’s Resource website related to the subject they’ve been asked to explore.

The instructor should use this study to evaluate the nature structure of government/scientific reports. After giving students 15 minutes to scan the report, ask students to identify its most newsworthy point. Discuss what context might be needed to write a story about the study or report. Discuss what concepts or language students are having difficulty understanding.

Reading: Clark, Scanlan, pages 305-313, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should (a) write a lead for a story based exclusively on the report (b) do additional background work related to the study in preparation for writing a full story on deadline. (c) translate at least one term used in the study that is not familiar to a lay audience.

Class 2: Writing the basic story on deadline

This class should begin with a discussion of the challenges of translating jargon and the importance of such translation in news reporting. Reporters translate by substituting a simple definition or, generally with the help of experts, comparing the unfamiliar to the familiar through use of analogy.

The remainder of the class should be devoted to writing a 15- to 20-line news report, based on the study, background research and, if one is available, a press release.

Reading: Pages 1-47 of Stein/Paterno, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Prepare a list of questions that you would ask either the lead author of the study you wrote about on deadline or an expert who might offer an outside perspective.

Week 8: Effective interviewing

Class 1: Preparing and getting the interview

Successful interviews build from strong preparation. Reporters need to identify the right interview subjects, know what they’ve said before, interview them in a setting that makes them comfortable and ask questions that elicit interesting answers. Each step requires thought.

The professor should begin this class by critiquing some of the questions students drew up for homework. Are they open-ended or close-ended? Do they push beyond the obvious? Do they seek specific examples that explain the importance of the research or its applications? Do they probe the study’s potential weaknesses? Do they explore what directions the researcher might take next?

Discuss the readings and what steps reporters can take to background for an interview, track down a subject and prepare and rehearse questions in advance.

Reading: Stein/Paterno, pages 47-146, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should prepare to interview their professor about his or her approach to and philosophy of teaching. Before crafting their questions, the students should background the instructor’s syllabi, public course evaluations and any pertinent writings.

Class 2: The interview and its aftermath

The interview, says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jacqui Banaszynski, is a dance which the reporter leads but does so to music the interview subject chooses. Though reporters prepare and rehearse their interviews, they should never read the questions they’ve considered in advance and always be prepared to change directions. To hear the subject’s music, reporters must be more focused on the answers than their next question. Good listeners make good interviewers — good listeners, that is, who don’t forget that it is also their responsibility to also lead.

Divide the class. As a team, five students should interview the professor about his/her approach to teaching. Each of these five should build on the focus and question of the previous questioner. The rest of the class should critique the questions, their clarity and their focus. Are the questioners listening? Are they maintaining control? Are they following up? The class also should discuss the reading, paying particularly close attention to the dynamics of an interview, the pace of questions, the nature of questions, its close and the reporter’s responsibility once an interview ends.

Assignment: Students should be assigned to small groups and asked to critique the news stories classmates wrote on deadline during the previous class.

Week 9: Building the story

Class 1: Critiquing the story

The instructor should separate students into groups of two or three and tell them to read their news stories to one another aloud. After each reading, the listeners should discuss what they liked and struggled with as the story audience. The reader in each case should reflect on what he or she learned from the process of reading the story aloud.

The instructor then should distribute one or two of the class stories that provide good and bad examples of story structure, information selection, content, organization and writing. These should be critiqued as a class.

Assignment: Students, working in teams, should develop an angle for a news follow to the study or report they covered on deadline. Each team should write a focus statement for the story it is proposing.

Class 2: Following the news

The instructor should lead a discussion about how reporters “enterprise,” or find original angles or approaches, by looking to the corners of news, identifying patterns of news, establishing who is affected by news, investigating the “why” of news, and examining what comes next.

Students should be asked to discuss the ideas they’ve developed to follow the news story. These can be assigned as longer-term team final projects for the semester. As part of this discussion, the instructor can help students map their next steps.

Reading: Wickham, Chapters 1-4 and 7, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should find a news report that uses data to support or develop its main point. They should consider what and how much data is used, whether it is clear, whether it’s cluttered and whether it answers their questions. They should bring the article and a brief memo analyzing it to class.

Week 10: Making sense of data and statistics

Class 1: Basic math and the journalist’s job

Many reporters don’t like math. But in their jobs, it is everywhere. Reporters must interpret political polls, calculate percentage change in everything from property taxes to real estate values, make sense of municipal bids and municipal budgets, and divine data in government reports.

First discuss some of the examples of good and bad use of data that students found in their homework. Then, using examples from Journalist’s Resource website, discuss good and poor use of data in news reporting. (Reporters, for example, should not overwhelm readers with paragraphs stuffed with statistics.) Finally lead students through some of the basic skills sets outlined in Wickham’s book, using her exercises to practice everything from calculating percentage change to interpreting polls.

Assignment: Give students a report or study linked to the Journalist’s Resource website that requires some degree of statistical evaluation or interpretation. Have students read the report and compile a list of questions they would ask to help them understand and interpret this data.

Class 2: The use and abuse of statistics

Discuss the students’ questions. Then evaluate one or more articles drawn from the report they’ve analyzed that attempt to make sense of the data in the study. Discuss what these articles do well and what they do poorly.

Reading: Zinsser, Chapter 13, “Macabre Reminder: The Corpse on Union Street,” Dan Barry, The New York Times

Week 11: The reporter as observer

Class 1: Using the senses

Veteran reporters covering an event don’t only return with facts, quotes and documents that support them. They fill their notebooks with details that capture what they’ve witnessed. They use all their senses, listening for telling snippets of conversation and dialogue, watching for images, details and actions that help bring readers to the scene. Details that develop character and place breathe vitality into news. But description for description’s sake merely clutters and obscures the news. Using the senses takes practice.

The class should deconstruct “Macabre Reminder: The Corpse on Union Street,” a remarkable journey around New Orleans a few days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. The story starts with one corpse, left to rot on a once-busy street and then pans the city as a camera might. The dead body serves as a metaphor for the rotting city, largely abandoned and without order.

Assignment: This is an exercise in observation. Students may not ask questions. Their task is to observe, listen and describe a short scene, a serendipitous vignette of day-to-day life. They should take up a perch in a lively location of their choosing — a student dining hall or gym, a street corner, a pool hall or bus stop or beauty salon, to name a few — wait and watch. When a small scene unfolds, one with beginning, middle and end, students should record it. They then should write a brief story describing the scene that unfolded, taking care to leave themselves and their opinions out of the story. This is pure observation, designed to build the tools of observation and description. These stories should be no longer than 200 words.

Class 2: Sharpening the story

Students should read their observation pieces aloud to a classmate. Both students should consider these questions: Do the words describe or characterize? Which words show and which words tell? What words are extraneous? Does the piece convey character through action? Does it have a clear beginning, middle and end? Students then should revise, shortening the original scene to no longer than 150 words. After the revision, the instructor should critique some of the students’ efforts.

Assignment: Using campus, governmental or media calendars, students should identify, background and prepare to cover a speech, press conference or other news event, preferably on a topic related to one of the research-based areas covered in the Policy Areas section of Journalist’s Resource website. Students should write a focus statement (50 words or less) for their story and draw up a list of some of the questions they intend to ask.

Week 12: Reporting on deadline

Class 1: Coaching the story

Meetings, press conferences and speeches serve as a staple for much news reporting. Reporters should arrive at such events knowledgeable about the key players, their past positions or research, and the issues these sources are likely discuss. Reporters can discover this information in various ways. They can research topic and speaker online and in journalistic databases, peruse past correspondence sent to public offices, and review the writings and statements of key speakers with the help of their assistants or secretaries.

In this class, the instructor should discuss the nature of event coverage, review students’ focus statements and questions, and offer suggestions about how they cover the events.

Assignment: Cover the event proposed in the class above and draft a 600-word story, double-spaced, based on its news and any context needed to understand it.

Class 2: Critiquing and revising the story

Students should exchange story drafts and suggest changes. After students revise, the instructor should lead a discussion about the challenges of reporting and writing live on deadline. These likely will include issues of access and understanding and challenges of writing around and through gaps of information.

Weeks 13/14: Coaching the final project

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The final week or two of the class is reserved for drill in areas needing further development and for coaching students through the final reporting, drafting and revision of the enterprise stories off the study or report they covered in class.

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8.1: Types of Journalism

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Introduction

Although "journalism" is a singular term, which may imply a homogeneous entity, it is helpful to think of it as an umbrella term for a number of distinct forms, practices, and genres. Put another way, journalism has many looks, can be produced in many ways, and can be about many things.

There are many ways to categorize different types of journalism. One helpful schema involves three dimensions: media vehicle , beat , and method . A single story is likely to be shaped by its categorization within each dimension. For example, you may have a television (media vehicle) segment about politics (beat) reported through a breaking news approach (method). That story would be tailored to meet the expectations (and advantages) of each of those dimensions, from its storytelling structure to the depth of the report.

Media Vehicle

There are a number of different media vehicles that can be used for conveying journalism. These include text-oriented (e.g., newspapers or online articles), audio-oriented (e.g., radio or podcasts), and visual-oriented (e.g., television or photography).

The media vehicle matters because it offers certain technical affordances (possibilities and limitations). For example, photojournalism relies primarily on still photographs to convey the essence of a development or issue. A photojournalist may need to capture multiple facets of a complex issue through a single, representative photograph — perhaps a melting glacier with a skeletal polar bear in the foreground. Put another way, the photojournalist may need to aim to convey a thousand words with just one shot. (They also write accompanying photo captions, but those rarely exceed a couple of sentences.) Alternatively, the photojournalist may be tasked with producing a photo essay, wherein they piece together multiple photographs that capture different dimensions of an issue in a manner that conveys a narrative. Photojournalism shoots can involve candid, heat-of-the-moment reporting (e.g., documenting a battle in a conflict zone) as well as documenting daily life for a particular group of people (e.g., homeless veterans).

Similarly, news produced for a television newscast is likely to differ in important ways from news produced for an online news article. For example, a story about local opioid addiction rates may need to be condensed into a three-minute TV segment. That might involve just 200 words of voice-over narration on the journalist’s part. In contrast, an average article on the BBC’s website is roughly 750 words in length. (If they’re writing for The New York Times , that’s closer to 1,000 words.) The shorter length for the newscast requires the journalist to hone in on a narrower aspect of the issue, or perhaps offer a more superficial account of its many aspects. Moreover, the style of writing differs: Writing for the ear is distinctly different from writing for the eyes.

Reporting jobs are often oriented around either beat reporting or general assignment reporting .

Beats are niche categories of journalistic coverage in which individual journalists may specialize. A beat can be a topic, a person, or an institution, though they are most commonly niche topics. For example, a political journalist might cover the politics beat, the election beat, or the Kamala Harris beat — or all three. Beat reporters immerse themselves in their beats and gain specialized insights and knowledge of the key stakeholders, actors, trends, and influences within those beats over time. As they do so, they become experts in those beats, and that expertise appears in the stories they identify and cover. Moreover, by virtue of repeatedly covering the same topics or people, beat reporters tend to develop deep and specialized sourcing networks, often resulting in elevated access to some sources and exclusive information.

Beats are not just genres. They may require distinct approaches to newsgathering and involve different audience expectations for storytelling structures. Consider the film beat: It may involve a mixture of reported and objective pieces (e.g., news about the latest film Ryan Gosling has signed on to), short lifestyle features (e.g., a non-combative and abridged interview with Gosling about his morning workout routine), and subjective opinion pieces (e.g., a review of Gosling’s latest movie). By contrast, the courts beat is more likely to have inverted pyramid-style stories detailing incidents and events derived from reviews of court documents, or reports about arguments in an on-going case. (Audiences are unlikely to expect short interviews with judges about their morning case review routine.)

Common beats include business, courts and crime, education, film, food, health, international affairs, music, politics, science, sports, style, and technology. Some outlets (especially niche publications) have even more specialized beats, like Big Tech, Medicare, or Green Energy. Many journalistic outlets organize their staffs and their editorial content based on distinctions between specialized beats, meaning that they will have a reporter (or group of reporters) who occupy a particular physical space in the newsroom and publish primarily on a dedicated portion of the news product (e.g., a "Science" section) based on their beat. While many journalists focus on a single beat, some journalists may be tasked with covering multiple beats — especially during times of newsroom cutbacks.

Not all journalists are assigned to a beat, though. Some journalists' expertise lies in their ability to quickly learn new topics and make sense of them for non-specialized audiences. These journalists are often called general assignment reporters because they may be tasked with covering an entertainment story one day and a court story the next. The need to cover such a wide array of topics often comes at a cost, though: General assignment reporters are typically more likely to get facts wrong (especially with an unfamiliar topic), may struggle to offer deep coverage, and their sourcing network for a topic may be sparse or superficial. Nevertheless, many journalistic outlets will complement their beat reporters with at least one general assignment reporter in order to have a frequent and predictable stream of news stories and to help round off the outlet’s news coverage as needed.

Journalism may also be distinguished based on the approach to reporting that is used. Examples of common approaches are breaking news reporting , straight news reporting , feature reporting , enterprise reporting , investigative reporting , and advocacy reporting .

Breaking news reporting involves covering a development with a particular emphasis on timeliness. Breaking news stories depict current events, recent developments, and information that is generally just coming to light. For example, this might include a shooting outside a bar. Breaking news stories are often updated regularly as news develops and as journalists uncover new information about the sometimes ongoing event. Put another way, breaking news reporting doesn’t aim to deeply report multiple aspects of a development and package it as a single, stand-alone news product. Instead, it concedes its incompleteness and focuses on unearthing and describing the most recent developments.

Straight news reporting aims to synthesize recent developments and contextualize them into a stand-alone news product. It is similar to breaking news reporting in that it emphasizes the timely presentation of information in a clear, quick, and straight-to-the-point manner — often by using a story structure like the inverted pyramid. However, compared to breaking news reporting, there is more of an emphasis on sense-making and contextualizing information, with the expectation that a story will be more complete and not require constant updating (even if the event is still developing).

Feature reporting allows journalists to take a more creative approach to the information they present. While the newsgathering methods may be similar to those of traditional reporting, the newswriting approach is quite different. First, they are typically written with a more open-ended and less-strict story structure. Feature stories often apply creative storytelling techniques, such as playful or poetic language, narrative structures, detailed anecdotes, and multi-part vignettes. Second, because of their more open-ended writing styles and less strict relationship to timeliness, feature stories are often long-form and evergreen . Evergreen stories are not tied to a specific time peg, or timely event. They are designed to maintain their relevance to audiences for a longer period of time.

Enterprise reporting relies heavily on original reporting driven by a journalist. It is called enterprise reporting because it requires an enterprising journalist who is able to develop their own story ideas, sources, and means of gaining access to information. (The opposite of enterprise reporting would be reporting that relies primarily on press releases, press conferences, or news that is given in some way to a journalist rather than uncovered by that journalist.) Enterprise reporting often involves creative and advanced reporting methods, such as public records requests, data collection and analysis, and access to historical documents. The result is often, though not always, a longer-form and in-depth news product.

Investigative reporting is a particularly rigorous form of reporting and one of the most powerful types of journalism for advancing the public’s knowledge. Investigative reporters dedicate themselves to the sleuth-like pursuit, through a wide variety of investigative techniques, of information about a niche topic that is often difficult to access. The subjects of investigative reporting are frequently topics of deep conflict and vast public importance, such as political or corporate corruption, violence, crime, financial malfeasance, or other cases of wrongdoing and injustice. Investigative journalists dedicate weeks, months, and even years to the dogged pursuit of a specific person, entity, or topic in order to bring their subject to public light. This type of journalism is strongly associated with watchdog journalism because of the role it plays in holding powerful actors accountable. In this case, investigative journalists are the metaphorical watchdogs who seek to make the actions of the powerful transparent to their audiences. (However, watchdog journalism is a broader form of journalism that also includes traditional, day-to-day reporting on the mundane matters of governance, such as attending School Board meetings.) Investigative stories often take the shape of long-form stories (or a series of shorter stories) because of the amount of reporting and information they comprise.

Advocacy reporting is a form of reporting that distinguishes itself by formulating a clear opinion, or substantiating an existing one, with timely, factual information. This approach outwardly rejects the norm of neutrality, and instead aims to promote a cause or intervention. For example, advocacy reporting may focus on illustrating the plight of young undocumented immigrants by including anecdotes about the challenges they face, statistics about the prevalence of the issue, and offering the journalist’s evaluation of a key policy presently being considered by lawmakers. Such reporting is typically labeled as a "news analysis" or presented as an author’s column in an Opinion section. However, it may also be the approach to reporting that defines the identity of a journalistic outlet (and is therefore not segregated from the other reporting done by that outlet). Not all opinion pieces warrant the label of advocacy reporting, though. Many are better categorized as "opinion writing" if they do not follow at least some of the staple practices of journalism, like verifying information.

Hard vs. Soft News

Another way of categorizing journalism is through the distinction of "hard" and "soft" news.

Hard news journalism refers to breaking news and reports about serious or hard-hitting topics that are both timely and of civic interest. They are usually based on factual information and rigorous research. Political journalism, business journalism, and watchdog journalism are all typically recognized forms of hard news.

Soft news journalism refers to reports about predominantly lifestyle and entertainment affairs, or other topics of human interest. While such journalism may involve rigorous research, it is also more open to interpretive and literary accounts. Sports journalism, entertainment journalism, and celebrity coverage are all typically recognized forms of soft news.

Although this categorization schema is quite popular — it is not uncommon to hear those terms in the newsroom — it is also arguably over-simplistic and does a disservice to certain genres. Specifically, hard news is often used to connote a superior form of journalism, and is often talked about within the industry as being more important (and pure) than soft news. However, consider the case of a rigorously reported investigative piece unearthing corruption in a multi-billion dollar sports league, resulting in criminal prosecution of league executives. It would be a disservice to label that as soft news — with its implied inferiority — simply because it is "a sports story." Conversely, a puff piece on a politician designed to help a journalist gain access hardly warrants the label of hard journalism.

Instead, it is more fruitful to view journalism through a more nuanced typology that takes into account dimensions like the media vehicle, beat, and reporting method associated with that piece of journalism. This focuses less on a shortsighted heuristic for determining a story’s import based on its genre and instead allows us to think more about the norms and expectations associated with a journalistic form.

Key Takeaways

• One way to categorize different types of journalism is to focus on three dimensions: media vehicle, beat, and method.
• The media vehicle matters because it offers certain technical opportunities and limitations, and will have some associated norms. Most media vehicles can be sub-categorized under text-oriented, audio-oriented, and visual-oriented, but hybrid forms also exist.
• Reporting jobs are often oriented around either beat reporting or general assignment reporting. Beats refer to niche categories of coverage that journalists may specialize in.
• Journalism may also be distinguished based on the journalist’s approach to reporting. Common approaches include breaking news reporting, feature reporting, and investigative reporting.
• Journalism is also sometimes categorized under labels of "hard" news and "soft" news, with the former encompassing genres like crime and politics, and the latter genres like entertainment and sports. Although popular within the industry, this typology is arguably overly simplistic and problematic.

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Behind the Journalism: How The Times Works

The Times publishes hundreds of pieces of journalism every day. We apply ethical standards and rigorous reporting to every article, video, podcast, newsletter and interactive we produce. Here are some explanations of the policies and processes that define our journalism.

By The New York Times Trust Team

Anonymous sources: Why does The Times use them?

“Reporters and editors have to be relentless and skeptical in handling anonymous sourcing. It should never be routine or casual.” Phil Corbett , standards editor

“Speaking on the condition of anonymity …”

“Discussed the incident on the condition that they not be named …”

“According to people familiar with …”

You’ve undoubtedly seen these phrases in Times articles, but what exactly do they mean?

Our reporting is based on sources. They can be officials, witnesses, records — essentially anyone or anything that can offer information on a particular topic. When we don’t disclose a human source by name, that person is considered an anonymous source. Under our guidelines, these sources should be used only for information that we believe is newsworthy and credible, and that we are not able to report any other way.

But why does The Times shield the identity of some sources? We recognize that the use of anonymous sources is sometimes crucial to our journalistic mission. It can give readers genuine insight into the uses and abuses of power — in Washington, on Wall Street and beyond. In sensitive areas like national security reporting, it can be unavoidable. Sources sometimes risk their careers, their freedom and even their lives by talking to us.

What we consider before using anonymous sources:

How do they know the information?

What’s their motivation for telling us?

Have they proved reliable in the past?

Can we corroborate the information they provide?

Because using anonymous sources puts great strain on our most valuable asset: our readers’ trust, the reporter and at least one editor is required to know the identity of the source. A senior newsroom editor must also approve the use of the information the source provides.

How does The Times handle corrections?

“The Times’s primary responsibility is to give readers accurate information, and our readers trust us to do that. By acknowledging our mistakes quickly and transparently, we build on that fundamental trust.” Rogene Jacquette, corrections editor

We recognize an ethical responsibility to correct all factual errors, large and small, promptly and in a prominent space. We encourage readers to reach out to us at [email protected] when they spot a possible mistake.

The corrections process:

First, we determine if we made an error. We contact the reporters and editors involved and, if a correction is warranted, we adjust the article and add the correction.

Even when we catch a mistake mere seconds after publishing, we still acknowledge it with a correction. There is no five-second rule.

Corrections should appear in any and all editions (print and digital) or platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) that carried the error. We also correct mistakes in newsletters, in videos and on podcasts like “The Daily.”

For obvious typos, we correct the error without appending a correction.

During breaking news, there are times when incorrect information is part of the story and does not require a correction: A death toll may be reduced, the number of suspects may change or officials may correct an earlier statement. We typically explain these changes in the updating article and do not append a correction.

Advertisement

Here’s how The Times is covering the Israel-Hamas war.

Reporting inside Gaza is extremely challenging right now. Israel has prevented journalists from entering the region except when accompanied by its military, and then only under certain conditions, while Egypt, along its border, is also blocking access. Communications have been limited, in part because of the Israeli siege of the enclave. Many Palestinian journalists in Gaza have been killed in airstrikes. And even before the war, Hamas restricted what reporters could cover in Gaza, limiting their movement, interrogating their sources and translators and expelling foreign reporters for work deemed objectionable.

The Times, along with other news organizations, has asked the governments of Israel and Egypt for direct access to Gaza because reporting on the ground is vital to understanding this crisis. Throughout the war, The Times has been working with journalists who were already in Gaza when the siege began. We have been interviewing residents and officials in Gaza by phone and using digital apps. We have asked people in the area to share their stories with us on video, which we then confirm are real. We also verify photos and social media posts using similar techniques, scrutinizing them to determine where and when they were taken or written and cross-checking with other sources, such as satellite imagery. We cross reference any information we gather with interviews with the U.N. and other international organizations, many of which have employees in different parts of Gaza.

In general, we try to avoid relying on a single source and we seek to include detailed information whenever possible.

— The New York Times

How New York Times reporters avoid personal involvement in politics.

Our ethics guidelines state that journalists have no place on the playing fields of politics. Of course, staff members are entitled to vote, but they must do nothing that might raise questions about their professional neutrality or that of The Times.

Staff members may not:

Endorse candidates

Give money to, or raise money for, any political candidate or election cause

Seek public office

Wear campaign buttons

March or rally in support of public causes or movements

But just because our reporters and editors are not participating in political events, doesn’t mean they don’t care deeply about certain issues. That is why we urge them to be aware of their own biases and to consider how someone with an opposing view might think about the topics they are covering. Framing and characterizing all viewpoints with fairness and depth is central to our approach to reporting.

Our reputation for independence rests upon the public’s faith that we can carry out our work free from influence and overt bias.

How The Times covers extreme weather.

“Oftentimes reporters are the first people to arrive at a place after it has been hit. That is a difficult experience.” Patricia Mazzei, Miami bureau chief

During extreme weather, and related events such as wildfires and floods, we move quickly to bring vital information to those who need it, sending reporters and visual journalists to the scene.

“Once the storm hits, we try to get as close to the hardest-hit part as quickly and safely as possible,” said Patricia Mazzei, the Miami bureau chief for The Times, who has covered natural disasters for more than 15 years, including several major hurricanes.

“At the beginning, it feels very like you’re the eyes and ears of the reader,” Mazzei said. “They’re not there, your editors are not there. You know that you have to absorb the sights and sounds and smells and what people are saying and how they feel and what it looks like and feels like for them. And then you have to pull out, in order to transmit this information. It’s a logistical dance that is very difficult and requires a lot of resources.”

When Mazzei and her colleagues reach a disaster zone, they often find people out surveying the damage or helping their neighbors. “You encounter these moments of humanity that sort of just blow your mind,” she said. “By telling their stories, we can let the world know what happened. And people really want the world to know what happened.”

Traveling with police officers, firefighters and search-and-rescue teams can also be essential in helping readers understand the urgency and severity of a storm. Their insight can help reporters piece together the damage the storm caused, and understand what it will take for a hard-hit community to come back from it.

Our reporters and editors reach out to emergency service agencies and forecasters as a disaster is unfolding, checking in hourly at times to let readers know where the most damage is occurring, and if they need to evacuate. But being at the scene, interviewing the people experiencing the brunt of the disaster, is how we can bring readers stories of survival , resilience and tragedy .

“It’s difficult to convey the panic and the immediacy of what people are feeling unless you get into the details , ” said Shawn Hubler, a National desk reporter who has covered California floods, wildfires and earthquakes for 40 years. “They’ll say it was terrifying. And by terrifying, you don’t know what they mean until you drill down a little bit and you find out there were embers the size of baseballs slamming into their car as they tried to wind their way down some two-lane highway.”

The on-the-ground reporting can also lead to some of the most important stories The Times can tell, seeking to hold decision makers accountable when warnings aren’t issued or heeded, when poor choices put people or communities in harm’s way, or when long-term planning or infrastructure has been insufficient or neglected, making the outcomes of extreme weather even worse.

For our journalists back at the office, the pace during an ongoing weather story can be frenetic. Editors on the National and Express desks field reports from several locations while also monitoring the course of a storm, the problems it is causing — including evacuations, power outages and flight cancellations — and how those affected can seek help.

For events such as blizzards, typhoons, hurricanes and severe weather that could produce tornadoes, our weather data and graphics teams step in early with forecasts and graphics that show the likely path and intensity of the storms.

Our Weather Data team is led by John Keefe and anchored by the meteorologist Judson Jones. For this team it is data, data, data. “Because we are looking at it all the time, it’s easier for us to explain when there are weird quirks,” Keefe said. This allows the team to alert editors to a coming weather system.

The team uses data primarily from the National Weather Service, augmented by other branches of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And Jones keeps in close touch with scientists at these agencies, and with academics who research weather. His expertise allows him to speak their language and interpret their jargon for readers. “My job is to translate that into terms that matter,” he said, “and sometimes that’s filtering out what doesn’t matter.”

Our Graphics desk, led by Archie Tse, takes this information and turns it into maps that track a storm’s path; animated time loops that give readers the scale of the storm; and graphics that show rainfall, wind speed and storm surge. The goal is to create weather trackers that focus on the aspects that threaten to cause the most damage. Tse said that a combination of news judgment and design expertise goes into every graphic. “Our maps and visualizations are tailored for our readers to give them the information they need in a clear and concise way,” he said.

Because the science establishing a direct link between extreme weather events and the rapid warming of the planet is increasingly clear, our Climate desk, which includes more than a dozen journalists, joins in our coverage to provide data, visual explanations and insights.

Here are some of the sources we use for extreme weather events.

The Storm Prediction Center , the Weather Prediction Center , the National Hurricane Center and other divisions within the National Weather Service.

The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ( E.C.M.W.F .).

The National Weather Service for the number of people under storm watches, warnings and advisories across the United States.

PowerOutage, a website that collects and aggregates data on the number of utility customers without power in the United States and other parts of the world.

FlightAware , which displays the cancellations and delays of commercial airline flights around the world.

These are all available to the public, but we sometimes subscribe for access to more data.

We also provide guidance for those in the paths of storms, offering ways they can prepare for and survive hurricanes , flash floods and tornadoes .

Weather is news. We cover it with the understanding that it has an impact on readers’ lives. And while extreme events may begin as breaking news, they often become stories of survival, tragedy, science and accountability.

Mass shootings: This is how The Times covers them.

“Our job is to never allow this to become routine, and to — once we do confirm it — react and cover it aggressively, as though it’s the very first one we’ve covered.” Marc Lacey , managing editor

Our newsroom receives reports of active gunman situations in the United States at least once a day, on average. We monitor the situation, confirm details and, if warranted, send a team of reporters to the scene. Within 24 hours of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018, The Times had at least 25 reporters and 15 editors working on the story.

Our overall goal is to give readers an in-depth account, while being sensitive to victims and loved ones. We want to avoid sensationalizing the crime or elevating the stature of the attacker.

How we define and count mass shootings

Once we confirm a death count, we tell readers the scope of the shooting and how it fits into the bigger picture of these crimes across the country.

To create a consistent count of mass shootings in the United States, we have updated our definition of “mass shooting,” to include any shooting where four or more people are killed with a firearm — not including the assailant — in a public place and the shooting is not connected to another crime or circumstance, like a robbery, a drug deal or domestic violence. This definition, which was created by the Congressional Research Service , is based on the F.B.I.’s definition of mass murder. This definition is also used by the most comprehensive database on the subject: the Violence Project .

Our count of mass shootings is based on data from both the Gun Violence Archive and the Violence Project. We use data from both sources in order to make sure our database is as up-to-date and comprehensive as possible.

How we report on the crime

While we often rely on the reports given by law enforcement officials in control of a crime scene during a mass shooting, we let readers know what we can’t confirm, what we can and where and how we got the information.

We use the name of the suspect sparingly, and take special care to avoid it in headlines or social media posts.

We avoid descriptions that are cinematic, or lack attribution and sourcing.

We consult with our photo and standards editors before publishing graphic images or photographs of the suspect.

We focus on the victims’ and survivors’ experience of the shooting, while also reporting on the crime and the attacker.

We verify any information from a witness or victim found on social media and reach out to the person who posted it before we publish it.

We publish the suspect’s name when it is confirmed by authorities. But we do not want to give the person excessive prominence. There is evidence that media coverage can be a factor motivating future mass shootings.

We generally avoid publishing images in which the suspect is seen brandishing weapons. We will explain any ideology that might have influenced the gunman’s actions, but we do not typically publish or link to manifestoes that contain rationales for the attack.

Our reporters try to find out as much as they can about the suspect and approach anyone who might have crossed paths with the person. We supplement interviews with a thorough examination of public records. We want to give readers a sense of the human tragedy, so calling the loved ones of those who died in such circumstances is necessary.

How The Times uses visuals to investigate the news.

The Visual Investigations team at The New York Times uses satellite images, cellphone videos, social media posts and other visual elements to investigate and reconstruct news events like deadly police actions in the United States, oil smuggling in North Korea , and a devastating drone strike in Kabul .

These journalists employ traditional reporting methods as well, visiting the scene of an event and interviewing witnesses and survivors. But it is the digital investigative methods that set them apart and allow them to present a definitive account of the news.

When none of the police officers who raided Breonna Taylor’s home in Kentucky used body cameras, preventing a full understanding of what happened, the Visual Investigations team built a 3-D model of the scene and pieced together critical sequences of events to show how poor planning and shoddy police work led to a fatal outcome.

Malachy Browne, a senior story producer and a co-founder, in 2017, of the Visual Investigations team, spoke of the value of the team’s reporting when it earned them a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2020: “Together, they established — without a doubt — that Russian pilots had bombed four hospitals, a market street and a refugee camp . All in Syria. Killing dozens of people.”

How the team works

Using publicly available information, social media and on-the-ground reporting, team members collect videos and other documentary evidence of the event they’re investigating.

Reverse image searching that includes running still images through search engines helps confirm that a video is current. If the material has appeared online before, it will most likely show up in the search.

Comparing landmarks or matching structural damage (as in the war in Ukraine) in a video with satellite images or Google Streetview can help to pinpoint a precise area.

To verify when a video was filmed, team members check weather reports, measure the length of the sun’s shadows and check the metadata, or file information, of a video or photo. They also interview witnesses.

If they find that a video is taken out of context or is used to spread misinformation, they take to social media to warn others that the content is unreliable.

For more on the team’s process, read How The Times Verifies Eyewitness Videos by Christoph Koettl , who specializes in the analysis of satellite imagery, video and other visual evidence for The Times.

When The Times publishes an obscenity.

“In an age of ubiquitous vulgarity, it’s not very persuasive to argue that someone’s use of, say, the F word is deeply revealing.” Phil Corbett, standards editor

You may have seen an obscenity in the pages, digital or print, of The New York Times. But this should be rare. We maintain a steep threshold for vulgar words.

There are times, however, when publishing an offensive expression is necessary for a reader’s understanding of what is being reported. For example, The Times doesn’t shy away from reporting vulgarities uttered by powerful public figures and wielded in a public setting. If a reporter feels strongly that offensive language should be used in an article, editors from the Standards desk — and sometimes the masthead — will discuss the merits of using the language before agreeing to publish it.

Even when we decide to publish such language, we typically confine it to a single reference, and avoid using it in headlines, news alerts or social media posts.

Far more often, we say no to offensive language, as with profiles of colorful characters who pepper their interviews with four-letter words. In these cases, we don’t feel compelled to publish every word they say. Instead, we opt for a general description like “used a vulgar expression.” And we often avoid repeating a vulgarity used in the name of a website, business, movie or band.

(There is one section of The Times where you may encounter vulgar language somewhat more often: Books. This is because we run excerpts from the books we feature, and we don’t tamper with the author’s language.)

We realize that some readers may see our approach to vulgar language as dated or even a bit stuffy. To be clear, it’s not that we think our readers are delicate or easily shocked. But we think they value a restrained and thoughtful tone. Here’s a sentence from The Times’s stylebook entry on “obscenity, vulgarity, profanity,” which is more than 700 words long:

“The Times differentiates itself by taking a stand for civility in public discourse, sometimes at an acknowledged cost in the vividness of an article or two, and sometimes at the price of submitting to gibes.”

How The Times decides who gets an obituary.

“Some 155,000 people die between each day’s print version of The New York Times and the next — enough to fill Yankee Stadium three times over. On average, we publish obituaries on about three of them.” William McDonald, obituary editor

Here, William McDonald explains the process of a Times obituary :

We start with a paper-thin fraction of the total — the deaths we happen to hear about, usually by email or from a wire service or other news outlet — and then get choosy.

We’re exclusive in the extreme. We have to be. We have only so much space in the print newspaper, only so many hands to produce stories and only so many hours in the day to produce them, yet we have a very wide world to watch.

We focus on people who made a difference on a large stage — people who, we think, will command the broadest interest. If you made news in life, chances are your death is news, too.

We investigate, research and ask around before settling on our subjects.

Some might think our process presumptuous. Who, after all, anointed a handful of Times editors to stand by the roadside as a parade of humanity passes and single out this one, this one — but not that one — as worthy of being remembered?

The answer is that no one did, actually, because that is not precisely what we decide. We make no judgments, moral or otherwise, about human worth. What we do try to judge, however, is newsworthiness, and that’s a whole other standard.

There is no formula, scoring system or checklist. One thing to remember is that it is not our intent to honor the dead; we leave the tributes to the eulogists. We seek only to report deaths and to sum up lives, illuminating why, in our judgment, those lives were significant. The justification for the obituary is in the story it tells.

What does The New York Times own?

The New York Times Company owns The New York Times newspaper, website and app, and several other businesses:

Wirecutter , the recommendation service

The Athletic , the sports news site

New York Times Cooking

New York Times Games, which includes Spelling Bee and Wordle .

Each business operates independently and is sold as a separate subscription, or as part of a bundle with the news site and app. (Wordle is free.) The company makes most of its money from these subscriptions and derives significant revenue from advertisers.

The paper also produces several podcasts, including “The Daily,” which sells sponsorships and ads. In addition, the company owns the podcast producer Serial Productions , as well as Audm, a service that creates audio versions of articles for various publishers.

The Times also publishes The New York Times International Edition, The New York Times Magazine, T: The New York Times Style Magazine and The New York Times Book Review. They all operate within the newsroom and are led by the executive editor.

The company used to own other newspapers, including The Boston Globe, as well as radio and television stations. The Times no longer owns these properties, focusing instead on fewer, digital news brands. The company has made minority investments in other businesses and start-ups, and because The Times has no operational control over these companies, it hasn’t disclosed details of these investments.

The Times owns the majority of its headquarters building in New York City and a printing plant. Both generate revenue. The building rents office space to outside companies, and the plant sells printing services to other publishers.

As a public company, The Times trades under the ticker symbol NYT, but the business is controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family through a trust. The publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, is a fifth-generation member of the family.

Additional financial information can be found here .

How The Times handles and confirms breaking crime news.

“When big news breaks, we aim to get to the bottom of what occurred as quickly as we can, although we keep in mind that oftentimes initial reports from the scene can be off.” Marc Lacey, managing editor

The Times often relies on the reports given by law enforcement officials in control of a crime scene during a breaking news event. These initial reports can be valuable to readers, but they also can be incomplete and even inaccurate. We let readers know what we can’t confirm, what we can and where and how we got the information. Then we work aggressively to gather a wider range of perspectives on what happened and to verify the information through public records and interviews with witnesses and victims. We also search for video recordings of the incident and verify those before publishing.

What we keep in mind in the early stages of a breaking news event

Initial reports from law enforcement officials reflect their version of the events and are based on preliminary investigations.

Additional information may contradict these early reports.

Law enforcement officials may be withholding information for various reasons.

How we approach our coverage

We are cautious when reporting about potential motives, especially when officials are making early statements about the motivation behind an incident.

We are clear with readers about what questions are unanswered.

When new information contradicts earlier reports, we level with readers on what has changed and when.

Sometimes the reporting on these events involves both the crime and how the police respond to it. Law enforcement officials at times make it difficult for us to access information, interview witnesses or verify their findings.

In the case of George Floyd, the initial police report was titled, “Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction.” Video recorded by a bystander showed police officers pinning Mr. Floyd to the ground.

By being upfront with readers about what we know and don’t know, we provide as much detail as possible while acknowledging it isn’t the full picture.

Why The Times asks readers to contribute to our journalism.

“Inviting people to contribute to our reporting helps us grow the reach and scope of our journalism. — Beena Raghavendran, editor, digital storytelling and training

Our journalists are skilled at asking questions and listening. Their work is usually done with one source at a time — over the phone, in an email or text message or in person. But what if we asked dozens or even hundreds of people those same questions, all at once?

By using questionnaires we allow our journalists to broaden their reporting and give readers a chance to respond to specific questions, describe their experiences and share images or other media. Questionnaires can generate hundreds of responses, which are often used in a follow-up article. For example, when a poll showed that political discord was threatening friendships and family relationships, our call-out drew more than 500 responses, allowing us to share with readers the views of people from across the country who ranged in age from 17 to 74.

Questionnaires are an extension of our traditional reporting methods and a way to ensure that our journalism reflects the world we cover.

Here’s how they work and why you can trust us with your input

After we’ve formulated a questionnaire and published it, a team of reporters and editors works together to read through every response. We then reach out to a portion of those who respond (sometimes up to several dozen people) for follow-up conversations. These can include an interview to get a longer, more detailed response, or just the agreement that we can use the response they submitted.

These questionnaires appear as articles and are available to anyone with internet access. You don’t need to subscribe or even register on our site.

We require a full name and email to participate. We may use this information to contact you to confirm that you are who you say you are.

We use questionnaire responses only for journalistic purposes. We store all responses in a secure database, built and maintained in house and accessible only to our journalists. We never use the personal information you share for marketing or any other business communication.

Whether or not we use your response, we strive to acknowledge that we have received it. We make every effort to contact you before publishing any part of your submission.

We publish more than 100 questionnaires each year and encourage our journalists covering all topics to explore this approach to reporting.

How The Times covers elections.

Why and how we debunk election misinformation..

Our mission to bring you the truth through our journalism also includes warning you about the falsehoods. Misinformation flourished across social media in the final stretch before Election Day. We have several reporters tracking the trends and the shifting tactics employed by those spreading untruths. Here are five unfounded claims about voting in the midterm elections .

How we get live results on election night.

We report vote totals provided by The Associated Press, which collects results from states, counties and townships through a network of websites and more than 4,000 on-the-ground correspondents. To estimate how many votes remain to be counted, our team of data journalists and software engineers gathers vote tallies directly from the websites of election officials and compares these with our turnout expectations. Here’s more on how that works .

What you need to know about the needle.

The needle is an innovative forecasting tool that was created by The Times and debuted in 2016. It is intended to help you understand what the votes tallied so far suggest about possible winners in key contests, before the election is called. Here’s a deeper dive into how it works.

How we call winners on election night.

We rely on The Associated Press, which employs a team of analysts, researchers and race callers who have a deep understanding of the states where they declare winners. In some tightly contested races, we independently evaluate A.P. race calls before declaring a winner. Here’s more about how it works .

Is Career Training in Film Right for You?

Investigative Journalism – Everything You Need To Know

Investigative journalism is uncovering topics that are hidden, either intentionally or unintentionally, behind a tumultuous mass of facts and circumstances — the study that exposes all pertinent information to the public.

Investigative journalism is a branch of journalism in which reporters conduct in-depth investigations into a specific topic of interest, most often a crime, government corruption, or corporate misbehavior. An investigative reporter may spend months or even years researching and writing a report. Newspapers, news networks, and freelance journalists undertake most investigative reporting. However, some practitioners prefer their work as “watchdog journalism” or “accountability reporting.”

The old phrase that the pen is mightier than the sword is accurate in investigative journalism when indulgences of money, corruption, or dominance are exposed to safeguard public duty or interest.

What exactly is investigative journalism?

Investigative journalism primarily comprises some or all of the following elements:

• Investigate social and legal issues.
• Document analysis includes examining legal papers, public records, and financial information.
• Several in-depth interviews, both with on-the-record and anonymous sources.
• Technical details, research, and physical examination of specialized equipment
• Exploration of data
• Use subscription-based tools to conduct research.
• Research that takes weeks, months, or even years to complete.

What Is Investigative Journalism? – David E. Kaplan

Why is investigative journalism important?

Investigative journalism is focused on bringing influential individuals, officials, criminals, companies, and states accountable for their activities. By exposing corruption and malpractice, investigative journalism ensures that no one is above the law. It is a profoundly democratic practice founded on truth, freedom, and fairness.

Investigative journalism also highlights underrepresented populations, giving the voiceless a much-needed platform. Historically, this has resulted in reforms in the law and cultural attitudes, resulting in healthier societies with more people treated with dignity and respect. For example, in 1887, Elizabeth Seaman, a writer at Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World , best known by her byline Nellie Bly, pretended to be mentally ill to expose the horrible circumstances at New York City’s “Women’s Lunatic Asylum.” Seaman’s widely-read writings prompted a Grand Jury investigation and increased financing for mental health facilities.

Investigative journalism also promotes the public interest by conducting in-depth investigations and reporting on injustices. This is accomplished through investigative reports providing the necessary updates to readers, listeners, and viewers. As a result, investigative journalism functions as a public watchdog against the power abuse by individuals in positions of control. Just because the media is independent, persons in positions of authority cannot use it for personal benefit. 

As a result, investigative journalism has become the public’s only shelter for learning the truth about concealed things. But unfortunately, the background of investigative justice is littered with revelations of hidden fraud, deception, terrorism, and bribery.

It is clear that without investigative media, this could have gone unnoticed for generations. Hence, investigative journalism acts as a platform for informing the public about what is going on in society.

Obsessive, illuminating, high-stakes: why investigative journalism matters

Investigative Journalism’s Cultural Aspects

Investigative journalism is critical to modern society’s cultural ideals. This is owing, among other things, to the significant role it plays in the evolution of society. With investigative journalism in play, today’s society is concerned about securing justice. You can trace the importance and influence of investigative journalism in the community to the information culture. 

Investigative journalism’s instructive nature complements this. Investigative journalism has fueled a desire to learn more about what is going on in society. At the same time, the public’s perception of the media in this regard has skyrocketed.

As a result, society trusts the media to expose the truth behind many incidents. This has increased the media’s role because it is expected to obtain facts and disseminate them through investigative work. 

Why Investigative Journalism Matters – Joseph Stiglitz

What distinguishes it from other types of journalism?

An investigative work of journalism does not read like a standard news item that follows the five W’s and one H. It also does not have to be as brief or utilize as clear a language. While there are no hard and fast guidelines for producing an investigative piece, with tone and language left to the individual’s narrative style, investigative journalism’s in-depth, critical nature lends it some broadly consistent features. Among the most important are:

• Long-form content.
• Utilize infographics, tables, and charts.
• Statistics or quotes are abundant.
• Even if these elements aren’t always there, the in-depth structure of investigative journalism causes the pieces to swing in those areas.

What Are the Factors of Investigative Journalism?

The following are the fundamental components of investigative journalism:

Thorough Investigation

Many days, weeks, or even years of study go into an investigative journalism report. It is the outcome of a journalist’s or a group of journalists’ tremendous efforts in producing and researching a large amount of data and documents. Before reaching conclusions, every bit of information is double- or even triple-checked with factual evidence.

When dealing with such a massive volume of data, it is easy to become lost, confused, and overwhelmed. Investigative journalists work methodically and deliberately through mountains of data.

The process investigative journalists use to uncover the truth is comparable to that of a scientist. After receiving a tip, investigative journalists go deeper into data, and research theories, test hypotheses as they emerge, cross-check material with different sources, and eventually arrive at certain immutable realities.

Getting to the bottom of the story

The critical distinction between traditional and investigative journalism is that investigative reporting goes beyond the story’s surface features. Once the news has been reported, a typical journalist would be content to let it go.

However, the nature of an investigative journalist’s profession requires them to get to the truth behind the story, which means that the tale does not stop until the most hidden details are exposed.

Conducting interviews and verifying facts

To illustrate how an investigative journalist would tackle a subject, consider how they would cover a regular newsworthy event, such as a building catching fire.

A conventional journalist would travel to the site and gather information about an event:

Then, the next day, you’ll likely read or hear about a store that caught fire in the news.

An investigative journalist, on the other hand, will delve deeper. In pursuing the ‘true story,’ the investigative journalist may discover that the owners of the tiny store were frequently threatened with eviction by a corporate-like enterprise.

Investigating hypotheses

The investigative journalist will then begin connecting the dots, talking to people, conducting interviews, and poring over records to check the legitimacy of the hypothesis that the big business vying for the store’s space was directly implicated in the firestorm that tore down the store to the ground.

What is Investigative Journalism?

What is the role of an investigative journalist?

Investigative journalists frequently cover essential subjects such as societal phenomena or political events:

• A news director or editor usually assigns them a specific topic.
• Investigative journalists conduct research, discover and contact experts on the issue and other materials, coordinate interviews, and fact-check the data they obtain after getting their assignment. They next compile the data and write a story that expresses their findings and offers evidence.
• Investigative journalists proofread their work before sending it to the news director or editor to ensure proper style, spelling, and grammar usage.

Previously, investigative journalists only operated for print newspapers, but as technology has advanced, many journalists are now creating articles for social media platforms, blogs, or podcasts. Among the subfields in this area are:

Political journalism

Investigative journalists who work in politics fight to keep people aware of national and local political issues and candidates so that their readers can make intelligent voting decisions during polls.

International journalism

Investigative journalists who work in worldwide and international journalism research, study, and publish reports on current events all around the world, such as significant criminal cases. They can make content for news bulletins, the internet, and television, but they also create documentaries to tell their tales.

Broadcast journalism

This broad genre of journalism encompasses all investigative stories reported via electronic channels such as the internet, television, or radio. Broadcast journalism’s primary purpose is immediately delivering essential information and news to a large audience.

Print journalism

Investigative journalists use books , periodicals, and tabloids to tell their tales.

How Do You Get Started as an Investigative Journalist?

Investigative journalists typically work as freelancers or as assistants to editors in news organizations. In any case, investigative journalism stories significantly benefit society by revealing social and economic misbehavior.

If you are in the process of changing occupations or have yet to decide, you should follow the below steps to become an investigative journalist:

Get a bachelor’s degree

Most businesses demand a bachelor’s in journalism or a related subject, such as broadcast, marketing, English, internal relations, or political science. Required courses in journalism typically cover areas such as law and ethics, graphic journalism, communication, writing and editing , and reporting. Furthermore, several journalism programs have begun to include courses focusing on media, such as multimedia.

Employers often prefer candidates with relevant experience, and institutions frequently provide opportunities to get industry exposure and journalistic skills. For instance, you could:

• Participate in events : Students and graduates can enter investigative journalism competitions with their articles. Investigative journalism groups frequently sponsor these student competitions. If your article is awarded, you can publish the award on your CV and mention the writing samples in your portfolio.
• Make use of workshops and courses: Colleges and universities frequently give various services to aid their students’ academic development. You can augment your undergraduate curriculum and gain from industry specialists by taking courses and workshops from journalism schools and investigative journalism groups.
• Participate in extracurricular activities : Working for the school newspaper and undertaking an internship are the most acceptable ways for a student to obtain industry experience. If your university offers a career center, they may be able to assist you in finding and applying for a journalistic internship.

Create a portfolio

Employers typically seek a sampling of your work when seeking opportunities as an investigative journalist. A portfolio displays examples of your most excellent journalistic work, allowing prospective employers to assess your:

• Newsgathering abilities
• Technical expertise
• Writing style

Until you obtain professional experience, you can use items you wrote for your school newspaper, journalism classes, or internship. In addition, most journalism programs mandate the compilation of a portfolio as a graduation requirement.

Keep in mind that you keep your portfolio up to date with your most recent work and successes.

Acquire experience

When you first start as an investigative journalist, you should focus on gaining experience and honing your skills with a smaller radio station, television show, or newspaper. Finding work with a larger organization is generally more straightforward once you’ve got experience and built an impressive portfolio of your work.

Make it a habit to research.

A good investigative journalist is also a good researcher. Hence, improve your research skills to get to the bottom of stories, develop new angles, and establish theories.

So you want to be an investigative journalist?

What Qualifies an Investigative Journalist?

Here are a few characteristics of good investigative journalists:

Quantitative and logical thinking abilities

Investigative journalists function similarly to detectives. They are the true Sherlock Holmes.

Analytical and logical thinking takes work, but once you’ve mastered it, you’ll be linking dots like the majestic of inference, Mr. Sherlock Holmes himself.

Research Abilities

The process of investigative journalism requires extensive research. A reporter may have to read hundreds of pages to double-check a little piece of information.

The investigative journalist’s work is so broad, and you must be patient. A single investigative journalism assignment could take months, if not years, to finish.

Time Planning

Under the heavy pile of documents, it’s easy to become frustrated or lose track of time. On the other hand, a brilliant investigative journalist makes it a point to maintain systems throughout the project so that nothing gets mixed up.

Prominent Cases of Investigative Journalism Throughout Time

Browse through some of the most noteworthy incidents of investigative journalism to explore how watchdog duty has influenced history.

Ten Days at a Mental Institution (1887)

Nellie Bly, a teenage reporter, went undercover at a mental facility and uncovered its highly terrible conditions.

Almost instantly, the state of New York increased funding for mental health care by $1 million each year; her report also spurred a grand jury probe into the institution.

Moses Newson’s Feature on the Civil Rights Movement (the 1950s-1960s)

Moses Newson, a Black reporter based in Memphis, Tennessee, and Baltimore, Maryland, covered numerous pivotal civil liberties events, notably Emmett Till’s murder, school desegregation, and the 1961 Freedom Rides.

Newson’s reporting helped Americans comprehend and sympathize with the human rights movement’s ideals.

Silent Spring (1962)

Rachel Carson, a biologist, collated data on pesticide toxicity and exposed it to the American community in her book Silent Spring .

Despite initial criticism, particularly from chemical industries, Silent Spring ‘s conclusions resulted in the ban on the chemical DDT. In addition, they sparked a green movement that led to the establishment of the “Environmental Protection Agency.”

The Massacre at My Lai (1969)

Independent investigative writer Seymour Hersh discovered the US military protection of the 1968 massacre of over 500 defenseless Vietnamese civilians in the town of My Lai by US soldiers.

Hersh’s research sparked unrest, which aided the expansion and impact of the peace movement across the United States . The sole person convicted in connection with the killings was Lt. William Calley, who led one of the three platoons implicated in the massacre; President Richard Nixon released him after spending three years, mainly under home detention.

“Bad Cash or Easy Money?” (1992)

Two Florida journalists investigated a sheriff’s interstate narcotics team and discovered that it confiscated $8 million from primarily Black and Hispanic motorists in 262 car stops. No charges were filed in 199 of these cases.

The Orlando Sentinel series and other exposés of similar practices prompted the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act to be passed in 2000. It amended federal forfeiture legislation to allow proprietors of seized assets to be paid for legal fees incurred in successfully fighting the government. (However, it did not modify state law.)

Secret Surveillance on Muslim Communities (2011)

According to the Associated Press, the New York Police Department used a covert surveillance program to monitor and penetrate mosques and Muslim community organizations. However, the monitoring was based on nationality and religion rather than probable cause.

Three lawsuits were filed due to the inquiry. All were settled in favor of persons whom the NYPD had unlawfully wiretapped. The administration agreed to increased supervision.

Harvey Weinstein (2017)

The New York Times and The New Yorker released stories against Harvey Weinstein, a prominent Hollywood executive, within days of each other. More than 80 women have alleged Weinstein of sexual misbehavior or abuse since those articles were published, alleging that he used his status, riches, and network of aides to advance his sexual activity. According to the women, if they spoke against him, he threatened to terminate their careers.

Weinstein was charged with rape, aggressive sexual abuse, and illicit sexual encounter; investigations in other places are underway. In addition, the news reports sparked the #MeToo movement, in which women spoke out against elevated men who they claimed had sexually abused them.

Final Thoughts

Accountability is crucial to investigative journalism. It is the only way to rein in the extremes of power and wealth.

To achieve the big story, investigative journalism depends on considerable investigation, the rigorous pursuit of truth, freedom, and fairness, and an iterative process of hypothesis and testing. Moreover, for a democracy to function correctly, journalists must pursue their subjects independently of outside influence or manipulation to report significant social and economic concerns to the public.

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• NYU Journalism Handbook for Students

Ethics, Law and Good Practice

Carter Journalism Institute Faculty of Arts and Science New York University 20 Cooper Square New York, NY 10003

By Prof. Adam L. Penenberg

REVISED 2020

Open Access License: The author of this work, in conjunction with the Carter Institute at New York University, has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution License to this Ethics Handbook. While the author and the journalism institute retain ownership, we encourage others to reprint, amend and distribute this work for both commercial and noncommercial uses, as long as the original author and the journalism institute are credited. This broad license was developed to allow open and free access to original works of all types.

As a journalism student enrolled at New York University, you are part of a community of scholars at an institution recognized for its research. A scholar’s mission is to push forward the boundaries of knowledge; a journalist’s mission is to serve the public by seeking and reporting the facts as accurately as possible. Good journalists and scholars share a commitment to the same principle: integrity in their work. A doctor’s ethos is, “do no harm.” Ours is, “tell the truth.”

The Journalism Faculty created this handbook to address issues that might arise during the course of a semester. The aim is for this handbook to be descriptive, prescriptive and pedagogical. In journalism, ethical problems—with some obvious exceptions such as plagiarism and fabricating sources and material—can rarely be solved with yes or no, do or don’t answers. Whenever an ethical or legal issue arises, students should review this handbook, consult with a professor or both. The best defense against crossing ethical or legal lines is openness and honesty.

By its very nature this handbook cannot go into great depth on any one subject. The Institute offers semester-long courses in ethics and communications law, in which these subjects are explored in detail.

INTRODUCTION

America’s founders saw the press as an indispensable part of the democratic republic they created. The protections of the First Amendment for speaking and publishing would produce a vigorous marketplace of ideas and enable citizens to hold public officials and public figures accountable for their actions. James Madison saw press freedom as critical to upholding all individual rights in the Constitution. In one of the most powerful defenses ever of a free press, Madison wrote in 1800 that the First Amendment protected the “right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right.”

While the First Amendment protects the rights of the press, it does not automatically confer credibility on journalists themselves. That has to be earned every day in the hard work of covering news and public affairs—especially in a time of sharp attacks by politicians, cries of “fake news,” and widespread public doubt about the fairness of press coverage.

The credibility of individual journalists and the press itself depends in large part on a rigorous adherence to ethical practices. That starts with dedication to the pursuit of truth and integrity in everyday reporting and writing. Plagiarism, fabrication, deliberate misrepresentation of facts, and conflicts of interest violate the most basic commitment to discover and publish the truth. There are many additional ethical considerations that journalists must consider, some requiring close analysis that does not always yield easy answers. How does one deal with confidential sources and with various forms of background and off-the-record information? Under what circumstances, if any, should a journalist work undercover to collect information? How does a journalist balance newsworthiness against a person’s legitimate right to privacy? We cover these and many other issues in the guide that follows.

Reporters critique the activities of other people and institutions, and what they publish can have a profound impact on the people, businesses and institutions they cover, as well as society at large. Journalists must live up to the highest standards of integrity, and by integrity we mean: truth, fairness, sincerity, and avoiding the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Since the Carter Institute of Journalism at NYU is an educational entity, rigorous honesty is required in research, analysis, and writing, as well as in discussion with professors and classmates. Lack of honesty in scholarship undermines the very foundation of the learning process and can have grave consequences for the student, including failure in a course or expulsion from the university.

All work on all platforms—the page, the screen, the Web—must be original. A student may not engage in “double-dipping” by handing in an assignment for one class then submitting the same or similar material to another without the permission of the instructor. Of course, in classes engaged in long-form work, professors might actually encourage a longer and more elaborate treatment of a previously executed idea, or the project in question is so labor-intensive that two professors may agree that the student can work on the piece for both classes. In all instances, however, the prior approval of the professors involved is imperative.

A student may not conduct research for one class and then use that research in another class—again, unless they have received explicit permission from both professors. Students who work on joint projects should note that they are equally responsible for the veracity of the work. Finally, a student may not submit for an assignment material that has already been published or was contracted by a professional publisher and rejected. Of course, students are very much encouraged to submit for publication stories produced in class. Consult your professor if you have questions.

HUMAN SOURCES

A human “source” is roughly defined as a person who contributes information to a piece of reportage, whether or not it is ultimately published or aired in any venue—print, the internet, radio (audio podcasts included), video on a news report on television, online, in a documentary film, or across a future medium we haven’t thought of yet.

Journalists should seek to be fair and truthful in reporting what their sources tell them. Factual accuracy entails checking, and double-checking, facts and fairness involves working diligently to get myriad sides of a story by speaking to multiple sources with different and often varying points of view. When appropriate, journalists should make a judicious attempt to balance “establishment” experts—spokespeople for think tanks, foundations, and the like—with knowledgeable sources from outside “official” culture. Fairness also means adhering to the “no surprises” rule when writing critically of someone: affording the source the opportunity to answer allegations or criticisms before publishing the work.

In addition, journalists should avoid engaging in stereotypes and, whenever possible and appropriate, make sure that people from different economic backgrounds, ethnic groups, religions and cultures are represented in the reporting. The NYU journalism faculty urges students to treat sources with respect. Never threaten punitive action against a source for a perceived lack of cooperation.

ON THE RECORD, ON BACKGROUND, NOT FOR ATTRIBUTION, OFF THE RECORD , AND ON GUIDANCE

These are prearranged agreements between a reporter and a source, which govern how specific information can be used. These deals must be agreed to beforehand, never after. A source can’t say something then claim it was “off the record.” That’s too late. When dealing with individuals who are not experienced in talking with reporters, journalists should make sure ground rules and potential consequences are clear, and then perhaps offer leeway. Of course, if the information isn’t integral to the story, a reporter can agree not to use it. If you talk to five journalists, you’ll likely get five different definitions for these terms. That’s why it’s important that a reporter clarify the use of these terms with a source before making any agreements.

In general:

“On the record” means anything the source says can be reported, published, or aired. All conversations are assumed to be on the record unless the source expressly requests—and the reporter explicitly agrees—to go off the record beforehand. If the reporter agrees to change “on the record” to something else, the reporter should be sure to mark notes clearly so that it’s possible to see what’s on the record and what is not at a later date. Never rely on memory and always try to get back “on the record” as quickly as possible.

“On background” is a kind of limited license to print what the source gives you without using the source’s name. But most veteran reporters will not use “on background” information until they can verify it with other sources. People try to go “on background” when their information is very sensitive, which is to say, the information is likely to cause a stir. “On background” means the source’s name does not appear in the story. In effect it confers anonymity on your source, but allows you to work with the information the source has provided. Again, it’s best to consult your professor in these situations.

“Not for attribution” means that a reporter agrees not to identify a source by name. Identification is provided only by reference to the source’s job or position. That identification must be agreed upon by the reporter and the source, and is almost always given in a way that prevents readers from discovering the source’s specific identity. (There are rare exceptions—when dealing with diplomats and expressing a nation’s official views, for instance.) The reporter should make sure the attribution is accurate and should press the source to allow the attribution to be as specific as possible. For example, a reporter would want to attribute information to “a high-ranking official in the Justice Department,” rather than “a high-ranking law enforcement official,” if the source agrees beforehand.

“Off the record” restricts the reporter from using the information the source is about to deliver. The information is offered to explain or further a reporter’s understanding of a particular issue or event. (Various presidents have invited reporters to have dinner with the understanding that no information from this meeting can ever be published.) But if the reporter can confirm the information with another source who doesn’t insist on speaking off the record (whether that means the source agreed to talking on the record, on background, or not for attribution), the reporter can publish it.

The problem with the phrase “off the record” is that many people, reporters and the general public alike, misunderstand its precise meaning. These days many interviewees think “off the record” is largely synonymous with “on background” or “not for attribution.” There is so much murkiness about what “off the record” means that it is essential that the reporter and source agree on a definition before beginning an “off the record” portion of an interview. At the Carter Institute of Journalism, “off the record” means the information should not be used in the story unless the reporter can confirm it through another source. In general, it is best to avoid off the record conversations; another option might be to converse off the record and then try to convince the source to agree to waive the agreement. If a source declares part or all of an interview off the record after the fact, and this indicates a clear violation of predetermined ground rules, then best practice still requires the journalist to inform the source that they are using the information and give source the opportunity to comment while moving forward with publication.

“On guidance” is a source willing to provide information with no attribution or acknowledgement of existence, simply an individual willing to provide a reporter a road map she must independently follow. This is a safer term to use with sources than an anonymous source. The faculty urges students to avoid using unidentified sources whenever possible. In recent years, The New York Times , to name one media outlet, has come under fire for reporting stories largely based on anonymous government sources promulgating a particular point of view, and this practice undermined the Times’ goal of covering news impartially—”without fear or favor,” in the words of its patriarch, Adolph Ochs. For instance, the paper’s coverage of Los Alamos researcher Wen Ho Lee, who Clinton Administration officials pegged as a spy by using cover of anonymity to leak their suspicions to Times reporters, and its coverage of Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction leading up to the Iraq War, seriously tainted the paper’s reputation. Recently, there has been a rise in the use of anonymous sourcing at CNN, Politico, and Business Insider, among other news outlets, which has frequently resulted in errors or other forms of blowback. One recent example would be Buzzfeed’s use of anonymous sourcing in a story that claimed Michael Cohen was instructed by Trump to lie to Robert Mueller, which proved embarrassing to Buzzfeed and served to bolster the Trump administration’s claims that the liberal media is biased often wrong.

There are moments, however, when the only way to get a story is to offer anonymity to a source; such offers should be a last resort after repeated attempts to go on the record have failed and the student has received permission from their instructor. Some notable examples: a source admits committing a crime, and publishing their name could land them in prison; a source begs anonymity because public exposure could embarrass the source or jeopardize the source’s job; an illegal immigrant is afraid to speak out for fear of being deported. In these cases, the student should consult with their professor. If an anonymous source must be used, the student should attempt to offer as much detail as possible about who the source was and explain the reason anonymity was given. For instance, identify a source as “a police detective close to the investigation who requested anonymity because their superiors had ordered them not to speak publicly on the matter.”

Except in rare instances, a reporter should not publish an anonymous quote or statement from a source that is critical of another person. Generally speaking, if someone is unwilling to put their name to a critical statement about another person, the reporter shouldn’t use it. In all cases where a source requests anonymity, the reporter must get the source’s name and address and contact numbers and that information must be made available to the professor, who, in effect, serves as the student’s editor.

IN-PERSON, PHONE, EMAIL, TEXT AND SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECT MESSAGE INTERVIEWS

It is best to speak to sources in person. In-person interviews allow for colorful, descriptive reporting. Sources also tend to be much more relaxed—and perhaps more truthful—when interviewed in person. It’s also much easier for a reporter to gauge the credibility of a source when meeting face to face. But an in-person interview is not always practicable, and in those cases the telephone is the next best mode of communication. Be sure to check the veracity of a source’s identity by calling through corporate or government switchboards, and be suspicious if a source will only call you and will not provide either a phone number or an affiliation.

Email interviews can have their place. In certain circles—technology or in the world of online forums, for instance—many sources insist on email interviews so they have a written record of what is discussed. In addition, email interviews can serve as an effective way to further clarify information from a prior in-person or phone interview, especially if data and highly technical information is being conveyed. But email interviews can create problems, too. How does a reporter know the person replying is who they say they are? All too often, company publicists answer email questions on behalf of their bosses or clients. Email answers often tend to be carefully scripted and thus not truly representative of what the source truly thinks. Spontaneous answers in conversation are often more truthful. Follow-up questions—usually the most productive questions in a probing interview—are also very difficult and time-consuming to ask via email. Likewise, instant message interviews should not be used to replace in-person or telephone interviews, but at times can be useful in clarifying responses after an interview.

NYU Journalism faculty strongly urge student reporters to meet sources in person whenever possible. It makes for richer, better stories; the writer can describe physical settings—what a source’s office looks like, for example.

PERSON-ON-THE-STREET INTERVIEWS

When interviewing people on the street—tourists, passersby, voters exiting a polling precinct—be sure to get proper contact information (telephone number is best; email less so) in the event an editor needs to confirm quotes or facts, check a source’s identity, or simply wants the reporter to ask follow up questions. Often the purpose of on-the-street interviews is to try to capture the diversity of opinion in a particular population, not just to get a few lively quotes to brighten a story. In this case, a reporter should make an effort to interview enough people so that they can feel reasonably confident the story holds a fair cross-section of opinion. Better still, a reporter should back up their interviews with statistically legitimate polling data if available. And reporters should always be honest with their readers about the number of sources interviewed. Don’t leave readers with the impression that your story accurately reflects campus opinion if you have only interviewed half-a-dozen people. Instead, tell readers how many people you interviewed, and attempt to quantify their views.

Immersion involves spending long periods of time with sources and sometimes in intimate settings–at home, with children, in hospitals or in times of crisis, to name several–as is often referred to as “fly on the wall.” As such, it involves a series of ethical considerations that are best negotiated explicitly with sources. As with every other form of journalism, we do not share written work with our sources on the page. We do not pay our sources, nor do we manipulate stories by creating scenarios or situations that we think will serve our work. By definition, our presence changes the course of events, however, and there are times when you as a journalist will face making tough ethical calls which may involve driving people places (especially to medical care), sleeping in their homes or eating meals with them. On a case by case basis, there will be times when contributing to the cost of your presence will be welcome and appropriate, but otherwise, the ethical principles related to immersion, despite the close and sustained contact, are consistent will all other forms of journalistic professionalism.

OBLIGATIONS TO SOURCES

It is imperative that journalists honor their agreements with sources; some have taken great risks in providing information. If you agree to a source’s request for anonymity be sure you don’t inadvertently provide information in your story that could peg them as the source. Such deals should never be undertaken lightly. Reporters must carefully consider whether to guarantee anonymity to a source, especially involving a matter that could eventually go to court. Refusing to name a source in a legal proceeding could land a reporter in jail. (The legal ramifications raised by the need to protect sources is discussed in the section on law, below.)

In the course of your reporting, it is critical that you protect your sources – especially if those sources are confidential. This is a principle that often comes under threat from governments, dictatorships, corporations or criminal actors.

People who want to get the information from a journalist or a source can access information via subpoena or legal warrant, interception of data via spy agencies, cyber attacks, surveillance of company-owned computers or phones and many other low-tech approaches. These threats vary between stories.

There is no single tool that will protect a reporter or source from all the threats they may face, and there’s no one single that will make information totally secure. Many measures taken to achieve security mean causing inconvenience in other parts of your life or your source’s life. You should be honest with your source that while you will do the best you can to protect them, there is no way to completely guarantee their safety or anonymity.

The following are some ways one can achieve digital security:

• Two-factor authentication: Always use this for email and social networks. Don’t reuse passwords. Don’t ignore notifications – keep your software up-to-date.
• Encryption: Encryption scrambles data from online traffic so it cannot be easily by those who want to intercept the data and information. Most internet traffic is protected with encryption (you can tell when you see the lock next to the web address in your browser). An extra-secure level of encryption when you’re contacting a source via direct message is end-to-end encryption. This ensures that only the sender and the recipient of the message can read it – while the app that you’re using cannot. End-to-end encrypted messaging apps include WhatsApp and Signal.
• Being aware of logging: A log is the digital record of old conversations or emails. Anything available to you via logging (e.g. old texts or emails) could be available to others by hacking, interception or legal avenues. It is important to be aware of what you keep logged and how often you delete your records. If you’re part of a company, it’s good to check your organization’s policies about this as well. It’s also important to be aware by other sites used by you or your source (e.g. Google doesn’t delete emails until nine weeks after you hit delete).
• Being aware of metadata: Metadata doesn’t expose the content of communications between you and a source, but it will expose the fact that you’re in communication with that source. Methods of working around this include: reaching out to other people who may also have your source’s information so that your source is hidden in a crowd; using throwaway phone or emails or communicating offline.
• VPN: VPNs send Internet data to and from your computer through a server elsewhere on the Internet, which means that you’ll appear to be accessing the internet from your VPN server, which can be based anywhere in the world – not your actual location. A VPN will secure all your communications from local interception. VPNs are often used to circumvent Internet restrictions or government surveillance.
• Tor: Tor protects network traffic by encrypting and shuffling the data through several servers before entering the internet. Like VPNs, Tor also helps you avoid tracking or surveillance.
• Airgapping: For stories dealing with sophisticated actors (e.g. spy agencies, Russia, China) there is the chance that any computer that has been connected to the internet could be compromised by a hacking attack. To counter this, one can purchase an airgapped computer – one that has never been connected to the internet, that may have its network capabilities disabled. You can view documents safely on an airgapped computer because someone trying to access this information would need physical access to the computer to get at it.

Even after you publish a story, it is still vital for you to protect the identity of your source and look out for threats that could lead to the disclosure of your source’s identity. Factors that could lead to source identification include:

• Misuse and misunderstanding of technology
• Human nature
• Legal errors
• Leaked and reused passwords
• Malware, social engineering or large-scale cyber attacks
• Identifying the source from published documents
• Other people who knew the source had the information

Before you publish or engage with a source, it’s important to threat model and analyze the risks of using a source – what they have done, how capable are they to protect themselves and how likely they are to face retaliation. It’s important to consider the following questions:

• Who would be interested in finding the source or stopping the publication of a story?
• How sophisticated are those people and what materials do they have at their disposal to stop the publication of a story?
• How sophisticated is the source? Will they be able to protect themselves?
• How much danger is the source in?

Through considering these questions, you should be able to communicate with your source to come up with the best plan to protect them and effectively deliver their information to the public.

Under the terms of a media embargo, companies, government agencies, and scientific journals, among other organizations, provide advance access to material that they consider newsworthy to journalists who agree not to publish anything about that material until a set date.

Proponents of embargoes say that they level the playing field, and allow reporters time to develop fuller stories, rather than rushing to beat the competition. Some reporters like them because they can have at least some control over their schedules.

However, embargoes have become overused in some fields , and often seem designed to create buzz around an event that would not seem newsworthy were it not for journalists’ addiction to news pegs. That is particularly true in science and medical journalism, in which prominent weekly journals attempt to use their publishing schedules to dictate what’s “news,” even though research findings do not happen on a weekly schedule.

It would be good for the unfettered flow of information if journalists eschewed embargoes. Unfortunately, in some fields, reporting on breaking news has become difficult without agreeing to them.

If you decide to agree to embargoes, it is important to keep in mind that they are agreements, and can’t be imposed unilaterally. A press officer can’t simply send material and call it embargoed; you would be in your rights to report on that immediately.

It is also best not to agree to any conditions on embargoes other than publication time. Recently, some government agencies and companies have used “ close-hold ” embargoes that require reporters not to discuss the embargoed material with any sources before the embargo lifts. That turns journalists who want to publish when the embargo lifts into stenographers.

Whenever agreeing to an embargo, it is good to think about who benefits and how. Even seemingly benign embargo agreements can be used by corporate, government, or other powerful interests to influence press coverage.

SEXUAL (AND NON-SEXUAL) HARASSMENT AND ABUSE

In the course of your work, you may get harassed or abused by colleagues, sources, superiors or others both in the newsroom and far afield.. Harassment or abuse is often sexual – which includes unwelcome attention or sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and/or offensive remarks about a person’s gender. Harassment can come from sources, coworkers or people adjacent to your work.

It’s important to cover strategies to preemptively avoid harassment and abuse and how to deal with it once it has happened, but the responsibility always lies with the person perpetuating the harassment or abuse. It is never your fault if you are being harassed or abused. Don’t harass or abuse other people. If you are in a position where you witness harassment or abuse happening to someone else and you feel like you can safely speak up about the problem, you need to do so – even if it is uncomfortable for you. This can be accomplished by talking with the perpetrator directly, talking to someone who has the power to make the perpetrator stop their behavior, or even providing a temporary distraction to end the perpetrator’s behavior in that specific moment.

Some strategies to mitigate the risk of harassment include: meeting with sources in public places during times of day which fall inside professional boundaries (e.g. not meeting them at midnight for drinks.) Don’t meet alone or in remote locations with people who you aren’t familiar with – or if you have to, turn on a location-tracking app, alert your friends/colleagues, clearly keep in touch with other people and make sure the person you’re meeting with knows that people would be concerned and proactive if you vanished off the grid. Choose clothing that befits the occasion. Set boundaries – clarify that your meeting with a person is strictly professional and if they cross the line, be immediately clear that it is unacceptable behavior. Tap into the whisper network, if you can locate one, to find out which sources/colleagues/etc are predatory.

If you are being harassed by a colleague or source, document the instances of harassment and share them with people so there is a record of what has been happening. The Dart Center suggests some strategies for dealing with harassment, including: directly telling them to stop, indirectly telling them to stop, ignoring the behavior, using humor and cutting an interview short.

If you have been harassed by someone, some options you could pursue are: sending them an email telling them that you’d like to keep them as a source, but only if they stop their behavior. (This also creates a paper trail). You could use an intermediary to approach them and tell them to stop. You could drop the source or report them to the company they work for (if they are affiliated with one). This all comes down to what you are comfortable with.

While harassment and abuse are wrong in every context, the different places in which you report may have different cultural standards for this type of behavior. This applies internationally, but these cultural differences also occur on a national level and are important to be aware of.

Some of these options may seem incredibly limiting – and they are, especially for women journalists, who often downplay harassment or abuse they receive because it would further limit their access to the important stories they’re reporting. Sometimes, to get the story, you may have to meet up with a source for drinks at midnight or in a remote location or you may not be wearing a full professional suit. Sometimes, you may decide that pursuing the story is more important than harassment you may be receiving. At the end of the day, you know your story and yourself better than your editors, and you need to make the call with them on whether something is safe for you or not. But remember, your safety is more important than any story.

WORKING INTERNATIONALLY

Often the research required to be able to carry out reporting in an international location can exceed that needed to actually report the story. This is a key point to remember and take seriously throughout the entire process.

LAWS, VISAS, PERMITS, PASSPORTS

First, it is essential to understand that laws that apply to journalistic activities within the United States do not extend outside its borders. Every country has its own rules and these must be understood to avoid difficult situations that might include arrest, detention or deportation. Generally, it can be observed that many countries have more restrictive laws than the US. In many nations, the mere act of reporting is something that is tightly controlled and cannot be conducted without permission from the government. While some cases are extreme, for example North Korea, where reporting is virtually impossible, many other countries including giants like China, Russia, Indonesia and India require specific journalist visas or reporting permits for foreign nationals. Many of the applications involve explaining what your story is about, so this can be a delicate process for investigative pieces. Some countries, like Vietnam, may require foreign journalists be accompanied by state appointed “minders”. Video and photography restrictions may exist in places where reporting alone might not be controlled (Morocco, Kenya). Prior research is essential in these matters to assure a successful and safe trip.

Reporters should be vigilant in keeping their passports up to date as many countries will not permit entry to anyone with a passport that expires within 6 months, something that can thwart an international assignment before it begins. Some entry stamps can cause issues when trying to enter other countries. For example, an Israel stamp will make it impossible to enter Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Lebanon, Sudan and others. An eagle-eyed passport control officer might even deny entry to a traveller with a Jordanian entry stamp from the land crossing between Israel and Jordan. Non US citizens who benefit from the ESTA visa waiver program (many European and Northeast Asian citizens) will need an additional special waiver to enter the US if they have visited Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen. For several countries, proof of a Yellow Fever vaccination is required for entry – the “yellow card” is handed over together with the passport.

Red tape aside, reporting outside the United States can be a dangerous venture. According to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists, in 2018 alone, 54 journalists were murdered because of their occupation. Many of these cases involve covering conflict, but a survey of the past decade reveals a few hotspots even in non war-zones: 33 cases in Mexico, 25 in Brazil, 46 in the Philippines, 24 in India, 9 in Russia. The great majority of those killed were reporters working in their home nations, as opposed to foreigners, but international journalists are sometimes targeted and attacked as well.

Another rare but significant risk is that of kidnapping, sometimes at the hands of terror groups, sometimes rebel factions, and sometimes criminal gangs (often a combination of these). For assignments where this might be a concern, reporters should explore kidnapping and ransom (“K&R”) insurance, which can pay to free a covered person, depending on the level of the policy, and will usually provide high level intelligence, advice and negotiation services. Staff reporters should find out if their employer provides coverage and have all contact details handy and with their supervisor and family members. The costs of these policies can sometimes exceed the compensation of a foreign reporting assignment and therefore they are less often used by freelancers, though some commissioning media organizations do extend coverage to freelancers on assignment for them. Reporters from the US and UK (and possibly others) should be aware that their governments may offer only limited logistical support in cases of kidnap and will never make ransom payments, even in high profile cases.

Even statistically more dangerous for border-crossing reporters are hazards stemming from the lack of infrastructure in many places around the world. Road accidents represent a significant risk everywhere, but fatality rates are 2-3 times higher in Liberia, Thailand or the Dominican Republic than in the US (which is itself higher than Canada, Mexico and many European nations). Because of this, many foreign reporters employ local drivers who are more accustomed to road and traffic conditions. Many reporters working abroad also adopt a policy of avoiding all road travel after dark.

Some international destinations may expose reporters to diseases not present at home, and the lack of well-staffed and -supplied medical facilities in many locations can complicate treatment for these or in cases of other illness or injury. First, location-specific medical advice should be sought before each assignment. Vaccinations and/or prophylaxis are available for some of these risks: for example malaria, typhoid and meningococcal meningitis. Reporters should always be sure to carry an adequate supply of any required medicines (which may not be obtainable locally) as well as insect repellant, sunscreen, altitude pills or other location-specific needs. Very few US health insurance providers provide coverage outside of the US and so specific travel medical policies, including adequate medical evacuation coverage for many destinations, should be a prerequisite.

Because of these hazards, it is always a good idea to develop a system to keep in regular contact with home base, so that in the event help is needed it is not needlessly delayed. Research should be carried out to see if a reporter’s mobile phone provider offers adequate coverage in the destination country. If not, or if the cost is prohibitive, reporters should ensure their mobile device is unlocked and they should acquire a local SIM card on arrival. For some assignments, reporters should consider bringing a satellite phone or a GPS transponder, which can be used to send out location information when other communications are offline or unavailable (although first make sure these devices are legal to import to the destination country. India, for example, strictly forbids satellite phones.). At a minimum, regularly scheduled “check ins” via phone, message or email should be arranged with a supervisor or even family member. These points of contacts should be furnished with emergency contact details for medical services, local embassies and crisis responders.

NYU RISK RESOURCES

New York University has advanced and valuable resources available to mitigate some of these risks for enrolled students. International safety and security is handled by the Department of Public Safety’s Global Security Operations Center, or GSOC. The Center has advanced intelligence and crisis response capabilities and should be a first call should a student reporter find themselves in trouble while abroad on a university-related assignment. Its analysts are available for pre-trip consults and specific country risk assessments. They also have a limited number of first aid kits and satellite communications devices to lend out.

NYU’s Student Health Center maintains a travel health clinic which is available, by appointment, to do country specific health assessments and provide vaccinations and prescriptions for travel medications.

Many journalists working outside of their home countries, whether on a short term assignment or on a more permanent basis, employ the services of local reporters, known as “fixers”. A journalism fixer is someone who, first and foremost, arranges and schedules access and interviews and navigates the bureaucracy that’s often a part of that. They may also work as translators when reporting is not conducted in a language the foreign reporter speaks well. Fixers can also be of tremendous benefit in assisting with logistics, from the visa and permit application process to finding hotels and drivers. Indeed, the fixer-foreign reporter relationship is the cornerstone of international reporting and establishing this association is often one of the first steps in undertaking foreign reporting. Despite a recent proliferation of internet databases and Facebook groups, fixers are still usually referred by word of mouth by other reporters who have worked in a location.

Fixers are a reporter’s first-line local expert and should be accorded respect for their understanding of local dynamics. But also be aware that sometimes fixers can bring with them local biases (or more often, the suspicion of bias). This can be especially acute in reporting on conflict where multiple sides need be explored but where a fixer has an identity tied to one side of the divide. Often the fixer is perfectly capable of remaining professional and neutral but will be rejected by a source because of fears of bias, or their presence will color the reporter’s interaction with the source. Therefore there are occasions where it might be necessary to employ more than one fixer for an assignment. And, of course, foreign reporters should not make assumptions that a fixer will be safe in these situations simply because they are accompanying a neutral outsider.

Foreign reporters working in politically sensitive environments always need to be aware of and protect the safety and security of their fixers, as well as their sources. Retribution for a story that is considered by a party as negative to their position can be seen as easier to carry out against the fixer than the foreign journalist, who may appear to have greater protection. The foreign reporter may be safe outside the country when a sensitive investigative report is published but those who helped them compile the report are often not. The reporter must always make sure the fixer understands the nature of the reporting they are engaging in and what the outcome might be.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Reporters must be especially careful with electronic correspondence and should explore whether use of advanced security and encryption is required to protect themselves, their fixers and their sources. Every country today uses some degree of electronic surveillance. Reporters should be especially cautious in their use of public (and even private) social media in telegraphing their stories, or even their movements, to watchful governments. Politically (or religiously, or ethnically) charged statements on social media should always be avoided for reporters, but the hazards of this can be significantly elevated when dealing with adversarial regimes and may even be grounds for arrest in some places.

WORKING WITH INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

In reporting on natural disaster, crisis, conflict and human rights, especially in remote regions, the foreign reporter will often find themselves relying on help from multinational organizations like the United Nations (most often through its agencies UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM, WFP) or on non-governmental aid groups like the International Rescue Committee or Oxfam. While staying mindful of the principles discussed in this manual’s Conflicts of Interest section, reporters should understand that accepting logistics assistance from these organizations in extreme circumstances is a generally accepted practice. Often the only way to reach a story, especially in conflict areas, is to get a seat on a World Food Program (UN) flight or with the European Union’s humanitarian air service, ECHO. Sometimes the only place to stay at a remote feeding station where aid officials are responding to famine is inside a UN compound. Where possible, reporters should attempt to compensate organizations for these benefits, but often there is simply no mechanism for payment. Furthermore, most international organizations understand that enabling press coverage is indeed part of their mission and support is given without a quid pro quo expectation.

Where cooperation with these organizations can be more tricky is when reporters use them for introductions to interview subjects for stories. For example, a reporter might be introduced to an aid recipient by the group that provides that aid. This is again a common practice and may, in fact, foster a more healthy journalistic interaction in cases where the source is a victim of trauma (see below). At the same time the reporter should take extra care to assure that the source is properly representative of the situation on the ground, and not someone who only fulfills the narrative of the organization making the introduction, no matter how well intentioned that group is.

WORKING WITH SENSITIVE POPULATIONS

By no means exclusive to international reporting, nor a concern with all foreign reporting, but working with sensitive and traumatized populations requires extra care for both the reporter and their sources. Reporters should be especially careful not to re-traumatize victims, and should always work through trusted interlocutors when interviewing or otherwise covering victims of any kind of trauma. It is vital that the source understands the nature of the interaction, your coverage and what the possible outcome of the story might be. Reporters must also be aware of the risks of absorbing second hand trauma from what they are about to hear.

PAYING SOURCES (AGAIN)

One last complicating factor that presents itself in international coverage is the question of compensation for participation. As stated earlier, and as a cornerstone of American press ethics, it is not acceptable to pay for interviews. However, in other reporting cultures, notably Japan and the UK, payment for interviews is normal and is therefore sometimes expected in places where reporters from these nations have worked. While the origin of this dynamic is understandable, it is never an excuse to violate this core principle.

TAPING CONVERSATIONS

It is not always feasible to record conversations, and the transcribing process afterward can be quite time consuming. On the other hand, there are obvious benefits to recording interviews, especially important ones: namely an assurance of accuracy and the creation of a verifiable record. Although the laws of certain states allow professional reporters to tape conversations without getting the permission of the interviewee beforehand, some states don’t. The Carter Institute of Journalism at NYU suggests that students first ask permission before taping any conversation to head off any potential legal entanglements. Begin the taping by stating the date, time and asking the person to spell their name, which then offers proof the subject agreed to the taping.

In very rare instances, secret taping may be warranted. Reporters at the Lexington Herald-Leader won a Pulitzer in 1986 for their series, “Playing Above the Rules,” in which they secretly taped interviews with University of Kentucky basketball players, who told them a group of fans had violated NCAA rules by giving players cash and gifts. The reporters and editors were worried that sources would recant their stories under pressure, opening up the publication to potential litigation. If you believe secret taping is required to get the story, you must first seek your professor’s permission.

What follows is more detail on this topic:

I.) Taping (face to face): There are 37 states, plus the District of Columbia, that permit surreptitious recording of interviews. These are called one-party consent states, since only one party to the conversation—the reporter, for example—need give consent. (It is not, of course, legal to tape a conversation to which you are not a participant—by planting a bug or tapping a phone, for example.) On the other hand, 12 states have criminal statutes that prohibit recording without the consent of all parties to the conversation: California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington (Vermont has no law). Note that these are criminal statutes, the violation of which can bring a jail sentence, and these laws have been interpreted in various ways by the courts of each state.

II.) Taping over telephone: The same twelve states require consent of all parties in order to record a telephone conversation. Federal law permits the recording of phone conversations if one party consents and has been expanded to include wireless and cellular calls. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations conflict with federal statutory law—the FCC requires, for calls crossing state lines, that all parties be notified of the recording at the beginning of the call.

III.) Use of cameras without consent: Thirteen states forbid unauthorized use of cameras in private places: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Utah.

REPORTING/VIDEOTAPING POST 9/11

Although there is no law against videotaping a subway platform or police cars on patrol that doesn’t mean you won’t get hassled by law enforcement officials, who, after Sept. 11, have a heightened concern about terrorism. The City has even posted signs prohibiting photography on its bridges and tunnels. Although reporters may see a story in testing for security vulnerabilities, this can be particularly risky. The research would probably require a certain amount of subterfuge and may well involve a violation of criminal law. You can expect to be prosecuted, for example, if you test airport security by trying to smuggle a box cutter onboard a passenger jet. In addition, there are laws on the books that prohibit videotaping military installations and nuclear power plants.

RESEARCH MATERIALS & COPYRIGHT

“Sources” may also be defined as research material, including newspapers, magazines, books, research reports, studies, polls, radio, television, newsreels, documentaries, movies, audio podcasts or video from the Web. All such sources, particularly secondary sources, should be carefully vetted. Good journalists don’t simply extract information, or claims, from written or broadcast material; they check that material against other or similar material for accuracy. Just because something is published doesn’t mean it’s accurate or fair. Wikipedia, for example, is not always an accurate source and should not be cited as such.

The reporter must clearly indicate where information comes from. Failure to disclose your reliance on someone else’s work is unethical, and can leave readers or viewers in the dark about the legitimacy of the information. This does not hold true if something is a well-known fact that is beyond reasonable dispute. For example, it would not be necessary to cite a source for “John Adams was the second president of the United States.”

FACT CHECKING INFORMATION

Students should always check spelling, ages, job titles, company descriptions, and other facts before submitting stories. Nothing undermines a reporter’s credibility more than errors of fact. In addition, professors may ask students for sources’ contact information to verify information; students must provide that information upon request.

As a writer you can legally use a limited amount of copyrighted material for purposes of commentary and criticism, and parody, without first seeking permission. A book reviewer, for instance, may quote from the text they are reviewing; a film reviewer may outline the plot of a film to discuss whether the story holds together; a comedian may conjure up characters from a popular movie to be able to poke fun at it. Without the protection of fair use, copyright holders could prevent negative reviews or parodies of their work from being published or broadcast.

Although you might not know if from the wild-west world of the Web, copyright laws, severely restrict the way other peoples’ work can be used, even in news stories.

So, what expression owned by others can journalists quote (or very closely paraphrase)? Such expression includes articles, books, songs, movies and movie scripts, music, lyrics, plays, speeches, newsreels, documentaries, podcasts, TV programs, audio and video on the web, and other forms of expression. This question is mostly about copyright. And it’s a legal question rather than an ethics question. (But, yes, there are some ethical matters that transcend law. For example, plagiarism is a grave ethical sin, but not all plagiarism is copyright infringement. Copyright law doesn’t protect mere facts or ideas. To gain copyright protection, an author or songwriter or filmmaker or other creator has to make specific use of an idea or collection of facts. But appropriating somebody else’s idea may amount to plagiarism.)

Not all expression is copyrighted. It may be very old (like “Moby Dick”) or it may be government-produced (like a Supreme Court opinion). But if you’re not sure, it’s a good bet it’s copyrighted. Federal copyright law, identified in the Constitution and spelled out a statute, is designed to protect creative expression by giving creators the right to profit from their creativity. As such, copyright law is a brake on the right of free expression set out in the First Amendment. But copyright law does allow “fair use” of copyrighted material. That’s where journalists get some leeway in quoting copyrighted material.

But the area of copyright law is complicated and poses potential danger for journalists (and authors). Damages can be draconian, particularly if a court finds copyright infringement to be willful. And some books, for example (like a sequel to Catcher in the Rye and a parody of The Cat in the Hat ), have been ordered off shelves by federal courts that ruled the books infringed on a copyright.

Copyright lawsuits notoriously turn on the specifics of individual situations – broad generalizations are risky. But we can start with knocking down several misconceptions. Each of these is not a sufficient basis for quoting copyrighted material (or stated differently, is an insufficient defense if you’re sued for copyright infringement):

• I fully credited the creator of the copyrighted material.
• It was really, really important to my story.
• I tried really hard to reach the owner of the copyrighted material (but failed).
• I tried really hard to persuade the owner of the copyrighted material (but failed).
• I didn’t quote much.
• Lots of other journalists have quoted the copyrighted material.
• The copyrighted material was historical or of great historical significance.
• Even if I online have infringed someone’s copyright, as long as I “take down” the infringing material when the copyright owner notifies me I’m immune from being sued.
• All I did was attend a Springsteen concert, videotape it with my iPhone, and upload it on YouTube so my friends could see.

All these factors may mitigate the damages you may be responsible for if you’re successfully sued for copyright infringement. But the presence of these factors don’t immunize you. Anyone who told you otherwise is wrong-o!

Whether your unauthorized quotation of copyrighted material constitutes fair use – and thereby protects you from liability if you’re sued – comes down to four statutory factors: (1) the “purpose and character” of your use; (2) the “nature” of the underlying copyrighted work; (3) the “amount and substantiality” of what you’re using, compared to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of your use on the value of, or market for, the copyrighted work. All four of course are subjective factors. Two judges might reach opposite conclusions about the same allegedly infringing work – thus, the risk of quoting somebody else’s material (not to mention that even if wind up winning, you may well have big legal bills). A few notes on the four factors:

• The first factor is sometimes the most important. Courts in the last quarter-century or so have said that if the potentially infringing work is “transformative,” there is less chance of copyright infringement. Transformativeness often involves commenting on or criticizing the copyrighted work, even though part of that work is quoted.
• The second factor can militate against a finding of fair use if the underlying copyrighted work isn’t public—say, if it’s still unpublished. After all, its creator has the right to decide to keep their creation private. Even so, the unpublished nature of a work doesn’t alone preclude a finding of fair use.
• “Amount and substantiality” mean that the less you use, the less likely there will be a finding of infringement. Even so, if you quote the “heart” of the protected work, you may be liable. In an important case in 1985, for example, the Supreme Court found that a magazine’s quotation of roughly 300 words from President’s Ford’s 200,000-words (less than 1 percent!) memoir wasn’t fair use. (At the time, the memoir had yet to be published.)
• If your work guts the value of a protected work, or at least may act as a directly market substitute for it, then a finding of fair use is less likely. A good example of a use that isn’t fair is a course-pack used in a college course; to comply with copyright law, such course-packs have to pay licensing fees to the rights-holders for materials distributed. Same thing in a college course in which the professor distributes the entirety of a single magazine article. There are obvious analogies to a website that quotes the entirety of an article published on another website/

Fair use can’t be used as “B” roll—secondary material such as establishing wide shots of a location; cutaway views of people, props or scenery; or audio used in a video. Much of what defines whether fair use applies is dictated by whether the excerpt goes to the heart of the copyrighted material (if so, it is a violation of fair use) or whether it is merely explanatory.

For example, a KCAL-TV broadcast of a 30-second clip taken from a 4-minute copyrighted video videotape that showed trucker Reginald Denny being beaten during the 1992 riots was found to violate fair use. The court ruled that the broadcast borrowed from the heart of the video, and affected the copyright owner’s ability to market the work. Yet when documentarians took 41 seconds from a boxing match for use in a biography of Mohammed Ali, the court ruled it was not a violation of fair use because only a small amount of footage used, and its purpose was informational.

Be forewarned that music is often covered by copyright. You need permission to use it. Even Bach may be covered by copyright: not the actual compositions, but the particular recording you might want to use.

In 2005, the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers and the Independent Documentary Association endorsed a Statement of Best Practices, which defined four types of situations when producers need not seek permission under fair use:

• “Employing copyrighted material as object of social, political or cultural critique.” In other words, the videographer can use a snippet of the copyrighted work for purposes of commentary or criticism.
• “Quoting copyrighted works of popular culture to illustrate an argument or point.” The documentarian can use copyrighted material to convey a greater point—say, a clip from “The Godfather” to illustrate the ways that Italian-Americans have been portrayed in movies over the years.
• “Capturing copyrighted media content in the process of filming something else.” If a filmmaker accidentally tapes a cover to the latest Newsweek while following a character past a newsstand, or records a street band playing “Every Breath You Take” while shooting a panoramic of Washington Square Park, they can still use that material to avoid falsifying reality.
• “Using copyrighted material in a historical sequence.” A filmmaker or documentarian wishing to make a historical point may want to use words spoken at that time, music associated with the event, or photos or films created at that time. The producer should seek to license the material, but if this is not possible, or is simply too expensive, they may seek a limited fair use exemption under the following conditions:

–The project was “not specifically designed around the material”;

–it serves a vital critical function and there is no viable substitute;

–the copyright holder is identified;

–the project does not rely disproportionately on any single source.

Bottom lines: Tread lightly. Try to paraphrase. Use less rather than more. Hyperlinks to articles and other sources are OK – reproducing those articles and sources probably are not. Be especially wary of quoting unpublished material. Be especially wary of using song titles and lyrics in headlines. Also understand that the creator of expression owns the expression even if the work containing the expression is owned by someone else; for example, if Smith writes a letter to Jones, Jones owns the letter but Smith still owns Smith’s own expression, and Jones has no ability to grant you permission to quote the letter. Finally, try to get good legal advice. This summary here is intended as a primer – it does not constitute legal advice.

AGGREGATION

Oftentimes national news outlets – particularly digital outlets – don’t have the capacity to send reporters out to cover every single story they believe would be interesting to their audience. In these cases, the outlets flesh out their coverage with aggregation. Aggregation involves outlets collecting information from other sources – typically either other news outlets or individuals on social media who have posted content about the story.

Aggregation can be a point of contention between local and national news – small news outlets feel that when larger outlets use material that they originally published, they’re being ripped off without getting any of the credit or the profits that would come from people reading the original article. But aggregation isn’t inherently evil. When done correctly, aggregation can form a mutually beneficial relationship between local news sources (who have the best information about what goes on in their communities) and national news outlets (who have greater resources to share the story with a broader audience, which can in turn drive traffic to local news).

When aggregating information, to report the information as your own, you must verify it yourself. Even then, it’s respectful to give a hat tip to the outlet which broke the story and link to their article.

Here’s an example from the New York Times : “From 2005 through last year, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Democrat who was first elected to Congress in 1992, provided 23 scholarships totaling $25,000 to two of her grandsons, two of her great-nephews and to an aide’s son and daughter. The Dallas Morning News first reported the story.”

If you cannot independently match information that’s being reported by another outlet, but it’s important enough that you must include it in your coverage, you need to attribute it back to that outlet. The same rule applies if you’re using a quote that someone told another outlet.

Here’s an example from ABC World News Tonight : “The New York Times reports that the president asked acting AG Matt Whitaker to allow a U.S. Attorney to take charge of the Michael Cohen case, even thought that U.S. Attorney had recused himself.”

When aggregating, you should add new information to a story – whether that’s a new angle, new information or an expansion of the story. You still must report the story out. And it’s important to focus on the information that’s most pertinent to your specific audience and not take unnecessary details from the outlet that originally reported it.

In the case of using visual social media elements in your story, you must ask the person who took the images if you may use it in your coverage, if they want to be credited, and how they would like to be credited. Be specific about the conditions under which you will use their images and where the images will go. Sometimes, national outlets pay for using visual content that was created by other people, especially if that person is another member of the media. You do not need to ask for permission or pay if you’re using content from the social media account of a public figure or a government agency. If you’re using written posts or comments, it’s still a smart move talk with the author to verify the information they’re sharing and to ask for permission to use it.

The baseline with aggregation is: attribute information and ask for permission. When in doubt about using material, ask your editor.

PRIVACY VS. THE PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO KNOW

A question journalists often confront is how much of a person’s private life should be revealed in an article. Just because a reporter can pull up a source’s mortgages, stock holdings, or perform a Google Earth flyover of their home doesn’t mean that’s ethical practice. It also doesn’t necessarily mean it’s unethical either. The key is whether a person’s private life—his personal habits, sexual preference, medical condition, odd interests—is newsworthy and should therefore be published. These can be vexing decisions to make.

People who feel that their privacy has been invaded can sue in a privacy tort action under what is sometimes known as “embarrassing private facts.” The court’s balancing of interests between a person’s privacy and freedom of the press can be helpful as well to journalists making ethical decisions whether to publish private facts. In a privacy suit, the plaintiff must prove that the revealed facts were highly offensive to a reasonable person, sometimes defined as “morbid and sensational prying into private lives for its own sake.” But newsworthiness is a defense in privacy actions. How do courts define newsworthiness ? Look closely at the social value of such information Does the private information reasonably relate to matters of concern to people in the community? Does it relate to a subject of general interest?

If you are writing about a gay bar destroyed in a fire, do you release the names of deceased patrons? What if you learn a homemaker in the community had been a prostitute many years earlier. Do you run it? If a woman accuses a man of rape do you publish his name if charges haven’t been filed, and do you investigate the sexual history of the woman making the allegations? If a local judge rents a porn video, is that news?

Some real life examples:

• In April 1992, USA Today contacted retired tennis star Arthur Ashe to confirm a rumor he was HIV-positive, which Ashe, who had been infected by tainted blood during heart surgery several years earlier, had tried to keep secret. When Ashe couldn’t convince editors to drop the story, he held a press conference to announce it himself. Although many believed this was an invasion of Ashe’s privacy, the newspaper justified its actions by claiming a “conspiracy of silence has not served the public.”
• Oliver Sipple became a hero in September 1975 for helping thwart an assassination attempt on then President Gerald Ford. In the ensuing press coverage, he was outed as being gay and his mother disowned him.

The internet adds an ever-increasing number of ways to expose people—with potentially embarrassing facts reappearing on searches for years. The NYU Journalism Institute faculty believes that privacy should never be taken lightly and recommends that student reporters not inquire into sources’ personal lives unless doing so is relevant to the story they are researching. The fact that a local politician has patronized a gay bar might be their private business; the fact that a local politician known for anti-gay stances had patronized that bar might be the public’s business.

Dox or doxing (or doxxing) is defined as the act of posting or publishing private information (such as a person’s home address, phone number, social security number and medical records) often as form of punishment or revenge. It is a neologism that springs from the slang expression “dropping dox” (for docs or documents), which itself originated with 1990s hacker culture.

In 2012 Gawker writer Adrian Chen outed an anonymous reddit troll called violentacrez, who was an active poster to a subreddit that sexualized young girls, which Chen called a “fountain of racism, porn, gore, misogyny, incest, and exotic abominations yet unnamed.” As a result, violentacrez, whose real name is Michael Brutsch, was fired from his job as a computer programmer and himself became victim of harassment. Chen faced significant backlash from members of the reddit community, who accused him of doxing Brutsch. Others, such as technology reporter Farhad Manjoo, claimed this kind of doxing was simply “reporting.”

Sometimes people have good reasons for maintaining anonymity online. For example, they may fear for their safety. Other times they don’t–abusers like violentacrez/Michael Brutsch, who hide behind the cloak of anonymity to act with impunity.

The disclosing of private information isn’t new. Screw magazine publisher Al Goldstein would publish the names and phone numbers of people who he believed had crossed him, knowing that his fans would make life for them difficult. It isn’t even an American conceit. In the 1990s, Lord Herman Ouseley, who campaigned for race relations in the UK, received countless late night phone calls after far right activists inked his number on cards and left them in public toilets around London.

From the perspective of a journalist, it is an oft-misused and misapplied term. Just publishing a person’s real identity isn’t, strictly speaking, doxing, yet that is how some view the practice. The key is to determine the news value of publishing someone’s identity versus the harm that could come from it.

MASQUERADING

The vast majority of the time journalists should make clear to the people they are interviewing that they are journalists. State your name and affiliation up front; i.e., Jane Smith, Carter Institute of Journalism at New York University, and your purpose in contacting a source. In highly unusual circumstances there may be good reasons for not identifying oneself as a journalist. For example, if observing police officers interactions with protestors at a rally, or reviewing a restaurant or videotaping counterfeit merchandise in New York’s Chinatown, identifying yourself as a reporter may not be appropriate since it could affect the type of treatment (or quality of food) you receive. Likewise, if conducting an undercover assignment, especially if outing oneself as a reporter could result in potential harm. But these are rare examples.

THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Often reporters scour discussion threads, message boards, forums and online communities seeking ideas and information without identifying themselves as journalists. It may be permissible to cite the information if it shows, say, how some YouTube users reacted to a specific video on the site. Obviously it is not always necessary for a journalist to identify themselves in that circumstance. But if a reporter wishes to use information from a forum/chatroom, email chain or other online sources, they should be mindful that deception is endemic to the internet. If at all possible, the reporter should attempt to contact the person who posted the information, identify themselves as a reporter, and try to persuade the source to provide full identification.

UNDERCOVER REPORTING

Going undercover is a time-honored tradition in American journalism. Done well, it can help nail corrupt politicians and cops on the take, expose fraud and racism, and shed light on the plight of women in repressive societies. Done unethically, it can violate a citizen’s privacy through unwarranted surveillance and intrusion into people’s private business, and erode public trust. As a society would we want reporters functioning as a sort of auxiliary police trying to catch our transgressions?

Before engaging in any undercover work for a class assignment, consult your professor. Carefully consider whether your reporting could violate criminal or civil law (See the Legal section for more information). Weigh the potential harm involved. Could relying on subterfuge get you arrested? Could it lead to violence? Does it invade someone’s privacy, especially in a non-public area like a home or an office? Are there laws in your state against recording without a person’s permission, or specifically against using hidden cameras? Might it undermine the validity of your story? These are serious questions to consider.

The San Francisco Chronicle applies three tests to undercover assignments before editors will give the go ahead:

• Is the resulting news story or photograph of such vital public interest that its news value outweighs the potential damage to trust and credibility?
• Can the story be recast to avoid the need to conceal one’s identity in gathering the information?
• Have all other reasonable means of getting the story been exhausted?

WRITING ABOUT CHILDREN

Reporters should seek permission from a parent or guardian before interviewing children on any controversial subject. Getting a quote from a 12-year-old on the opening of a new swimming pool would not require such permission – as long as you only use the child’s first name; getting a quote on allegations that a school is unsafe would. If you’re planning on using a child’s full name, you should get permission. When the call seems close, the reporter should discuss with a faculty member (or editor in a professional setting) in advance to determine the ethical course.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

In an era of great and growing dissatisfaction with the media, it is imperative that journalists avoid conflicts of interest, defined as situations in which there are competing professional, personal and/or financial obligations or interests that compete with the journalist’s obligation to their outlet and audience. Anything that could suggest the appearance of a conflict of interest should be revealed to an editor/professor and to the reader when appropriate.

WRITING ABOUT FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS

Most newspapers bar reporters from writing about, or including quotes from friends or family members, although there may be some exceptions, if the reporter is open about it. In an autobiography or memoir, obviously it is fine. Even here, however, there is an obligation: the writer should be transparent and stipulate the relationship, whatever form that may take. When a reporter is sent out to sample opinion or find an expert, those sources should not be relations, unless the journalist can honestly claim the relationship won’t sway what they write in one way or the other. In other words, would the reporter pull punches because they’re a friend of the source? That’s why it is usually a good idea to stay clear of using friends and relatives in articles in most instances.

PRESS JUNKETS

Most reputable news organizations prohibit contributors from participating in press junkets, which are trips offered to journalists that are paid for by the entities the reporters cover, i.e., movie studios, electronics companies, government agencies.

ACCEPTING HOSPITALITY

If a reporter is interviewing a CEO at a company or at the executive’s home, it is fine to accept a sandwich and a soft drink. At a restaurant, however, the reporter should pay for the meal or drink. Drinking alcohol on the job can be problematic. The Kalamazoo Gazette fired a reporter and photographer in 2005 for participating in a drinking game while researching a story on problem drinking on college campuses. An editor claimed the transgression compromised the paper’s integrity.

Journalists generally should not accept any gifts from sources or from the subjects of their stories. Sometimes sources will send tokens of their appreciation after the fact, which is to say after publication. Every media outlet has its own policy on accepting such gifts. At the Carter Institute of Journalism, students will be asked to return all such tokens, if possible, if worth more than $25. If abroad in cultures where refusing hospitality could be interpreted as rudeness, it may be permissible to accept food, private lodging and/or small tokens of affection or gratitude. Similarly, in some cultures (Japan, for example) it is appropriate for a reporter to present a small gift to a source before the interview starts, especially if the interview is being conducted in the source’s home. As always, use common sense.

FREE TICKETS

While some publications, like The New York Times , prohibit their reporters from accepting free tickets to a performance they are writing about or reviewing, most others allow staff writers and freelancers to procure press passes to movie screenings, concerts and theatrical productions. The policy at the Carter Institute of Journalism is: A student can accept free passes to an event they are covering as part of or preparation for a story, but should not take a free ticket to another event beyond the one being reviewed, written about, or used as background material. The same goes for review copies of books, compact discs, DVDs and access to subscription-only websites.

PAYING SOURCES

No reputable news organization or reporter pays a source for information. It is possible to take a source out for a meal, or, in special cases and when disclosed to editors and audience, to pay for travel for a source to reach a reporter.

QUID PRO QUO

A reporter should not guarantee an interview subject favorable coverage in exchange for access.

INVESTMENTS (STOCK, BONDS, VENTURE CAPITAL)

Journalists must avoid all financial entanglements (stock ownership, financial transactions, etc.) with the people and companies they cover.

POLITICAL AND CHARITABLE DONATIONS

If a reporter donates to a politician running for office (say, the mayor) they shouldn’t also cover the election—that includes not only the mayor but also the mayor’s opponents. Be forewarned: If you donate money to a politically active organization (Planned Parenthood or the National Rifle Association) your objectivity may be called into question if you write about issues of interest to these organizations.

EXPRESSING OPINIONS AND SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE

Nowadays it’s common for journalists—and journalism students—to express opinions and comment on the opinions of others, particularly online. What a journalist chooses to express and what the journalist writes about for publication could potentially raise ethical concerns. For example, if you express an opinion about stem cell research and bash governmental policy and then go on to write a hard news article about stem cell research, readers could conceivably question your objectivity.

Be especially careful when publishing statements that are injurious to someone’s reputation; it could lead to a libel suit. A plaintiff cannot win a libel suit if the defamatory statement you published was true, although defending yourself against such a frivolous lawsuit can be financially draining. However, journalists sometimes do make mistakes and publish defamatory information that is false.

The First Amendment provides journalists with protection under some circumstances even when they publish defamatory statements that are false. Plaintiffs must prove—not only that the statement was false—but that it was also published with what is called “fault.” The fault requirement is different depending on the identity of the plaintiff. Public officials and public figures must prove that a false statement was published with knowledge of falsity or with a reckless disregard for the truth. This is a difficult but not impossible standard to prove. On the other hand, private persons have a more lenient standard to prove, and hence they are typically more successful in libel suits. Private persons must prove only that a false defamatory statement was published with negligence—carelessness, or lack of reasonable care under the circumstances.

Carelessness can be nothing more than copying information incorrectly or misidentifying a person who has been arrested. Carelessness can be failing to contact the person you are writing about in an unfavorable light before publication. It can also be failing to check an obvious source that is publicly available, such as a police blotter. Remember that, if you are sued, a jury will find out everything you did and didn’t do in reporting a story, and jurors typically show little sympathy for journalistic shortcuts or carelessness that causes damage to a fellow citizen’s good name.

It is not uncommon for a source criticized in a story to threaten legal action. The best way for a reporter to deal with a source facing criticism in print is to adhere to the “no surprises” rule. That means call the source before the story is published to run the facts by them and to solicit a response. Give them a fair chance to refute the facts. This can often defuse the situation. After publication of a story, treat an angry person politely and put them in contact with your editor; never ignore them or treat them rudely.

BREAKING THE LAW IN PURSUIT OF A STORY

Journalists are subject to the same laws as any other citizens, and the newsworthiness of a story is no defense against a criminal charge. For example, journalists have been prosecuted for such offenses as criminal trespass; disorderly conduct for refusing to follow the instructions of a police officer; theft of trade secrets; theft by hacking into computer, voicemail and email systems; and possession of child pornography.

Even when reporters don’t violate a criminal statute, they may still cause a personal injury that can lead to a civil lawsuit for money damages. Examples include defamation; invasion of privacy through physical or electronic intrusion into a person’s physical space; invasion of privacy through the publication of embarrassing private facts; intentional infliction of emotional distress; misrepresentation or fraud; breach of contract; and tortious interference with contract (interfering with a source’s confidentiality agreement with their employer). It should be noted that while a great deal of consideration should be given to whether it is appropriate to disclose a source’s medical condition, journalists are not “covered entities” under HIPAA — the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — and cannot be criminally prosecuted for such breaches.

SUNSHINE LAWS AND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA)

First implemented in the 1970s, Sunshine Laws seek to shine light on the inner workings of state and federal government officials and departments. As a result most meetings of regulatory bodies must be public and their decisions and records disclosed. These laws are not limited to the United States. Some 70 nations have implemented sunshine laws of varying strengths.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), enacted in 1966, requires that government agencies disclose records not specifically and reasonably exempt to any individuals—including journalists—upon written request, with the right of access enforceable in court. FOIA applies to more than 70 executive branch agencies in the federal government (Environmental Protection Agency, for example) and 15 departments (including the Department of Justice). The president, Congress and the courts are not covered by the law, nor are state governments (although each state has passed its own freedom-of-information legislation, as have a number of cities and municipalities). FOIA does not apply to state or local government agencies records, nor can a reporter FOIA a company or individual.

For the patient reporter—it can take months for a government agency to fulfill a FOIA request—they can provide valuable information. For example, in 2005 the Associated Press learned through a FOIA request that National Institutes of Health scientists received “millions of dollars in royalties for experimental treatments without having to tell patients testing the treatments that the researchers’ had a financial connection.” The New York Daily News used a FOIA to find out that the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan incurred maintenance and cleaning costs that were twice what state court buildings paid, including a bill for $84,812 to polish the brass located in the building entrances. Blogger Jeff Jarvis filed a FOIA to discover that the Federal Communications Commission claim it received 159 complaints from people about a sexually suggestive TV show—which led to a record $1.2 million against Fox in 2004—was brought about by three people who actually wrote the letters to the FCC. (The rest were photocopies.)

The Society of Professional Journalists provides a handy “toolkit” covering FOIAs, including how to apply state and federal governmental, and law enforcement records. And The First Amendment Center also offers useful information on FOIAs, as does MuckRock .

GOVERNMENT SUBPOENAS

Reporters have only limited protection if they are served with a subpoena to testify or to produce notes and other documents. Protection varies under the circumstances.

Grand jury proceedings: Reporters called to testify before a federal grand jury have no First Amendment protection if they refuse to testify. Refusal to testify can result in a criminal contempt of court citation and a prison term of days to months or longer.

Criminal and civil trials: Most courts recognize qualified First Amendment protection when reporters are called to testify at trials. Courts consider whether the reporter has information that goes to the heart of the case and whether the information can be obtained from sources other than the reporter. The result, generally speaking, is that reporters must often testify at criminal trials, where the public interest in testifying is very high, but often successfully challenge a subpoena to testify at a civil trial.

Many states have what are known as “shield laws” that provide some protection to journalists called to testify. But these laws are typically porous and often don’t provide adequate protection in an individual case. There is no federal shield law that would protect reporters from being called to testify in federal court proceedings (as opposed to state court proceedings). The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has compiled a detailed list of state shield laws.

POINT OF VIEW

OBJECTIVITY VS. SUBJECTIVITY

In a hard news piece, the expectation is that the journalist is attempting to convey the facts impartially. That is to say, objectively. But some magazines, digital journalism and many other newsmedia value a strong point of view; the journalist lets the research take them to where they need to go. Often, that requires them to take sides, if the facts warrant it. Some argue that the “he said, she said” form of journalism, in which a reporter tries to balance two opposing sides, often results in an inaccurate article, since one side may be right and the other wrong. When in doubt, consult with your professor. Remember that journalism can be good—or bad—whether or not it is opinionated. The true test of journalistic quality is not whether the reporter has an opinion, but whether the article—opinionated or not—is informed by a fair assessment of the facts.

The assumption is that every word in a quote is word for word what the interviewee said. Many news organizations— The New York Times , Associated Press—do not allow reporters to “clean up” quotations, even if the speaker employs tortured syntax. In that case, it is often best to remove the quote and paraphrase the response—or just quote the words or phrase that are the strongest. It is permissible to delete extraneous sounds like “uh” or “um.”

CARDINAL SINS

Journalists earn their living with words, and plagiarism—using someone else’s words as if they were your own—is, simply stated, stealing. It can take many forms. At its worst, plagiarism can be copying and pasting an article off the internet and slapping your own byline at the top. Or subtler: Lifting a quote from a wire service story or taking credit for another person’s idea.

Because of the internet, plagiarism is easier today than ever before; it’s also easier to catch. To avoid charges of plagiarism, a writer must paraphrase another’s words and state the source(s); credit another person’s ideas and theories; and cite any facts that are not commonly known. Be sure to label your notes carefully when consulting material in a library or online. It is possible to inadvertently plagiarize a work this way; if you do, you suffer the consequences nevertheless.

How to recognize acceptable paraphrasing vs. plagiarism

Original passage: “In 1938, near the end of a decade of monumental turmoil, the year’s number-one newsmaker was not Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hitler, or Mussolini. It wasn’t Pope Pius XI, nor was it Lou Gehrig, Howard Hughes or Clark Gable. The subject of the most newspaper column inches in 1938 wasn’t even a person. It was an undersized, crooked-legged racehorse named Seabiscuit. (From Seabiscuit: An American Legend , by Laura Hillenbrand.)

The following is plagiarism:

“The biggest newsmaker in 1938—measured in newspaper column inches—wasn’t the president, nor was it Adolph Hitler or the pope. It wasn’t Babe Ruth or any Hollywood actor either. Why, it wasn’t even human. It was a racehorse named Seabiscuit.”

Why is this plagiarism? Because the writer has taken the spirit of Hillenbrand’s passage and simply reordered a few sentences and substituted words—including a relatively obscure fact about more newspaper column inches being dedicated to Seabiscuit than any human in 1938. What’s more, the writer didn’t credit Hillenbrand’s work.

Here is an acceptable paraphrase of this same passage:

“In 1938, the legendary racehorse Seabiscuit was so famous he accounted for more newspaper column inches than the president, pope and any Hollywood film star, according to Laura Hillenbrand in Seabiscuit: An American Legend .

Or simply, Seabiscuit was extremely popular in 1938. There’s no need to cite Hillenbrand because this is a commonly known fact that cannot be reasonably disputed.

Here is another example:

Original passage: “Jaithirth ‘Jerry’ Rao was one of the first people I met in Bangalore—and I hadn’t been with him for more than a few minutes at the Leela Palace hotel before he told me that he could handle my tax returns and any other accounting needs I had—from Bangalore. No thanks, I demurred. I already have an accountant in Chicago. Jerry just smiled. He was too polite to say it—that he may already be my accountant, or rather my accountant’s accountant, thanks to the explosion in the outsourcing of tax preparation. ‘This is happening as we speak,’ said Rao, a native of Mumbai, formerly Bombay, whose Indian firm, MphasiS, has a team of Indian accountants able to do outsourced accounting work from any state in America and the federal government. ‘We have tied up with several small and medium-sized CPA firms in America.’” (From The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century , by Thomas L. Friedman.)

“India has become a major player in outsourced accounting, and, for all you know, someone in Bangalore might very well be crunching your tax returns—on behalf of your accountant. ‘This is happening as we speak,’ said Jaithirth Rao, whose firm, MphasiS, has ‘tied up with several small and medium-sized CPA firms in America.’”

It is unacceptable because the way it is written, it appears the writer interviewed Rao and got that original quote, when it originated in Thomas Friedman’s book.

Another example:

Original passage: “The stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, a Tuesday, the most disastrous session on Wall Street to date in a month of turmoil.” ( The Worst Hard Time , by Timothy Egan.)

The following is not plagiarism: “The stock market crashed on Tuesday, October 29, 1929, following a month of economic jitters.”

It is acceptable because the day the stock market crashed, leading to the Great Depression, is a well-known fact.

Additional sticking points:

It can be tempting to lift highly technical passages (say, a description of BMW’s braking system or an in depth analysis of how Google’s search engine actually works). Don’t do it. Instead, find a way to describe these things in your own words. This also goes for company descriptions used in press releases. For example, HP describes itself as “a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally.” You might describe it as “a seller of a broad range of technology products and services, including PCs, printers, and IT infrastructure.”

The bottom-line rule of attribution is: When in doubt, cite the source of your information. You can’t go wrong then.

FABRICATION

Making up sources or information in an assignment is a serious ethical violation. In the real world, it could lead to immediate dismissal and the end of your career. In the late 1990s Stephen Glass created in part or whole cloth some two dozen stories he published in The New Republic , Harpers and Rolling Stone , which led to one of the biggest journalism scandals in history. Jayson Blair of The New York Times plagiarized and fabricated sources and material, which became a huge embarrassment to the Times , which is still recovering. Both are out of the profession.

DOCTORING PHOTOS OR VIDEO

It is not permissible to doctor or manipulate photos for the purpose of misleading, although is all right to crop pictures or enhance clarity if blurry. With video it is OK to edit footage but not all right to alter subjects’ appearance or likewise distort reality. Increasingly photo manipulation is being used as an explanatory technique: Putting George Bush’s head onto a wrestler’s body for satirical purposes, for example. This is acceptable only if there will be no confusion between the photo manipulation—satirical or otherwise—and reality.

FICTIONAL DEVICES

Names, dates and places should never be altered in any story, even to protect a source’s identity. If publishing those facts could lead to retribution against a source, or if compassion dictates omitting these facts from a story, they should simply be cut (with an explanation to the reader). Composites, which are characteristics and histories of multiple characters blended into one, should never be used.

SOCIAL MEDIA

You are what you tweet or post on Facebook or Instagram. By that we mean you become a public figure when you participate on social media, what you say there reflects on you and social media mistakes can exist in perpetuity on the internet, revealed with a simple search or through the Wayback Machine. Every publication has its own rules governing staff use of social media. The Washington Post prohibits conduct on social media that “adversely affects The Post’s customers, advertisers, subscribers, vendors, suppliers or partners” and its management claims the right to take disciplinary action “up to and including termination of employment.” Bloomberg tells its staff not to join groups on social networks dedicated to a particular political opinion or cause and to not argue with those critical of its work. NPR wants reporters and editors to conduct themselves on social media just as they would in any other public circumstances. “Treat those you encounter online with fairness, honesty and respect, just as you would offline” and “do not disparage the work of others.”

If you post malicious, immature or prurient material, or engage in online trolling or acrimonious back and forth, you could inadvertently undermine your credibility and ethical standing.

On social media, you’re your own fact-checker – especially when sharing content from another user. You should vet information before passing it along over social media. Journalists have a responsibility not to add to the cloud of false information that is floating about. Just by retweeting or reposting a piece of information, in the eyes of many you are effectively reporting that information. When in doubt, verify. If a journalist amplifies something over social media that turns out to be false, they should correct the record. A rule of thumb: since everything you write online is, in effect, published, the NYU Journalism faculty urges you not to write anything that violates the rules of honest and decent journalism.

In an era when journalists are often accused of promulgating “fake news,” it’s critical that when journalists are using platforms for their reporting including social media, chatrooms and forums (e.g. Reddit, 4chan, 8chan, QAnon etc.) they verify their sources and information from these sites. It’s extremely important to be skeptical about all information and sources uncovered on these sites, because in most cases, the sites are intended to troll people. Don’t use anonymous message boards as primary sources. Keep in mind that some users of these sites are dangerous (or at very least, racist, sexist and homophobic), so try to keep a low profile.

ETHICS PLEDGE

Every incoming student, undergraduate and graduate, must read and sign the institute’s ethics pledge .

JOURNALISM RESOURCES ONLINE

Acos Alliance

American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) (Links to ethics codes from newspapers)

Columbia Journalism Review

Dart Center

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)

New York Times Ethical Journalism Handbook

New York University Bobst Library

Poynter Online

Pew Research Center (Journalism & Media)

Pulitzer Prizes

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Society of Professional Journalists

Stanford University Libraries (on Copyright & Fair Use)

Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Journalism — The Aspects of Writing a Journalism Assignment

The Aspects of Writing a Journalism Assignment

• Categories: Journalism Writing Experience

About this sample

Words: 796 |

Published: Apr 30, 2020

Words: 796 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

What is Journalism?

• Read the assignment; outline the initial thoughts/features/conclusions in a few sentences, this will go to the start and fill in as a review of the revised assignment.
• Read the assignment once more, recognize no less than three sub-points, and rebuild the assignment into a few segments as needs are.
• Work on a subhead for each section; subheads should be enlightening (no clever subheads).
• Read each segment; condense the principle thoughts for that area in a few sentences, this will go to the start of each segment and fill in as a "segment outline".
• Break long passages into shorter ones; utilize records where proper.
• Go over the modifying and review an assignment feature that is clear as crystal (the reader can get the thought without reading the assignment; once more, no smart feature).
• A written report that records your manner of thinking for each progression amid the reworking, e. g. , for each progression, what was the underlying thought, why and how you altered your opinion? Present a printout of the first blog entry with your report. (30 focuses)
• Assignment feature is simple, educational (10 focuses)
• Assignment outline delineates for readers what the assignment is (10 focuses)
• The assignment has no less than three segments (10 focuses)
• Each segment has a plain as day, instructive subhead (10 focuses)
• Each segment has an area outline that delineates for what that segment is (20 focuses)
• No stout, long passages (10 focuses)

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Definition of journalism

Examples of journalism in a sentence.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'journalism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

1791, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing journalism

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“Journalism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/journalism. Accessed 9 Jun. 2024.

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What is public interest journalism? Providing reliable information to those who need it most

Editor, The Conversation

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Before the arrival of the internet, most journalism was produced in pretty well-off advertising businesses. The proximity of money and public interest journalism was often a source of tension, but rarely rupture. Every now and then you’d read something about the public’s right to know and sardonic journos would moan that “serving the public interest” really meant filling spaces between ads.

Advertising doesn’t pay any more – or more accurately it pays the likes of Google, Facebook and almost no one else. Space for “content” online is endless, but so is the torrent of misinformation. Cleaved from the funding it needs to survive, journalism has been freed to rethink what serving the public interest actually means.

At The Conversation we have given this a lot of thought, in part because we do journalism so differently. We only work with academic experts. We prize accuracy and trust above all else. We aim to serve our readers by giving them quality information with no other agenda than helping them be better informed.

This doesn’t always involve reporting on a high-profile court case or investigating corruption, as vital as that work is. Good information about nutrition is vital to deciding what to buy at the supermarket. Good information about how COVID-19 spreads is vital so people know how to protect themselves and each other. We know the damage that can be done when bad information spreads about a topic as important as vaccination.

So here’s my definition of public interest journalism: providing reliable and accurate information to those who need it most. At The Conversation it could be an article modelling the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, or the latest research on endometriosis. At the Sydney Morning Herald it might be a political column or an investigation of public corruption.

Because we see serving the public interest as being the core of what we do, we make sure everything we publish is free. In fact, we give our work away to other media outlets. We want to support a healthy media ecosystem and ensure expert research and analysis gets the biggest possible audience.

We think this is the right approach, but it does have one drawback: it makes it harder to fund our work. This is why each year we turn to readers and ask those of you who value our work to make a contribution.

If you can donate , please do so, and thank you to all the wonderful and public-spirited readers who have already donated.

And to the dozens of people who got in touch in recent days to say they love reading The Conversation but aren’t able to donate – no worries and you’re welcome. It’s great you value our work, especially now we’re finally out of the business of filling spaces between the ads.

• Public Interest Journalism
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Journalism Teaching Activities

An introduction to journalism and news teaching activities. This is a free teaching unit that requires critical thinking and exposes students to news, news sources and how to write the news. Writing a good news lead and using the inverted pyramid structure to learn how to write news for both print and televised. A grades 7-10 teaching unit aligned to the ELA standards. These free journalism and media teaching activities are available in both google apps and print format.

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Assignment – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

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Definition:

Assignment is a task given to students by a teacher or professor, usually as a means of assessing their understanding and application of course material. Assignments can take various forms, including essays, research papers, presentations, problem sets, lab reports, and more.

Assignments are typically designed to be completed outside of class time and may require independent research, critical thinking, and analysis. They are often graded and used as a significant component of a student’s overall course grade. The instructions for an assignment usually specify the goals, requirements, and deadlines for completion, and students are expected to meet these criteria to earn a good grade.

History of Assignment

The use of assignments as a tool for teaching and learning has been a part of education for centuries. Following is a brief history of the Assignment.

• Ancient Times: Assignments such as writing exercises, recitations, and memorization tasks were used to reinforce learning.
• Medieval Period : Universities began to develop the concept of the assignment, with students completing essays, commentaries, and translations to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.
• 19th Century : With the growth of schools and universities, assignments became more widespread and were used to assess student progress and achievement.
• 20th Century: The rise of distance education and online learning led to the further development of assignments as an integral part of the educational process.
• Present Day: Assignments continue to be used in a variety of educational settings and are seen as an effective way to promote student learning and assess student achievement. The nature and format of assignments continue to evolve in response to changing educational needs and technological innovations.

Types of Assignment

Here are some of the most common types of assignments:

An essay is a piece of writing that presents an argument, analysis, or interpretation of a topic or question. It usually consists of an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Essay structure:

• Introduction : introduces the topic and thesis statement
• Body paragraphs : each paragraph presents a different argument or idea, with evidence and analysis to support it
• Conclusion : summarizes the key points and reiterates the thesis statement

Research paper

A research paper involves gathering and analyzing information on a particular topic, and presenting the findings in a well-structured, documented paper. It usually involves conducting original research, collecting data, and presenting it in a clear, organized manner.

Research paper structure:

• Title page : includes the title of the paper, author’s name, date, and institution
• Abstract : summarizes the paper’s main points and conclusions
• Introduction : provides background information on the topic and research question
• Literature review: summarizes previous research on the topic
• Methodology : explains how the research was conducted
• Results : presents the findings of the research
• Discussion : interprets the results and draws conclusions
• Conclusion : summarizes the key findings and implications

A case study involves analyzing a real-life situation, problem or issue, and presenting a solution or recommendations based on the analysis. It often involves extensive research, data analysis, and critical thinking.

Case study structure:

• Introduction : introduces the case study and its purpose
• Background : provides context and background information on the case
• Analysis : examines the key issues and problems in the case
• Solution/recommendations: proposes solutions or recommendations based on the analysis
• Conclusion: Summarize the key points and implications

A lab report is a scientific document that summarizes the results of a laboratory experiment or research project. It typically includes an introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion.

Lab report structure:

• Title page : includes the title of the experiment, author’s name, date, and institution
• Abstract : summarizes the purpose, methodology, and results of the experiment
• Methods : explains how the experiment was conducted
• Results : presents the findings of the experiment

Presentation

A presentation involves delivering information, data or findings to an audience, often with the use of visual aids such as slides, charts, or diagrams. It requires clear communication skills, good organization, and effective use of technology.

Presentation structure:

• Introduction : introduces the topic and purpose of the presentation
• Body : presents the main points, findings, or data, with the help of visual aids
• Conclusion : summarizes the key points and provides a closing statement

Creative Project

A creative project is an assignment that requires students to produce something original, such as a painting, sculpture, video, or creative writing piece. It allows students to demonstrate their creativity and artistic skills.

Creative project structure:

• Introduction : introduces the project and its purpose
• Body : presents the creative work, with explanations or descriptions as needed
• Conclusion : summarizes the key elements and reflects on the creative process.

Examples of Assignments

Following are Examples of Assignment templates samples:

Essay template:

I. Introduction

• Hook: Grab the reader’s attention with a catchy opening sentence.
• Background: Provide some context or background information on the topic.
• Thesis statement: State the main argument or point of your essay.

II. Body paragraphs

• Topic sentence: Introduce the main idea or argument of the paragraph.
• Evidence: Provide evidence or examples to support your point.
• Analysis: Explain how the evidence supports your argument.
• Transition: Use a transition sentence to lead into the next paragraph.

III. Conclusion

• Restate thesis: Summarize your main argument or point.
• Review key points: Summarize the main points you made in your essay.
• Concluding thoughts: End with a final thought or call to action.

Research paper template:

I. Title page

• Title: Give your paper a descriptive title.
• Author: Include your name and institutional affiliation.
• Date: Provide the date the paper was submitted.

II. Abstract

• Background: Summarize the background and purpose of your research.
• Methodology: Describe the methods you used to conduct your research.
• Results: Summarize the main findings of your research.
• Conclusion: Provide a brief summary of the implications and conclusions of your research.

III. Introduction

• Background: Provide some background information on the topic.
• Research question: State your research question or hypothesis.
• Purpose: Explain the purpose of your research.

IV. Literature review

• Background: Summarize previous research on the topic.
• Gaps in research: Identify gaps or areas that need further research.

V. Methodology

• Participants: Describe the participants in your study.
• Procedure: Explain the procedure you used to conduct your research.
• Measures: Describe the measures you used to collect data.

VI. Results

• Quantitative results: Summarize the quantitative data you collected.
• Qualitative results: Summarize the qualitative data you collected.

VII. Discussion

• Interpretation: Interpret the results and explain what they mean.
• Implications: Discuss the implications of your research.
• Limitations: Identify any limitations or weaknesses of your research.

VIII. Conclusion

• Review key points: Summarize the main points you made in your paper.

Case study template:

• Background: Provide background information on the case.
• Research question: State the research question or problem you are examining.
• Purpose: Explain the purpose of the case study.

II. Analysis

• Problem: Identify the main problem or issue in the case.
• Factors: Describe the factors that contributed to the problem.
• Alternative solutions: Describe potential solutions to the problem.

III. Solution/recommendations

• Proposed solution: Describe the solution you are proposing.
• Rationale: Explain why this solution is the best one.
• Implementation: Describe how the solution can be implemented.

IV. Conclusion

• Summary: Summarize the main points of your case study.

Lab report template:

• Title: Give your report a descriptive title.
• Date: Provide the date the report was submitted.
• Background: Summarize the background and purpose of the experiment.
• Methodology: Describe the methods you used to conduct the experiment.
• Results: Summarize the main findings of the experiment.
• Conclusion: Provide a brief summary of the implications and conclusions
• Background: Provide some background information on the experiment.
• Hypothesis: State your hypothesis or research question.
• Purpose: Explain the purpose of the experiment.

IV. Materials and methods

• Materials: List the materials and equipment used in the experiment.
• Procedure: Describe the procedure you followed to conduct the experiment.
• Data: Present the data you collected in tables or graphs.
• Analysis: Analyze the data and describe the patterns or trends you observed.

VI. Discussion

• Implications: Discuss the implications of your findings.
• Limitations: Identify any limitations or weaknesses of the experiment.

VII. Conclusion

• Restate hypothesis: Summarize your hypothesis or research question.
• Review key points: Summarize the main points you made in your report.

Presentation template:

• Attention grabber: Grab the audience’s attention with a catchy opening.
• Purpose: Explain the purpose of your presentation.
• Overview: Provide an overview of what you will cover in your presentation.

II. Main points

• Main point 1: Present the first main point of your presentation.
• Supporting details: Provide supporting details or evidence to support your point.
• Main point 2: Present the second main point of your presentation.
• Main point 3: Present the third main point of your presentation.
• Summary: Summarize the main points of your presentation.
• Call to action: End with a final thought or call to action.

Creative writing template:

• Setting: Describe the setting of your story.
• Characters: Introduce the main characters of your story.
• Rising action: Introduce the conflict or problem in your story.
• Climax: Present the most intense moment of the story.
• Falling action: Resolve the conflict or problem in your story.
• Resolution: Describe how the conflict or problem was resolved.
• Final thoughts: End with a final thought or reflection on the story.

How to Write Assignment

Here is a general guide on how to write an assignment:

• Understand the assignment prompt: Before you begin writing, make sure you understand what the assignment requires. Read the prompt carefully and make note of any specific requirements or guidelines.
• Research and gather information: Depending on the type of assignment, you may need to do research to gather information to support your argument or points. Use credible sources such as academic journals, books, and reputable websites.
• Organize your ideas : Once you have gathered all the necessary information, organize your ideas into a clear and logical structure. Consider creating an outline or diagram to help you visualize your ideas.
• Write a draft: Begin writing your assignment using your organized ideas and research. Don’t worry too much about grammar or sentence structure at this point; the goal is to get your thoughts down on paper.
• Revise and edit: After you have written a draft, revise and edit your work. Make sure your ideas are presented in a clear and concise manner, and that your sentences and paragraphs flow smoothly.
• Proofread: Finally, proofread your work for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. It’s a good idea to have someone else read over your assignment as well to catch any mistakes you may have missed.
• Submit your assignment : Once you are satisfied with your work, submit your assignment according to the instructions provided by your instructor or professor.

Applications of Assignment

Assignments have many applications across different fields and industries. Here are a few examples:

• Education : Assignments are a common tool used in education to help students learn and demonstrate their knowledge. They can be used to assess a student’s understanding of a particular topic, to develop critical thinking skills, and to improve writing and research abilities.
• Business : Assignments can be used in the business world to assess employee skills, to evaluate job performance, and to provide training opportunities. They can also be used to develop business plans, marketing strategies, and financial projections.
• Journalism : Assignments are often used in journalism to produce news articles, features, and investigative reports. Journalists may be assigned to cover a particular event or topic, or to research and write a story on a specific subject.
• Research : Assignments can be used in research to collect and analyze data, to conduct experiments, and to present findings in written or oral form. Researchers may be assigned to conduct research on a specific topic, to write a research paper, or to present their findings at a conference or seminar.
• Government : Assignments can be used in government to develop policy proposals, to conduct research, and to analyze data. Government officials may be assigned to work on a specific project or to conduct research on a particular topic.
• Non-profit organizations: Assignments can be used in non-profit organizations to develop fundraising strategies, to plan events, and to conduct research. Volunteers may be assigned to work on a specific project or to help with a particular task.

Purpose of Assignment

The purpose of an assignment varies depending on the context in which it is given. However, some common purposes of assignments include:

• Assessing learning: Assignments are often used to assess a student’s understanding of a particular topic or concept. This allows educators to determine if a student has mastered the material or if they need additional support.
• Developing skills: Assignments can be used to develop a wide range of skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, research, and communication. Assignments that require students to analyze and synthesize information can help to build these skills.
• Encouraging creativity: Assignments can be designed to encourage students to be creative and think outside the box. This can help to foster innovation and original thinking.
• Providing feedback : Assignments provide an opportunity for teachers to provide feedback to students on their progress and performance. Feedback can help students to understand where they need to improve and to develop a growth mindset.
• Meeting learning objectives : Assignments can be designed to help students meet specific learning objectives or outcomes. For example, a writing assignment may be designed to help students improve their writing skills, while a research assignment may be designed to help students develop their research skills.

When to write Assignment

Assignments are typically given by instructors or professors as part of a course or academic program. The timing of when to write an assignment will depend on the specific requirements of the course or program, but in general, assignments should be completed within the timeframe specified by the instructor or program guidelines.

It is important to begin working on assignments as soon as possible to ensure enough time for research, writing, and revisions. Waiting until the last minute can result in rushed work and lower quality output.

It is also important to prioritize assignments based on their due dates and the amount of work required. This will help to manage time effectively and ensure that all assignments are completed on time.

In addition to assignments given by instructors or professors, there may be other situations where writing an assignment is necessary. For example, in the workplace, assignments may be given to complete a specific project or task. In these situations, it is important to establish clear deadlines and expectations to ensure that the assignment is completed on time and to a high standard.

Characteristics of Assignment

Here are some common characteristics of assignments:

• Purpose : Assignments have a specific purpose, such as assessing knowledge or developing skills. They are designed to help students learn and achieve specific learning objectives.
• Requirements: Assignments have specific requirements that must be met, such as a word count, format, or specific content. These requirements are usually provided by the instructor or professor.
• Deadline: Assignments have a specific deadline for completion, which is usually set by the instructor or professor. It is important to meet the deadline to avoid penalties or lower grades.
• Individual or group work: Assignments can be completed individually or as part of a group. Group assignments may require collaboration and communication with other group members.
• Feedback : Assignments provide an opportunity for feedback from the instructor or professor. This feedback can help students to identify areas of improvement and to develop their skills.
• Academic integrity: Assignments require academic integrity, which means that students must submit original work and avoid plagiarism. This includes citing sources properly and following ethical guidelines.
• Learning outcomes : Assignments are designed to help students achieve specific learning outcomes. These outcomes are usually related to the course objectives and may include developing critical thinking skills, writing abilities, or subject-specific knowledge.

Advantages of Assignment

There are several advantages of assignment, including:

• Helps in learning: Assignments help students to reinforce their learning and understanding of a particular topic. By completing assignments, students get to apply the concepts learned in class, which helps them to better understand and retain the information.
• Develops critical thinking skills: Assignments often require students to think critically and analyze information in order to come up with a solution or answer. This helps to develop their critical thinking skills, which are important for success in many areas of life.
• Encourages creativity: Assignments that require students to create something, such as a piece of writing or a project, can encourage creativity and innovation. This can help students to develop new ideas and perspectives, which can be beneficial in many areas of life.
• Builds time-management skills: Assignments often come with deadlines, which can help students to develop time-management skills. Learning how to manage time effectively is an important skill that can help students to succeed in many areas of life.
• Provides feedback: Assignments provide an opportunity for students to receive feedback on their work. This feedback can help students to identify areas where they need to improve and can help them to grow and develop.

Limitations of Assignment

There are also some limitations of assignments that should be considered, including:

• Limited scope: Assignments are often limited in scope, and may not provide a comprehensive understanding of a particular topic. They may only cover a specific aspect of a topic, and may not provide a full picture of the subject matter.
• Lack of engagement: Some assignments may not engage students in the learning process, particularly if they are repetitive or not challenging enough. This can lead to a lack of motivation and interest in the subject matter.
• Time-consuming: Assignments can be time-consuming, particularly if they require a lot of research or writing. This can be a disadvantage for students who have other commitments, such as work or extracurricular activities.
• Unreliable assessment: The assessment of assignments can be subjective and may not always accurately reflect a student’s understanding or abilities. The grading may be influenced by factors such as the instructor’s personal biases or the student’s writing style.
• Lack of feedback : Although assignments can provide feedback, this feedback may not always be detailed or useful. Instructors may not have the time or resources to provide detailed feedback on every assignment, which can limit the value of the feedback that students receive.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Sage Hills’ graduating seniors ready for their next adventures

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To cap off the school year, Sage Hill School in Newport Beach graduated its 130 seniors on Friday on campus and set them off ready for the bright futures that lie ahead.

In her remarks Friday, head of the school Patricia Merz said, “It was the first day of school in the history of Sage Hill that did not take place on this school campus. It was a day of Zoom classes and digital introductions to your teachers and classmates as we started that year completely online in fall 2020. However, we were so blessed to be able to open our campus back up only about a month later, and I know that ever since then, you have not taken a single day on this campus for granted.”

In lieu of valedictorians, the school named Alexandra Gomez and Billy Ray as recipients of the Head of the School award.

Math teacher Jim Lau spoke at the ceremony alongside student speaker Briana Bao.

“Looking ahead, I see our wonderful class taking on the world as environmental activists, graphic designers, foreign service workers, medical researchers, and as Sage Hill’s 22nd class, we will probably always dance like we are 22 in whatever it is that fascinates us,” Bao said.

“Quoting the enduring line from the story I shared almost three years ago now during our retreat talent show, I hope all of us can come to ‘love the life we live and live the life we love’ from our upcoming college years to beyond. I cannot wait to see where lightning will strike next.”

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Adjunct Faculty – Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies

Apply now Job no: 497342 Work type: Adjunct Faculty Location: Denver, CO Categories: Faculty Division: Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences

This is a general posting that will serve to create a pool of applicants for adjunct faculty openings throughout the 2023-2024 academic year. Should we have an opening and be interested in pursuing your application, we will contact you with specific information.

As the University’s largest and most varied academic unit, the College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences (CAHSS) is comprised of artists, learners, performers, scholars, scientists, and teachers across 21+ departments, programs, schools, and centers and acts as a central hub where many of the University’s disciplines intersect. Nearly all 6,000 undergraduates at the University take liberal arts courses with us, and about one-third of these students declare a first major in a CAHSS program. Most of our departments, programs, and schools offer master’s or doctoral programs. CAHSS scholars, artists, instructors, staff, and students collaborate in a shared quest for knowledge about the human condition and the development of skills to improve our local and global communities. The diverse scope of CAHSS allows our students to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed at nearly any career in today’s global society.

The Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies (MFJS) in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Denver offers students a robust understanding of the role of the media in contemporary society.  With its emphasis on developing strong communication skills across various platforms and its grounding in the critical evaluation of media practices, the department’s offerings prepare students for the pursuit of excellence in the constantly evolving media, film and journalism professions.  The Department offers undergraduates degrees in film studies and production, journalism studies, media studies, and strategic communication (public relations).  At the graduate level, the Department offers a Master of Arts in media and public communication (strategic communication or media and globalization emphasis) and a Master of Arts in international and intercultural communication.

Position Summary

The Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies invites applications for adjunct faculty for the 2024-2025 academic year. This posting will serve for multiple openings across the department. Undergraduate courses currently taught in the department can be found at  http://bulletin.du.edu/undergraduate/majorsminorscoursedescriptions/traditionalbachelorsprogrammajorandminors/mediafilmampjournalismstudies/#coursedescriptionstext .  Graduate courses currently taught in the department can be found at  http://bulletin.du.edu/graduate/coursedescriptions/mfjs/ . Applicants should clearly specify the course(s) they desire to teach and their qualifications for teaching the specific course(s).

Essential Functions

The University operates on a quarter system (10 weeks of classes and a finals week).  Courses are typically 4-credit hours and will be taught on campus/in person in the Fall Quarter, Winter Quarter, and/or Spring Quarter of the 2024-2025 AY at the University of Denver.  Adjunct faculty are required to hold office hours, assign and grade coursework as appropriate, assist students, and teach during course sessions as outlined by the course schedule. Course requirements will be outlined by the chair/director of the department. 

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Background and expertise in media, film, journalism and/or strategic communications/public relations;
• Ability to teach in person face-to-face coursework in media, film, journalism, and/or strategic communication;
• Ability to teach introductory level courses in the Common Curriculum;

Required Qualifications 

• Master's degree, PhD, or appropriate teaching credentials or 5-10 years of professional experience based on the level of the course being taught as outlined by university and college teaching credential policies
• Ability to teach in person/face-to-face undergraduate and/or graduate class(es)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience teaching college-level courses or equivalent professional experience.
• Demonstrated record of successful teaching at the collegiate level
• Background working in culturally diverse setting and with culturally diverse populations

Work Schedule

While the University’s administrative offices are open Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 4:30 pm, faculty schedules vary from term to term and are based on courses taught, service commitments, and research agendas. The University’s academic calendars are posted on the registrar’s website:  https://www.du.edu/registrar/calendars-deadlines  

Working Environment

• Standard Office Environment
• Noise level is quiet to moderate

Physical Activities

• Ability to sit in front of a computer for an extended period of time
• Occasionally required to move about the office/campus with the capability of transporting objects up to 20 lbs.

Application Deadline

For consideration, please submit your application materials by 4:00 p.m. (MST) March 1, 2025.

Special Instructions

Candidates must apply online through  jobs.du.edu  to be considered.  Only applications submitted online will be accepted.

Course Rate

The 2023-2024 academic year adjunct rate is $4772 per four-credit course.

The University of Denver has provided a compensation range that represents its good faith estimate of what the University may pay for the position at the time of posting. The University may ultimately pay more or less than the posted compensation range. The salary offered to the selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal salary equity considerations, available market information, and course enrollment but not based on a candidate’s sex or any other protected status. 

Benefits The  University of Denver  offers some benefits for non-benefited employees. The University of Denver is a private institution that empowers students who want to make a difference. Learn more about the  University of Denver .

Please include the following documents with your application:

• Letter of Interest that describes teaching interests and other qualifications
• Curriculum Vitae or resume with three reference that can be contacted
• 1-page statement of Teaching Philosophy, including commitment to diversity equity and inclusion in the classroom
• Teaching evaluations from previous teaching assignments if available

The University of Denver is an equal opportunity employer. The University of Denver prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, age, religion, creed, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, genetic information, military enlistment, or veteran status, and any other class of individuals protected from discrimination under federal, state, or local law, regulation, or ordinance in any of the University's educational programs and activities, and in the employment (including application for employment) and admissions (including application for admission) context, as required by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; the Americans with Disabilities Act; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Age Discrimination Act of 1975; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967; Equal Pay Act; Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act; the Colorado Protecting Opportunities and Workers' Rights ("POWR") Act; and any other federal, state, and local laws, regulations, or ordinances that prohibit discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation. For more information, please see the University of Denver's Non‑Discrimination‑Statement .

All offers of employment are contingent upon satisfactory completion of a criminal history background check.

Advertised: June 05, 2024 Applications close: March 01, 2025

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What we can and can’t know about the death toll in Gaza

The united nations adjusted its gaza fatality reporting. here’s what the data does and doesn’t tell us..

From the earliest days of the Israel-Hamas war, global leaders have questioned the reliability of fatality data coming out of Gaza. In October, without citing a specific reason, President Joe Biden said he had  “no confidence”  in the numbers.

Today, the overall figure of people dead is reported at about 35,000. But there’s no clear understanding about how many of these people are combatants and how many are civilians.

That’s because over most of the conflict, the figures have come from Gaza’s Ministry of Health, an agency of the region’s Hamas-controlled government.

Hamas, identified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1997,  has ruled Gaza since it swept a majority in 2006 parliamentary elections. After Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people, Israel in its retaliation  largely blocked   foreign journalists  from entering the Gaza strip. Israeli  protesters blocked   humanitarian aid . And Israeli attacks crushed Gaza’s infrastructure, fueling mounting concern about the Ministry of Health’s fatality data’s accuracy.

Without any other options, the United Nations and other leaders rely on Hamas government figures despite little transparency over its sources or methodology.

Its Ministry of Health describes all casualties as  victims of  “Israeli aggression.”

Confusion over the figures reached a boiling point  May 8 , when the U.N. released data that showed a significant reduction in the number of women and children who had died Gaza:

On  May 6,  the U.N. had reported greater than 9,500 women and greater than 14,500 children dead. Two days later, the figures showed 4,959 women and 7,797 children.

“UN halves estimates of women and children killed in Gaza,” MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” cohost Joe Scarborough wrote in a May 12  X post . Scarborough shared  a May 11 Jerusalem Post article  and said, “Apparently, the Hamas figures repeatedly cited are false.”

Israeli officials also seized on the change: “The miraculous resurrection of the dead in Gaza,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote in a  May 13 X post . “The @UN had reduced its estimate of women and children killed in Gaza by 50% and claims that it relied on data from the Hamas Ministry of Health. Anyone who relies on fake data from a terrorist organization in order to promote blood libels against Israel is antisemitic and supports terrorism.”

Another  May 13 Instagram post  said, “The UN quietly admitted the casualty numbers in Gaza were OVER INFLATED by nearly half.”

Others said that critiques of the Ministry of Health’s fatality data went too far. Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that the reported death toll out of Gaza is likely an undercount of what he described as “mass slaughter.”

Louis Charbonneau, the U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, said no one is going to have exact numbers, but the Ministry of Health data is the best available. “Death tolls are a messy business — extremely difficult,” Charbonneau said. “And at the end of the day, no one is expecting 100% accuracy because it’s just impossible. We know the number’s big.”

How much can the available data tell us? It’s complicated.

Did the fatality statistics get ‘halved’?

Not according to the U.N.’s explanation.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General, said the overall number of fatalities recorded by authorities in Gaza and reported by the U.N. have “remained unchanged at more than 35,000 people” since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a violent attack on Israel. But the subcategorization on deaths of women and children changed because the ministry provided an updated breakdown of those whose identities it said had been fully documented. This was a smaller subset of the total number of fatalities.

Typically, when a conflict occurs, the U.N. gets its casualty data from what Haq described as “our trusted sources on the ground,” then it cross-checks that information. The scale and intensity of the fighting in Gaza, however, sets this conflict apart and, in this case, Haq said, the U.N. has no means to verify firsthand the Ministry of Health’s data.

Although the data cannot be interpreted as incontrovertible, the U.N., World Health Organization and organizations that track conflict casualties said Hamas’ government-sourced data should not be dismissed outright.

Following previous conflicts, the U.N.’s efforts to independently verify the Ministry of Health’s fatality data found only  small discrepancies . That said, this conflict stands apart in its scale of destruction, experts said, making the statistics’ reliability more of an open question.

Between the  May 6  and  May 8  updates, the total number of reported fatalities increased from  34,735 people  to  34,844 people , including a subset of more than 10,000 people “reported missing or under the rubble.”

(Screenshot/United Nations)

The Government Media Office provided the May 6 estimate of reported fatalities, which included more than 9,500 women and more than 14,500 children. The U.N.’s May 8 graphic’s demographic breakdown is what sparked confusion and concern.

That graphic shows the Ministry of Health’s data for a smaller subset of the nearly 35,000 reported casualties, Haq said. It provides a breakdown of demographic information for 24,686 people the ministry had fully identified with their dates of birth and death, gender and ID number and whose deaths it had documented as of April 30, U.N. spokesperson Jens Laerke  explained May 17 .

During a  May 13 briefing , Haq said the change came after the Ministry of Health provided an updated breakdown of fatalities “for whom full details have been documented.”

“Out of those, then — out of that smaller number, that subset of identified bodies — you have 7,797 children, 4,959 women, 1,924 elderly and 10,006 men,” Haq said during the briefing. People in the “elderly” group are not categorized by gender.

The Ministry of Health told the U.N. that it is still in the process of detailing the identities of all who are found dead, according to Haq.

We tried to contact the Government Media Office and Ministry of Health for additional information about the data but did not hear back.

How are deaths being recorded?

Early in the conflict, fatality data came from public and private hospitals, where medical workers recorded names, ages, genders and ID numbers of people who died. The information went into an electronic database, according to  news   reports .

Attacks on hospitals and  communications blackouts  significantly impacted the quality of data over time, researchers at organizations that track data about armed conflict told us.

On Dec. 11, 2023, the Ministry of Health announced in a statistical digest that it had started incorporating media sources for its fatality figures, said David Adesnik, a senior fellow and research director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a conservative, foreign policy-focused think tank. The ministry did not identify what media sources it was relying on but the proportion of data coming from media accounts increased over time, Adesnik said: “Media sources served as the documentation for more than three-fourths of deaths counted during the first three months of 2024.”

The biggest change in the U.N.’s data in early May wasn’t the data format, but its source, Adesnik said.

The May 6 update sourced its information on women and children killed to the Government Media Office; the May 8 update identified only the Ministry of Health.

During a  May 17 press briefing , Laerke said that the U.N. views the Ministry of Health as the “best available source” for fatality data. Although the Government Media Office breakdown was used for a period when the ministry couldn’t provide data, the U.N. switched back to the ministry’s data when it became available again “because we provide the best available data at the time of reporting.”

What’s uncertain about the death toll in Gaza?

Salma Eissa, Middle East research manager for the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, said data quality has diminished.

“There has been a discernible downward trend in the quality of the data, which has continued since mid-February when only three of the eight Gaza hospitals meant to track fatalities were doing so,” Eissa said, citing  April analysis  by U.K.-based Action on Armed Violence, which records and investigates armed violence against civilians globally.

Rachel Taylor, the executive director at Every Casualty Counts, a U.K.-based organization that focuses on recording and identifying armed violence deaths, said that the current scale of devastation means the Ministry of Health’s data collection methodology “can no longer be applied consistently” as it has in the past.

“Over the course of the violence, the hospitals have been destroyed,” said Taylor, who anticipates the actual numbers are higher than is being reported. “The morgues have been destroyed. The paper records have been destroyed. Healthcare professionals have been killed or displaced.”

In the  May 12 episode  of the “Call Me Back” podcast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that about 14,000 combatants had been killed “and probably around 16,000 civilians have been killed.” We contacted the Israeli Defense Forces for additional information about that data and received no response.

Experts at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project cautioned that the Ministry of Health’s list of identified fatalities includes some deaths that might be attributable to Palestinian armed groups or have undetermined causes.

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact , which is part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this fact check here .

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What channel is the New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Dodgers game on today (6/7/24)? | FREE LIVE STREAM, time, TV, channel for MLB game

• Updated: Jun. 07, 2024, 11:06 a.m. |
• Published: Jun. 07, 2024, 11:05 a.m.

New York Yankees' Juan Soto during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) AP

• Gabriel Trevino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The New York Yankees face the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, June 7, 2024 (6/7/24) at Yankee Stadium in New York City.

How to watch: Fans can watch the game for FREE via a trial of DirecTV Stream , fuboTV or AppleTV+ .

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Here’s what you need to know:

What: MLB game

Who: New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

When: June 7, 2024

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Where: Yankee Stadium

TV: YES Network

Channel finder: Verizon Fios , Comcast Xfinity , Spectrum/Charter , Optimum/Altice , Cox , DIRECTV , Dish , Hulu , fuboTV , Sling .

Live stream: DirecTV Stream (free trial), fuboTV (free trial), AppleTV+ (free trial)

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Here’s a recent MLB story from the AP:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is scheduled to begin a minor league rehab assignment Tuesday with Double-A Somerset.

The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner has been sidelined since spring training with a right elbow injury. There’s no specific timetable yet for his return, but Cole has said it’s possible he could be back in June.

The six-time All-Star started facing hitters in simulated games last month. He threw 43 pitches last Thursday at the team’s complex in Tampa, Florida.

Cole made one spring training start, on March 1, and the Yankees announced 10 days later the 33-year-old right-hander’s elbow was ailing. He was diagnosed with nerve inflammation and edema and told to rest.

He didn’t throw off a mound again until May 5, the first of five bullpen sessions leading up to his initial session against hitters.

It’s expected Cole will make multiple minor league starts before rejoining the Yankees, who lost starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt to a right lat strain last week.

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