Reporting and Writing

Preface; Acknowledgments; Contributors; Foreword by Donald M. Murray; The Coaching Way: How to Get the Most Out of This Book; CHAPTER 1. NEWS THINKING IN A CHANGING WORLD; What's the News?; What Is News?; Developing Critical Thinking Skills; A Life in Journalism: Rhea Borja, Richmond Times-Dispatch; Three Basic Elements of News; First, the Bad News; Developing Your News Senses; Where News Comes From; How to Find News; Knowing Your Audience; How Audience Affects Content; Seeing News as Culture; News in the Information Age; News Thinking: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 2. THE REPORTER'S TOOLBOX; Introduction; Part 1: Reporting and Writing Tools; Competence in the Newsroom: Visual Literacy; Working with Photos and Photojournalists; Part 2: Reporting and Research Tools for Today's Wired Journalist; A Reporter's Best Friend: A Librarian; Part 3: The Reporter's Mind-Set; An Accuracy Checklist; Sacred Texts: What Prize-Winning Journalists Read for Inspiration; Tool Sharpening: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 3. A PROCESS APPROACH TO REPORTING AND WRITING; A Life in Journalism; Reporters at Work: The Process Approach; News Thinking I: Getting Ideas; Idea Generators: Creativity Skills for Today's Journalists; Brainstorming the School Budget Story; Collect: Reporting the Story; Reporting by E-Mail; Story Example; Developing a Reporting Plan; News Thinking II--Focus: Thinking of Stories; Story Example; Checklist: Finding a Focus; Focusing Your Story; Student Example; Order: Mapping Your Story; Checklist: Mapping Your Story; Student Example; Draft: Writing the Story; Checklist: Discover by Drafting; A Word About Voice; Revise: Rewriting the Story; Student Example: Revising the Story; Guidelines for Revision; Student Examples; Checklist: Rewriting for Readers; Riding the Roller Coaster: The Ups and Downs of Reporting and Writing; Writers at Work: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 4. FINDING AND WRITING A LEAD; Introduction; Mastering the Five W's, an H and SW; Breaking Down the Lead; The Two Types of Leads: "Tell Me the News," "Tell Me a Story"; The Lexicon of Leads; "Tell Me the News" Leads: Summary and Analysis Leads; "Tell Me a Story" Leads: Anecdotal, Significant Detail, Round-Up and Emblem Leads; Story Example: An Anecdotal Approach; How I Wrote the Story; Exploding the Myths of Lead Writing; Discovering the Point: How to Write a Lead; Finding the Tension; Choosing the Right Lead; Avoiding Cliches of Lead Writing; Revising Your Lead; Testing the Anecdotal Lead; Tips for Revising Leads; Writing Workshop; Notes from the Scene: From a Reporter's Notebook; Lead Writing: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 5. STORY FORMS: SHAPING THE NEWS; Introduction; Story Forms; Inverted Pyramid Example; Hourglass Example; Student Example; Nut Graf Example; The Narrative: The Way We Tell Stories; Narrative Example; How I Wrote the Story; Five Boxes Story; The Serial Narrative: "To Be Continued ... "; A Serial Narrative Glossary; Conclusion; Birth of the Inverted Pyramid: A Child of Technology, Commerce and History; Shaping the News: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 6. LEARNING TO LISTEN: BUILDING INTERVIEWING SKILLS; Introduction; Interviewers at Work: The Process of Interviewing; Deadline Reporting: How Telephone Interviews Become Stories; Red Light, Green Light: Asking Questions That Start and Stop Conversation; The Craft of Interviewing: Learning to Listen; Advice for Interviewers; Getting It Down, Getting It Right: The Importance of Note-Taking; To Tape or Not to Tape; How People Talk: Getting Quotes, Using Them Effectively; Using Quotes: Do's and Don'ts; Keeping Confidences: On or Off the Record; Interview Ground Rules; Tips for E-Mail Interviews; Interviewing: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 7. MAKING CONNECTIONS: DIVERSITY AND THE NEWS; Introduction; Minorities in the Newsroom and the News; Tips for Better News Coverage of Minorities; Stereotypes and Other Cliches of Vision; The Case for Cultural Competence in Journalism; Reporter's Toolbox: The Five W's of Diversity; Reporter's Toolbox: Talking Across Difference; Reporter's Toolbox: Guidelines for Racial Identifiers in News Stories; Reporter's Toolbox: Resources and Strategies for Connecting with Diverse Communities; Reporting and Writing About Difference: Story Examples; Student Example 1; Student Example 2; Professional Example; Making Connections: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 8. REPORTING AND WRITING BROADCAST NEWS; Introduction; Working Fast; A Life in Journalism: Tiffany Murray, KIVI-TV; Broadcast Style; Newspaper Version; Television Version; How I Wrote the Story; Teases and Tags: Starting Off, Ending Right; Advice from a Television Newsroom; Broadcast Interview Tips; Writing for Broadcast; From Print to TV: Making the Shift; On-Camera Preparation/Performance Tips; Broadcast Quality: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 9. WRITING ONLINE NEWS; Introduction; Storytelling and News in the Electronic Age; A Life in Journalism: Jonathan Dube, Charlotte Observer; How I Wrote the Story; As We May Write: Hypertext and the Future of Writing; Tips from an Online Newsroom: Q&A with Michael Rogers, Editor and General Manager, Newsweek.com; Roads to "Way New Journalism"; Writing the Online Story: A Process Approach; Think Links; Tips from an Online Newsroom: Q&A with Glenn McLaren, Assistant Editor, Internet Edition, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel; Multimedia: Reporting Live on Your Computer; News Forms for a Digital Age; Tips from an Online Newsroom: Q&A with David Ho, The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition; Electronic Ethics: Brave New World; A Final Word; Online Writing: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 10. FIRST ASSIGNMENTS; Introduction; Tips for Success for Beginning Journalists; First Assignment: Writing About Accidents; First Assignment: Writing About Fires; First Assignment: Writing About Festivals, Fairs, Parades and More; Story Ideas for Fairs, Festivals, Parades and More; First Assignment: Writing About Meetings and Hearings; A Life in Journalism: Heather Svokos, Lexington Herald Leader; First Assignment: Writing About Speeches; Writing the Speech Story; First Assignment: Writing Obituaries; A Life in Journalism: Greg Toppo, The Associated Press; How I Wrote the Story; First Assignment: Writing About News Releases; Writing Workshop: Writing a Police Brief; First Assignments: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 11. DOING THE RIGHT THING: LIBEL, PRIVACY AND ETHICS; Introduction; Libel; A Life in Journalism: Frank Greve, Knight Ridder Newspapers; Privacy; A New Trend: Reportorial Conduct; Taping Phone Calls; Copyright and the Journalist; Ethical Decision Making; Doing Ethics: Ask Good Questions to Make Good Ethical Decisions; Guiding Principles for the Journalist; Conflict of Interest; Ethics in American Newsrooms: A Brief History by Robert Haiman; Fabrication: The Legend on the License; The Ethics of Reconstruction; Where Credit Is Due: Avoiding Plagiarism; Doing the Right Think: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 12. STORYTELLING ON DEADLINE; A Life in Journalism; The Clock Is Ticking; What's a Story; The Process of Storytelling on Deadline; Enterprise: A Broadcast Storyteller's View: John Larson, NBC's "Dateline"; Finding Stories in the News; Reporting for Story; Reporting Techniques; Focusing in the Field; Planning on the Fly; Drafting on Deadline; Rewriting for Readers and Viewers; Story Example; How I Wrote the Story; A Conversation with Mark Fritz of The Associated Press; The Clock Ticks: How a Deadline Storyteller Works; How I Wrote the Story; Storytelling on Deadline: A Writing Workshop; Deadline Storytelling: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 13. ON THE BEAT; Ingredients of Successful Beat Reporting; Getting--and Staying--Organized; The New Beats; First Beat: Covering a Community; Story Example 1; Story Example 2; Covering a New Frontier: The Suburbs; Beginner's Beats: Covering Government; Beginner's Beats: Covering Council Meetings; Student Example; Beginner's Beats: Covering Cops; A Life in Journalism: Karin Fischer, Charleston Daily Mail; Tips for Covering Cops; Essential Terms for Police Reporters; Covering Cops: From News Release to Brief to Story; Beginner's Beats: Covering Courts; Glossary: Essential Terms for the Court Reporter; Beginner's Beats: Covering Education; A Life in Journalism: Holly Kurtz, Orlando Sentinel; Beginner's Beats: Covering Sports; Story Example; How I Wrote the Story; Working a Beat: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 14. NUMBERS AND THE BEGINNING JOURNALIST; Introduction; Why Math Matters; Numbers in the News: A Random Sample; The Basic Math Skills You'll Need; Rates and Percents; Math Workshop: Percentages; Changing Decimals to Percents and Vice Versa; Percent Of; Rates; Per-Capita Rate; A Life in Journalism: Making News Sense of Numbers; Reporting on Budgets; Advanced Math Skills; Vital Statistics: Birth, Death, Health, Disease; Polls and Surveys: Numbers That Tell Us What We Think; Writing with Numbers; Tips from the Experts; Reporter's Toolbox: Calculators; Getting Smarter; Making Sense of Numbers: The Coaching Way; CHAPTER 15. GETTING--AND KEEPING--A JOB; Introduction; Job Hunting: Step by Step; Frequently Asked Questions About Job Interviews; Job Prospects, Salaries and Benefits: What You Can Expect; Jim Naughton's Rules for Job Hunting; Start at a Small Paper; Keeping a Job; A Life in Journalism: Lessons to a New Reporter (From an Almost New One); Top 10 Ways to Survive Your First Year in Journalism (And Every Year After); Getting--and Keeping--a Job: The Coaching Way; APPENDIX; CREDITS; INDEX; Every chapter ends with a Glossary of Important Terms, Exercises, Readings, and a Hotlist