online resource for Illinois broadcast news managers, reporters, producers, photographers and students
Teaching a class always refreshes my knowledge of news writing tips. Sometimes quite simple. There’s nothing like Merv Block’s suggestions to give you a refresher. Here’s one from his book Writing Broadcast News (CQ Press): Merv says when rewriting copy to tell it in your own words. If you still take the time to rewrite wire copy (or any other copy), More
Writers should aim for shorter sentences. When you can, keep your sentences to ten words or less. The more you do this… the sharper your copy.
We often here important things to include in broadcast leads (or ledes if you prefer). Jeanette Abrahamsen of The University Of South Florida has some excellent tips on her site.
She also included six items to avoid:
The International Center for Journalists is offering advice for the coming year by asking current and former ICFJ Knight Fellows their thoughts. One of those is Janine Warner, who is a fellow in Latin American and executive director of SembraMedia. Her advice:
“Don’t chase the latest trends just because everyone else does. More
The tips below were excerpted from a longer story from the International Journalists Network.
Rowan Phillips presented a full article of tips for freelance investigative reporters. The article is worth a read. I excerpted these tips which can apply to reporters everywhere.
Tips for finding the story
Journalists are sometimes the problem in disseminating misinformation. A new article in Harvard’s Journalists’ Resource spells out tips to help you avoid being a part of the problem.
The article we link to includes three tips:
With journalists competing to be informational sources, it is important you have credibility and trust with your audience and your sources. These seven tips come from a reporter in Germany, but apply about anywhere.
Journalists’s Resource has a half-dozen tips to help cover whistleblowers. In addition to the tips, it lists additional resources worth checking. Take some time to study this to be more prepared in the future should something comes up where you need it.
I stopped by the site Tools For Reporters. I’d recommend you check that out. Our Tip Of The Week comes from there. It’s an online people searcher that checks a lot of web sites for usernames.
Hopefully it can help in your reporting work! More