online resource for Illinois broadcast news managers, reporters, producers, photographers and students
This week the Illinois Auditor General released a high profile audit examining the State’s response to the Legionnaire’s disease outbreaks at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy. There are many other audits released throughout the year and most can provide you with interesting information and stories that affect taxpayers across Illinois. More
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has given its Open Governments guides a going-over. As our Tip Of The Week… Here is the newest guide for Illinois.
Here’s this year’s severe weather guide from the state. Includes a directory of the NOAA weather radio stations.
Whether it is a U.S. Senator announcing a proposal to lower the cost of drugs or an advocacy group arguing for state regulations on prices, you will likely encounter this topic. It is one that will interest your viewers or listeners. You will be doing them a service if you know what you are talking about. More
Harvard’s Journalist’s Resource site has a good tip sheet of a half dozen tips on covering teachers unions. A link to the full article is at the bottom. A couple of the suggestions caught my eye.
Get to know people in various levels of union leadership
Develop relationships with people in leadership positions within the local teachers union as well as the statewide teachers union (Illinois Education Association & More
Reporters always feel rushed. Take the extra time with these simple steps to make sure your story is accurate. It may sound basic, but it is important to be “Brilliant On The Basics”, as someone once said.
I first came across this list from Deborah Potter who ran Newslab in the early 2000’s. More
Reporters always feel rushed. Take the extra time with these simple steps to make sure your story is accurate. It may sound basic, but it is important to be “Brilliant On The Basics”, as someone once said.
I first came across this list from Deborah Potter who ran Newslab in the early 2000’s. More
We can all work to improve our news writing. As our friend Ken Keller noted several years ago, we can also work on our rewriting. The suggestions below are excerpted from a column Ken used to write in INBA Tune IN. Thanks Ken!
We do a lot of quick writing in this deadline crunch business of broadcast news, More
Good reporters are always trying to get better at their job. Everyone wants great stories and wants to avoid mistakes. Here is a series of online tutorials that can make you better at verification!
This training will help you avoid mistakes that could undermine the work you do. More
This tip comes from NPR, but its good for commercial radio & TV as well.
Click here for the full article.
The NPR Training Site has six tips for catching your writing mistakes & and protecting your credibility.
The article linked above goes in-depth on these six tips with links to a variety of helpful sites including news checklists. More