My name is Tom Ramstack. I am filling in for Krista Kapralos as UPIU’s senior mentor while she spends the next two months in Germany.
I am a career journalist originally from Kansas but now a transplant to Washington, D.C. If there is a topic on which I have not written newspaper or newsletter stories, I would be surprised.
A recent job for me was working as the Supreme Court reporter for The Washington Times. Court cases are among my favorite story assignments and the thing I do best. I like the way the judgments often blend political policy, ethics and human behavior into a single package.
In any case, I believe my experience can become your advantage as I try to mentor you through your efforts to learn journalism.
My advice to new journalists is to be careful.
Journalists tend to be some of the best-informed people you can meet. They usually have very good writing and communication skills. They also listen well to other people.
However, they work in a field that is being transformed quickly as the Internet and other media drive newspapers and newsletters out of business. Television journalists are lucky to hold on to their jobs for only a few years.
At the same time, the competition is fierce.
For those who can do it, journalism is a rewarding career. But leave yourself other options.
Background: Raised in India, attended j-school there, then attended j-school in the U.S. before getting a job at a local U.S. newspaper. Now, she writes for The Indian Express based in New Delhi.
Chinki Sinha
Cross-cultural challenges: “(In the U.S.) it was difficult for me to understand the culture and its subtleties. But that I resolved by being observant and talking to people. Yet another challenge was getting used to the newspaper industry in the United States, where a lot of focus is on community and local news… In India, newspapers have regional bureaus but they are mostly national newspapers.”
Building sources, gaining trust: “People (in the U.S.) were willing to talk and town board meetings were open to the public. Public officials were available. In India, it is entirely different. Here, you cultivate sources in the departments you cover so they can tip you off.”
Back to India: “After working in the States for around two years, I decided to move back (to India) because I felt local news was not something I could latch onto for the rest of my life. I wanted to travel, write on poverty, hunger, people and social policies in our country…I am glad I got a job and my editors let me travel extensively. I have learned a lot in the process, from keeping deadlines by filing stories from a crowded shop in a rural market because they had a generator and we could plug our laptops in, to understanding how to make way through closed communities that are unwilling to talk.”
Working hard: “Given the intense competition in India among daily newspapers, a reporter is expected to beat all others when it comes to news reporting… a reporter is expected to think of innovative ways to do a story, and to file investigative reports every week.”
Breaking stereotypes: “Most U.S. journalists based in India as foreign correspondents don’t get the country and write misleading, stereotypical reports. When you decide to be a journalist, you must set aside the prejudices and be open to the society and its quirks.”
What U.S. journalists can learn from Indian journalists: “(They) can learn about cultivating sources…and how to stay on top of the news and to get a larger perspective on news.”
Accuracy and creativity: “In the U.S., we checked the names from the phone book to make sure we were spelling them correctly. Here, we are trying to focus more on such accuracy… A lot of my (Indian) friends feel that a reporter’s job is to collect information…So often, the news reports are straight copies without much imagination or creativity fused into them. I have always felt that a journalist needs to be a storyteller and for that we all must learn to write well…It is how you package it and how you tell the story that will ultimately set us apart and make us stay in the game.”
Talk to strangers. Make freaky friends. Ignore important people. Give everyone your phone number. Work holidays.
Sound intimidating? Scary? Hard? That might be true. But those tips for finding great stories are among 20 offered by 2009 Pulitzer Prize feature winner Lane DeGregory, who reports for the St. Petersburg Times. (Read the rest here)
I’m going to add another tip: READ. A LOT.
The very best news stories can send chills down your spine, force laughter to bubble up through the deepest part of your gut, and send you for a box of tissues to mop up your tears. They’re as good as novels, and better than whatever is playing at the local movie theater. The best news stories burn images into your head – images that never go away.
The bad news: Writing is hard work.
The good news: Good writing is a skill that can be learned. And one of the most effective ways to learn is to study. If you’re an aspiring news writer, you should be on a constant look-out for the best stories. Notice similarities. How do writers develop characters? What do they quote? What do they paraphrase? How is the story structured?
Take notes. When you discover techniques that work, incorporate them into your own stories.
Here’s one of the best in recent memory to get you started. Lane DeGregory earned the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for this piece, a haunting tale of a forgotten little girl.
PLANT CITY — The family had lived in the rundown rental house for almost three years when someone first saw a child’s face in the window.
A little girl, pale, with dark eyes, lifted a dirty blanket above the broken glass and peered out, one neighbor remembered.
Everyone knew a woman lived in the house with her boyfriend and two adult sons. But they had never seen a child there, had never noticed anyone playing in the overgrown yard.
The girl looked young, 5 or 6, and thin. Too thin. Her cheeks seemed sunken; her eyes were lost.
The child stared into the square of sunlight, then slipped away.
What should you do when you can’t find the people you’re supposed to write about?
Keep looking until you find them. That’s what UPIU writer Rajneesh Bhandari had to do when he accepted a UPIU assignment to write about autism in Nepal. When he first called a few autism centers, he had no luck.
Photo by Rajneesh Bhandari
“’They used to stay here a year ago,’ ‘This is not their number,’ ‘I don’t know much about them,’ were the general answers I got,” said Rajneesh, who is studying journalism at Nepal’s Tribhuwan University.
But he didn’t give up.
“I finally got one care center that was working,” he said.
Rajneesh set an appointment to visit the center. When he arrived, he found a group of autistic children working on art projects. The center provided Rajneesh with anecdotes for his story.
Over the course of nearly two weeks, Rajneesh scrambled to find out more about autism, but there was little he could verify.
Rajneesh Bhandari
“The saddest part is there is no official data that tells how many children in Nepal are living with autism,” he said. “Parents were hopeful that they will be able to network with other children (with) autism and support them.”
Rajneesh found that Nepalese parents aren’t satisfied with the government’s current lack of services for their autistic children. They told him they want to make the government more aware of the growing rate of autism.
Rajneesh usually writes about politics, poverty and war. It was a challenge for him to write about autism, a disease that many countries around the world don’t even recognize. But now, Rajneesh has a new area of expertise to add to his list of topics he can cover.
If you can’t answer that question before you begin typing, you need to do some more thinking, and probably some more reporting.
It’s easy to throw words onto a computer screen without much thought of what you’re trying to achieve, but that’s probably not the most effective way to write the news.
Before you begin writing, ask yourself: “What is the goal of this story?”
Do you want to:
Inform readers about a new museum scheduled to open?
Show why a specific person is important to your local area?
Bring to light the questionable accounting practices of a public official?
Explain a new or quirky phenomenon taking place in your area?
There are different types of news stories to fulfill each of those goals. Here’s a sampling of the most common types of news stories:
Basic news (informative):Announces basic information, such as a change in bus fare, election results, or a crime report.
Investigative:An in-depth look at a topic that uncovers information that was hidden or not easy to find. An investigation could reveal the financial problems of a political candidate, a secret military policy or environmental contamination caused by a local business. In the U.S., investigation stories often make use of documents found through Freedom of Information Act requests.
Enterprise:An in-depth look at a single topic. An enterprise story might show how farmers are struggling under a federal policy that was designed to help them, or the challenges AIDS patients face when they search for jobs. Enterprise stories often include some investigative elements.
Feature:Soft news that often shows how culture is changing. A feature could highlight a local gardener who is transforming a neighborhood’s backyards, the recent boom in cupcake shops, or a cultural event. Features often have anecdotal leads.
Trend: Are more people than ever struggling to have children? Are hotels building mini-rooms, with all the comforts of home including houseplants and pets, for businesspeople who don’t have time to commute home each night? Are all the local teenage boys playing the same video game? Each situation is an example of a trend story. A trend story can be serious or light, sad, funny or downright quirky, but it always shows a cultural shift.
Profile: The man who has played his saxophone on the street corner each night for 45 years. The young politician who promises to bring big changes. The volunteer who travels around town to rescue cats stuck in trees. Each person would make a great profile subject. Profiles usually involve shadowing the subject, and interviewing additional sources. If the subject is a controversial character, the profile should reflect that.
News obituary: No, this isn’t like the obituaries that families pay for. When someone of local, national or international importance dies, a reporter often writes a news obituary. This is similar to a profile, but for a person who is deceased. News obituaries do not gloss over controversy. If a national or international person has died, a local news obituary examines local angles. (For example, if a former president dies, a reporter might interview the local man who once acted as that president’s personal chef.)
Column:An opinion piece, sometimes first person. The best columnists focus solely on writing opinion that is reflective of the day’s news, and rarely move between news writing and column writing.
Once you decide the type of story that is most appropriate to your topic, think about the type of reporting you need to conduct. Do you need to talk to public officials? Do you need to find average people to interview? Where should you go to get your information? The reporters with the most successful stories think carefully through each question before they begin reporting.
I’m Anna, the UPIU intern. When I started out here this summer, Senior Mentor Krista Kapralos and International Coordinator Harumi Gondo said they wanted me to write an article on autism. “OK,” I thought, “What about autism?”
How did I go from a one-word assignment to a 1,500-word article? Read the steps below to find out.
1.) Audience: I had to narrow down the topic of autism to appeal to the primary readership of UPIU.com, which is college-aged people in their 20s.
I asked, “What do young adults want to know about autism and why should they care?”
2.) Research: I started researching autism and how it affects young adults.
I asked, “What are the most pressing issues young adults with autism are facing?”
3.) Topic: Through my research, I discovered that one of the most pressing issues young adults with autism face is their struggle to transition into adulthood.
I asked, “Is this an interesting topic for UPIU?”
4.) Sources: After determining that this was a good story for UPIU, I made a list of about 20 possible sources. In my list, I had government officials, school administrators, nonprofit employees, autism experts and families of autistic young adults.
I asked, “Even if I don’t use all of these sources, does this list include all possible angles of my story?”
5.) Facts: I tracked down facts and statistics from federal government reports and agencies as well as nonprofit organizations and other advocacy groups.
I asked, “where is the best information I can find to include in my story to give it depth and credibility?”
6.) Reporting: I spent a solid week on the phone and out of the office speaking with sources, compiling information and composing an outline. The outline was crucial in helping me organize all of my information into a coherent storyline. Then, I reviewed the outline with Krista and set a deadline for my article.
I asked, “What information is missing from my reporting?”
7.) Shoeleather: I didn’t sit at my desk and send e-mails for all of my information, which is often called “armchair journalism.” Instead, I spoke directly to my sources, found a newsworthy event that brought life to my story and attended it in person. This direct, traditional style of reporting is called “shoe-leather journalism.” With my notepad and pen, a digital voice recorder and a camera, I attended the Project SEARCH graduation ceremony where two autistic students had completed the program that helped them learn skills needed to get competitive jobs.
I asked, “Is this the event that is going to make my general story on autism newsworthy?”
8.) Follow-up: I followed up after the graduation ceremony in two ways. First, I interviewed a family I met at the ceremony by going to their home and getting additional information, photos and audio. Second, I interviewed many of my sources a second time, getting more information straight from the source on everything relevant to this program and event.
I asked, “Do I have all the information I need?”
9.) Write: After transcribing 10 pages of interviews with 20-plus sources and organizing pages upon pages of research, I spent about three days narrowing down my information, writing, editing and rewriting my article.
I asked, “Will others be informed and entertained by my story?”
10.) Fact-check: Krista and I thoroughly edited and fact-checked my story several times. I sent a source list to Krista that included names and titles of sources and the sources of all my facts.
I asked, “Am I being as credible and clear with my reporting and writing as I can?”
11.) Finish: I took Krista’s edits and suggestions seriously and after several draft versions, I finally finished the three-week project of researching, reporting and writing about autism.
“The country’s top judge is paid by criminals to keep them out of prison.”
Entertainer Carol Burnett answers questions in the press room at the Superior Courthouse in Los Angeles on March 21, 1981, after she was awarded $1.6 million in her libel case against the National Enquirer. She had sued after the supermarket tabloid printed a story in 1976 implying she was drunk in a Washington restaurant. (UPI Photo/John Barr/Files)
Whew, what a story! The reporter who finds this scoop has news that could be the most important revelation of the year. There could be awards and job promotions and, more importantly, the story could end a string of improper court proceedings.
But…what if it’s not true?
Any reporter who writes – and publishes – such a sentence better be absolutely certain that the claim is accurate. If it’s not, the reporter could face serious trouble: lawsuits, fines, and the end of a journalism career.
What’s more, it doesn’t matter whether the person who wrote and published the sentence is a news reporter or an opinion writer. Whether your statement was published on your personal blog or in The Wall Street Journal, if the statement is not true, it’s libelous. In fact, one Colorado man faced 18 months behind bars after he published an angry rant about his girlfriend on Craigslist.
Whether or not it’s illegal in your country, we don’t want libel on UPIU.
But how can you know for sure where to draw the line? That’s a tough call in some cases, but here’s a quick online tutorial that reviews the basics, and offers solid examples of libel. You’ll need to create a New U account, but it’s well worth the effort.
While you’re there, check out the other News U online resources.
The post highlights a handful of UPIU writers from around the world, as well as guidelines for getting involved with UPIU and UPIU’s up-and-coming features. Learn the ins and outs of UPIU straight from the source in the article and be sure to leave a comment.
Antibiotics are so cheap and plentiful in Kenya that many people have developed a resistance to them, sparking a serious healthcare crisis.
There are lots of places to get tested for HIV/AIDS in the Nairobi area, but homosexuality is illegal in Kenya, so many people in need of tests avoid the clinics.
A Nairobi neighborhood that exploded with Somali refugees when their government collapsed in 1991 has become a commercial destination, seemingly protected from the global financial crisis.
Those are just a few of the stories students from Nairobi’s United States International University submitted to UPIU over the past week. With an insider’s view of a development dollar darling, the students found real stories that often slip beneath the radar of professional foreign correspondents who visit the area.
USIU j-students chat with UPIU Senior Mentor Krista Kapralos
When the students gathered to chat via video with UPIU Senior Mentor Krista Kapralos this week, they discussed when it’s okay to use anonymous sources (Zawadi Birya’s story about HIV/AIDS testing is one of the few exceptions), why it’s not a good idea to pull quotes from other news organizations (There’s no guarantee that the other news organization got it right), and how to write a positive story without sounding like a public relations flack (be sure to cover all sides of an issue).
“Referees from scarcely heard-of countries, prancing around the field with slicked-back hair and trigger-happy fingers, are only too happy to reach into their shirt pocket and produce a brightly-colored card that threatens to undermine the integrity of the world’s most popular sport.”
That’s Gary McDonald’s take on the people who make the tough calls at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Gary’s story, submitted to UPIU, is clearly an opinion piece, but it’s written with such rollicking panache that it’s worth a look. (UPIU focuses on news stories, not opinion).
Gary is a great example of a reporter with passion. His love of sports is clear in his work, and his understanding of the game allows him to write with authority.
What makes Gary’s stories work? What do you think of his description of the referees?
It looks as though you may have entered the wrong URL during the setup process, or Publish2 is temporarily unresponsive. If you have questions, please contact support@publish2.com. Thanks!
and International Coordinator Harumi Gondo
said they wanted me to write an article on autism. “OK,” I thought, “What about autism?”
