Beyond hard news
In this module we will talk about how the create and report stories. If you are a journalist, most of what we’ll say here will sound familiar. Still, it might be good to freshen up some concepts and learn some tips to make your stories more engaging.
There is not a one-size fits all formula to create appealing multimedia pieces.
When we think about journalism we usually think about hard news. In these traditional news pieces there is always an element of novelty. Facts are presented as objectively as possible, with journalists acting as “flies-on-the-wall”.
But journalism is much more than hard news. While accuracy and rigour are always necessary when producing non-fiction, there’s room for other formats. Longer features that approach complex issues, profiles, interviews, analysis pieces, opinion columns and editorials are some of the types of pieces that you’ll come across in newspapers and magazines. But that’s not even the whole story.
New media
The communication landscape has rapidly changed in the last decades. Ironically, while traditional newsrooms struggle to make ends meet, technological advances allow regular people to report from virtually anywhere on the planet. We’re still adapting to this new scenario, but we’ve already experiencing some good and bad consequences of it.
Arguably the best thing about our new communications landscape is that there are now many different voices out there. We have indigenous youtubers, instagrammers that report on climate change, blogs and podcasts about virtually every subject, and scientists that tweet about their research.
In rigour, many of these don’t qualify as journalism, at least not in the classical meaning of the term. But in many ways, these new, engaging and fascinating new forms of communication are reaching places that traditional newspapers could have never reached. Newsrooms are no longer the gatekeepers of public opinion and there’s something positive on that.
There’s also a downside, of course. Because now that everyone has a microphone, it is difficult to know who’s giving reliable information and who’s spreading dubious facts - or even blatant lies.
Solid reporting
There’s no silver bullet to tackle this problem. And in a way, we’re still learning how to handle it. A well-informed blogger can provide more accurate information on a specific topic than an underfunded newsroom. In fact, some of the most respected journalists in the world, such as Glenn Greenwald and Ed Yong, were not trained as journalists and started their careers writing blogs. Also, while large newsrooms usually have more resources to copy-edit and fact-check, they’re not immune to errors. The Der Spiegel scandal is a recent example.
So what can we do, as journalists and communicators, to create solid and reliable non-fiction pieces? Here are a few ideas.
Objectivity. We know that there’s no such thing as pure objectivity. Everyone has ideals, opinions and biases, which are both conscious and unconscious. The outlets we reporting for also have editorial lines and financial interests that can be more or less explicit. But even if we can’t attain pure objectivity, we should at least be fair.
Evidence. Your word will depend on the reliability of your data and your sources. Don’t cherry-pick your facts, see what the numbers say, And check the facts for yourself whenever that’s possible.
Sources. Talk to people who’s being affected by what you’re reporting. Talk to independent experts that work on that particular field. Get the other side of the story, if there is one.
