So You Want To Be A Journalist?

by Bruce Grundy

• ISBN13: 9780521690492
• ISBN10: 0521690498
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-10-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book is a practical, hands-on guide to the world of journalism, particularly for the beginner. It contains step-by-step instructions on writing for the news media, and practical advice and suggestions on all facets of reporting. It covers the basic skills involved in finding information, interviewing, writing news and feature material, research and investigation, basic subbing, layout and design, the essentials of grammar, the law, and ethical and professional behaviour. The book uses numerous examples to demonstrate its points. It relies almost exclusively on the excellent work of student reporters to show what young people can achieve, despite not having the resources of large news organisations behind them. The book also highlights the efforts of some of the hundreds of students who have worked with the author over many years to produce fine examples of writing and reporting in the very best traditions of journalism.

Author Biography

Bruce Grundy is Adjunct Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. viii
Introduction	p. 1
Getting started in journalism
Writing news for newspapers	p. 7
Where to start?	p. 7
The inverted pyramid	p. 8
How to tell a (news) story	p. 11
The formula	p. 12
Checking your story	p. 49
Sample news story	p. 50
Writing news for radio, television and the internet	p. 53
Radio and television	p. 54
The internet and online journalism	p. 66
Writing stories for the reader	p. 73
An out-of-the-pyramid rationale	p. 74
Structures and tools	p. 78
Summary	p. 96
Sample stories for readers	p. 96
The fundamentals of reporting	p. 107
There is more to journalism than reporting other people's lies	p. 107
Journalism is an essential part of democracy	p. 108
You can't know too much	p. 110
The ink never washes off the page	p. 110
Keep shaking the bush	p. 111
Check your maths	p. 111
Don't believe everything you hear, but don't disbelieve it either	p. 112
Assumptions are necessary but dangerous	p. 113
Thinking vertically is fine; so is thinking laterally	p. 114
Luck is good, but effort is more reliable	p. 115
Contacts are vital...in their place	p. 116
There is no such thing as a free lunch	p. 117
Know your technology	p. 117
Ask others to ask questions	p. 118
Putting it all together	p. 119
Writing skills
Grammar	p. 127
Why should you care?	p. 128
Nouns	p. 129
Sentences	p. 131
Verbs	p. 132
Pronouns	p. 140
Adjectives	p. 144
Adverbs	p. 146
Prepositions	p. 147
Conjunctions	p. 149
Exclamations	p. 149
The mood you are in	p. 150
Phrases	p. 150
Clauses	p. 152
Sentences and paragraphs	p. 154
Spelling and punctuation	p. 155
Spelling	p. 155
Punctuation	p. 159
Subbing	p. 171
Making a story fit the space	p. 172
Pulling several stories together	p. 173
Ensuring the structure of a story is right	p. 173
Rewriting a story	p. 173
Spelling, punctuation and grammar	p. 174
Ensuring the facts are right	p. 174
Writing headlines	p. 175
Writing captions	p. 176
Subs, defamation and contempt	p. 177
Out damned sub!	p. 177
House style	p. 178
Try it...be a sub	p. 180
Problems and solutions	p. 192
Basic newspaper layout and design	p. 197
Typography	p. 198
Reading and design	p. 206
Understanding the law
Australian law	p. 217
How does the law affect journalists?	p. 218
Origins of our legal system	p. 218
Criminal cases, civil cases and the role of the jury	p. 220
The British model	p. 221
The law and the journalist	p. 227
Contempt	p. 233
Common law contempt	p. 233
Are juries swayed by the media anyway?	p. 238
What can be published when?	p. 239
Statutory contempt	p. 246
Defamation	p. 255
What is defamation?	p. 256
Defences	p. 261
Other features of the new defamation law	p. 267
Myths, misconceptions and mistakes	p. 268
One last word	p. 269
Knowing your rights	p. 271
"Publicity is the soul of justice"	p. 271
The public interest	p. 273
Accessing court records	p. 274
Research skills
Research and finding things	p. 283
Using the internet	p. 283
Old-fangled v. new-fangled research	p. 287
Documents, documents, documents	p. 293
Facts and figures	p. 297
Percentage error	p. 297
Being mean can be pretty average	p. 298
Raising the standard (deviation)	p. 299
Problems with polls	p. 302
Try it...use a spreadsheet to calculate data	p. 311
Questions and interviews	p. 317
Questions	p. 317
Preparing for interviews	p. 319
At the interview	p. 323
Other advice for interviewers	p. 329
Being professional in journalism
Ethics and choices	p. 335
Ethical issues	p. 336
News selection	p. 340
News bulletin transcripts and stories	p. 343
Bibliography	p. 351
Further reading	p. 353
Index	p. 354
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