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Update LXXIII
Reporting Methodology
Is the Reporter an Empiricist?
Journalism students and young reporters are warned not to prejudge events, to hold off
until they do their reporting before they draw any conclusions. Otherwise, they are instructed,
their reporting may be colored by their assumptions.
The theory that knowledge emerges from experience has merit both on the job and in
answering critics with the assurance that journalists are empiricists, never imposing their ideas
and assumptions on the events they cover. On the job, empiricism supposedly allows the
reporter the widest view of events.
But in the practice of journalism, the reality is different. The fact is that as soon as a
reporter is given an assignment, he or she begins to develop ideas about the event to be covered
or the person to be interviewed. The reporter thinks of possible leads early on. These lead-ideas
direct the reporter’s reporting, his/her questions and observations.
The Reality of Reporting
“The best journalists may adhere to the orthodoxy of their craft verbally, but they always
have an animating idea they apply to the event they’re covering,” says Sidney Blumenthal in an
article he wrote for The New Republic. He says that by “starting with a premise in advance of
doing a story,” reporters can move closer to the event “than when they are operating by the
rigid empirical method.”
In other words, the act of reporting begins with the adoption of a tentative theme for the
reporting. This is consistent with a modern theory of knowledge, best summed up this way:
“You don’t know what you’ve seen unless you know what you are looking for.”
Lincoln Steffens, the great muckraker, based his reporting on this concept. He described his
trip to Philadelphia to check on graft among officials as being based on “knowing just what to
look for.” He had a scheme in mind that he had sketched out for his editor, S.S.McClure.
But McClure had objected. He told Steffens that such theorizing would impede, if not
distort, his reporting.
Steffens responded by telling McClure that “one of the methods of scientific research is to
form a hypothesis and test it with the facts, and one of the tests of truth was to base a prediction
upon your theory and watch the outcome of the event.” If the tentative theory goes nowhere, a
new theory is adopted and tested.
Experienced reporters always think leads as they cover an event. They “frame the lead
while the story is unfolding,” say John W. Chancellor and Walter R. Mears, veteran reporters
whose advice is even more urgent today when the web cries for constant replenishment.
Try This in Class
You can test this concept of reporting by setting up this simple scenario for students:
You are in the newsroom and you are told:
1. A fire breaks out at 11 a.m. in a campus dormitory.
2. A fire breaks out at 2 a.m. in a campus dormitory.
Ask students for their immediate reactions after they hear No. 1 and No. 2. Most
students will immediately see the difference--that before noon the dormitory is usually deserted
whereas at 2 a.m. students are asleep in the dorm. So the immediate response to No. 1 may be
something about checking the cause and the damage and possible injuries and the response to
No. 2 is to ask officials at once about injuries, deaths, escapes and rescues.
The Rich Get Richer: Journalists and their Bosses
Some Reap Rewards, Others Given Pay Cuts
These are not the best of years for working journalists. Old timers have taken retirement
or been bought out. Salaries have been cut, work hours increased. Coverage has been cut back.
Youngsters, less costly, are nudging veterans off beats.
But the bosses have prospered.
A few weeks ago, Gannett’s chief executive resigned after six years running the
operation. He took over when the company’s stock price was $75 and left when it was less
than a sixth of that. Under his guidance, the payroll went from 52,000 to 32,000 and coverage
at the 82 Gannett papers shrank. But Craig A. Dubow left with $37 million in retirement,
health and disability payments, on top of $16 million in salary and bonuses in his last two
years.
Peter Lewis, a former Des Moines Register reporter bought by Gannett after he left the
paper, wrote in his blog, “Can anyone argue that Gannett newspapers and journalism are better
today, and that news consumers are better served? How did Mr. Dubow and Gannett serve the
consumer? They laid off journalists. They cut the pay of those who remained, while demanding
that they work longer. They closed news bureaus. They slashed newsroom budgets. As revenue
fell, and stock prices tanked, and product quality deteriorated, they rewarded themselves with
huge pay raises and bonuses.”
Rupert Murdoch, under fire in England and under investigation in New York, pocketed
$33.3 million so far this year, and son James, also under investigation, was given $17.9 million.
The Chicago Tribune Company’s bankruptcy arrangement makes its current leadership
eligible for a bonus pool that contains an estimated $26.4 million to $32.4 million. If past
leadership is included, the payouts could total $115 million. David Carr, whose column,
“The Media Equation,” runs in The New York Times, writes:
The drawn-out legal process hasn’t
stopped lawyers and the current managers
from picking the carcass clean. The Tribune
story includes overleveraged purchases,
feckless management and a culture of
personal enrichment…
Carr asks, “But how in the world could a board, any board, justify such huge payouts
to media executives at a time like this?”
When Relevant?
Religious References in News Stories
When Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, spoke to followers in
Washington, readers of The Washington Post were given two differing accounts of the event.
The reporter assigned to the talk summarized Farrakhan’s speech as promoting an economic
program for blacks. Two days later, a Post columnist wrote that the most newsworthy aspect of
the talk was the enthusiastic approval of the 10,000 people present to Farrakhan’s mockery of
the Holocaust and his attack on “the wickedness” of the Jews.
Coverage of a talk Farrakhan later gave in New York was also handled with care. The
New York Post reporter wrote:
Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan
turned Madison Square Garden into a
mini-Nuremberg as he brought his
message of hate to the city he called
“the capital of the Jews.”
The reporter’s desk toned down this lead. In an interview, the reporter later told a New
Yorker writer that “the outrageous aspects of the night were underplayed by most papers. All
the news media should have gone out of their way to say what a lot of outrageous nonsense this
man is preaching. He represents a philosophy we have heard before. It is very close to being
Hitlerite.”
Include or Ignore?
The media have to walk a thin line between accurately describing an event and avoiding
material that may strike people as offensive or inflammatory. For example: references to the
religion of someone in the news had been handled cautiously, tentatively. Nowadays the media
are less tentative. Here’s a recent item in The New York Times:
:
Lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday
with new rules for abortion clinics. Democrats
and abortion rights supporters said the rules
were likely to force the closing of Virginia’s
21 abortion clinics. Gov. Bob McDonnell, a
Republican and Catholic, supports the measure.…
The reporter felt the reference to the governor’s religion was as relevant as his politics.
Was it? You might want to discuss this with your students.
Memo: Get Out of the Office
Enterprise Reporting Wanted
Jesse Angelo, the editor-in-chief of the iPad-only tabloid The Daily sent a note to his
reporters that you might quote to students:
We need to get out there and start finding more
compelling stories from around the country—not just
scraping the web and the wires, but getting out on
the ground and reporting. Find me an amazing human
story at a trial the rest of the media is missing. Find me
a school district where the battle over reform is being fought
and tell the human tales. Find a town that is going to be
unincorporated because it’s broke. Find me a story of
corruption and malfeasance in a state capitol that no one has
found. Find something new, different, exclusive and awesome.
Find me the oldest dog in America, or the richest man in
South Dakota. Force the new White House secretary to download
The Daily for the first time because everyone at the gaggle is asking
about a story we broke. Get in front of a story and make it
ours—force the rest of the media to follow us. It’s stories
that will keep people coming back to The Daily—we’ve
assembled a crack news team, so let’s show the world
what we can do.
In other words, GOYA/KOD: Get off your ass; knock on doors, the advice an editor gave
his reporters who were inclined to report from their office chairs.
Testing Prospective J-Students
Does the Grammar Test Work?
The usually somnolent journalism listserv sprang to life last month when a journalism
educator asked about the effectiveness of grammar tests for students wanting to major in
journalism. Several instructors described the test they require in response to the inquiry by
Tom Clanin (California State University, Fullerton). They seemed pleased with their
tests…except for Bernie Ankney (Samford University) who wrote:
I'm not sure how effective it is. I believe it screens out students
with serious grammar, spelling and punctuation problems. But
I don't think it's real predictive of success in the major.
Ankney is onto something. A student may be able to match subject and verb, know the
difference between an adjective and an adverb, avoid comma splices and still be unfit for the first
reporting and writing course. If the student were asked to write four coherent paragraphs on a
subject in the news we might have some idea whether he or she is capable of journalistic work.
A Rehab Course
I believe many of our aspirants would flunk a writing test. The question, then, is what
to do with these victims of the Twitter Age who want to study journalism. Send them on to major
in psychology or business, or nudge them into a journalism rehab course? I favor a shot at
rehab…if the course is properly designed.
A good course could not only make the student writing-proficient, but might
determine whether the student belongs in journalism. Anyone willing to suffer through a noncredit course that demands constant writing and rewriting on current events would seem a good
fit for journalism.
I’m less certain of how to design a reporting test. Many journalism educators are
familiar with the student who becomes incapacitated when asked to conduct an interview.
-0Note: For those of you whose students need a grammar, punctuation and writing pickup, you
might look at material McGraw Hill has made available online free at
www.mcgraw-hill.com/mencher12e. Go to Information Center at the left and under it you will
find Learning Center. Access Student Edition. You’ll see three listings: Workbook, NRW Plus
and Brush Up. Here’s the introduction to Brush Up:
Welcome to Brush Up: A Quick Guide to
Basic Writing and Math Skills
Instructions
Brush Up is divided into three sections:
I. Diagnostic Exercises
-These evaluations will help you determine the topics you need to work on.
II. Topics and Exercises
-Topics: Instructional material covers grammar, punctuation, spelling, style and math.
-Exercises: Each instructional topic is followed by a group of self-teaching exercises. Seven
tests are also included.
III. Review Exercises
-Review exercises provide realistic news writing work to test your skills.
Directions for use:
To begin using the Brush Up program, select the section you wish to explore from the Brush
Up Table of Contents menu located below. Once you select a section, the Table of Contents
menu will expand to show the subtopics available. Using the Brush Up Table of Contents menu
you may either jump right to a subtopic or scroll through the content in the right frame.
---
NRW Plus and Workbook also contain self-teaching exercises for journalism students.
The Light Touch
Time Out for Laughter
We used to call them brights when I worked for the United Press, and every month
bureaus were expected to send a batch to the New York office for distribution to clients. A
friend who recalls those sunnier days recently sent me a collection of headlines and story
snippets that had me recalling our search through newspapers for brights to send on. Here are a
few that you might toss at your students to liven up a lecture.
Reports from the police blotter were a rich source of material:
l:14 a.m.: Caller reports hitting an intruder
in the head with an axe. Notes that the intruder
“was in the mirror.”
Theft: A woman in the 1900 block of 129th
Lane Northeast reported Oct. 15 that someone
must have stolen her mail because she did not
receive birthday cards from some of her friends.
Wal-Mart: Police receive a report of a newborn
infant found in a trash can. Upon investigation,
officers discovered it was a burrito.
A deputy responded to a report of a vehicle
stopping at mail boxes. It was the mailman.
Another treasure trove we culled was the correction column:
Correction
Due to incorrect information received from the
Clerk of Courts Office, Deanne L. Marchant, 38,
Decater, was incorrectly listed as being fined for
prostitution in Wednesday’s paper. The charge should
have been failure to stop at a railroad crossing.
The classifieds usually turned up something we could send on:
TURKEY FOR SALE. Partially eaten. Only
eight days old. Both drumsticks still intact. $23.
470-356 8356
TOMBSTONE: Standard gray. A good buy for
Someone named Grady. 509-375 6823
1995 NISSAN Maxima, green, leather, loaded,
CD, auto start, sunroof, 4-door, good condition,
$4500. Not for sale.
For Sale: Wedding dress. Never used. 235989-0954
Then there were the headlines:
Fish
need
water,
Feds Say
Federal Agents
Raid Gun Shop,
Find Weapons
Statistics show that
Teen pregnancy
Drops off significantly
After age 25
Lecture Material
Goodbye to He Said-She said Reporting
In a story about the Republican presidential campaign of Herman Cain, the reporter
described Cain’s “surge in the polls” that shows “no signs of deflating”… “although his tax
plan was laid low in debates.” No question that the first two statements are objective reporting.
But the third? Well, perhaps that was the consensus of most observers.
But what about?:
“…his candidacy still has an ad-libbed quality.”
“As he hopscotched through northern Alabama, his
speeches were light on substance and heavy on bromides… .”
“…Mr. Cain’s stump speech, a combination of
Leadership 101 and simple policy formulas,… .”
Clearly, these are the conclusions of the reporter, Trip Gabriel, who The New York
Times has assigned to cover Cain’s campaign. The newspaper allows, if not encourages, its
reporters to go beyond what I call Level I reporting, the faithful transcribing of what sources
say and do, stenographic journalism. Elmer Davis, a thoughtful radio journalist, years ago
described this kind reporting as “false objectivity that takes everything at face value and lets the
public be imposed on by the charlatan with the most brazen front… .”
Davis expressed the frustration of a generation of journalists who felt hemmed in by the
demands of what was defined as journalistic objectivity. Allowing the reporter to move into
interpretive journalism, Level II, Davis recognized, can be dangerous. Reporters have to be
careful of crossing the line that separates reasonable conclusions from bias.
The Republican primary season should provide your class with examples of Level II
reporting that are reasonable and those that could be considered biased.
Assignments
Women’s Work
The workplace for women has widened considerably in the last three
decades. Once confined to jobs as librarians, teachers, seamstresses, cooks
and waitresses, women have steadily moved into the professions—lawyers,
doctors, certified accountants, and they are the majority in many university
professional programs.
Assignment: Trace the enrollment by gender in your school’s professional
programs over the past decades. What accounts for the decline of male students
in many disciplines?
Churches and Politics
Federal tax law prohibits churches from engaging in partisan politics, but a report
by a U.S. senate staff committee recommends repeal.
Assignment: Ask local pastors, priests and rabbis what they think of the repeal.
Movie Days
The advent of television
caused many movie theaters
to close. But in recent years,
movies have made a comeback.
Assignment: Trace the
closure/reopening of
movie houses in town.
Markswomen
In some communities, increasing numbers
of women have applied for gun permits.
Some have joined gun clubs.
Assignment: Interview women who
carry guns or practice marksmanship. Are
they doing it because of concern about crime?
What are the crime figures for the city? What
do authorities think of having guns in the home?
.
Worth Quoting
Imitation
I may cite some horrible example of jargon or pomposity to warn against
the prevailing bloatage, but I don’t deal in junk. Writing is learned by
imitation, and I want my students to imitate the best.
--William Zinsser
Worthwhile
Technique is hardly worth talking about unless it’s used for something
worth doing.
--Pauline Kael
Experience
But nothing rots the life of the mind more than the immunity to experience.
--Leon Wieseltier
Journalists
Journalism is a kind of profession, or craft, or racket for people who never wanted
to grow up and go out into the real world. If you’re a good journalist, what you do is
live a lot of things vicariously, and report them for other people who want to live
vicariously.
--Harry Reasoner
Yes to Skepticism
I try to teach students to challenge authority by asking hard questions. I want them to
develop a strong sense of skepticism. In a sense, I’m trying to acculturate them into the
profession of journalism. … Two critical values are idealism and skepticism. These seem
oppositional, but in our craft their pairing can offer us a potent way to engage the world. For
young journalists, these two values inspire as well as energize them to do useful, even
penetrating work.
--Lou Ureneck
Experience
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
--Henry David Thoreau
Classic
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers
or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.
--Thomas Jefferson
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NOTE: Comments are welcome: [email protected] .
Past issues of Update are available at www.mhhe.com/mencher12e.
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