Journalism Blog- Week 8

Chapter 8

1. I would prefer to do story (b). I seem to work better under pressure, so regardless of deadline pressures I feel I could produce a well written story. I can see how visiting offices and doing in-person interviews can have many benefits for this story and for the future. I found this statement in The Daily Miracle extremely important, "“there is no substitute for being there, to see how something looks or someone performs, and in some instances to be seen and known by the newsmakers, in order to widen your contacts”. Being out and about could provide me with inspiration and an interesting angle. With doing interviews in person, it would give me a chance to strengthen my relationship with sources as well as pick up on body language, posture, tone, and other inuendos that I wouldn't be able to see or hear on the phone or by email.
2. To a certain extent I would. If the scoop is important enough and the public need to know about the situation than I would be prepared to put in alot of work. Sometimes investigative journalism can put a journalist in dangerous situations and if this happened to me I would not put myself at risk for the sake of a story.
3. I would be willing to give up my question, especially if it would mean gaining maximum information which would be valuable to my story! Chances are someone else will have a question just as good as yours and an angle you may not have thought of before. Ultimately, everyones goal is the same as yours: inform and educate the public. Even though competition is fierce between media outlets, all will end up with similar stories anyway.
4. I think the public should be able to have access to all information, especially if it will affect them. However the Government has the power to withold any information they choose. The Daily Miracle outlines Freedom of Information laws, and shows the government have no obligation to give out information if they don't want to.
5. Depending on the angle I was taking, I would assess both sessions and their agandas. Which one is most relevant to my angle? I would have to evaluate their news worthiness!

Here are a few things I thought were intersesting from the text this week-

• Information about dilemmas involving elected representatives is very important information for media to impart to the public because it allows them to make a judgement about who they will vote for (eg. white collar crime).
• Good investigative journalists follow money trials, build chronologies of events, dig around under the surface of society, follow hunches, foster knowledgeable contacts and are trusted by their sources.

Tiffen (1989, 31) 4 main channels of news-

1. 'Tip offs' from social agencies and the public about 'spot news' (eg. fires, accidents).
2. The promotional activities of sources.
3. Pre-scheduled public events (court, parliament etc).
4. Following up stories that have already appeared in other media, especially by gathering reactions through interviews.

Mencher- 3 layers of news stories-

1. Top layer- media releases, press conferences, speeches.
2. Middle layer- reportorial enterprise, verification of material.
3. Bottom layer- significance, impact, causes, consequences, analysis, interpretation.

• Good contacts are the best source of news. They are vital to securing exclusive stories. It is important to know how and where to find them. Know how to use libraries, gain access to databases, court records, company documents, rates records, electoral rolls, archival material and registrations. Understand Freedom of Information legislation, balance sheet, statistics and surveys.
• Public records can be the most useful. These include state and federal parliamentary handbooks, local councils (property searches, development proposals), annual local goverment directories, Bureau of Statistics reports, annual reports from government departments, registers of births/deaths/marriages, state archives (court records, immigration, companies, mining, hotel etc), Australian Securities and Investments Commission, state art galleries, publications, newspapers, telephone directories, public notices (classifieds), computer assisted reporting is also useful (www).