Tell as is, don’t editorialize news

Tell as is, don’t editorialize news

By MUSYOKA NGUI

Editorializing news is giving a reporter’s opinion when conveying the stories journalists cover in the field.

Apart from the traditional 5Ws and H, journalist should go ahead and cover news in a day two journalism style. This includes asking the sources: so what? Then what? Why now? Sometimes news data fly around and readers don’t make sense of the numbers, figures and statements issued by interested news sources.

Another way of making the audience understand the news better in an objective way is fact checking the sources. When journalists go to cover news at public places, lies will be told. Politicians, corporates, religious leaders, wananchi, all tell lies. When the event is live, the reporter will have to do a real-time fact check. Or their editor can assist in giving a background information about a certain subject being covered by the source.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Table reports in excerpts, in full copies and unedited ones depending on the availability of space and time. A slippery source will slide and confuse the audience if you don’t do your homework well.

A reporter should be well read. Information should be on their fingertips.  Sometimes news sources lecture journalists and this makes a big mockery of the profession. When the subject being discussed is about economics, have facts ready. The facts ought to be from credible sources. Sources that can be verified. When you quote unauthoritative source, you become gutter press.

Offering space and airtime to opposing sources, as I said in my earlier post, is the beauty of media freedom. Publish all humanely possible angles to a story. Have a disclaimer that some concerned sources where reached and didn’t offer a comment. Didn’t return a reply.

Back to editorializing news. This is a lazy way to convey news. Opinions are like asses, everyone have theirs. Facts are facts. They don’t depend on your opinion even if its informed opinion. To err is human. When you go wrong in your script, be humble enough to correct your piece. Better still, apologize to affected parties because the fact that your news circulated can be enough to injure the dignity of the source.

Maintain a good news sources contacts. There are dry days. These sources will provide leads that you can follow.

Keep them honest. The three arms of government need a robust forth estate that checks them. Above all, check yourself. Listen to your colleagues and the publics.

Run against rivals, at their cost

Run against rivals, at their cost

BY MUSYOKA NGUI

musyokangui.blogspot.com

“They never publish me”, lamented a young journalist to yours truly.  I checked his work and found that it was good, in my view.

It is a complaint that a journalist in the making of a slate waiting to leave university was launching to his mentor.

Don’t worry bro. Keep writing. Times will be hard when you leave college. You will write and it will be pushed to the recycle bin. But don’t make the disappointments switch off your zeal to write.

Sometimes your editor will steal your story. Masquerade as you. You will freelance. You will work overnight. On demand. You will work on the trenches. For long. Endure many dry days. Do online writing. They will carry your story for small pay. They will cartel against you. Act as intermediaries. Middlemen.

I won’t lie to you that the journey to success in writing is soft. A good journalist will tell you that a great percentage of their work is unpublished. For self and for employer. For community. For private. For public. For free. For love. For life.

To be a good writer, read. Read current affairs, respected publications and publishers and then read again. Once you are done reading them, read your work. See how you have grown. From high school compositions, literature classes and then university term papers and back to work. However little. Don’t belittle yourself. Start somewhere. Today it’s a hustle. Tomorrow it’d be awesome. Don’t give up.

Read all media. Digital, newspaper, radio, TV and society. There is a lot in your community that you can write about. Observe. Study. Write.

Have mentors. Let them guide you. But don’t be like them. Don’t lose your originality. Be you.

Once you are done with your favourites, read your critics. They might tell you something that your friends won’t tell you. Your friends have bigger stakes in your life and don’t want to lose you unlike your haters. Listen.

Have different media that you write to. Let no one manipulate your story. Run against rivals. They will upstage each other for your benefit. Above all, know your worth. What’s good is worth the cost. Research the market rate and negotiate your deal.

Media sources: You cannot not communicate

Media sources: You cannot not communicate

By MUSYOKA NGUI

One cannot not communicate. This quotation is attributed to Paul Watzlawick (July 25,1921-March 31,2007) an Austrian-American family therapist , psychologist, communication theorist and a philosopher.

My post today is anchored on the above notable idea.

When covering news stories, media persons encounter sources that are reached but do not answer calls. This could be because they know the story and don’t want to be quoted. Which is good. And bad.

When secrecy shrouds a bad news, authorities bluetick the media. For the sake of balancing the story, media personalities get all angles to the story. All efforts humanly possible are pursued. When a source refuses to grant an interview to the media, it is important to report that the source shut the door in the face of the reporter. The audience have enough IQ to judge.

There are few terms I’d like to point out that the audience encounter and deserve to understand the meaning-albeit-“in my view”…..

It was not immediately clear-this shows that the source didn’t confirm the news happened by the time of going to press.

I can neither confirm nor deny-this is the situation where the authorized officer of the institution in the news leave the judgment to the reporter and the public to decipher what to believe or not.

According to sources privy to the (news) –this is usually the anonymous sources that don’t want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the story. But in this case, the journalist is best advised to keep the script supporting documents in case the story boomerangs.

Multiple sources confirm that….-this shows that the reporter has done their homework and compared the narrative cited by authorities and most of the sources hold the reported mainstream narrative.

Sources close to…-this shows that there are friends or colleagues or family related to the person in the bad news that spoke to the media and are believed to know the truth about what is in the news. In this case, it’s important to avoid naming the sources close to the person in the news to avoid retributions.

PS: When covering news it’s important to respect the privacy of people in the public interest stories in the bad pieces. Description of narratives should avoid leads that covertly or overtly identifies a confidential or a classified source. Careless description such as the pronoun she or he is enough lead to tell curious readers who you are hiding behind the mask. It’s time for media scholars to consider using gender neutral names such as “they” or “their” or “them”. Also consider unpinning the titles and specific designations that could sell out sources that trust you to cover the public interest news.