The Nature of News, The Changing News Business, and Interviewing

One of the most interesting things to me is how we decide what news is. As stated in the book, the critera editors and reporters use is relevance, usefulness, and interest. But to me all of those things depend on the audience. What I think is interesting may not be interesting to my best friend,what's useful to me may not be useful to my grandmother, and what's relevant to me may not be relevant to my neighbor. I know these are broad guidelines but I feel the hardest thing for me right now as an aspiring journalist is to decipher what is news and whats not. Hopefully that will come with practice.

The book says that there are additional elements to help find a potential story: impact, conflict, novelty, prominence, proximity, and timeliness. I realized that one of the greatest challenges for a journalist is to make a dull important story sound interesting. And right now more then ever prominent names are making the headlines, and sometimes they are replacing stories that are have actual usefulness. Paris Hilton and the likes of Hollywood have been stealing the headlines and to me I'm a little concerned with this. Trust me I'm no different, I crave the hot juicy gossip about Brat Pitt and Angelina Jolie but sometimes it's a little bit overwhelming because it shows we have nothing better to do then pester the lives of others.
Sensational stories are getting a lot of coverage today, almost more so then the Iraq war. Just because they are big names, doesn't mean they should share the front page with global warming issues. But what I have to remember is that as the book says " journalism has been described as a culture's conversation with itself," and I guess it makes sense to think we are just talking about our culture, and celebrities are a big part of our culture today.

Another important thing I learned was how new technology changes how news organizations present the news. Journalists need to be practiced in all mediums and know which medium to use to present that piece of news the best. Whether it's sports scores or breaking news which can be put out the quickest on tv or online, or long articles that have a place in newspapers, journalists have to be multimedia journalists in our day and age.

Lastly, I learned that interviewing is the key to writing a story. It's the difference between mediocre reporting and good reporting. Because most fact gathering is done before an interview, interviews are best used to get reactions and emotions for your story. I realized that a lot of work goes into conducting a good interview because you must complete many steps before, during, and after interviews to ensure success. However, when it's all done it can "make" your story.

In the end, I think journalists need to be cut some slack. They have many responsibilites and right now they are getting criticized sometimes rightfully so but sometimes wrongfully so. Journalists are watch dogs, navigators, agenda setters, they monitor power, they uncover injustice, they sustain communities, they entertain and they inform us with information. Yes some changes need to be maid but we must put faith in our journalists because they are the reason we know what we know.