Some outside advice on sources and reporting

Rosemary,

Saw your blog on sources. A few thoughts to pass along.

Don't get suckered, even if the source has been good in the past. An example is what happened at the Washington Post after Hurricane Katrina. An anonymous source at the White House told a reporter that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco didn't declare a state of emergency until after the storm. A few seconds on Google would have shown that "tip" to be false. The reporter didn't check his source, even though the information was easily verifiable. The source turned out to be Karl Rove. The reporter turned out to be a sucker.

I heard this line on "The Wire" last night: "A lie is not a side of a story. It's just a lie." Remember that when dealing with sources. Yes, everyone is entitled to tell their side of the story, but don't feel obligated to go with something just because a good source told it to you. See above example.

Get to know your sources, but don't get too attached to them. Feel free to have a beer with them, talk about their pets, kids or your pets and kids. The more familiar they are with you, the more likely they will be to share information. But, don't get blinded because you like the person.

Do not, under any circumstances, become romantically involved with a source. If you do, tell your editor and get switched to another beat or assignment.


And, here's some general reporting tips, for whatever they are worth:

Always carry extra ink (or pencil led). If you are in a competitive situation, don't count on a fellow reporter to bail you out by handing over a pen or pencil. And, you never know when your equipment will fail. Last year, I was at a house fire where 10 people died. The air temperature was about 8 degrees. My pens wouldn't write. Fortunately, there was a Kroger nearby. I bought pencils. They now reside in my car if the situation ever arises again.

Go early and stay late. If you are headed to a crime scene, scheduled event, court hearing or whatever. Arrive early and get a feel for who is there, what things look like and what is said. Introduce yourself to everyone and anyone. Don't leave until you feel you've gotten all there is to get and more. Just because the body is gone from a murder scene doesn't mean there aren't people around to talk to. You can also pick up a lot of color and details before and after something has happened.

Don't be afraid to ask the obvious. There's a story about Homer Bigart, the former New York Times reporter, who was known for going to crime scenes, seeing a body on the floor with a butcher knife in the back and asking "So, what was the cause of death?" Not asking is an assumption. And, by asking, you may elicit a good quote or information that's not quite so obvious.


That's what I can think of for now. Gotta get back to work.

Brett

Brett Barrouquere
The Associated Press
Louisville, Ky

A wired journalist

Blogger Howard Owens believes that the biggest need for news organizations today is to become more digital savvy. He recently offered top editors a plan to up the "digital literacy" of their organizations. It got a lot of attention as people began comparing this ideal to their own skill levels.

You may want to do the same. Here's is what the journalist of your generation needs to do to learn the new tools of the trade.

1. Become a blogger...and become a regular reader of five of six of the blogs in the fields you are interested in. Participate, leave comments and follow links.

2. Buy and start using a small digital camera. Take stills and video. Post photos on sites like Flickr or Buzznet.

3. Use the free video editing software that comes with your computer and edit the videos you take. Post them to YouTube. There are online tutorials for shooting and editing video.

4. Spent at least two hours a week for six weeks on YouTube. Search for topics that interest you and follow the trails . Pay attention to the most popular videos listed daily to see what interests people.

5. Join a social networking site. LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook.

6. Use social bookmarking. Set up del.icio.us for yourself and use it every day. Check out Digg and Mixx and similar sites.

7. Start using RSS. Use it to keep up with the news of the day and the blogs you read. Make sure your blog as an RSS feed.

8. Use a cell pone with text messaging.

9. Learn to twitter...this technology could change information dissemination

10. Create a Google Map mashup. (Google this and use online tutorials)

11. Think about what your job will be like in 10 years. What will media be like in five years. How will news reach young readers in the next generation.

Research tool: Handy Google service

If you dial 800-GOOG-411 and answer the questions you will be prompted to respond to you can find out the the number of most businesses, including stores and restaurants.

If you say "Details" you can get the address and phone number of these places. And you will be connected, again with no charge for the information or the call.

This is pretty handy when you are looking for places and it's free, unlike 411. Put this into your cellphones.

A reminder about listening

Catching the attention of readers

We talk frequently about interesting readers in our stories. We are competing for their attention against other writing, sports, family, friends, TV... you get the idea.

Readers will ignore your work if it is not exciting, intriguing, engaging with lively text, graphics, art, audio enhancements and other bells and whistles.

In an interesting article for the Washington Post, Thomas Washington (that's his name; this is not a typo) who is a librarian for a school in McLean, Va. writes that the days when people would work through dense prose and difficult concepts for the sake of learning something important are over.

There are just so many books and other publications available easily now that students have adapted to "information overload" by getting very good at scanning, then tossing out the stuff they don't want to read.

"We've grown into a culture of searchers, not readers," he writes. They extract the main ideas from chunks of text, they move on to the next thing quickly.

This is different from not liking to read.

Readers, he said, are asking themselves: "What do we need to know? Why do we need to know it? And, given that by the end of our lives we will have absorbed and converted to knowledge only a sliver of the information available, should be bother knowing it?"

So, think about this the next time you are tempted to write a lot of verbiage that doesn't get quickly to the point with clear, simple words and doesn't makes it clear to readers quickly exactly why they should keep on reading.

Journalism school deans are making news, not necessarily in a good way

The deans of two of the country's most prestigious journalism schools have made headlines recently without intending to. This seems an echo of the John Merrill controversy that we talked about with journalism educators getting caught up in criticism of their own work.

John Lavine, head of the journalism school at Northwestern University was "caught" by one of his own student journalists using unattributed, possibly fabricated quotes in an alumni magazine. That apparent ethical/ professional lapse has caused an uproar. Read about it at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/22/AR2008022202794.htmlJohn Lavine heads the journalism school at Northwestern University

Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, inadvertently sent out to students a copy of his self-evaluation intended for the provost's eyes. It contains an articulate assessment of the state of journalism education in a world where journalism is changing and media are in disarray. Read about the memo at http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=137927

I'd love to read your reaction to either or both of these. But at the very least can you tell me this: what exactly is a provost and what does one do?

Best of the Short Class Bios

Indecisive – but I might not be

Need to learn what I want

Loves the sun hates the rain

This one perplexed me the most: A Warwickian who loves new experiences.

This one is most like a singles ad: Fun fearless female who appreciates life.