Understanding Journalism

Understanding JOURNALISM Understanding JOURNALISM Lynette Sheridan Burns SAGE Publications London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi © Lynette Sheridan Burns 2002 First published 2002 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 6 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU SAGE Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd 32, M-Block Market Greater Kailash – I New Delhi 110 048 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7619 7025 8 ISBN 0 7619 7026 6 (pbk) Library of Congress Control Number available Typeset by Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton. Printed in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press Ltd, Trowbridge, Wiltshire contents Preface ix Part One: From Knowing How to be Being Able 1 Introduction 3 2 Journalism in Action 16 3 Journalism as Decision Making 31 Part Two: Journalism in Action 4 Finding News 49 5 Choosing News 63 6 Gathering News 79 7 Evaluating News Sources 95 8 Constructing News 110 9 Editing News 125 10 Working with Words 146 Bibliography Index 178 183 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lynette Sheridan Burns has been a journalist for 25 years, the first 10 of which were spent working on newspapers in Sydney. She won three consecutive journalism awards after moving to regional New South Wales in 1985. In 1989 she moved to the University of Newcastle, Australia, where she established its journalism program in 1992. Today she combines her role as Assistant Dean (Teaching and Learning) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Science with freelance journalism and award-winning research into problem-based curriculum design. She lives in ‘splendid isolation’ with her husband and children in a rural village outside Newcastle. ABOUT THE BOOK ‘Where to begin?’ is a crucial question for new journalists, whether they are trying to apply information from lectures or ‘learning journalism’ on the job. Journalism is always created in a complex cultural context that is evolving all the time. A focus on the practices or skills used by journalists cannot keep up with changing definitions of journalism or offer broad advice in a global context. This book focuses on what Schon (1983) called ‘the conversations we have with ourselves’. It guides beginners through the thinking processes used by journalists to produce thoughtful, quality journalism that is also attractive to the market. It is not so much a critique of media practice but a means to negotiate the challenges. preface