E-Book Overview
This is a new edition of the world's leading textbook on journalism. Translated into more than a dozen languages, David Randall's handbook is an invaluable guide to the "universals" of good journalistic practice for professional and trainee journalists worldwide. This fully updated edition contains scores of new anecdotes and examples, drawing on the author's own experience as a national newspaper reporter and columnist. It also contains a completely new chapter on "How To Be a Great Reporter.""Easily the best introduction to being a reporter I have come across."--Paul Jones, course leader, Trinity Mirror Editorial Training"A pleasure to read. Anyone who wants to be a journalist should go through it---again, and again, and again."---Val Williams, Press Division, The Thomson Foundation
E-Book Content
David Randall
The Universal Journalist Third Edition
Pluto
P
Press
LONDON • ANN ARBOR, MI
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First published 1996 Second edition published 2000 Third edition published 2007 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 www.plutobooks.com Copyright © David Randall 1996, 2000, 2007 The right of David Randall to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Hardback ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2656 6 ISBN-10 0 7453 2656 0 Paperback ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2655 9 ISBN-10 0 7453 2655 2 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
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Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in the European Union by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, England
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Contents Acknowledgements Preface 1. What Makes A Good Reporter? Attitudes – Character – A great reporter 2. The Limitations of Journalism Owners’ priorities – The journalistic culture – Readers’ values 3. What Is News? What is news? – News values – News value factors – A sliding scale for stories 4. Where Do Good Stories Come From? The habits of successful reporters – Non-obvious sources – – News editors – Stories that good reporters avoid 5. Research What you should be looking for – Where to get it – Researching online – Printed sources – Research as a foreign correspondent 6. Handling Sources, Not Them Handling You Guidelines for dealing with any source – Official sources – Handling unauthorised sources – Unattributable sources ‘off the record’ – Getting too close to sources 7. Questioning How to approach people – The most useful questions in journalism – Questioning uneasy sources – Questioning elusive, evasive and hostile sources – Questioning by email – Press conferences – Celebrity interviews 8. Reporting Numbers and Statistics Questioning data – Averages – Distribution – Percentages – Per head – Surveys – Opinion polls – Correlation – Projections – Real versus apparent rise
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vi THE UNIVERSAL JOURNALIST
9. Investigative Reporting What is investigative reporting? – Productive areas to investigate – Investigative reporting skills – How to run investigative operations 10. How To Cover Major Incidents How to make sure your coverage of a disaster doesn’t turn into one – Death tolls – The death call – All reporters are tough, aren’t they? 11. Mistakes, Correc