When to break exclusive news and where

When to break exclusive news and where

You’re working on an exclusive story for tonight and the Web and social media team wants a piece of it, hours before air. Should you share? If you thought that question had been laid to rest years ago, think again. In some newsrooms, the answer still is, “It depends.” Brandon Mercer, news director at KTXL [...]

Top 5 tactics for consumer reporters

Top 5 tactics for consumer reporters

Consumer reporter Jackie Callaway of WFTS in Tampa calls her beat a beast. She’s expected to produce two or three quick turns a week and a “deeper dive” every other week, while working long-term on investigative stories. But after heading the station’s “Taking Action” franchise for a decade, Callaway says she’s learned how to tame [...]

Tips for investigative reporting

Tips for investigative reporting

Organized chaos. That’s how Lee Zurik of WVUE in New Orleans describes his work days. And no wonder. He anchors two prime time newscasts every night and also serves as the station’s chief investigative reporter.  How does he manage to keep producing award-winning work? We asked Zurik to share his strategies for finding and keeping [...]

Video journalism tips from a pro

Video journalism tips from a pro

Darren Durlach left television almost two years ago to try something new. He’d won two consecutive NPPA TV Photographer of the Year awards and, unbeknownst to him, was on the verge of winning a third. He’s now senior multimedia producer at the Boston Globe, where he shoots and edits stories both alone and in collaboration [...]

Apps for political coverage

Apps for political coverage

It’s a long way from the “Boys on the Bus.” Political reporters today have more information at their fingertips than a whole newsroom could provide not that long ago.  Here are a few you might want to download, if you haven’t already. Ad Hawk, free from the Sunlight Foundation, uses sound recognition technology to quickly [...]

Tracking digital footprints

Tracking digital footprints

It’s an age-old question. How can you be sure the information you’re getting is accurate? That basic task of every journalist has become more difficult in today’s digital world, when data can be so easily manipulated. But as we’ve noted here before, technology also makes it easier to detect manipulation. And one very useful piece [...]

Investigating the state of investigative journalism

Investigating the state of investigative journalism

Ask an entire generation of journalists what inspired them to go into or stay in the news business and the answer often comes down to one word: Watergate.  Forty years ago this month, two young reporters at the Washington Post filed their first stories about what a White House spokesman described as ”a third rate burglary.” [...]

Network news succumbs to entertainment values

Network news succumbs to entertainment values

Quick: What do Wynton Marsalis, Elizabeth Smart and Chelsea Clinton have in common? They have well-known names, certainly, but that’s not all they share. All three are now employed by network news divisions, which speaks volumes about both the power of celebrity and the current state of television journalism. CBS News recently gave Marsalis the [...]

Local TV entries sweep IRE medals

Local TV entries sweep IRE medals

It’s not a first, but it’s exceedingly rare. This year’s IRE Medal, the highest award for investigative reporting by Investigative Reporters and Editors, went to two broadcast outlets: KRTK and KQED. Only once before in the 18-year history of the medals has broadcast recorded a sweep, when Lee Zurik of WWL was the only winner [...]

Accuracy in journalism more challenging than ever

Accuracy in journalism more challenging than ever

You might think that this is yet another rant on how technology is putting pressure on journalists to publish more quickly and pushing what’s published out to more people, more easily than ever before. But two things happened this week that made me think that we can’t do enough to remind journalists that accuracy has [...]

Tips on taking good notes

Tips on taking good notes

“Leave the notebook at home.” That’s what one journalism site recommended when reviewing Evernote, a digital service that stores notes, pictures and Web clips online so users can access them anywhere from any device. It’s a cool tool but it hasn’t replaced my reporter’s notebook and I don’t think it ever will. A pad and pen [...]

Making a numbers story visual

Making a numbers story visual

Television’s need for pictures can be a two-edged sword. Great pictures can make a story memorable, because viewers remember what they see longer than what they hear. But a lack of pictures can turn an important story into a throw-away anchor reader, giving it less time on air and leaving little impact. So TV’s bias [...]

Top 10 NewsLab posts of 2011

Top 10 NewsLab posts of 2011

Beginning a new year by looking backward is a time-honored tradition among procrastinators and (true confession here) I can procrastinate with the best of them when I’m not on deadline. So herewith, a look back at the posts that got the most traffic at NewsLab in 2011, in case you missed any or would like [...]

Top 10 in journalism for 2011

Top 10 in journalism for 2011

Who’s counting? Everybody, it seems, at this time of year. Everywhere you look, there’s a top 10 list for the year’s best and worst, so why should journalism be different? And why reinvent the wheel? Instead of creating our own 2011 rundown, we’ve put together a meta-list with a few additions and comments. This was [...]

Tips for dealing with confidential sources

Tips for dealing with confidential sources

How far will you go to protect the identity of sources who give you information on the condition that you not reveal their names? If you haven’t thought about it, you should. Every reporter eventually runs into a story so important that it’s worth getting the information on a confidential basis. But you’d better understand [...]