7

Basic Reporting 

In the fall of 2023, a podcast dropped called “The Kids of Rutherford County.” It’s a four-part investigative journalism project from Serial Productions and the New York Times. Reporter Meribah Knight describes how a Tennessee county and its people arrested and illegally jailed hundreds – possibly thousands – of children as young as 7 years old for petty crimes, such as pulling hair and not stopping other kids from fighting.

She covered this story through vigorous reporting and finding sources to talk to her about their experiences. Let us start with the first episode, titled “The Egregious Video.”

It begins like this: “It was a March afternoon in Rutherford County, Tennessee, a growing community about 30 miles southeast of Nashville. School was out for the day, and a dozen or so little kids were playing a game of pickup basketball in someone’s backyard. And then, as kids do, one said something about another kid’s mom. This insult led to some shoving. And then, as kids also do, one of them pulled out a cellphone and started filming.”

The 28-minute podcast describes what happened next, from a police investigation to the arrest of 11 children who were not fighting. How did Knight get that story?

Answer: Sources.

A source is a person, organization or document that provides information for a news story.

In the first episode, Knight uses the video as one source and interviews one of the children who witnessed the fight and her mother, who was approached by police.

Knight tells the listener that she tried to interview the police officers who arrested the children, but they refused to talk to her. Instead, she legally obtained copies of interviews of those officers conducted by the department’s internal affairs division to get the police side of the story.

In the second episode, she speaks to two attorneys whose job was to represent the children who were jailed. She also interviews the county attorney whose job is to prosecute them. In episode three, Knight goes even further, interviewing 25 people who were illegally jailed as children and asking them to recount those experiences and the impacts on their lives.

Notice how Knight is trying to present all sides of the story? This is basic reporting.

General Assignment Versus Beat Reporting

There are two kinds of reporters in most news organizations. A general assignment reporter writes a variety of news or feature stories on a wide range of issues. They do not specialize in one kind of news and must be ready to quickly learn about a subject before they write about it. Examples are reporters who cover a street fair one day and write a feature on a school principal the next day.

A beat reporter covers the same geographic or subject area consistently and specializes in the subject matter. These reporters become experts in their beat and enjoy the ability to dig deeper into a subject because they are familiar with the players and ways to get information. Examples of this are police reporters, sports reporters who cover one team or sport, city or education reporters.

Though different, both general assignment and beat reporters must do something that is difficult for many students. Reporters need to talk to people, in person, on the phone, online every day. Journalists must put themselves out there to reach different kinds of sources. They need to show up at offices and houses and coffee shops to find the best people to interview.

When I was a reporter, I wanted to talk to a source who owned a car dealership but would never return my calls. I finally took my laptop and sat in his Mercedes car showroom for six hours while he hid in his office. But eventually he came out and agreed to an interview. Persistence gave me a story that beat my competition.

Reporters should get in the habit of routinely leaving their desks and physically following a story. Invite a source to lunch, chat up a city official at a park opening or a school board member after the meeting. In this technology-heavy society, it’s easy to rely on digital sources, but the best reporters are still physically going to report a story whenever possible. The effort of in-person interviewing often pays off with better information, anecdotes and news stories.

Steps to Reporting

• Google your subject and start reading. It’s good to know everything that has been written about the subject, but remember this is not for the actual story. This is background information for you.
• Read news coverage of your subject, if possible. Or try to find information about them on social media. Learning what happened before allows you to ask better questions about what is happening now.
• Begin the research phase. This involves collecting information for your story. Only collect and track information from verified sources such as government documents, lawsuits and reputable news sources. If you are unsure about a website’s veracity, check the “About Us” section and note the mission of the organization. Understanding the organization helps both you and the reader put in context why the information is available there.
• Once you’ve compiled your research, go through it again and look for human sources. If an expert is quoted in other articles, they might be good for you as well. (Note: We will delve into sources later in this chapter.)
• Draft a list of questions you want the story to answer. Remember that the story needs to tell readers something that they don’t know that could impact them. A good starter question is: Why should the reader care about this? If sources can answer that question, you will have a relevant story.
• Interview your sources and take good notes. Remember to aim for in-person interviews. Also consider including an audio recording as backup.
• Interview again if needed. Reporting takes time and patience. It may take days or weeks for sources to call you back or give you the information. You might have to nag them to get what you need. The effort pays off in well-sourced stories.

FOIA

Sometimes it’s tough to get information. But the law is on a reporter’s side. The U.S. government requires much of its information be available to every citizen.

Enacted in 1976, the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA governs the public’s right to request access to records from any federal agency. The Department of Justice has a website that explains your legal rights in detail and contains a helpful video.

Some areas are off limits. The DOJ website includes nine exemptions to the access rules, which range from personal privacy to national security and law enforcement.

That is only for federal information; each state has its own laws regarding freedom of information. A national nonprofit organization called the State Freedom of Information Coalition tracks each state’s FOIA laws.

Each page provides links to the state laws and includes contact information for organizations that can help journalists get the information they need. For example, California’s page includes contact info for the California News Publisher Association, a respected and active media organization in the state.

Another resource for student journalists is the Student Press Law Center, which has existed since 1974 and “promotes, supports and defends the First Amendment and free press rights of student journalists and their advisers.” The group’s webpage on access is full of helpful tools, including a legal FOIA letter generator.

Though reporting is difficult, there are many people and organizations across the country willing to help student journalists in their quest for information.

Sources

The biggest struggle for journalism students is finding sources. Students are eager to interview and report a story but are often at a loss as to how to find the right person.

Sources vary per news article, but often fall into certain categories.

• Officials: Most stories have some group that is in charge or leading in the story. Whether it is an event organizer, college president or city mayor, these are people who have the information you will need for a story. They also are used to speaking to the media and tend to be accessible and available for interviews.
• Spokespeople: These are people whose job is to help the media obtain accurate information. They work in a field called public relations that uses the same writing style and requires similar skill sets as journalism. Public relations jobs are defined as professional work to gain a favorable public image of a company, organization or person. People working in this field are often called spokespeople and can be helpful sources or can connect a journalist with those sources.
• Experts: Many news stories involve conflicting or complicated information that could use the help of an expert. An expert is someone who has extensive knowledge and experience in a field. Most colleges have a wealth of experts in the form of professors. The person teaching your archaeology class spent years in the field and could talk with authority on topics related to it. Curious about a new diet trend? Your kinesiology professor could speak about the health benefits. The best part of this type of source is that many colleges make them easy to find. Your college’s spokesperson can help you. And the school website also might have something called an experts directory that lists sources, their areas of specialty and their contact information. It is a convenient tool for many news writers.
• Associations: I often tell my students that if they are having trouble finding sources, try Googling the topic with the word “association.” An association is a group of people who have joined together to promote some cause or topic. These people are happy to talk to the media about their passion to garner publicity. Are you writing a story about students slacklining on campus? Search for a slackline association or club.
• Opposition: An editor once told me that when a person tells you something is a win-win, you should be suspicious. Someone will always lose. A reporter’s job is to talk to all sides, not just the winners. When crafting a story, it’s easy to find the winners. To be objective, a good reporter finds the losers and asks them what they think. I once did a story about a church that wanted to build a large facility in a neighborhood. I interviewed the pastor who was so excited. But the story was not complete. I knocked on the doors of people who would live by the church. They told me they opposed the church site because it would cause traffic, noise and parking hassles. Consider all the people who could be affected and make sure those voices are in your story as well.
• Public: If you are writing for your school paper, your public sources are often students or employees. At Palomar College, we strive to put a student source in every story. Their comments lend a perspective you might not have considered. For example, if you are reporting on school parking, interview students and employees who park and do not park. Beyond that, you need to talk to people who park in the morning versus afternoon or evening. Finding a variety of sources allows for a more interesting and objective news story. Be aware that to get a genuine sampling of opinions, you need to go to different areas at various times and approach different people. Consider varying ages, genders and races to get a wide array of experiences.

The professional media can help with source variety. 

National Public Radio (NPR) is an independent, nonprofit media organization that was founded on a mission to create a more informed public, according to its website. Through its member stations, NPR reports on local, national and global stories for an estimated 46 million people. It offers helpful resources for journalists, such as the NPR Diverse Sources Database.

It also has an accuracy checklist:

• Ages — Get the date and birth — and do the math.
• Days, date — Are you sure it happened then?
• Grammar and spelling — Listeners and readers notice mistakes and forget your great story
• Historical “facts” — Don’t trust your memory.
• Locations — Get them right and pronounce them correctly.
• Names of businesses, groups and schools — For the 100th time, it’s Dartmouth College.
• Numbers — Check your math. Don’t say “millions” if it’s “billions.” Learn about percent vs. percentage point.
• Personal names — Get the correct spelling and pronunciation.
• Pronunciations — Not only names, but places and terms, too. The dictionary is your friend!
• Quotes — Make sure they’re accurate and correctly attributed.
• Superlatives — If something is said to be the “first,” “last,” “best,” “worst,” “only,” “oldest,” “youngest” etc., that claim must be verified. If it can’t be, the claim should be deleted or qualified – and clearly attributed.
• Titles — President, CEO, professor, etc. They must be accurate.
• Web addresses and phone numbers — Never report them without testing them first.
• Pronouns — Essential.