INTRODUCTION 1
Our View of Journalism 1
Why This Book? 5

1. THE FUNDAMENTALS OF GREAT JOURNALISM 9
The Gospel of Journalism 10
The Right Personality for a Journalist 13
The Right Education 18
Information Versus Drama 21
What Is Objectivity? 24
Do We Need Objectivity Anymore? 29
Fairness and Balance 34

2. THE QUESTION: THE ART OF
STORY GENERATION AND RESEARCH 39
Deciding What’s Newsworthy 40
Finding a Story 46
Research 52
Finding Interview Subjects 54
Preparing for the Interview 61

3. THE TALK: THE ART OF THE INTERVIEW 67
The Nature of Interviews 68
Establishing Rapport 70
Interviewing Styles 76
Intimidation in Interviews 83
When an Interview Turns Sour 86

4. THE WORDS: CREATING GREAT REPORTING IN PRINT 93
Standards to Meet 93
Choosing a Focus 99
The Basics of Writing Hard News 101
Writing Feature Stories 107
Writing Ledes with Style 112
To Quote, or Not to Quote 120
Understanding Attribution 124

5. THE SOUND AND THE PICTURES: CREATING GREAT REPORTING FOR
BROADCAST OR INTERNET 131
The Essentials of Broadcasting 132
The Joys of Radio 135
Planning for Success in Broadcasting 137
Recording 142
Culling Your Material 147
Writing for Broadcast 150
Assembling Your Report 161
Lead-ins and Attribution in Broadcasting 164
Reading for Broadcast 166
How News Works on the Internet 168

6. THE SOUL OF JOURNALISM: LAW AND ETHICS 175
The Essentials of Ethics 176
Ethical Dilemmas of the Internet Age 192
The Legal Underpinning of Journalism 195
If You Get into Trouble 209

7. THE FUTURE: ADVICE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF JOURNALISTS 212
The Current Landscape 213
The Future of Journalism 219
What Does This Mean for Journalists Today? 225
Immortal Rules for Success in Journalism 230

REPORTERS’ TOOLBOX 237
Contributors 263
Acknowledgments 265
Index 269