Speeches & meetings basics

Chapter 19: Speeches & meetings basics

In this chapter, we discuss the best ways of reporting speeches and meetings, how to prepare yourself and how to gather news at such events. In the next chapter we discuss how to write your stories and we give advice on covering big events such as conferences and demonstrations. _______________________________________________________ In this chapter, we will discuss ways of writing news stories from speeches and meetings. We deal with these together because there are lots of similarities in the way journalists cover such events. Both are means by which people communicate with each other in public, although speeches are usually a one-way process (from the speaker to the audience) whereas meetings usually involve communication between the individuals taking part. In covering a speech, journalists are generally part of the audience, while at meetings such as councils or committees, journalists may find themselves the only members of the audience. The challenge for journalists Speeches and meetings are both unlike interviews, where the journalist is an active participant, putting questions and able to ask for more details. At speeches or meetings, a reporter usually has no control over where and when they take place, or the subjects under discussion. In an interview, reporters should guide their interviewees through questioning. At speeches and meetings the speakers themselves decide what they want to say. The journalist has to listen to what is being said and select which parts to make notes on before writing the news story. It may seem that journalists have no control over collecting news at speeches and meetings. This is not so. There are several things you can do to help you get the information you need to write your story. If you follow these steps carefully, covering speeches and meetings can be a very interesting and rewarding part of journalism. Although we are treating speeches and meetings as a special type of assignment, most of the skills needed are those found in other areas of journalism already covered in this manual. The essentials are: The ability to recognise the most newsworthy aspects of a story, and to select key points from a mass of information. Good shorthand or a fast writing speed to take down what is said. If the organisers allow it, use a tape recorder. (See Chapter 16: Interviewing basics.) A confident approach to new people and new situations. The ability to compress many thousands of words into clear, concise and accurate news stories. What are meetings? There are, of course, many different types of meetings. One could say that whenever two or more people get together there is a meeting. However, for the purpose of this chapter, a meeting is a gathering of several people with a specific purpose, usually in a planned and organised way, with a formal or semi-formal structure. Thus meetings range from small sub-committees to international conventions - and all are a possible source of stories for the good journalist. The thing to remember about all meetings is that they do not only provide news for other people. Most of your readers or listeners will belong to some group or other, and they will like to hear news of their meetings, even if they were present themselves. Many organisations will inform the newsdesk about dates, times and venues of their meetings, so that these can be entered in the diary. Lots of organisations have regular weekly, fortnightly or monthly meetings, so it is worth making a note in your newsdesk diary of when they are held, for example, "the second Thursday in the month". But you will get some of your best leads on meetings by regular and careful reading of the public notices columns of the newspapers, or from posters stuck on walls, trees or lamp-posts. If the organisers think that a meeting is important or interesting enough to advertise in the newspaper or on posters, it may be interesting enough to report. There are, of course, many occasions when a meeting is little more than a social get-together. In such a case, it might be a waste of time attending yourself, but you should check beforehand to assess the situation. If you decide not to attend, make a note to check up by phone with the organisers the following day, to see if anything newsworthy came out of the meeting. Anyone can organise a meeting, although most can be classified under the following headings: Government These can be local, provincial, regional, national or international. As the decisions they reach will probably affect ordinary people, they are usually of public interest. These can range from, for example, sittings of national parliaments to meetings of local councils. Whenever they make decisions which can affect people's lives, they are newsworthy. Company Because companies produce consumer goods and services, they are generally newsworthy. They also usually provide employment and support economic development, locally, nationally or internationally. Most companies like to run their business meetings behind closed doors, away from the eyes of the media and their own competitors. However, public companies are usually forced by law to hold certain meetings in public, especially their annual general meeting. This may be restricted to shareholders, but there are usually enough people present who are willing to talk afterwards about what went on. Alternately, your media organisation could buy a nominal share in a public company so that it can send a representative as a legitimate shareholder. Special interest groups These can include such bodies as chambers of commerce, parents and teachers associations, the Friends of the Earth, trade unions and women's groups. Although some may wish to conduct much of their business behind closed doors, most welcome the attention of the media and provide single-issue stories which are generally newsworthy. Sporting clubs and associations are usually a good source of news. Political parties Most of the regular party meetings are held in private and are attended only by party members. However, because they often make important political decisions for people in power, they are a valuable source of news. In many countries, political parties hold local meetings to select candidates for elections and hold annual meetings to elect leaders. These national meetings are called conventions or annual conferences and are a special kind of meeting which we will discuss later. Educational, cultural, social or religious Some meetings are simply organised to inform or educate people. They make no decisions which directly affect people's lives, but opinions expressed can form the basis of a news story or a feature. For example, sermons in public acts of worship can be newsworthy. In some countries, sermons are the only forum for political opposition or dissenting voices. Logistics The best way to report on a speech or a meeting is to attend it. That way you will know as much as possible about what happened, minimising the chance of making mistakes. Also, you will not have to rely on the reports of other people, who may not be trained journalists. We said earlier that covering speeches and meetings can present special challenges, mainly because the events are not under your control. You have to cope with the practical aspects of getting there, getting the story and reporting it. We call these practical aspects the logistics of the task. The section which follows gives you practical advice on how to overcome any logistical problems you might find. Preparation You can save yourself a lot of time and effort if you prepare the groundwork before you go. You must make sure that you have the correct date, time and venue of the speech or meeting. It should not take long to make a quick telephone check with an organiser to ensure that it is still going ahead as planned. When you write your report, make sure you include details of date and place, but do not put them in the intro unless they are important by themselves. A mountaineering club which holds its annual general meeting on the top of a mountain is news. Holding the meeting in a hall is not.Also, find out what kind of speech or meeting it is. Is it a regular or an extraordinary meeting? Will there be any guest speakers who might be interesting? What special issues might be raised? Who might object? Ask if the speech or meeting will be in public or in private. If it will not be open to the Press, arrange in advance for somebody who will be there to see you immediately it ends and tell you what happened. This is where a journalist who has good contacts scores over one who has not. Find out about the organisation beforehand. Some meetings are obvious (such as a sitting of Parliament) but what do you know about Rotary, for example? (Rotary are business or professional people who meet to do charitable work.) You will waste time and be embarrassed if you turn up for any event knowing nothing about the group organising it. There are newspaper files, directories and other references. You can ask colleagues in your newsroom what they know and also check at your local library. This is especially useful when you are covering a speech by an academic.  Try to read something they have written. Do not be shy of contacting the organisers themselves and ask for information. Journalists are thought to be experts on all subjects. We know they are not, but it is better to ask for more information after a bit of preparation than to approach people in total ignorance. On arrival Try to arrive at the meeting a few minutes early. This will give you time to: Introduce yourself to the organisers if necessary; Get a list of names and copies of prepared speeches; Arrange to meet people afterwards for comment; Settle in your place before the meeting starts. You will make your task very difficult if you arrive at the speech or meeting once it has started or with only seconds to spare. The organisers and participants will also find your late arrival distracting, perhaps rude. If you get there a few minutes before the start, you can see people arriving. This is especially important at a big event, when you will find it difficult to spot people in a crowd once they have arrived. It also allows you a few minutes to introduce yourself to participants and make arrangements for interviews after the event. If you are a reporter for radio or television, you should always arrive well in advance of the start, to give you time to set up your cameras and microphones, and to test your light and sound levels. Speakers get very annoyed when reporters try to attach a microphone to a stand or table during their speech. Some organisers may stop you doing it. Finally, you may be told by your newsdesk to file a story immediately the meeting finishes, especially if it is likely to reach an important decision. If you do not have time to return to the newsroom, you will have to phone your copy in (see Chapter14: Copy presentation). If you do not have a mobile phone (cell phone), try to find a convenient telephone before you go in to the meeting. If you wait until the meeting has ended before you start looking for a telephone, you will waste valuable minutes and also risk being beaten to it by a rival. If you have a choice of phones, do not always choose the nearest - everyone will rush for this one. Find a phone which is near but not too obvious. Very often, secretaries will let you use their phone if you arrange beforehand and explain who you are. You should offer to transfer the charges to your newsroom. Where to sit or stand It is essential that you find a position where you can see and hear everything that is going on. If you arrive at a crowded event, do not hang around the entrance. Politely but firmly make your way to a position where you can see and hear well. At well-organised events, you will find an area set aside for the media. If this seems suitable, use it. You may find the organisers have left programs, leaflets, copies of speeches or other Press material there for you. However, if the media area is unsuitable, do not hesitate to move to somewhere better. It is a good idea to find a position where you can see and hear both the speakers and the audience (if any). This allows you to watch both the participants and the audience reaction. However, you should never sit on the stage with the organisers or the speakers. You are not part of the event - you are there to report it for your readers or listeners. You should not be identified with the organisers or speakers. This is especially important at demonstrations or rallies, when you feel that you have to get close to the speakers to hear what they are saying above the noise of the crowd. Try to sit or stand in an area between the speakers and the crowd, slightly off to one side. The end of the event Although many meetings seem to drag on and on for hours, you must not be lulled to sleep. Such meetings often end suddenly and both speakers and audience rush to get away. At this point you may have to chase after people such as the organisers or main speakers to get essential details or to clear up a point not fully understood during the meeting. If you have to talk to more than one person in this way, keep your interviews short so that you do not miss your other interviewees. There may also be pressure on you to file your story straight to the newsroom. This will depend on how important the story is and how near to a deadline the meeting ends. You may have to decide whether to phone the copy over or to go for any winding-up interviews. Check how urgently the newsdesk wants the story before you leave the newsroom. If it is an important meeting attended by a large number of reporters, you may find your competitors beat you to the nearest telephones. If you have planned ahead, you can now go to the telephone you have already arranged to use. It may be in a secretary's office a couple of minutes walk away from the meeting, but it may still prove to be faster than waiting in line for a busy phone. TO SUMMARISE: You will make your task easier and more efficient if you plan ahead. Know where you are going, when the event is due to start and something about the people and issues involved. Always arrive early, with plenty of time to prepare yourself and your equipment. If you are facing a tight deadline for the story, plan ahead how you are going to get your report back to your newsroom.

Reporting speeches & meetings

Chapter 20: Reporting speeches & meetings

In the previous chapter, we discussed the best ways of reporting speeches and meetings, how to prepare yourself and how to gather news at such events. In this chapter we discuss how to write your stories and we give advice on covering big events such as conferences and demonstrations. _________________________________________________________ There are two aspects to report on at any speech or meeting. The first is the setting of the event, the second the content of speeches. You should make notes on both these aspects. The setting Your job as a journalist is not simply to record what was said in the meeting; there will usually be a secretary present to keep the official record. You should try to bring the meeting alive for your readers or listeners. You should make notes of audience size and composition (for example, are they all women?), the mood of the audience and the tone of the speakers (although you should avoid such expressions as "shouted angrily" or "accused" are only your opinion, and could be wrong). At any meeting, find out the names of the main speakers on the platform and anyone who says anything important from the audience. It will help if you find out their names and titles before the meeting or stay with someone who can tell you, possibly one of the organisers. If someone says something important and you cannot find out their name at the time, make a brief note of their appearance (such as "man, third row, yellow shirt, moustache") alongside your notes and then track them down afterwards to get their name. At big meetings where there are speakers you do not recognise, you may find it useful to draw a sketch plan of the seating arrangements. Then, as names are revealed (for example, when another speaker says: "I disagree with Councillor Rabola's comments just now"), you can fill in the blank spaces on your plan. Remember to check correct names and spellings later. Estimating crowd size At speeches in particular, you should report the size of the crowd. This will interest your reader or listener, and may provide a news angle in its own right. For example, if the President or Prime Minister came to speak at a business lunch and only two businessmen turned up, that would be news. In estimating the size of any crowd, do not try to count them all; that is almost impossible with a large and mobile gathering. The usual trick is to count, say, 20 people then estimate how many groups of that size there are. It helps if you are in a high position and you may get a better estimate by moving around if the crowd is an irregular shape, as at a protest march or rally. Although the police will often give you their estimate of a crowd size, beware. They will tend to over-estimate a crowd they approve of (for example, people on a charity walk) and under-estimate those they do not like (such as an anti-government rally). The event organisers might also be able to help, although they too will have a bias. In some very organised events, you might get a clue from the number of plates served at a meal. The caretaker of the hall is a useful person to find, as he will know how many seats there are and you can work out how many of them are full. Very often, if several journalists are covering a meeting, you can get together to agree on a figure for attendance. Although this can be useful, do not go along with the majority if you believe that their estimate is wrong. You should also report audience reactions if they are significant. If the President was booed by the two businessmen, that also would be newsworthy. The content Your notes must, of course, be accurate. You need a good shorthand speed and the ability to sift out the jewels from the rubbish in any speeches. Do not get bogged down with minor details of organisation which will only interest the people who planned the meeting. Radio listeners will be bored by a list of officers elected, but this can be included at the end of a newspaper report. If you are given a copy of a prepared speech, make sure you follow it as it is presented, just in case the speaker adds anything or leaves something out. In your notes, mark in the margin or underline those parts which are most interesting and which might produce your story line. If you do not have a prepared copy, make lots of notes at the start. If the speech proves to be interesting, you can be more selective about your notes later on. If it is short and dull, at least you will have some notes to write from. Try to get enough notes to give balanced arguments if there are disputes during the meeting or during question time after a speech. Many reporters today use tape recorders, even when working for newspapers. If you do use a recorder you should also make notes of the essential points. This will save time later when you are reviewing your material. It is also useful to have a recorder with a number counter. If you set this at zero at the start of the speech, you can write down the numbers at which interesting points are made. Then when you replay your recording, you can fast-forward or fast-rewind the tape to find the quotes you want at the numbers you noted. Writing the news As with any story, you should avoid starting with a quote, but you should use plenty of quotes elsewhere in the story. Your story should be balanced. If a speaker makes some outrageous accusation, you should make some attempt to check whether or not it is correct. If it is an opinion, you should try to get a reply from anyone attacked. For example, if an opposition MP says in a speech that your country is about to declare war on a close neighbour, you should check such a claim very carefully, and certainly get a reply from the government. It is also worth thinking about what the speaker did not say. If the Finance Minister was speaking on the eve of presenting his budget and did not mention economic matters, that would be newsworthy. Finally, make sure that your story contains at least the following details: The names and titles of speakers; The major point of the speech plus necessary background; The time, place and purpose of the meeting; Plenty of strong quotes; The size and composition of the audience, plus any important people in it; Audience reactions if they are significant. Follow-ups Most news stories do not end when the meeting finishes. Although there may be decisions reached, you will have to check up later to see if they have been acted on. If strong opinions are expressed by a particular pressure group, or controversial decisions are reached, you may want to contact someone with an opposing view for their reaction. For example, if the Cabinet decides on a new measure, you should contact the Opposition for their reaction. Some meetings have effects long afterwards, and these may provide good follow-up stories. For example, a charity meeting may decide to set up a new home for orphans. You should then watch for news as the project develops - when they raise money, when they start building, when they appoint staff, when it opens and when it has been running for some time. The initial meeting is like a stone dropped into a pool. Watch the ripples as they spread out. Special kinds of meetings The advice we have given so far should apply to most types of speeches and meetings. However, there are special kinds of gatherings which may need extra care if you are to report them successfully. Conventions and conferences These are special types of meetings, usually held each year by political parties or professional associations such as doctors or scientists. They can last for several days and provide a lot of stories. The basic rules for covering ordinary meetings apply to conventions, except that here you will have more chance to meet delegates and to chat informally with participants when the main work ends each day. Your news editor or chief of staff will usually expect at least one story on the first day, setting the scene and giving details of the organisation, topics, participants etc. Once again, find someone knowledgeable to help you and start looking for stories straight away. Do not wait until all the speeches have been delivered. You should hunt around behind the scenes for such things as background stories, personality profiles, local participants or amusing events, either for the main news pages or for the diary column. At conventions you should gather press releases, handouts, reports, and all kinds of leaflets whenever and wherever possible. When things get dull or you have a quiet moment, you can read through them looking for story leads. Demonstrations Although not strictly meetings, demonstrations such as rallies, parades and marches contain many similar elements. There are often speeches, there is usually a single issue at the heart of a protest, and your readers or listeners will want to know such details as size, mood and venue (or, in the case of a march, the route). Once again, try to identify the organisers, but do not stick with them for the whole time. For one thing you may be identified as someone involved in the protest, not a good thing for your newspaper of radio station. For another, you will not be able to report on the number of marchers, their mood or their opinions. Be on the lookout for picture ideas, not simply groups waving banners. There may be children holding placards, people in fancy dress or lines of policemen guarding the route. But be careful. Protest marches can turn into riots. Although as a good journalist you should be where the action is, do not get so close that you get either injured or arrested. Your newsdesk will not get a story if you are in hospital or prison. TO SUMMARISE: You will make your task easier and more efficient if you plan ahead. Know where you are going, when the event is due to start and something about the people and issues involved. Always arrive early, with plenty of time to prepare yourself and your equipment. Make a full and accurate note of what happens and what was said. Write the story in a lively, balanced way. Use meetings as a way of making or renewing contacts. Avoid trouble when reporting parades or demonstrations.

Press & media conferences

Chapter 21: Press & media conferences

In this chapter, we discuss how press conferences can help or hinder journalists. We give advice on what to do at press conferences and how to write stories from them. _______________________________________________________ What are press and media conferences? Press conferences (also known as news conferences) are occasions when someone with something to say which they believe is newsworthy calls reporters together so that they can tell them all at once. The person calling the press conference usually makes an announcement or statement first then allows reporters to ask questions. The terms, media conferences or media calls, are also used occasionally, though usually about an event to which a company publicist invites the media - not necessarily just journalists - in order to promote a product, performance or a celebrity, e.g. a visiting singer or actor. In this chapter we will concentrate on press conferences for journalists. All sorts of people organise press conferences for all sorts of reasons. A politician may call one to announce a new policy or to deny an allegation. A scientist may call one to reveal a discovery. A police chief may call reporters together to give details of a crime or to ask for public help in solving a case. Advantages The main advantage of a press conference to the person calling it is that they do not have to repeat themselves to several different reporters at separate interviews. It also means that their announcement will have maximum impact by being in all the media at the same time (assuming that all the reporters think it is newsworthy). The main advantage to the journalist is that it reduces the chance of individual newspapers or broadcast stations missing the story. It also allows them to share the workload of questioning the interviewee. If one reporter forgets or overlooks something, another reporter will probably think of it. Disadvantages There are disadvantages to the media in press conference, the major of which is that it is more difficult to get an exclusive story from press conferences. When every reporter hears the same words from the interviewee, they cannot keep secrets from each other. There are ways of getting round this problem which we will discuss later. Press conferences can also give false importance to the topic being promoted. Promoters try to convince journalists that by getting them all in the same place at the same time the topic is of great importance, when often it is nothing more than free publicity or advertising. Logistics For the journalist, press conferences are similar in nature to speeches, and can be covered in much the same ways (see Chapters 19 and 20: Speeches and meetings). Here we will discuss the logistics or method of covering press conferences. It is usual for the person who called the press conference to say what they want first then allow the journalists to ask questions. The speaker controls the situation from the start. They even control where and when the press conference takes place, although if journalists do not like the place or the time of the press conference they should let the organiser know. This is especially important if someone plans to hold a press conference after your deadline for stories. Many journalists regard press conferences as gifts from the organiser, not to be questioned. Remember, if someone calls a press conference it is usually because they need the publicity you can give them. That gives you some control over the situation. As with covering speeches and meetings, there are several things you need to remember to make your task easier. Preparation As a journalist, you should never go out to cover any story without knowing roughly what to expect. Some research is vital. This can range from asking your editor or chief of staff what the press conference is about to a full-scale search through your local reference library for background material. Press conferences are usually called to present the latest development of something, whether it is a financial policy or a mass murder. Your background material must, therefore, be as up-to-date as possible. It is not wise to attend a press conference at which a scientist is going to reveal a new source of energy without knowing something about what energy sources are currently available. Your newsroom library or cuttings files should provide you with information. Don't forget to look in your picture library when appropriate, for example, in technical developments. Ask other people in the newsroom. If a politician calls a press conference and politics is not your round, go to the political correspondent for advice. Also use your contacts outside the newsroom for background information. It is bad manners to ask a political opponent to provide you with questions for the politician, but an off-the-record talk with a critic might produce valuable background on which to base some questions. Once you have done some research, try to prepare some questions in advance. These should be good enough to provide you with a story if the announcement itself is not very newsworthy. Remember, people who call press conferences will not always have your skill in recognising a news angle. Your questions do not have to be on the topic the organiser of the press conference wishes to talk about. For example, if a public figure has been accused of corruption then calls a press conference to announce a new move in foreign policy, it is quite fair to ask them questions about the corruption allegations. They may not wish to answer them, but that should never stop a good journalist from asking questions. Many people are suspicious of reporters' questions, and may ask you to provide written questions in advance. This is acceptable if their sole purpose is to give you more accurate answers. It may, however, be an attempt to stop unpleasant questions. If you suspect that this is the case, you should try to get a promise that you will be allowed to ask other questions at the press conference itself. These are called supplementary questions. If they will not agree, you must ask yourself (and your editor) whether the press conference is worth attending. On arrival As with covering a speech or meeting, you should try to arrive in good time for a press conference. Because some journalists are bad time-keepers, many organisers will wait until the major media organisations are present before starting the press conference. However, you cannot rely on this. Besides, it is bad manners to arrive late for any appointment. Positioning is quite important, especially at large press conferences. You should always sit near to the speaker, so that you do not miss anything said (even whispers to an aide or adviser). If there are many journalists present, sitting in the centre of the front row will ensure that you are not overlooked at question time. It is important that you hear questions from other reporters. If you are seated at the front and you cannot hear the question, you can be sure that the interviewee will not hear it either, so it will have to be repeated anyway. If you work for radio or television, or wish to record the press conference to support your notes, arrive with enough time to set up your microphone in front of the interviewee. For recording question time, you should either sit beside the interviewee holding the microphone so that you can point it towards questioners at the right moment, or use a tape recorder which has two microphones (usually stereo machines), one positioned in front of the interviewee, the other pointed towards the questioners. If you work for radio or television, you should also ask for an individual interview when the conference ends. Apart from the fact that you can get better quality sound and pictures in a one-to-one interview, every news organisation likes to give its audience the impression that it is the main supplier of news on an event. A babble of questions from other journalists at a press conference destroys that impression for broadcasters. Radio and television reporters should make a note of all interesting questions - whether their own or from other reporters - and ask them again during their one-to-one interview. When the conference starts Establish straight away whether what is being said is "on the record" (in which case everything can be quoted); "background" or "unattributed material" (in which the information can be quoted but not the name of the informant); or "off the record" (in which neither the information nor the informant can be quoted). "Off the record" information is for the reporter's personal information. Too much "off the record" information will undermine the credibility of your story, so try to get the interviewee to make statements "on the record" whenever possible. (See Chapter 59: Sources of information and Chapter 60: sources and confidentiality.) You should also establish at the start who the speaker represents on this occasion, if it has not already been made clear. For example, is the Police Minister speaking as a minister or as an MP? Quite often, an organisation may provide a spokesperson to give a press conference. This could be a public servant, a secretary or a press officer. Ask immediately whether they are speaking personally, for a department or for the government. As with a speech or a meeting, you should make good notes of what is said. Mark the important points in your notes as you go along. A statement may not be clear or may raise an interesting question. Make a quick note of anything you will want to ask at question time. Question time Always try to ask at least one question, if only to show your presence. Phrase all your questions either (a) to clarify statements you did not understand or (b) to get new information. Avoid asking friendly questions simply to cover up an embarrassing silence. It is difficult to get an exclusive story from a press conference, because every reporter hears all the statements, questions and answers. If you have gone to the press conference with some information which you think will give you an exclusive story and it is not mentioned during the conference, do not mention it during question time. Wait until the other reporters have left then ask your questions. If speakers are unwilling to give a private interview, tempt them with a statement like: "There is something important I want to ask you that I don't want anyone else to hear." It may spark their interest and you will probably get your interview. Not only should you note what is said at a press conference, but you should also be aware of what is not said. If you go there expecting a certain announcement and it is not made, don't shrug your shoulders and leave. Ask about the topic. They may have something to hide. At the end Do not be in a hurry to get away, unless you are facing a tight deadline. Hang around on the chance of getting background information, picking up a bit of gossip or simply developing contacts. If you have arranged a face-to-face interview, remind your interviewee and take them somewhere quiet to conduct it. If several reporters have been granted individual interviews, make sure that you get your turn. If you work for a newspaper or television, you should ask for any pictures you think you might need. For example, if a police chief says they are hunting an escaped criminal you should automatically ask if they have a picture of the man for publication. Also, if you want to illustrate your story with a picture of the speaker, think how you can get a better picture than simply a shot of him at the press conference. For example, if the Health Minister is launching a campaign to test people for chest cancer, will he pose for pictures with an X-ray machine - preferably being x-rayed himself? Writing the story There are several things which you must include in your story. These are: The names and identities of speakers; The key points of any announcements, denials or questions, plus necessary background details; Plenty of strong quotes. Unlike a speech or meeting, your story does not have to include details such as the time and place of the press conference. In fact, it does not have to include the fact that the news came from a press conference at all unless that is of significance to the story as a whole. If a public figure calls a press conference to deny an allegation, that fact should be reported. If a police spokesperson is simply conducting a regular weekly press briefing, that detail is not necessary. Certainly you should never include the fact that it was a press conference in the intro, unless that is significant. Such a case would be if a minister was expected to announce a major policy change and then cancelled the scheduled press conference at the last minute. In the following example, we mention the press conference in the intro to the Right story, because the cancellation of the press conference is the news. It shows that there is disagreement in Cabinet - a fact which we report in the second paragraph. In the intro to the Wrong story, the news is the theft of the aircraft, so the press conference itself should not have been mentioned: RIGHT: The Foreign Minister today cancelled a Press conference at which he was expected to announce new sanctions against South Africa.        It is understood that the last-minute cancellation was due to a disagreement in Cabinet over the sanctions. WRONG: A police chief today told a Press conference about the theft of a light aircraft from Jacksons Airport. If a press conference is called to discuss a single issue, your choice of intro should be fairly straightforward. You structure the intro around the main point and write the rest of the story in descending order of merit of the other key points. Press conferences that cover several topics Press conferences often raise a number of issues, especially when they are regular weekly or monthly press briefings. Good examples of this are White House press briefings in the United States or daily press conferences hosted by police departments to give reporters details of recent crimes, accidents or other incidents. There are four basic ways you can write news stories from such multi-issue press conferences: write separate stories on each topic. write one big story covering all the topic, but with an intro on one angle. write one big story with a composite intro. write a composite story with subordinate stories. This is not as complicated as it might seem. By "composite", we simply mean putting several things together in one place, for example in an intro. Let us look at each of the four approaches individually: Separate stories Write a separate news story on each topic. Each story should be self-contained, not relying on the other stories for any details. This kind of approach is used after press conferences where several quite different topics are discussed, such as the police press briefing to give details of the previous day's crimes. One big story with an intro based on one angle Choose the main key point, write your intro around that then continue writing your story on that topic. Later in the story you mention the other topics, using words like "meanwhile", "also announced" and "at the same time" to show that you are changing topics. Each of the subordinate topics will need some explanation, but they do not require the full intro treatment. Use this approach when there are several related topics, but one is much more important than all the rest. One big story with a composite intro Write a composite intro, mentioning all the key points in it, then give details, one topic at a time, in descending order of importance. An example of a composite intro is: The Prime Minister yesterday revealed plans to lower taxes, build a new airport in Madang and tighten the laws on foreign ownership of businesses. In revealing new Cabinet initiatives, Mr Garea said... Use this approach when there are several related topics of roughly equal importance. Composite main story with subordinate stories Write a short composite story, with either a composite intro or a general intro summarising all the topics. Then write separate stories on each of the different topics. The main story will usually be in bold type or in a prominent position, so readers know to read it first. They will then go on to read the subordinate stories. This approach is used in similar circumstances to the big story with a composite intro, but means that you can usually devote more space in your paper (or time in your bulletin) to each topic. You can also give the different topics individual treatment, such as their own headlines, pictures or diagrams. Try to get hold of copies of some major regional or international newspapers, to see how the four approaches are used. You will normally get some idea from the stories themselves whether they came from a single press conference. You will probably find stories from one press conference are on related topics and contain comments from the same people. Whichever style you select, you should write your story as you would any hard news story, never leaving the reader or listener with any unanswered questions. Background details are very important. If they are not given at the press conference itself, you must fill them in later by research or follow-up interviews. Finally, although press conferences usually involve question-and-answer sessions, print journalists should avoid using the questions themselves in your story. This is a good rule for most interviews. TO SUMMARISE: Press conferences are a useful way of getting information if you use them to your advantage. Always prepare yourself before attending a press conference. Find out something about the possible topics and the people holding the press conference. Arrive with enough time to settle in before the conference starts. Always ask at least one question. If you think you have an exclusive story, do not reveal it to other journalists at the conference. Radio and television journalists should try to record an individual interview after the conference. Write as you would any news story, bearing in mind that there are different ways to deal with press conferences which discuss several separate topics. In newspapers, do not include your questions in the story - only the newsworthy answers.

Vox pops - what are they?

Chapter 22: Vox pops - what are they?

In this chapter - the first of two on vox pops - we look at this important way of making news into a two-way exchange of information and opinions, between leaders and ordinary people. We consider different types of vox pop, and look at the advantages of each, for newspapers and for radio and television. In the next chapter we look in detail at how to conduct vox pops and how to analyse and present the results. __________________________________________________________ One useful source of news is a vox pop. This is where journalists or special researchers go out into the street to ask members of the public for their views on matters of current public concern. There are several different types of vox pop, and we shall consider them all a little later. "Vox pop" is a useful name, but it is jargon - that is, it is only to be used among journalists, because readers and listeners will not know what the term means. Call it a vox pop in the office, but call it a survey in the paper or on air. "Vox pop" is an abbreviation of vox populi which is Latin for "the voice of the people" (vox = voice, from which English gets words like "vocal"; populi from populus = the people, from which English gets words like "popular" and "population"). What are vox pops for? Consider for a moment two questions: Who usually makes news? Who receives the news? The answer to the first question is that, while we know that anybody in the world canmake the news, in fact it tends to be the leading figures of society: politicians, chiefs, landowners, businessmen, judges, bishops and so on. The answer to the second question should be that everyone reads or listens to the news: the leading figures of society, townsfolk, villagers and everybody in between. The danger is that news can become a one-way flow of information and opinions, from the leaders to the ordinary people. One of the important jobs of journalists is to make sure that the flow of information goes in both directions. The ordinary people need to know what is being said and decided on their behalf, and how it is likely to affect their lives. At the same time, the leaders need to know the sort of lives that ordinary people lead, to stop them losing touch with reality as they become surrounded with big houses and big cars. They also need to know what ordinary people think and feel about current issues. The first of these needs - the sort of lives which ordinary people lead - can be met by good human interest stories. The second need is met by publishing Letters to the editor (an essential part of any newspaper in a free society), by talkback radio and by vox pops. Timing The media use vox pops for many reasons, but chiefly for the following: to test public opinion and reaction to influence decision-makers to forecast results of events to stimulate public debate to promote the newspaper, radio or television station, and make it more popular If the purpose of the vox pop is to forecast the results of future events, the results must be published or broadcast before the event takes place. You may gather material predicting accurately the result of an election, but if you publish it after the results are known, it will be meaningless. If the purpose is to stimulate public debate and to influence decision-makers, the results need to be published while people are still deciding what they think. It is very much easier to influence somebody before they take a decision than it is to persuade them to change a decision which they have already taken. If the purpose of the vox pop is to test public opinion and reaction, or to boost sales or audience, then the results must be published or broadcast while the issue is still in the forefront of the public mind. All of this adds up to one thing: you have to plan a vox pop in advance, or you have to move extremely fast once you have decided to do it. Otherwise, you will end up publishing a report of what people used to think about a stale old issue which nobody cares much about any more. If you are planning a proper public opinion survey, you need to plan it a long time in advance. This means you can only do it on issues which you know in advance will be newsworthy, and in practice this usually means elections. For a simple street poll, you can do it at a moment's notice and broadcast the results the same day or publish them in the next morning's newspaper. Types of vox pops There are three types of vox pop, and each has its place in the media - the full public opinion survey, the limited survey and the simple street poll. Public opinion survey This needs to be conducted scientifically by a company which specialises in such surveys. The data which they gather from carefully prepared questions is statistically analysed by computer. All this costs big money. General elections in the UK and USA are now so carefully covered in advance by such surveys that the result on election day is seldom a surprise. Limited survey This can be carried out by journalists, using a structured questionnaire, and some statistical conclusions may be drawn from it. Its accuracy is limited, however, so any findings should be treated with caution. Street poll This does not attempt to gather statistical information; it is looking for good quotes. A random selection of members of the public are asked for their opinions on a given topic, and the best ones quoted. It is good to photograph them and publish their quote with their picture, or record their voices for broadcast. Different media Vox pops which are published in newspapers are often very different to vox pops on radio or television. Radio and television tend to concentrate only on the third type of vox pop: the street poll. There would typically be only one or two questions, and very few interviews would be used. No attempt is made to say that this is what society generally thinks about the issue. It is just what these few ordinary people said when they were asked. Newspapers can also operate in the same way, asking one or two questions which will get a few lively quotes on an issue. This can make a bright and interesting item in the newspaper. However, newspapers can also use the other two kinds of survey. If they can afford it, they may employ a market research company or a university to do a proper public opinion survey or, for much less money, they can do their own limited survey. Many newspapers do a combination of the limited survey and the street poll. This can give a story with reasonable statistical evidence about the way people think and feel; but which also has some lively quotes to stop it becoming dull. We shall talk first about newspapers, since their vox pops can be more complex. At the end of the next chapter we will talk about the ways in which radio and television vox pops are different. Remember, though, that a lot of what we say about newspapers will also apply to broadcasters, so read the whole of both chapters whichever news medium you work in. Fair and honest It is never a journalist's job to twist or misrepresent the news. You must try to report fairly and honestly what is being done and said and thought. It is especially easy to give a false impression of what the public are thinking, through a vox pop which is carried out in a careless or deliberately biased way. Special care is therefore needed to make a vox pop fair and honest. Fair questions There are questions which are designed to invite a particular answer. These are called loaded questions. If you ask people: "Do you think young people should have the opportunity for discipline and training in National Service?", the answer is likely to be "yes". If you ask the same people: "Should young people be forced into National Service?" the answer is likely to be "no". The words "have the opportunity" in the first question suggested that National Service is something which young people want. The word "forced" in the second question suggested that it is something which they do not want. It is not fair to ask loaded questions in a vox pop (or in any other kind of interview). Try to make your questions neutral, such as: "Do you think there should be National Service for young people?" There are also tricky questions, to which there is no answer that cannot be twisted. If you ask a man: "Have you stopped beating your wife?", what is he to reply? If he says "yes", he is admitting that he used to beat her; if he says "no", it appears that he is still beating her! It is not fair to ask tricky questions in a vox pop. Keep them simple. Make all questions so that they can be answered in a way which truly represents the views of the people you are interviewing. In a street poll keep the number of questions to no more than six. Representative sample In a proper public opinion survey, the company will have elaborate ways to make sure that the sample interviewed is a fair cross-section of society. For a limited survey or a street poll you cannot be so precise, but you should still try. Do not just ask your friends; do not just ask supporters of one political party; do not just ask people from one province; do not ask only men or only women. Accurate answers You must record accurately and precisely what your interviewees say. Ideally, take an accurate shorthand note as they speak. If you prefer you can record each interview with a tape recorder, but you will still need a notebook for the spelling of the person's name, and to note any information you may want about them, such as their sex and age group. It is worth remembering, though, that it is much more difficult to analyse results which are on tape than to analyse results which are on paper. Fair reporting Once you have all the replies and quotes in front of you, you must ensure that your finished report fairly represents the views expressed. If half the people thought one thing and the other half thought something else, then devote roughly half your quotes to the one and the other half of your quotes to the other. Do not give undue prominence to a minority view, making it look as though most people think that way. TO SUMMARISE: Choose which kind of vox pop you are going to conduct according to the needs of your organisation and of the individual story. If you are conducting a survey for newspapers, make sure that you: ask fair and honest questions ask a representative sample of people record your answers accurately report what they say fairly. This is the end of the first part of this two-part section on vox pops. If you now want to read on, follow this link to the second section,

Conducting vox pops

Chapter 23: Conducting vox pops

In the previous chapter we looked at this important way of making news into a two-way exchange of information and opinions, between leaders and ordinary people. We considered different types of vox pop, and looked at the advantages of each, for newspapers and for radio and television. In this chapter we look in detail at how to conduct vox pops and how to analyse and present the results. _________________________________________________________ Preparation Whether your vox pop is to be an expensive public opinion survey or a quick street poll, you must prepare if it to be of any use. What information do you want? You must have a clear idea of what you are trying to find out. That sounds obvious, but it all too easy to design a questionnaire badly, so that it fails to give you the information which you want. For instance, if you are conducting a pre-election survey and you want to know who is likely to win the election, you ask people for which party they will vote. If you also want to know the probable shift in political influence, you need to know how these same people voted in the last election. Without this information you cannot do the job properly. This is where the difference between the types of survey becomes clear. In a structured questionnaire, avoid open-ended questions like "what do you think about..." or "what would you do if..." The answers to these questions are impossible to collate and analyse. You should ask questions requiring yes/no answers, or multiple choice. For example, a pre-election survey might ask: "Who would you like to be the next Prime Minister?", with the six possible answers: "Julius Chan", "Rabbie Namaliu", "Michael Somare", "Paias Wingti", "somebody else" (asking them to specify who) and "don't know". For street polls, exactly the opposite applies. What you want is good quotes, and the questions must be open-ended to encourage them. You might ask questions such as "what do you think about photographs of election candidates being included on ballot papers?" or "what do you think of election candidates offering gifts to voters?" What newspapers can do is to have five or six questions with yes/no answers or multiple choice answers, followed by one or two open-ended questions. In this way, they are able to run a story which has statistical information, but also has some good lively quotes. For example, your list of questions might be: Will you vote in the next election? Which political party will you vote for? Did you vote in the last election? Which political party did you vote for? Who would you like to be the next Prime Minister? Julius Chan, Rabbie Namaliu, Michael Somare, Paias Wingti, somebody else, don't know. Why should he (she) be Prime Minister? What would you most like the next government to do? The first five questions will give us results which we can analyse. The last two questions should give us some good quotes. How many interviews? You cannot interview everybody: it would take too much time and involve too many reporters, who have other things to do. However, too few interviews will produce results which are unlikely to be representative. A compromise is difficult but necessary. One good way is to have a team of reporters, each placed at a strategic location in the district on the same day - the market, the shopping centre, the post office and so on. Each one should be able to talk to about 30 people in three hours, as long as the questionnaire is sensibly short. For a street poll you will not need to interview so many. A target figure for each interviewer gives balance. It avoids the situation where one person interviews only 12 people, another does 25 and a third does 89. This would give undue weight to the views of people in one particular location. Proof of identification Have some form of official identification with you, in case you are asked to produce it. ^^back to the top Conducting vox pops Remember that the people you wish to interview are under no obligation to answer any of your questions. You are a representative of your newspaper, so be polite at all times. For each person you interview, you must do these things: tell them who you are, where you are from and what you are trying to do ask for their help and apologise for any inconvenience start a new page of your notebook for each interview make sure that you get their full personal details - name, age, home province, address, job etc if you are asked, try to give them some indication of when the interview might be published; never say that it will definitely be used, as that will only disappoint them later if it is not used take a head-and-shoulders photograph of them ^^back to the top Analysing the results With a street poll, it is enough to find the liveliest and best quotes, and use them. However, you will also need to calculate roughly how many were "for" or "against" any particular issue, and choose the quotes so that they reflect that balance as well as giving you the best quotes. With a questionnaire survey, the analysis is more important and more difficult. You will be faced with a mass of statistical information: what should you do with it? Count the sample First, count the number of people interviewed in the vox pop by adding together the number interviewed by each reporter. You can then divide them into different categories, if you wish. For example, if every reporter makes a note by each interview as to whether it was a man or a woman; and which age group the person was in; then you can divide the sample into useful categories. Perhaps you had five reporters working on the vox pop, and they each did 30 interviews. In this case, you have a total sample of 150 people. Add up the number of men and the number of women - it might be 81 women and 69 men. Of course, the numbers must add up to 150. Perhaps you asked the reporters to put each person into an age group - 18 and under, 19-50, or 51 and over. (You would need to choose appropriate age groups for your society.) Add up the number of people in each age group - it might be 41 aged 18 and under, 83 aged 19-50, and 26 aged 51 and over. Once again, of course, these numbers must add up to 150. You could categorise your sample in any way you choose, depending upon the make-up of your society. Add up the answers Next, take each question in turn, and add up the answers. For example, for the first question, "Will you vote in the next election?" your answers may be: YES 92 NO 47 DON'T KNOW 11 This is misleading, though. We know that 41 of our sample were aged 18 or under; they are too young to vote. We need to look at the remaining 109 and add up only their answers. Our answers now are: YES 92 NO 6 DON'T KNOW 11 You can give this as the answer "from those old enough to vote". You will need to continue, analysing each answer in the same way. But are we going to ignore all the answers from the people aged 18 and under? We are not. When it comes to the last three questions, their answers will be relevant. Let us take the fifth question as an example: "Who would you like to be the next Prime Minister?" You might add up all the answers and find the following: Chan: 24 Namaliu: 39 Somare: 22 Wingti: 38 Others: 15 D k: 12 The news angle in this case would be that opinion is evenly divide between whether Mr Namaliu or Mr Wingti should be the next Prime Minister. (It must be stressed that these figures have been made up for this exercise: they are not the results of a real vox pop.) However, when you break these figures down, according to categories, other interesting things emerge. First, you break them own according to sex: Chan: 24 11 men 13 women Namaliu: 39 12 men 27 women Somare: 22 12 men 10 women Wingti: 38 19 men 19 women Others: 15 12 men 3 women D k: 12 3 men 9 women You can see from these figures that Mr Namaliu appears to be more popular among women, while Mr Wingti has equal support from men and women. Now you can break down the figures according to age group (in the following figures Y means young, or 18 and under; M means middle, or 19-50; and O means older, or 51 and over): Chan: Y 0 M 24 O 0 Namaliu: Y 1 M 34 O 4 Somare: Y 1 M 7 O 14 Wingti: Y 28 M 10 O 0 Others: Y 9 M 6 O 0 D k: Y 2 M 2 O 8 You can see a very interesting pattern emerging from these figures. While support for Mr Namaliu and Mr Wingti is evenly divided, we can see that it is coming from very different age groups. Mr Namaliu is very popular with the 19-50 age group, while Mr Wingti is by far the most popular with the young age group. This is significant for the political future of each man and his party, and therefore for the country, so this would make an interesting news angle for your story. Historical comparisons The last thing to do, especially in a vox pop about voting intentions, is to compare the way things are now with the way they used to be. This might mean comparing the results of this vox pop with the results of a previous vox pop; or it might mean comparing answers to different questions in the same vox pop - as with comparing the second and fourth questions in this example. Perhaps the answer to the second question, "Which political party will you vote for?", was as follows: Pangu...........25 PPP...............15 National........ 3 Alliance.........3 Don't know.....7 PDM.............24 PAP.............. 4 United.......... 2 Others.......... 9 (Note that the numbers total 92, which is the number of people who said they would be voting.) We can now compare this with the answer to the fourth question, which asked the same people how they voted at the last election. The result might be: Pangu...........26 PPP..............10 National........3 Alliance........4 Don't know...7 PDM..............24 PAP................4 United.............2 Others............9 Most of our sample seem to be fairly constant in their political support, if these figures are anything to go by. However, PPP's support has dropped by 33%, PDM has dropped 12%, PAP has almost doubled, and support for other parties (and independents) has increased a lot. This, too, is significant material, and could provide some indication of which parties can expect to do better than last time, which parties can expect to do less well, and which can expect to perform at about the same level. Writing the story Once you have the results analysed, you must treat them like the raw materials for any news story. Pretend that you have just encountered them for the first time; look at them; assess their news value; decide on the most newsworthy angle and make that your intro. Clearly the story has to be presented to the readers or listeners as a normal news story, written in words. You cannot throw a pile of statistics at them and expect them to sort it all out for themselves. Nevertheless, once you have presented the most interesting information in a well-written news story, you can give detailed information tabulated at the end. In this way, the readers who are particularly interested can do some of their own interpretation and analysis from your statistics. As we mentioned earlier, though, do not try to conclude too much from a limited street survey, and even less from a street poll. From an accurate opinion poll you can extrapolate. This means that, for example, if 30% of the women of a particular age and social group interviewed held a particular view, you can confidently say that 30% of all women of similar age and social group hold this view. You cannot extrapolate in this way from our more instant and amateur surveys. You can say "more than two-thirds of the people interviewed thought...", but you cannot go on to say "most people in Papua New Guinea think..." Vox pops for radio and television Radio and television stations usually only conduct the simplest kind of vox pop - the street poll - with a single reporter asking one or two questions to a small number of people. Its only purpose is to gather a few comments on a current issue, to hear what some ordinary people are thinking. No attempt is made to draw any statistical conclusions from the answers or to suggest that the comments are a guide to how people in society as a whole react. They are a way of illustrating a story, not a way of discovering any new information about what the population thinks about an issue. Very few radio or television stations attempt the kind of statistical survey you have just seen demonstrated for newspapers. Wealthy television stations may pay a specialist public opinion company to conduct a survey for them, usually at election time. Radio stations seldom pay for such surveys for the simple reason that they cannot use the information properly, as newspapers or television can. Listeners will be bored by a mass of statistical figures. Conducting a vox pop Although many of the principles of the street poll vox pop apply equally to both print and broadcast journalists, there are some obvious differences. The most important is that, although television can use film or video of people interviewed, vox pops are useless for radio and television unless you can hear the actual words people use - what we call the actuality. (See Chapter 48: Radio and television basics.) So you must always use a tape recorder or television camera. Before you leave the newsroom, check that all your equipment is working properly. Choosing a location Choose a busy place to conduct the interviews, but keep away from loud background noise. For television vox pops the background might be relevant; vox pops about buying habits can be conducted in shopping centres, vox pops about travel at bus stops or train stations. People are always interested when they see a reporter approach them with a microphone or camera, but some may be shy and try to avoid you. If you let all the shy people escape, you will not get a wide sample of people; you will only get those people who are happy to appear in your report. So try to talk people into giving you "a quick interview". Tell them it will not take more than a couple of minutes. Be polite and if they refuse again, let them go. You will usually attract quite a crowd, which you can occasionally turn to advantage by bringing in observers for quotes. On television, try to avoid young children standing behind the interviewee, making faces into the camera. Choose a location which will not allow them to do it, for example against a wall or on a piece of high ground. Using your recording equipment Once you have them in front of the camera or microphone, help them to relax. If your vox pop is on a humorous subject, maybe relax them with a little joke. Although you must hold the microphone close to the interviewee, do not frighten them with it. Many people are uncomfortable with strange technology like microphones or cameras. So do not push the microphone or camera into their mouth. On television, the camera operator should be a little distance behind the reporter, shooting over the reporter's shoulder. Asking questions It is best to ask only one question of everyone. Although it is possible to ask two or more questions, this will create problems later when you come to edit your tape. Decide the exact wording of the question before starting the vox pop. Keep the question short and simple. Never ask questions to which people can give "yes" or "no" answers. Ask open-ended questions, especially ones beginning with "How", "Why" or "What". For example, instead of asking "Do you agree with the proposed law to ban smoking in public places?" you should ask "What do you think about the law to ban smoking in public places?" Avoid interrupting their answers unless it seems that they might go on talking for too long, then politely thank them for their time and move to the next interview. It is not usual for radio vox pops to use people's names, but television reporters might occasionally take people's names to use in captions. Ending the interview Your interviewee might want to hear what their voice sounds like, and ask you to replay the tape. Refuse politely, as it will only slow you down. They may also ask when the program will go to air. Because you are not yet in a position to guarantee that their particular interview will be used, do not promise them anything. But tell them approximately when the report will be used. They can then tell all their friends and relatives to tune in at that time, increasing your audience. How many interviews? There is no fixed limit on the number of interviews you should conduct. Some of the interviews will be better than others and you may not use some of them at all. If you have only a two-minute space for your report, you may be able to use up to 10 short answers or only four or five longer answers - perhaps an average of 6 voices. It is always better to have some in reserve, so always do a few more interviews than you think you will need. As a rough guide, two or three interviews are not enough, twenty will be too many. Editing your tape Whether you report for radio or television, the principle is the same. The quotes must be strong, easy to understand and in good taste, with no swear words or other bad language. You must listen through the whole of your tape again when you return to the editing suite, making a written note of the best quotes and their location on the tape. If you have had to use multiple questions or a large number of interviewees, make a grid with the interviewees down one axis, the questions down the other. Once you have filled in remarks about each answer, you can look at the grid to choose the best and fairest sample for editing. You do not need your own questions between the voices of your interviewees. You should write your cue or intro script to explain the issue and what question you asked, but then allow the people's voices to be heard replying one after the other. Edit their comments very tightly, taking out all unnecessary words and pauses. It will make your tape more interesting if you mix a variety of voices, male and female, young and old, well-educated and uneducated and so on. In multilingual societies, you can also mix languages, although you should check with your producer that this will be all right for the particular program chosen. Finally, make sure that all the sound is adjusted to the same level. There is nothing more annoying than trying to listen to a bad sound recording. TO SUMMARISE: Choose which kind of vox pop you are going to conduct according to the needs of your organisation and of the individual story. If you are conducting a survey for newspapers, make sure that you: ask fair and honest questions ask a representative sample of people record your answers accurately report what they say fairly. Before you start your survey, you must decide: what information you want how many interviews you need. When conducting your survey, you must: introduce yourself be polite start a new page in your notebook for each interview get personal details such as name, age, job take a head-and-shoulders picture of them. When analysing results, you should: Count the sample add up the answers compare the figures against each other. Treat the results of your analysis like any news story. When conducting vox pops for radio or television: prepare a simple, open-ended question make sure your equipment is working well choose a good location be friendly and relaxed with the interviewees interview enough people for your needs - but not too many When editing your tape: choose strong comments do not keep repeating your question mix the voices to give variety make sure all your sound levels are correct.

Follow-ups

Chapter 24: Follow-ups

In this chapter, we describe what follow-up stories are, why we use them and how we write them. We also give advice on how to use your diary to plan follow-ups and pre-lims. _________________________________________________________ A follow-up is a journalist's term for a story which is written so that you can report more of a story which has already been published or broadcast. Those extra details can be new facts, later developments, reactions or new issues which have been raised by the original event. What all follow-ups have in common is that they depend for some of their news value on a story which has gone before. Why are follow-ups needed? Follow-ups are needed because one story on its own may not cover all aspects of an event or controversy properly. Although life goes on second-by-second, day-by-day, journalists cannot report it all. Journalists have to concentrate on bits of life and report them to their readers or listeners in 20 centimetre stories or 40-second news reports, three-minute current affairs segments or half-page features. Journalists impose space and time limits on their reports which do not always reflect how important the event is in the real world. Journalists also attempt to show continuing events in self-contained "chunks" called news stories. With the amount of information now available from throughout the world, you have no alternative if you are to share out your limited time effectively. However, just because you as a journalist have described an event in a single-column story or a 30-second report does not mean that the event itself has been described completely. There are often side-issues which have not been touched or later events which will need reporting themselves. We have to distinguish follow-ups from what we call breaking stories, which are reports of events (or controversies or debates) which are still happening as we report them. The hourly reports on a hijacking are part of a breaking story, the report of the eventual trial of the hijackers is a follow-up. We normally catchlines the latest version of a breaking story UPDATE (for example "HIJACK UPDATE") because it still relies on the same news angle (what is happening at the hijack) but gives us a more up-to-date report. By contrast, we would normally catchline a follow-up according to the angle of the follow-up story itself. For example, we might write a follow-up story about the Transport Minister announcing new security measures to prevent further hijackings. We might catchline it "SECURITY PROMISE". (For more details on this, see Chapters 44 and 45: The breaking story.) Because events are often connected, it is not always easy to know the difference between a follow-up and a new story or an update of a breaking story. However, a special feature of a follow-up is that it relies for its significance or interest on at least one previous story. Remember though that just because your follow-up describes the effect of a previous story, you cannot expect all of your readers or listeners to remember the original story, even if they did see or hear it. Later in this chapter we will discuss how you should use background information to remind your audience of the original story. The term follow-up will have no meaning to your readers or listeners; it is simply a label we use as journalists. We use follow-ups for a variety of reasons: Continuity Follow-ups show how different parts of life are connected. Whenever we finish writing a story, at that point we limit our report of the event or debate to a single moment in time. Follow-ups help us to set stories in context over a longer period of time and to explain cause-and-effect. Most events are like dropping a stone into a pool of water: the stone forces ripples to spread out, disturbing the water in all directions. Just because we stop reporting an event (such as the stone dropping) does not mean that the ripples themselves stop spreading. We must watch and report the ripples too. To satisfy curiosity When we arouse the reader's or listener's curiosity with a news story, we have a duty to satisfy that curiosity. With issues or events which are self-contained, a well-written news report or feature article will tell your audience everything they want to know. However, very few events and issues can be packaged so conveniently. Many news reports raise questions, particularly: "But what happens now?" Having given your audience an appetite for the story, you have a duty to provide answers to those kinds of questions. Every time you think that you have finished with a story, put yourself in the place of your readers or listeners and ask: "Is there anything else I want to know about it?" If there is, perhaps you should research and write a follow-up. To add balance Because of a shortage of time or because sources were not available when you needed them, you are often forced to run stories which are not properly balanced. The follow-up gives you a second chance to provide that balance. If the Finance Minister announces a controversial new tax, you need to report what the opposition and people affected by it think. If you cannot get them in time for the first story, you must write a follow-up which concentrates on the reaction rather than the measure itself. Such reaction stories are vital in maintaining your reputation for fairness. Also, major events or controversies produce large amounts of information. Your readers or listeners need time to absorb all that information. Giving it all in a single story may only confuse them, so you can split it up into a series of follow-up stories run over a number of days or weeks. To cover missed stories No matter how good a journalist you are, you will occasionally miss stories which the competition gets. Perhaps the first you know of this is when you hear the story on another station or read it in another newspaper. By that time, it is usually too late to report the same story yourself. It is usually best to accept that you have been beaten for this story, and try to produce a follow-up. The follow-up in this case still needs to have the information from the original story (which you did not carry), but should have a fresh news angle. For example, the competition may beat you to a story about a government decision to deport someone. Rather than repeat this in your next edition or bulletin, try to interview the person or a relative, to get their reaction for a follow-up. The story will be up-to-date, and anyone comparing your story with the competition's will not think that you are copying from them. The structure of follow-ups Although follow-ups rely on previous stories for their news value, you should still treat them as separate stories when writing them. They should be written in the inverted pyramid style, with the most important aspect (the news angle) first, in the intro. Although the news angle will usually refer to a previous story, your story will not be news if it only reports something your readers or listeners already know. The strength of the follow-up is that it tells your audience about a new aspect of an old story, preferably in a refreshing and lively way. For example, the original story may have been that the Finance Minister imposed a consumption tax of 10 percent. In the follow-up, the opposition attacked the tax, so you would write: The Opposition has attacked the Government's new consumption tax as unworkable. Labour leader Filo Toro said the 10 percent tax would be a nightmare to administer and impossible to collect. Finance Minister Jo Hero announced the tax in an emergency debate in Parliament on Wednesday etc... Background All follow-ups must contain at least one paragraph of background to put the whole story in context. That background can come anywhere in the story. The more essential it is to understanding the latest aspect, the higher up the story it should come. If the follow-up is full of new and very important material, you may have to put the background near the end of the story, even in the last par. If you do this, it is sometimes useful to insert a few words of background higher up the story, again just to place the story in context. For example, in your consumption tax story, the third par on Hero's announcement is enough to set the story in context. The real background details (what will be taxed and how) can come at the end of your story. With major events or arguments, you may have to do several follow-ups over a period. You could use the same background pars, but it is more usual to shorten the background as you get further away from the event. Besides, each follow-up may provide material which needs including as background in subsequent stories. Sources Some follow-ups, such as a reaction, automatically suggest a different source to that used in the original story. With other kinds of follow-ups it may be more natural to go back to the original source for more information. Such stories could be news of a plan, with the follow-up a story about the plan in action. In this case, you might go back to the same source for new information. However, it is better to find new sources for follow-ups. They not only add variety (with a new name or voice), but they also add a different view, even though your new source may only be another spokesman from the same department. The diary A journalist without a diary is totally at the mercy of events. The diary allows you to plan ahead and keep track of current events and controversies. If you see the chance for writing a follow-up some time in the future, make a note in the diary to remind you. (You must, of course, look at the diary every day, otherwise the reminder will be useless.) It is important to enter details of possible follow-ups whenever they suggest themselves. The police may announce that they are charging a man with murder. If you run the story, you should also make a note in the diary of where and when he will appear in court. An association may launch a charity appeal; you should make a note to check how much they raised. If you are working with other journalists, it is a good idea to keep one central newsdesk diary so that everyone is kept informed about what stories might be coming up. In such a case, your entry needs to be slightly longer than a single word, but not too long that it wastes space - a reference to the original story is usually enough. A diary entry for Monday, June 12 could look something like this: Check Alfred Nagi appearing in Central Magistrate's court on Chinatown murder charge (See story of May 23). Anniversary follow-ups It is also useful to do the process in reverse - to go back over old stories to find ideas for follow-ups and updates. One useful method is to go through the diary, cuttings or copy files for six months, a year or five years ago. There will be many stories which have developed since, but you have not covered recently. Anniversaries are a useful time to update stories. If a politician promised action a year ago, now is the time to ask him what he has achieved. If police were hunting a murderer six months ago, ask whether they have any new clues. Some people regard this as manufacturing news. This would be true if all you are doing is rewriting old stories. However, events often have long-term effects, promises should be kept or explanations provided as to why they were not. Journalists have a duty to monitor the consequences of events or controversies which we regarded as newsworthy in the past. Very often, the journalist will be the only person who tries to make people accountable and reminds them of their responsibility to keep promises. Prelims Preliminary stories (called prelims) are the opposite of follow-ups. Prelims are stories you write before the event happens. When you are told about an important forthcoming event, as well as putting the date, time, place and other details in your diary, you can also write a preliminary story. These are particularly useful on "slow news days", when there is not much happening elsewhere. Be careful, though, to guard against giving free publicity to any forthcoming event which is not itself newsworthy. The organisers of a sale, a concert, a demonstration or a conference will want you to write a prelim story to promote the event. If it is newsworthy, write your prelim story. But if you have any doubts, you can always wait till the event happens, when you can judge the newsworthiness directly and decide whether or not to write a news story. Remember that your job is to serve your readers or listeners, not the organisers of events. TO SUMMARISE: Follow-ups are stories you write so that you can report more of a story which has already been published or broadcast. Journalists write follow-ups to: show how different parts of life are connected answer questions left unanswered by earlier stories provide balance and reaction cover missed stories. You should still treat follow-ups as separate stories. They should be written in the inverted pyramid style, with the most important aspect (the news angle) in the intro. All follow-ups must contain at least one paragraph of background to put the whole story in context. Some follow-ups, such as a reaction, can use different sources to those used in the original story. Make a note of possible follow-ups in your newsdesk diary whenever they suggest themselves. Make a note of any possible anniversary follow-ups. When you are told about an important forthcoming event, as well as putting the date, time, place and other details in your diary, you can also write a preliminary story.