Research Skills for Journalists

Vanessa Edwards

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317294511
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Social Sciences
• Categoría: Media Studies

Research Skills for Journalists is a comprehensive, engaging and highly practical guide to developing the varied skillset needed for producing well researched, quality journalism across a range of platforms.

Illustrated with original interviews and case studies, the book guides readers through a clear understanding of sources of news, as well as illustrating the skills needed to undertake successful digital and non-digital research and to conduct interviews for a variety of media. It examines the skills needed for basic data journalism and presents an in-depth exploration of the different research skills specific to producing print and online text, as well as those for broadcast and multimedia journalism.

Key research skills explored in the book include:

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• Developing digital research skills, including researching through search engines, messages boards, discussion groups and web forums, social media, apps, and using user generated content
• Working with data, including sourcing, auditing and analysing data, data visualisation and understanding the importance of accuracy and context
• Essential non-digital research skills, including telephone technique, using libraries and working with librarians, understanding copyright, working with picture libraries and research services, and producing freedom of information requests
• Working directly with people to research stories, including the power of persuasion, tracking down great contributors, managing and protecting sources, planning and managing interviews, and interviewing vulnerable people
• Researching for multimedia production of stories, including researching a radio story, podcast or video story, and planning for outside broadcasts.

Research Skills for Journalists also explores specialist research skills needed for working overseas and investigates new areas, which could be used for journalism research in the future.

The book is illustrated with original contributions by journalists from a variety of backgrounds; including veteran investigative journalist John Pilger, pioneering data journalist Simon Rogers and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism's award-winning reporter Abigail Fielding-Smith. It is an invaluable guide for students and practitioners of journalism to the skills needed for finding and developing original news stories today.

1 Introduction

DOI: 10.4324/9781315646275-1

Over the past three decades, the working conditions of journalists have changed beyond imagination. It’s almost inconceivable now, but before the 1980s, reporters typed their stories on electric typewriters, making copies with carbon paper. They travelled with coins for public telephones, and broadcasters recorded their reports on magnetic tape, even in some cases film. Many journalists who started in those dim and distant days (the author included!) are still working, having adapted and developed their practice, during a time of unprecedented technological revolution.

Despite these dramatic changes, the basic skills required by a good journalist remain the same: the ‘nose’ for something new, compassion for our fellow humans, the creativity to tell compelling, original stories and the desire to hold those in power to account. As US journalist Glenn Greenwald, wrote in 2013, ‘A key purpose of journalism is to provide an adversarial check on those who wield the greatest power by shining a light on what they do in the dark, and informing the public about those acts’.

Over the early part of the twenty-first century, our profession has come under intense scrutiny and rightly so. Journalists starting out in the profession today face the difficult challenge of building a new future for journalistic practice.

This book aims to bring together many of the research skills needed by the modern journalist. It examines the traditional skills, which would have been familiar to reporters of generations past, alongside some of the newest journalistic and technological innovations. Its aim is to provide a detailed and practical grounding, alongside discussion of the ethical dilemmas modern journalism can present. Perhaps most importantly, this book is illustrated with the words, ideas and experiences of many working journalists (Figure 1.1).

The journalist as researcher

In its simplest terms, research is the collection, organisation and analysis of information. It covers a wide range of activities, from carrying out light-hearted surveys to the scrutiny of public administration and cutting edge scientific research.

In a journalistic context, the concept of research is equally as complex. Great journalism is built on a foundation of credibility. While most journalists would be happy to admit their profession rarely deals with a totally undisputable fact, the pursuit of ‘the truth’ remains the central goal of most journalistic work. Whether you’re working for a regulated broadcaster with an absolute requirement for impartiality or a website with a strong political agenda, few professional journalists want to deliberately mislead.

Journalistic research always has the same starting point, the collection of new and relevant information. At this point, the process broadly remains the same wherever you’re working, but how this information is subsequently processed is determined by a complex web of factors. Each day journalists consider the opportunities and restrictions of their chosen media; the preferences and expectations of their audience; any legal, regulatory or ethical restrictions; the style and agenda of their publisher and the practical limitations of time and location. It’s a complicated process, and it’s no wonder that the production and distribution of journalistic work can be a topic for heated debate.

Figure 1.1 John Pilger

John Pilger is one of the most influential journalists of his generation. In a career of more than 50 years, he has produced iconic reports from Cambodia and fought for the victims of Thalidomide. His documentaries have won numerous awards including a BAFTA and an Emmy.

‘Remember that all journalism ought to be investigative. That means accepting no assumption, no official truth, and the word of no vested interest without scrutiny. Reject all jargon and clichés. Claud Cockburn said, “Never believe anything until it’s officially denied”. That should be scratched on the bathroom mirror of every budding investigative journalist.

Almost all lies, all undemocratic manipulation, all big crime comes from the top, rarely from the bottom. Remember you are or you ought to be, an agent of people, not power, and that established authority uses the media to deceive routinely and that much of “mainstream” journalism colludes with this.

Of all the journalism awards you can win, the most important comes with no ceremony, no trophy; it’s your independence.’

How important is research?

Good research is a vital skill to develop, both for the journalistic profession as a whole and by each individual journalist. Despite the many crises of confidence in journalism, research by YouGov (2014) suggests that some areas of journalism retain considerable public respect. Nearly two thirds of people in the UK still trust journalists from the BBC, and more than 40 per cent retain their faith in the more upmarket newspapers. Just over 10 per cent of the public trust the red top tabloids. Interestingly though, Wikipedia was seen as being more trustworthy than any traditional news outlet. If the public’s remaining faith in the journalistic profession is to be maintained and hopefully rebuilt, the ability to source accurate content and present this in an accessible and credible way is clearly vital.

On a more personal level, every professional journalist has tales of crazy investigative missions, impossible deadlines and insatiable editors, all needing great research skills. All journalism is fed by information and every stage of the journalistic process relies on research to prime the production line with fuel.

Novelty is at the heart of the highly competitive daily news environment. Finding a shocking revelation, uncovering a new angle, or hunting down the most revealing interviewee can make the vital difference between a publication staying afloat and going bust. Researchers working in the broadcast media not only chase stories, but they may also be required to track down suitable locations for recordings and organise the practical and technical requirements needed to transport a journalist, crew and interviewees to that spot. Even outside the tough world of daily news, the shelves are packed with women’s magazines whose main content is the ‘real life story’. These interviewees must be found and persuaded to share their most private experiences.

Figure 1.2 Journalists at work in the Daily and Sunday Mirror newsroom © Mirrorpix

So the journalist as researcher must not only establish and verify information but also decide which content is most recent, most pertinent and interesting to their particular audience. They will be required to provide interviewees or contributors to illustrate their research. They can also be asked to research and gather video and audio content, along with still images. With the growth of data journalism, many researchers are now expected to research and marshal vast quantities of data and even learn the skills of computer programming. It is a highly complex and demanding process.

So, wherever a journalist works, research skills are the core of his or her role and a great researcher can be worth their weight in gold. Yet new journalists often underestimate how important research skills will be to their future careers.

What makes a great researcher?

Curiosity is often cited as a vital skill for a great journalist and that’s clearly just as true, if not even more so, when it comes to research. If you’re not interested in the world around you and fascinated by human beings and their experiences, it will be hard to maintain the focus and attention needed to be a successful researcher. It’s that curious streak that will lead a great journalist to be observant, spotting unusual and fascinating information around them and to dig deep to uncover injustice or law breaking.

While the requirement for curiosity is crucial, a great journalist needs another important skill: the ability to be creative and generate ideas. It’s pretty clear that some people have a natural talent for creativity, but it is possible to learn to be more creative. That talent can be honed, and ideas come more easily when they are built into a framework of habit and hard work.

Journalists at work

Robin Britton is Head of News at ITV Meridian. He’s an experienced journalist and multi award-winning programme maker. He explains why excellent research skills form the basis of great journalism.

‘Having the right skills to find out what we don’t know – or to confirm what we believe to be true – is the hallmark of a great researcher. In today’s information environment there is so much information out there it’s easy to be swamped in opinion. The key challenge for anyone carrying out research is to find the facts. What we write to be read or heard relies on the quality of the research we have done.

The reputation of individual journalists and the organisations they represent depends on a bedrock of excellent research that validates the stories they share. That builds the trust with the audience and makes the difference between a news service that thrives and one that fails to survive’.

Knowing your audience

Having outlined the central research skills common to all journalistic work, it’s clear this work is done in a wide variety of environments and outlets. Traditional print journalists work in publications which vary from trade papers serving highly knowledgeable niche audiences, through newspapers, to mass-market magazines and high-end political journals. These publications can be daily, weekly and monthly. Online journalists might work alone on a personal blog, in a small website team or a large news organisation website. Their work can be published from minute to minute on a live blog, or be the culmination of a long-term investigation. Along with text and images, digital journalists may well be producing audio, still and moving images, along with data visualisations and even programmes. Television and radio journalists work in a regulated environment, often as part of a large media organisation and multimedia newsroom. Each of these different working environments has its own requirements and expectations and the skills needed for research are constantly evolving.

Wherever they work, a great researcher must understand their audience. Not only will the reader, listener or viewer determine the kind of stories that are chased; the audience will also be at the heart of the material included; and knowing what an audience wants, will drive the journalist’s choice of interviewees and case studies.

For most journalists the first chance to consider how an audience influences their work comes during their training. Newspaper and magazine circulation is measured by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (known as ABC), and the organisation also provides digital audit data for websites. The bureau measures not only print versions of publications but, from 2013 also included some digital versions. Radio audiences are recorded and analysed by Radio Joint Audio Research (called RAJAR). It’s owned by the BBC and the Radio Centre on behalf of the commercial radio sector. Television audiences are recorded by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB), which is owned by the main television companies and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. BARB measures live viewing figures and then combines them with streamed ...