Like anyone at any job, every journalist faces
same basic set of challenges every day. For journalist, there are six of these fundamental problems.They are:
1. Finding a Story – The reporter’s job is to uncover stories, preferably ones that competition is missing. Most reporters must meet an unwritten quota of stories within a given period.
At a daily newspaper, reporter may be required to turn in one 800-word story, plus a handful of briefs, every day. At a business journal, quota may be three 800-word stories per week, plus an industry column, plus a brief. At a television station, quota may be five news segments per week, plus a weekend feature.
The formula changes from outlet to outlet, from medium to medium. But be assured, every reporter has to meet certain expectations to keep any job, and this includes producing a given number of stories during a certain period of time.
2. Gathering Facts – It’s not enough to have a story to tell. The reporter must also have facts that support story.
This is known as 5W’s and H: who, what, when, where, why and how. Without facts, it becomes impossible to tell story.
By nature and by training, reporters are generalists. Few have specialized knowledge, other than how to convert a set of facts into an interesting, intriguing news story.
As a result, every reporter is like a graduate student who is cramming for a new exam every day. Reporters must learn essential facts, arrange them into a coherent stream and master them long enough to sound as if they are experts.
3. Choosing Angle – Once reporters have story and facts, they must make a crucial decision. What is angle they will take to writing story?
The angle is simply format that reporter will use to arrange story into something audience can recognize and understand.
Is this a hard news story for front page? Is it a feature for Sunday family section? Is it a brief? Is it a six-part investigation?
These are just a few of angles that reporter might take to any story.
The most common angle is hard news angle. Something important has happened and here are facts, arranged in order of importance. The vast majority of stories you will read, see or hear are told with hard news angle.
The hard news story is based in immediacy. It must be told now, or it will lose its value to audience.
The second most common angle is feature, which tends to de-emphasize timeliness of story, preferring to focus on some other interesting aspect, such a human-interest angle. A feature is not based in immediacy. It can hold for a few days or even weeks without losing its impact.
