Strictly speaking, there is no golden guide to the perfect interview because it is a two way process and it can depend on the personality and wishes of the interviewer as much as the quality of the candidate. I’ve seen some pretty dreadful interviewers in my time – some of whom spent more time talking about themselves than listening to what the interviewee had to say. That said, for a job in journalism you can expect to be asked some or all of the following (and no doubt a few not mentioned below): · Why do you want a career in journalism? · Why are you the best person for this job? · What journalistic experience do you have? · If you get the job and on your first day you find yourself next to a plane crash, what would you do? · What five questions would you ask the Prime Minister if he walked into the office? · What is the piece of work you are most proud of? · Do you prefer to work on your own or as part of a team? · What aspect of news most interests you? · Are there any particular areas you would want to specialise in? · What do you ...

Sources are not the only way of getting news stories. Sometimes we can simply use our heads. Part of this involves knowing what sources and documents are freely available and how to get hold of those that are not. Bland, seemingly un-newsworthy documents can become excellent news stories when passed through the prism of a journalist’s mind. To help elucidate this point I’ll give an example. I was asked by my news-editor to find out where all the mobile telephone masts were in my home town. This was no mean feet. I used a website that gave mast locations but in a very small geographical area. It took me about two days in total to literally draw up my own map of where all the masts were. There were more than I had previously thought, but, while that might be an interesting observation, it was hardly a news story. I had created a full map of the town with the exact locations of all the phone masts in town so I thought it might be interesting to plot the positions of all the schools on the same map. In doing so, I found that more than a third of all schools were ...

What is a news story? There have been some novel answers to this question. One of my favourites was ‘man bites dog’, suggesting that news is something unexpected, surprising and, most importantly, catches your attention. ‘News is something somebody else wants suppressed’ is another good summary, pointing to the importance of journalism in rooting out the truth in the public interest. But there’s no single description of ‘news’ that captures its multifaceted essence. Ultimately, news is what vast numbers of people want or need to know for whatever reason and news stories differ widely in the ways in which they will appeal to a reader. News can inform, entertain, shock and reveal. If it does all of these at once, it is an unusually good bit of journalism. Most editors I’ve known subscribe to some form of ‘pub test’. The basis of the ‘pub test’ is that a good news story is one that large numbers of people will be talking about in the pub that night. Personally, I think that’s not a bad way of judging a news story’s merit. Though what people will talk about in a pub can sometimes be surprising. At a newspaper I once worked for we ...

Learning how to write a news story takes time and practice. It also involves making mistakes and learning from those mistakes in order to hone your craft. What we will do in this chapter is look at structure and general pointers. These will be the types of pointers given to students training to become journalists so it pays to start thinking about them now or, if you are already a journalist, it is worth reminding yourself. What is a news story supposed to do? Put simply, a news story is a vehicle for information that the reader wants to find out about. Your job is to write the news up in a way that is engaging, impartial and simple. Throughout the previous sections I have referred to ‘journalists’ and ‘journalism’. Strictly speaking, I should be using the terms ‘reporting’ and ‘reporter’ because that is what you will be doing and what your job title will be. In a news report there is no room for your expressed personal thoughts, merely the facts and accurate representations of what people say about those facts. There is no room in your report, unless it is within a quote, for words like ‘unfortunately’, ‘sadly’ or ...

Newsrooms are busy places and I have always loved them. I revel in the buzz that comes from seeing the flow of news come into an office, either over the ‘phone from a member of the public or from a reporter returning from a job, passing through the news-editors and over to the sub-editors who lay out the pages, before heading out to the printers and onto the news-stands. There are few more exciting places to be when a great story breaks just before deadline and you see (if you have the time) the entire newsroom erupt into a flurry of activity to meet excruciatingly tight deadlines. So who’s there and what do they do? Newsrooms can differ from place to place, though generally only slightly. Here’s the basic structure: · The editor: The editor oversees the whole news operation, hiring and firing staff, deciding on the look of a newspaper, promotions and often keeping an eye on advertising. · The news-editor: responsible for the day-to-day running of the news side of the newspaper. They often run the office diary, assign jobs, decide which stories will go where in the body of the newspaper depending on the strength of a story and the ...

Shorthand is an abbreviated, symbolic writing method that improves speed of writing or brevity as compared to a normal method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is stenography, from the Greek stenos (narrow, close) and graphos (writing). Many forms of shorthand exist. Typical shorthand systems provide symbols or abbreviations for words and common phrases, which allow someone well trained in the system to write as quickly as people speak. [caption id="attachment_88" align="alignleft" width="157" caption="shorthand styles"][/caption] Shorthand was used more widely in the past, before the invention of recording and dictation machines. Until recently, shorthand was considered an essential part of secretarial and journalist training. Although the primary use of shorthand has been to record oral dictation or discourse, some systems are used for compact expression. For example, health-care professionals may use shorthand notes in medical charts and correspondence. Shorthand notes are typically temporary, intended for later transcription to longhand. The earliest known indication of shorthand systems is from Ancient Greece, namely the Akropolis stone (Akropolisstein) from mid-4th Century BC. The marble plate shows a writing system primarily based on vowels and which uses certain modifications to indicate consonants. The Hellenistic tachygraphy is reported from the 2nd Century BC onwards, though ...

With literally thousands of books about journalism, media studies and journalists out there, being bewildered all too normal when it comes to choosing the books you need. Shorthand World, however, is here to help. We've chosen ten of the most useful, informative and often-recommended books for journalism students. The list is far from definitive, but al of the titles below have been used or read by us and we're think it's great! And if you've got some suggestions, why not drop us a line and we'll be able to add a reader's choice section at a later point. To find out more about any of our Top Ten (or to buy it from Amazon) simply click on the book name! McNae's Essential Law for Journalists Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and Its Triumphs Writing for Journalists Interviewing for Journalists (Media Skills) The Universal Journalist - Third Edition Essential Reporting: The NCTJ Guide for Trainee Journalists We the Media Journalism: Critical Issues (Issues in Cultural & Media Stu) Investigative Reporting: A study in technique: A Study in Technique (Journalism Media Manual,) Dispatches (Picador)

As many as half of all graduates say they'd like a career in the media. That's a lot of graduates out there who want the same job you want or the job, if you are already working in the media, you currently have. I've heard this statistic banded about many times - often by editors or managing directors of newspaper groups justifying the poor pay journalists tend to get. I have no reason to doubt the statistic - I've met a lot of graduates who say they'd like a career 'in the media'. Most of them now work as management consultants, accountants, in advertising or in sales. However, even if many of those who want a career in the media never quite get there, there is a simple truth: the route to being an employed journalist is competitive and the going is tough (at first). As is the case with all competitive environments it pays to ensure that you stand out from the crowd. But to know how to stand out from the crowd, you have to know what an editor is looking for from a potential candidate. Put simply, editors tend to be looking for: A commitment to a career in ...