From the category archives:

Journalistic Practice

How To Survive the Media Interview – Talking With Reporters

Given the rapidly failing state of the news media business in North America and Europe it is becoming ever more important that people be very careful when agreeing to do a media interview. Ethical and professional standards have slipped badly in the last several years, particularly in television news and even more so in local [...]

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Amid the Ruins – A Poor Kind of Journalism

  An odd thing is happening to journalism amid the chaos of humanitarian disasters these days.   It’s becoming as managed, influenced, nuanced and manipulated as the worst of government spin controlled journalism. Over the past years I’ve experienced at first hand a most remarkable change in how the media works  in humanitarian disasters such as [...]

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How TV Reporters Can Perform Better on Camera by Watching a Scotch Commercial

One of the basic skills that television news reporters need is the ability to speak to camera without notes. Commonly called, Stand-ups, these short segments showing little more than the reporter saying a couple of sentences at the end of a news piece to sum things up are a real challenge for many. I’ve worked [...]

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How To Be A Foreign Correspondent — Even If You Don’t Have Any Cleft Sticks

Reporters who travel through the world’s trouble spots spend a lot of  their time just trying to survive their own stupidity and ignorance. It’s an honest ineptitude brought on by sudden lusts back at the desk that send the hapless correspondent scurrying from home base to ground zero on a few hours notice. The result [...]

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Tips for Buying Ultra Portable Recording Recording Equipment

    I’ve been asked a couple of times lately what I recommend for recording quick interviews, the sort of smash and grab of journalism that doesn’t allow time for the full set up of more elaborate recording gear. This used to be a real problem for print journalists before digital flash based recorders came [...]

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Off the Record — Not for Attribution: The Rules

Reporters and interview subjects frequently clash in confusion when trying to reach agreement on what can and cannot be quoted. I’ve sat through endless and circular arguments by both hacks and flacks in press clubs and bars about the Rules of Attribution. Few subjects result in more argument, misinformation, and frustration. Let’s start with Off [...]

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