The document provides an overview of challenges facing journalists and the journalism profession. It discusses issues such as a lack of initiative among new journalists, a "copy and paste culture" with insufficient research, senior journalists not being adept with new technologies, and news sites struggling to generate sufficient revenue. It also covers opportunities for journalists, such as the ability to engage readers through new tools and the potential for individual journalists to create new ventures. The document stresses traits of good journalism like accuracy, balance, and fairness.

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Module 1

2. 2
Mistakes

3. 3
Ridiculed

4. 4
Plagiariast?

5. 5
Seditious?

6. 6
Bias?

7. 7
Targets

8. 8
Journalists are speaking up
for the profession

9. 9
Early days…

10. 10

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12. 12

13. 13
Reporters have alternative selves

14. 14
Newsmakers have gone social

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Living in a selfie world

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Challenges
• New journalists: Do not see this as a vocation, just a job,
attitude, lack of initiative, motivation, conscientiousness
for accurate copy
• Copy and paste culture: Lack of research, human
contact
• Senior journalists, editors not savvy with explosion of
new apps and tools
• Online/mobile not fully embraced by management
• Resources squeezed, management does not want to
spend money on new tools, training
• Silo thinking in editorial/sections/ad depts – no cross-
platform teamwork
• Online and mobile news sites not generating enough
revenue, people still unwilling to pay for magazines
on tablets
• A few big media setting up paywalls (may fail)
• Competition from unlikely competitors continues to grow

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The Magazine: Marco Arment
• Launched Oct 2012
• US$1.99 per month, had 25,000 subscribers
• Two issues/month, four or five stories
• Only on iOS
• When founded – one-man show
• Sold it to editor in May, 2013

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Opportunities
• Readers still have appetite for print. Great story-
telling is still king. New magazines launches every
year.*
• Still early days yet for digital, never too late to
learn, vast resources to acquire new skills eg:
MOOCs
• You can tap into the public as sources for story
ideas, quotes, photos, videos like never before
• More accountability, transparency and community
participation in the journalism process. Engage
your readers!
• You can become a brand: Individual
journalists/editors may be able to break out on their
own and create new ventures for the company or
themselves.

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On being a journalist

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Role of the journalist
• Inform
• Educate
• Entertain
• Watchdog
• Agent of change
• Conversation starter
• Shape public opinion
• Serve the public good
• Amplify the people’s voice

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Traits and skills
of a good journalist
1. Enjoys telling stories
2. Good listener
3. Shows empathy
4. Curious, inquisitive, questioning
5. Innate news sense
6. A sense of responsibility for the public good
7. Able to communicate well through words,
pictures, design, video

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The seven deadly sins
Ethical pitfalls that can lead to trouble or termination.
1. Bias: slanting a story by manipulating facts to sway readers'
opinions.
2. Burning a source: deceiving or betraying the confidence of
those who provide information for a story.
3. Conflict of interest: accepting gifts or favours from sources or
promoting social and political causes.
4. Deception: lying or misrepresenting yourself to obtain
information.
5. Fabrication: manufacturing quotes or imaginary sources, or
writing anything you know to be untrue.
6. Plagiarism: passing off someone else's words or ideas as your
own.
7. Theft: obtaining information unlawfully or without a source's
permission.
Source: Inside Reporting by Tim Harrower

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Hard news vs soft news
Hard news:
Stories that are reported about events as
they happen; often affecting many
people eg: crime, war, crisis, disasters,
political, social, economic upheavals
Soft news:
Stories to educate or entertain but
without the same urgency eg: human
interest, review

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News values
1. Impact: How many will be affected by the
consequences of the story?
2. Timeliness: Immediacy. Did it just
happen? Is it new?
3. Proximity: How close? Does it affect us
here? Is there a local angle?
4. Conflict: Any on-going drama: disputes,
divorces, crime, politics, war

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News value
5. Prominence: Popular or well-known
person, place or thing that is affected
6. Currency: Issues in the spotlight of
public concern have more value
7. Human interest: Something we can
relate to at an emotional level
8. Novelty: Something odd, unusual,
freaky, bizarre

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Inverted pyramid
Most significant and crucial
information is here
Important but less
crucial
Least
important

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5Ws and 1H

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Leads
• The essence of your story distilled in a
sentence or two (tip: if you read it out and have
to take a breath, it’s too long.)
• It has to pull the reader in. “Should I read on?”
• Brief, crisp and sharp use of the language
• Straight or summary lead:
- Contains at least the 4Ws
• Creative or narrative lead:
- Captures a mood, sets the tone, humanizes, adds
colour
- Works best when you have researched your story
well, done a great interview

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• Straight lead
– George Clooney, long considered Hollywood's most
eligible bachelor, married British human rights attorney
Amal Alamuddin Saturday in a private ceremony in
Venice, Italy, his publicist, Stan Rosenfield, told CNN.
• Narrative lead
– With fans massed on the banks of the Grand Canal, a
drone flying overhead, and waterborne paparazzi
swarming behind his taxi all the way from the island of
Giudecca, George Clooney arrived at sunset for his
wedding reception in the kind of grand spectacle that
only the very rich and very glamorous can ever hope to
pull off – The Guardian

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Formulaic leads
1. Question: “What is….?”
“What do you think…?”
“Ever wondered what
happened to…”
2. Quote
3. Comparison: “First the
good news…” “Compare
this and that” “What do a,
b and c have in common”
4. Travelogue: “Nestled
between…” “” “In a quiet
cove not far from…”
5. Recipe: “Take
one…add…and some…
What do you get?”
6. Set-up: “Consider the
following…”
7. Stats: “Fifty percent of
mothers….”
8. Scene setter: “Most
people…” “Many young
women today…”
9. Definition: “The Oxford
defines…
10.The one-word lead:
“Cynical. That’s what…”
11.Introduction: “Meet Joe
Black. He’s….”
12.Welcome: “It’s dark, dank
and full of rats. Welcome
to…”
13.Joke: “Knock, knock…”
Source: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/degrees-of-freedom/2011/08/30/the-lede-desk-fighting-
the-scourge-of-boring-writing/
http://www2.copydesk.org/hold/words/clicheleads.htm

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Exercise
• Identify the 5Ws, and 1H in a provided
story
Exercise
• Write a straight news lead vs a creative lead
Exercise
Subjective vs Objective: Separate facts
from opinions

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Generate story ideas

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7 tips on finding story ideas
1. Be ever-curious: Ask and you will receive
2. Throw yourself into new situations, places
3. Read new and old magazines, books,
newspapers (online: Issuu, Zinio)
4. Brainstorm (switch off inner critic)
5. Keep an ideas journal (eg. Evernote app)
6. Random surf (Pinterest, Google, G+, Facebook,
TEDTalks)
7. Start a Whatsapp group for ideas: Message ideas
throughout the week. Then brainstorm.

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Exercise
• Brainstorm story ideas with your group on
a given subject
• List ideas down – hold back on the critique
• Sift through ideas until one emerges
• Include possible sidebars, visuals to go
with it
• Pitch that original story idea as if to an
editor
• Present to class

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On being accurate, objective,
fair and balanced

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Best practices of journalists
• Accuracy:
Facts, not speculation or rumour. Based
on strong evidence, first-hand sources.
• Balanced:
Impartial, both sides given due
• Fair:
Right to rebuttal, correcting errors
• Objective:
Being as neutral as possible

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Plagiarism
• Definition: The act of presenting another
person's work (including ideas, writing,
conversation, song, and words) as your
own.
• When using another person's work, even
when paraphrasing, you must
acknowledge it fully and appropriately,
unless the information is common
knowledge.
• When you find background information
that you need to use: attribute and cite
sources, where possible.

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Your credibility is at stake
39

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Facts vs Opinions
• FACTS are proven statements that can be
measured objectively
• OPINIONS are subjective and based on
personal assumptions, interpretations and
beliefs and can be unfounded under scrutiny
• Some opinions may be widely held but that
does not make them facts
• Unless you are writing a column, editorial or
review ~ opinions (and most facts as well)
should be attributed to a source or reliable
authority

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Opinion: Words to look out for
• Apparently…
• Probably…
• Perhaps…
• Let’s assume…
• Definitely…
• It is likely that…
• Most people/experts agree…
• Many believe…
• Superlatives, bombast: Best, worst, excellent,
the most (amazing, awesome, beautiful…)

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Sourcing
• Two reliable sources (Wikipedia is not one of
them!)
• If in doubt, leave out
• If it’s too good to be true – it probably is
• Double-check, triple-check, verify, clarify
• In an interview, email responses are more measured
and reliable than messaging
• Go old school: actually talk to a human face-to-face!
• If you are interviewing someone on Whatsapp,
Facebook, Skype, Facetime ~ clarify your position
from ‘friend’ to ‘journalist’, record everything
• Standard disclaimers: “Cannot be independently
verified at this time.” “Could not be reached before
this story went to print”.

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Photoshopping reality

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Hoax-debunkers
Bonus tip: Tineye.com

47. 47
Fake accounts
• Does it have a blue tick?
• Is the Facebook/Twitter account new? Does it
have many followers? Does it link to an official
website?
• Is the post/tweet out of character? Check
previous posts/tweets
• Google the handle with the word “fake”, “hoax”
• Double-sourcing: Celebrity may claim his/her
account was hacked, so make that call!
• Admit and apologize if you make a mistake
(don’t just delete quietly and hope no one saw it!).
If you made a mistake in print, the sooner you
apologize online, the better. Correct it in next
edition.

48. 48
Discussion: Media Law

49. 49
Anything you post can, and will,
be held against you

50. 50
Media law
• Defamation
– Occurs when a person expresses words that may lower
another person’s reputation in the eyes of the public.
• Libel
– Libel is when such words are expressed in a permanent
form which is usually visible to the eye, like in a publication,
email or picture. (Slander is when such words are expressed
in a transitory form, usually spoken.) In civil cases of
defamation, when a private person sues another private
person for defamation, the Defamation Act 1957 is
applicable. In criminal cases of defamation, when the state
prosecutes a private person for defamation, Section 499 to
Section 502 of the Penal Code is applicable. In criminal
cases, the punishment for defamation is a jail sentence for a
maximum of two years, or a fine, or a combination of a jail
sentence and a fine.

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Media law
• Sedition
The 1948 Sedition Act was implemented by British colonial
rulers. The law criminalises speech with "seditious tendency",
including that which would "bring into hatred or contempt or to
excite disaffection against" the government or engender
"feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races". In
Malaysian context, this extends the administration of justice in
Malaysia or in any State or to raise discontent or disaffection
amongst the subjects of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or of the
Ruler of any State or amongst the inhabitants of Malaysia or of
any State. It is also seditious to touch on the sensitive
issues namely citizenship, the national language and the
languages of other communities, the special position and
privileges of the Malays as well as the natives of Sabah
and Sarawak and the legitimate interest of the other
communities in Malaysia and the sovereignty of the rulers.
Conviction carries a maximum penalty of up to three years
imprisonment or a fine of 5,000 ringgit or both.

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