Chapter objectives

Knowing where to find information is a crucial journalistic skill. In this chapter, we introduce a number of research skills:

• Identifying news values as a guide to what constitutes news

• Knowing what questions to ask, of whom, when, where, why and how

• Getting an understanding of the ‘fundamentals’ of reporting news

• Applied and developed curiosity as a basis for reporting

• Managing and maintaining sources and contacts

• Using research skills – much like a librarian – to sift and verify the relevant facts

• The importance of engaging essential support colleagues in news-gathering

We start with research because if you want to be a journalist you have to have information to report. Journalism is about observation, facts and analysis; it usually starts with events that people need to know about.

Sir Harold Evans knows what he’s talking about, having edited both The Times and The Sunday Times in London, as well as working for The Guardian, the BBC and prestigious publishers in the United States. He has also written eight textbooks on journalism, editing and photojournalism among a total of some 24 books. Now in his mid-eighties, Sir Harold is editor-at-large with the Reuters news agency. A clue to the question ‘How do you know it’s news?’ lies in Evans’ first two points: ‘necessary information’ or ‘unusual events’. It must then be backed up by reference to ‘observable facts’. If the information you have meets these criteria, then it is very probably capable of being news.