Practical Journalism

Practical Journalism: How to Write News introduces the beginner to the skills needed to become a journalist in the digital age. The book draws on interviews with dozens of working journalists. They share their thoughts on the profession and we watch them work - selecting stories, carrying out interviews and writing scripts. There are chapters on interviewing, research techniques and news writing. Further chapters cover working in broadcasting and online. Media law and ethics are also included. Most journalists believe they work ethically although few have set rules and others admit to being pressured to behave underhandedly. This book looks at how journalists can work more ethically and provides a guide for beginners. The book is easy to read. Each chapter concludes with activities and a list of further reading. A glossary of terms is included at the end of the book.

How do we practice journalism in a digital world, in which the old 'rules' no longer apply? This text offers comprehensive, instructive coverage of the techniques and secrets of being a successful online journalist, both from a theoretical and practical point of view. Reflecting the vitality of the web, it will inspire you to acquire new skills and make sense of a transforming industry. Key Features: How to investigate and break stories online Learn to broadcast to millions using video and podcast How to blog like a pro Learn to manage and stimulate user-generated content Include and use social media in your toolkit How to dig out stories using data journalism Rise to the challenge of citizen journalism Make your journalism more interactive at every stage of the process Dedicated chapter for Law and Online Communication The Online Journalism Handbook is essential reading for all journalism students and professionals and of key interest to media, communication studies and more broadly the social sciences.

Do you want to use R to tell stories? This book was written for you—whether you already know some R or have never coded before. Most R texts focus only on programming or statistical theory. Practical R for Mass Communication and Journalism gives you ideas, tools, and techniques for incorporating data and visualizations into your narratives. You’ll see step by step how to: Analyze airport flight delays, restaurant inspections, and election results Map bank locations, median incomes, and new voting districts Compare campaign contributions to final election results Extract data from PDFs Whip messy data into shape for analysis Scrape data from a website Create graphics ranging from simple, static charts to interactive visualizations for the Web If you work or plan to work in a newsroom, government office, non-profit policy organization, or PR office, Practical R for Mass Communication and Journalism will help you use R in your world. This book has a companion website with code, links to additional resources, and searchable tables by function and task. Sharon Machlis is the author of Computerworld’s Beginner’s Guide to R, host of InfoWorld’s Do More With R video screencast series, admin for the R for Journalists Google Group, and is well known among Twitter users who follow the #rstats hashtag. She is Director of Editorial Data and Analytics at IDG Communications (parent company of Computerworld, InfoWorld, PC World and Macworld, among others) and a frequent speaker at data journalism and R conferences.

A Practical Guide for Multimedia Journalism Mobile and Social Media Journalism is the go-to guide for understanding how today’s journalists and news organizations use mobile and social media to gather news, distribute content, and create audience engagement. Checklists and practical activities in every chapter enable readers to immediately build the mobile and social media skills that today’s journalists need and news organizations expect. In addition to providing the fundamentals of mobile and social media journalism, award-winning communications professional and author Anthony Adornato discusses how mobile devices and social media have changed the way our audiences consume news and what that means for journalists. The book addresses a changing media landscape by emphasizing the application of the core values of journalism—such as authentication, verification, and credibility—to emerging media tools and strategies.

Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide, Second edition builds on the first edition’s expert guidance on working across multiple media platforms, and continues to explore getting started, building proficiency and developing professional standards in multimedia journalism. The second edition features new chapters including: getting started with social media live reporting building proficiency with Wordpress building apps for smartphones and tablets building a personal brand and developing a specialism long-form video journalism, audio and video news bulletins and magazine programmes. The new edition also includes an extensive range of new and updated materials essential for all aspects multimedia journalism today. New areas explored include editing video and slideshows for mobile and tablet devices, the advanced use of mobile devices for reporting, location-specific content creation and delivery, the use of video and audio slideshows, and live blogging. Other updates include more material on photojournalism as a storytelling technique, using and transferring digital images and sound, the use of Google Analytics, and practical guides to storytelling through infographics, timelines, interactive graphics and maps. The book fully engages with multimedia journalism in relation to range of social media and web publishing platforms, including Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, SoundCloud, AudioBoom and iTunes. The book is also be supported by fully updated online masterclasses at www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk.

High school journalists share the same objectives as professional reporters—finding the story, writing the story, and packaging the story so that it appeals to an audience. Understanding how to best accomplish these objectives is key to the student on the newspaper, yearbook or Web site staff, but the fundamental art of storytelling and story presentation are not always at the center of high school journalism classes. Student journalists must first understand that storytelling, at its most basic level, is about people, and that understanding the audience is essential in deciding how to present the story. This handbook for high school journalists and teachers offers practical tips for all elements of school journalism. The author covers the essential components that students must understand: information gathering, writing, standard and alternative coverage and packaging. Students will find valuable information about identifying news, interviewing, research, narrative writing style, editing, visual presentation and layout. The book also covers the legal rights of student journalists, objective vs. opinion writing, staff planning and organization and Web–based journalism. Each chapter includes study guides for practical applications of the concepts discussed. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

This straightforward and effective how-to guide provides the basics for any reporter or journalism student beginning to use data for news stories. It has step-by-step instructions on how to do basic data analysis in journalism while addressing why these digital tools should be an integral part of reporting in the 21st century. In an ideal core text for courses on data-driven journalism or computer-assisted reporting, Houston emphasizes that journalists are accountable for the accuracy and relevance of the data they acquire and share. With a refreshed design, this updated new edition includes expanded coverage on social media, scraping data from the web, and text-mining, and provides journalists with the tips and tools they need for working with data.