People are busy and our most important task is to tell a story in a way that people remember. A few, easy numbers make that task a lot easier. … In days of old, we used to have to rely on reporters to find those people, although it’s certainly within our power to help them…. Read more »
The words we use in science, engineering or any other technical field aren’t familiar to the general public. So we use them — translate them, as it were — and in the process arguably lose the technical accuracy of the language we use.
Keeping people’s attention is important for government communicators. When we tell a story, people need to remember more than one weird trick.
In the heat of frenzied media coverage, problems aren’t the only newsworthy topic out there. Somewhere in the underbrush, there’s a story about solutions or people working on solutions. There’s no need to wait for an enterprising reporter to dredge that story up — we can help them find it.
In my newspaper reporting days, when I started really digging into stories, I would run into two basic types of sources. One type would decline comment or be defensive, even if the news story is directly about them. Sometimes it was carried to an extreme, such as an encounter I had way back in theRead… Read more »
Ultimately, all we’re talking about are accuracy, fairness and thoroughness. Journalists share those values with us. Framing our discussions around those values can get results from a complaint while building a productive relationship with a reporter.
Journalists and government communicators can find some common ground in ethics: fairness, accuracy and thoroughness are hallmarks of good journalism and government communications,
It’s tempting to fall in love with the internet and all the ways we can get our message out without relying on local news. Be wary of that temptation. Local news outlets, especially newspapers, still hold a powerful attraction to the people in our communities. And reporters, although fewer in number and more overworked thanRead… Read more »
Let’s start by admitting that, sometimes, all a reporter needs is a quote to finish a story. Any quote, as long it’s relevant and they meet their deadline. What they’d really like, however, are birds flying backwards. That’s the gist of a legendary quote used in one of my journalism classes, from a guy tellingRead… Read more »
Last week I wrote about the six traditional factors that make a story newsworthy, at least what journalism profs have settled upon to get students thinking about the topic, and how you can do a better job responding to reporters if you understand those factors. This week we’ll stick to those basics, but flip theRead… Read more »