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How to search social media by location

How do you locate sources and original content during a breaking news event? Every newsroom turns to social media, but some are more efficient than others at finding what they’re looking for. In these...

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How to find an expert in a hurry

When you’re on deadline and you need an expert on a particular subject, where do you turn? Google is great, but it’s massive. Type in “stock market expert” and you’ll get 34 million results in seconds,...

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Morley Safer: One of the greats

He was a courageous reporter, a gifted writer, and a man who loved to laugh. Morley Safer spent more than 50 years at CBS News and is best known for his work at 60 Minutes, which aired a fitting...

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TV storytelling one on one

Who comes to mind when you hear the words “TV news” and “storytelling?” For me, it’s a short list. The late Charles Kuralt and his On The Road stories for CBS News. Steve Hartman, who revived the On...

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Reporting tactic: Soliciting leaks

Less than a week into the Trump administration, multiple government agencies have told their employees not to speak to the news media or release information to the public. Journalists have responded by...

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Podcasting tips from a pro

If it seems to you like podcasting is making a comeback, hold it right there. It never went away, according to Michael O’Connell, host of the It’s All Journalism podcast and author of the forthcoming...

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Covering risk after Hurricane Harvey

Now that the floodwaters are receding in Houston and the rest of South Texas, many journalists are focusing on new dangers faced by survivors. One of the hardest to quantify is toxic pollution from...

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3 strategies for solo live shots

Backpack journalist, MMJ or SoJo. Any number of names are given to broadcast journalists who do it all, from reporting to shooting to writing and presenting.  Juggling those tasks is hard enough, but...

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Reporting accurately on mental health and violence

The U.S. Surgeon General has reported that the likelihood of violence from people with mental illness is low.  In fact, “the overall contribution of mental disorders to the total level of violence in...

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How CBS reporter Hartman adds surprise or the “aw” moment in stories

Steve Hartman has what looks like a dream job. He travels the country, telling uplifting stories that run once a week on the CBS Evening News. “On the Road” is a legendary franchise once the province...

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A reporter’s reading list

Do you write more than you read? One way to become a better writer is to read more. Here’s how the Portuguese author Jose Saramago, who won the Nobel Prize for literature, once described his writing...

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Top 5 tactics for consumer reporters

Consumer reporter Jackie Callaway of WFTS in Tampa calls her beat a beast. She’s expected to produce two or three quick turns a week and a “deeper dive” every other week, while working long-term on...

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Local TV rises to the occasion in Boston

by Steve Safran I want to tell you a little bit about working in local news. It’s messy and complicated. It’s filled with drudgery. It’s overnights for years without recognition. It’s reporters who...

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When to break exclusive news and where

You’re working on an exclusive story for tonight and the Web and social media team wants a piece of it, hours before air. Should you share? If you thought that question had been laid to rest years ago,...

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Covering disasters: Tips for staying safe

Journalists reacted to the bombings at the Boston Marathon and the aftermath the way they always do: they ran toward danger. In a crisis, whether it’s terrorism or a manhunt in Boston or a fertilizer...

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The hazards of approaching victims

The video went viral, of course. Reporter Abbey Niezgoda of WLNE in Providence, R.I., was reporting reaction to a shooting when she was attacked by the victim’s mother. The video shows the woman...

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Reddit for journalists

What happened on Reddit after the Boston Marathon bombings may have scared many journalists away from the site. NPR tech reporter Elise Hu believes that’s a shame. The self-described “front page of the...

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Local TV station goes deeper online

How many local TV stations have reporters whose primary responsibility is the Web? It’s an idea whose has come at WPRI, the LIN-owned station in Providence, R.I., which now has two digital beat...

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How to break through interview barriers

No matter what kinds of stories you cover, you’re bound to run into public information officers. And while paid professional spokespeople can be a huge help to journalists, I used the term “run into”...

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Tips for beat blogging

With newsrooms placing more and more emphasis on social media, basic blogging may seem to have lost its value for journalists. Not so, says John Ensslin who writes the Bergen Beat blog for...

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More errors in breaking news

Another breaking news story, another list of news media mistakes. Same old, same old, right? Except this time, a new question came up: Are breaking news mistakes even worth covering anymore? That...

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Using social media in covering breaking news

When the actor Paul Walker died in a car crash, the Associated Press reported a touching tribute from his Fast and Furious co-star, Vin Diesel. “Brother I will miss you very much,” said...

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Storytelling the Bob Dotson way

NBC’s Bob Dotson has never been one to follow the herd. He’s built a career out of telling the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things on his American Story franchise for the Today Show....

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Guidelines for covering crime

One of the most common criticisms of local TV news is that stations spend far too much time covering crime. It’s a well-founded complaint. Daily crime can be easy and cheap to cover–one stop shopping,...

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Network newscasts more different than ever

Talk about a harsh assessment: “2013 marks the year when ABC World News finally rejected the mission of presenting a serious newscast.” That’s the conclusion analyst Andrew Tyndall reached after...

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How to listen for stories

Everybody has a story, it’s often said. CBS’s Steve Hartman turned the adage into a franchise. NBC’s Bob Dotson does something similar in his American Story features for the Today Show. They make it...

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Avoiding the PIO trap

What’s a bigger threat to journalists’ ability to hold government accountable–the Obama administration’s crackdown on leaks or the roadblocks thrown up by public information officers? I suspect most...

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Time management for journalists

If there’s one complaint I hear in every newsroom I visit, it’s that everyone wishes they had more time. Time to dig for stories. Time to write. Time to edit. The perception is that nobody has enough...

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Journalism collaboration: How to work well with partners

by Stephen Stock, Investigative Reporter, NBC Bay Area (KNTV) San Jose, California Whether we like it or not, collaboration between various media partners is fast becoming the way many big journalism...

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Beat reporting: Government and politics

Ask viewers what they want to see on local TV news and politics never pops to the top of the list. But ask people if they care about where their tax dollars go or about the services governments provide...

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The benefits of live tweeting a meeting

WOWK reporter Jessie Shafer is no stranger to live tweeting but even she was surprised when her Twitter stream blew up as she live tweeted a city council meeting. We’ve “Storified” the story so you can...

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Beat reporting: Education

The education beat is a wide umbrella, covering everything from preschool through higher education, and from school funding to learning outcomes. The beat has become even broader and more complex in...

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Beat reporting: Environment and science

One of my last beats as a network TV reporter was the environment, and I covered everything from air quality to endangered species to climate change. I found it fascinating and complicated–drowning in...

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When to use hidden cameras

The video is black-and-white and grainy, but it makes the case. A manager at a company selling what it claims is health insurance instructs employees on what to tell prospects on the phone: “Tell them...

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How to shoot better vox pops (MOS)

Whatever you call them, “man on the street” interviews are a staple of TV news. Done well, they can reflect public opinion on important issues in your community. Done badly, they’re just a waste of air...

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TV investigation requires multiple cameras

It started with a tip from a source to KNTV. It sounded crazy but it turned out to be true. The world’s biggest food distributor, Sysco, was storing raw meat, milk and other food in unrefrigerated...

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NewsLab’s Top 5 for 2014

It’s always edifying to me to look back at the year gone by and see what posts have been most popular at NewsLab. It reminds me of what NewsLab readers are most interested in, which helps me plan for...

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Advice for contest hopefuls

It’s that time of the year again: time to enter a journalism awards contest. NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism competition opens for submissions today; RTDNA is now accepting entries for the Murrow...

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Journalism awards and prizes

We’ve updated our list of national awards and prizes open to broadcast journalists. Click “explore” in the upper right to sort the list by deadline, application fee or prize money. Please note that the...

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How to find stories by listening

One of the most basic skills every journalist needs is the ability to come up with stories worth reporting. It may be basic, but it’s not always easy. Some reporters have lots of ideas but they fail...

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So long, Bob Schieffer

This time, Bob Schieffer says, it’s for real. After 46 years with CBS News, he plans to step down as host of Face the Nation and retire this summer. He’s talked about retirement before, but it didn’t...

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Who says TV stations can’t produce great Web content?

Add another plaque on the wall for New Orleans investigative reporter Lee Zurik of WVUE. His series Louisiana Purchased, co-produced with the Times-Picayune’s NOLA.com, just won IRE‘s small-market...

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Must have mobile tools for TV reporters

by Deb Halpern Wenger When Tony Russell heads out to cover a story for KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his toolkit includes two phones and a host of apps.  His favorite is Instagram. “I use Instagram because...

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Finding stories by asking your audience

Having trouble coming up with story ideas? There’s an app for that: a new service designed to help newsrooms find “stories hidden in plain sight.” According to a review on Poynter.org, 20 news...

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Using social media for daily reporting

For journalists, there’s no getting away from social media. Just about every newsroom expects reporters to be on Twitter and Facebook, at a minimum. But how are they using these platforms? Most...

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Giving up on stand-ups? New thinking on reporter on-cam appearances

There are lots of reasons to do a stand-up in a TV news package. But longtime WMC-TV reporter and anchor Joyce Peterson said she has noticed a change in the on-cam appearances of reporters over the...

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Snapchat finds growing role in local news

Snapchat is not just for kids anymore. Ashley Remkus is a crime reporter for AL.com, Alabama’s media group that publishes the state’s three major newspapers. On top of covering crime and safety in the...

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A debate over audience watching long videos

Due to the increase in watching video content online, video news organizations for their sustainability need to develop feasible business models attaching priority to the length and quality of video...

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Staying safe while reporting on protests

Protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd forced journalists around the country to leave behind their socially distanced reporting and come out into the crowded streets. Suddenly, they...

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Beat reporting: How to cover crime, cops and courts

Reporting on crime is often delegated to the newest, least-experienced reporters in a newsroom. Learning to do it well requires time and effort. Taking on this beat means looking for more than an entry...

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