Getting the data

Even when you know what you’re looking for, it’s often difficult to get access to the data you need. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel had to threaten a lawsuit to get a complete list of concealed weapons permits issued by the state. When they finally got it and compared it to the state’s list of [...]

Find the action

Reporters who want to follow the action in a story need to know where to find it. You can’t tell a captivating, narrative story if you’re not present to capture the action. But how do you know when it’s going to happen? Reporter Lane DeGreory of the St. Petersburg Times writes in [...]

Conflict of interest

Should you ever get romantically involved with a source? The answer is clearly no. Los Angeles anchor Mirthala Salinas has been suspended without pay for two months for covering the city’s mayor while they were having an affair. The news director at the Telemundo station also was suspended. He knew [...]

This is the future

If you’re going to succeed in journalism today you need to know how to tell stories visually. Don’t just take our word for it. Listen to working journalists like Jennifer Lin, a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Media saturation?

A new study suggests that Americans’ media use has hit the saturation point. For the first time in a decade, overall media usage declined in 2006. Does that mean you’re going into a dying business? Hardly. Americans still spend an average of 9.7 hours a day using media, and they’re using some [...]