Reporter

Electronic journalism uses electronic stuff (read computers).Print journalism uses ink (read newspapers).

Among the problems I encountered was finding, gaining access to, & then protecting the identity of sources for inside info. Then you still have to get some type of confirmation the info you have obtained is accurate & verifiable.

Many source documents needed for corroboration are difficult or impossible to gain access to as they are protected by security classification or have been destroyed.

Australia has always been a democracy and it has always had a free press. The two go hand in hand -- you cannot have a democracy without a free press and you cannot have a free press without democracy.

Are you looking at specific events in Australia's history, with regard to how these events were reported in the Australian press? If so, you will have to be more specific.

No, it is not necessary. There are some different skills required to be a successful editor than to be a successful writer. Of course, there is some overlap. However, many people have fine editing skills that are not necessary great writers. Most entry-level position at magazines is as editorial assistants or assistant editors. Magazines use mostly freelance writers and few of them have full-time writers. Editors in chief need good supervisory and management skills as well.

The op-ed page is the page directly opposite the page that contains that particular newspaper's editorials. It is a forum for views from people, columnists from other papers, readers, and letters to the editor, etc.

Usually anywhere from one to three stories per day. I try to do one story at a time if possible.

At the same time, I love these people. These are my people. I walk into these housing projects, cause as I child I lived in the housing projects. I know the fields in which I labor. I’m from the old neighborhood, and I know these people’s situations. And I’m always moved by their generosity. You find decency in the most staggeringly bad places.

As much as I hate to admit it, many, if not most, of the stories that journalists produce are written in a predictable way. Asking about “surprise” can help the writer shed his or her journalistic mantle, at least for a moment, and just react to the story’s events as a human being. Who were the quirky personalities you met? What was a jarring quote you heard? What did you not see coming? What interesting details and anecdotes do you have in your notebook that you left out of the story, and how do we get one or two of them back in?

We are increasingly telling our stories across platforms -- on the Web and on tablets and other digital devices. It’s important for the reporter to develop a sharp sense of what kinds of storytelling work well on different platforms. In addition to producing the traditional story, could we create short videos of the people in the story for an online package? Are there any ways of telling the story through an interactive graphic that would work on the iPad?

Oh yeah. Death threats and all that. But I respond to everyone who writes or calls me, because that’s the test of legitimacy: facing your critics. Often people’s qualms aren’t about how accurate the piece is; the qualms are about how bad the situation is. They’re like, “You fucked us. You fucked us.” No. Tell me what’s wrong with the story. Is Eddie a coke dealer with a prior murder conviction? Yeah, he is. Well, then what’s wrong with the story? Nothing’s wrong with the story except that it made Eddie look like the murdering drug dealer he is.

We’re still old school here: we listen to police scanners. But there’s also BNN, the Breaking News Network beeper, which is now going onto iPhones. Basically they’re a service we subscribe to. They listen to walls of scanners and type in stuff. But you know what, it’s not very good. Very often they’re first, but we call it “Buff Beeper Bullshit” because it’s not that accurate. They let us know that something’s maybe up.

I loathe it. But if that’s the big story, I’m in. Frankly, with all due respect, I didn’t even know who Sarah Jessica Parker was.

You can call your local newspaper and tell whoever answers the telephone that you have information they might be interested in as news.

In the newspapers I worked for, your call would likely be transferred to the City Room, and would be answered on the City Desk by a clerk. The clerk would ask you questions to determine what you had, and what its news value was. Be prepared to answer specific questions about the facts of the story.

Volume generally refers to the year published, so Column 63 would mean it was the 63rd year a magazine was published. Issue 6 would be the sixth of the year, if it was monthly it would be June bimonthly, December.

I always ask this when a reporter approaches me with an idea. I want to know whether she is genuinely interested in the idea and whether her curiosity will drive her to seek the answers she needs to tell the story. I want to know what aspect of the story first caught her attention. If she ever gets lost in the weeds during the reporting, I can remind her about the initial moment of intrigue. Finally, I want to understand how the writer thinks. What topics are of natural interest to her? Where is she getting her ideas from? What is she reading?

Boiling the premise down to five or six words can help the writer sharpen the story’s focus. In my newsroom, we’re asking reporters and line editors to write early Web headlines and short summaries on top of their stories. This is largely for production reasons, but the added benefit is that we’re encouraging writers and editors to get at the heart of the story earlier in the process.