Transcript BER,Ppt1
Media and Journalism Module Business and Economics For Reporters 1. Introduction – the role of business journalism BER,Ppt1.ppt This week’s lesson • Welcome to Business and Economics for Reporters! • This course is going to prepare you for working in the business and or the economics field: • practical information about issues • easy to understand lessons about complex financial issues • This week - basic issues: • • • • • what a business/economics journalist does how we can study business journalism introduction to the subjects we’ll be covering relationship of business and industry to information how some of the key journalism principles apply to business reporting BER,Ppt1.ppt What’s business journalism? BER,Ppt1.ppt Business and economics journalism • What exactly do we mean? • Why is a business story or a story about finance or economics different from a news story? • Business’ journalism - writing about what happens in all economic and financial aspects of our world: • • • • • Companies The workplace Personal and institutional finance Economics Economic indicatorsBER,Ppt1.ppt Business and economics journalism • So, is all this sounding a bit intimidating? • It needn’t. • It shouldn’t! • 14 week course • breakdown the major issues • explain some key facts • give you tools to help in analysing the issues • So you can understand when there is a story, what the story could be and how to write intelligently about it BER,Ppt1.ppt www.fotosearch.com Business and economics journalism • What separates a business story from other types of stories is: • the knowledge required to ask the right questions • the ability to recognise newsworthy answers • the skill to write a story in a way that readers without specialized knowledge will understand The important thing is not to stop questioning. BER,Ppt1.ppt Albert Einstein Is business journalism boring? • Main criticism levelled at business writing is that it is boring: • people skip the business news stories • many newspapers put the stories in a separate space - easy for readers skip • But why is that so? • Is there a subject more elemental, compelling and pervasive than money? • • • • every one of us cares about money whether we have it or not whether we can get more deeply interested in what happens to the money that we do have BER,Ppt1.ppt Is business journalism boring? • Perception of “boring” hangs over the head of business journalism • This course: • ways to make business journalism interesting and exciting • to allow the real and fascinating stories to emerge • giving you the skills and understanding so that you can write the best stories possible • Perception of boredom relates to the poor reporting of business stories • For example, you may choose to not read a story as it was obscured by jargon, murkiness or contained too many strange and incomprehensible figures - it can be too hard to work out what’s going on when there’s too much technical information on offer. • Aim: • to give you the right grounding in the subject • so you can use the normal journalistic rules and principles to write compelling business pieces and features BER,Ppt1.ppt Writing a business story 1. Understanding the subject you're writing about 2. Basic research — in your newspaper's library, through electronic data bases, or at a university or public library 3. We will provide you with some fundamental knowledge here 4. Up to you to dig deeper - look for the stories and write them in a way that will interest your readers BER,Ppt1.ppt Study of business journalism BER,Ppt1.ppt Course Outline Introduction – the role of business journalism Introduction to Economic Issues Basic economic theory – an Introduction Contemporary Economic history, focussing on key regional issues Economic reality for journalism today How business works How Companies work How to gather information Understanding key financial statements Analysing financial performance Understanding the share market The challenges of specialised reporting beats – part 1 The challenges of specialised reporting beats – part 2 BER,Ppt1.ppt Preparing business features and future trends Break BER,Ppt1.ppt Journalism principles for the business writer BER,Ppt1.ppt Rudyard Kipling • Remember the famous words from Rudyard Kipling that all journalists learn: “I keep six honest serving men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who” BER,Ppt1.ppt Be sure you’re writing on the right subject • The ‘What’ is extremely important: • jargon and figures can totally obscure what is going on • think hard on ‘what’ the issue really is • make sure that you can write clearly about it • One way to get it clear is to tell someone else what the story is • imagine you are telling a friend or a family member who is not particularly interested in or involved in business or finance • don't be tempted to pump the story up into something it isn't • technique can help clarify the important points • what you tell your friend is important and interesting • and is probably what is interesting or important about the story BER,Ppt1.ppt The golden rule Write the way you would tell the story • Be sure you understand the story and what is at the heart of the story and you will find it easier to write the piece BER,Ppt1.ppt Write in an interesting way • Business or economic stories do not have to be dull. • A good business story: • a compelling first paragraph or opening (lead) to draw in the reader • the use of a few major numbers alone can provide the fodder for a good lead • give the story real substance • just enough for readers to know who or what you're talking about • well-informed • Business stories are subject to the same principles that govern good writing in any sphere: • • • • hook your readers is by bringing them right into the story make them witness it themselves conjure up an image for them you are a camera capturing and projecting an arresting picture Just as a picture is said to be worth a thousand words, so too can your written picture be worth much more than BER,Ppt1.ppt 1,000 words of jargon and dull statements How to write in an interesting way? • How do you make a reader ‘see’ a story, like: • • • • • • • IMF/World bank bail-out government budgetary reform the privatisation of banks Transport cement making trade agreements a financial crisis? • Consider: • The actual scene itself - when something is already happening • The scenario - project the likely effect of a decision or development • The analogy - liken a decision, development or effect to a more familiar action •Remember, this is the communications business. •Being a business or economicsBER,Ppt1.ppt reporter means being a good writer and •a good communicator, not just someone knowledgeable about the subject matter Put the story in context • Make the story your own – adding value • Ask questions that arise from your information • Checklist to get the story into context: • Is this the first time something like this has happened in this part of the economy? • Is it part of a trend? • Or is it against the trend? • Or does it signal a change in the course of events? • Now that this has happened, what might the consequences be for the economy or country or region? BER,Ppt1.ppt You don’t have to be the expert • The role of journalists is getting input to a story from affected parties and reputable commentators • ring the university and ask the economic professor. • knock on the door of the Prime Minister’s Office • get a response from a bureaucrat • You don’t have to come up with the answers, but you have to ask the questions! BER,Ppt1.ppt Provide background • Help your audience • develop a sense of where readers might become puzzled or lost because they don't know what has gone before • condense the information you have gathered • “remind” readers of what has happened • don't sound patronizing or arrogant • drop the background into the story as you go: • clauses within the sentences that are giving the latest information • well-timed sentences re-iterating a basic fact • whole paragraphs – sometimes easiest and less confusing BER,Ppt1.ppt Keep it balanced • No one knows all the answers: • ask different experts • follow your own doubts and concerns • represent a variety of opinions in your story • Intelligent readers can easily spot a story with a particular bias, and dismiss the whole thing BER,Ppt1.ppt Be accurate – and use numbers wisely • Get the facts right: • good financial journalism needs a certain amount of solid, properly measured statistical information • some vital building blocks • make the numbers serve the story not the other way around • The numbers as tools for telling the story - not the substance of the story BER,Ppt1.ppt Guidelines to using numbers • • • • • If the numbers are essential Distribute the numbers through the story Keep numbers together that belong together Numbers are a “turn-off” factor for some readers Usual journalistic rules still apply to this writing: • no long sentences • no unfamiliar names and technical language • Use a table or graphic to display the information • Check, double-check and triple-check all numbers BER,Ppt1.ppt Add personal dimension by using quotes • Stories without quotes are dead • Find one to put high up • possibly as the second paragraph • straight after your lead • or by the third or fourth paragraph at the latest • You should have plenty of quotes: • problem should be what to leave out • Quotes lend a sense of authenticity (reality) to a story BER,Ppt1.ppt Define and explain • Readers don’t know what all the technical terms mean • You need to help them: • use a phrase that defines the technical term as part of a sentence in the normal flow of reporting • Use the technical term in a normal sentence and then in the next sentence, use the defining phrase as an alternative while giving further information. • For example: Inflation was 6.2 per cent last year. This is the first time the government's measure of the change in prices for goods and services has exceeded 6 per cent a year in the last decade. BER,Ppt1.ppt Define and explain • Insert a crisp, clean and clear definition at just that point in the story when you think readers are in danger of turning the page • Just stop the story and define the term. For example: A remittance economy is one dependent on money transfers, often from a family member abroad to relatives back home. • Give a mini-lecture • Sometimes the reader needs help in understanding a process • An example is when shares fall because of a threat of an interest rate rise. Even this reasonably widely known process could do with some explaining, for example: Investors do not like interest rate rises because they make borrowing by companies and spending on credit more expensive, damping demand - and ultimately profits BER,Ppt1.ppt BER,Ppt1.ppt Closure The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein BER,Ppt1.ppt Summary • Previewed the course • understand the scope of what we will discuss • The role of a business/economics journalist • What you can expect to learn and what other sources of information you can find • Journalistic principles that we can apply • Finance and economics journalism conforms to the same rules as ‘normal’ journalism • same principles of accuracy • keeping to the subject • writing in an interesting way, etc etc still apply BER,Ppt1.ppt Coming up! • What is an economy? • Main components of an economy • Roles they perform • Households • Manufacturing and service industries • Governments • Foreign entities • Brief look at the sort of economic data you might come BER,Ppt1.ppt across BER,Ppt1.ppt http://www.richardsnotes.org/archives/2005/01/