I learned quite a bit from the IRE’s Better Watchdog Workshop this past weekend in Birmingham. One session was called “Bulletproofing A Story” and it was presented by IRE’s president, Alison Young of USA Today.
These are just some of the points that Young shared with us:
- Check your rounding, calculations and formulas. (I know that we journalists are not known for our outstanding math skills. In order to work on these skills, you can sign up for the Poynter Institute’s “Math for Journalists” online course. I did last semester. It’s completely free and you can work at your own pace.)
- Check facts after editing.
- Verification is a biggie. This may seem controversial for some journalists, but Young recommends that you read sources parts of the story that are relevant to them in order to check the facts. It is not a request for permission, however.
- This is also an aspect of verification: send sources the raw data so that they have access and can review it or challenge it.
- “Miranda” Letter: If a source has not contacted you after numerous attempts, Young gives them one last opportunity by writing a detailed letter and sending it in a way that allows for her to know they received it (i.e. certified mail) and could address the issues she is reporting if they wanted. (One of the best ways, she said, is to use Western Union because often people are excited to receive something from Western Union believing it is money.)
- The biggest tip she had was simply: Avoid surprises, for you, your editor and possibly some of your sources.
Additional tips:
- Be transparent with readers/viewers, explaining the methodology of how the reporting was conducted. This is always fascinating to find as a reader and as a journalist. I thought it was extremely helpful in the Canadian paper I wrote about in an earlier blog post.
- Make time to check everything. As a journalist and as a young person, I think we may work up against the deadline and not leave as much time for self-editing as we would like. It’s important to realize that the deadline should not be the finishing point of the story, but the finishing point for verification of the reporting and editing of the story.
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