ABSTRACT
There are some days when news just seems to fall into your lap. Everywhere you turn another story is breaking. Days like these are a journalist’s dream. The nightmare begins in the holiday season when nothing seems to happen. Most times the newsperson’s lot is somewhere between these extremes. What
stories there are have to be dug for. Graft is required to turn a tip-off into hard facts.
The biggest source of news for any radio or TV station should be its reporting staff. Many local stations rightly insist that their journalists live in the community to which they are broadcasting. Through everyday contact with people in the area, from their observations as they shop or drive to work, will come ideas for stories. From the car window the reporter notices that the construction of a new factory
seems to be behind time. There has been little progress for almost a month; so the reporter pulls in at the roadside and asks the foreman why. Closer to the station, rows of publicly owned houses on an inner city site seem to be rotting away; What can the authorities do to make them habitable? Squatters are moving in; Are the neighbours concerned?Would the squatters resist attempts to evict them? Reporters need to keep their eyes and ears open. Often great stories spring from the basic questions ‘I wonder…?’As in ‘I wonder
why that circus poster has “cancelled” written across it …perhaps they didn’t get a licence to perform, or animal rights’ protestors are trying to cut attendance’ and then following it up with a Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
