ABSTRACT
The best reporting comes when a journalist is immersed in the scene and can see, hear, smell and feel what has happened. The lesson is illustrated by the example of the great war photographer Robert Capa, whose credo was: If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough. All good photojournalists know that if they’re not present when something happens, they don’t get the picture. Capa was talking about photojournalism, but it applies to all forms of journalism. The closer the journalist is to the story, the better the reporting will be. Good journalists have always recognized that shoe leather reporting – being in the field, on the street, close to the action – is the key to producing substantive and meaningful stories. In this chapter, award-winning reporters talk about the importance of showing up and getting close to their stories, and warn about the dangers of relying too much on the Internet or social media to get information. The logic of reporting, they say, is that something extra comes from traveling, asking, listening and seeing events and people, first-hand and close-up.
