Introduction to Journalism

Journalism and storytelling

Reporters often like to say that they're storytellers. That might sound like they're making things up, like fiction writers do. Actually, though, you can tell a great story-full of heroes, villains, exciting locations, sights, sounds, and smells-that is also a true story. The journalist's job is not to invent facts, but to show us how and why real life is interesting.

Sources and "sound bites"

Being a journalist is more challenging than ever. These days, more people get their news from television than from any other source. One of the biggest drawbacks of TV journalism, as you've probably heard, is the "sound bite" format: reporters find that they have to boil complex events down to short, catchy phrases. This makes the news entertaining and easy to understand, but often distorts the truth.

Some TV producers, believing that even sound-bite news is too boring, have created "tabloid" news shows. Like tabloid newspapers, these shows get their information from highly questionable sources, and then use overblown language and shocking images to try to make the story more exciting. These shows can be fun to watch; unfortunately, many people don't realize that they aren't reliable.