Finding that first job in television news can be stressful. There are many paths you can take to prepare yourself and just as many paths to success. Daniella Oropeza and Madison Van Zile are both journalism graduates of the University…
by Deborah Potter • • Comments Off on Yearbooks in the news
A sitting governor is pressured to resign because a photo on his medical school yearbook page shows a person in blackface and another in a KKK hood. A nominee for the Supreme Court is grilled about drinking and sex, in part…
by Deborah Potter • • Comments Off on Interviewing tips from an investigative reporter
“Preparation equals success.” That’s Wendy Salzman’s motto and it served her well as an investigative reporter in Atlanta and Philadelphia. She shared tips on preparing for interviews and more at the 2018 Excellence in Journalism conference in Baltimore. Do your…
by Debora Wenger • • Comments Off on Social media fosters “empathy” in journalists
Tony Russell is a reporter for KJRH, a Scripps-owned NBC affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A native of St. Louis, he graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2010. He also has worked for KHBS/KHOG-TV in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Russell holds…
by Deborah Potter • • Comments Off on Tips for multimedia storytellers
You’ve done a TV story, rewritten it for the web and promoted it on social media. All good. But you can still do more with the story online by adding multimedia elements and there are good reasons for doing so.…
by Deborah Potter • • Comments Off on Finding stories the Radiolab way
If you listen to the public radio program or podcast of Radiolab (and you should), one of the first things you’ll notice is how eclectic the stories are. They’re often about people or events or scientific processes you’ve never heard of.…
by Deborah Potter • • Comments Off on How to pry loose public records
“FOIA gets violated every day of the week,” says Tisha Thompson, an investigative reporter for ESPN who used to work in local TV news. Over 20 years in the business, Thompson has been ignored, slow-walked and denied when requesting public…
by Deborah Potter • • Comments Off on How to stay on top of long-term stories
Organization is everything to investigative reporter Ted Oberg of KTRK-TV in Houston. “You win or lose on Day One,” he says. “You can’t catch up or recreate notes or contacts you get on the first day and only save on…
by Debora Wenger • • Comments Off on How to get a job as a TV news reporter
When you’re hunting for a job in TV news, it’s easy to assume that everyone you see on the nightly newscast had an easy time getting there. But talk to reporters in a typical newsroom and you’ll see there are…
by Deborah Potter • • Comments Off on Investigative reporting as an interactive exercise
We all know investigative reporting is different from everyday journalism and it’s not easy to teach. Wouldn’t you love to have an interactive experience that shows what it’s really like? How about an interactive that also makes a bigger point…