Essential Reporting: The NCTJ Guide for Trainee Journalists

This is a book for everyone who wants to be a journalist: a practical guide to all you need to know, learn, and do to succeed as a trainee reporter in today′s newsroom.

Although the world of journalism is changing fast, as technology blurs the boundaries between newspapers, radio, television and web-based media, the reporter′s core role remains the same: to recognize news, communicate with people, gather information, and create accurate, balanced, and readable stories.

Essential Reporting, written by an experienced NCTJ examiner, explains how to do this. Contents include:

• What makes a good reporter
• What is news, and how to find it
• How newsrooms work
• Day-to-day life as a reporter
• Key reporting tasks
• Covering courts and councils
• Successful interviewing
• Writing news stories
• Specialist reporting
• Handling sound, pictures and the web

It also contains a wealth of advice, tips and warnings from working journalists, a guide to NCTJ training and examinations, a glossary and a guide to further reading.

It will be invaluable to anyone embarking on a career in journalism and is the NCTJ′s recommended introductory text for all students on college and university courses preparing them to become successful reporters.

′Precisely what it says on the cover - a down-to-earth essential handbook for anyone embarking on a career in journalism. All you need to know about avoiding newsroom minefields and attracting the editor′s attention for the right reasons. If only it had been around in my day!′ - Bob Satchwell, Executive Director, Society of Editors

′... an excellent practical guide to the whole business of reporting.′ - Writing Magazine