If It Bleeds It Leads

If it Bleeds, It Leads, and other lessons on
Broadcast Journalism
Introduction
When we sat down to write these lessons, they quickly took on a life of their own.
The inspiration behind this book is the work of Av Westin, distinguished newsroom
executive, Freedom Forum Fellow and Executive Director of the National Television
Academy Foundation. Responsible for changing the face of television news through
creation of such ground-breaking programs as ABCs World News Tonight and
20/20, his heart has remained with encouraging the next generation of aspiring
broadcast journalists to fully understand the responsibilities and ethics of their craft.
The National Television Academy (NTA) which governs the Emmy Awards has
united with Av Westin to reach out to high school students. Its National Student
Television Awards of Excellence is designed to recognize the extraordinary work of high
school students throughout the country in News, Arts & Entertainment/Documentary,
Public Affairs/Community Service/Public Service, Sports, Technical Achievement and
Writing.
But it quickly became clear that NTA needed to provide teachers and students
with a practical guide for students to understand the complex ethics and standards of
broadcast journalists. For that reason, we began work on this set of lessons, derived in
part, from the pioneering books written by Av Westin: If The Truth Be Known, and
Best Practices for Broadcast Journalists. Both books are rich in newsroom anecdotes,
and unprecedented in their candor about the real-life dilemmas facing those in the
broadcast industry.
Our goal is to encourage educators to use these lessons, not just to teach young
high school reporters, but to foster the next generation of knowledgeable and
responsible television and multi-media consumers. The lessons are designed to be part
of a journalism class. They also address multiple national standards, integrating
journalism and the use of technology into language arts curriculum. They also weave
connections between literature and the real world of journalism, and addresses student
civic responsibilities.
We welcome your comments and invite your participation.
Sincerely,
Julie Lucas and Fran Waible
2003 NTA, Av Westin, Julie Lucas, Frances Waible - Permission to make reference to or use this
material is granted with the requirement to credit the National Television Academy, Av Westin,
Julie Lucas and Frances Waible.
Table of Contents
Lesson 1
If It Bleeds, It Leads: How much Information should you report?
Lesson 2
Reel Life: Investigative reporting and hidden cameras
Lesson 3
The High Cost of Free Expression: In times of war and terrorism, should press freedom
be limited?
Lesson 4
Candid cameras: The Publics Right to Know vs. the Right to Privacy
Lesson 5
The Usual Suspects:
The Out There Syndrome, Sourcing and Conducting Interviews
Lesson 6
A Failure To Communicate: Bias in Network Newscasts
Lesson 7
Hide in Plain Sight: Researching the Legal Responsibility and Ethical Accountability of
Using Hidden Cameras in News Gathering
Lesson 8
If The Truth Be Told: The Spin, The Bias, The News
Educators Addendum: On-Line Resources for High School Broadcast
Journalism
Name_________________
Period____
Authors
Frances Waible
Julie Lucas
Adapted from If the Truth Be Known, and Best Practices for Television Journalists, both by
Av Westin
Grades: 9-12
IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS
How much Information should you report?
If you are a news director or executive producer, you already know that every day there are
decisions to be made in less-than-ideal circumstances. In an ideal world, a script or anchor
copy would go through a couple of levels of editing. First, it would be read by the producer of the
newscast and then edited and approved by an executive producer. But, in the real world,
sometimes its very difficult to get it all done. With more news being added to the schedule and
fewer people doing it, which means even greater time pressures, wrong things do get on the air.
If it bleeds, it leads is an accurate description of many news judgments in local TV markets.
Reporters and producers look for just those kinds of stories to inject excitement into the show.
Stressed-out producers can be highly intolerant of people who miss deadlines. Sourcing may be
spelled out in the standards and practices guide, but when a deadline looms, well, things
happen. Westin, Best Practices for Broadcast Journalists
Storyline:
Over your stations police scanner, the report crackles that an unidentified man
has stopped his truck on the freeway and is brandishing a shotgun.
Immediately, your news director dispatches the station helicopter to cover the
situation. Knowing that your station is in one of the most competitive markets in
the country and its Sweeps time, this story could catapult your stations News
to Number One. This directly translates into a huge return economically for
station advertisers which everyone from corporate management to the News
Director, News Producer and Reporters are constantly reminded.
Your stations and other news helicopter hover noisily over the highway. You
can see the police negotiating with the distraught man, as he unsteadily holds
the gun to his head. He is obviously distracted by the constant noise of the
helicopters, which drowns out the police negotiator. Growing more and more
anxious, he shouts to the waiting cameras, My family doesnt know Im here!
He sets fire to his truck and shoots himself in the head in full view of police and
the cameras.
Class Project
You must decide how to cover the story as it unfolds. Remember, we want to inform our
audience, but not upset them so much that they complain to the station or stop watching
the news. Also remember that the mans family, friends and neighbors have no idea
about the unfolding situation, so your stations news report may be the first notification
they receive.
You will work in groups of three:
The Reporter: your job is to be the on camera talent, reporting on the story.
The Producer: You also are there on site, but your job is to make sure that the
information the reporter is giving is accurate. You work with the reporter to decide
what he/she will say on the air.
The News Director: You are back in the station studio, deciding what goes on
the air. As News Director, the buck stops with you and you answer directly to
management and the public. You are also responsible for quickly researching
any details about the mans identity so that you can feed this information to the
reporter on site.
Preparation
1. Discuss what you would say and show on the air. Plan out a script that you will
use for your coverage.
2. Video tape your coverage. Remember that you are live, with virtually no time
for preparation. Your video tape should reflect the tenseness of the situation, and
your video should be between 3-5 minutes in length. You can employ Power
Point slides to simulate the coverage at the scene.
Presentation
1. Each group will present their video to the rest of the class. After your video is
presented, your group needs to be prepared to justify your on-air comments and
coverage of the event to the rest of the class, who will be the viewing audience.
2. The rest of the class as the audience will challenge your coverage. Each
member of the audience will be assigned to represent a perspective or role
from which to judge your video (i.e. an at-home parent, teacher, executive,
restaurant worker, bricklayer, office worker, accountant, broadcast executive,
newspaper reporter, computer programmer, state representative, department
store clerk, grocery checker, and others as appropriate). Please remember your
video must appeal to a broad spectrum of the public and part of your grade will
depend on how well you represent your role or perspective. The questions you
ask will be based on your role. All roles will change for each video, so that
students are playing different roles in judging videos.
Evaluation
Each group will be evaluated on the balance, accuracy and fairness of their video
coverage. In addition, each of you will be evaluated on the quality of questions asked as
the other videos are viewed and evaluated on the criteria you use to rate each video.
Your questions and ratings need to reflect your assigned audience role. When you view
each video, you will be asked to fill out an evaluation sheet on which you will state your
role, your rating of the video, and the criteria you used to give your rating, and your
criteria will depend on the role you have been assigned. Your overall grade will be
determined by the group video, your questions during presentations, and your
evaluation sheets.
Sample Evaluation Sheet:
Video Title________________________________
Name___________________
Role Assigned: __________________________
Video Rating: _______
Criteria for Rating:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
National Standards Met:

Language Arts, Standard 4: Adjust use of spoken, written, and visual
language to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for
different purposes.
Language Arts, Standard 5: Employ a wide range of strategies as students
write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate
with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
Language Arts, Standard 7: Conduct research on issues and interests by
generating ideas and questions and by posing problems. Gather, evaluate,
and synthesize data from a variety of sources to communicate their
discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience
Language Arts, Standard 11: Participate as knowledgeable, reflective,
creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities
Technology, Standard 2: Understand the ethical, cultural, and societal issues
related to technology
Technology, Standard 4: Use a variety of media and formats to communicate
information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences
Civics, Standard 3: Understands the sources, purposes, and functions of law,
and the importance of the rule of law for the protection of individual rights and
the common good
Civics, Standard 18: Understands the role and importance of law in the
American constitutional system and issues regarding the judicial protection of
individual rights
Civics, Standard 19: Understands what is meant by "the public agenda," how
it is set, and how it is influenced by public opinion and the media
Teaching Guide Supplement

Av Westin: Essential Reading Material for Students (taken from Best
Practices, and If the Truth Be Known.
If It Bleeds, It Leads: How much Information should

you report?
Best Practices
Establish clear rules about sources and try to stick to them under deadline pressure.
Guidelines can govern the use of anonymous sources, establishing when they are
prohibited or under what circumstances they will be allowed. Guidelines can set the
minimum number of sources required in the different categories of stories.
If your requisite number of sources in not provided by the reporter in time for the 5 p.m.
news, then hold the story for the 6 or the 11 newscast. It takes courage because there is no
guarantee the competition will be exercising the same journalistic restraint.
As a reporter watching a story develop, do not blindly accommodate the desires of the
people back in the studio for hyperbole or exaggeration. Report only what you know to be
hard facts.
Acknowledge the darker side of the business in order to deal with the compromises that
real-time operations require. Whenever management holds seminars dedicated to the ethics
and standards of journalism, bring up some of the more difficult situations you have
encountered. By sharing concerns with management above and staff members below, you
may discover practical solutions to real-world challenges.
Sound Bites
! "There's such a fear of losing audience that you can't take the time. You have
to just jump in there and simply report who's saying what and where your
reporters are working as they deliver enough information to hold the
audience."
! My personal checklist is, Can I do this and wake up in the morning and
look in the mirror?
! As a reporter, you tried to come back with as good a story as you could
get, but also you knew that you had to be ready so you could get on the
air. Content would be compromised just so you could make the slot. It
could have been a better story the next day, but it had to run that day.
! "At our station, we have all these graphics that say breaking news. We
put a lot of emphasis on it because it's new, it's happening now and we
feel that you need to know about it and you need to know about it now.
This is the station that you are going to see it on. We understand that we
need to distinguish ourselves somehow from the competition, otherwise
people won't watch us. There's no reason for them to watch us unless we
bring something to the table that our competition doesn't."
! You see crisis on the face of the producer. The phone call comes in from the reporter,
and clearly the producer is hearing the report say, I dont have it. Or, This isnt a story;
we shouldnt be doing it. You see that look of panic: What am I going to fill that minutethirty with if you dont have something to give me?
! Out of necessity, this business has become more and more about time-sensitive
ambulance chasing.
Live Shots
With the extraordinary increase in technical capability to feed material from almost
anywhere, the live shot is now a staple of news coverage. Technical capability to go
live is one thing; exercising editorial control over reports from the field is another. The
filter of a news editor looking at copy or a producer looking at an edited piece of videotape
is removed when there is a direct switch to the field. A reporter may check in to say, 'this
is the gist of what I'm reporting, but there's no copy to read; there's no script to approve.
Best Practices
Start with the need for accuracy. Utilize the reporter on the scene of a breaking
story to determine its importance and scope. The first reporter on the scene of
a major story may have to go on the air immediately but once the initial piece is
broadcast, he or she should play a role in evaluating the story to determine the
scope of ongoing coverage. .
When a reporter gets in front of the camera without adequate time to ascertain
the facts, he or she should tell precisely what is known. Its okay to say that
much is not yet known, but tell the viewer, Here's what I see, and here's what
I'm going to go find out for you. The psychology of the newsroom should
permit reporters to admit that they do not know something.
Review the communications within your newsroom. Many news executives
have discovered to their dismay that their ability to communicate with the
control room, the Assignment Desk and/or with personnel in the field is virtually
impossible because there is no adequate telephone, cell phone or IFB
capability in place. The lead decision-maker should have instant
communication with the control room from anywhere in the office.
Engage in newsgathering from the home office and feed it to the reporter. Get
as much information as possible by contacting experts who actually are familiar
with the intricacies of the breaking story. Feed that to the reporter out in the
field.
Be leery of broadcasting information from police scanners. It may be
unavoidable but scanner information is very unreliable. It changes rapidly, it is
coming from a faceless voice that may or may not be close enough to a scene
to know what is really going on.
Be careful. There is a tug of war between people out in the field and people in
house in terms of how far they want to go in saying something. Experience in
countless newsrooms has demonstrated that the Assignment Desk and the
producers in the studio are usually pushing to say more than reporters really
know for certain.
Managing Breaking news

Almost always when covering a story, news management faces the dilemma of
Gosh, we have to get the story on. We have to break in and when do we do it,
what do we put on the air?
Have a crisis management plan in place that everyone knows about. Establish
an editorial command and control routine involving the assignment desk, the
producer in the control room and the anchor in the studio.
Consider in advance how you and your staff will cover certain situations. Will
you put victims on the air live? Will you put unedited, raw video on the air live?
How will you use your helicopter? Have a policy in place governing the use of
incoming cell-phone calls from alleged eyewitnesses. Producers, reporters and
anchors should know how to handle 911 tapes if the authorities release them.
All of that should already be standard operating procedure in your newsroom
prior to an event occurring.
Take key people in the newsroom the assignment editor, the executive
producer - and go into a different part of the television station, away from the
hubbub. Ask for the assessment of everybody in the room as to what steps
should be taken. Try to include the reporter on the scene in a conference call in
order to ascertain exactly what's going on. Then make a decision about
staffing, editorial flow and potential length of coverage.
When staff levels permit, position an editorial control manager in the newsroom
or control room, creating a specific point to which information is funneled.
Nothing goes on the air unless that point person has cleared it. This second
producer can also relay information to the team in the field about coverage
plans from the perspective of the control room and of news management
The Anchor
The immediacy that distinguishes TV news makes it dangerously vulnerable to the

commission of mistakes on the air. The coverage takes on a life of its own, developing
momentum and drive, which forces reporters to race, rather than walk, from one story
element to another. The anchors become, in effect, editors and reporters. It is the anchor
who summarizes, repeats, amplifies and ultimately evaluates the material coming in from
the field under time pressures and in the midst of near chaos.
Best Practices
A good anchor helps summarize, clarify or asks the reporter to review points that may have
come up earlier.
If there is a contradiction between information supplied by different reporters on the
scene, the anchor should point out that there is a conflict of information. It becomes the
anchors job to clarify why one reporter is saying one thing and one's saying the other.
Be candid with the audience. If need be, the anchor should be encouraged to come on
and say 'right now we're reporting what we're reporting because that's what our guy in
the field says. Other sources have a lower number'.
Train the anchors to automatically source material: the AP is saying, or affiliate KUSA
is saying.
Communicate with the anchors constantly, directing them by speaking slowly and
without ambiguity. It takes practice to filter out the tension and excitement that usually is
generated in the control room but it is the cleanest way to insure that you are in control
of the editorial flow of the broadcast.
If possible, install a computer/video screen system at the anchors desk to provide ready
access to a hot file of late information and corrections.
Stations with two anchors on staff find that a best practice is to use both of them to
handle the flow of information. During dry times when little is happening, having two
people on the set provides some variety. During times when things are moving fast, one
of the anchors can take notes while the other steers the flow of the coverage.
When live interviews are conducted with guests during coverage of a controversial story,
it is up to the anchors to maintain editorial balance.
Researching for Breaking News Coverage

A steady flow of information during continuous live coverage of a breaking story is
at the heart of the on-air performance of the anchors and of the people in the field. They
need background, historical references, statistics and a wider sweep of information in
order to provide perspective.
Best Practices
Remind yourself of what you don't know. Always challenge your own
perceptions. Make sure you talk to enough people who can help give you
more understanding about what you don't know.
Keep checking out information right up until air.
Talk to people who have less of a vested interest. Professors and experts can
often be good. Be careful, because even they may not be neutral observers
and can turn out to be advocates for one side or the other.
Always back up your source. Don't have just one. Do your best whether it's
one phone call, two phone calls, or whatever you can fit in.
The more eyes that look at it, the more of a chance you have to catch
something.
Name ________
Period_______
Authors
Frances Waible
Julie Lucas
Av Westin
Grades: 9-12
Reel life: Investigative reporting and

hidden cameras
Investigative reporting has become a flash point for viewers concerned about
fairness, accuracy and balance on television news programs. No other form of
broadcast journalism generates more reaction, both negative and positive, than
pieces that dig up and present facts that alleged malefactors want to conceal. An
RTNDF poll taken in 1998 found that more than two-thirds of the American public
feels that journalists should not be allowed to use hidden cameras even if that is the
only way to get a story. Hidden cameras are regarded as simply unfair to the person
being reported on. (Westin, Best Practices for Television Journalists)
Individual Assignment:
Read the attached Essential Reading Material supplement. Assume the role of a
correspondent for one of the major networks, and examine each of the following
scenarios. After reading each one, decide how you would follow best practices in order
to use the material you have received, examining the ethical issues contained in each
scenario. Consider the following questions:
Will the story expose matters of significant public concern, reveal system failure
at the top, or prevent profound harm to individuals?
Is there no other way to get the story/information effectively?
Will the hidden-camera video play a supporting role by backing up documents,
research other findings uncovered by traditional reporting?
Is it lawful? And if so, are the legal risks worth it?
Is there an invasion of privacy concern, particularly for innocent people captured
on camera while taping is under way?
Will the viewers be confused about what is real and what isnt?
Assignment: Write a one-page evaluation of each of the following cases,

addressing each of the above questions. Be prepared to defend your
evaluations in a class discussion, based on how thoroughly you
addressed the ethical issues present in each scenario.
Case 1:
A Midwest station did a story to demonstrate that airport security was lax, particularly in
the way their local airport dealt with the handicapped. Put onto the story by a tip and
after doing some initial checking on the situation, the news management decided that
only a hidden camera could show a handicapped person circumventing electronic
scanning at the airport gate. The camera was used to track a person in a wheelchair
with a bag of pennies under his chair which should have triggered every security alarm
in the airport. The video documented that there was an unwillingness to make a
disabled person get out of a wheelchair and have the wheelchair go through security
separately. The video showed repeatedly that the wheelchair with its concealed
weapon was allowed to bypass security and even get on a plane.
Case 2:
A store was suspected of not checking the identities of people using debit cards despite
the stores claim that such checks were regularly undertaken. Thieves were using stolen
or lost debit cards to charge for goods. After having determined the truth of the
allegations, news management determined to tell the story with supporting hidden
camera video. The video showed the lax procedures.
Case 3:
A Chicago television station planned two broadcasts on successive nights on their ten
p.m. newscast showing the use of marijuana among students at Northwestern
University in nearby Evanston, Illinois. The producer, himself a recent graduate of the
Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern, persuaded his news management that he
could revisit his old campus haunts and come back with film of a student marijuana
party. A pot party was held and filmed. The report gave the impression that the
producer had managed to attend a pot party already in progress but in fact, the event
had been produced and directed i.e. acted out at the behest of news personnel.
Case 4:
Engendered by their producers desire for more sensational video to buttress a
series of reports on an illegal sport, a reporter and two cameramen staged a fight
between two pit bulldogs. The reporter and the camera team insisted that the
video had arrived anonymously in the mail but subsequent challenges to the
reports authenticity resulted in the discovery of the staging. Police located the
dogs owners who asserted that the dogfight (which is illegal under Colorado law)
had been staged at the request of the television personnel.

Language Arts, Standard 3: Apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend,
interpret, evaluate and appreciate texts.
Language Arts, Standard 5: Employ a wide range of strategies to write and use
different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different
audiences for a variety of purposes.
Language Arts, Standard 11: Participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and
critical members of a variety of literacy communities

Reel life: Investigative reporting and hidden cameras

Investigative Journalism and Hidden Cameras
Investigative reporting has become a flash point for viewers concerned about fairness,
accuracy and balance on television news programs. No other form of broadcast journalism
generates more reaction, both negative and positive, than pieces that dig up and present facts
that alleged malefactors want to conceal.
Many viewers believe that the use of confidential sources to validate a story is wrong and that
journalists should not report stories unless all their sources are willing to be identified. Where
investigative reports were once regarded as a sure shot for increasing ratings by going
undercover, our increasingly litigious society has made it a riskier business, resulting in
expensive court challenges.
As a result, there are some prudent steps that can be taken to maintain investigative
reports while ensuring they meet journalistic standards.
Best Practices
Some form of executive approval should be required before producers can

undertake an investigative report.
A reporter does not induce a crime even though he or she may take legal step
that sets in motion a chain of events that may include illegal acts by others. It is
important when engaged in sting operations not to take steps that might be
seen as crossing the line from appropriate investigation and revelation of crime
to causing criminal conduct.
It may be difficult, but stay with two-source confirmation on most stories.
Go to the people surrounding the issue. Ask your primary source for the names
of other knowledgeable people.
Determine if the information is firsthand coming from a primary source
intimately involved in the story or hearsay. Hearsay is the worst kind of
information in many ways because it whets your appetite without giving you a
verifiable starting point.
Mine publicly available documents to the fullest extent possible court records,
corporate financial reports, etc.
If sources give you documents, ascertain whether the materials are authentic.
Would the person who provided the documents have routine access to them?
One of the great traps that the inexperienced investigative researcher gets into
is failure to dig up a potentially compelling document or source which drives a
stake into the heart of the piece. Do that as soon as possible. There are a
million lawyers out there who are glad to give you the deposition that their client
gave. Remember to ask for the deposition that the other lawyers client gave.
Look for the cross-examination that may have ripped this guy to shreds.
Sound Bites
! There's a temptation on behalf of some producers to get 99.9 percent of their
[report] done. Then 24 hours before air, they knock on the door of the aggrieved
party, show them about a million documents and put it on the air that night. You do
get incredibly dramatic TV that way, but you often dont get the fairest TV that
way.
! Some of the biggest mistakes in journalism are made when people get
immersed in one side. They understand that one side. They then go in for
the big interview and haven't bothered to examine the other side. In the
interview, the subject comes back with one or two good responses, and
the story is gone. You've built up this house of cards and then, when you
finally deal with the other side, they knock it down.
! Guard against a natural enthusiasm on the part of investigative reporters.
They start talking like DAs. They start talking like cowboys. They talk
about whom theyre going to get and whom theyre going to make and
whom theyre going to nail. For a lot of reasons, thats bad.
Going Undercover With Hidden Cameras

The basic tools for print reporters are the pencil and notebook. The basic tools for
television reporters are the camera and videotape. For years, print reporters had an
advantage; they could slip unnoticed into a location to cover a story; indeed, they could
even keep a pencil and pad in a jacket pocket, making notes after leaving a newsgathering scene. Broadcast journalists were encumbered by a TV cameras size and
requirement for special lighting; unobtrusive news gathering was impossible.
Today, TV reporters have smaller, more versatile cameras at their disposal. Some
of the gear is no larger than a shirt button. A lipstick camera, for example, can be
concealed in a reporters makeup kit. Cameras can and do go everywhere. As a result,
undercover investigative reporting has become the newest darling of broadcast
journalism. Hidden-camera videotape has become a very valuable asset in the highly
competitive arena of television news ratings and promotion.
But as has been the case with some other new toys developed at the request of
broadcast journalists, hidden cameras sometimes have been used too aggressively.
Moreover, some critics say the mere inclusion of a hidden cameras very identifiable
(usually grainy) videotape in a news report suggests that someone has been caught redhanded in the commission of a crime or an unethical practice. One byproduct has been a
public backlash. Many viewers now seem to focus more on the practices of investigative
reporters and their use of hidden cameras than on the information that has been
uncovered.
The most notable example was the Food Lion case. A jury found that ABC News
was guilty of using fraudulent tactics when going undercover with hidden cameras to
investigate reports of unsanitary conditions in a local Food Lion supermarket. The issue
before the court had nothing to do with ABC News documentation of the supermarkets
unhygienic operations; jurors never saw a tape of that report. They were asked to decide
whether ABC News producers had
committed fraud by falsifying job applications to get inside the supermarket to gather
evidence. The jury concluded that they had and therefore should be punished. The quality
of the journalism was not judged, the perceived arrogance and deceitfulness of the
journalists was. Because of the Food Lion verdict, many news organizations have
modified their use of undercover reporters and hidden cameras.
Best Practices
Management should grant explicit permission before any hidden-camera project

is undertaken.
Ask and answer these questions: Will the story expose matters of significant
public concern, reveal system failure at the top or prevent profound harm to
individuals? Is there no other way to get the story/information effectively? Will
the hidden-camera video play a supporting role by backing up documents,
research or other findings uncovered by traditional reporting? Is it lawful? And if
so, are the legal risks worth it? What are the ethical issues? Is there an
invasion-of-privacy concern, particularly for innocent people captured on camera
while taping is under way?
These questions should be reviewed throughout the reporting, writing and editing.
You can and should pull a piece right up to the last minute if theres any doubt about
its content.
Sound Bites
! "Almost every local market now has a hidden camera. In sweeps, there are news
directors who say go get me a hidden camera story; go use that rig youve got, and
get me a spy cam story. They think it spikes up the ratings because people really want
to watch it.
! Obviously, if [the TV crew] has got a hidden camera, you must be wrong;
you must be a terrible sinner. You are the bad guys on the other end of that
lens.
Name_________________
Period____
Authors
Frances Waible
Julie Lucas
Grades: 9-12
The High Cost of Free Expression: In times of war and terrorism, should press
freedom be limited? A Debate
Journalists are viewed as arrogant and insensitive to public concerns. The public
perceives they have lowered the standards for fairness and accuracy, that their
selection of stories for broadcast news is influenced by ratings and an
overwhelming concern for the bottom line. What is at risk is a bedrock facet of
American democracy: a free and independent press. (Westin, If the Truth Be
Known)
Participation in a cross-examination debate requires thorough preparation and careful

study of the proposition as well as an ability to question effectively. One of the special
values of this kind of debate is that it forces the debater to know evidence, analysis, and
arguments too. He or she will be questioned about them. In this type of debate, the
speaker cannot merely rely on his prepared speech. It requires the examiner to ask
pointed questions that expose the weaknesses in the opponents case and arguments.
A Cross Examination Debate with Opposing Viewpoints

Teacher Preparation:
1. Establish a proposition for the debate. Propositions should be stated in the

affirmative:
Sample Propositions:
Proposition I
Resolved: Freedom of speech must be curbed for the public good.
Proposition 2
Resolved: In times of crisis, the American media should abridge the
publication of information.
Have students form two groups, one for each side. Students need to assume research
and speaking roles within their groups.
2. Give students adequate time to research their side of the debate. Students should
make use of print sources as well as databases and internet sites. (2-3 class
periods)
3. Give the students adequate time to prepare their arguments. (1-2 class periods)
4. The debate can fit into a 50 minute class period.
5. The teacher can serve as the judge to determine which side presented the strongest
arguments, or a panel of teachers can be assembled to judge the debates. You
could also bring in students from other classes to serve as a jury.
Order of Speeches:
1st Affirmative Side Speech (5 minutes)
(3 minutes preparation for next speech)
________________________________________________________________
1st Negative Speech (5 minutes)
________________________________________________________________
Rebuttal Affirmative Side Speech (5 minutes)
________________________________________________________________
Rebuttal Negative Side Speech (5 minutes)
(3 minutes preparation)
(5-10 minutes to prepare for Summation)
________________________________________________________________
Summation Speeches:
Summation by a Negative side speaker (4 minutes)
Summation by an Affirmative side speaker (4 minutes)

Language Arts, Standard 1: Read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build
an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and
the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of
society and the workplace, ant for personal fulfillment.
Language Arts, Standard 4: Adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language
to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. Gather, evaluate, and
synthesize date from a variety of sources to communicate their discoveries in ways
that suit their purpose and audience.
Language Arts, Standard 8: Use a variety of technological and information
resources to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate
knowledge.
Civics, Standard 18: Understands the role and importance of law in the American
constitutional system and issues regarding the judicial protection of individual rights.
Civics, Standard 8: Understands the central ideas of American constitutional
government and how this form of government has shaped the character of American
society
Civics, Standard 3: Understands the sources, purposes, and functions of law, and
the importance of the rule of law for the protection of individual rights and the
common good
Technology, Standard 5: Use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information
from a variety of sources.

The High Cost of Free Expression: In times of war and

terrorism, should press freedom be limited? A Debate
The First Amendment at Stake
Development of Best Practices for Broadcast Journalists takes its roots in The
Freedom Forums concerns about the erosion of public support for First Amendment
guarantees of freedom of the press. According to a 1999 survey by The Freedom Forum,
many Americans would all agree to curtail the constitutional protections journalists now
enjoy. In launching Free Press/Fair Press, The Freedom Forum recognized that
journalists, by their own actions, are the central cause of diminishing public support of the
free press protections offered in the First Amendment. Journalists are viewed as arrogant
and insensitive to public concerns. The public perceives they have lowered the standards
for fairness and accuracy, that their selection of stories for broadcast news is influenced
by ratings and an overwhelming concern for the bottom line.
This guide does not have all the answers. But best practices do provide some
remedy in reining in those excesses that are particularly offensive to viewers. What is at
risk is a bedrock facet of American democracy: a free and independent press.
This could well be the last guidebook for television news as it is currently
practiced. TV News is now part of the old media, replaced by the Internet and even
newer broadband technologies that allow for unfettered and unedited transmission of
information. Some of what comes through is factual. Some of it is half-truth and some of it
is completely made up. All of it acquires equal weight when it shows up on television or
computer monitors.
The Internet has effectively leveled the playing field of information flow. Because
of the Internet, the general public no longer needs to depend on a massive television
news machine to find out what's going on in their world.
On the Internet, an average kid with a computer can create a website and post information
that may get more hits in one day than CNN.com gets in a month.
Also, while we can safely assume that important public figures watch the network news
programs, we must remember that those programs are created by a media elite that is
itself populated by important public figures. The Internet creates an arena in which the
even the President may now read the information on that average kid's website. This
direct access to information is a big plus, but as evidenced by the out there syndrome, the
quality of that information may be suspect.
This guide handbook has explained why it is important for television news
organizations to be seen as credible. As news moves into cyberspace, it will become
equally important that the websites created by news organizations are perceived as
credible sources of information on the Internet. There is already evidence that some
websites operated by local stations are essentially streaming unedited 'raw" material onto
the web.
Providing editorial filtration is an evolving challenge. How it is faced and what best
practices emerge to deal with it, will undoubtedly be chronicled, perhaps as the subject of
another book just a few years into the new century.
Television News Today
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five days a year,
there is news on television. Never before has there been so much news on television, nor
has the viewing public ever had such a wide variety of news outlets. And with the growth
of news outlets has come an emerging harsh reality.
Whether a newsroom is local, national, public or a 24/7 operation, news
executives are pressured to keep costs down, to cut the size of their staffs even if it puts
their product at risk. Concern for ratings has sparked fierce competition, frequently
eroding standards for fairness, accuracy and balance. News managers at all levels are
being pressured to avoid dull newscasts at any cost giving birth to a new and troubling
element in news coverage. Many producers overtly seek to increase the drama of their
reportage, and some will even manufacture drama in a story where none previously
existed. Does this reality jeopardize the journalistic pillars of fairness, balance and
accuracy?
In his introduction to the CBS News Standards guide updated in 1999, CBS News
President Andrew Heyward noted that fairness used to be subject to governmental
oversight. He was referring to the Fairness Doctrine which had been part of FCC
regulations and which had been repealed in 1987. (A history of the Fairness Doctrine is
included in the Appendix to this guide.)
CBS News, along with many other news organizations, campaigned against the
Fairness Doctrine on the grounds that government has no legitimate role to play in
monitoring the performance of broadcast journalists.
Heyward concluded with an admonition to his staff:
Now the responsibility for fairness rests squarely where it belongs: with us.
The revocation of the Fairness Doctrine did not mean broadcasters suddenly
showed their biases. They didnt. What did occur was the removal of a highly visible and
effective legal goad that had generally kept the question of fairness high in the
consciousness of station management. That, in turn, kept it on the minds of their
employees: radio and television producers, reporters as well as the lawyers reviewing their
reports before broadcast.
The news explosion on television in recent years had resulted in the rapid
promotion of men and women into position of editorial responsibility. Different pressures
including ratings and perhaps the need to popularize or sensationalize program
content have emerged. New technology including smaller, lighter smaller cameras and
microphones has tested the journalistic skills and instincts of reporters, producers and
news directors. No one can argue that government regulation of fairness was a good
thing. On the other hand, the question needs to be asked: What criteria are being used in
the newsroom today? And who is setting standards and making sure that they are
considered every time a broadcast goes on the air?
In 1998, the Media Studies Center of The Freedom Forum launched the Free
Press/Fair Press project. It is based on the premise that if the public perceives the media
to be biased and inaccurate, it will no longer support First Amendment protections.
Assessments of the publics mood were undertaken in a series of Freedom Forum
symposia held around the United States. Panels consisted of newspaper and television
executives, government officials and members of the general public. Their comments,
which are cited throughout this guide, provide evidence that in many places, journalism is
no longer viewed as the publics champion and that the First Amendments protections are
in jeopardy.
District Lawyers are now aggressively seeking journalists notes and holding them
in contempt when they refuse to cooperate. They are seizing outtakes from television
news reports that pertain to cases they are prosecuting. They are trying to put newsmen
and women on witness stands. Some recent jury verdicts indicate that the public thinks
the media has gone too far and jurors have decided against what otherwise would have
been applauded as good reporting. The most notable example of this is the Food Lion
case. A jury found that ABC News was guilty of using fraudulent tactics when going
undercover to investigate unsanitary conditions in a Food Lion supermarket. The issue
before the court had nothing to do with ABC News documentation of Food Lions
unhygienic operations; jurors never saw a tape of that report. They were asked to decide
whether ABC News producers had committed fraud by falsifying their job applications in
order to get inside the supermarket to gather incriminating evidence. The jury concluded
that they had and therefore, should be punished. The quality of the journalism was not
judged, the perceived arrogance of the journalists was.
Many of our colleagues in broadcast journalism have responded to charges of bias
and erroneous reporting by innovating and implementing guidelines or procedures to help
deal with questions raised by viewers about the fairness and accuracy of television
coverage. They are cited here as best practices.
Sharing the experience, wisdom and judgments of men and women who solve
problems every day should provide a practical roadmap for dealing with questions of
fairness, balance, and accuracy. What one professional has adopted as a problem-solving
solution may help another facing the same issue.
Readers of this book who are regular television news viewers are undoubtedly
familiar with the way a news story utilizes sound bites the brief on-camera interviews of
the people who are involved in that story. The news reporter provides the editorial context
for the coverage, using those first-person sound bites as illustration, explanation and
validation. In some cases the sound bites are placed back to back, connected simply by
the editorial flow of their content, without the need for the reporters interstitial narration. In
a sense, that is how this book is put together. The sound bites are edited excerpts drawn
from more than xxx interviews or conversations that were conducted in 1999. On
occasion, excerpts from letters, e-mail or memoranda are included. In essence, the
people we interviewed have written this book which is the reporter who has woven
editorial observations throughout.
Another television staple, videotaping the guest in shadow or distorting the voice to
protect his or her identity has its equivalent here. These are not anonymous sources but in
order to encourage candor, no quotation is directly attributed to a speaker. Each comment
is placed inside quotation marks and the reader will note several paragraphs that consist
of individual quotes, some as short as one sentence.
Since this work is intended for use by students as well as by broadcast
professionals, some detailed (and perhaps overly simplified) explanations of presentation
techniques are included. (Give me a break! I already know this stuff.) Readers who
already understand what terms like sound bites, cutaways or lower thirds mean are
asked to be tolerant of those few passages that deal with the basics.
No one involved in the creation of this book believes it will address every situation
or that it will be looked at every time some question arises in the newsroom or in the field.
News coverage is a complex business. There are few black and white situations in news;
reporting most stories is like dealing with a palette consisting only of shades of gray. The
bottom line, in the view of several News directors who helped prepare this guide is this:
We try and avoid absolute rules. When you make rules you have to live by
them, and I haven't seen a set of rules yet that covers every possible situation. We
in the news business are paid for judgment as much as for our work in gathering
and presenting the news. We need to apply our judgment on a case by case
basis.
At the root of it all, this book is really about one word: Credibility. Credibility is the
fundamental attribute of a news organization. If viewers do not trust the information they
get from broadcast journalists, there is absolutely no point in presenting news and
information on TV. At the heart of being credible are standards for fairness, balance and
accuracy.
"Credibility. If you were to take credibility and put the supporting structures
under credibility, they'd be balance, accuracy and fairness. If you don't have any
one of those you weaken your credibility and if you don't have your credibility you
don't have a commercially viable product. Thats the bottom line.
How We Got to Where We Are

In the beginning, in the days of Bill Paley and Frank Stanton at CBS, David Sarnoff
and Bob Kintner at NBC and Leonard Goldenson at ABC, television news departments
were often described as the jewel in the crown of the networks. Money was allocated for
news coverage because top management believed it was the right thing to do. It was not
unusual for budgets to be augmented and for regularly scheduled programming to be
interrupted if special events required more funding or more airtime. News was a "loss
leader," bringing prestige but little or no monetary profit, but bringing the network
tremendous prestige.
Use of the airwaves, regarded as the publics property, was granted in the form of
licenses to station owners. Local stations perhaps goaded by FCC regulations requiring
fair and balanced coverage of issues of public importance, offered newscasts and public
affairs programming. There is still a residue of that era among the older members of the
broadcast industrys executive corps.
Sound Bites
! Everybody that's in this business ought to remember they don't own the
airwaves that you broadcast your signal on. Just a few companies make a
lot of money off these airwaves. They get a license from the federal
government to operate on them for five years, and that carries some
pretty significant obligations in terms of the public, the community and the
people that we serve. Youd better be responsible; you'd better be fair.
You'd better give a lot of voices the right to express themselves on your
television station, even if the opinions are not necessarily the ones that
you subscribe to.
In the early days, few station news operations made a profit. Some broke even;
many lost money. That was part of the cost of being in the news business.
In 1970, things changed dramatically because of events at KCAU-TV in Sioux
City, Iowa. KCAU-TV was affiliated with the ABC Television network which, in those days,
was laughingly regarded as half a network in a three-network race. Usually, if a network is
number one in the ratings, its local affiliates are strong in their markets; if the network is
number three, the local stations also find their standing sagging. Even though ABC's
prime time schedule was a distant third behind CBS and NBC, the news programs at
KCAU-TV were so widely watched in Sioux City that the overall station ratings remained
respectable all night long. The quality of the news operation had developed viewer
loyalty, which produced a ratings miracle. The new message from KCAU-TV was not lost
on other stations. All across the country in the early 70's, the light bulb went on over the
collective heads of station executives. If local news was strong, a station's ratings could
be strong and commercial time would sell for higher prices.
At first, as money- saving technological improvements came along (videotape,

microwave transmission, satellite feeds), management invested most of the savings in
more equipment and larger staffs. The rationale was simple: better news programming
meant higher ratings, which meant increased revenue.
But then, television news became the business of television news. Financial
considerations like the bottom line and profit margins edged their way into becoming the
paramount elements in decision making. That affected staff levels, the amount of airtime
to be filled each day by the news department and ratings. Any desire by station
management for good will or prestige became secondary to the desire for more revenue.
Now the question became how to increase ratings. The answer: make sure that what was
supplied was what viewers wanted to watch. Stories of local concern including crime and
scandal began to outweigh the attraction of watching network newscasts. Network news
programs, even when they dealt with important developments in Washington or overseas,
were perceived to be more complex and less interesting.
The tabloidization of news did not occur overnight. It evolved. Its roots are
traceable as far back as 1964 when news on network television was redefined by the
advent of the half-hour nightly news programs that doubled the amount of airtime devoted
to news each night. Local news expanded too; from 15 minutes to a half-hour, to an hour
and eventually to three-hour blocks in some markets. As producers looked for material to
fill the programs they sensed a market for gossip, crime and glamour, and the trend
toward pop news accelerated. Next, taking a name and an editorial cue from the tabloid
gossip newspapers, syndicated tabloid television" shows were created and rapidly caught
the attention of viewers. Tabloid television shows pursued celebrities and murderers with
equal vigor and unlike conventional news programs were more than willing to pay for
access to stories. Titillation meant ratings and even staid network news executives began
covering stories that had previously been ignored. It can be argued that the proliferation of
newsmagazines in prime time success of tabloid newsmagazines, competing against cop
shows and hospital dramas in network prime time, forced the news divisions to focus
more on ratings. The ratings success of the tabloid television shows was not ignored in
the network executive suites. This new focus led to lowered standards in news judgment
and started the spiral of dumbing down the news.
The responsibility for credibility, for fairness, balance and accuracy is in the hands
of the generation of broadcast journalists now taking over command responsibility. These
men and women have grown up with the new reality.
Quality is decreasing because many new generation television managers lack the eye for
detail and the seasoning of their predecessors that gave stories extra depth and
sensitivity. Couple this with a smaller budget and a shorter deadline, and much substandard content will make air on a regular basis. As a result, the audience has become
accustomed to shoddy reporting to the point that the average viewer does not necessarily
expect, and probably could not discern the difference between a well-produced story and
a below-average one. The perceptive audience is the older generation of the past. The
ratings are with the younger and less-discerning generation of the future. The sad truth is
that since the mass audience cannot perceive the difference, management is reluctant to
spend more money to improve the product. Recall the producer who told us that her
station had doubled the amount of airtime and had cut the staff by a third.
The new leaders who are taking over at network and local newsrooms are part of a
generation that was raised watching television. Their thought processes and attention
span have been shaped not by ideas themselves, but by the way those ideas were
presented on television. Shorter is better. Imagery is as important as substance. And
because virtually all the information this TV generation has absorbed in its life has come
from television, it has little interest in, or inquisitiveness about anything beyond what it has
seen on television. In some cases, today's television producers, reporters and managers
have no interests besides television news itself. Perhaps if television producers spent less
time being obsessed with producing television and more time having lives in the real
world of their communities, they would plug in to a whole new world of subject matter for
their newscasts. Weve seen how, among the best practices, a very few news directors
have urged their employees to become more actively involved in real life activities, even to
the point of avoiding social engagements with their colleagues at the office. That
awareness would increase the quality and humanity of those broadcasts and win over the
audience by reflecting that audience's actual lives and needs
Name_________________
Period_______
Authors
Frances Waible
Julie Lucas
Av Westin
Av Westin
Grades: 9-12
Candid cameras
The Publics Right to Know vs. the Right to Privacy
One network keeps an informal running total of new hires and when a critical
mass is reached, usually every six months, top management holds illustrated
seminars to expose them to the fundamentals of achieving and maintaining
fairness, balance and accuracy. They present case studies, showing pieces of
videotape and posing questions about fairness, about bias, about race, about
male/female differences. They concern themselves with court decisions and
federal and state laws governing libel, privacy, and trespass. These seminars
are felt to be very effective and provocative reminders for young producers that
they are in the news business, not show business. (Westin, If The Truth Be
Known)
1. To introduce this lesson, use the attached excerpt from If The Truth Be Known and
from other sources on privacy issues as they relate to freedom of the press. Assign
these readings to the class.
2. Engage the class in a discussion of the readings, particularly emphasizing the
ethical issues involved for a reporter of the news.
3. After introducing the assignment to the students, divide the class into small groups.
You will need to have an equal number of reporter groups matched with an equal
number of interviewee groups.
4. The groups who will be reporters will be participating in a news conference. Allow
them one class period to write questions for all of the potential interviewees. The
students in the reporter group need to develop their questions on their own, since
they represent competing news organizations. Students in the interviewee groups
will assume the roles of the people being interviewed. They need one class period to
develop their written story Make arrangements for the matching groups to
videotape their news conference.
5. Show the videotapes of all the news conferences to the whole class to illustrate
good and bad questions from the reporters; to debrief how the interviewees felt,
being put on the spot; and to discuss the overall topic of how much the public has a
right to know.
Scenario
A popular varsity football athlete has been accused of being the leader in an
exceptionally brutal hazing incident that occurred in the school locker room. The
(as yet) unidentified accuser is a relatively unknown sophomore. Rumors
begin flying around the school, pegging the identity of the accuser on three junior
varsity boys, none of whom is confirmed. No one in the school administration
will confirm or deny the identity of the accuser. However, several students are
posting pictures of which they think are guilty both accused and victim on
various internet sites. Opinions are running high throughout the school both
supporting the athlete and his victim (s). What do you do, and how do you report
the incident?
People to interview: School administration, the coach, law enforcement, members of the
football team, parents.

common good
constitutional system and issues regarding the judicial protection of individual rights
Civics, Standard 19: Understands what is meant by "the public agenda," how it is set,
and how it is influenced by public opinion and the media
Civics, Standard 26: Understands issues regarding the proper scope and limits of
rights and the relationships among personal, political, and economic rights
Language Arts, Standard 4: Adjusts use of spoken, written, and visual language to
communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
Language Arts, Standard 7: Conducts research on issues and interests by
generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. Gather, evaluate, and
synthesize data from a variety of sources to communicate their discoveries in ways
that suit their purpose and audience.
Language Arts, Standard 11: Participates as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and
critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Candid cameras: The Publics Right to Know vs. the Right

to Privacy
Privacy
Invasion of privacy through the use of hidden cameras is one of the most frequent complaints
against television news producers. More specifically, public responses to polls about the
fairness of TV news demonstrate that viewers question whether broadcast journalists have been
prying into relatively unimportant, private matters. An increasing number of lawsuits have been
filed against broadcasters involving alleged invasion of privacy.
Best Practices
The first question to be asked and answered by the reporter and producer is, Is there an
expectation of privacy?
Remember that judges and juries ultimately can decide whether journalistic activity constitutes
intrusion and is subject to sanction.
Stay in close touch with your companys lawyer. You and your staff are probably not up to the
minute on libel laws and invasion-of-privacy lawsuits. Nonetheless, be familiar with some of the
legal underbrush.
There are four categories of privacy claims. To be sure, they overlap, but the courts have
identified them as:
False light: In a false light claim, it must be established that the disputed broadcast damaged
the claimants reputation by containing information that would be highly offensive to a person of
ordinary sensibilities.
Private facts: Private facts cases involve material that, though truthful, may be embarrassing
or highly offensive and not of legitimate concern to the public.
Misappropriation: Misappropriation is sometimes referred to as the right of publicity, which
generally prohibits the use of the name or picture of any individual without his or her prior written
consent.
Intrusion: Intrusion is defined as the intentional intrusion, physically or otherwise, upon the
solitude or seclusion of another or his private affairs if the intrusion would be highly offensive to
a reasonable person.
Sound Bites
! Unlike libel which requires a false statement, the whole premise of privacy is that it is
true embarrassingly, excruciatingly, and intrusively true.
! "There's a case, believe it or not, that arose from a TV story about love. Two people
were videotaped while walking in the park on a beautiful day. It illustrated that love
blooms in the spring. Unfortunately, it happened that they were having an affair and
obviously, they didn't want to be seen on a broadcast. They sued. The courts said that's
the price of being in an open society. If we took their picture in a bedroom in a hotel,
that would be viewed as an unacceptable intrusion."
Being Fair
In emotion-filled social issues, one side is usually advocating change while the other is
defending the status quo. Often the advocates of change are given the first opportunity in a
report to present their ideas. Producers or reporters put the dramatic pictures suggesting
change up front, establishing a mood for the remainder of the piece. The other side, those
resisting change, can find itself having to defend, react and answer. The rebuttal frequently fails
to achieve enough emotional or factual punch to overcome the initial advantage. Hence the
reports are unbalanced.
Best Practices
Reverse perspective breaks the formula, deliberately giving the antis a chance to go first and
making the pros respond. It does not matter what the reporter feels is the better argument.
What is essential is that reverse perspective, when applied, is a way to ensure that the
continuing coverage of a debate is fair and balanced.
Producers and reporters should always ask themselves how the other side would perceive
what is being reported. They may not like it, but they should be able to acknowledge that the
presentation is fair and accurate.
Sound Bites
You listen to your instincts and you listen to your own sense of fairness. Im always playing
devils advocate with myself and asking myself, what would somebody else say to this?
Occasionally, I will assign somebody to do a piece from the unpopular point of
view; and it's amazing how often the reporters will resist that. They say, 'you're
making me be biased; I can do an evenhanded piece with this guy's point of view
and that guy's point of view. Why are you making me take a biased point of view?'
My answer is I don't think we represented that point of view enough, so let's go to
the other extreme.
Name_________________
Period____
Authors
Frances Waible
Julie Lucas
Av Westin
Adapted from If the Truth Be Known, and Best Practices for Television Journalists,
both by Av Westin
Grades: 9-12
The Usual Suspects

The Out There Syndrome, Sourcing and Conducting Interviews
Introduction
Learning how to interview is an extremely valuable skill for all students to develop. It is
especially important for the budding journalist. Interviewing requires good research and
listening skills, both of which are essential communication skills for all students. The
following assignment can be used for a variety of purposes not only for a journalism
class but also for a language arts class.
In television, on-air credibility begins with accurate reporting. Accurate reporting
begins with accurate newsgathering. It's obvious. Getting the facts and getting them
corroborated is the bedrock of journalism. (Westin, If the Truth Be Known)
1. After introducing the assignment to the students, allow them one class period to
read the attached Essential Reading Material supplement (Av Westin material)
and to write their questions.
2. Divide the class into three groups. Over a three-day period, students will be
participating each day either as a reporter or in a role as a person being
interviewed. You will need to make sure each student has an opportunity to serve
in the roles of both reporter and interviewee. The class will conduct a news
conference for each scenario. The students who are reporters represent
competing news organizations.
3. Arrange to have each news conference video taped. Have the class watch all the
tapes in order to have a class discussion on the issues of fairness, balance, and
accuracy.
4. Two follow-up assignments may be valuable, dependent on the class time
constraints.
a) Have students write a reflective essay discussing the importance and
relevance of these issues to the real world.
b) Have students videotape their script based on what they experienced in the
news conference. Have the class watch the videotapes to evaluate fairness,
accuracy and balance in the script.
Scenario 1
A popular high school football athlete died suddenly after a routine team workout.
Rumors are flying throughout the school. Some of his teammates saw him eat two
pistachio nuts before he had a seizure in the locker room, and are sure this resulted
from a food allergy. Others whisper they thought he was ingesting the drug Ephedra to
lose weight. Some are convinced he was using steroids to improve his sports
performance.
People to interview: the boys parents, a hospital representative, the coach, the county
coroner, the boys best friend, fellow athletes. Who would you talk to in order to verify
the cause of death?
Scenario 2
Rumors are floating around school that the school board will allow the police to search
the school using dogs. Having just taken a Government class, you are convinced that
this would violate the right to privacy law.
People to interview: the principal and/or superintendent, a government teacher, a
parent, a board member, the chief of police, one of your friends.
Scenario 3
A popular teacher will allegedly be dismissed because he allowed his students to use
inappropriate language and sexual innuendo in completing an advertising assignment.
The student projects were prominently displayed in the classroom for all to view, and
were the subject of much conversation throughout the school.
People to interview: the principal and/or superintendent, the teacher, the president of
the teachers union, students involved in the teachers class.
Assignment
Each of you will be assigned one of the scenarios listed above. Your job as a reporter is
to find out the truth and to write a story for the evening news that is balanced, fair, and
accurate.
1. Write a series of questions that you would want to ask each of the people listed
for the scenario.
2. Decide how you will approach each interviewee during the news conference. Will
you be sympathetic, hostile, etc?
3. For the role you are assigned, write down facts as you know them concerning
the situation. Remember that your job will be to answer the questions as asked,
not to volunteer any additional information on your own.
4. After the news conference, write your script for the story you would put on the
evening news.
Remember to do the following:
Write open-ended questions which will encourage the person to talk, not just give
you a one-word answer
Prepare possible follow-up questions
Be very aware of the words you use in your questions. Your word choice will change
depending upon the person you are going to interview.
A good reporter must be aware of being accurate, getting the information correctly;
of presenting information in a balanced and fair fashion, making sure that the other
side gets its say

Civics, Standard 3: Understands the sources, purposes, and functions of law,
and the importance of the rule of law for the protection of individual rights and
the common good
American constitutional system and issues regarding the judicial protection of
individual rights
Civics, Standard 19: Understands what is meant by "the public agenda," how it
is set, and how it is influenced by public opinion and the media
Civics, Standard 26: Understands issues regarding the proper scope and
limits of rights and the relationships among personal, political, and economic
rights
Language Arts, Standard 4: Adjusts use of spoken, written, and visual
language to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for
different purposes.
generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. Gather, evaluate,
and synthesize data from a variety of sources to communicate their
discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
Language Arts, Standard 11: Participates as knowledgeable, reflective,
creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities
Av Westin: Essential Reading Material for Students (taken from

Best Practices, and If the Truth Be Known.
The Usual Suspects: The Out There Syndrome, Developing

Sources, and Conducting Interviews
The Out There Syndrome
In television, on-air credibility begins with accurate reporting. Accurate reporting
begins with accurate newsgathering. It's obvious. Getting the facts and getting them
corroborated is the bedrock of journalism. In the real world of getting on the air, it is
disingenuous to say that at any given hour on any day, night or weekend, television
producers are able to exercise all the editorial restraint that they should.
It may be due to 24/7 or simply to competitive juices but in essence, Out There
means that when a competing news organization has reported something, putting it Out
There, another news organization feels free to cite the first organization as the source. As
a result, a considerable amount of current television reporting is based on what somebody
else, and often somebody else at another news organization, says are the facts.
Best Practices: Criteria for Inclusion
Does it pass the common sense test? Does it sound right?

Attribute every story to a source: a newspaper, a wire service report, or a competing
station.
Consider who the sources are and then try, if possible, to confirm independently what
that source says. If it's a local story and it's in a local newspaper, dont just take it out
of the newspaper. Try to find out whether or not it's true using your own resources.
Involve senior management. If somebody else's story is going to be carried without
your own confirmation, set up a system requiring it to be approved by two senior
executives. When reporting on a sensitive or controversial story, particularly one
involving private lives of public figures, two senior executives should approve it.
Best Practices: Sources

Establish some very clear rules about sources and try to stick to them under
deadline pressure. Guidelines can govern the use of anonymous sources, establishing
when they are prohibited or under what circumstances they will be allowed. Guidelines
can set the minimum number of sources required in the different categories of stories.
If your requisite number of sources in not provided by the reporter in time for the
5 oclock news, then hold the story for the 6 or the 11. It takes courage because
there is no guarantee the competition will be exercising the same journalistic
restraint.
As a reporter who is actually watching as a story develops, do not be a yes-man,
blindly accommodating the desires of the people back in the studio for hyperbole
or exaggeration. Report just what you know to be hard facts.
Acknowledge the darker side of the business in order to deal with the
compromises that real time operations require. Bring up some of the more
difficult situations you have found yourself confronting whenever management
holds seminars dedicated to ethics and raising the standards of journalism in the
newsroom. By sharing concerns with management above and staff members
below, practical solutions to real world challenges may be easier to discover.
Best Practice: Confirmation, on and off the record

There are several levels of confirmation:
On the record: That means a reporter is free to use all material from an interview including
quotes. An on the record source can be identified by name.
Not for attribution: It can also be referred to as on background. No matter what its called, it
means reporters can use the information and the quotations but cannot identify the source.
Its understood that a source on background means Don't use my name. It's not for
attribution, but the journalist knows he or she is on the right track. Someone may not be able
to go on the record but will confirm something saying on background that yes, you're on
following the right lead and you should feel comfortable saying this.
Sound Bites
! Sometimes people just say, Nope, were not talking to you, were not responding to
you, no comment. Faxing or Fed Ex-ing a letter usually gets their attention. A letter gets
worked around the company, and it reaches the lawyer or someone who is more likely to
listen and respond.
! It is essential that these letters be labeled as allegations and do not claim that youve
found the Holy Grail and know theyre committing a crime. You must show that youre
still pursuing the truth and that you havent reached a predisposed, preconceived view of
the case.
! The job is to be fair and balanced. Do not get ticked off at the XYZ Company, especially
when they say something like, The president is never going to call. Get lost! A
producer, especially after spending a lot of time trying to get their side on camera, does
tend to get upset. Put that aside and treat [company officials] the way you would if they
hadnt blown you off. Maybe it solidifies an opinion that theyre up to no good, but you
shouldnt write the script that day. Cool it.
! Our ability to access the Internet has revolutionized the time frame in which one
can become, at least conversant. You may not be an expert. You may still
absolutely be a dilettante, but you can become conversant pretty quickly by using
the Internet. You have to make sure that your reporters are as prepared as you
!
!
possibly can make them, before they leave the station and going out and hitting
the story. Use the Web as a research tool, but be very careful."
"It was amazing, looking back, how much misinformation we got away with
and were never called on. It wasn't because we willingly ran stories that
were improperly checked; there was only so much time during a day. You
had to come back with something. You're frantic, at the last minute, to
squeeze it all down and hope you don't have a lawsuit at the same time.
You lived in a city with a lot of traffic. We had one helicopter and
sometimes the helicopter couldn't come get you and your tape and
because of all the mountains you couldn't shoot it back. Triple-checking
sources and holding a story until the next day became less and less
important and wasn't even important because you couldn't. You couldn't
leave the shop and not come back with a story."
"In a breaking news situation, a murder uptown, it's go, go, go, go, go!
Your crew is outside, what are you still standing here for? Why are you
talking to me? My boss has shouted at me, 'Why am I seeing your face?
You're still talking to me; that means you're not doing your job.' Whoever
you find first is your best friend. Is what theyre giving you necessarily
accurate information? You dont have the time to get three sources to
document what this person is saying. You just hope that the man with the
big hat at a fire or the guy with the most stripes is going to be accurate.
The idea of two sources these days in breaking news of national significance is often a
luxury that you cant afford. Its disingenuous to say that at any given hour on any day,
night or weekend that we exercise all the restraint we should.
When you get back to the office, do they ask you if you have three
sources? No. What they ask is 'Do you have the interview? Do you have
this footage? Can you do a minute-and-a-half?' And if the answers to all
three of those questions are 'yes,' you're golden. You just hope and pray
that the newspaper doesn't come out the next morning and disprove
everything in your piece. If you need three sources, the best practice is do
not lead the 5 o'clock, lead the 11. But does that mean that your
competition also is going to wait? No. If you don't have the story at five,
Variety next week says you dropped the ball. You weren't there for the
big fire. You didn't have it until the 11 o'clock news.
The Out There Syndrome

It may be due to 24/7 or simply to competitive juices but in essence, Out There
means that when a competing news organization has reported something, putting it Out
There, another news organization feels free to cite the first organization as the source.
As a result, a considerable amount of current television reporting is based on what
somebody else says are the facts. It is copy cat reportage and not the result of the
reporters own research:
As an actual example, teachers can use the story of Richard Jewell: The Atlanta
Constitution had on its front page that a security guard named Richard Jewell was a
suspect (in the bombing at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996.) Other news
organizations and their reporters picked up the Constitution story and reported it as a
fact. After all, The Atlanta Journal was reporting it. NBC was reporting it. Good and
faithful people were reporting this. The almost universal consensus in newspapers,
magazines and on television was that the bomber had been caught and he was Richard
Jewell. Some news executives questioned the story telling their managers that 'we don't
know if he's a suspect, we don't know anything about this guy. How can we say he's a
suspect?' Eventually, Jewell was declared not to be a suspect and years later, the real
bomber was tracked down and arrested. The Richard Jewell story and its aftermath is a
perfect example of a story being out there.
Sound Bite
! "There's a greater propensity to use what someone else has reported, even
though you haven't checked it out yourself. You don't know who the sources are.
If someone's reported it, I'll report that someone has reported it and I'm off the
hook. As a best practice, try not to do it ever."
The Interview
Editing is essential to the practice of journalism. The objective of the editing
process is to produce a clear and succinct statement that reflects fairly, honestly and
without distortion the spirit, context, tone and reality of events and interviews. Even when
an interview is edited for time or any other reason, what the audience sees and hears
should still be an accurate reflection of what the reporter, camera and microphone saw
and heard. The sense of the interview must not be changed.
Best Practices: Interviewing, editing and ethics
Be sure that reverse questions do not distort the tone or content of the interview as it
was initially conducted. The reverse is not supposed to be used to add drama or
sharpen up a poorly phrased question asked in the first place.
When doing cutaway shots, reporters should not nod, smile or express visual
agreement or disagreement. A nod of the head or a smile implies agreement with the
thoughts being expressed in the interview. Reporters neither agree nor disagree, they
simply report.
When interviews are recorded simultaneously with two cameras, the reporter may of
course register appropriate visual expressions, such as smiling at a joke.
Because of many guests limited availability, reverse questions are often recorded
after the guest has left. Some newsrooms require the reporter to ask the reverse
questions after listening to an audiotape made during the interview as the preferred
way to be accurate and to recapture the tone and context of the original question.
Some reporters, when pressed for time, rely on notes or simply their memories. One
best practice in this case is to ask a member of the camera crew to help by reading
back the reporters notes.
Name_________________
Period_______
Authors
Frances Waible
Julie Lucas
Av Westin
Grades: 9-12
A Failure To Communicate:
Bias in Network Newscasts
Preconceived notions about race and ethnicity and a lack of racial sensitivity
can influence story selection and content. This problem is at the heart of fair
and balanced presentation of television news. Mature judgments need to be
made on everything from assigning stories to deciding what file footage to
use. (Westin, Practices for Television Journalists)
Introduction:
Not only does bias appear in the words we choose to use, but also in the visual images
we choose to use to support those words. In the world of broadcast journalism, ethical
journalists need to attend to both the verbal and visual aspects of a story. It is important
for those of us who watch news programs that we pay attention to how a story is
shaped and the effect the words and images have on us.
Teacher preparation:
1. Divide class into groups of 3-4 students, and assign each group a separate major
network newscast from the networks ABC, NBC, CBS, and the cable channels of
Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. Make sure students cover the same time slot
i.e. 6 p.m. news, 10 p.m. news.
2. Have the student groups videotape the entire newscast, including the
commercials.
3. Print out the assignment sheet for the comparison/contrast activity.
4. Have the students view the taped broadcasts. Distribute copies of the
assignment sheet. Have the students work in small groups to begin the analysis.
5. After students have analyzed their network, pick one key major news story that
appears in every newscast. Have the class watch the clip of that same story
from each network. Then direct students to complete the comparison/contrast
assignment sheet.
6. After the students have completed the assignment sheet, have them report their
findings in either a class discussion or using a graphic organizer.
Time required: 2 class periods
News Coverage Analysis Sheet

1. What were the facts included, the people interviewed, the locations mentioned, and the
reporters involved in the lead story?
2. Examine the use of language in the story introduction. What were the descriptive words
the anchor or reporter used in describing the story? How were they enhanced or affected
by the visual images you saw while you watched the broadcast? What visual images
would you have included to accompany this story?
3. In the course of the broadcast, did the news stories use names of people interviewed or
anonymous sources to validate information? What effect does this have on the viewer?
4. Were there any examples of sensationalized reporting during the broadcast? Give
examples.
5. Did the producers use good judgment in deciding what information in the stories to air?
What information would you have used, deleted or expanded?
After viewing all the video clips, answer the following in a well-developed
paragraph.
6. How well did the coverage of the story seem to be fair, accurate, and balanced? What
are the differences in how the story was covered by (ABC, NBC, CBS), Fox News, CNN
and MSNBC? List the lead sentence used to open the story from each news outlet.
Talk about how each reporter presented the story. How did the reporting styles differ?
How were they the same? Was there any new information reported in the story from any
of the outlets?

Language Arts, Standard 7: conduct research on issues and interests by generating
ideas and questions and by posing problems. Gather, evaluate, and synthesize data
from a variety of sources to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their
purpose and audience
Language Arts, Standard 8: use a variety of technological and information
knowledge.
Language Arts, Standard 11: participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and
critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
Civics, Standard 11: Understands the role of diversity in American life and the
importance of shared values, political beliefs, and civic beliefs in an increasingly
diverse American society.
Civics, Standard 19: Understands what is meant by "the public agenda," how it is
set, and how it is influenced by public opinion and the media.

A Failure To Communicate: Bias in Network Newscasts

Its safe to say that in almost all newsrooms, blatant bigotry and intolerance do not
exist. What does exist, however, are preconceived notions about race and ethnicity that
can shape story selection and content. The conventional wisdom among many
assignment editors is that white viewers will tune out if blacks or Latinos are featured in
segments. That view can influence the choice of the person who will provide the expert
sound bite. There is no question that a lack of racial sensitivity affects news judgment. It is
a problem that goes to the heart of fair and balanced presentation of the news on
television.
Every business has its code words. Its not good television is a phrase many
have heard when participating in discussions about story selection and the casting of
experts and characters for longer pieces. Its not good television really means: Dont
use African-Americans or trailer-park residents as subjects.
Best Practices
Be pro-active in dealing with racial and ethnic issues and attitudes in the newsroom.
Management has to set standards as a best practice or break away from any existing
standards that justify biased news judgments.
Engage in a little self-examination of your own behavior that, after all, sets the tone for
everyone else in the newsroom. Do stories on your programs feature blacks, Hispanics or
Asians only when the story is about their particular groups? Do minorities appear as regular
people doing regular things that arent just associated with their ethnic backgrounds?
What is the approval schedule for stories involving blacks? Is it longer? And if a story is
approved, will it sit on the shelf a long time before being aired?
Discuss race. Discuss culture. Cultivate an environment where it is possible to explore
issues, and then figure out how to transfer the insights to the coverage of news stories.
Listen to and learn from staff comments. They go a long way toward rectifying what minority
staff members may perceive as managements insensitivity.
Sound Bites
! My bosses have essentially made it clear: We do not feature black people.
Period. I mean, its said. Actually, they whisper it, like cancer: Is she white?Yeah,
she's white.Are you sure? Well, I'm assuming because they are of Slovakian
descent. Well, go out and check. In other words, get on a plane, go out there
and make sure before we spend thousands upon thousands of dollars and send
our cameras that viewers are going to feel something for these people. Basically
that means, make sure they don't live in a trailerI have been told that when
people live in a trailer, people watching at home are not interested. And if they're
black, no one cares."
! "If I gave my boss a choice between a black female doctor at NYU (a teaching
hospital in New York City), and a white male doctor at Lenox Hill (an upscale
private hospital on the affluent East Side), she's going to pick the white male
doctor at Lenox Hill Even if what they say is identical. Period."
! The question that we ask all the time is, are we approaching a story from a biased
point of view?
! We needed a family that has [a mentally disabled] child for an hour on that
disability. I found a great, great upper middleclass family in Miami, but they
were black. I was told Find another family. I don't care how well they speak.
Since [the condition] is found in both white and black children, we should go
with the whites.
! One of our bureau chiefs is a black woman who constantly asks her staff
questions like Why was the interview with the black guy conducted
standing outside his house while the interview with the white guy was in
his living room with a picture of his family and his dog behind him? Its a
small thing but small things can make a difference in shaping a
newsrooms attitude. Viewers get the message too.
! What you need to look for in a white family is a lot less than what you
need to find in a black family. If the white family lives in a decent enoughlooking house in a decent enough-looking neighborhood, and they have a
swing set in the backyard and the kids' rooms look okay and they dress
all right, your cameras can make it look okay. As long as they speak all
right, you can call them middleclass and it's okay. If they're black, she
better be a doctor. He had better be running a computer industry and
they had better be sending their kids to private school.
! Its subtle thing. A story involving blacks takes longer to get approved. And if it is
approved, chances are that it will sit on the shelf a long time before it gets on the
air. No one ever says anything. The message gets through.
! Its a dirty little secret and everyone knows it.
Who Gets the Assignment?

A sensitive area for news directors and assignment editors is deciding which reporter
gets assigned to cover what story. A question faced routinely is: Should there be a
conscious effort to assign minorities primarily to stories about their own ethnic or racial
groups? It can be a controversial judgment call. Some African-American and Hispanic
participants in The Freedom Forum roundtables said nuances of minority community
culture or attitudes are overlooked if the reporting is by someone not from that group. It
was cited as a benchmark of fairness and accuracy in televisions coverage of racial and
ethnic matters.
Encourage the assignment desk to avoid automatically assigning stories based
on gender or based on race. If you are so hemmed in that you have to send a
person of a particular culture or color or gender to cover particular kinds of
stories, then you better have the money to have a huge staff.
In newsrooms where racial and ethnic diversity exists, youre going to see
white, Asian-American, African-American and Latino producers and
assignment desk people. The newsroom becomes a microcosm of out there.
Take advantage of the mix of backgrounds and interests, because the same
issues that are out there will then work their way back to the broadcasts.
A well-rounded reporter should be able to handle any subject matter. On the
other hand, in a complex story involving sensitive community feelings, it can be
productive to assign a reporter who brings special insights or experience to the
story. The decision of whom to assign should be influenced, finally, by who can
do the best job and who can have the best approach.
If there is a story focusing on a special community within the coverage area, try
to assign a reporter who has a direct connection to that community. If he or she
lives there, shops there and has contacts there, take advantage of it.
Otherwise, rely on the reportorial skills of the news staff generally.
Sound Bites
!
We dont like discussing race in our newsrooms because it can make us

uncomfortable. And if were uncomfortable, how can we have a team? We want
everyone to be working together. Newsrooms themselves first have to be prepared
to deal with issues of race before covering issues of race.
"To be honest with you, every day we look at the line-up and we look at which
producers are assigned to do the stories. We look at who is going to be on the air
doing them? Is it just going to be all white males, as it has been for a long time? If
it is, then there's a problem. We literally will go through the line-up and say, 'What
can we do about this?' On the one hand, it's not fair to penalize a particular
producer or a particular reporter because of who they happen to be. On the other
hand, we need to reflect diversity.
I encourage our desk to avoid assigning stories based on gender or based on
race. On the other hand, you try and match up your reporters when youre doing a
story. Always put the round pegs in the round holes and the square pegs in the
square holes. For me, its who can do the best job and who can have the best
approach.
If you walk into the newsroom, you're going to see Caucasian, Asian American,
African-American, and Latino producers and assignment desk people. I do that
deliberately. It helps if this place is a microcosm of out there, because the same
issues that are out there will then work their way back here. So, we have white
reporters doing stories about African Americans. We have African-Americans
doing stories about white people.
If there was a story that had to do with the historically black side of town, and I
had a reporter who was African-American who lived there, interacted there, got his
hair cut there and shopped there, I probably would send him. Hed have people he
could call on easily. Theres an understanding of the context.
Confront the Question

In The Freedom Forum roundtables around the country, the public raised concerns that
African-Americans were more typically shown being arrested as suspects than other minorities
or whites. In some newsrooms, producers have adopted pro-active procedures to make as
certain as possible that blacks are not automatically seen as the villains in crime reporting.
Theres a lively debate in newsrooms about what constitutes an incomplete description
not worthy of broadcast. Some news directors argue that their mission is first and foremost to
report facts, and if only racial or ethnic characteristics are available, there is reason to go on the
air with what is known. Example: If police are looking for a black male, six-foot-three, in blue
jeans, and a reporter had just seen a six-foot-three-inch male in blue jeans in the area, but he
was white, this meaningless lead would not be part of the news report. Sometimes skin color is
the only description you get. It is obviously a judgment call requiring editorial sensitivity.
Best Practices
The CNN production of Through the Lens is approximately 20 minutes long and
everybody who has been hired at CNN is required to view it. As an instructional tool,
showing it in your newsroom could be helpful. Through the Lens identifies many areas
of news coverage that are susceptible to imagery and narration that promotes
unintentional stereotyping. CNN anchors and reporters white, black, Hispanic and
Asian provide instructive admonitions for their colleagues in all segments of
newsgathering and production, using examples from CNNs own coverage to make
editorial points. It is a wide-ranging review of subjects including financial news,
international reportage, crime, drugs single parentage and alternative life styles.
A few selections illustrate why Through the Lens is a best practice all by itself.
1. Producers, for example, are cautioned to avoid an automatic linkage of
coverage of events in the gay community with medical coverage of the
AIDS epidemic. The point made in Through the Lens is that AIDS is not
exclusively a gay problem.
2. Using a video excerpt of live coverage of President Clintons State of the
Union Address, directors are shown that blacks in the congressional
audience were singled out on camera when the president talked about
welfare reform. Through the Lens pointed out that statistics prove that
welfare is not solely a black problem but the shot selection reinforced
stereotypical view that it is. Utilizing segments from edited stories, video
editors are also urged to be careful when they select the images they use.
3. Through the Lens devotes a considerable amount of time stressing the
precise use of language by, for example, advising against the causal use of
words like Third World and Terrorist and the automatic equation of
Fundamentalism with violence.
Through the Lens deals with a lot of subject matter as it provides a number of
best practice introductions to the fundamentals of fairness and accuracy in the
real world of broadcast journalism.
The indiscriminate use of racial characteristics when describing a suspect in a police
action goes to the heart of the fairness issue.
Make it clear that your reporters, producers and writers have to cite specific things like
clothing or facial marks before a racial reference gets on the air.
Do not identify people by race unless the description is complete enough to actually
identify the person. One standard requires that a person should be able to recognize
the suspect if he or she was seen in public, based on the characteristics being
broadcast.
Dont include a description unless its germane to the story, unless it can be used to
identify somebody in a particular way: a good clothing or height description, or an
unusual feature (e.g., seen carrying a black bag). If a description isnt accomplishing
any purpose other than perpetuating negative stereotypes and infuriating some
members of the community, it doesnt advance the story effectively.
Sound Bites
! A few years ago most of the blacks at CNN lodged a protest about the material
we were using on the air. They complained that every time we did a story on
poverty, we rolled out b-roll showing blacks, and every time we did a story on
crime, we rolled out b-roll with blacks in it. We went back and looked at our file
tape and, in fact, it was all black. I said, All right, Im going to authorize the
overtime. I want a team to produce a tape that raises the sensitivity of the reporter,
of the cameraman, of the tape editor and of the anchor.
! Someone at this network, who is a minority person, called attention to the fact that
in lot of our library footage showing arrests, all the perps are black. We started
reviewing it and it raised our consciousness. You just have to keep noticing it.
Best Practices: Unintended Bias
Video editors should be sensitized to the possibility of racial or ethnic

stereotyping when they select images to include in stories. Case in point: In a
story about unwed mothers, should every unwed mother be black? The
answer, of course, is no. The fact is, more unwed mothers are white than are
black.
Assign crews to get new cover video for crime stories and poverty stories.
Make sure the new material is balanced.
Bias may be unintentionally stored in film or tape archives. Review stock
footage files and clean out any residual prejudiced material from lesssensitive days. Make sure the staff looks at all arrests in an incident and
looks at all victims to avoid misrepresenting a racial or ethnic component of
stories.
Create a racially diverse rainbow Rolodex for experts in medical, financial
and scientific subject areas.
Create a mechanism to raise and maintain staff awareness of minority
attitudes and concerns. At NBC News, a pro-active Diversity Council meets
regularly to deal with fairness and balance. It consists of about a dozen news
employees of all ranks including bureau chiefs, reporters, producers and
people on the assignment desk. Council members also are called upon in
breaking news situations to review sensitive scripts before broadcast.
Stress the precise use of language for example, by advising against the
casual use of words like Third World and terrorist and the automatic
equation of fundamentalism with violence. Similarly, avoid an automatic
linkage of coverage of events in the gay community with medical coverage of
AIDS.
Sound Bites
! We were working on a story about whether parents or peers have more
influence on kids. We were showing kids playing games in a video arcade
and the cameraman shot some general cover footage including an image of
a little black boy with a gun. In the edit room, the editor was just shuttling
and he picked it, perhaps because he wasnt as sensitive. I flinched when I
saw it. My producer immediately realized why when she saw the look on my
face. She said black kid holding a gun, it's a stereotype. She changed the
shot. We see so many African-American boys with guns in the newspaper
and magazines. Every black boy does not own a gun..
! "Very often you'll see 'Black male, mid-thirties, 180-200 pounds.' Looking
outside at my newsroom right now that probably describes six people in my
newsroom. Clearly that's not enough to identify a person. If a description
isn't accomplishing any purpose on the air other than perpetuating some
negative stereotypes and infuriating some members of the community, it
doesn't really help a whole lot."
! If the police tell you only that theyre looking for two male blacks in their
early 20s, a journalist should weigh whether broadcasting such an
incomplete description is worth the racial stereotyping it will produce.
Name_________________
Period____
Authors
Frances Waible
Julie Lucas
Av Westin
Adapted from If the Truth Be Known, and Best Practices for Television Journalists,
both by Av Westin
Grades: 9-12
Hide in Plain Sight:

Researching the Legal Responsibility
and Ethical Accountability
of Using Hidden Cameras in News Gathering
Most hidden camera reporting involves some level of deception. Since we are in the
business of pursuing truth, here is more than a hint of hypocrisy when we use deceit to
chase that goal. We can only justify that inconsistency when we serve a greater
purpose such as pursuing a highly important (and otherwise elusive) truth. (Bob
Steele, High Standards for Hidden Cameras as quoted in If the Truth be Known by
Av Westin)
Good journalists face an ethical dilemma when deciding whether or not to use hidden
cameras in order to get to the heart of a story. What should a journalist consider in order
to make this decision? What legal and ethical guidelines exist to help a journalist decide
on the proper course of action?
Research Assignment
1. Read the excerpt from Best Practices for Broadcast Journalists. Be prepared to
discuss the reading in a class discussion.
2. Research legal decisions that affect or limit a journalists ability to use hidden
cameras. Two good internet sites to get you started are as follows:
! http: www.rtnda.org/foi/hcm.html (Radio-Television News Directors Association
and Foundation)
! http: www.umich.edu/~newzies/main/camera/hiddencam.html
(Technology & Broadcast News)
3. You must report on at least 3 court cases that pertain to
the use of hidden camera. For each case you must do the
following:
! Summarize the key elements of the suit
! Summarize the points of law upon which the court made its decision
! Describe the effect of the court decision upon the actions of a reporter
4. In small groups, share the court cases each of you has discovered. Develop a poster
chart that summarizes the information you have discovered. As a class we will
discuss
what legal considerations good journalists must consider before using hidden
cameras.
5. Based on what we have discovered, develop a list of questions you would ask a
practicing journalist about the use of hidden cameras in investigative journalism.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Provide copies of the attached Essential Reading Materials supplement for the
class.
Provide access to internet sites listed in the assignment for students. This research
should take 1-2 class periods.
Contact local TV stations (including PBS) to arrange for a guest speaker, a
practicing TV news journalist, to come to speak to your class(es). The local NTA
chapter will be pleased to facilitate this contact for you. Heres how to contact the
local NTA Chapter: Go to the national NTA website at www.Emmyonline.org. Click
on Academy Chapters. A map of the United States will appear, divided into
Chapter regions. Click on the region where your school is, and the local NTA office
address and telephone number will appear. Call that number and the local National
Student Television Coordinator will be able to assist you in contacting local television
station speakers.
Discuss in the class how this research might apply in real life situations. Are there
any current media cases, either local or national, about hidden cameras and TV
journalists?
For additional background in the legal and ethical issues facing journalists, students
may want to watch these films, which explore some of the more provocative ethical
journalistic dilemmas: All the President's Men, Absence of Malice, Broadcast News,
and Mad City.

Civics, Standard 3: Understands the sources, purposes, and functions of
law, and the importance of the rule of law for the protection of individual
rights and the common good.
American constitutional system and issues regarding the judicial protection
of individual rights.
Civics, Standard 19: Understands what is meant by "the public agenda," how
it is set, and how it is influenced by public opinion and the media.
Civics, Standard 25: Understands issues regarding personal, political, and
economic rights.
Language Arts, Standard 1: Reads a wide range of print and non-print texts
to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the
United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond tot he
needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal
fulfillment.
generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. Gather, evaluate,
and synthesize data from a variety of sources to communicate discoveries in
ways that suit purpose and audience.
Language Arts, Standard 8: Uses a variety of technological and information
resources to gather and synthesize information and to create and
communicate knowledge.
Technology, Standard 2: Understands the ethical, cultural, and societal
issues related to technology.
Technology, Standard 6: Uses technology resources for solving problems
and making informed decisions; employs technology in the development of
the development of strategies for solving problems in the real world.

Hide in Plain Sight: Researching the Legal Responsibility

and Ethical Accountability of Using Hidden Cameras in News
Gathering
Hidden Cameras
The basic tools for print reporters are the pencil and notebook. The basic tools
for television reporters are the camera and videotape. For years, print reporters had an
advantage. They could slip unnoticed into a location to cover a story; indeed, they could
even keep their pencil and pad in a jacket pocket, making notes after leaving the scene.
Broadcast journalists never had a chance. The very size of a television camera and its
need for special lighting made unobtrusive coverage impossible.
Today, TV reporters no longer have to hang back. Technology once again met
editorial requests to become competitive with print and cameras are now smaller, no
longer need elaborate tripods or special lights. Single person newsgathering crews have
proliferated. A single technician can record picture and sound. (In some cases, one
person not only operates the camera and the microphone but also conducts the on-thescene interview.) Some of the gear nowadays is no larger than the button on a reporters
dress shirt. A lipstick camera can easily be concealed in a reporters make-up kit.
Cameras can and do go everywhere.
The history of television is a chronicle of examples of new toys being developed
at the request of journalists and then being used, perhaps properly but often too
aggressively. The very first use of a hidden camera was on CBS Reports Diary of a
Bookie Joint, seeing people going in to bet in an illegal gambling den. From that, 60
Minutes pioneered the use of it in terms of seeing "wrongdoing" going on. There was a
famous Dan Rather piece called "Highway Robbery." Stories about people who turn
back car odometers and other mechanics who squirt oil underneath a car and say
theres a leak that needs to be repaired. And then in the '80s, Prime Time on ABC
expanded the use of hidden cameras, adding layers of visual proof to what were good
stories. It turned them into extraordinary stories. The very first time a hidden camera was
used at Prime Time, it documented harsh treatment at boarding care homes in Texas.
The producer and the cameraman posed as homeless people to see what happened
there. You saw people scavenging food from garbage dumps, because they were being
neglected and abused. In a situation like that everyone says -- that's a hell of a good use
for a hidden camera.
The very identifiable, usually grainy, appearance of a hidden cameras video
recording an alleged crime being committed or planned has a significant impact as
evidence. As a result, investigative reporting on TV has become the newest darling of
broadcast journalism. It inside look serves several purposes. There is the visual
documentation of evidence but in addition to fact finding, hidden camera videotape has
become a very valuable asset in the highly competitive arena of television news ratings
and promotion.
Sound Bites
! Understanding, of course, there's something about hidden cameras and lenses

that sort of create this sort of nefarious kind of atmosphere, a sort of an indicting
effect. Obviously, if they've got a hidden camera, you must be wrong, you must
be a terrible sinner. You are the bad guys on the other end of that lens.
The genesis of Best Practices stems from a concern that the public now perceives
the media to be insensitive and arrogant. The hidden camera is mentioned critically in
polls and in roundtables where members of the public have been asked to assess the
trustworthiness of television news personnel. A network lawyer observed there is a
tendency especially among younger producers who think that its fun, that its exciting,
that itll be great. I think, he said, the notion that these stories are more promotable if
they have a hidden camera element is something that encourages people to do them.
Courts at all levels have taken notice of their use, issuing stern warnings. The 7th
Circuit US Court of Appeals, for example, admonished broadcasters: Todays tabloid
style investigative reportage, conducted by networks desperate for viewers in an
increasingly competitive marketis often shrill, one-sided and offensive, and sometimes
defamatory
Criteria Used to Assess Hidden Camera Use

Being practical in the real world of television coverage in a competitive environment,
there are plenty of examples, particularly at local stations, where hidden cameras have
been used to good purpose in exposing wrongdoing. Although the stories arent always
earthshaking, they are nonetheless important and relevant to viewers.
Not all stories rise to the level of pursuing exceptionally important information of
vital public interest, such as preventing profound harm to individuals or revealing
great system failure The republic did not rise or fall on either of these stories. But
they were good, solid consumer pieces and people cared about them.
It is also true that in many cases, the hidden camera has been used for hype and
sensationalism and ratings.
The technology has gotten very accessible. Almost every local market now has a
hidden camera. In sweeps, there are news directors who say go get me a hidden
camera story; go use that rig youve got, and get me a spycam story. They think it
spikes up the ratings because people really want to watch it. I saw a story recently,
on local news where they used a hidden camera to go shopping, just to buy
groceries. Why do you need a camera to buy groceries? You just go in and buy
groceries
What follows is a compendium of editorial best practices currently in place at some
newsrooms around the country. It represents the combined comments and practical
considerations of a number of news directors and news executives. In some cases,
anecdotal references have been included because they provide specific examples of
how questions are being handled in real situations. Best practices in one newsroom may
provide guidance somewhere else when similar situations arise.
We started our investigative unit here nine years ago. Our first story caught city
workers sleeping in their trucks, eating donuts and killing time instead of working. It
hit like a bomb and our unit was in business. Our investigations have changed laws,
reformed government agencies, saved tax money, and, in the process, humiliated
people. It wasnt long before we recognized we had to exercise caution.
Prior Check System

As a best practice, explicit permission has to be granted by management before
any hidden camera project is undertaken. It requires reporters and producers to make
their case before heading out with their hat cameras, eyeglass cameras and button
hole cameras. News organizations have several variations on a multi-step prior check
system as a best practice.
The decisions can not be made by anybody who is not part of senior news
management, whether it's the news director or the executive producer at a network
level. I think it has to be made at that level. You bring to bear all of your experience
on it, not just experience in news but your experience as a person.
The prior check in one news organization sets this routine as a best practice.
The review goes from the producer to the senior producer in charge of investigations to
the lawyer and then to the executive producer. If its a particularly sensitive issue, after
passing through lower levels, it goes to the General Manager of the station.
Significance of the Story

Several news organizations have developed checklists of editorial criteria to
determine the need for a hidden camera. Frequently, the first one asked is this: Is the
story significant enough to warrant such extraordinary information gathering
techniques?
I think the first thing I would say is that you have to believe before you go any further
that you can't do the story without a hidden camera. Or if you could do it, it would be
so weak that perhaps you would never do it. So what you hope to get on hidden
camera is vital to understanding what the story is about.
A story must be important enough to use hidden cameras before we even start. We
dont want to use a flame-thrower to kill a flea.
It is good to set a standard of commission of a felony or serving a greater purpose
such as pursuing a highly important (and otherwise elusive) truth.
In judging the importance of the story ask: Is the tool overpowering in relation to the
relative significance to the story? Heres an example: Producer X says there is a
personnel agency scam in this little town. This guy sits in an office and he advertises
in the local paper that he can send prospective applicants for jobs around the world,
around the country. With a hidden camera, we can capture him over-promising. Yes,
if you pay us the fee we can get you five jobs in the state capital. He sort of
promises it and there are hints of a job. But here's a guy in this kind of back room
operation somewhere in a strip mall and we're basically dealing with a very low-level
scam. Maybe its only a subjective scam. It's not worth it to me at that point. It's
embarrassing to do that. It has to be major. It has to be significant and has to affect
real violations of the law not subtleties.
If the story meets the criteria of being significant enough to warrant the use of a
hidden camera, as a best practice, the next question should be Can you get the story
any other way?
We want to be sure that catching someone or something on hidden camera is just
about the only way we can prove our point. You need probable cause. That's a
pretty solid line. Not just a better visual story. It must be "evidence not video. You
need to have a pretty strong suspicion that your hidden camera will see evidence
that there's wrongdoing, either a crime or significant abuse, going on.
Some Specific Examples
A Midwest station did a story to demonstrate that airport security was lax, particularly
in the way their local airport dealt deal with handicapped. Put onto the story by a tip,
the station first sent a reporter to check on the situation. After getting the information
back, news management decided that only a hidden camera could show a
handicapped person circumventing electronic scanning at the airport gate. News
managements evaluation concluded that merely reporting about the situation would
not provide unassailable visual proof. The hidden camera was used to track a person
in a wheelchair with a bag of pennies under his chair. It could have been a gun or a
bomb and it should have triggered every security alarm in the airport. The video
documented that there was an unwillingness to make a disabled person get out of a
wheelchair and have the wheelchair go through security separately. The video
showed repeatedly that the wheelchair with its concealed weapon was allowed to
bypass security and even get on a plane. It was clear that at that particular airport,
there was a systematic flaw in the system. Before the broadcast, the station followed
another best practice. The FAA, the airline, and the airport were shown the tape in
order to provide an opportunity to alert security people around the nation to head off
potential copycats. Changes were implemented and the story was praised as
groundbreaking, exposing an obvious flaw in the security system.
WDIV Detroit used hidden cameras to document fire code violations in schools.
Having been refused permission by school authorities to openly videotape violations
that WDIV knew existed, hidden cameras were sent in. News management decided
that the safety issue raised by their reporting meant that the public good outweighed
the lack of permission.
A store was suspected of not checking the identities of people using debit cards
despite the stores claim that such checks were regularly undertaken. Thieves were
using stolen or lost debit cards to charge for goods. Debit cards when used;
automatically deduct the purchase price from the purchasers account so there is no
way to check on fraudulent charges. News management first sent a reporter to the
store to verify the sloppy practices. Having determined the truth of the allegations,
the station needed to avoid a situation in which it was our word versus their word.
News management determined to tell the story with supporting hidden camera video
and sent a producer to the store with a hidden camera. The video showed the lax
procedures. The decision to use the tape was made easier because the stores
operators were denying the activities that the stations investigative reporters had
witnessed during their visits to the store.
KSAT San Antonio used hidden cameras to record thefts from Goodwill bins in San
Antonio. Independent reporting had confirmed that material was being stolen. The
decision to use hidden cameras was based on news managements belief that
hidden camera video was the only way to document the thefts as they were taking
place rather than after the fact.
Name_________________
Period____
Authors
Frances Waible
Pat Goodrich
Audrey Nagel
Sue Schmitt
Julie Lucas
Grades: 9-12
If The Truth Be Told:

The Spin, The Bias, The News
The Evening News is a combination of the news of the day and feature stories, which
in some newsrooms are called take-outs; reports that merit more in-depth, time or
explanation. They play off recent news stories but not necessarily the news of that
day. They are stories that producers think people are interested in and that can
explain something. There are no absolutes, and in the competitive and bottom-line
oriented environment of TV news, goals collide with extremely harsh reality. Practical
solutions are seized upon simply to get the broadcast on the air. (Westin, Best
Practices for Television Journalists)
Introduction:
Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, and George Orwells 1984 portrayed media as everpresent, intrusive, a government tool for keeping watch on society. Present-day author
Michael Crichton presents the media in the novel Airframe in a very unflattering light,
with characters Jennifer Malone, Marty Reardon, and Dick Shenk helping to reinforce
our beliefs that the press is undeniably biased. Running counter to that point of view is
Stillwatch by Mary Higgins Clark the main character is a woman journalist who is an
ethical and responsible TV reporter. Which author is presenting the more truthful or
accurate view?
Project Overview:
This project will require you to research and analyze news coverage by the major
networksABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN over a given period of
time and to focus on a TV journalist. To accomplish this you will be working on
individual assignments as well as a group project. You will be completing analysis
sheets of news coverage, creating a power point presentation with your group, video
taping your journalist, and writing a formal paper based on the classs research.
Project Description
Phase I: Analysis of News Coverage by the Major Networks (Individual
and Group assignments)
Things to do:
Form your groups (3-5 people): Appoint one group member to be the facilitator.
This person is responsible for making sure each group member is doing his/her
part and reporting on the progress of the group.
Sign up for dates of news coverage: Your group can decide the week it wishes
to cover. Assign specific dates within that week to each group member.
Download information: Each group member will download information for a
specific date from the Vanderbilt University website: http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu.
You may have to register on the site, but the information is free. Each group
member will download information for ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN for his/her
assigned date.
Complete Charts: Each group member will complete the News Summary Chart
Part I, the News Summary Chart Part II for his/her specific date, and the
Commercials Chart.
Complete Group News Analysis Chart: The group will meet to complete the
News Analysis Chart, using data from each members summary charts. This will
be one of the handouts you will give to the class on your presentation day.
Collection of Individual Charts: The facilitator will collect everyones individual
charts to turn in along with the News Analysis Chart.
Due Date_____________________
Phase II: Focus on a Primetime TV News Journalist (Group

assignment)
Things to do:
Choose a journalist: Choose one from the list provided. Journalists can be
selected only once, and no two groups can do the same person.
Assign Tasks: Facilitators need to assign work to members of the group:
Research: someone in the group needs to access the internet for information
about your groups journalist. Print out information from a minimum of three (3)
different sources. You need to find information about the following: personal
background, experiences in journalism, the type of journalism he/she practices,
his/her journalism reputation, what other journalists think about this journalist.
Each network has its own website; this is a good place to begin. However, make
sure that you are also getting information about your journalist from sources
other than the network website. Remember, the website is promoting its talent,
and may not give you a totally objective analysis.
Videotape: someone in the group needs to videotape your journalist in action.
Your group needs a 3-5 minute tape of your journalist. Note that many of these
journalists are not on TV every day of the week, so you must find out when the
program he/she is on is scheduled to appear. Make arrangements to tape the
program. You may have to tape several shows in order to get 3-5 minutes of the
journalist in action. This tape will be part of your multi-media presentation.
Analyze: As a group, analyze the style of your journalist; comment on how
he/she delivers the story or information. Where did this journalist appear in
context of the whole show? Did he/she appear throughout the program? Only for
one story? Write a summary of the groups discussion. You will need to do this to
prepare for your power point presentation.
Report Progress: The facilitator needs to show the instructor that the research
on the journalist, the written summary, and analysis has been completed. The
facilitator also needs to verify that the group has made arrangements to
videotape their journalist.
Check in Date____________
Journalist List
Each group will choose a journalist on which to concentrate. Each journalist can only be
selected once.
ABC
NBC
CBS
Nightly
News
Dan Rather
Evening
News
Wolf Blitzer
Evening
News
(Sunday)
48 Hours
Paula Zahn
John Stossel
20/20
Peter Jennings
World News
Tonight
Stone Phillips
Dateline
John
Roberts
George
Stephanopoulos
This Week
Tim Russert
Meet the
Press
Lesley Stahl
Barbara
Walters
Diane Sawyer
20/20
Mike Wallace
Primetime
Thursday
Primetime
Thursday
Nightline
Morley Safer
Charles
Gibson
Ted Koppel
MSNBC
Chris
Matthews
Hardball
Joe
Scarborough
Keith
Olbermann
Scarborough
Country
Countdown
CNN
Tom Brokaw
Ed Bradley
Steve Kroft
Fox News
Bill OReilly
The
OReilly
Factor
Alan Colmes
Sean Hannity
Greta Van
Susteren
Brit Hume
Hannity &
Colmes
Hannity &
Colmes
On The
Record
Special
Report
60
Minutes
60
Minutes
60
Minutes
60
Minutes
Aaron Brown
Judy
Woodruff
Lou Dobbs
Wolf
Blitzer
Reports
American
Morning
News
Night
Inside
Politics
Lou Dobbs
Tonight
Phase III: Power Point Presentation (Group assignment)

Your power point presentation will present to the class all of the information that your
group has discovered about your news coverage dates and your journalist.
Things to do:
Review your groups news Analysis Chart. Your power point should highlight
the following:
Determine the most coverage: The issue or story that got the most coverage
over the 3-5 day period and how the networks differed in their coverage of the
event
Determine the most unusual: The most unusual story or coverage of a story
Summarize Strengths and weaknesses: Talk about each of the 4 networks
Summarize Advertising: A summary of the kinds of advertising found on the
network news and a discussion of the impact of such advertising on the viewer
(i.e. what age group, economic group, and educational group are the advertisers
targeting?)
Determine Balanced Coverage: Which network(s) had the most balanced
coverage of events? Why?
Review your groups information about your journalist. Your power point
should highlight the following:
1. Biographical information
2. Description of the journalists style. How objective is your journalist in
presenting the news? Does he or she interject a personal or political point
of view into their news coverage? (which you will illustrate by showing
your video tape clips)
3. Summary of your findings about the journalists reputation. Detail the
sources of your information.
Assign Work: The facilitator needs to assign work to each group member in
order to develop the power point presentation.
Copy News Analysis: Someone in the group needs to make a neat copy of
your News Analysis Chart to give to your instructor the day before your
presentation time. Copies will be made for the class.
Practice, Practice, Practice: The facilitator needs to make sure that the group
practices its presentation and each group member has an active part to play in
the presentation. **Anyone who is absent on presentation day will have to
develop his/her power point on a new journalist. **
View your videotape prior to presentation day. Make sure that you have
sound and picture, and that it is ready to go.
Check your power point on the computer in the classroom. Make sure it
looks the way you want it to. Make sure that you can access it for your
presentation day.
Sign up for a date to do your presentation.
Presentation Date________________
Phase IV: News Media Paper (Individual assignment)

After working on your own presentation and viewing the presentations of the rest of the
class, each of you should be well-prepared to write a paper which focuses on the
truthfulness of the media, versus the images we have seen in popular fiction and
movies. Explore the following in your paper:
What generalizations can you make about the medias coverage of events?
What are the similarities and differences amongst the networks? What are the
implications for the public of noting these?
How can the average citizen become a more critical consumer of what he sees
and hears on the news? How can the public best be educated to be wellinformed readers and viewers?
How does the format of the news presentations affect the delivery of the news?
What are the implications of creative presentation on the content of the news
that the networks are delivering?
Throughout your answers to the above questions, compare/contrast the images of the
media in the works we have studied with the truth of your research. Is this [the
image(s) in the novels/movies] a realistic portrayal of the news?
Use the above questions to help you form an original thesis that you can then develop
into a 3-5 page paper. This paper should be typed and double-spaced.
Due Date________________________
National Standards Met

Language Arts, Standard 4: Adjust use of spoken, written, and visual language to
communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
Language Arts, Standard 5: Employ a wide range of strategies as students write
and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with
different audiences for a variety of purposes.
generating ideas and questions and by posing problems. Gather, evaluate, and
synthesize data from a variety of sources to communicate their discoveries in ways
that suit their purpose and audience
Language Arts, Standard 8: Use a variety of technological and information
knowledge.
Language Arts, Standard 11: Participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and
critical members of a variety of literacy communities
Technology, Standard 2: Understand the ethical, cultural, and societal issues
related to technology
Technology, Standard 3: Use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing
technology-enhanced models, prepare publications, and produce other creative
works.
Technology, Standard 4: Use a variety of media and formats to communicate
information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences
common good
Civics, Standard 13: Understands the character of American political and social
conflict and factors that tend to prevent or lower its intensity
constitutional system and issues regarding the judicial protection of individual rights
Civics, Standard 19: Understands what is meant by "the public agenda," how it is
set, and how it is influenced by public opinion and the media

Av Westin: Essential Reading Material for Students (taken from Best Practices,
and If the Truth Be Known.
The Newscast
First, understand the challenges involved in getting a single evening news program on the air,
and the even more brutal test faced by 24/7 news channels. There are no absolutes, and in
the competitive and bottom-line oriented environment of TV news, goals collide with extremely
harsh reality. Practical solutions are seized upon simply to get the broadcast on the air.
The Evening News is a combination of the news of the day and feature stories, which in some
newsrooms are called take-outs; reports that merit more in-depth, time or explanation. They
play off recent news stories but not necessarily the news of that day. They are stories that
producers think people are interested in and that can explain something.
The governing criterion is elimination rather than inclusion. And the decision making is
done under almost unfathomable time pressures. Material is coming in from all over, pushing
against deadlines that are the fixed, scheduled air times for the newscasts. Unlike a newspaper,
which can Hold the presses! if there is a major late-breaking story, TV news programs have to
begin on the hour or half-hour. Maintaining editorial equilibrium under those conditions takes
years of experience.
In the case of the 24/7 news operations, ratings pressure sets the tone. Story selection
is determined by whom the audience is and what executives think is going to attract viewers.
Breaking news drives the audience. The only time people watch in great numbers is when
theres breaking news. They turn off the second its over.
Sound Bites
! The first criterion should be: Whats important, what should people know? What should
we be telling them with our valuable time?

! The evening news is no longer the only window that the audience has; '24/7, for
example, gives us more freedom to select what to put in, because it increases the
choices and the judgments that we can make.
! When you come in the morning (at a 24/7 news operation), what do you face? What you
face is a chart that says if its not hard news, were in for a rough day. This isnt the ideal
world. Ratings pressure sets a tone of what you select to put on and what you stay with.
Whos our audience during the day? Whoever is at home watching television creates
the natural line for a lot of stories. There's nothing wrong with that. A lot of tricks go back
to tabloid journalism. I don't necessarily consider tabloid a nasty word, if it sells papers
or sells soaps or sells us, and we get them in the tent. We're looking for the top stories
of the day and the stories that are going to attract and hold an audience and keep
people coming back to this network, so that when something big breaks, which is our
meat and potatoes, they will remember us and they will come here. That's what the real
world is about. Thats the overall mission.
Best Practices
The news director and the executive producers should have criteria for a broadcasts
content. This vision must be shared with everyone on the staff in order to maximize their
editorial and production expertise.
There are no absolutes, but there are a few axioms, including: Whats important? What
should people know?
Some newsrooms ask three questions in assigning background reports and deciding
whether to include material: 1.) Is my world safe? 2.) Are my home and family safe? 3.) If
they are, what else has happened in the world that affects them?
As opposed to specifically dealing with what is happening, try to answer the question, Why
are things happening? Viewers can find out what happened in a thousand different places.
But why they happened, what it looked like, when it happened and what it means to the
audience are areas that can be even more useful.
Decision-makers need to be open to different ideas. News directors and executive
producers should be willing to accept hard arguments made by smart people to do
something they think is right.
Sound Bites
! As a reporter, you tried to come back with as good a story as you could get, but also
you knew that you had to he ready so you could get on the air. Content would be
compromised at times. News value would be compromised just so you could make the
slot.
! You do the best you can in editing scripts and trying to catch mistakes. Its not always
easy. Things do slip and get on the air. More people are free-lancers and part-timers
with less experience. Trying to make sure that inaccurate things dont get on the air is
even more of a challenge.
Picking Stories: Sound Bites

! "I remember a time when a producer was literally charging around
the newsroom at 9 o'clock at night, because we hadn't gotten a lead
story for the eleven. At 9 o'clock, when the police wire came over
with a triple homicide, he was dancing around the newsroom, 'Thank
God we have a big lead story now!'"
Best Practices
In deciding what to include in the newscast, ask: Does it pass the common-sense test?
Does it sound right? Also weigh each story on the basis of the two Is: interest and impact.
How much interest is there, and how much impact would the story have on people?
Create a consistent tone of quality for the newscast. Diminish the use of the police scanner
as the principal source for a broadcasts content. Encourage the staff to connect with the
community, giving people information that affects their quality of life.
Script Review Policies: Sound Bites

! Pieces air on local television now that haven't even been screened by an executive.
Now it just gets on the air. There are no checks and balances. In this market, [New
York] there are O&O's (network owned and operated stations) where nothing gets
screened before air.
! Everybodys got to see the script. It sounds so basic. You just cant have a discussion
about a story. You have to be looking at words on paper.
! "The field producers will tell you that 'the rim [ABC News' editorial control center] bugs
the hell out of them because we see every script now. We revise them and we check
them because we have people here who are reading the wires. You have to make sure
that you're not putting words in the reporters' mouths but you want to be se theyre
covering all the bases.
! The producer had written something at 4 a.m., after having been awake for 36 hours. In
half the script the name was right for this person; in the other half it was wrong. All of the
senior producers, the editors and the support people in the field had signed off on it.
When it got to New York, somebody pointed out the inconsistency. Its simple: The more
eyes that look at it, the more of a chance you have to catch something.
Best Practices
Even under deadline pressure, every script should go through a rigorous approval process
not only to ensure accuracy but also clarity. Sometimes fairness and sometimes balance are
in question, as an unintended consequence of lack of clarity.
Producers and editors should read scripts and view the completed tape spots before they
are broadcast to check for accuracy but also to be sure hot adjectives or cheap shots are
edited out.
Try to devise a review system with enough time built in to go through every line and ask,
How do you know this? Who said that? How do you know it?
To meet deadline pressures for script approval, designate two or three people in the
newsroom who are authorized to OK a story. As a final firewall, give the anchor the
responsibility to at least read the script and raise questions before it is broadcast.
Ask What pictures do you intend to use on this? Why are you going to use those? Are they
current or are they from the files? Are they germane?
Be careful using video of a murder or a crime scene. Insist that editors ask, Can I use this?
If theres any doubt, leave it out.
Designate one person to be the editorial resource for ongoing controversial stories with
many moving parts. When reporters are assigned to cover the story, they know they can
check with a specific editorial supervisor to determine if that days developments are new
and what is a fair and balanced interpretation of the events.
Being Fair
In emotion-filled social issues, one side is usually advocating change while the other is
defending the status quo. Often the advocates of change are given the first opportunity in a
report to present their ideas. Producers or reporters put the dramatic pictures suggesting
change up front, establishing a mood for the remainder of the piece. The other side, those
resisting change, can find itself having to defend, react and answer. The rebuttal frequently fails
to achieve enough emotional or factual punch to overcome the initial advantage. Hence the
reports are unbalanced.
Sound Bites
! You listen to your instincts and you listen to your own sense of fairness. Im always
playing devils advocate with myself and asking myself, what would somebody else say
to this?
! Occasionally, I will assign somebody to do a piece from the unpopular
point of view; and it's amazing how often the reporters will resist that. They
say, 'you're making me be biased; I can do an evenhanded piece with this
guy's point of view and that guy's point of view. Why are you making me
take a biased point of view?' My answer is I don't think we represented that
point of view enough, so let's go to the other extreme.
Best Practices
Reverse perspective breaks the formula, deliberately giving the antis a chance to go first
and making the pros respond. It does not matter what the reporter feels is the better
argument. What is essential is that reverse perspective, when applied, is a way to ensure
that the continuing coverage of a debate is fair and balanced.
Producers and reporters should always ask themselves how the other side would perceive
what is being reported. They may not like it, but they should be able to acknowledge that the
presentation is fair and accurate.
The "Out There" Syndrome

In television, on-air credibility begins with accurate reporting. Accurate reporting begins
with accurate news gathering. Its obvious. Getting the facts and getting them corroborated is
the bedrock of journalism. In the real world of getting on the air, it is disingenuous to say that at
any given hour on any day, night or weekend, television producers are able to exercise all the
editorial restraint that they should.
It may be due to 24/7 or simply to competitive juices, but the out there syndrome has
become a fact of modern-day broadcasting. It means that when a competing news organization
has reported something, putting the story out there, another news organization feels free to go
with the story by citing the first organization as the source. As a result, a considerable amount of
current television reporting is based on what somebody else, and often somebody else at
another news organization, says are the facts.
Sound Bites
! Its probably one of the most significant changes since we first started as journalists.
Now theres a greater propensity to use what someone else has reported, even though
you havent checked it out yourself. You don't know who the sources are. If someone's
reported it, I'll report that someone has reported it and I'm off the hook. It's terrible. I can't
say that we've never done it.
! The Internet has added to that megaphone effect. Its just a serious problem.
Competitively, its probably impossible to put the genie back into the bottle.
! "It'll start as rumor in the morning and by 11 o'clock, the talk shows are
fighting for a guest for that night to react to the story. By the time the
guest goes on the air, the story may even have been knocked down but
you still have him or her talking about it. The guest is not questioning 'if it
was true.' The guest is going on the assumption that it is true, making
statements even when we've already proven that the so-called facts were
not true before they went on. It's totally muddied the water for the
viewers."
Best Practices
Attribute every story to a source: a newspaper, a wire-service report or a competing station.
Consider whom the source is and then try, if possible, to confirm independently what that
source says. If its a local story and in a local newspaper, dont just take it from the newspaper.
Try to verify whether its true using your own resources.
Involve senior management. If somebody elses story is going to be carried without your
independent confirmation, set up a system requiring it to be approved by two senior executives.
When reporting on a sensitive or controversial story, particularly one involving private lives of
public figures, two senior executives should approve it.
Ratings and Sweeps

Little else produced at local stations gets as much attention from station management
and from news department executives as sweeps. The intensity of ratings competition during
the sweeps periods frequently colors the judgment of assignment editors at local stations.
Producers save high-profile pieces and high-impact pieces to run then. In some markets, they
go strictly tabloid. Sex, murder, child abuse and celebrity-driven subjects are at the top of the
list, even though the choices are not necessarily limited to tabloid-type material.
As an industry-wide attitude, there is a growing belief among many news executives that
sweeps madness needs to be curtailed. Standing on a soapbox and preaching has little
practical value. Nonetheless, as a best practice, it is going to take some station or some group
of stations to announce that they are not going to continue to concentrate so many resources in
such a narrow time frame. News is a daily, changing process, and journalistic efforts can and
should be spread throughout the year.
Sweeps Sound Bites

! Clearly, sweeps have one purpose, and that is to get ratings and advertising dollars.
! We don't have a large-enough staff to have stories on every other day or
even every week. Most of our investigative stories, the best investigative
stories, can be held for two months so we can run it at sweeps. We live
for sweeps because 1) sweeps count the most and, 2) because they
spend more on investigative stories. People like to watch the stuff. A lot
more people are going to watch them so [management] want to spend
their money in sweeps.
! The money is there for the promotion (during the sweeps period) thats not there during
[the rest of the year].
! Its ironic because in some cases you do some of your best work in sweeps. You plan
projects for sweeps periods. Some of our very good reporting takes place in sweeps
some really heavy-duty investigative reporting.
! We live for sweeps because, first, sweeps count the most, and, second, because we
spend more on investigative stories. People like to watch the stuff. A lot more people are
going to watch them, so [owners] want to spend their money in sweeps.
Ratings Sound Bites

! "We have surveys commissioned and we listen to these surveys
constantly. The surveys tell us what the people like and we go along with
what they like."
! "Sometimes minute-by-minute ratings helps me understand when I'm not teasing
something well enough. Sometimes it helps me understand when commercials seem to
drive people away. You can see the audience reacting to what you're doing. You get the
sense of an answer to the question, 'is the program delivering something I want?'
! Ratings and research information that was never shared beneath a certain level started
being shared. Producers started worrying to a great degree about ratings and promotion.
Now, when you walk into some newsrooms, producers are talking about their quarterhour strategy, how theyre going to get the meter. They are not holding discussions
about, Should we be covering that? Why are we covering it? What's our story?
! I'd be lying to you if I said that [ratings] have no influence. [They have] some influence in
terms of what we select. For example, we have found that at certain times of the year
people seem to be much more interested in weather stories than they are in another
budget story or a tax-cut story or whats happening with price supports. In fact, during
periods of severe weather, our ratings tend to go up when we put a little more weather
on the air.
Audience Research Sound Bites

! I knew a news director who fired a couple of reporters because they got
bad research. I remember saying to him, these are two good reporters,
they're two of the best reporters on the street. Why would you fire your
two best reporters? And he said, because the research shows that
they're not charismatic enough. And I said, you can't measure charisma
for a couple of reporters who have ten seconds of face time on a two- or
three-minute piece. Anybody who is not on the air enough is not going to
get good research. It doesn't make them a bad reporter. The backbone of
your news operation is the reporting staff. It was tragic that two good
reporters got fired on the basis of (nonsense) like research, which really
had no meaning to them.
Best Practices
Look at the sweeps news reports in an overall context. Make sure they provide solid
reporting that gives useful information to the public.
Plan carefully. Involve the entire staff, perhaps by asking each reporter to come up with a
piece aimed at a specific audience.
Appropriate the proper amount of resources. Give reporters ample time for information
gathering. Use good production techniques.
Live Shots and Extended Live Coverage

If you are a news director or executive producer, you already know that every day there
are decisions to be made in less-than-ideal circumstances. You may still be striving to read
each script before it is broadcast, and to be sure that each story has two sources to back up the
facts and that the other side in controversial stories is always given an opportunity to make its
views known. Those are your goals, but you know they are absolutely impossible to achieve.
In an ideal world, a script or anchor copy would go through a couple of levels of editing.
First, it would be read by the producer of the newscast and then edited and approved by an
executive producer. But, in the real world, sometimes its very difficult to get it all done. With
more news being added to the schedule and fewer people doing it, which means even greater
time pressures, wrong things do get on the air.
If it bleeds, it leads is an accurate description of many news judgments in local TV
markets. Reporters and producers look for just those kinds of stories to inject excitement into
the show. Stressed-out producers can be highly intolerant of people who miss deadlines.
Sourcing may be spelled out in the standards and practices guide, but when a deadline looms,
well, things happen.
Sound Bites
! "There's such a fear of losing audience that you can't take the time. You
have to just jump in there and simply report who's saying what and where
your reporters are working as they deliver enough information to hold the
audience."
! My personal checklist is, Can I do this and wake up in the morning and look in the
mirror?
! As a reporter, you tried to come back with as good a story as you could get, but also
you knew that you had to be ready so you could get on the air. Content would be
compromised just so you could make the slot. It could have been a better story the next
day, but it had to run that day.
! "At our station, we have all these graphics that say breaking news. We put
a lot of emphasis on it because it's new, it's happening now and we feel
that you need to know about it and you need to know about it now. This is
the station that you are going to see it on. We understand that we need to
distinguish ourselves somehow from the competition, otherwise people
won't watch us. There's no reason for them to watch us unless we bring
something to the table that our competition doesn't."
! You see crisis on the face of the producer. The phone call comes in from the reporter,
and clearly the producer is hearing the report say, I dont have it. Or, This isnt a story;
we shouldnt be doing it. You see that look of panic: What am I going to fill that minutethirty with if you dont have something to give me?
! Out of necessity, this business has become more and more about time-sensitive
ambulance chasing.
Using Sources Sound Bites

! "It was amazing, looking back, how much misinformation we got away with
and were never called on. It wasn't because we willingly ran stories that
were improperly checked; there was only so much time during a day. You
had to come back with something. You're frantic, at the last minute, to
squeeze it all down and hope you don't have a lawsuit at the same time.
You lived in a city with a lot of traffic. We had one helicopter and
sometimes the helicopter couldn't come get you and your tape and
because of all the mountains you couldn't shoot it back. Triple-checking
sources and holding a story until the next day became less and less
important and wasn't even important because you couldn't. You couldn't
leave the shop and not come back with a story."
! "In a breaking news situation, a murder uptown, it's go, go, go, go, go!
Your crew is outside, what are you still standing here for? Why are you
talking to me? My boss has shouted at me, 'Why am I seeing your face?
You're still talking to me; that means you're not doing your job.' Whoever
you find first is your best friend. Is what theyre giving you necessarily
accurate information? You dont have the time to get three sources to
document what this person is saying. You just hope that the man with the
big hat at a fire or the guy with the most stripes is going to be accurate.
! The idea of two sources these days in breaking news of national significance is often a
luxury that you cant afford. Its disingenuous to say that at any given hour on any day,
night or weekend that we exercise all the restraint we should.
! When you get back to the office, do they ask you if you have three
sources? No. What they ask is 'Do you have the interview? Do you have
this footage? Can you do a minute-and-a-half?' And if the answers to all
three of those questions are 'yes,' you're golden. You just hope and pray
that the newspaper doesn't come out the next morning and disprove
everything in your piece. If you need three sources, the best practice is do
not lead the 5 o'clock, lead the 11. But does that mean that your
competition also is going to wait? No. If you don't have the story at five,
Variety next week says you dropped the ball. You weren't there for the
big fire. You didn't have it until the 11 o'clock news.
Other Ways
Obviously some serious editorial consideration is required to find ways to avoid the use
of hidden cameras. It is not necessarily easy. In the real world, malefactors are not likely
to come out into the open, graciously inviting close scrutiny of their activities.
Nonetheless, given the increasingly negative climate in the courts and in the publics
perception that television news is unfair and relies on sensationalism to garner ratings,
other ways at least need to be discussed. These specific editorial routine questions,
cited by reporters and producers as best practices, may help clarify the decision-making
process when a news manager sits down in an editorial meeting called to consider a
request to unlimber the spycam.
The first thing we do is ask why is it necessary not to disclose to the subject of a
story that you are a TV journalist and not show your camera? The traditional camera
interview has worked for decades. What's wrong with it in this case?
You don't have to use a hidden camera. In a consumer fraud story, you can take
the product out to the parking lot and go on camera and show it and say that you just
purchased this. The hidden camera wouldnt be necessary. It might be a nice
technique but it would not be necessary.
There's a generic category of stories where we frequently end up not doing it. That's
the consumer complaint story. Consumers are getting ripped off in some store and
they're being sold used goods when they thought they were new or its auto repair.
Usually theres the customer, a consumer, who has been victimized. So the question
we always ask is: What is the value of using hidden camera video as compared to
going to that consumer and getting him or her to describe what happened while
showing the defective product? Then the reporter can go back to the shop and say
Here's what happened to one of your customers. Whats your response?
When hidden cameras were first developed and before concerns about their use
led news management to put some brakes on their use, producers and reporters played
with the toy. Best practices in many newsrooms have changed that in many cases.
An individual said his lawyer had advised him not to talk to us on camera because
they were involved in litigation. The producer said Gee, Id really like to get some Broll of the guy. Would it be okay if we wore a hidden camera into his office just to get
a little B-roll? In the review, management took the position that while technically it
might be legal there was an alternative. Why don't you call the guy up and tell him
you realize that he can't speak on camera but you'd like to get a little B-roll. The
individual said OK and put on a jacket, walked down the street, and they got the
shots of him that they needed. Later, the producer agreed that it worked perfectly
well just as you said it would. It wasnt much fun but it worked okay.
On-Line Resources for

High School Broadcast Journalism
Media Research
American Journalism Review
http://www.ajr.org/
American Journalism Review is a national magazine that covers all aspects of print, television,
radio and online media. The magazine, which is published 10 times a year, examines how the
media cover specific stories and broader coverage trends. AJR analyzes ethical dilemmas in the
field and monitors the impact of technology on how journalism is practiced and on the final
product. AJR publishes strong opinions, lively articles and has an exhaustive list of online links
valuable to journalists, educators and students.
The National Association of Broadcasters
http://www.nab.org/Research/
NAB is a full-service trade association which represents the interests of free, over-the-air radio
and television broadcasters. The NAB Information Resource Center maintains a collection of
trade magazines, directories, and reference books, and links to other broadcast industry sites http://www.nab.org/irc/virtual/broadcast_industry_sites.asp.
The Poynter Institute
http://poynter.org/
The Poynter Institute is a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalism. It
promotes excellence and integrity in the practice of craft and in the practical leadership of
successful businesses. It stands for a journalism that informs citizens and enlightens public
discourse. In the years since its founding in 1975, the Institute has developed a rich mixture of
teaching and research programs, ranging from sophisticated courses and seminars for
professional journalists to basic classes at the elementary school level, and its website offers a
goldmine of media information.
Vanderbilt University Television News Archive
http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/
According to a story in the November 1991 issue of Texas Monthly magazine, CBS anchorman
Dan Rather said he lives with two burdens - the ratings and the Vanderbilt Television News
Archive. The Television News Archive collection at Vanderbilt University is the world's most
available, extensive and complete archive of television news. Since 1968, the Archive has
consistently recorded, indexed, and preserved network television news for research, review,
and study. As the Archive moves into its fourth decade of operation, the ever-expanding
collection holds more than 30,000 individual network evening news broadcasts and more than
9,000 hours of special news-related programming. These special reports and periodic news
broadcasts include coverage of presidential press conferences and political campaigns, as well
as national and international events such as the Watergate hearings, the plight of American
hostages in Iran, the Persian Gulf War, and Nightline.
Organizations
Alliance for a Media Literate America
www.nmec.org
The mission of the Alliance is to stimulate growth in media literacy education in the United
States by organizing and providing national leadership, advocacy, networking, and information
exchange. In order to help all people learn how to critically analyze and create messages using
the wide variety of technological tools now available in and out of school, the Alliance has
brought together a diverse alliance of individuals and organizations to create a national nonprofit membership organization that strives to bring media literacy education to all 60 million
students in the United States, their parents, their teachers, and others who care about youth.
First Amendment Center
www.firstamendmentcenter.org
The First Amendment Center works to preserve and protect First Amendment freedoms through
information and education. The Center, which serves as a forum for the study and exploration of
free-expression issues, has offices at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, and Arlington, VA,
and is an independent affiliate of The Freedom Forum.
First Amendment Schools: Educating for Freedom and Responsibility
www.firstamendmentschools.org
A national initiative of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and
the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center that seeks to reinvigorate the democratic mission
of education through a comprehensive teaching and modeling of First Amendment principles
across the school community.
Journalism Education Association (JEA)
http://www.jea.org/
The Journalism Education Association, Inc. is an independent national scholastic journalism

organization for teachers and advisers. Founded in 1924, JEA is a volunteer organization that
supports free and responsible scholastic journalism by providing resources and educational
opportunities, by promoting professionalism, by encouraging and rewarding student excellence
and teacher achievement, and by fostering an atmosphere which encompasses diversity yet
builds unity.
National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA)
http://www.studentpress.org/nspa/
In 1921, NSPA began helping students and teachers improve their publications. Today that goal
remains their number one goal. NSPA helps students become better reporters, writers, editors,
photographers, designers, desktop publishers, and advertising and business staff members.
NSPA also helps advisers.
Student Press Law Center
http://splc.org
The Student Press Law Center is an advocate for student free-press rights and provides
information, advice and legal assistance at no charge to students and the educators who work
with them. Three times a year, SPLC also publishes a magazine that summarizes current
cases, controversies and legislation, and analyzes trends involving student media law.
Youth Free Expression Network (YFEN)
www.fepproject.org
The Youth Free Expression Network (YFEN) is a project of the Free Expression Policy Project
(FEPP), a think tank on artistic and intellectual freedom. YFEN works to empower youth to
advocate on behalf of their own free expression rights through a speaker's bureau for young
activists, a website, educational materials, and direct outreach to minors.
Educational Tools, Lessons, Resources

The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE)
http://www.highschooljournalism.org/index.teachers.cfm
The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) in cooperation with RTNDF has created
the High School Journalism Project, offers a scholastic journalism site on the Web for students
interested in the craft, their teachers/advisers, guidance counselors and professional journalists.
Content, which is updated several times a week, includes skills-building exercises, sample
lesson plans, a spotlight on high school newspapers across the country, interaction with
professional journalists, updates on scholastic press freedom issues, a database of journalism
scholarships and links to university journalism programs.
Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Syllabus Project

http://www.beaweb.org/syllabi.html
BEA offers suggested readings/course syllabi on: Television Production & Aesthetics, Audio
Production, Broadcast News Writing, Broadcast Programming. The BEA site offers broadcast
news writing syllabi (college level) from various universities can be helpful in planning high
school courses
A Journalist's Guide to the Internet
http://reporter.umd.edu/
A site that features links to nearly everything aspiring reporters and teachers use in research,
and is administered by Christopher Callahan, associate dean of the Philip Merrill College of
Journalism at the University of Maryland at College Park and senior editor of American
Journalism Review.
Journalism & Mass Communication Educator (JMCE)
http://www.psu.edu/dept/commresearch/JMCE/index.html
JMCE focuses on learning and teaching, curriculum, educational leadership, and related
exploration of higher education within a context of journalism and mass communication. Each
issue introduces readers to new questions, new evidence, and effective educational practices
through research, essays and book reviews rooted in the disciplinary content and practices of
the academic and professional specialties we ask our students and faculty to master. The
journal focuses on learning and teaching, curriculum, educational leadership, and related
exploration of higher education within a context of journalism and mass communication.
The Newseum
http://www.newseum.org/educationcenter/teachingtools/index.htm
The Newseum (part of The Freedom Forum), is currently updating and will continue to offer its
educational programs, publications and online resources while the new, expanded Newseum in
Washington, D.C. is under construction. Their goal is to help the public become better news
consumers and understand the importance of a free press in a free society. On this Web site,
you can currently download lesson plans and request educational publications for classroom
use.
Radio-Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF) Student and Educator Programs
http://www.rtndf.org/resources/highschool.shtml
RTNDF's High School Journalism project has a number of upcoming workshops and training
opportunities, for high school electronic journalism teachers and students. Note that in many
cases, RTNDF will pay registration fees; in some cases, RTNDF will even pay all travel, lodging,
and food costs. The RTNDF'S HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM PROJECT provides specialized
training, expert advice, and networking opportunities for high school teachers and students at
regional meetings of both scholastic and professional journalism organizations. The RTNDF
Internet Journalism Guide, Plugged In: Using the Internet for High School (and Professional)
Journalism, is aimed primarily at high school students and teachers. Chapters include legal
issues and journalism ethics; Internet training exercises; high school journalism web sites; Web
streaming; how professional journalists use the Internet; and an extensive directory of
workshops, training resources, and links.

If It Bleeds It Leads

Transféré par

Informations du document

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

If It Bleeds It Leads

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

If it Bleeds, It Leads, and other lessons on

The Out There Syndrome, Sourcing and Conducting Interviews

National Standards Met:

Teaching Guide Supplement