Journalism Reading: The Basics

Most UNH journalism professors put their syllabi and other class materials for a specific semester on Blackboard. On this page you'll find background reading and resources that can help you with any journalism course. Be sure to check out the longer list of Journalism Resources links as well; those are the sites that working journalists use.

For course-specific readings and resources, see:

English 621, Newswriting
English 622, Advanced Newswriting
English 711, Editing

Useful for all classes

Where to find story ideas
UNH journalism program policy on plagiarism and fabrication
ETHICS CODE from the Society of Professional Journalists
Boston Globe college subscription site
First Amendment reading
Finding good SOURCES
INTERVIEWING tips
What makes a good LEAD?
Choosing and using QUOTES
Readings on STORYTELLING
50 WRITING TOOLS
- Writing tools: the blog
Other reporting and writing ADVICE

Some (of the zillion) places to find story ideas

50 places to shop for story ideas
Al's Morning Meeting: story ideas posted every weekday morning by the Poynter Institute. The Poynter site also has 90 million other resources to help you.
Go to Google News and type in "New Hampshire" (or "college students," or any topic you're interested in). Spin off from what you find.
Go to the New Hampshire state Web site and just start clicking. For instance, you can look at the legislative calendar and head to a hearing on an interesting bill.
Read UNH news releases on the News Bureau site. (Remember, these are just ideas.)
UNH calendar
Campus Journal online newspaper for UNH faculty and staff. Or you can
subscribe here to have e-mail sent to you when a new issue comes out.
Go to seacoastonline.com and read not just the Portsmouth Herald but the local weeklies (linked near the top).
Foster's Daily Democrat of Dover.
Check the Web sites of local towns .
Working reporters tell where their ideas come from.
Beat reporting tips
Don’t wait for stories to knock on your door (hint: they won’t).
Creativity tools for journalists
Stateline.org has politics and policy stories by state. Search for New Hampshire, or do a NH story paralleling one from another state.
Use citizen media Web sites.
Join the listserv for the town of Durham. Every Friday you'll get an e-mail listing meetings and other happenings in town. To subscribe, send e-mail to Town_of_Durham@ci.durham.nh.us . Type the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Type nothing else; just send.
What are other papers writing about? newslink.org links to just about every paper in the world. What can you localize?
What are other college papers writing about? One of many lists of college papers online. Or try headlines from the UWire.
Go to Slate magazine and click on "Today's Papers," a summary of what's in the major newspapers every day.

Policy on Plagiarism and Fabrication

For ALL journalism courses at UNH, plagiarizing or fabricating means you fail. No questions, no excuses; if you steal or lie, you fail the course.

Plagiarism means passing off someone else's work, published or unpublished, as your own. According to UNH rules, it's also plagiarism to submit work for one course that you've previously submitted for another.

Fabrication is simply lying. Every person in your stories must be a real person whom you actually interviewed, and every word you attribute to a person must be something that he or she actually said.

Many people do not trust journalists. The only way we're going to change that is by going out there and being journalists with integrity, journalists whose behavior is beyond reproach. Once you've shown that you will steal or lie, we can't send you on an internship representing UNH.

How 621 stories are graded (agreed to by all 621 teachers)

First Amendment reading

About the First Amendment
2007 survey of people's views on the First Amendment
Results on high school press freedom also improve, but people acknowledge not learning much about the First Amendment in school.
And college media freedom? Well, maybe not (From the 2001 survey; they don't seem to have asked the question lately.)
First Amendment Center follows interesting cases every day.

Interviewing tips

(Note: The sites connected to most of the articles below contain all sorts of good stuff about journalism; stay with them and poke around.)

The dance of interviewing, Part 1 (even though it's labeled Part 2). And Part 2. (even though it's labeled Part 1)
The really great interview from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Open the pdf of the newsroom's in-house newsletter at this site.
Rules to interview by, the Poynter Institute
Loosening Lips: The Art of the Interview Seattle Times
The First Rule: Be Human. (Note: This piece focuses on a UNH grad, Meg Heckman.).
Tools for the journalist.
Tips for the process from the Atlanta Journal Constitution
Tips from the pros
NOTE-TAKING tips
How to do E-MAIL INTERVIEWS
The ZEN of interviewing by a sportswriter. Follow the links at the bottom of this piece for other interviewing tips.
Handling emotional interviews, Part 1 and Part 2
Simple questions reveal telling details (tips from a Providence Journal reporter, including the story she wrote as a result of the interview).
How you approach people is crucial.
Tom French, one of the great narrative journalists, with tips on interviewing and other aspects of the writing process
Shut up and listen
And another guy's Shut up and listen (This one's more detailed, with links to other pieces.)
To put it another way: The Power of LISTENING
An interview on a painful subject, with the resulting story.
Crisis reporting and respectful interviewing.
The "question man" says you're asking the wrong questions. This was a good piece about reporter John Sawatsky that seems to have disappeared from the Web. (It was in American Journalism Review.) Brownie points to anyone who can find an online copy.

How to make your lead better

Avoid these overused leads
Gallery of award-winning LEADS.
The power of leads
Put PASSION into your writing, says a San Jose reporter
Take Mr. Potato Head along for better stories (using your senses in reporting)
The What Not to Do list
Lose 10 bad writing habits in one week

Readings on storytelling

Nieman Narrative Digest Readings on narrative plus links to good narrative writing
And another expert's answer to What is narrative by Chip Scanlan of Poynter. First of three parts; follow the links for the rest.
Nonlinear ways to tell stories.
Becoming a storyteller, not "just" a reporter
Narrative style adds life to your pages. By a UNH grad, Warren Watson.
On the narrative trail: the main ideas from the 2003 Nieman conference on narrative (with links to a zillion other pieces).
What makes storytelling? from the Center for Community Journalism
Starting with narrative and sticking to it.
Want to write narrative? Think in movie mode
What the heck is "creative nonfiction"?

More reporting and writing advice

Bob Baker's NEWSTHINKING archives A great site about the process of writing from a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
- REVIEWING THE BASICS with Bob Baker. Everything you hope you learned in 621, and can build on in 622, all on one page.
Become a better note taker.
And more note-taking tips.
Award-winning reporters talk about THE POWER OF DETAIL.
Tips on adding DETAIL.
Tips for covering breaking news
Writing on DEADLINE: Tips from Atlanta reporters
Conquering DEADLINE: 11 things to do as you report and write
Pre-writing: Writers talk about what they do BEFORE they write
Tips for connecting with readers
Find "listening posts" that get beyond what's usually covered.
In defense of nut grafs -- which let readers know "what the bleep your story is about and why the bleep they should read it," says Jacqui Banaszynski of the Seattle Times and the Missouri School of Journalism.