Not admitting there's no story

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"In framing a story, reporters and their assigning editors must be sure they have not concluded too soon about the nature of the story or its likely outcome" (Best Practices for Newspaper Journalists Haiman 60). 

When I first read the title to the section "Newspapers are unfair when: They can't admit that sometimes there's no story," I wondered why this would be unfair.  Of course journalists have trouble admitting there is no story because they have to write stories for their job.  If they are assigned to cover a story, they have to cover it.  However, Haiman's advice that editors and reporters shouldn't make conclusions about the outcome of a story would be one way to make a story out of no story.  Therefore, journalists can admit the story they were after isn't a story and can move on to a real one.


Course page and discussion here.

1 Comments

Derek T said:

I really like your quote because news reports need to be careful not to uncover too much information because, as Dr. Jerz has said, the victim or criminal could get set free. I suppose that you must leave it as an open-ended question or statement so that the reader will want to read any follow-ups or updates in the future. Very interesting!

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    Derek T on Not admitting there's no story: I really like your quote becau
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