US Army Journalist - Course - Survival Books

Lesson 3, Learning Event 1to develop contacts who will lead him to newsworthy events, not todiscourage people from talking to him. The reporter should alwaysbe polite, punctual, neat, and he should display proper militarycourtesy.Editors might use a combination of geographical and functional(sometimes called subject) beats. The key is to fix responsibilityon the writers to ensure adequate, balanced reporting on allaspects of the military community.Editors may also combine the beat system with special assignments,or they may operate their newsgathering system on a straightassignment basis only. A reporter might be given a generalassignment to see what the 2nd Brigade is doing this week. Or, hemight be given a special assignment to cover the first Abrams tanksbeing delivered to the 2nd Brigade.To ensure that responsibility for an assignment has been placed onthe reporter, and to pass along the essential coordinatinginstructions to the reporter, editors should use assignment sheets.The assignment sheet (See Figure 3-1) indicates the topic, possiblepoints of contact, known information about the event, a suggestedslug (the administrative title of the article used in tracking thearticle through the production phase of publication), and thedeadline. The assignment sheet may be a preprinted form or it canbe a slip of paper torn from a notebook. Both the editor and thejournalist should have a copy of the assignment sheet.Regardless of which system is used, editors should NOT restrain theinitiative of their reporters. New journalists need guidance, buttheir initiative to find and cover-(report) news must also bedeveloped.However, journalists must keep the editor informed about thestories on which they are working. Editors must be able to planwhat their paper is going to use and what the lead stories will be.Keeping the editor informed may also save the writer numerous hoursif the editor has already assigned someone else to cover the story.20