This section deals with how refugee communities can set up and operate a successful news organisation in areas which are often poorly covered by the mainstream media.

The author, T.P. Mishra, is one of a small team that set up a media operation in the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal over an eight year period. 

Now living in North Carolina under a refugee resettlement project, TP Mishra, who is the author of ‘Becoming a Journalist in Exile’, has put together a number of guides for those who want to follow his lead and set up and manage news operations run by the refugee communities.

Here, Mishra, who manages The Bhutan News Service, shares the lessons he and his team learnt from starting their own media outlet while living as a refugees in Nepal.

The following may be of value to other refugee journalists currently living in exile and who want to inform their community.

Starting a media operation

This module deals with getting to know the local laws, setting out your editorial proposition, building the right team, training staff, getting to know your audience, distribution, building networks, fundraising, running your finances, and the editorial ethics that are the foundations for your new media organisation.

Here are 20 points that might help refugees set up and run a media operation in exile.

1. Know the local laws: If you are considering setting up a refugee newspaper or news agency in your host country, be sure you are aware of and abide by the host country’s laws affecting refugees. You must research and understand all the legal provisions before you make the first step. Once you are aware of any restrictions you should talk to the legal authorities near the refugee camps. You may find that any refugee media may be restricted to the refugee communities, the agencies that support refugees and well-wishers. You need to know any restriction that could limit the reach of your newspaper. There may also be restrictions on advertisements; you must know this because this will affect your ability to generate revenue and cover costs.
2. Build the right team: Once you are aware of and fully understand the legal position you need to build a team. Be sure to select the right people. They need to be dedicated, self-motivated, can-do and united in the objectives you together set for the publication. No formal education or professional background is needed. This is an important point because you may find you don’t have a highly-skilled team; in such cases commitment is essential. However if you can find one or two members of the team have some technical and design knowledge it will be a great help. Also look out for others in the refugee community who have specialist interests, such as law, who are willing to join the team.
3. Set up a governing body: Now you need to set up a governing body which will manage all financial issues, set out the editorial proposition for the refugee media house, oversee the content creation, production and the circulation of the newspaper within the refugee community and wider afield, if allowed by the host company.
4. Training your staff: If you find that the members of your group lack journalism training consider setting up a training programme to ensure that all have the necessary skills. Defining the editorial ethics that underpin the integrity of all you produce is an essential step. All staff need to understand how to produce accurate content, that is objective, impartial, balanced and fair. They will also need to learn the technical skills needed to produce content and the basics for writing news stories. If you lack the capacity to provide this training within your organisation you will have to do it yourself. One way is to gather a collection of existing local, regional and national newspapers and study their house styles, sentence construction, layout etc. If you have internet connectivity in the refugee camp you could search online for free resources. However, the likelihood is that you will have to do it yourself. This makes it all the more important for you to be clear on what you, and your governing body, want the media house to produce and the way it should be produced.
5. The office: You will need some computers to get started. If you have no financial backing and can’t afford equipment you will need to seek out supporters who have a desktop or laptop in their home. This could become the first newsroom for your publication. Don’t worry about it being a small start. Your main concern is writing content that reflects the needs of the community you serve and keep it informed.
6. Building a network: If there are several camps for a particular refugee community it is important to try to build a network in order to share ideas, resources and information. Try to find at least one like-minded person in each camp and try to convince them to work as a volunteer reporter/correspondent for your newspaper. Their job could be to reflect the needs and concerns of their camp. The more people you manage to agree to help out in this way, the richer and more diverse your news coverage will be.
7. Initial fund-raising: Your governing body is the first group to consult about finances. Some may be able to help with small contributions to get things going, but the main reason for consulting them is to get their ideas and to foster a spirit of transparency from the start. You may be able to approach other refugees in the community who have the means of generating income.
8. Editorial proposition: While you are gathering funds, you should start to discuss the type of newspaper you intend to publish including its cost, its size, the language(s) it should be produced in, the frequency of publication and the editorial focus, for example what sections it should have and what should it focus on. Encourage participation at this stage from any correspondents in each neighbouring camp; it is important to include as many perspectives as possible at this stage.
9. Newsgathering: The first edition of your newspaper will always be the greatest challenge; you have new systems, a new team, new work flows and new working practices to become accustomed to. To get your newsgathering machine rolling you should instruct all your reporters and correspondents to go out and about, introduce themselves to people, explain what the newspaper stands for and what you are looking for, talk about the benefits you hope your newspaper will bring and then ask them about the issues that most concern them. Your journalists should be encouraged to ask open and searching questions based on When, Where, Who, What, Why and How. Make sure they follow this process and you will find that the second edition of your newspaper will be a lot easier to produce.
10. Printing: When you lack sound finance backing, you should always select an offset printing press that assists you to print the hardcopies at cheaper rates. Once the paper is ready in softcopy, you can take that up to press in data transfer devices like the DVDs, flash drive or portable hard disks. Keep checking if you can still go with cheaper costs in another printing press.
11. Distribution: When you have a hard copy of your first newspaper you need to distribute it. Your distribution strategy may look a lot different from that of the Times of India, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Guardian UK, but the principle is the same. You need to get copies to the audience and leave them in places where they are going to be able to find them and read them. For a refugee camp, your distribution strategy may be to drop a few copies off at places where people meet, such as the library, any local clubs and organisations, outside schools and on notice boards around the camp. Send copies to your reporters and correspondents so that they can circulate them within their own communities. Make sure all contacts you have spoken to have a copy so they can see how you treated their story; this will make it far more likely that they will return to you with more information in the future.
12. Cover price and sales strategy: If local laws allow you to sell your newspaper you will need to set a cover price. Your reporters and correspondents then sell copies in order to raise funds for them to continue to gather news for the next edition. If you are not allowed to sell your newspaper it is worth setting out on the front page of the newspaper what it costs to produce each copy. This may help you raise funds in the future. Yet you can make an appeal to the readers of the newspaper, mainly refugees, to help you buy the papers. Those having a bit of an earning source sometimes buy your copies.
13. Building relationships: Newspapers are all about relationships. There are three; Your audience, your contacts, and your peer group. The most important is the relationship between the media house and those who consume the news. That relationship needs to be healthy with a strong element of trust. The next relationship to build is with local contacts; those in the community who you are likely to turn to for comments. You need to be fair with these contacts. The relationship is two-way. You will need them for comments and they may, at times, need you to reflect their concerns. Journalists must never do deals, but equally, you need to realise that strong relationships need two-way trust and respect. The third relationship is with local, regional, national and international journalists. Again, this is two-way. You can feed them stories that they may otherwise never hear about, offering them content and pictures. They may offer you training in terms of news writing, editing, technical issues and media management. They may offer you some of their old, redundant equipment that, although no longer needed by them, could be a life saver for you. Most of all, they may offer you visibility by writing and broadcasting about your situation; this in turn could help you reach donors in the Diaspora and NGOs offering media development training.
14. Keep learning: The refugee journalist must always be learning. They should read the local, regional and national press regularly so that they can add to their knowledge in terms of current affairs and technical skills.
15. Raising funds: Finance is a problem for most refugee groups. There may be ways of raising funds locally, but they are unlikely to provide enough. Those setting up refugee media houses need to look further afield. It is important to seek out reliable funding that has no strings attached. Funds from NGOs are the most appropriate. When the Bhutan Reporter was struggling to make ends meet in 2007, we made an international appeal via Media Helping Media resulting in funding from WAN, the World Association of Newspapers.
16. Financial transparency: Once any funds have been secured, the media house needs to appoint at least two people to take responsibility for the organisation’s finances. The funder will want regular reports stating what their funding has achieved. They will want details of activities and all financial outgoings and incomings. It is important you get this right. If you report back in a professional and totally transparent way it is more likely that your funding will be renewed. It will also help build your credibility; word soon gets around and you want to be known as a professionally-run media house, even though you have started and probably continue to operate from humble origins.
17. Building your capacity: You will find that your team of journalists, technical and admin staff have mixed abilities. Some will be fast learners while some will be slow. Look out for those who pick things up quickly and consider working with them to organise training programmes to help the others. In the media development world this is called ‘building capacity’ and some organisations will be keen to work with you if they feel you have a well thought through training strategy; especially if you have already identified those who can head up the training. This is called ToT (training of trainers) or TTT (training the trainers). Having such a system will build your credibility, make your staff feel you are serious and mean business, and encourage others to work for you.
18. Setting objectives: You must set objectives for your media house, for each department and for each individual. The first will probably be set by the governing body when it is established. The unit objectives will be set by the editor-in-chief, the head of technology, and the person responsible for distribution, etc. These are the objectives that will govern how their units are run. The personal objectives are about how each individual is expected to do his or her job. Then set up an appraisal system where each member of staff is assessed each quarter. You may need to appoint an HR (human resources) person to help manage this. And finally you need to tie in the training programme for the organisation with both the appraisals and the objectives. By doing this you will be setting out some best-practice rules that will show you mean business.
19. Digital distribution: As you build your print offering you should always be thinking about how to distribute your content online. Your immediate audience in the refugee camps may not be online, but other parts of your target audience will be. They include your Diaspora audience (those from your community who are living abroad), academics, NGOs, media watchers, politicians, local, regional, national and international journalists – all these are parts of the audience who will pick up what you are doing. Your ultimate aim should be to deliver reliable content to whatever device your audience turns to in order to access information.
20. Have fun: The job of a journalist is the most wonderful job in the world. You are in a privileged position. You have a great responsibility. Your audience will begin to rely on you. Take it seriously by all means, but have fun, too. You are embarking on a great adventure and joining a global fellowship that will stand with you as you grow.

The post Setting up a refugee media operation in exile first appeared on Media Helping Media.

In his training module “Adopting the ‘big story’ approach”, Bob Eggington wrote that, although planning is critically important in the news business there are some things you can’t plan. “Big stories happen out of the blue. And when they do you have to spring into action immediately,” he wrote.

Some media organisations have a system for assessing what defines a big breaking news story.

Such a system can help editors decide how much editorial focus should be allocated to the coverage. You can find out more about this system by reading our module on how to create a story weighting system.

A big story might be a recurring story (such as seasonal flooding or earthquakes) or one-off, unexpected events (such as public disorder or industrial disputes) where there is significant local, regional, national, and international impact.

When a big story breaks the following editorial considerations should be assessed.

The first three points in this list apply to all stories, both big and small. Points four to 12 apply to a big story.

While immediate response reporters and crews focus on points 1-3, you might want to assign producers and researchers to look at points 4-12 in depth, if appropriate and if those resources exist.

1. The story: This is fairly straightforward and is applied to all stories both big and small. We need to ask the basic journalistic questions of what, why, when, how, where and who.
2. The facts: Again, this is common to all news coverage. Every detail must be examined, tested and proven to be accurate by confirming with at least two independent sources, except those filed by your own reporters or others you trust.
3. Those affected: Personal accounts of how the story impacts on the lives of those involved is an essential element to all news coverage.
4. The data: Where it comes from and whether it can be trusted.
5. Responsibility: Who or what was responsible, and why did it go wrong?
6. The promises: Made in the past and previous measures taken.
7. The impact: Now and in the future.
8. The consequences: Changes in lifestyle for some and what happens to those who can’t change.
9. Accountability: Who knew and what preventative action could have been taken?
10. The future: What changes need to take place?
11. The follow up: Set a follow up date. Three or six months. List questions to ask.
12. Engaging the audience: Public and expert debate to dig deeper and seek answers.

The list above, which is explored further in our module “Story development, ensuring all angles are covered” can’t be applied to every story; newsrooms don’t have the resources for that.

But if you apply the story weighting system for breaking news you will be better placed to decide what is a general news story and what is a big story.

Exploring all the editorial angles of a news story is only one part of the coverage.

If your news organisation has introduced a converged newsroom approach, which is always helpful, then allocating shared resources and setting out roles and responsibilities when a big story breaks is so much easier.

Summary

• A media organisation needs to have a system for dealing with a big breaking news story in order to fully inform the public debate.
• That system must set out the editorial, technical, and human resources requirements.
• A converged newsroom, with centralised command-and-control, with a multimedia newsgathering operation along with a shared planning unit will help streamline such a system.

The post Editorial considerations when a ‘big story’ breaks first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Planning is critically important in the news business. It’s the mark of professionalism and the essence of good coverage. But there are some things you can’t plan.

Big stories happen out of the blue. And when they do you have to spring into action immediately.

Your audience is counting on you to bring them the facts, quickly, and to answer all the questions that have immediately sprung into their minds.

They will be anxious for information – in some cases they might be worried that their loved ones are in danger.

You need to come up with high-quality, accurate, comprehensive reporting at a moment’s notice.

By definition you can’t be completely ready – you don’t know where, when or why the story is going to suddenly appear.

But there is a lot you can do to be prepared. And the old rule applies: fail to prepare, or prepare to fail.

The police and ambulance, fire and health services know this – that’s why they have rapid response teams or routines and resources that can be put quickly into place to deal with a major incident.

Just like the emergency services, the news media has a vital role to play when a big story happens. It is a time when the public turn to the media for good quality, accurate information.

So you need to be ready.

Media organisations should have their own versions of the rapid response team – a plan for how to use people, production teams, and communications to cover a big story. So what goes into the big story plan?

So what goes into a big story plan?

It is about ambition, organisation and the allocation of resources: people, equipment and space in your news product.

Ambition

In some ways this is the key to the whole exercise. You want to raise the effort, skills, production values and all-round performance of your team to the highest levels they have ever achieved. You can set an example by demonstrating your own energy, concentration, news judgement and determination to produce the very best content.

Space in the product

Depending on your product, you might need to:

• Order a bigger print run or extra editions
• Clear your radio or tv schedules for special programming
• Buy additional bandwidth so your website can cope with increased demand

People

One of your most important decisions is about the people. As in a World Cup final, you want to pick your best team to help you develop the plan.

Get them all together and tell them how you envisage it working. Take their input and go through scenarios: what if it involves personal danger? What if the big story happens in the middle of the night? What if it’s an environmental disaster and we can’t get to the scene? What if it de-stabilises the economy, or the country?

An important part of this preparation is to create the right calm and purposeful atmosphere that you need to prevail when the big story breaks. Journalists are human beings like everyone else and they will be equally shocked or appalled by what has happened, but they need to set that aside and operate in an objective, professional manner. The more you discuss the plan the better it will be.

Broadly, the roles and responsibilities can be split into two categories, Reporting and Production. Between those two categories sits a co-ordinating figure who has an overview of the entire operation. This can be the editor or someone else nominated for the task. The organisation chart looks like this:

Equipment

Reporters, photographers and technical crew depend heavily on having the right equipment. They should each have a grab-bag with them at all times, ready to use on a big story. The grab-bag should contain:

• At least one power-pack to re-charge mobile phones
• Extra batteries
• Extra memory cards
• Flashlight
• Bad-weather clothing
• Extra leads and cables
• High-energy snacks
• Bottled water
• ID documents
• Press credentials if appropriate
• Equipment for hazardous environments if available and necessary

For video camera operators, this our additional checklist:

• Tripod
• Mini tripod for table-top use
• 2 x Lapel mics with long leads
• Wireless lapel mic with hotshoe receiver
• Stick mic
• Cable for stick mic
• Cables for connecting to PA systems
• IT cables (USB, HDMI, FireWire etc)
• Headphones
• White balance card
• Lens cloth
• Lenses
• Filters
• Reflector
• Extra lighting
• Spare batteries for camera and wireless mic
• Spare memory cards
• Rain cover
• Multitool
• Gaffer tape
• Logo cubes

Your company’s vehicles, if you have them, should be fuelled up after every story as a matter of policy, so they are always ready to go. If you do not have them you need a way of acquiring transport quickly.

Communications

Your coverage of the big story is entirely dependent on having good communications, so make sure everybody knows how they are supposed to talk to each other.

Mobile phones are the default tool and some news operations like to use a special WhatsApp group. But what if the story happens in an area where there’s no reception? Then you need a back-up plan, which might involve walkie-talkie radios or runners and vehicles to take messages and content back from the scene to a place where comms work properly.

On the day

The first requirement on a big story is to get to the scene as soon as possible. Before you team leaves, remind everybody that their personal safety comes first. There is no time to do a big risk assessment so they will have to rely on their judgement, experience and instincts, but you should make it absolutely clear that their safety is more important than getting the story.

The second requirement of your team arriving at the story is to file something, quickly, so that the team back in the office has some material to work with. It can be a short written report, a bit of audio, a still picture or video.

It is worth stressing the role of the reporter as the “eyes and ears” of your audience. Some of the most valuable reporting on any big story is the simple descriptive piece. This is often the best thing to file in the early stages.

While your team has been making its way to the scene, social media will be alive with reports, pictures and gossip about what’s happened. It will be a confusing mess and impossible for your audience to know what is correct and what is pure speculation or outright nonsense.

Your social media researchers need to be across all of the activity and help you identify useful and accurate material that can be built into your own coverage.

Meanwhile your background researchers should be looking into the context, using our module “Story development, ensuring all angles are covered” as a checklist, so they can provide you with vital elements that help explain the story.

All of the output from the reporting side should come through the co-ordinating figure, who maintains a picture of what is available, understands the challenges on the ground and deploys the team to fill any obvious gaps in the coverage.

The production team, meanwhile, should be changing the basic structure of your news product to reflect the importance of the big story. They have to find extra space and use it to create maximum impact.

They will be looking for the telling picture, the dramatic fact, the raw emotion or anything else that conveys the power and significance of the story.

They will also be the people calling the authorities to check the basic facts – a task that should not be left to reporters in the field.

This is where the news media differs from “citizen journalism”. Your job is to clarify, to end the confusion, to establish the firm facts and the relevant context.

When people turn to your coverage, you want them to know they can trust it, above all, to be accurate. No matter what is being said elsewhere, yours is the reliable source of information – the gold standard.

The post Adopting the ‘big story’ approach first appeared on Media Helping Media.

In this module newsgathering is discussed from the perspective of the TV news process.

Those involved in newsgathering include reporters, planning editors, camera people, assignment editors, field producers, and the news executives responsible for output.

The newsgathering process involves sourcing ideas, planning coverage, assigning teams, structuring packages, monitoring the web, working in the field – and coming back alive and well.

Planning

Planners are often the forgotten heroes and heroines of the newsroom; they are often elbowed aside in the rush for today’s stories. That’s a mistake. Planned material should not be dropped without good reason. Planners should be encouraged to keep coming up with ideas for special reports, background investigations, time-consuming graphics and other projects that require effort.

Editorial meetings

Balancing creativity with decisiveness is a difficult trick. Daily editorial meetings should be chaired by a senior figure, but all voices should be heard, not just those of the senior editors or the chronically verbose. The best ideas often come from the small voice at the back. Set a start time and begin punctually, irrespective of latecomers – they’ll get the message. Also set an end time – half an hour should be plenty.

Managerial oversight

To ensure that the planning team is following the agreed editorial strategy, managers must make their objectives known at an early stage in the creative process. News coverage should be discussed at least a week in advance, at a weekly editorial meeting, followed up by another meeting the day before transmission. Managers must attend these gatherings. There is nothing more dispiriting for journalists to see their hard work brushed aside at a late stage because managers have not been properly monitoring the stories being prepared.

Newsroom geography

Are you sitting comfortably? The simple geography of an input operation makes a big difference to its efficiency. The following should all be able to see each other, talk to each other and overhear conversations – assignments editor, web editor, show editor, technical/facilities bookers (dishes, feeds, studios etc) and ideally the show director. It’s amazing how often they can’t.

Breaking news

There is a simple set of rules for breaking news on TV – it goes like this. Once the story is out there, desks need to do the following:

• assign a reporter to monitor incoming information, and be ready to appear live.
• chase witnesses on the phone.
• seek video material from the scene.
• monitor Twitter, YouTube and other sources.
• deploy hardware and people.
• plan schedule changes, on-site anchoring and the like.

Has your news organisation ever written down a plan, because the day it happens might be the day when you have an inexperienced team on duty.

Monitoring

In a breaking story such as riots, demonstrations, bombings – social media will probably be ahead of the agencies. These sources have to be monitored. You must know which source to trust and which to follow. Ideally, you will have developed contacts in advance if you saw the story brewing.

Staff safety

If the story involves putting reporters and technicians in harm’s way, are you prepared? Journalists often get hurt covering street disturbances, political rallies, organised crime, even before they start working in wars and major conflicts. Employers and journalists need to take responsibility for safety, but sadly many don’t. You should reduce risk by training your staff for working in dangerous situations.

Organising the shoot

It’s surprising how disorganised some field teams can be. Camera crews sometimes don’t know what the story is, reporters haven’t requested graphics in advance, or a useful piece of extra equipment is left behind. The planning producer or reporter needs to think of all these things, such as extra lights, long lenses, graphics, and studio guests.

Lives

Most live reports still feature the reporter clutching a microphone and standing outside a government building. That’s sometimes appropriate, but with today’s lightweight equipment, live spots can be much more creative, with plenty of movement.

Packaging

Are the news packages on your show tightly crafted, with skilful editing, a minimal use of words, lots of natural sound and a simple narrative? Or are they overwritten, with words that don’t match the pictures, where the sound from the locations is smothered by the reporter’s breathless pre-recorded track? Ensure that your journalists know how to package properly.

The post Newsgathering tips for producing great content first appeared on Media Helping Media.

A converged newsroom operates like a content factory, responsible for all intake, production and output. It gathers and processes raw material, creates different products, and then ensures they are delivered to the target audience.

In this module we look at how it is done.

The superdesk

This module is about the workflows and roles and responsibilities that make a converged newsroom run smoothly.

Below is a graphic setting out what a typical superdesk might look like.

Both intake (everything that comes into the news operation), and output (everything that is delivered from the news operation to the audience on multiple devices) need to be close together.

Ideally, representatives of both will sit around the same desk. If space is an issue, and one desk can’t be set up, then they need to be sitting close together. They need to be able to communicate and collaborate at all times in order to respond swiftly to changes in news priorities.

People give this desk different names. Some call it the news hub, some the news cog; it doesn’t matter what it’s called, what matters is what it does. For this series of training modules we are calling this desk the superdesk.

The superdesk is the newsroom’s central command-and-control. It’s where all the main news decisions are made. It serves as a responsive, dynamic focal point for everything to do with the smooth running of the news organisation.

Who sits around the superdesk?

Those sitting around the super desk need to be breathing the same air, hearing the same news alerts, and be taking part in impromptu news meetings, called to deal with the unexpected.

Choosing who sits at the superdesk is up to you. That decision will depend on your overall strategy and who the main decision makers are in your news organisation.

It will also depend on where you need to prioritise effort, the most popular platforms/devices used by your target audience, and the resources available to you.

However, there are a number of important roles that should be represented on the superdesk.

These are roles, not necessarily individuals. For example, the intake editor role will probably need to be covered 24 hours a day for a large news organisation. In that case, the intake editor position on the superdesk should be a seat, populated by different people as working shifts change.

The exceptions might be the planning editor and the cross-promotions roles. They might be positions that need to be filled during the daytime only.

You will need an intake editor role. This is the person who is responsible for everything coming into the building.

You will need an output editor role. This is the person who provide the quality control for everything going out of the building and who liaises directly with production.

You will need someone from the interactive team. They need to ensure the website is publishing all breaking and developing news updates. They will also report to the superdesk regarding all developments on social media.

You will need someone to manage resources, and someone representing planning.

There are other roles you could add, but let’s start with the main ones.

The intake editor

The intake editor acts as the eyes and ears of your news business. They are responsible for all the material that comes into your news production process. This will include the news gathering efforts of your own team of journalists.

It will also involve responding to stories that are being fed by wires services, and monitoring the stories being covered by the competition.

The intake editor has the authority to call an instant, stand-up impromptu meeting when there is breaking news, in order to help the output team adjust to new developments.

They are, essentially, looking out of the building at all the elements that will inform and feed your news operation.

They are not responsible for output. This is an important point. That role falls to the output editor.

The output editor

The output editor looks after quality control. They are also responsible for ensuring deadlines are met. They are the defender of the news brand. Nothing gets past the output editor that could damage that brand.

They ensure the material is accurate, that it’s objective, impartial and fair. Their job is to focus on production values. They need to ensure all platforms are served.

They can’t afford to be distracted by watching the competition, keeping up to date with the wires services, and responding to input issues and logistics. That’s why those tasks are the responsibility of the intake editor.

However, the two work closely together, although doing different jobs. They are in constant communication. Between them the main news decisions for the whole news operation rest.

Planning editor

We discussed the strategic role of the planning editor in the module about forward planning. The planning editor is responsible for managing the news organisation’s unique editorial proposition of in-depth, well-planned, investigative journalism, which provides your market differential.

The planning editor will attend all the main news meetings held at the superdesk. They will offer at least one piece of original journalism a day, probably more than that.

They will listen to what is happening on the day and will ensure that all the major stories are followed up. The shared planning calendar will help.

The planning editors role will not only take the pressure off the journalists working on the daily output, but it will also guarantee that there is a continuous stream of unique content produced on all platforms.

Interactive editor

Having someone from the interactive team sitting on the superdesk means that the online and mobile coverage will be able to respond faster to breaking news developments.

It also means that the superdesk will be informed about how the audience is responding to developing news, and it will provide a different perspective on newsgathering and how news should be covered.

Similarly, having someone from the social media team, will alert the superdesk to developments on the various social media platforms used by the target audience.

This will ensure that the online and other digital versions of your output are not just an after thought, but are a central part of all you do.

And that will show through in your production values, which, in turn, might encourage the audience to engage with your content more.

This will also help with cross-promotion because your on air presenters can be briefed to drive audience traffic to the online and on mobile versions for any added value content.

Resource manager

This role is sometimes called the production manager. This is the person who is responsible for all the resources required to produce the journalism. This could be the camera crews, the vehicles, and the edit suites.

The resource manager needs to respond quickly once the intake editor has alerted the superdesk of a new story development, and the editorial team on the superdesk decides that information is so important that resources have to be shifted from a lesser story.

Cross-promotions producer

Some newsrooms have a cross-promotions producer. Their job is to ensure that all output areas are aware of what others are doing and that content is exploited for the maximum benefit of the news brand and the audience. They will work across TV, radio, print, online and mobile where appropriate.

In some cases they will design teasers, in other cases they will make sure the material is produced by others. Essentially, they will ensure there are no wasted opportunities.

Next we look at the workflow for a converged newsroom.

The converged newsroom workflow

The roles and responsibilities outlined above are just a guide. You will need to design your own version of a superdesk so that it makes business sense for your media organisation.

But do try to keep intake and output as separate roles. And do ensure that you have a planning function. Once you have reorganised, the workflow is fairly simple.

As has already been stated, the superdesk is your newsroom’s central command-and-control. All the main news decisions are made here. It is responsible for intake, planning and output.

As you will see from the graphic below, once those decision are made the instructions are sent to production – ideally via a representative attending the superdesk meetings.

The production teams then ensure that the appropriate platform-specific value is added to the story based on audience needs, device/platform capabilities, and strategic business logic.

That means that if they are working on the web or mobile versions they will add interactive timelines, infographics, photo galleries, video, and other digital assets, where appropriate.

If they are working on the TV version they will create TV packages that can cross-promote the digital assets being offered on the other platforms.

Production will no longer be carried out in isolation but as a part of a coherent and coordinated presentation on multiple devices.

The post Convergence, workflows, roles and responsibilities first appeared on Media Helping Media.

The news producer has an essential role to play in any news organisation. Their job is to add depth to the content being produced, make sure it is well-researched, arrange interviews, manage resources, assist reporters and correspondents with the logistics involved in gathering and processing news, and oversee quality control.

Some media organisations, particularly newspapers, will have different names for the role, but whatever it is called, the person will be expected to ensure that all significant angles are followed up, and that related issues are investigated. Their job is to take the overview.

In many cases they are the bridge between the editors and reporters, ensuring that both can do their jobs efficiently and effectively. Some media organisations try to cope without news producers.

They expect the journalists and correspondents to take care of all their production needs. Of course the stories will still get produced, but the likelihood is that they will not be as thorough, that effort and resources might be wasted, and sometimes deadlines won’t be met.

At times the news producers will be offering support from the newsroom, at other times they will be in the field. When they are working in the field, the relationship with the reporter or correspondent will probably be one-to-one.

However, when they are working from the newsroom, a good news producer might be able to help several journalists at the same time. And this is where the efficiencies start to show.

The role of the news producer

In an earlier module we looked at the best way to run a news meeting. The graphic, below, is taken from that training module as a reminder of the important role the news producer plays in the news business.

A journalist should be able to gather most of the information they need in order to produce a story. However, they are often out of the office where access to computers can be a problem.

They might be working to tight deadlines, and unable to research adequately. Perhaps they need to contact someone at short notice but don’t have the time to make the calls. It could be that they need to access archive material to add to their piece but they don’t have time to search for it or are unable to get back to the office in time.

They might need a comment from a correspondent for the piece but are unable to contact them. At times they might need to refer up the editorial chain regarding a legal or ethical matter but a senior editor is not available.

These are the times when a news producer, sitting in the office or working in the field, is invaluable. They can take on all these responsibilities. The graphic below shows how the process should work.

The qualities of a news producer

In some media organisations a news producer is a specialist job requiring someone with a keen eye for a news story, who has great research skills, who can demonstrate excellent organisational abilities, and who is able to see the bigger picture.

In some newsrooms the news producer is a career-progression role between the reporter and the editors. If they have worked as a reporter, both in the newsroom and in the field, they will be able to understand the pressures the journalist they are facing is under and will be able to provide the support they need.

Efficiencies and savings

For media managers, having news producers can result in efficiencies and savings.

They can help avoid duplication of effort, they can help manage scarce resources, they can help schedule editing to remove log jams and better utilise downtime, and they can act as a reference point where both senior and junior staff can turn in order to assess the status of a story and when it is expected to be ready.

The post The important role of the news producer first appeared on Media Helping Media.

There are many demands on a newsroom. There is the routine flow of news releases and stage-managed events that need to be covered. There are the stories from the various wires services. There are the unexpected breaking and developing news stories. There are the original stories which journalists stumble across in the course of their work.

And there are well-planned, in-depth reports, produced by reporters investigating issues and uncovering previously unpublicised information.

In this module we look at a tool that can be used to help media managers prioritise effort and resources on the stories that really matter to the target audience.

If implemented, you will find that resources, previously allocated to stories of little interest to your audience, can be saved and reinvested in the stories that support your content and market differential.

The content value matrix

Managing all the news sources mentioned above is a challenge.

Running a modern, converged news operation, delivering content to multiple devices, 24 hours a day, is like being on a treadmill; there is so much to do that editors sometimes find it hard to stop and take a hard look at the material being produced.

That is why a content review is required from time to time to ensure that journalists are being deployed strategically, and that the work they are doing is meeting the information needs of the target audience.

The content value matrix will help media managers focus resources on the stories that matter, and it will help them drop – or reconsider – the stories that the audience doesn’t find interesting.

Essential data

Before you start you will need to gather some data. This can be from audience research, or it can be from analysing the visits to your online and mobile material.

Use this data to find out which stories the audience values the most. Then plot the stories in a graph.

Draw a vertical line on a white board. This is your cost line. At the top put a plus sign and at the bottom a minus sign. Now draw a horizontal line through the middle. This is your audience appreciation line.

On the left put a minus sign, and at the right put a plus sign. Now enter the stories as a scatter chart.

Box 1 – high audience value, low production costs

Stories in the top left quadrant, Box 1, are stories that the audience values, and which are not costly to produce.

These are the stories on which you should focus. The more you do of these stories, the more the audience will appreciate your news service, and the more efficient you will be.

The challenge you face is to remain focussed on these stories and avoid being distracted by trivial news that has no real value to your audience or to your business.

Box 2 – high audience value, high production costs

Stories in the top right quadrant, Box 2, are stories that the audience values, but which are costly to create.

The challenge for you as a media manager is to move these stories into the top left quadrant, Box 1, so that they remain stories the audience values, but they are not costly to produce.

This will mean you will need to introduce more efficient workflows. Introducing a converged newsroom will help you achieve this.

Box 3 – low audience value, low production costs

Now let’s look at the bottom left quadrant, Box 3. You will notice that these stories are not costly to produce but, so far, have not been valued by the audience.

Stories in this quadrant deserve some analysis. It could be that these stories are important in terms of informing the public debate, but your journalists haven’t been telling them properly, or haven’t been producing them in a compelling way.

Take some time to consider how these stories can be moved into Box 1. It could be that some in-house training is needed in how to write scripts, use images or interview people. It could be as simple as organising training in better headline writing.

This might not be a time-consuming task, but the more of these stories you can move to Box 1 the better.

Box 4 – low audience value, high production costs

Now let’s look at all the stories that fall into Box 4. These are stories that are costly to produce and which the audience doesn’t value. This is the easiest decision to make. Simply stop doing these stories and, instead, transfer resources to the other three boxes.

The aim of the content value matrix

Carry out this exercise at least once a year; preferably every six months.

It will help you evaluate what you are producing, how you are producing it, how you promote it, and whether it still meets the needs of your target audience – on which your entire news business logic is built.

Story weighting

The content value matrix tool should be run in conjunction with another tool developed by Media Helping Media – the story weighting system. Read more about how to apply this model in order to assess the value of stories when creating a running order or list of story priorities.

The post Prioritising production with the content value matrix first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Different stories have different value to both your audience and to your business.

Some stories are fairly superficial without much depth. Such stories might be small, breaking news stories about a fire, an accident, or a new business development.

It might be possible to set out the main facts in a short piece with little or no in-depth analysis.

Other stories require investigation, further development, and a proactive approach to news gathering and news production.

This will often involve investing resources and effort to ensure the issue is explored fully.

So it doesn’t make sense to treat all stories equally. Which means that senior editors, news producers and reporters have to decide how much effort a story is worth.

This is where a story weighting system is invaluable. Let’s look at how it works.

Story weighting

In the graphic above you will see three story types. For the sake of this module they are labelled S1, S2, and S3.

An S1 story is one with high-value information, which involves in-depth reporting, is original, and has rich interactive digital assets (elements).

An S2 story is an important story, rich in information, and which deserves some digital interactivity.

An S3 story is a smaller story that needs to be told, but which doesn’t require interactivity.

You might decide there are other story types, but there is a benefit in keeping the system simple, which are explained below.

Benefits

Once a story has been given a weighting and a label, everyone in the news organisation knows what is required and what will be involved in producing the material.

The editors won’t have to sit down with each producer and reporter in order to tell them what they want in terms of elements; the story weighting system will have already set that out.

They won’t need to explain how long the piece is expected to be; the story weighting system will have already set out those parameters and expectations.

These parameters will have been set earlier as senior editors aim to cover the needs of the target audience, manage the newsroom resources that are available, priorities output, and ensure content is produced for all devices.

Once the story weighting rules have been set and circulated, all in the news process understand what is required.

Such a system speeds up news planning. It improves the efficiency of news meetings. It helps editors brief reporters and producers because they already know what is expected.

And news delivery deadlines are clearer, and therefore more likely to be met.

Now let’s look at these story types in more depth.

The descriptions below are just there to illustrate the concept. These will change depending on how each news organisation chooses to define the story types. You might give the story types different names; that doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you create your own system aimed at maximum newsroom efficiency and productivity.

Note: This system works perfectly in a converged newsroom.

An S1 story type

An S1 story will probably be an exclusive, or a massive breaking/developing news story which is of importance to your audience.

Those who rely on you for reliable and accurate news coverage will be returning to their screens several times during the day for updates. They will be eager to know the latest developments.

Such a story will have an impact on their lives. Therefore, it makes sense for you to ensure that you allocate sufficient resources to the story in order that it is told properly.

For example, an S1 story might involve a lengthy package on TV with at least three clips of three different people making three different points.

It will probably involve lots of footage illustrating the issue being covered, perhaps a vox pop of people in the street.

There might be some graphics, and it could include a piece to camera (stand up), at the end.

In interactive terms, an S1 story might involve several related stories, video clips, a timeline, an infographic, a bullet-point fact file, interactive maps, a photo gallery, and, perhaps, a poll/vote.

It will certainly include social media engagement.

There will also be related stories and links to the archive for added context.

Producing this amount of material, and allocating sufficient resources to it, will mean that other, less important stories that are also on the news agenda will have to be treated differently or dropped.

Based on the above, the editors defining your story weighting system will add timing for all the above helping the producers and reporters understand when the material will be required.

And that is where story weighting is valuable. The editor in charge of the day’s output gives each story a weighting so that everyone knows what is required and what is the priority.

An S2 story type

This story type is also important, but perhaps not the lead or second lead story. It will be a story that demands fewer resources and less effort than the S1 story type.

For example, an S2 story type might have a shorter package for TV, with perhaps two clips putting different sides of the story, it will involve some footage from the scene of the event being covered, it might require a graphic, there will probably be a piece to camera at some point in the package.

In interactive terms it will probably be a 300-500 word read with some video clips and an infographic. There will be some social media response added in order to engage the audience. There might be one or two related stories.

It will take less time and effort to produce than an S1 and, therefore, the journalist producing it will be working to a shorter timetable.

An S3 story type

This story type will be a general news piece that requires little effort. It will be a straightforward breaking or developing news item.

For TV, it will probably be a voice-over script, perhaps with a piece to camera at the end. In interactive terms, it’s probably a straight 300-word read with an image or graphic.

An S3 story shouldn’t take too long to produce.

Managing the newsroom output with story weighting

Now we have the story types, we can see how the editor-of-the-day can produce an overview of the main stories to be covered.

Below is a fictitious list of stories that might be considered for a TV bulletin, with the story weighting coding set out on the right.

This system means that everyone attending the news meeting, or checking on the news prospects during the day, is able to see exactly what is required, the resources to be allocated, and the time it should take to produce the material.

The story weighting system also prioritises effort on the stories that are of most value to the target audience.

This, in turn, makes the management of news far more systematic and focused on business priorities, which, in turn, leads to greater efficiency, a saving in costs, a stronger editorial proposition, and more informed and motivated staff.

Content value matrix

You might want to use the story weighting tool in conjunction with another method created by Media Helping Media – the content value matrix. Below is a slide prepared for a training course in Harare for the former Mobile Community Zimbabwe.

The post Story weighting system for breaking news first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Sometimes journalists become lazy. When this happens, the news they produce becomes superficial and shallow. They take information at face value. They fail to dig deeper. This is weak journalism.

In fact, in some cases, it stops being journalism, and becomes a production process where information is republished without any analysis, context or added value.

Journalists become channels for public relations material and propaganda, failing to apply any critical evaluation of the material being processed.

There are ways journalists can focus on the stories that really matter to their target audience, and invest time and effort in order to explore those stories fully.

This proactive journalism tool should help. It’s a tool used by Media Helping Media in media development and commercial media strategy work for several years. It’s been developed from an idea by Dr. Eric Loo, a journalist and senior lecturer in journalism.

Proactive journalism

There are five steps involved in proactive journalism.

The first, observing, is what most journalists already do; the problem is that many stop there.

That’s unfortunate, because there are at least four more steps to take in order to produce rich journalism that informs the public debate.

The other four important steps in proactive journalism are learning, analysing, reflecting and contextualising.

Let’s look at each in more detail, starting with observing.

1: Observing

This is what most journalists do every day.

They watch, listen, sense and absorb information, which they then put together to form a news story.

But even this simple step is often executed badly. Perhaps they are in a rush, or under pressure. Perhaps they think that the news release or wires copy they have been given works fine without any extra effort.

But if journalists just reproduce what they have been given, they are letting both their audience and their media organisation down. They can do better.

Even with the first stage in proactive journalism, journalists need to be digging deeper.

If you have been given a news release, or have attended an organised event and have just heard a speech, you don’t have a news story.

All you have at that stage is some material from which you can start to construct a news story.

Ask yourself whether what you have been told matches what you have witnessed?

If not challenge those circulating the information, and contact those affected. Is what you have been told reflecting the views of one particular group of people?

If so what other voices are needed to complete the story. Is the material critical of others? If so they need to be given the chance to reply.

Are those sharing the information with you making strong claims? If they are then what they are saying needs to be tested with independent data.

Your job is to listen to what those involved in the story are saying and question every assumption.

You must never accept information at face value. Most people will be trying to push their point of view; your job is to reflect those views in a wider context, not simply repeat them in isolation.

Try to get a sense of what might be behind the story in terms of the other actors involved. There will usually be at least two sides to every story, but often many more voices to be heard.

And never report what you have been given as fact, always use qualifying words such as ‘claimed’, ‘alleged’ and ‘said’.

So far the above is fairly straightforward, now let’s look at the next step, learning.

2: Learning

This is where you need to make sense of what you are being told. This will involve researching the validity of the information being shared.

You need to challenge everything. If you are in any doubt at all, you need to seek clarification.

You must never repeat what you don’t understand or can validate and justify. If the issue isn’t clear, you need to find new angles in order to help people understand old and current events.

The learning process means that you retain an open mind and strive to find new ways to explore the issue you are uncovering.

Make a list of all the points you don’t understand, and go through those points one by one until you are absolutely clear, and can explain even a complicated case or situation in plan and straightforward language.

As you do, you will uncover new angles, and you will become aware of information gaps that you will need to fill before you broadcast or publish the information.

At this stage you will have three elements to your story.

1. What you have been told,
2. What you have observed,
3. What you have learnt.

Now you can move on to the next step, which is analysing what you have got.

3: Analysing

A simple way to do this is to make a list of what you have so far. This will include what you have been told, what you have observed, and what you have learnt.

You need to list all the significant elements of a story and then assess the likely impact on the lives of the people involved and others indirectly affected by the events you are covering.

You should also consider the reach of the story in terms of how many people it will affect. It could be that there are far more people involved than was apparent when the story first broke.

And once you have expanded the material you have on the story, you need to step back and reflect on what you have found.

You now have;

1. What you have been told,
2. What you have observed,
3. What you have learnt,
4. What you have deducted through analysing the evidence you have uncovered.

4: Reflecting

This is where it might be helpful to consult someone. It might be the editor, a producer or a colleague. It doesn’t matter. You just need someone to help you assess what you have uncovered.

During this process you need to ensure that you have included all significant voices and views. You need to challenge all assumptions, especially your own.

Most of all, you need to ensure you apply editorial integrity, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and accuracy to your news gathering.

It could be that the story you thought you had has changed. It could be that the exiting top line you had thought up for a headline is no longer valid. It could be that the story is weak and needs to be dropped, or it could be that the story is the strongest your newsroom has covered this year and is going to win a prize.

You won’t be able to judge that on your own; including colleagues is essential if you are to reach the right conclusion as to the strength of the story.

Now you can begin to add context to your report.

5: Contextualising

This is where you need to offer information that will help the audience understand the significance of the news event you are covering.

The death of 10 people following flooding is tragic, but if the death toll was 1,000 the previous year, that information needs to be added to put the latest events into context.

The deaths will be devastating for the local community who have lost loved ones, their livelihood and perhaps their homes, but you need to know whether warnings were given in the past and why they were not heeded.

So you need to look for patterns. Has this story happened before? When? What was the outcome? You also need to look for local, regional, national and international comparisons where appropriate.

It might be that by taking a wider view you uncover a much bigger story. Does a recent controversial contract for a hydro-electric dam downstream have any bearing on flooding?

Check the archives, explore the history of the story, continue to research deeper in order to get to the root of the matter. This is all part of the process of finding out why a story is important and adding that context so that you enhance the understanding of the audience.

You need to find out where it fits into the bigger picture. You need to uncover the relationships between what you are covering and previous events.

It will be essential to find out what part politics and business plays in the story; perhaps there is a suspicion of corruption and dishonest dealing.

Story development

We discuss more about these ideas, and how they can be put into practice, in our training module about story development.

In that module, we take the story of flooding in Vietnam and apply two of the tools in this series – the proactive journalism tool and the story development tool – in order to squeeze all the information out of the event for the benefit of our audience.

This is because you work on behalf of the audience. They are not in a position to speak to the powerful and influential, you are. You work on their behalf. And to do your job properly you need to be professional in the way you treat the information you are sharing with your audience.

Extra workload

If, after reading this you are thinking that you and your journalists don’t have the time to do the above, consider whether it’s worth doing fewer stories better.

There are some tips on how to priorities effort in our training modules about story weighting and the journalism value matrix.

Whatever tools you use, your job is to inform the public debate. You do this by digging where others are afraid to dig, by scrutinising the executive, by holding the powerful to account, and by shining a light in dark places. All these actions are part of proactive journalism.

And if you are not challenging the information you are given, you are failing as a journalist and are just providing an outlet for PR (public relations) information and propaganda.

The post Proactive journalism, ensuring issues are fully explored first appeared on Media Helping Media.

In a previous module we looked at the topic of proactive journalism, where journalists are encouraged to observe, learn, reflect, analyse, and add context when producing news stories. In this module we look at story development.

This module is about thinking of the related stories, angles, or missing pieces of the story that can be produced in order to help explain the main story and enhance the audience understanding of the issue being covered.

For this exercise we consider a recurring story in Vietnam – flooding – and we look at the various angles that could be followed up. First we have the main story.

1: The story

This is fairly straightforward. We just need to ask the basic journalistic questions of what, why, when, how, where and who. So, in creating the main story we need to ask:

• What has happened?
• Why did it happen?
• When did it happen?
• How did it happen?
• Where did it happen?
• Who does it affect?

Asking these question should give us the main story and headline.

But responsible reporting that aims to inform the public debate with robust investigative journalism needs to go further. Let’s look at what we have to work on from the main story.

2: The facts

Now we can start to expand the story using the story development model. We need to start to piece together the facts, or the evidence. And these so-called ‘facts’ need to be examined, tested and proven to be accurate by confirming with at least two independent sources.

• What do we know?
• Is our information accurate?
• What is the source?
• Why are they sharing?
• What facts could be missing?
• What don’t we know?
• Who should we talk to?
• Why are they important?
• What could be hidden?
• Who is doing the hiding?

By this stage we will have built up a story plan which, when we discuss with our news team, will produce several ideas for follow up angles (related stories).

What we are able to piece together at this point are the following:

• Flooding fact file – a list of bullet points.
• Flooding maps – where the flooding happened.
• Flooding profiles – background information on the area most affected.

Having gathered some facts we now need to look at the data used to support the evidence.

3: The data

• What is the source of the data?
• Is it reliable?
• Can you verify?
• Check with officials, NGOs, campaigners, academics.
• Seek out regional comparisons regarding flooding in other provinces, regions, neighbouring countries.
• Find out what is the history of flooding in the area?
• Check whether any projections were made in the past that could have reduced the impact?

At this stage something interesting is starting to happen. As we dig deeper, new story angles are emerging.

Let’s consider just a few that might be inspired by point three.

• The flooding: campaigners warn that it could happen again.
• The flooding: comparisons between regions – how others are coping.
• The flooding: officials say relief and aid will arrive in time.

Now we need to get first-hand experiences to illustrate the story.

Of course we will have some personal experiences in the main story, but once we establish what has happened, and understand the scale compared to previous floods, we can now ask more intelligent questions when talking to the victims.

4: Who is affected?

• What is their story?
• Before the incident, during the incident, after the incident.
• Who do they care for and who still needs help?
• Who can’t get help?
• What help is offered?

At this point we will have a series of personal accounts of the flooding.

• The flooding: the victims tell their stories.
• The flooding: the annual disaster that has become a way of life.
• The flooding: the communities still stranded and in need of help.

Having spoken to people affected by the flooding we can now look at who is responsible, and what was the cause.

5: Responsibility

• Who or what was responsible?
• What went wrong?
• Why did it go wrong?
• Were all possible preventative measures taken?
• What are the authorities doing?
• Will it happen again?
• If not, why not?
• If it will, what can be done?

This should produce some fairly straightforward angles for story follow up, including:

• The flooding: Who was to blame? Officials, NGOs and campaigners point the finger.
• The flooding: Authorities say preventative measures planned.
• The flooding: Did local communities ignore warnings?

Having attempted to establish responsibility, we can also look at promises made in the past.

6: The promises

• In the present and in the past.
• Preventative measures promised.
• Local authority plans.
• Aid and relief offered.
• Infrastructure changes suggested after the last floods.
• Tackling the causes, deforestation, dams etc.
• Compensation offered to those affected last time.
• What fact-finding was carried out and what was done with the information.

Suggested follow up angles from the above include:

• The flooding: learning from the lessons of the past.
• The flooding: why preventative measures failed.
• The flooding: did the aid get through to those in need?

This is the stage where our archive becomes valuable.

We will have material from previous coverage of the flooding. We need to include this in order to provide context. Please refer to the other training module in this series about “Proactive journalism”.

All the above helps us assess the scale of the problem and try to establish an accurate view of the impact.

7: The impact

• Now and in the future.
• On crops and the general economy.
• The environment and whether it can recover.
• Health issues related to contaminated water, lack of medicine etc.
• Infrastructure, roads, railways, communications.
• Communities cut off.
• Families separated, unable to contact one another.
• Individuals missing, injured, bereaved.

Some story ideas resulting from the above considerations could include:

• The flooding: the economic impact on the environment.
• The flooding: the cost of repairing the infrastructure.
• The flooding: the impact on remote rural communities.

As the picture builds we are in a better position to view the consequences.

8: The consequences

• A complete solution, part solution, or no solution.
• Aid gets though, part aid gets through, or no aid gets through.
• Changes in lifestyle for some and what happens to those who can’t change.
• The economic future for all.

Such considerations could mean related stories being produced about:

• The flooding: prevention plans for future years.
• The flooding: the true cost of getting aid to those in need.
• The flooding: lifestyle changes required to cope with annual disaster.

As we continue to develop angles, dig deep and explore the topic we will start to develop some ideas of who might be accountable.

9: Accountability

• Who knew?
• What action was taken?
• Was it too early or late?
• Who is to blame?
• What local authority action was taken?
• Were there warnings given?
• Did the warnings reach those in danger?
• Were the warnings heeded?
• If not, why not?
• Is there any suspicion of any corruption?

The considerations above could lead to more related stories such as:

• The flooding: was enough done to prepare communities?
• The flooding: were warnings ignored and, if so, why?
• The flooding: the hidden factors that increased the likelihood of a disaster.

The question of corruption will come up as we start to assess accountability. We then need to look to the future.

10: The future

• What is the plan?
• What are the options?
• Who will it involve?
• What are the changes?
• Will they be phased?
• Is any adjustment needed?
• Is any training needed?
• What are the contingency plans?
• Is any education needed?
• What are the community plans?

This list provides us with several related story ideas, including:

• The flooding: future plans to prevent another disaster.
• The flooding: campaign to educate those living under the risk of floods.
• The flooding: community relocation plans to rehouse those at most risk.

Already we will probably have thought up 10 different angles on the flooding story with at least three related stories for each angle.

At this stage we should have at least 30 original story ideas that attempt to explain the complexity of the issue we are covering on behalf of our audience.

This is story development. This is in-depth, robust, responsible journalism aimed at fully informing the public debate. But all this material needs managing.

This task might be taken on by the planning editor. In an earlier module we discussed the role of the planning editor and his/her team. They will need to ensure the story is followed up.

11: The follow up

• Set a follow up date.
• Three or six months.
• List questions to ask.
• Note promises/targets.
• Check timetables.
• Keep archive.
• Revisit victims.
• Check with authorities.
• Interview experts.
• Arrange studio debates.

Of course the planning role will also produce new story opportunities, such as:

• The flooding: six months / a year on – what has changed?
• The flooding: from our archive – a special report on communities under water.
• The flooding: studio debate – the experts meet the public face-to-face.

And while all this is going on there will be a need to engage the audience in debate via the social media platforms used by victims, aid agencies, authorities, concerned relatives, and general public.

12: Engaging the audience

• Discuss on Facebook.
• Use other social media.
• Ask for experiences.
• Interview people.
• Stimulate debate.
• Ask questions.
• Offer answers.
• Publish fact files.
• Publish maps.
• Offer help and support.

And this part will also produce related stories, including:

• The flooding: How social media responded.
• The flooding: Your pictures of the disaster.
• The flooding: Interactive maps and timelines for you to share.

An example to apply to all big stories

The methods outlined above can’t be applied to every story; newsrooms don’t have the resources for that. However, such treatment should be considered for big, recurring stories or events where there is significant local impact, and where there is likely to be a growing archive of previously-prepared material.

To help us decide what stories deserve such detailed story development we can use two tools that are shared on this site. One is the “content value matrix”, and the other is the “story weighting system”.

Both are designed to help media managers and journalists focus resources on the stories that are of most value to the target audience.

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