How to be a journalist 40. The death knock (Part Two)

In my last post I dealt with how reporters should deal with a death knock. As always there is nothing - or at least very much - revelatory for experienced journalists. But then these tips are aimed at juniors and trainees who may yet have covered one. Again this is not an exhaustive list and all comments, suggestions and observations are welcome.

This latest posting concentrates on how to build up a picture of a person's life in a few questions. Again every circumstance is different so while this tries to cover everything you will still need to think on your feet and listen to the answers given.

You will also need to be aware of any on-going police action and/or the potential to libel. It will be part of your job to explain why you won't be able to include all their quotes. You could not for example quote a claim that a widow that a driver involved in a death crash was not paying attention. That is up to a coroner/court to decide. If at all possible steer them to something that will make a more general point without being unusable.

All of this said you are still looking for a line. This is not about simply writing a formulaic story along the lines of:

A family last night paid tribute to....

We could/do all write this a hundred times over. Sometimes the tragedy in and of itself is simply enough but keep in mind the family details are not revealed straight away in most cases. It could come an edition or two after the original story.

By then the immediate family will be aware, so too many of the extended family and friends as well, possibly even wider still. Or it has been revealed by a rival news organisation. All of which means that sticking to the formula is no good and why you need another line.

So assuming that you have managed to get a chat with the family and have checked relationships of the people you are talking to and double checked the details given to you what should you be asking:

1. Establish all the immediate family members and their relationships. You need names and ages. Don't assume this is all the family. You will also need to establish length of relationship to a partner. If their parents are still alive, any other family. If they are young you want to know about boyfriends or girlfriends has the family spoken to them? You want to get the general reaction from the family. I try to avoid asking "How do you feel?" and try, "I can't imagine how you feel, how would you describe it?".

2. Can you describe their personality? This isn't all about facts, it's about pure emotion. It covers a great deal of very personal information and what you are trying to do is convey their life in a few words. This is a catch-all question it allows the bereaved to talk in an open-ended manner about the deceased.

3. What were their hobbies/interests? Again this is detail that fleshes out a life. It also, as with many of the questions, can provide fresh avenues to chase. Most of the time this will simply not be necessary but never rule it out entirely. It may be worth asking if there is anyone else they think it is worth talking to.

4. What did they do for a living? And previously? Again this is about establishing the person's existence. Not everyone is defined by their work but some are and - for good or for ill - many people will be able to create an image of that person based on their work. Did they go to university? Previous employment etc. It's a sad but usually true that if the deceased is young, public school educated and went to Oxford or Cambridge the story is more likely to be picked up by nationals. For older men (born before 1945) it's worth considering if they conscripted into National Service. For children you will want to be establishing the school and favourite subjects.

5. Were there ever any worries about the situation in which they died? Does the family think they will take any action - legal/civil - in regards to the death? For example, a cyclist may have always been concerned about the particular junction in which the accident happened and had voiced those fears. Or perhaps they had had several near misses over the years or been involved in a non-fatal accident not so long ago.

6. Were they from the area the family home is in? Essentially this is about establishing their deep background. They may have moved there for work, or an immigrant looking for a better life, or to study or any other of thousands of other reasons. If so how long had they lived there for? Or they may simply have lived there all their lives. In the case of children why did their parents move there.

7. What were their hopes and dreams? This is about showing 'a life interrupted' a life that could have been if it had not been struck by tragedy. This is particularly poignant of younger lives that have yet to reach full potential. If not married consider asking if marriage plans had been discussed.

8. Have they ever previously appeared in the news before? We're back to catch all questions but remember the person you are interviewing has been through a great shock. Without knowing anything about the deceased you have to cover as much ground as you can in as few questions as possible.

9. Can I have a photo? Preferably one with the family and ideally one of them looking smart.

10. And finally. Is there anything I have missed that was important to their life that you would like to get across? Personally I also add if they would mind me calling again and always ask for a mobile number. This is where explaining that if you can check back the details with them can be useful.

I think I have covered most of the important elements, as always, I may have missed something crucial and would appreciate any comments adding to this list.

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29. Pen – paper. Paper – pen. You only need two things to do this job. Always carry spares (esp when covering court).

(Press For Time: Bike not required)

If you strip away everything else - the local newspaper reporter only needs two things. A pen and a pad. That's all.

(Although you walk into a newspaper office without a mobile phone - which naturally they won't pay you for - and you won't be staying very long.)

So it always surprises me the number of trainee journalists who walk into a newspaper office without either.

It shows a distinct lack of preparedness by the reporter. No, you shouldn't have to pay for your equipment but at the same time if you are doing an NCTJ course or a degree in journalism you would hope you would be carrying these things around with you at all times anyway.

It's what makes you look like a potential journalist and not the GCSE student considering journalism as a possible career.

Having said that pen - paper. Paper - pen.

(Tommy Cooper: The joke only works with a jar AND spoon)

It's amazing how difficult it is to bring these two elements together. But it shouldn't be.

Carry spare pens with you at all times (although I have been in court and seen three pens fail on me during a case...I should have brought a fourth).

And always have a pen and paper ready when you call or get a call from news desk - you don't want to sound unprofessional rummaging around.

It is the most basic lesson you can learn as a professional journalist - because if you are not recording it,  what are you doing?

22. When interviewing listen for other stories. You can often get one or two page leads from incidental comments.

The biggest problem for local newspapers is actually filling the paper - yes, yes I know that's the bleedin' obvious.

Or so you might think. Local newspapers tend to do everything that possibly can to make this task as hard as possible.

It's not deliberate it's just a complete lack of foresight - which in fairness is easy to do when the sheer trudge of filling the pages is job enough, which is brought about by a lack of foresight, which in turn...

Well you get the idea.

It's all too easy to become focused on filling the pages and panic stricken moving on to the next one - in a rush without looking properly at the material you have.

Which brings us to listening out for stories in interviews.

It should - like for example, reading a newspaper - go without saying that when reading papers you are scouring for stories to use for your own paper.

(Remarkably it seems the effort of ripping something out of a paper is too much even for some national journos. Years ago as a reporter on The Sun a colleague brought in a very good tale about a very pretty woman solider that he had taken from his local. It had also been spotted by a rival news editor - only he was waiting for the news agency to file it...he had a long wait. The interview and pictures were in the bag and printed.)

Ok so, when reading the newspapers or magazines always be on the look out for stories from your patch. You should be able to find one or two in a good week - of course, if you are any good the stories will already have been in your paper.

But the point is always be on the look out for secondary stories in your interviews. For example say a local celebrity during a general interview about their latest book they were bullied while they were a pupil at the local comp...see if it can be developed into: I was bullied at school, says local star. Getting addition quotes from former pupils/teachers.

It is the sort of thing done all the time on the broadsheets...adapt the ideas to suit your own paper.

Or if an editor is against the idea - some of them really are unimaginative - keep the quotes to one side to use at a later date (probably the following week when you will be panicking about filling the pages all over again).

But here's an example of my own about what I mean.

I spotted this interview in The Spectator and even before I'd reached the end I wanted to interview Geoffrey Wellum, the Battle of Britain's youngest pilot...I was genuinely overjoyed when I found out he was from (nearly) my patch (I had to ask politely to do the interview from the reporter whose patch it was).

This is my original interview with him. I never nailed the intro - and actually remain pretty unhappy with the article as a whole...especially when compared to Christian House's Spectator original.

However journalismtips is not a masterclass in feature writing but basic hints for beginners.

Needless to say the article took up a page with photographs. But we couldn't fit everything in. So rather than cramming it I considered what I could leave out.

I decided we could dispense with the details of how his remarkable story came to be discovered and turned into a TV film. The result was this article.

I use this only as an example of how it can be done.

You can also use it for tip-offs which can in turn lead to proper investigations when something is said in an unguarded moment.

20. You can quote people from outside your patch. Just because they're not local doesn't mean what they say is irrelevant.

There's a story I tell from some years back. A local rogue in Cheltenham had successfully sold some prints which he claimed were by William Blake. They had fooled several experts including, I recall, a well known auction house. Had they been genuine they would have been worth thousands.

I suggested to the reporter he contact The Tate Gallery (this may even have been before the Britain suffix) as it had one of the best collections of Blake prints and would, presumably, be interested in the story as well as providing expert advice.

He was confused as to why I would suggest such a thing - after all The Tate wasn't in the circulation area. However I told him to call - and to his amazement (but not to mine) they DID have a Blake collection and experts.

You don't have to feel obliged to stick within the confines of your newspaper's circulation boundary...the area you cover must from time to time interact with the rest of the world.

Many years later a new Waitrose supermarket was coming to town. Everyone felt it would have a huge impact on our small market town - just no one could be sure.

I suggested - and by suggested I mean told - the reporter to call the next nearest market town that had a year earlier had a Waitrose open. He rang around the local butchers, bakers  and deli as well as some other independents - had it been a good or a bad thing? The result was mixed it had some advantages - more people came into town but each one was spending a bit less.

The fact is here we were answering the questions that people had on their minds without them even having to ask.

Look for experts - yes one in patch is preferable to one outside of it. Make contacts with local universities who may be able to provide you with no end of quotable professionals.

But don't be afraid to go outside the confines of your area. Today with telephones, mobiles, the internet few people are restrained by their locality - why should your paper be?

Don't over do it but remember to use it to help with reaction, analysis and so forth.

While looking around local newspaper sites I found this example of what I am talking about. According to the writer:



Archaeologists have discovered important evidence of Taunton’s past as a fortified town and, later, a thriving market town.


So naturally one might expect reasons why it is "important".


Instead it goes on...


Excavation at Castle Green has brought fascinating glimpses of the past to light, including a skeleton and some human bones.


Now we know they are "important" and "fascinating".


But as we go on all we find out are that there are some "human bones" and a "skeleton" - let's not get into the debate about the definition of a skeleton or whether it is human or not.


It takes us seven paragraphs to get to a quote. Naturally this will be from one of the archaeologists or the British Museum, or the county museum or someone from the local museum, maybe the local history society, castle staff, a local author on the castle....


Oh no, we have this instead:


Councillor Mark Edwards, deputy leader of Taunton Deane Borough Council.


That will of course be Councillor Mark Edwards the archeological expert who will tell us something about the bones...the way they were found perhaps?

Errr no.

What we get is this:

[He] said: “The history of Taunton from a Saxon town through medieval times and to the present day is of great interest to people. The work being done today adds to that history.”

I may be alone in this but the history of Taunton hasn't ever crossed my mind and having read this I care even less.

It's a meaningless quote - not that it is Cllr Edwards fault he's a councillor not an archeologist. I would welcome his views on planning applications, the state of the local economy, the public parks and gardens of Taunton - but clearly he is no expert on the archeology. Or if he is he is it doesn't show in this article.

Think about it when you are writing. Is this person adding something to the copy - that might just get it up the newslist.

Oh and one more thing. The article doesn't explain that before any work can be done around the site an archeological survey must be carried out. It doesn't say if work may now be delayed as a result of the find.

6. Always try to include quotes in stories, they make them come alive. Try and get them in by the fourth or fifth paragraph.

Let's start with the absolute basics when quoting someone in a newspaper the form is this:

Mr Smith said yesterday: "We are making plans for the future to eradicate all cliches by 2015."

Note a) the colon and b) the speech marks and c) the full stop inside the closing speech mark.

While your prose may be beautiful people still want to hear other voices - preferably of people involved in the events you are describing.

Quotes enliven a story. They make it richer, and more vivid to the reader and show you have actually spoken to a real person.

More importantly it distances you (the journalist) from the story - you become a third party looking in.

There are in the main four (this has already gone up from two) types of quotes (this will be amended as people point the obvious that I have forgotten):

1. The witness quote. The person whose experience you are covering.
2. The reaction/expert quote: All important. These are easy or impossible to get depending on your contacts.
3. The insider quote: Everything from whistleblowers to political leaks.
4. The press release/press officer quote: On the whole dreadful.

Now I say fourth or fifth paragraph but obviously it depends on the length of the story - it is however a generally good rule of thumb for most local newspapers with a story length of around 350 words.

Note it doesn't have the full bells and whistles quote - it can be a half quote included later with the full sentence following on later.

Quotes are especially necessary on regional newspapers. The paper is meant to represent the local people and so it is all the more important to have the voices of the people.

Including quotes also removes most of the accusations of bias - believe me you will get this anyway.

This is Andrew Marr on quotations in his exceptionally good book My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism:

Always look for a direct quotation. If a reporter has actually done the work, and talked to people who know things, the evidence will usually be there. Who are the sources? Are they speaking themselves? Are they named? Generic descriptions, such as 'senior backbencher' or 'one industry analyst' (my mate on the other side of the desk) or 'observers' (nobody at all), should be treated sceptically. They can be figments of the reporter's own prejudices or guesses, rather than real people. If you keep coming across well-written anonymous quotes, be highly suspicious these are probably crumbling bricks without the straws of supporting fact.

I'm not sure I agree with everything he says - and especially on locals where local councillors often do not have the power or confidence to raise their head above the parapet... Indeed the same could be said of many MPs now.