Journalism Tips 49. Getting started on your patch: Refining your Twitter feed.

Now, if you followed the advice in the previous post, you should have a Twitter feed with an awful lot of drivel... welcome to Twitter.

Day to day this will be mostly useless - especially if the few gems of stories are lost among the endless promotion of club nights.

To get around this you will need to learn how to use lists. Click on the cog, select lists and create a new one - then add those that seem to be constitently tweeting relevant news.

This is not to say your main Twitter feed is redundant. Remember people Tweet about interesting things they see - if they are in and around your patch they are likely to Tweet mostly about that area.

A list will allow you to separate the news wheat from the promo chaff - and allow you to hold onto the chaff just in case it later proves useful.

To demonstrate - and to make sure I still knew what I was doing - I set up my own feed about an area I don't know very well - in this case the London Borough of Hackney. You can find it at @MyHackney1. If you are living in Hackney let me know... I'll follow you.

This isn't your personal account so you own interests do not come into it. I simply typed out Hackney and clicked on everything that was relevant. Ditto: Shoreditch, Stoke Newington, Dalston, Clapton, Homerton etc etc.

Searches through the lists of people I followed added more names, venues and businesses. And within a few hours I had followed 400 people. So far, so good,

Remember to include a profile. A quick Google Street View grab and a vintage picture - distinguishes your account from Spam. A written profile encouraging people from the area to follow in return to a follow back yielded a few more.

And finally a first Tweet, in my case generic, in yours a shout out for news, stories, tips and photos.

Over the coming weeks I'll follow more people, Tweet out relevant news and RT stories

So anything interesting? Possibly and a few more things look like they may be shaping up.

Journalism Tips 48. Getting started on your patch: Building your contacts

If you started your journalism course at the beginning of the academic year you should have been given a patch or beat (that's an Americanism) to cover.

And by now you should have most of the important contacts in place. If you haven't then read on:

Let's start, as we always do, with the very basics. Now I am going to attempt to imagine the difficulty of being student reporter because press officers aren't going to deal with you.

This is a good thing because really all you want them for is the "you've got us bang to rights guv'" quote at the end.

Over the next few blogs we will look in detail about how you should be building up your patch. And how you should already be pitching to your local newspapers.

Today we will keep it simple.

Your (ahem) patch

Your contacts book should have at least 150 numbers in it by now. It may prove utterly useless to you when you finish the course but never discount them. I have hundreds of contacts in my book I've never called. But if I ever need them they are there.. or at least I know who I am chasing if the number turns out to be old.

We will come back to contacts but there are other things you should have done by now. You should have a Twitter feed for anyone in your area. By all means keep it separate from your personal account - it would help if you give it the name of your patch (or at least include it) and you keep it open. First tap out the name of your patch. See what comes up and follow them. Follow any obvious landmarks pubs, schools, local council etc. Make sure you include local councillors, the local MP and so on. Then using the advanced Twitter search that we saw in a previous post see if there is anyone less obvious you can follow.

Follow anyone that follows this Twitter account - if you've called it say My Whitechapel then the people will probably have an interest. You should be constanty tweeting from it asking for any stories always include the name of the patch. Inform people of the stories you are working on, give them updates, throw out more appeals for information.

Set up a special email account and link that to your Twitter feed.

On Google (I'm really not going to give you a link to that) set up Google Alerts, firstly for the name of your patch. But also the names of markets, major streets, the council, councillors, local celebrities etc etc.

Check out local news websites - even seemingly defunct ones which can spring back to life suddenly and for no obvious reason. Check also local bloggers - follow them and bookmark them.

Buy the local newspaper - yes, buy it every week! Again after a few weeks it will prove a wise investment (but I will come back to this).

Now all of this gives you a rolling news feed. It hasn't taken long - maybe one day of concentrated effort. But over the next few months this is the start of having some proper cuttings - AND possibly (just possibly) the start of making you real money for your journalism.

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Journalism Tips 47. Christmas ideas and Freedom of Information. Start thinking now. Plus a few more book ideas.

Last week I suggested that you start thinking about your Yuletide stories - you'll find it here along with a few suggested books.

A week has gone by so let me repeat the basic message: You really do need to be thinking about them now, especially if they are going to involve festive Freedom of Information requests.

Even more so if you've never made an FoI request before and have no idea how to do it. And if you're a student looking for work experience on your local paper or you simply want an easy cutting in a real newspaper then here is your chance.

And while you may think you have plenty of time - there are 61 days until Christmas it's not quite that simple.

Remember it takes 20 working days to get a FoI response it is rarely that easy. So from tomorrow (Friday 26) there are 42 working days (in theory).

But you won't get a response from most places on Christmas Eve - so we're down to 41.

Then you have to have your copy ready before the edition goes to print, so really you need to have it ready to go by December 14 (36 days) - even if the article is for between Christmas and New Year.

Of course it may take a few days to contact all the relevant people to make it a story - and it is Christmas so people will be busy... even if you have their contact numbers to hand. Let's say two days to contact the relevant people (34 days).

And if you haven't another two days (32 days) and then you have to actually write the thing - another day for you to write and read and re-read it (31 days).

The definition of a full working day means that even if you do get it in by 9.01am tomorrow morning - and to the right department the day will be practically over and the 20 working days won't actually start until Monday (30 days).

Allow for the request to be at the very least four days late (26 days); there to a problem with the request itself (does not comply etc) another five days (21 days) and a couple of days to actually make sense of what they send you (19 days) and you will see you are late already.

(Admittedly that was painful towards the end.)

So while you console yourself at missing this valuable deadline here's another few journalism books to add to your Christmas stocking... And in an exciting new development you can now click on the title and it will take you straight to the relevant Amazon page. I will master technology.

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
William Boot possibly the most famous countryside correspondent of all time. A legend - and a living one since he was based on W. F. Deedes - in his own and many other life times. Briefly: confusion runs at the Daily Beast and a lowly rural reporter finds himself (and an awful lot of stuff) in Africa awaiting the much expected civil war.
There, by accident rather than design he finds himself beating the rest of the assembled hacks - including that of the Beast's (Daily Mail) arch rival the Daily Brute (Daily Express) - to pull of an amazing newspaper coup.
Waugh is brilliant and typically acerbic. A must.
First published 1938.

A Crooked Sixpence by Murray Sayle
Set in the - then fictional - Sunday Sun of the 1960s. Australian hack James O'Toole comes to try his luck in Fleet Street. He soon finds himself writing an article about a hit  pop star Ricky Roger's dubious parentage (or at least it was back then) and finds himself up against Ricky's publicist Mary Lou. The story continues with Mary Lou: "You can't give us publicity like that. After all, it's not Ricky's fault, is it?"
"Look, Mary Lou," said O'Toole. "We're not in the business of giving Ricky good publicity. This is supposed to be a newspaper. We print what we think people will be interested in.
"For years you have been feeding us your cooked-up rubbish about Ricky's ties and his favourite dishes and we published it because deluded editors thought it was interesting. Ricky got rich in the process and you seem to be doing all right yourself.
"Now we've got something which is even more interesting. Maybe Ricky's income will go down but that's no concern of ours. We're not here to build him up in the first place. Those who live by publicity can't squeal if they die by publicity, can they?

Pratt of the Argus by David Nobbs
It is the 1950s and Henry Pratt has just finished National Service. joins a small Northern newspaper in the mid-1950s. We follow him as he makes contacts in the worlds of politics, crime and sport.
Naturally they all come together for an hilarious finale. It's part of a series but you don't need to read the first book as this stands on its own.
And it is very, very funny... especially if you are a journalist (even after all this time).

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The alphabet has only 26 letters. And with these 26 magic symbols....

And remember girls there are plenty of specialisms for you....

Journalism the good old days (apparently).

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Working in journalism. 46. Finding people: Using Twitter.

So far social media has not played much of a part in these posts. But it can't be ignored and so to state the bloody obvious - it is now very important... although probably not quite as much as it thinks.

Now this is not going to be another of those 10 Twitter Tools for the reporter. I don't doubt they are not useful but they come and go as Twitter sees fit. (However if you have any suggestions please send them in and I'll give it a test run.)

So to Twitter. It's a useful resource - and one that no reporter should be without these days.

If you know the name of the person than it is obvious. But, as with many of you, not everyone uses their real name.

Hence we go back to our information trawl - Did they have any nicknames? What were the names of their friends? - that we looked at earlier.

The more unusual the name the easier it is. If the person we are searching for is John Smith clearly it's not going to be an easy task.

But what if we know they have a friend Eamon Starbrook - that is a useful first starting point. Check them first and run through their follows/followers.

It is possible that among them will be the John we are looking for.

Remember also to try out the different possible combitions of a person's name (ie James, Jimmy, Jim).

Read through the old Tweets. Small clues can be found. A mention of a particular shop may give you some idea of the area they live in - in other words narrowing down your search location all the time.

It does not matter how irrelevant the information may appear at first, what we are doing is building up a picture of the person's life.

Now it is very hit and miss whether people are actually on Twitter, many are not and many accounts remain idle.

Again you should be cross-referencing all the time. Look for other accounts that are linked, look for husbands, wifes, mothers, fathers, brothers, bosses, colleagues.

If we are searching for a person who has been in an accident try typing in the name of the road where it happened or the area. And remember to try different combinations so:

High Street Kensington

High St Kensington

High Street Ken

High St Ken

All produce different answers but all are talking about the same place.

If there has been a death try both Rip and R.I.P plus whatever other information you may have garnered from sources elsewhere.

Certainly using these techniques we were able to track down a name for the man shot by police which was to later spark the London - and later national - riots that swept the major cities of England in 2011.

Now Twitter also has an Advanced Search page which allows you to narrow your terms of reference to within 1mile. It's a powerful tool.

Having tried it out it does throw up some interesting connections and some not so obvious ones. So is well worth considering.

It can also make connections - although this is possible with TweetDeck. This could come in handy as your own investigations progress and you narrow down your searches.

It is worth considering using Topsy too. This will allow you to search tweets up to three years ago - but it is not foolproof and there are gaps. Again using this will help you make connections and perhaps confirm information you may have already picked up from elsewhere.

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Journalism Tips 45. A few #journalism books to try out.

A little break from the finding people posts as in here and here and here. This is an occasional series of books and films the trainee reporter or journalism student may want to try out. No, they are not serious Murdoch-bashing, tabloid-trashing tomes. They are just general reads for the interested and curious reader.
If you want a journalismtip out of this it is... start thinking now about those Christmas stories especially for local newspapers. It comes around pretty quickly and the news editor will be on your case sooner than you think. Make sure the stories will hold... and make sure you can keep your gob shut the next time they scream for a page 43 nib, you could find your Yuletide splash being used as a filler.

1. Waterhouse On Newspaper Style by Keith Waterhouse
Simply brilliant. A classic. Every junior reporter - and indeed quite a few seniors - should have a copy. It was originally written as the style guide for the Daily Mirror (or as he would put it the Daily Mirror style guide) some time in the 1980s.
It's said that copies were photocopied and passed around from journalist to journalist. One day a reporter bumped into Waterhouse and asked him to sign his copy. Realising it was such a popular book he decided to publish it.
The book covers everything you could possibly need to know about writing by a master of his craft.
Revel Barker Publishing. Priced £9.99.

2. Stick It Up Your Punter: The Uncut Story of the Sun Newspaper by Peter Chippendale and Chris Horrie
Entertaining, funny and (for some) shocking all at the same time. Told in a lively way it delves into how the culture at News International developed over time. How investment in its brand of journalism and a swiftness to react made The Sun the country's best-selling tabloid and smashed its once superior rival dominance of the red top market. It may also give you a different perspective on the Wapping industrial dispute. The authors also wrote the equally excellent Disaster: Rise and Fall of News on Sunday - Anatomy of a Business Failure now out of print.
Pocket Books. Priced £7.99.

3. Tickle the Public. One Hundred Years of the Popular Press by Matthew Engel
Very interesting romp through the history of newspapers during the 20th Century. See how British newspaper habits moved from The Times to the Daily Star in a space of a few decades.
And if you think it is no longer applicable, then think again. The title comes from the rhyme popular in Fleet Street in the 19th Century: Tickle the public, make 'em grin, the more you tickle, the more you'll win. Teach the public, you'll never get rich, you live like a beggar, and die in a ditch. (In other words the perfect advice for new web start-ups.)
Now out of print but available on Amazon. Priced £00.01 to £98.27 + p&p.

4. My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism by Andrew Marr
You can't help but feel the Leveson Inquiry could have saved itself a few  weeks of questions if all the lawyers had bought themselves a copy of this enjoyable guide to modern reporting by the BBC's top - and very self-deprecating - interviewer. In a few pages the former editor of the Independent explains why by-lines are so important to reporters, how contacts work, the day to day of newspaper production - and, in particular, his own specialism the lobby - before moving on to how television reporting differs to print. Plus, as the title suggests, there is a wider view on how British newspapers have developed down the years.
Pan MacMillan. Priced £8.99.

5. Shock! Horror! The Tabloids In Action by Sally J. Taylor
It is easy - as well as being very lazy - to think that tabloids just make up all those sensational stories. That is not to say it has never happened but much of it is just down to hard work, dogged determination and (in the old days) very large cheque books being whipped out at just the right time. S.J. Taylor tells some of the stories behind the headlines (to use a cliche).
Now admittedly it has been a few years since I last read this excellent book but S J Taylor has written extensively on newspaper history since then. Particularly about the Daily Mail, An Unlikely Hero: A Newspaper Reborn - Vere Rothermere And How The Daily Mail Was Saved.
Out of print but available on Amazon. Priced £00.01 to £17.00.


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Reporting for beginners. 44. Finding people in the real world (part 3).

In the previous posts we looked at what factors to take in with names and use of search engines when trying to trace someone. In this one we are going to look at gathering the information - in the real world.

First off don't ignore the obvious no matter how unlikely it may be. I once tracked down a Duke by calling directory enquiries. It can still happen, although it is increasingly rare.

Again much of this depends on how much time you have and how desperate you are to find someone.

But always keep in mind many of the people you want to track down have good reasons for not wanting to be found. We also live in a very transitory age. People can move not from street to street but county to county.

Again as part of our information gathering we need to look in many different places.

At the scene of an accident look for memorials. People will go there to lay floral tributes and leave messages. Keep in mind my earlier tips regarding death knocks which can be found here and here.

The same basic rules apply. In this case give the person time and only approach when they have begun walking away. Try not to hover too closely, so keep a respectful distance but not so far that you won't be able to catch up with them once they go.

You yourself should read through the messages. Look for any clues, obviously names and nicknames, as we will see in a later post even a first name is worth checking. But keep a note also of relationships ie aunts and uncles and make a note of their details, it may come in handy later when trying to track down family members.

Bear in mind that you can't ask people if they want to talk to you if you can't find them - and they not know or even think about the newspaper being interested in their story.

Check also local businesses and nearby homes as the person may live locally and be known. Keep a note of which properties you've tried and their response - if you need to go back at a later stage it will stop knocking on the same doors.

It is also worth checking with the police although don't rely on this unless you have a very good relationship with them, thesedays there is an almost automatic assumption that the family of the deceased or a person involved in an accident will not want to talk with you and they will refuse to ask on your behalf.

Many will also be fearful that you will get in the way of any subsequent investigation, forgeting that libel and subjudice laws will still apply in the event of any criminal action.

If the person has died speak with the coroner's office. If the inquest has been opened (albeit and adjourned) the details are a matter of public record and should be available to you.

It is also worth checking the local newspaper...even if you work for it. The BMDs (Birth, Marriage, Death or Hatched, Matched and Dispatched as it is also known) column can already have a notice in it.

Knowing the timing of an accident also helps. People generally follow the same patterns returning to a scene at about the same time may help you find someone who was around and may have witnessed it.

But it is not all about trying to find the relatives of people who have died. Journalists are always trying to track people down for all sorts of reasons for good as well as for ill.

The best way to find them is to keep a good contacts book. Having their number in the first place it certainly the quickest and easiest which is why having a good, up-to-date contacts book is worth its weight in gold.

However we can't have everyone's number but we can use what we have. A good relationship with councillors, who because of their role in the community will have their ear to the ground, will help if you know the rough area the person lives in.

Also try chairmen/women of residents and tenants associations. If they do not know ask them for any long term residents who may be living in the area.

Don't be put off if someone says they moved out some years ago. Keep asking for specifics: When did they move? Any idea where they moved to? What was their job? Married, divorced, single? Any known relatives/friends? Where did they live previously? Every scrap of information helps.

If you are after a particular expert try other people in their field or call magazines/websites that deal with their specialism and ask them. They are usually very helpful.

In smaller communities ring anyone whose number you find and ask if they can help. You would be surprised how many are still willing to put you in touch or contact the person on your behalf.

If you believe they have a business try rivals or better still go to the Companies House website and check for directorships.

As always, the more detail you can collect the easier it will be. Constant cross-referencing helps narrow down searches all the time. But, as always, there are no guarantees.

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Tips for reporters 43. Finding people part 2

As explained in the previous post there really is no great secret to finding people.

In the olden days (that's pre-internet) there were telephone directories and communities; today there is the web and social networking.

However there are still a large number of people who fall in between these categories, although this will slowly fall as more people come of age and the older populations die away.

Of course in the future there will be other issues to deal with, namely the growing emphasis on privacy, which may or may not turn out to be an issue du jour.

But in the meantime let's work with what we have for the time being.

Always remember research is key. The more information you can collect the easier it is.

But let's not forget the obvious. Check electoral rolls, most decent newspapers have access to them nowadays. They range in sophistication with more or less data on them (name, address, public telephone numbers but also data such as ages, marriages, deaths, directorships and county court judgments (ccjs) - ie bankruptcies.

In the UK there is www.192.com which is available to everyone. You get 10 free basic searches a day but you only get limited information. You have to pay for the premium details.

 It does come at a small charge. But even if you don't have access to this or are not inclined to spend your own money it is worth trying it out as it can give certain clues. Having tried it out on myself it was of limited value when free. However cross-referencing the info with a search engine would have given me a starting point for my searches.

Another simple method would be to type out the name of the person I'm searching for and mobile (in the US I guess that would be cell) or contact. It's especially useful when looking for councillors (although they ought to include their details on the council website many don't these days); other public officials or prominent local business people.

A lot are involved in other community projects, ie a local charity auction. Their contact details may well be on press releases put online. Or they may sit on the board of a local institution, a museum for example. In which case type in just their surname and where they are involved because in many cases these places are far more formal and less inclined to use first names.

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Reporting Hints 42. Finding/Tracing people (part one).

There is an art to tracing people but it is very hit and miss and it can take a lot of time for not very much reward.

However that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Naturally it helps to get all the information you possibly can on the person. It helps too if you are methodical.
So let's start with the basics:

Write down every scrap of information you can as you learn it. Make sure you include the source of that information in case you need to go back and check at a later date.
If you've found it online I suggest keeping the web address somewhere safe, it can save hours of work retracing your steps.

Names.

Not something you can take for granted. First off, you have to worry about spelling. There are, for example, around 14 different spellings of the name Mohammed - which if you think sounds pretty hard to trace wait until you hear there are 18 variations of the name Chantelle (in no particular order: Chantelle, Chantel, Chantal, Shantel, Shantelle, Seantel, Shauntelle, Shontelle, Shontal, Chantalle, Chawntelle, Chauntelle, Chantille, Chantielle, Chantell, Chantele, Chantalle).

Add to the this shortening of names. Jo could be Joanne, Jo-Anne, Josephine, Joan, Jocelyn etc etc.

Of course that is assuming that the name they go by is their first name. They may use a middle name instead of their first name. Surprisingly more common than it sounds (David Law, James McCartney or even William Pitt are some more famous examples - that's Jude, Paul and Brad(ley)).

Then you have street names, pseudonyms or nome de plumes (pen names) (think David Cornwall better known as John Le Carre); stage names (Michael Caine  -  Maurice Micklewhite), nicknames, avatars etc etc. It might even be an initial.

Surnames aren't particularly straight forward either. As well as the above you have to take in names changed by Deed Poll, married names, double barrelled names, and maiden names. Also re-marriages and, as above, misspellings.

Misspellings, even on public documents, are in far more common than you might believe. Keep this is mind especially when dealing with unusual names.

If you can get a middle name(s) it can also be useful in tracking people, especially those with common names. But remember many people drop them or simply don't use them on every document.

Ages

A date of birth is a big help. Remember in the UK it is day, month year unlike the US where it is month, day, year. Failing that it will help to get even a rough description. Are you looking for someone in their 20s or in their 70s? However never forget people are not always as observant as they like to think they are. So don't rely on it entirely. It is not unknown - or rare - for an eyewitness to describe someone as a "young girl in her 20s" when in fact the person you are chasing is actually a woman in their 40s.

Again make sure you keep a note of any scraps of information that come your way. As we shall see later it can come in handy when making connections. And even if it later transpires the information is wrong it means you can cross off avenues you may have otherwise have wasted time on


In the next part we look at where you can start finding names.

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41. Getting a job in journalism: How to make the most of work experience

Even the smallest of weekly newspapers can get inundated with requests for work experience. It means that in any given year 10 or 20 - perhaps even more on the bigger papers - wannabe reporters are coming through their doors.

Contrary to what you may be thinking (but not always) it is not purely an exercise in free labour. Believe me having dealt with the trail of destruction some trainees can leave behind it is often easier to do without them.

On the most part work experience is given for four reasons:

1. Almost everyone offering it will have done it themselves. It is the tried and tested method and they like to impart some of their own experience to the next generation.

2. It is part of the paper's "community remit". With budgets slashed to nothing it is a way of offering something extra to the people they serve.

3. They are looking for talent. That's right, they can even be looking for bright young journos (such as yourself).

If we are going to be cynical it can also be:

4. They need someone to churn out a dozen nibs, make tea and generally be a dog's body for a week.

Now reasons 1, 2 and 4 are all very laudable. It's No. 3 that we need to concern ourselves with. Bearing in mind a news editor can see so many trainees you will need to stand out from the crowd (let's call them people who haven't read this blog).

Newsrooms are usually much much smaller

So how do you do that? The answer is pretty simple... Make the news/editor's life easier. If you've been following this from the start you will have read tips 1 and 2 (I'm sure you can look them up yourself without need of a link).

If you've read the paper for a few weeks you should have a pretty good idea about what's going on in the local area, the topics they are interested in and gaps that aren't being filled.

The next thing to start doing is finding those stories - and that's before you go in. If you've never been in a real life newsroom before they can be daunting. The chances are you will start on a Monday and finish on a Friday. So far so normal. But unless you are working on a daily or a weekly that comes out at the end of the week you will get a rather disjointed view. 

For a start if the paper comes out on a Wednesday the reporters will be working to deadline. You won't see the process gearing up... it will be geared up. They will be busy trying to find a splash (front page) or chasing around after last minute quotes or trying to make the dang fool of an editor's "great" campaign - thought up over a tea and a biscuit 20 minutes before - become a reality. 

Sure they will try and throw you some stuff and take time out to go through it (if you are lucky) but, on the whole, they simply won't have time. You will certainly not their main priority.

This might be an altogether different story if come day one you walk in with that page 3 story that everyone was looking for two hours before.

If not, sit in a corner and expect to be largely ignored. Until Wednesday, with deadline passed the collective sigh of relief let's everyone relax for five minutes and even get around to asking you your name.

But that's only half the story. You may finish your week, if you are lucky, with experience of a newsroom, a couple of bylines, a notepad filled with squiggles purporting to be 15 words a minute shorthand and little else. 

Your week is up and you never see anyone in that newsroom ever again. That, after all, is what most people do.

Now think about it differently. This is the first stage of getting a job. Perhaps not this week, nor next month, maybe not even next year but you are feeling for an opening.

Firstly, you will know who to speak to when pitching a story. Secondly, you will have a good idea of when the news editor is busy (not a good time) and when it is quieter (a good time) to speak to them. Thirdly, you will have direct contact numbers for the people involved. Finally, they will have an idea of who you are when you are talking to them - and will give you some time.

For every story that makes the news editor will look kindly upon you, shine a little light in your direction, offer you more work experience and at some time in the future will advise you on any jobs that may be coming up ahead of the crowd. And if you are very useful may even give the editor a nod in your direction.

So instead of treating a week's worth of experience as a one off look at it instead as the start of a new and useful relationship with a newsroom.

After all the whole point of being a journalism student is to get a job in the trade. That is unless you really have more money than sense.

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