Welcome to unit one, the Principles of Journalism, Telling the Story.
In the previous video, we looked at principles about gathering sources.
This time, we will look at the principles that a journalist needs to remember
when they are telling the story.
Meaning, when they are actually writing their article.
In this video, we're going to talk about four more principles of journalism.
Originality, completeness,
transparency and fairness.
The first important principle to remember when writing a story is originality.
This means creating something new.
So, a journalist must not borrow the words of others and
pretend that they have created them.
Imagine a hospital is being built in your town.
Obviously, the facts of the story are the same, but the way the journalist
writes about the story must be original and not copied from someone else.
If a journalist copies a story about the hospital from someone else and
then puts their name on it, we call it plagiarism.
This is something that a journalist should never do and it can cause many problems.
Another important principle to remember is completeness.
This means that journalists need to tell the whole story not just a part of it.
Journalists must present a story in context, which means looking at both sides
of a story as well as the events in the past that lead to the situation.
Going back to our example, if a journalist only writes the word of the hospital
officials and not the local residents, they have not written the whole story.
If the story's not complete, it can hurt both
the reputation of the journalist and the people who were part of the story.
The third principle that we're talking about in this video is transparency.
This is a word that we normally use to describe something that you could see
through.
Like a glass window.
When we use it to talk about journalism,
we mean that the people have the opportunity to look at the process that
the journalist goes through when they write their article.
For example, the journalist makes it clear who they spoke to.
And also, who they could not speak to?
Also, if the journalist has some connection to the story,
they need to be transparent and tell people what that connection is.
For example, if the journalist's spouse is an architect who is going to help
build the hospital, he or she must state that in the article.
Lastly, when a journalist writes an article,
they must think about the principle of fairness.
This means that a journalist must think about the language they use in
their article to make sure they accurately tell the facts without bias
favoring one side or another.
In the hospital example, they should use language that tells the facts
about the advantages and disadvantages of building the hospital.
It's important to remember that the journalist's goal
should be to inform the public.
Tell them what they need to know not manipulate them.
Try to shape the way they think about something.
So to summarize, in this video,
we looked at the principles of originality using your own words.
Completeness, writing the whole story.
Transparency, making your process clear to the reader.
And finally, fairness.
Writing accurately without bias.
Next, you'll read an article about
challenges that journalists face in today's
world as they try to use these principles.