|
Covering
Volatile Stories: The Dos and Don'ts
Poynter
Fellow Victor Merina says that covering minority and under
covered communities can be difficult at times because the
line of friendship and professionalism can easily be blurred.
To combat potential conflicts, he gave the following suggestions
to participants at the seminar, "Reporting and Writing
the Untold Stories."
DO
•
Define what your story purports to do
• Deliver what you promise
• Disclose any problems you might have covering
an issue or story
• Delve into details that make your story rich and
more complete
• Deal with legitimate criticism instead of ignoring
it
• Defuse a hostile situation before it gets out
of hand
• Defer to people in the community and others who
can answer criticism
• Defend
your work but don't get defensive
• Deploy the resources needed to get a fair, accurate
story
DON'T
• Disrespect
the people or community
• Deceive people about your intentions
• DeNiro or pretend to be someone you are not in
pursuing a story
• Descend on a community or be condescending when
you are there
• Debate an antagonist and risk losing your overall
story
• Defame detractors even if angered by criticism
• Default on a journalistic principle just to make
your job easier
• Deviate from a valid story idea even if pressured
--Victor
Merina
Victor
Merina is a Ford Foundation diversity fellow working
for Poynter from New York. A key contributor to the Poynter.org,
Victor maintains
Diversity Update, a weekly feature that highlights some
of the current or recent stories on race/ethnicity, race
relations, gender, sexual orientation and faith/religion
that have been published or aired.
|
