Updated December 18, 2009. A Few Free Journalism Lessons.
Free Journalism Lessons
Page 1 of several
Journalism: Free Lessons:
newspaper, radio and television reporting.
Free journalism lessons - what's that all about then? Is the author of these pages a world-renowned expert in writing
for newspapers, radio and television? Hardly.
Well then, some famous hard news writer sharing hard-won expertise? Hmm, not famous.
Truth is, I'm retired both from journalism and from teaching the basics. These pages are
an attempt to answer those questions that bedevil newcomers and which they may feel too shy to ask.
********* F L A S H !
Bored with local politics? Maybe you need a Reindeer Party. Take a look at the Atherstone Recorder pages www.atherstonerecorder.co.uk to find out more.
Atherstone is famous for its annual Shrove Tuesday football game. Police divert traffic from the main street, shopkeepers board their windows, the mayor throws a ball into the waiting crowd; several hours of genial mayhem ensue as people try to get the ball to one end of the street or the other. Some people form "teams" to help keep the ball away from other "teams" but it's not the sort of team sport you're used to.
Deaths are rare, injuries so common as to be hardly newsworthy.
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Recommended reading: MacNae's Essential Law for Journalists, "Waterhouse on Style" by Keith Waterhouse, anything by Noam Chomsky and John Pilger. P.J.O'Rourke's "All the Trouble in the World," published in 1998, is a lesson in how little has changed in the world. Dhaka (see chapter 2) is no longer dead after 8pm, but Aung San Su Kyi is still under house arrest in Myanmar/Burma.
