UNIT ONE

Introduction to Advanced Reporting

What is Journalism?

- News reporting and news writing fall within the field of journalism.
- As an occupation, journalism refers generally to writing for journals, but in particular for
newspapers and magazines.
- However, journalism has expanded in meaning and scope, to become the means by which
you disseminate news and views, and by so doing formed itself into a limb of social
awareness; assuming an ethical dimension and to some extent, requires legal
accountability for its performance.
- The journalist, in the performance of his or her duties, has to contend with various legal
and ethical issues.
- With the rise of technology, the answer to what journalism is today is more nuanced. It is
still the research and dissemination of news to the public. But you cannot just print it in a
newspaper and call it a day.
- There are so many ways that news can be disseminated that it can be overwhelming for
students to choose which branch of journalism to study. It is also difficult for journalism
schools to develop curricula that cover it all.
- The advent of "citizen journalism"- amateurs who witness events and write about them on
the Internet- has blurred the lines between the professional journalist and the mere
bystander.

Gathering the News

The Newsroom

 The heart of newsgathering operations is the newsroom.

- The news editor (or chief reporter) presides over the news desk, compiling the diary of
jobs, briefing reporters, monitoring the day's (or week's) coverage, checking the finished
stories, liaising with photographers, answering queries, signing expenses and briefing the
editor and chief sub-editor on the progress of operations.
- Technology has changed the face of the newsroom.
- Reporters still have their desks but in place of the bedlam of typewriters and telephones,
there is the faint hum of computer terminals, with their near silent keyboards, and the
twinkle of telephone console lights. Instead of piled up paper, news stories scroll across
Visual Display Unit (VDU) screens as reporters bend over their terminals.
- It is a change more apparent than real. Apart from the shift to on-screen writing, the
reporter's role has not altered less than any other in the computerized newspaper industry.
 - Newsgathering and news writing remain, as they always were, the heart of a newspaper's
raison d’etre.
- The news editor, who has invariably been a senior reporter, briefs reporters in varying
details on the requirements and expected length of stories to be covered.
- Many of the stories will be diary jobs - that is, jobs entered in advance in the newsroom
diary such as courts, councils, committees, tribunals, inquests, political speeches,
weddings, meetings, arts events, sporting fixtures and opening ceremonies.
- Although the form of an event is known in advance, what actually happens
or is said or done on the day makes the news.
- There are also the unexpected events - deaths, accidents, fires, robberies, strikes, weather
stories, crashes, sinking, and occasionally the odd fight or elopement.
- A third category of news jobs could be put together from tip-offs i.e. information
reaching the office or a reporter could elicit potential news from contacts.
 Such stories might involve, or be about a variety of human situations
and achievements, tales of heroism or of unfair or shady dealing.
 Tip-offs often provide newspaper, with more spectacular and exclusive
stories.
 Some materials meant for a newspaper story, which are still referred to
as copy can be gathered via the telephone. A good deal of checking and
preparation can be done in the newsroom, the office library, where
cuttings of stories are filed and reference books kept.
 For most reporters, however, work means being out of the office. In
fact, being where the news is happening.
 The news editor will expect check calls to be made by reporters from
the job so that progress can be noted and briefings updated; and also,
that copy deadlines are met.
 Reporters, even new ones, quickly become aware of these routines.
 They will learn from bitter experience that, no matter how well they
have written a story, if it misses the edition, they are in trouble.

Calls and Contacts

- News can be gathered either through personal visits or by telephone, on known or likely news
sources; for example, the police, fire officers, hospitals, council officials, MPs, undertakers and
secretaries of organizations.

 Parliamentary journalists check what questions have been put down to be

answered by ministers or attend press briefings.
- Whatever your newspaper, make your network of calls as wide as time allows.
- Apart from your attending court sessions, council and public meetings, this might be your
only contact with some important sources of original news.
 - Since many calls may not receive favorable responses, there is a limit to the time worth
spending on some of them, such calls should nevertheless be made courteously, whether
on the phone or personally.
- Calls to religious ministers and secretaries of organizations often turn up more
information about what is going to happen than what has happened. Make a note of these
pieces of information.
- Beyond routine calls, you need contacts. Make a list of names, addresses and telephone
numbers of your regular contacts.
Tip Off

 Tip offs can be a source of big stories that can make the front page of the next
edition of your newspaper.
- Never shun the person who approaches you, even if you are busy and get a message
that someone is at the reception wanting to see you.
Other Mass Media
- One source of news ideas other than diary jobs can be the news programmes of radio
and television - often in the form of a passing mention of something that is going to
vitally affect your area.
- You should read your own newspaper, as well, to know what topics are of current
interest, and to find ideas for more news.

 Also, remember to glance through the advert section, as it could be a source of

news. If you get news from advertisements, check to ensure that they have not
already been reported.
- Besides your own paper (if you are working for print), take time to glance at any papers
you can lay hands on. Here is what you should look for:
• Ideas for stories or future diary dates.
• Local stories reported elsewhere that your paper has missed and need or require follow-
up.
• Ideas for pictures.
• National news that may have local echoes - i.e. expeditions that may involve local
people, marketing news in city and business columns that could affect local trade.
• National sports items with local connections.

- Other things to look for: letters to the editor, diary columns, show business items, news in
brief, sporting briefs, job advertisements, wills, obituaries; academics, church and other
appointments; news of industrial orders and technological developments.

Chasing the Facts

 - When given an assignment by your news editor or chief reporter, it is up to you to
produce the story. But remember that however accurate, fair and well written your
account may be, its success will hinge on your perseverance in getting the facts.
- If you are unsure of your briefing, ask questions before you leave the office.
- Be sure you know what is expected of you. Give yourself time to check reference books.
Above all, check the library for any filed cuttings that relate to your assignment.
- Making use of the filed cuttings should be second nature to a reporter. They can show if
your story really is new, and can fill you in with previous references to the subject or to
those involved.
- “Press clippings” as they are usually called are a good source for backgrounding your
stories.
Make Inquiries
- If your job is to make inquiries rather than attend a function, the cuttings library should
be your first port of call. But do not assume that a cutting from your own newspaper is
necessarily accurate.
- Match it against others - and look for mistakes that are copied from cuttings to stories
which have themselves become cuttings.
- Examine carefully the information you have. If necessary, talk personally to the persons
named.
 For example, a council has built a group of houses of an unusual kind. They are
centrally cooled, have small courtyards instead of gardens, have a garage each and
also a parking space. These spaces are behind the house; a footpath, not a road,
runs along the front.
 You may ask why the council decided to build houses of this kind, who designed
them, what are the aims of the design, why the idea of courtyards, and so on.

Dealing with People

- Persuade people you interview to let you use their names and addresses. Anonymous quotes
from 'a passer-by' carry little conviction.

- The readers might think you invented them. The danger in seeking personal views and
statements is that you may cause embarrassment or be considered intrusive.
- The Code of Conduct of the National Union of Journalists reads: ‘In obtaining news or
pictures, reporters and press 12 photographers should do nothing that will cause pain or
humiliation to innocent, bereaved or otherwise distressed persons.’
 Courtesy is the best policy. Explain your person and your mission.
 Do not ask questions in an aggressive or demanding manner.
 If your presence is unwelcome, leave.
 Never go to the house as a bearer of ill or bad news.
 Allow the police to do their work first.
  Be patient and sympathetic with people. If you are dealing with people against
whom allegations have been made you may need to be tougher.
 Point out that it is in their interest to make a comment rather than let a one-sided
story go to the public.
 You will discover that every person you talk to, will shed light on a given
situation in a slightly different light.
 Here you must rely on your judgment of what you have been told to make your
account as balanced and accurate as possible.
 The basic facts of a situation often seem like a nut covered in shell upon shell.
 The reporter's task is to remove the shells to get at the truth.
 Make your interviews in person if you can. People prefer to talk to someone they
can see before them rather than at the other end of a telephone.
 Besides, going to see your informants helps you to get to know them, which might
be useful in the future.
 It makes it easier to listen and to seize opportunities for further questions on the
spot. But do make proper appointments if there is time.

Be Thorough

- You cannot be too thorough. You need to answer all the questions the reader might ask
and all the questions you will ask yourself when you write your report.
- The name, occupation and full addresses of those you obtained information from are
essential.
- Do not be satisfied merely with recording opinions. Get people to give the facts on which
they have based their opinions. For example, in a strike, what the two sides say about
each other matters less than the facts of the situation that caused the conflict.
- You need these facts. It is interesting to see how the hard facts of a dispute can get lost in
the midst of heated arguments.
- There are other points of detail that may not be necessary but which will add life and
reality to your story: the feel of the place where an event happened, the color of a suit…
- Get all the facts you can, when you can.
Digging in to Documents
- Since journalism is sometimes called history in a hurry,
 it’s easy for reporters to think that they don’t have time to stop and read,
especially with all the information that comes streaming across their desks
and computer screens.
- They may think they will move faster if they pick up the phone or go out and ask their
questions in person. But if they want to get the most out of an interview, or want to scoop
the competition, they will learn to turn to documents first.
- Veteran journalists know well that whatever time is invested in reading a document is
likely to bring a big payoff later in the reporting process.
 - Sometimes reporters find themselves overwhelmed with routine and rightfully ignored
kinds of documents: press releases, talking points, position points, etc. papers.
 But big stories often depend on paper.
 Despite the frustrations of working to get documents and the challenges
that they can present once they are in hand, they have played a critical role
for many highly successful journalists.
 Walt Bogdanich, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who now works for
The New York Times, has very simple advice for student journalists who
want to write big, blockbuster stories: “Learn public records,” he says.
“Imagine that whatever you need is written down someplace. And believe
me, in my experience, I found that to be the case. You just have to figure
out where” (2008).

CLASSIFICATIONS OF DOCUMENTS

- There are several ways of classifying documents and thinking about how to get them and
use them.
- A very basic distinction is between primary and secondary documents.
 Primary documents are those that are the original source of information, such
as a birth certificate or a building permit.
 A secondary document is a document about a document, such as a previously
published news article or an online press release that includes a link to a
spreadsheet with detailed data.
 Secondary documents can provide a trove of leads, but they should rarely
show up in a news article. Only under the rarest and most extenuating
circumstances should a journalist repeat what another publication has already
reported, such as a scoop by a competitor that can’t be confirmed but can’t
be ignored.
 Instead use secondary documents to get to primary documents, and do your
own reporting.
 One form of secondary documents, specialty publications such as trade
magazines or academic journals, can be especially useful in providing names
of potential sources as well as perspectives that would otherwise be hard to
come by.
 Military officers or industry insiders sometimes open up and say things to
what they perceive as “friendly” publications, making candid comments that
they might be reluctant to say to a reporter they don’t know or for a general
news audience.
 It’s also a good idea to keep in mind that there are public documents, which
you have an absolute right to inspect, and private documents, such as
 confidential government files or personal correspondence, which may present
legal and ethical issues.
 Just because a document is legally restricted doesn’t mean that a reporter
shouldn’t try to get it and use it.
 The rules for keeping records secret have been regularly abused by
government officials seeking to gain cover for mistakes and misdeeds.
 Even documents that have been illegally obtained have been published by
newspapers without leading to criminal convictions.
 But that doesn’t mean that a vague assertion of “the public’s right to know”
will protect a journalist who uses filched documents or ones that constitute an
invasion of privacy.
 Be careful, Often times individual pieces of information can be overlooked or
considered trivial, but when they are gathered over time or accumulated across
different locations, they become a vibrant repository ready to reveal patterns
or trends that can provide useful insights or can help to point up an event
that is out of the ordinary and, hence, newsworthy.
 To understand how much information is available, a student might engage in a
thought experiment, trying to identify the various kinds of data and documents
that track even the routine events in a
person’s life.
 Starting with breakfast, for example, there are federal statistics on food prices,
food safety, and nutrition. (At last count there were more than 30 million
federal Web pages, and so you can be sure that there are government statistics
on many other things as well.)
 Step outside for your morning commute and think about documents that deal
with air quality, climate and traffic congestion.
 As you pass through your neighborhood, consider how local governments
keep track of things like the buying and selling of houses, the frequency and
type of crimes committed on any given street, and even the names of
household pets.
 An institution like a university is subject to numerous reporting requirements,
and you can find information on everything from campus crime to educational
costs, course difficulty, teacher effectiveness and the costs of recruiting
student athletes.
 Students with a part-time job can use documents to research prevailing wage
rates, workplace safety, and the ownership structures of their employers.
 And if they end their days by visiting a local restaurant or bar, they might
want to look into whether health inspectors have found sanitary violations,
who holds the liquor license and how much the establishment pays in property
taxes.
 COMPUTER-ASSISTED REPORTING

- Up until now we have been considering documents mostly in their traditional, narrative-
based form, documents that are mostly words and use words to tell their stories.
- But another form of document, the database, has become an increasingly popular tool for
journalists on many different beats.
 Some of these databases are maintained by government agencies or other
organizations; in other cases journalists construct their own databases from
their own research or by combining separate datasets.
 Databases usually contain large amounts of numerical information, and
journalists typically use computerized tools to analyze them, everything from
simple spreadsheet programs to powerful statistical packages that can
perform many different kinds of quantitative tests.
 Because computers are an integral part of this kind of journalism, it is
sometimes called computer assisted reporting (CAR).

Unit Two: Specialized Reporting

- Beat reporting, also known as specialized reporting, is a genre of journalism that can be
described as the craft of in-depth reporting on a particular issue, sector, organization or
institution over time.

- Beat reporters build up a base of knowledge on and gain familiarity with the topic,
allowing them to provide insight and commentary in addition to reporting straight facts.
- Generally, beat reporters will also build up a rapport with sources that they visit again
and again, allowing for trust to build between the journalist and his/her source of
information.
- This distinguishes them from other journalists who might cover similar stories from time
to time.
- Journalists become invested in the beats they are reporting for, and become passionate
about mastering that beat.
- Beat reporters often deal with the same sources day after day, and must return to those
sources regardless of their relationship with them.
- Those sources may or may not be pleased with the reporting of the reporters. It is
pertinent that beat reporters contact their sources quickly, obtain all necessary
information, and write on deadline.
- Beat reporters routinely call, visit, and e-mail sources to obtain any new information for
articles.
- When reporters have experience on a specific beat, they are able to gain both knowledge
and sources to lead them to new stories relating to that beat.
 - Beats are able to help reporters define their roles as journalists, and also avoid overlap of
stories within the newsroom.
Generalized Reporting
- Reporting means gathering facts and presenting them objectively with ail news writing
skills. It is an active, creative, long and tough process of news, gathering, ideas and
opinion collection, fact finding in order to serve the general public by informing them and
enabling them to make judgment of the issues of the time.
- The reporter either he/she is general assignment reporter, beat reporter or specialized
reporter wants to know at all costs, what is going on and why, what has happened and
why and who is involved in what manner.
- He/she reports it to satisfy the curiosity of the public by giving due coverage to 5Ws &
1H which the people want to know.
- News is not planted and cultivated in neat row for efficient harvesting and not necessarily
in the tidy news offices. They are not developed in a vacuum.
- News is more likely to be found among the people, institutions, organizations, history etc.
- By the reporting of short news stories the reader can receive the information about the
citizens, social, cultural and religious groups.
 Conducting interview is another part of reporting. Through interview news,
personal ideas and opinions can be reported.
 Without reporting process there can be little business in news, and without
news there can be no media.

Objectives of Specialized Reporting

- The objectives through which specialized reporting is out to achieve are as follows:

a. To inform: An individual may speak or write to inform. Writing to inform

requires more skills than one might think.

- It involves the imparting of information and in some cases, the disclosure or incriminating
information. Reporters disseminate information by using straight forward reporting.

- A news story designed to inform may consist essentially of facts, figures, dates and
quotations.
b. To explain: it is not unusual to go a step further in explaining the contents of
your write-up.

- To do this is to make your writing plain comprehensible.

- Explanation may involve giving back ground of the news story and revealing its
implications.
c. To analyze: analyzing an event in a news write-up demands that the different
parts are separated in order to determine the nature of what constitutes the whole.
- This is done to enable the readers know the basic components in the event being
reported.
d. To expose: this is another objective of specialized reporting. It attempts to
unmask or make known an event, stressing its relevance and likely implications.
e. To interpret: in the course of writing, a reader may need to be helped in
understanding the contents of the news story.

- It is therefore mandatory on the reporter to assist the readers or listeners in clarifying the
meaning of words, professional jargons and strange terminologies.
f. To convert: a news story may be changed from its original format, use, function
or purpose to another. For example, a propaganda piece may take the place of
clear, straight forward report.

Peculiarities of Specialized Reporting

- Specialized reports are in-depth reports, which inform and educate its readers than entertaining
them or anything else. Such reports must be written with this understanding in mind.

- For reporters to deliver on the demands of this type of reporting, they must have requisite
peculiarities of such a specialized reporting.
- Mencher (n.d. p.112) enlisted such peculiarities thus:

1. A good reporter must be neatly dressed. In the past years, it was common to see
reporters shabbily dressed but these days, they now embrace what is called ‘dress code’.
- Many reasons advanced by some as being the cause of improper dressing that could be
described as mere excuses.
- They include poor remuneration and putting on ties and coats in a tropical environment
specially to beats such as sporting arenas .

2. A good reporter must be courteous and tactful. This means that repoirters must display
good manners, be polite and kind to sources, colleagues and upon all, those
who come in contact with him especially in the course of his official assignment.
- This disposition should therefore not be construed to mean subservient or suppliant.

3. Reporters must be vigilant at all times and be able to think quickly, clearly and
logically.

- In essence, they are not only ready with appropriate questions but also observant of the
actions, reactions, grimaces, hesitations and mannerisms of the person they talk to.

4. Aggressiveness and resourcefulness are other attributes needed by a good reporter.

- He/she is not expected to be obnoxious. He converses with persons at their level. He
strives constantly to overcome any ignorance he may have but never tries to hide his
ignorance by professing to know what he does not know.

5. Ability to gain the trust of sources is a requirement and this could be achieved by being
meticulously accurate and keeping confidences.

6. He/she must develop reading culture and such must not be confined to their own
newspaper but also to current magazines, books and existing competitive media.

Fifteen Commandments for a Journalist Covering a Specialized Beat

For a journalist covering a specialized beat, if he/she wants to excel in the area, he/she
must adhere to these fifteen commandments listed below:

1. Be prepared: have a basic education in journalism, understand the society, understand

the government, know history, economics and psychology and be well exposed in your
area of coverage.

2. Be alert: the germ (the beginning) of a good story is hidden in many a routine one. So,
always stay focused and take tips seriously.

3. Be persistent: persistence entails two things to a reporter on a beat. First, it means that
when you ask a question you cannot give up until you get an answer. Second, it means
that you must keep track of slow-developing projects or problems.

4. Be there: in beat reporting, there is no substitute for personal contact. The only way to
cover a beat is to be there every day, if possible. You must make yourself seem to be part
of the community you are covering.

5. Set daily goals: Make sure you have a good idea of what you want to accomplish on a
daily basis.

6. Ask the sweeping questions: if you like, ask the dumb questions but make sure you are
asking the questions that will get something out of your sources or
subjects.

7. Listen carefully and watch carefully: some reporters look but they do not see.
When you look, try to observe and see what is happening around. Check out the
moods, the reactions, body language when the question was asked. Look and
see.
 8. Look at the records: in covering your beat, you are expected to constantly keep in
touch with original documents. Go for the original source material.

9. Start out early and fast: you need to constantly leave your office early to your beat.
You must have a clear understanding that stories do not usually pump up in the
newsroom. So, what are you still doing there by 9.00 in the morning?

10. Know the beat: you must make a concerted effort to know your beat like you know
your true friend. There is no substitute for this. Just make sure you understand the process
in and around your beat.

11. Show some courtesy and be friendly: as a beat reporter, you should be able to relate
with people in your beat and treat individuals with some respect. You may never know
who the next source might be. A beat reporter should also try to make friends in his area
of coverage. You need them rather than being enemies
with them.

12. Be an observer: a beat reporter should maintain a critical distance between him and
the subjects he is covering. He must be a non-participant observer and not a participant.
The moment a reporter associates very closely with the subjects of his beat, he begins
writing for his sources rather than the audience. This is very dangerous.

13. Be protective of confidential sources: you must respect the off-record rule. You must
also maintain the confidence of your sources even at gunpoint. Any beat reporter who
easily divulges the sources of information or gives a hint about it because of threats, is
already dead professionally.

14. Maintain the triple news virtues: the triple news virtues are they fundamental pillars
upon which every news story must rest. They are: truth, objectivity and accuracy. For no
reason should any of these be violated.

15. Finally, there is no dry beats but dry people covering a beat: you must be lively,
amiable, a goal getter, a keen observer and very courageous and passionate about that
beat.

- Without this, your beat may turn out dry because you made it so. Do not be dry in your
approach to your beat assignment.

Reporting from the Beats

- Reporting is an activity. It is double-fold: news gathering and news writing.
- Both are of equal importance since the ability to use techniques of gather and verify news
will determine how to write the news.
- Beat is a journalistic term used for segmented area or particular field a reporter is
assigned to monitor and report from there on a regular basis.
- The act of monitoring and covering assigned beats for the purpose of publication
connotes beat reporting. This is another angle to the discussion on specialized reporting
(Hule and Anderson, 2003).
- A beat reporter is a person with well-trained and adequate knowledge in a
particular area of news coverage where he represents his news organization.
- A beat reporter may be a young reporter assigned to cover such local beats like the police,
the courts, local government or the schools.
- A beat reporter could also be a well-trained and very experienced reporter of many years
standing who covers very important institutions like White House or Aso Rock for his
media organization. In this instance, one has to be a successful reporter before one is
assigned to cover such important beats.
- According to Bonder, Davenport and Drager (2005) there are two types of beats.
- The first is the topical beat.
 Topical beats thrive because the media audience constantly needs updates from
such topical subject.
 Some topical beats are education, politics, business, economy, science and
technology, health and so on.
- The second type of beat is the “geographical beat”.
 Geographical beat requires the reporter to report from specific location on all
topical issues and subject matter.
 Obe (2005) averred that beats come and go but good reporting remains. A beat
reporter must remain a fine reporter of the highest standards.
 There are beats that will come up to address specific trends at that time and
some become more sophisticated with time and
developments in technology etc.
 The reporter is expected to keep abreast of these developments and ensure he is
not left out when the trains moves.

Unit Three- Agricultural Reporting

- Agricultural reporting is an educational process that informs, advises and educates

farmers in a practical manner and has been organized in different ways (Ayichi, 1995).
- The organization of agricultural reporting takes the form of either a system or strategy
(Madukwe, 1995).
- It is designed to teach farmers the best methods to improve the standard of living through
agriculture.
- The agricultural beat connotes the geographic or issue-based limits within which an
agricultural reporter operates.
- It is where the reporter plies his trade, noses for news and monitors trends in the area with
a view to presenting same to the public through a mass medium.
- The reporter covers this geographic area or subject regularly.
- The agricultural beat could be geographically based (place beat) whereby a reporter is
assigned to cover the ministry of agriculture (at Federal or State level as the case may be)
or any other organization which is agro-base.
- The place beat could also be a state or region where a reporter is assigned to cover
primary agricultural issues in the area.
What to Lookout for when Covering Agricultural Beat
- There are things to lookout for in an agric beat. This information is essential because
some journalists may be shying away from the agric beat thinking that it is a dry
uneventful beat. It is not.
- Knowledge of what constitutes an agric beat shows that it is a vast area that could keep a
reporter busy on his toes 24 hours a day. Among the wide range of information that
should interest an agricultural reporter include:
• News on livestock issues like goat, cow, sheep, cattle grazing, pigs etc. This includes
information about their health, outbreak of diseases affecting them (e.g. mad cow
disease), economic or political implications of such incidents (as the case with outbreak
of mad cow disease in Britain which led to the banning of beef from that country in some
Asian countries) etc.
• News on all others kinds of farming, crop farming, fish farming, pig farming, sheep
farming, organic farming (practice of farming without using artificial chemicals),
inorganic faming (use of fertilizers and such other chemicals in farming) among others.
 This includes issues with these kinds of farming, health, financial or social
life of people engaged in these kinds of farming among other exciting stories
or trends in this area.
 News on food security, food availability, food insecurity, food sufficiency issues,
particularly highlighting their bearing on agricultural and related concerns.
 News on agronomy i.e. relationship between crops and their environment.
 News on agric-business i.e. activities concerned with the production and marketing of
farm products.
 News on agric education at every level; primary, post primary and tertiary level. Special
attention should be paid to agric institutes, universities, polytechnic and colleges of
education. What are latest research findings in these institutions? What is the training
environment like? Do they produce for exports or are they simply academic institutions?
As the list is endless.
https://www.bbc.com/amharic/news-60985422
The Role of the Agriculture Reporter
- The agricultural reporter is saddled with the responsibilities of every other reporter in
the society, albeit with specific slant on agriculture sector or concerns. A reporter plying
his trade in the specialized field of agricultural journalism has certain specific roles to
 play which he must bear in mind:
i. To contribute in reviving the agricultural sector through effective coverage of issues
and events in the sector or issues that affect agriculture and relate areas. This includes
empowering the public with agric information capable of spurring them into agricultural
or agro-based activities.
ii. To explain complex issues associated with the agric sector. It could be latest trends in a
kind of farming which needs to be broken down to farmers through informative or
explanatory articles.
iii. To provide a platform for agriculturists, the public, farmers government and other
stakeholders in agriculture to air their views on how to move the agric sector forward.
iv. To bring out the lighter-mood stories in agriculture e.g. sports associated with animals
such as bull fight, chicken fight, goat fight, including social/entertainment life of farmers
and others engaged in agriculture. This may seem absurd but agricultural magazine or
newspaper needs to excite the readers with such information.
Sources of Agricultural News Stories
- A reporter could search for, squeeze out or get lead to agricultural stories from the
following sources:
Personal observation: the reporter could on-his-own observe specific trends that have
implications on agriculture or the agric sector.
- This calls for application of the reporter’s investigative instinct.
The reporters may decide to investigate abattoirs
(slaughterhouses), the market of agricultural products, attitude of
agric farmers in relation to hygiene and treatment of animals, as
the case may be.
- Personal observation simply means reporters should not wait for
stories to fall on their laps. They can work on topical or crucial
agric-related observations.

Farm: the reporter could investigate farms crop, pig, fish, sheep, organic etc.

- Farms in search of newsworthy developments. Are the farmers

engaged in secret shoddy business? Are the animals being
treated badly? (This could be of interest to animal rights groups).
Is there a need for government to intervene in order to help
farmers with fertilizers or loans for their business? Are fertilizer
bags meant for rural farmers reaching them or are they being
diverted by government agents? Is the poultry unhygienic for
birds? A wide range of information could be elicited from
the farms.

Farmers: the farmers themselves may have something ‘big’ to say about their business,
government input, policies on agriculture, marketing of their products etc.
 - Agric reporters could get scoops from such sources. Interviews
with farmers could also make for interesting content.
Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhPuIOYTrFM

Agriculturists: these are experts on agriculture who give advice to farmers on the best strategies
to adopt in running their business.

- This includes professionals in various areas soil science,

horticulture, aqua culture, animals or crop husbandry etc.
- Other professionals such as agronomists (those who specialized
in the study of the relationship between crops and the
environment) also fall within this group.
- Agric reporters should liaise with these professionals to
understand issues being investigated or to seek explanation of
complex terms or scenarios so as to easily break such complex
issues down in simple terms for public understanding.
Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYPyjypNlgw

The Internet: information on trends in agriculture across the world could be retrieved from or
accessed via the Internet.

- International Agric-based NGOs and such other groups have

websites that could be of help to the agric journalist seeking to
widen his/her knowledge on specific trends in agriculture.
https://www.fanabc.com/%E1%8B%A8%E1%8C%8D
%E1%89%A5%E1%88%AD%E1%8A%
93-
%E1%88%9C%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%93%E1%8B%AD
%E1%8B%9C%E1%88%BD%E1%
8A%95-
%E1%8B
%A8%E1%88%B6%E1%88%B5%E1%89%B5%E1%8B%AE
%E1%88%BD-
%E1%88%B5%E1%88%9D%E1%88%9D/

Ethical Issues in Agricultural reporting

- Reporters often face ethical challenges in their profession. They

find themselves having to decide between choosing to do what is
morally good and what is morally bad.
- They are faced with having to stick to professionalism and
publish a story no matter the effect or having to consider the
moral implication of a story they are doing.
 - This includes the moral implication of the process of gathering
information for a particular story that could be exclusively ‘hot’.
- For instance trying to interview a dying man instead of
sympathizing with him and going for help or publishing and
interview with the teenage son of a fraudster with the boy’s real
names and photographs are issues which may not be legally
wrong but require moral questions to be answered before going
ahead with them.
- Ethical issues come up in the use of photographs, content of
stories, slant of stories, story theme, subject, process of
gathering information etc.
- Nwabueze (2009) avers such challenges like: always tell the
truth, be fair and objective in reporting stories, respect people’s
privacy and feelings among others.

Writing tips for agricultural reporters

1. Select Facts
a) Suitable subject matter. Does it meet a need?

- review what current affairs, season, and situation the issue at hand suits and whether the
audience will benefit from such reports? Is it timely? Is it of current interest?
b) Readers: Who are the people you want to reach? What are their problem, interests and
educational levels, Do they have the environment and capacity to make use of the information?
c) Purpose of Publication: What do you want it to teach and accomplish? Do you want to
stimulate interest in a programme or do you want to influence the people to do something?
(2) Sift Facts
1. Sift essential facts necessary to give information clearly.
2. Screen out difficult concepts, which are beyond reader's experience or understanding (e.g.)
Mechanization, Agricultural transformation, etc)
3. Give layman an application of subject rather than a detailed explanation.
4. Express highlights.
5. Do not try to impress the lay reader with all you know.
6. Do not document everything.
(3) Sort Facts
0. Arrange facts in logical order
1. Set out important points in 1-2-3 order (step by step)
2. Guide reader with attractive subheads and suitable illustrations and pictures.

Unit four-Health Reporting

- The pertinent of health communication contributes to various aspects of disease prevention,
health promotion and health education (Nwabueze, 2009).
- Health communication or health reporting is one of the strategies often employed to combat
diseases, whether at the epidemic or pandemic levels.

- Health reporting is emerging as a distinct and specialized discipline in recognition of its

indispensability in fighting diseases in the world today.
- Health reporting is the process of gathering news or information on health and health related
matters. This includes writing the story in an understandable manner for the consumption of
the audience of a specific medium.

- In health reporting, the reporter ‘sniffs’ for news on various issues, events, developments,
policies, etc which directly or indirectly affect health matters. This includes the activities in the
health sector, health care matters, hygiene, mental or physical health environmental health
concerns, fake drug matter, crimes (e.g. falsification of scientific research results on health
breakthroughs) among others.

- Health reporting is a specialized area of journalism which consist of gathering information on

the who, what, when, where, why and how of newsworthy on health developments. It is a highly
technical specialized beat in journalism because of the complex nature of health science and
medicine.
- Health reporter must first of all understand what doctors or medical journals are saying before
breaking the information down such that the audience who may have little knowledge of medical
or health science may understand.
- The health reporter is a health watchdog engaged in health journalism profession reporting
and writing news from the coverage of press conference and briefing on cancer drug research, to
interviews with HIV/AIDS victims, cancer patients, doctors, scientists and herbalists from
investigation of scientific claims in traditional medicine, to investigation of strike actions by
trade unions of health workers, doctors, nurses, mid-wives, etc. these are activities which
constitute the kernel of health reporting.

- The health beat could be described as one of the most interesting beats. It is vast, technical,
rich, complex, tedious and full of activities. It cannot be effectively covered by a generalist
but a specialist with specific training in this area, except where an organization is interested
in reporting peripheral issues in the beat.

- Only a specialist can dig deeper and elicit hoard news with relative ease. Health reporters are
either scouting for news in health establishments or working on stories which revolve around
health issues.

- They are either working on place beats or issues or subject beats.

Place Beats: A health reporter could be attached to health organizations, government
establishments, international and local NGOs, hospitals (depending on how large the hospital is)
state, region, local government area or community.
  The basic duty of the health reporter is to gather health news from such
geographic locations.
 Among establishments or organizations which could be assign to reporters as
beats are ministry of health at State and Federal level, World Health
Organizations offices, Teaching Hospitals across the nation, including
various health societies and NGOs.
 Reporters visits these places on regular basis and gets information from
there. They also cover events that may not be directly related to
health but involves workers, patients or people in these beats.

Issue or Subject Beats: unlike the place beat which is determined by geographical location,
the issue or subject beat consists of health matters which a reporter is assigned to cover
irrespective of physical location from where the stories were generated.

- A health reporter covering an issue beat simply reports any

event, incident or topical issue that has to do with health or
health-related matters. The reporter could be assigned ‘ health’
as a subject or could be assigned to cover issues such as cancer,
cloning, malaria, diarrhea, abortion as it relates to health,
traditional medicine issues, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, fake drugs,
Ebola fever, etc.
- The issue beat may be more tasking, demanding and
adventurous because the reporters may find themselves
investigating a story that may take them round the entire
country, since they are not geographically restricted. Issue beat
in health reporting requires tenacity, dedication and doggedness
to cover.

What to Look Out for in the Health Beat

- A summary of what should preoccupy the interest and arouse the

curiosity of a health reporter as follows:
1. News about various diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria
fever, Ebola fever, tuberculosis, cholera and all other forms of
diseases including the life of patients and the challenges they
face etc.
2. News about health care system, health care consists of
services rendered by medical, nursing and related health
professionals, with a view to preventing, treating and managing
illness, preserving, improving or promoting people’s health.
3. News about public health issues: that is, health promotion,
prevention and management of diseases through efforts of
 society, government, organizations, communities, individuals,
NGOs etc. the reporter should take note of trends in this
area.
- This includes threats to overall health of the public by man-made
or natural occurrences, health problems associated with
population or environmental issues or as a result of government
action or inaction, social and behavioral health issues,
occupational health issues, programmes aimed at promoting
health behaviours, vaccination programmes, health promotion
programmes in primary, post-primary and tertiary institutions,
government policies on health, among others.
4. News about health science: this consists of activities or trends
in the study and research of the human body and health-related
issues to understand the workings of humans and animals. It
includes application of such knowledge in improving health,
prevention and management of diseases.
5. News on bizarre or odd health issues: for instance, conjoined
twins, extreme obesity, kids sharing one heart, one brain and
nose, man with three legs, woman with pregnancy for more than
three years, gender reassignment e.g. pregnant man (though he
has natural female organs but chose to be a man i.e. biological
transplant) etc.
6. News about trends in health institutions and health related
establishment: That is, health ministries, teaching hospital,
medical centers, rural based hospitals, orthopaedic hospitals,
nursing schools, medical colleges, etc.
7. News about health education: this includes both formal and
informal health education issues; news about general health-
related issues as fake drug, drug abuse, doctors raping patients;
news about activities of health-related unions. For example,
strike by doctors, nurses, midwives and other activities by the
unions; news about hygiene issues such as mental hygiene and
other physical and health-related environmental hygiene issues;
news about health business. For example, drug or medical
equipment sales, new drug importation, drug or medical
equipment scarcity in the market etc; news about special days in
the health sector.
8. News on non-health issues, activities or policies which could
have a positive or negative impact on health. For example, use
of chemicals for farming or food preservation which may have
health implications in the long run.
Importance of Health Reporting in Society
- Health reporting is an essential aspect of reporting in the society. It is a vital part of
journalism because people need to be alive and for them to alive, they need accurate
information about health related matters.

- Thus, the imperativeness of health reporting in the

society includes:
• Health awareness creation: this entails drawing attention of
public, government and organizations to the health sector.
• Health education: Health reporting is used to empower people
with information on how to engage in health friendly practices
and why they should do so, including alerting them on trend in
the immediate and larger environment that could affect their
health if they do not take certain precautions.
- This entails awareness creation stories and articles on hygiene
practices, nutrition education, stress management, physiotherapy
etc.
• Health advocacy: this consists of using health reporting to give
support to health related ideas, programmes, policies, practices,
projects etc. For instance, exclusive breast feeding for a period
of time could be encouraged through consistent health reports on
the issue.
• Health development: this includes using heath reports to draw
the attention of government and appropriate organizations,
including foreign donor and philanthropists, to health
development need in the society.
- This could be by promoting rural health care, reporting the total
negligence of the sector and the need for public support in that
area, attracting donation of medical facilities to medical colleges
and other hospitals.
- This function also includes using negative reports to expose
fraud in the health sector there by deterring other officials from
diverting funds meant for development of the health sector.
• Health mobilization: this has to do with mass mobilization for
health development projects or programmes. Health reports
could be used to encourage people to participate in
immunization or vaccination campaigns, contribute in
realization of health projects or programmes initiated by
government in specific communities, and encourage hygiene and
other friendly practices that could better the health of the
citizenry.
 • Health crisis management: this entails using health reporting
to let the public know about an outbreak of diseases and also
telling them what measures to take and avoid being affected.
- This has to do with health information management aimed at
managing crisis. For instance, health reporting played an
important role in managing the bird flu crisis.
- People were educated on the issues and told what to do, why
they should not panic and why they should not avoid poultry
products.

Sources for Health Stories

Health professionals: this includes doctors, nurses, herbalists, pharmacists, health scientists
and researchers.

- The reporter could interview them on critical health issues or get information
from them in the course of an investigation.

- These sources could provide routine straight news reports by making comments on critical
health matters.
Personal observation: the health reporter could observe a trend in the health sector or an
emerging health unfriendly culture in the society.

- He could investigate health-related incidents he sees anywhere. For example, poor attitude of
health officials to work, poor hygiene culture or even human angle stories such as the case of a
person dying of a disease due to lack of money to seek medical assistance.
Victims of illness, eye witness of health hazards, health crisis or outbreak of disease: such
people could provide vital information in heath related investigations or routine news stories.
Interviews with such persons could turn out to be a very interesting human angle stories.

- Those suffering illness such as Tuberculosis are in a better position to say whether
tuberculosis drugs which government or other agencies provide are free of charge or not.
Health institutions and organizations: this consists of hospitals, health colleges, nursing
schools, medical centers, health ministries and parastatals at Federal and State levels, health
interest NGOs etc. interesting stories could break out from these places.
Health and medical journals and academic publications or newsletters: this consists of
health research journals, house journals of health-interest organizations, newsletters from
health ministries, parastatals, NGOs and international organizations.

- They contain activities of organizations that publish them, including breakthroughs and
research findings in health sciences. This information could be elicited, investigated and package
as full-blown straight news or feature stories for publication or broadcast in the conventional
media.
- The internet: It contains a wide range of information on trends in various areas of health or
health-related concerns.

- Confusing, complex or doubtful issues could be confirmed via the internet. Request for
confirmation from foreign agencies or research groups could be made through the websites of the
agencies involved.
Legal experts, law makers, policy makers and government officials: these may not necessary
be health workers or professionals but could provide information on legal aspect of health
issues. They could speak on government policies or health bills or laws in the assembly.

- These are important sources of health-related investigation or health advocacy programmes.

Government officials could speak on in heath projects or areas of jurisdiction.
Press conferences and briefings: these could be organized by health institutions or nonhealth-
based organizations that have health-related activities or issues they want the media to
know about.
Non-health institutions or organizations: these are organizations engaged in other activities
but may be making contribution in health development or their activities may be impacting
positively on public health.

- For instance, MTN may organize HIV/AIDS rally to create awareness for anti-HIV/AIDS
campaigns or they could organize a musical show to raise money for orphans who lost their
parents to AIDS. The health reporter can get good stories from such sources.
The mass media: these could be used as secondary source of health information. Health
stories already reported in the media could be followed up for further investigation.

- For instance, if a daily newspaper report that food poisoning annihilates an entire family and
that the food seller that sold the last meal to the family has been caught, the health reporter could
decide to find out what happened to the food seller, whether more people have died after the first
incident, what government or health authorities are doing to avert such incident in the future.
Tips for Effective Coverage of the Health Beat
- Reporting is just like going to school, as you go, you learn every day, new things and you
expose yourself to different ideas.

- So also, in health reporting, the reporter needs some basic knowledge or ideas that will
facilitate him to cover a health beat.
- Thus, in order to excel in this beat, a reporter needs to be conversant with some of these tips
as examined below:
Visit the beat regularly: this means that regular visits to the beat will ensure the reporter does
not miss out on any story.

- It also helps the reporter to familiarize with key players and sources in the beat, including
knowing the terrain of the beat i.e. how and where to look for stories.
Simplify the story: this simply means you should bear your audience in mind while doing
health reports. The reporters work for conventional media which have the general public as
their audience. T

- They should not forget that the audience will get more confused if the story is full of health or
medical terms and jargons. If the reporter gets the story from scientific journals, he/she also
needs to simplify the news for public consumption.
Interpret stories or research findings where necessary: sometimes the report may make little
or no meaning to readers. The way a health report is written could create the impression that a
health problem is less serious than it actually is or it could make the problem look scary than
it is, to the audience who are not scientists or health professions.

- This calls for simplified interpretation. For instance, if malaria kills a child every thirty second
in Africa, this could be misinterpreted by uninformed audience to mean that your children will
die in thirty second if mosquito bites them. The stories should be made clearer with explanations.
Quote authorities where necessary: credibility and veracity are very important in health
reporting. Where a story looks doubtful, reporters should quote sources verbatim. Comments
of doctors, pharmacists, nurses, medical and health science researchers should be quoted to
give credibility to stories especially stories involving scientific claims, breakthroughs,
shocking or bizarre observations, health forecasts, etc.
Separate claims from facts: if someone says he has found the cure for a disease, do not report
it as fact when it has not yet been proven scientifically. This means that a health reporter
should not report claims as facts. Even if an experiment was conducted on guinea pigs and
the new drug worked, it only succeeded on animals.

- Wait until it works on humans and it confirm by relevant authorities before reporting it as a
fact.
Provide relevant details: details stories make a big difference in health reporting. Studies and
experiments, health hazards, crisis, outbreak of diseases, numbers of people at risk of being
infected or affected by the disease could change public perception of the gravity of a health
situation.

- For instance, if there is a vague report on a particular health issue, it is expected that
the health reporter provides detail explanation on the issue such that the regular or ordinary
people can have a better understanding of the entire issue. This can be achieved by providing
background information and explanation on the previous report.
Be objective: report with observation, this will help you to remove bias from the story.
Detach your emotions from stories. Do not select an angle or series of studies because it suits
your interest or it is likely to sell your paper.

- As a health reporter, you are expected to report what series of studies are showing. This is
because different studies of a particular treatment or condition can have different or opposite
result.
Make contact with health professionals: these peoples, doctors, nurses, pharmacists health
scientists, researchers, professors in health-related disciplines etc can help the health reporter
understand complex situations, explain confusing terms and jargons, provide interpretations
and health forecasts, among other. They make the job easier for a health reporter.

Do personal research: the health reporter should do library research on his/her own to
understand complex health situations. He/she ought to check out the internet for help where
necessary.

- For example, a health scientist in Ghana may claim to have found a cure for a disease whereas
he may have stolen it from a scientist in America without acknowledging him.

- Through a personal research on the internet, the health reporter will be able to unearth
the truth via research. Besides, personal research also helps in understanding medical or
health science terms and concepts, including the ways certain drugs work in humans, their
possible effects with a view to relate such to an on-going investigation.

- As a health reporter, it is expected that the news values and elements are put into
consideration when reporting health issues. You should apply the conventional news values
in determining newsworthy health stories and writing good reports.
Career Prospects in Health Reporting
- Health reporting is a popular specialty in the journalism profession. Reporters wishing to
specialize in this area will not have a problem locating where to ply their trade and earn good
living.

- Nwabueze (2009) highlighted the following career prospects for a reporter who wants
to delve into health reporting and earns a living.

-Virtually every media organization either has a health desk/unit or does not toy with health
reports. These organizations need health correspondent to make the health desk/unit or
department.

- Health reporters can pursue a career for themselves in these organizations. Many special
interest health magazines exist.

- Indulge Healthy eating, Health care area among known health magazines in the newsstands.
Such specialized health publications prefer employing specialist reporters who are trained in
health journalism, instead of a general reporter who may find it difficult to adapt to this kind of
specialized kind of reporting or may have to learn on the job. This is a career prospect for a
health reporter.

- Health reporter can also float their own special interest publications where they find it
available. They can also approach health-based organization with proposals for publication of
health-interest house journals or health publication that will also have general interest contents.

- Health professional organizations may have professional publications which they may need
health reporters to help them run. For example, nurses may have a publication that covers
professional activities of members, including their social life. Health reporters can help in
running such publications.

- Freelance health reporting is another career prospect in this specialized area. A trained health
reporter could decide to send health stories to organizations for fee.

- Well investigated health reports will surely attract the interest of media organizations
which subscribe for stories from the freelance reporter.

- A health reporter can also run a health blog. Such a reporter can own a website and post health
stories in their site for people to read.

Unit Five- Environmental Reporting

- Environmental reporting is an indispensable tool in managing, protecting, preserving and
promoting the environment.

- It is all forms of communication (interpersonal, group, public or

organizational, mass computer mediated, etc.) that engage with
the social debate about environmental issue and problems
(Meisner, 2007).
- It is a form of communication which keeps the public
enlightened, educated and informed about trends in the
environment. It covers all forms of media reports (non- personal
communication) and numerous forms of personal
communication strategies that engage and where necessary
enrage the public over issues that affect the environment.

What is Environment?
- Environment has been defined as the natural or artificial habitation in which people exist and
coexist with plants and animals, including the activities, actions and situations that shape the
existence of man or any organism in a given habitation (Nwabueze, 2007).

- Similarly, Ayantayo (2004, p. 2) describes the environment as "a

collection of natural and artificial arrangements in which
humanity is completely dependent for survival and sustenance
through food, water and the trees for shelter".
- This underscores the need to preserve and protect the
environment. The environment comprises of physical and
biological entities which have one form or influence on man.
 - The physical environment comprises of tangible
aspects of the environment, including the forces or influences
that affect the existence of man and other organism in the
environment.
- It includes the aquatic or water environment (lakes, rivers,
oceans etc.) and the terrestrial or land environment (made up of
ecosystems or ecological units, biomes, among which are
tropical rainforest, savanna, temperate deciduous forests,
temperate grass land, deserts etc.)
- The physical environment is also classified into natural and built
(man-made) environment.
- The natural environment is made up of living and non-living
things that occur naturally in the world. For example, all forms
of wildlife, uncultivated grasslands, unmanaged forests,
environmental phenomena such as water fall, hills, mangrove
and natural aquatic life.
- The built or man-made environment comprises of the habitation
made possible through man's intervention, interaction and
interplay that shape the environment.
- For instance, the works of architects, engineers and builders
such as house, streets, constructed parks, well planned cities etc.
- There is also the non-physical environment which, according to
Nwabueze (2007, p. 13) consist of attributes of qualities,
yardsticks or characteristics used to identify a specific sector or
aspect of life e.g. political environment, social environment,
religious environment etc.

Who is an Environmental Reporter?

- Among the basic environmental communication strategies is environmental reporting or
environmental news reporting. This entails dissemination of information, news events,
occurrences informal discussion, etc. about the environment to an audience through a medium by
an individual known as environmental reporter.

- It is simply reporting on issues, developments, happenings etc.

about the environment. This chapter therefore captures the
essentiality of environmental communication, bringing out the
rudiments of reporting that are suitable for the coverage of an
environmental beat.
- It provides the tips for successful coverage of the environment
beat and practical ways of successfully pursuing a career in this
specialized area of reporting.
- Environmental reporting is the process of collecting and
collating facts, developments, occurrences information about the
environment and presenting them to the public through a mass
medium.
- Environmental news or facts which should be of concern to an
environmental beat reporter include a wide range of
environmental problems (earthquake, erosion, hurricane,
indiscriminate refuse dumping, floods, environmental risks,
pollution of all kinds, environmental protection,
preservation, promotion and education issues, promulgation of
laws to protect the environment, seminars/workshop on the
environment, all efforts made to improve the relationship
between man and the environment, scientific breakthrough that
have positive or negative effect/implication on biodiversity,
among other effects.
- Environment reports are not just straight news reports. They
include investigative, interpretative, analytical and in-depth
reports on the environment.
- They could be spot news; a news story developed from press
releases, press conference and other environmental news events,
often written in a straight news format devoid of investigation or
interpretation.
- They could be features reports with background information that
provide new behind the news.
- Environmental reporting is specialized journalism task which
consists of gathering, collection and presentation of news
thoroughly investigated details about environment concerns.
- It is a specialized journalism field with focus and interest on the
environment. What has government done or said about the
environment? What are the implications of government project
on main's existence in the environment? What environmental
risk do industries, business activities and such other man made
activities pose to the environment? What environment disaster
has just occurred or many occur in an area in the future? What
effort should government or the public make in order to protect,
preserve or promote the environment?
- These are among many questions which should excite and
arouse the interest of reporter covering the environmental beat.
- Whatever man does or plans to do that has or may have impact
on the environment should be of interest to the environmental
reporter.
- Also, whatever nature or the environment "does" that will
impact on the ecosystem, biodiversity, human existence or
would alter the ecosystem in anyway (positively or
negatively) should arose the interest of an environmental
reporter.
- As a place beat, the environmental beat simply refers to
organizations that are concerned with environmental issues.
- Among the organizations are Federal Environmental Protection
Authority (FEPA), the various state government established
agencies, among others.
- A reporter could be assigned to cover these organizations. As a
place beat, the environmental beat is a geographic area
of coverage.
- The reporter could also be assigned to a state or region where
he/she is to cover only environmental concerns in that area.

Sources of Environmental Stories

- An environment reporter could get relevant information about
the environment from a wide range
of sources.
- He/she however needs to be eagle-eyed and has to possess
competent and ability to have nose for news in order to make
meaning out of any happenings and developments which have
relevance to the environment. The environment reporter could
consult these people to explain observations in the environment
or implications of trends in the environment.
- For instance, the views of a weather expert and geographers
could be quoted while writing a feature piece on the
environment.
- The historian could explain sites, erosion threat and earthquake-
prone area.
- Victims and eye witnesses too are additional sources for a
comprehensive piece of an environmental reporter.
Qualities of an Environmental Reporter
- An environmental reporter is just like an army going into a
battle field.
- An army must have all it takes for him to be able to succeed in
the battle field.
- Also, as an environmental reporter, you must possess some
qualities that will fetch you into this specialize aspect of
reporting.
- Some of these qualities include:
1. Alertness
2. Eye for unusual
3. Mind for adventure
4. Investigative instinct
5. Knowledge of issues, terms and concepts associated with the
environment
6. Courage
7. Computer literacy
8. Good interview skills
9. Good writing skills
10. Smart in appearance

Career Prospects in Environmental Reporting

- Environmental journalism holds a lot of projects for journalists
wishing to specialize in this area.
- Governments across the world, including private sector
operators in international scene have become aware of the need
to protect the environment.
- This underscores the pertinence of environmental
communication in the entire environmental management effort.
- Environmental stories could be sourced from anywhere,
provided the reporter involved knows how to develop
stories from occurrences that have implication to the
environment.
- However, the following sources could yield or inspire
environmental stories for curious, eagle-eye reporters.
- Event based sources and natural disasters are basically sources
of spot news on the environment.
- Spot news simply refers to news from events, occurrences or
happening which have just taken place, form where a reporter
generates 'quick' straight news reports or detailed investigative
reports.
- Event based sources and natural disasters that take place in the
environment. They could be organized or impromptu.
- They could be man-made or natural. Among such sources are
press conferences, press interviews, natural disasters
(earthquakes, volcanic eruption, erosion, tsunami,
hurricanes etc.).
- Man-made disasters (unclear plant accident, floods, accidental
bomb explosions such as the modus-operandi of the Boko
 Haram insurgents in the North-eastern part of Nigeria, hazards
accused by war such as the monumental water and land pollution
that took place in Lebanon as a result of the Israeli/Hezbollah
war, among other hazards.
- These events create the atmosphere for an environmental
reporter to do great stories about the environment.
- Some of such incidents could generate follow-up reports that can
keep a reporter busy for a longtime.
Fusion between Environmental Reporter and Environmental
Experts
- Experts on the environment are people whose professions have
to do with or are related to environment concerns. They include
geographers, geologist, biologist, architects, historians,
sanitary inspectors, weather experts, etc.
- Also, in this category of Sahara are people who have chosen to
pursue environmental preservation, protection and education as a
vocation environmentalist.
- Environmental journalism is an intrinsic part of environmental
communication. The print and electronic media have also woken
up to the challenges of contributing their quota to the quest to
protect; preserve and promote the environment. Virtually every
newspaper and magazine have environmental desk.
- Sections of a newspaper are mapped out for coverage or
environmental issues.
- The environmental beat today is full of activities.
- Reporters wishing to practice environmental journalism will not
have any problem of getting a job in newspaper establishments,
especially in view of the special skills such a reporter possess in
the area of environmental reporting.

Unit Six- Women and Children Reporting

- The media, both in the mainstream and alternative sources such as social media and weblogs
play a large role in how members of society are informed of events that may affect them directly
or indirectly.

- Statistics on the plight of women and children are discouraging

and they represent a challenge to journalism practice. At least
533.3 million women worldwide are illiterates and almost
500,000 of them die from pregnancy related causes yearly
(Jibril, 2000).
- Women and children are most often victims whenever there is
conflict, fire outbreaks, among others.
- Religion, traditional beliefs and practices continue to impede
their freedoms and access to unemployment (William, 1995, p.
7).
- These vulnerable group faced health, educational, economic,
social, political and other problems. Children are susceptible to
diseases like malaria, measles, tetanus, diarrhea and dysentery,
skin and respiratory infections and many of these diseases result
from poor living condition and unsafe water supply.
Reporting women and children
- Women and children are the focus of contemporary
development especially in developing countries like ours.
- This is because of the disadvantaged status of women and
vulnerability of children as a high risk group. Critical areas of
concern are violence against women, health problems,
inadequate involvement of women in politics, decision making
etc.
- On the part of children, diseases like malaria, measles, tetanus
and many other diseases pose a threat and can be seen as a
critical area worthy of concern.
- Economic problems have also impacted negatively on the status
of children.
- Issues ranging from sexual exploitation, drug abuse, to
withdrawal of many children from school to help generate
income for the family through domestic helping (child labor),
street hawking and other similar activities impose special
obligation on the mass media and journalists.
- Their plight is discouraging thus, representing a huge challenge
to journalism practice. In doing so, it is necessary for the
reporter to work with a general background on reporting.
- This background starts with an appreciation of the objectives of
writing which are: to inform, explain, analyze, interprets, expose
or convert (Moemeka, 1998, p.7-8).
- The reporter must be curious. This means being eager to know
about things happening within and outside his society.
- This curious reporter is one that can see and smell news. He/she
who is not curious will have nothing special to report. The
power of observation is an important quality of women and
children reporter.
- Naturally, curiosity gives birth to observation. He/she observes
for sticking details and stick to the mind.
- He must be able to recognize and pick out the most striking
elements and ensure balance of issues or events involving
different individuals.
- To understand good news (Moemeka, 1998, p. 7-8) says: a
reporter must strive for accuracy, balance in emphasis and
completeness, conciseness and clarity.
Why Reporting Women and Children?
- People rely on the media as source of the information about the
world yet the way in which women and children are portrayed in
the media is often misleading and problematic.
- It is also on record that media normally report scanty
information on women and children which ordinary suppose not
to be so.
- Reporting women and children may also reinforce the belief
that they are not important or active members of the society as in
most instances.
- They don't seem to do much at all and are commonly described
as victims of abuse, war, disease and poverty. There is no doubt
that they are often the most vulnerable of the effect of wars and
disasters and that the media need to report their stories.
- At the same time, the media need to consider how they fulfill
diverse roles in the society; children (sport players, learners and
advertiser's etc.) and women (mothers, wives, supporters, care
givers etc.).
- These roles should be reflected in reports. Rural areas in
countries like NEPAL (India) many women and girl child are
sent to live in animal sheds while menstruating or during child
birth, spending days in isolated areas, separated from their
families.
- The practice known as Chaupadi comes from a Hindu tradition
which considers the state of menstruation and child birth as
"impure".
- This practice can wreak unintended havoc on their health. Such
sheds can be risky for them.
- Some get rapped while others die of snake bites and severe
bleeding. Such practices isolate the women and children from
services and complicates attempt to change their behaviors.
- As part of its social responsibility, the media keeps the
government accountable to its people.
- Furthermore, the mass media is vital for regulating social
relations and in ensuring that efforts are always made to see that
 those who have power to control it do not exercise it to the
detriment of other individuals or society.
- As noted by Mcbride cited in Pate (1997) communication can be
an instrument of power, a revolutionary weapon, a commercial
product or a means of educating.
- It can serve the ends of either the growth of the individual
personality or drilling human beings into
uniformity.
- Going by the preceding observations, we can understand that,
the media can play an enormous role in the protection and
advancement of the course of human rights.
- Women and children reporter is therefore saddled with the
responsibility of exposing human rights violations and abuses as
they occur exposing the perpetrators of such for moral
condemnation and legal action, to publicize the plight of victims
for people to know or see, so that they could wake up, react and
to secure redress and compensation for victims, to enlighten and
sensitize the general public on possible human right violations,
to educate people on how to use appropriate communication
channels to articulate their views and give expression to their
aspirations among others.
- Another reason for reporting women and children is to
communicate the need to specially protect them.
- The National media does not generally cover individual stories
unless there is some unique or sensational aspect to it.
- Furthermore, reporting women and children reinforces the
perception of women and children in a positive light.
- For instance, women can be given the role of bank managers
instead of marketers.
Sources of News for Women and Children
- Sources of information are important in any form of reporting.
- In the case of the subject in question (women and children
reporting) the following sources could be generated:
The "Ideal" victim: Some media coverage reinforces the notice
of the good or ideal victim.
- One who is more innocent than others. Those who are the ideal
victims include children, some women and the elderly ones.
- A woman who was sitting in her home at night watching
television when the offender broke in would appear to be the
"good or ideal victim" over the woman who invited the offender
into her home.
- The ideal must be enlightened on the purpose of the media
which is to provide the public with information they want about
their community.
- The way an issue is framed by the media can lead the public to
make judgments about victims being innocent or not.
Police stations: Police stations normally have records of cases;
so the police could provide relevant information regarding
women and children cases.
Court proceedings: This involves the reporter being physically
present at the court to get firsthand information about cases on
women and children.
- Others include: schools, newspapers and magazines are also
good sources of information for the reporter.
- Again, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Internally
Displayed Person's (IDP) camps are also good source of
news for women and children.
Ethical Consideration in Reporting Women and Children
- There are stories that violate the rights of women and children
either directly or indirectly, identifying them where it is clearly
not in their best interest.
- Example is naming an abused victim, a child witness to a crime
or a child offender. Muazu in Pate (2002) notes that journalist
needs to be aware of the fact that reports especially of crisis have
the tendency to either escalate or diminish crises.
- While each story needs to be analyzed on a case by case basis,
there are some core ethical principles for reporting women and
children. These include:
Confidentiality: children and women have rights under law and
respect for such rights require that
whenever they give information which is confidential, such
confidentiality should be respected.
- Journalists have a duty to protect sources of information
received in confidence.
Discrimination: families should be treated with respect.
- They should be treated as humans with needs and feelings and
who could be news sources in their own rights. Accuracy and
fairness: report on women, children and families must be fair,
accurate and unbiased. It entails treating them with voices not as
minors.
Sources: Women and children are good sources of information.
As such, it is imperative to give
 credit to such sources, except if the situation demands
anonymity.

Privacy: everyone is entitled to privacy except it serves public

interest to intrude such privacy at that; consent of those involved
should be sought.
Bottlenecks in Reporting Women and Children
Unprofessionalism: this has to do with lack of adequate
professional training which poses a challenge to the women and
children reporter. It is therefore important to attain adequate
professional training in order to present reports that are
unbiased, objective and factual.
Lack of incentives: most journalists are based in cites and other
urban areas. These journalists do not have any extra allowance
to take trips to rural areas in search of stories.
- There are often no incentives to take trips to such areas.
- For journalists to leave their base, comfortable offices in urban
areas in search of stories must be put into perspective.
- This however discourages reporting women and children as they
mostly live in remote areas.
Brown envelope syndrome: Lacks of incentives and
remuneration of staff incur the brown envelope syndrome in
most cases.
- It is the practice of collecting gratifications from news sources
before or after a story has been published.
- Journalists prefer stories/beats that are most likely to give
sizeable brown envelops.
- Such gratifications are very unlikely to come from sources like
women and children as they form part of development
communication.
- Therefore, journalists covering such beat should teach women
and children via programmes that showcase physical abuse,
sexual abuse, infringement on their rights and other forms of
violence.
- As such, the police, social services agencies and health
professionals should be notified whenever there is any evidence
of such abuses. This way, there will be improvement in issues
disturbing women and children in our societies.