Searching for Sources

Beat Reporting

• What is the purpose of having a beat?• Stay a step ahead of the competition to

avoid being scooped– Someone else got the story first

• When covering a beat:– Build sources– Listen carefully– Check your facts, ask more than one person

Searching for Sources

Physical Sources

Physical Sources

• Records• Documents• Reference works• Newspaper clippings• Direct observations—don’t rely too much

on interviews• Journalists gather information for stories

the same way you would for a research paper

Kinds of Physical Sources

• Clippings• Encyclopedias• Telephone Directories• Cross-Directories• City & State Directories• Facts on File World News Digest• Libraries• Other References

Clippings

• Stories recycled from newspaper to newspaper• Morgue—reference libraries that store clippings

of stories• Provide background information on person you

will interview• Verify answers of interviewee• Example?

– Student Council Information

Encyclopedias

• Provide cross-references, maps, charts and illustrations

• Look up a variety of topics

• Example?– Eating Disorders

Telephone Directories

• Set up interviews

• Also include:– Zip Codes– Street Indexes– City Maps– Information about city and county government

Cross-Directories

• List residents of a community in three ways:– Name– Address– Telephone Number

• Example?– Break-ins in a particular neighborhood

City & State Directories

• City:– List by names, addresses, and telephone

numbers of residents– Street address guides, telephone number

directories, zip codes, school districts– Average income per household, news, etc

• State:– Branches of government, state schools

Facts on File World News Digest

• Weekly publication– Summarizes, records and indexes the news– National and foreign news events included– Includes deaths, science, sports, medicine,

education, religion, crime, books, plays, films and people in the news

– Subjects and names of people, organizations and countries

Libraries

• Background about a story

• Newspaper indexes published in bound volumes

• Other sources

Other references

• Editorials on File—editorial reprints from more than 130 American newspapers

• Dictionary of American Slang—definitions of catchphrases from the past 5 centuries

• Famous First Facts—useful when researching the first instance of anything

• Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations—passages and phrases from American Literature

• Guinness Book of World Records—valuable resource for adding color to stories

Using Records and Documents

• Gaining Access to Public Records:– Everyone leaves a paper trail

– Reporter’s Handbook—explains where to find public records

• State and Federal Records:– Freedom of Information Act—enacted in 1966,

requires that government records except those relating to national security, confidential data, and law enforcement be made available to the public

– If agency turns down request, it must state under which exemption it is withholding info