The trouble with sources

I've never quite realised the amount of trust that as journalists we have to place in our sources. That is until this week. 


As part of our training we all get sent out on patch (an area to find stories in) every Thursday. It's all about talking to people, easing their stories out, and finding out what is interesting. The majority of the time this seems to be the thing they think is least interesting about themselves. 


This Thursday it was the Robin in a pub who joined regulars for a pint and peanuts every day at lunchtime. He'd gone missing and had returned. Of course the bar man didn't think this was worth note until I asked about birds - "Oh you should have said you were interested in birds," he explained.


I'm still on a hunt for a picture of the robin - like I said it's all about trusting the sources word and their story.


Then there are the harder ones. The ones where someone tells you something in confidence and you know it'd make a great story. Do you ask to run with it? Do you keep the confidence? 


What about the ones where you know telling a story will put someone in an uncomfortable position? They were ranting and you've gone into crusader mode. Hearing of the injustice you decide that you should look into their story and you uncover more than you expected. What then? Back off for their sake or carry on for everyone else's? 

Journalism - a balancing act?

These are the moral dilemmas that journalists face every day. Some may think we're a heartless bunch, but we take the job seriously and weigh up the situation before wading in. 


The source holds the power. They have the information. They have the story you want to tell. I always feel it is harder to tell an individual's story without their help - a hostile source is the worst kind. In a second they can fell a great article, in moments they can kill something that could have been big. Just by exercising that all important right - to speak or not to speak. In an ironic twist on freedom of expression the journalist comes undone.


The fact it works both ways goes without saying. I trust what you say, trust me to do the best I can with it.


Here endeth the lesson on the pact all journalists make - trust thy source and they shall trust you. 

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Posted in: journalism,patch,robin,sources,training,trust

Withing the bowels of the Catholic Herald offices...

The Bishops meeting

Last week I found myself at 15 Lambs passage. Now if you Google that it’ll come up with Ballroom Dancing in London and Cambridge – I can assure you I wasn’t prancing around in sequins trying out for Strictly Come Dancing! I was, instead, visiting the Catholic Herald, as they had kindly agreed for me to join them for two days work experience.

Their offices are in an old building next to St Joseph’s Church, near Bunhill Row. Or so I found on my first day, trying to follow my Google map through the winding streets. Promptly arriving at 10, I was buzzed in, and after climbing quite a few stairs was met by Luke Coppen, Mark Greaves, Anna Arco and Ed West – who maybe you’ll recognise the names of from Twitter.

The first job of the day was the News List, searching for interesting news items to include. Trawling through blogs like I do at Archbishop’s House and news sites for an article that would catch my eye, a list was compiled. A meeting followed deciding who would write what and which stories would go where in the newspaper. I hadn’t seen this process before so I found it quite interesting.

Having been given the Cardinal pub story I tried to find out what was going on and where things stood. Half way through the dayIndependent Catholic News started up a petition, which changed my article.

It wasn’t until the next day that the news bustle really kicked off. Tuesday was News Day, so Simon Caldwell, News Editor, was in distributing the articles. This is something I love - being given a piece to write, collecting the information and quickly writing it up, then the next one and so on. I got to write a few during the day, which was a great experience.

By the end of the day I’d finished off all my pieces; had rung Alexander de Forges, CCN to talk about the Bishops meeting, contacted the Jesuits about their Superior General’s upcoming visit and followed the Cardinal pub story as it began to take off.

It would have been good to have seen the full journey of the newspaper from Monday to Friday (The Catholic Herald comes out Thursday), but instead I settled for waiting to see what and where my articles would be when I picked up the Catholic newspapers on Thursday.

 

The Cardinal Pub in the Herald

 

My Cardinal pub piece was front page down right, and the other pieces had been put in page 2 and 3. A good result for my portfolio! Even funnier, I had tweeted live from the Social Responsibility conference on the Wednesday morning. When the Archbishop told the attendees to sign the petition away I tweeted – Mark Greaves updated my story online and I watched as people RTd an article I had written. Even better, a certain reporter at the conference told me that hadn’t thought anything of the comment until I tweeted it and the headlines all changed from ‘Petition to save The Cardinal Pub’ to ‘Archbishop urges MPs etc to sign petition to save Cardinal pub’ – woopsie!

Since then the Archbishop has been busy on BBC radio, TV, news and being interviewed about it. I am absolved from blame here! The petition had already taken off - it now stands at 650 signatures.  

All in all a successful two days work experience, though it’d be great to pop back in to The Catholic Herald offices to see what happens the rest of the week. My journalist’s curiosity has gotten the better of me already!

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Posted in: cardinal pub,catholic herald,intern,journalism,newspaper,work experience