What Stories to Tell?COMMUNICATING FOR IMPACT

Our Goals

• Know what stories to tell

• Know how to tell stories for impact

• Understand our audience

• Understand our platform

• Be good story-tellers

• Communicate, write for impact

The News Media & Government:A love-hate relationship?• ‘Bad news’ bears ✗

• Stupid questions, insensitive angles ✗

• Attack-collect, defend-collect journos ✗

• Obsessed with the prominent, indifferent to the powerless ✗

• Too much noise, too little substance ✗

• I’ve been misquoted! ✗

• They never say sorry! ✗

• Given more to profit than to public service ✗

A love-hate relationship?

• ‘Bad news’ bears good results ✓

• Sharp, probing questions ✓

• Poor, diligent, honest ✓

• Defender of the common folk ✓

• Noise-making drives out crooks, moves citizens to action ✓

• Tells the story of whistleblowers ✓

• Uncovers corruption, helps dislodge bad officials ✓

• Watchdog, fiscalizer, change agent ✓

The Communication Process- Wilbur Schramm

Source > Message > Channel > Receiver

Gov’t/CSO > Story > Media > Public

Writing for ReadersWriting for the News Media

• Malou Mangahas

• Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

What is Journalism?

‘Making the important

…interesting

And the interesting

…relevant’

News: The 5 Ws & H• Rudyard Kipling:

I keep six, honest

serving men

They taught me all I know

Their names are

WHO and WHAT

and WHERE and WHEN

and WHY and HOW

KIPLING’S FRUSTRATION:• Too much of:

• WHERE, WHEN

• WHO, WHAT,

• Too little of:

• WHY?

• HOW?

• So what is new?

• WHY SHOULD I CARE?

WHAT’S GOING RIGHT, WRONGABOUT HOW WE TELL STORIES?

• A preponderance of single-source stories

• Missing context, missing background: How and why beg

answers

• Anonymous sources, especially for negative stories

• The artificial dichotomy between politics and economics

• Leaked/fed documents, no comfortable distance with sources

• The inordinate focus on government sources; beats as territorial

units, not policy fields

WHAT’S GOING RIGHT, WRONG?

• Pack reporting, pack editing, “daily slide to sameness”

• Short attention spans; write-for-the-day syndrome, the

rush to print/broadcast

• Flawed news frames: Scandals sell? The bizarre flies? What

bleeds leads?

• Stress on loud and acute emergencies, neglect of silent and

benign ones

WHAT’S GOING RIGHT, WRONG?

• A disconnect between national, regional, local

stories/data sets

• Journalists never say sorry?

• Celebrity journalists, good and bad icons

• Racist, sexist, offensive language

• What's private, what's public?

WHAT’S GOING RIGHT, WRONG?

• Unethical and misleading practices

• Technosaurs wary of the worldwide web

• Reading is a diminishing discipline

What is News?

• When a dog bites a man…

• When a man bites a dog…

• News Values:

• Prominence

• Consequence

• Conflict

• Proximity

• Oddity

• Timeliness

Minimum Standards: A Good Story

• ACCURACY : ‘Get it right!’

• Facts

• Context

• FAIRNESS: ‘Get all sides!’

• Pursue the truth with vigor, compassion

• Report information without favoritism,

self-interest, prejudice

The News Form

• The Inverted Pyramid

• Good beginning: Start strong!

• Firm body: String it tight!

• Artful close: End it sharp!

The Lead: 5Ws & H

Types:Summary LeadComposite LeadQuestion LeadQuotation Lead Literary/Historical Allusion LeadDescriptive LeadCartridge/Punch Lead

What makes a good story?

Good stories CLIC: Color Logic Imagination Coherence

But also possess: Rhythm Tone Texture Authenticity

Understanding our Audience

Who are we writing for?The Audience:

Age Gender Education Faith Income Leisure patterns Family persons Consumers Career persons Citizens

Readership Patterns

• 3-30-3

• 3-second readers

• 30-second readers

• 3-minute readers

Readability Tests

• Simple, not multisyllabic,

words

• Sentence length/structure:

word limit, one-idea per

sentence rule

• Bullet paragraphs

Understanding the News Media

News frames/themes

• Crime

• “The best in the business,” a treasure trove of great stories; even for routine crime tales the dramatis personae include protagonists & antagonists, heroes & scoundrels.

• Edna Buchanan, legendary Miami Herald crime reporter:

“(The crime beat) has it all: greed, sex, violence, comedy and tragedy.”

• Conflict

• Collateral damage, winners & losers, victims & victor

• Corruption

- “Criminals and crooks in public office”, not a victimless crime

False dichotomies?

• ‘Soft’ news, ‘hard’ news:

• ‘Loud’ & ‘quiet’ emergencies

• ‘Politics’ & ‘economics’

• ‘Spot news’ & ‘special reports’

• Beat Reporting & Investigative Reporting

• News that sell and don’t

• What people want & need

MEDIA: MANDATE & ROLE

• Private business with a public trust (to inform and help form

public opinion

• The Fourth Estate, “watchdog” and “fiscalizer” of

government, the courts, AFP, PNP, civil society corporations

• Constitution: freedom of speech and press, and the right of

the people to assemble peaceably must be untrammeled,

unabridged

• Journalists: creatures of habit; liberal, reformist, activist,

“anti-establishment”

Patterns of work

Transparency clause in Constitution and anti-graft laws boost their behavior to pry open, poke into, snoop around, uncover, expose

Often critical, analytical, even cynical; articulate, works in packs or independently

Works to the beat of deadlines; the good ones follow the story and love scoops, controversy, conflict, consequence, big names in news, oddity (news values), while the bad ones follow the money

Could distinguish between good and bad sources: The best ones give the best stories (scoops, well-written, consistent, forthright, earnest, expert)

A question of motives?• THE GOOD ONES

* tell a story

* expose wrong

* uphold the highest standards of journalism

(accuracy, fairness) and do right by professional ethics

• THE BAD ONES

* make a name

* get rich

* enjoy the perks

Goals: Corporate/Personal

• Perform public service (to inform)

• Secure the patronage of readers, viewers, listeners,

and advertisers; variably, sales, ratings, credibility

The Communication Process

Source >Message >Channel >Receiver

Gov’t/NGO > Story >Media > Public

The Industry: Print• A dozen broadsheets and a dozen tabloids in NCR, a few regional leaders and

hundreds of small newspapers in the provinces. Official and private data: 580 newspapers, 49 magazines, 16 other news publications

• Composite print run: About 2 million copies, or less than 20 per cent of all16 million households. Majority of readers largely male and of senior age (above 30).

• The Big Newspapers, in terms of both circulation and ad sales: Inquirer, Star, Bulletin. Apart from the tabloids, the rest of the broadsheets are second-liners.

• The NSO says newspaper readership declined by 3.2 percentage points, or from 33.0 per cent in 1989 to 29.8 per cent in 1994. Magazine readership decreased by 8 percentage points, from 22.4 per cent in 1989 to 14.4 per cent in 1994.

The Industry: Television• There are 352 TV stations, and 782 CATV stations in the country,

including 12 based in Metro Manila (NTC, 2010)

• The largest and most profitable networks -- ABS-CBN (Channel 2, ANC) and GMA-7 (Channel 7, GMANewsTV) both operate their respective cable TV channels on 50-kw power while TV5 has Aksyon TV. All major TV networks also operate their own news websites.

• The government runs the national television network Channel 4 (National Broadcasting Network) and two TV networks sequestered from the Marcoses and their cronies in 1986 -- Radio Philippines Network (RPN Channel 9) and International Broadcasting Corp. (Channel 13).

• To advertisers and Filipinos living/working overseas, the popularity of television continues to rise from 48.0 per cent in 1989 to 56.7 per cent in 1994."

The Industry: Radio• Metro Manila is home to 49 radio stations -- 25 AM band

stations and 24 FM band stations. Across PHL, 392 AM radio stations, 782 FM radio stations (NTC, 2010)

• These include the "Big Four" national radio networks --

DZRH of the Manila Broadcasting Company; DZXL of RMN;

DZMM of ABS-CBN; DZBB of GMA Network; and Aksyon Radyo of TV5.

• In 1994, government census data showed that over 8 in 10

or 80.8 per cent of 54 million Filipinos aged 10 and older, were exposed to radio.

Online/Social Media• 304 registered Internet Service Providers (as of

2010, NTC)

• 4.32 million estimate number of landline phone subscribers

• 83.25 cellphone subscribers as of 2010

• 42 M Internet users (We Are Social, March 2015)

• 9.5M Twitter tweeps in PHL; 10th in world (2013)

• 38M on Facebook in PHL; or 1/3 of est pop of 105M in 2013

Other media platforms

• Electronic publications

• Wire agencies

• Foreign media agencies with local bureaus

• Movies

• Books

• Mobile phone networks

What platforms to target and why?

• Old/Legccy Media

• Print – medium of record/reference

• Radio – medium of greatest reach

• Television – medium of greatest impact

What platforms to target and why?

• New Media

• Online Newspapers

• Blogging

• ‘Citizen Journalism’

• Social Media

• Internet TV

• SMS, MMS

• – media of record, reach, impact?

The news process

• On a typical day:

• Reporters hunt for news

• Editors/news managers call story conference

• Deadlines are set in motion

• Newspaper runs, newscast airs

• Postmortem/planning for next day’s coverage

Newsroom gatekeepers

• Print: city ed, news ed, section eds, managing ed, ed-in-chief (day sequence)

• TV/radio, online: news directors, producers, headwriters, hosts (real-time, loop-in process)

• Management execs: owners, advertising or marketing heads

• Other talents: columnists, block-timers

Media front-liners

• Reporters & correspondents (‘brat pack’, press corps, independents)

• Photographers, camera crew

• Columnists, anchors, block-timers

Why write? What stories to tell?

• To make the important… interesting

• To make the interesting… relevant

• To communicate… not to impress

• WE WRITE FOR READERS!

What is Journalism?

‘Making the important

…interesting

And the interesting

…relevant’

News: The 5 Ws & H

• Rudyard Kipling:

I keep six, honest

serving men

They taught me all I know

Their names are

WHO and WHAT

and WHERE and WHEN

and WHY and HOW

Kipling’s frustration

• Too much of:

• WHERE, WHEN

• WHO, WHAT,

• Too little of:

• WHY?

• HOW?

• So What?

• WHY SHOULD I CARE?

The Narrative String• Every story has…

• Backward and Forward Links

• Every good story has…

• Necessary Connections

• Context and Consequence

EVERY GOOD PROGRAM has..

Good Data, Monitoring, Evaluation,

Clear Performance Indicators, Output, Outcome, Impact

The pitfalls of sources• Not everyone gets it: Journalism is about information, communicating facts and opinion, telling a story.

• Some expect absolute, unqualified friendship with journalists, and think they could use/manipulate media.

• Some push it: Journalism is for scoring ‘pogi’ points, or mounting hype, spin, propaganda.

• Some make generalizations about the behavior of journalists

• Some refuse to build stories on truth, not hype: they are aware that to “repeat & reinforce” a rumor, might also substitute for “the truth well told.”

The pitfalls of journalists

• Not everyone gets it: Journalism is about information, communicating facts and opinion, telling a story.

• Some expect absolute, unqualified friendship with sources, and for a scoop or other considerations, allow themselves to play along with sources.

• Some push it: Journalism is for scoring ‘pogi’ points, or mounting hype or propaganda of ‘friendly sources’

• Some build stories on hype, spins and feeds, agree to “repeat & reinforce” or are too lazy to offer “the truth well told.”

‘Bad news’ syndrome?

• Why‘bad news’ hog the headlines:

• Conflict, drama, tragedy make for compelling stories

• Big names make big news

• Public accountability laws require officials to do good; bad deeds must be exposed

• BAD NEWS WON’T FLY UNLESS BUILT ON REAL PROBLEMS. ALL THAT REPORTERS DO IS PRESENT THEM IN THEIR MOST ACUTE FORM IN THE MEDIA.

Source-Reporter Protocol• On-the-record: The reporter may quote verbatim the interviewer by name

and title.

• Off-the-record: The interviewee provides information, which may not be used. It is provided only for a reporter’s understanding of an issue.

• For background: The reporter may use verbatim the material but may not identify the interviewee by name and/or title. The reporter and the interviewee come to an agreement regarding attribution. i.e., “A defense department source said…”

• For deep background: The reporter may use verbatim the material but may not identify the individual, his/her title, and place of work. There is no attribution. i.e. “Sources said…”

For Reporters: Is it ever all right to...

• BRIBE

• SEDUCE

• LIE

• CHEAT

• STEAL

• INJURE

• 'KILL’

to get a story?

For Sources: Is it ever all right to…

• BRIBE

• SEDUCE

• LIE

• CHEAT

• STEAL

• INJURE

• ‘KILL’

to get a story published or spiked?

What makes a good story?

• Good Content

• Accuracy

• Fairness

• People Trail

• Paper Trail

• Online Trail

• Legal Trail

• WHY SHOULD READERS CARE?

• Good Form

• Structure – words, sentences, paragraphs

• Language: Mechanics, Style

• Organization

• Visuals, Platforms

• Checking for Libel

A love-hate relationship?

• ‘Bad news’ bears ✗

• Stupid questions, insensitive angles ✗

• Attack-collect, defend-collect journos ✗

• Obsessed with the prominent, indifferent to the powerless ✗

• Too much noise, too little substance ✗

• I’ve been misquoted! ✗

• They never say sorry! ✗

• Given more to profit than to public service ✗

A love-hate relationship?

• ‘Bad news’ bears good results ✓

• Sharp, probing questions ✓

• Poor, diligent, honest ✓

• Defender of the common folk ✓

• Noise-making drives out crooks, moves citizens to action ✓

• Tells the story of whistleblowers ✓

• Uncovers corruption, helps dislodge bad officials ✓

• Watchdog, fiscalizer, change agent ✓

Ally, Adversary, Friend, Foe?• How, indeed, do you square a circle?

MARAMING SALAMAT PO!