Today's lesson: ASK.
As a professional journalist (or at least a member of SPJ), I basically took a personal oath to "seek the truth and report it."
Most people who are seeking things ask questions: "Have you seen my keys?" "Where is the X building or the Y library?" "How do I program this equation?"
The same should be true in journalism.
I am one of 7 PAs at our station, but I get the perk of doing more. I also fill in as an associate producer a couple days a week. When I started filling in, I knew nothing about that position. Ok, I knew how to write decently, but as for getting aesthetically ready for a show, I was clueless.
So what did I do? Asked questions.
I always say it's better to ask a seemingly stupid question than to do something stupid that someone else may not catch before it airs.
By asking questions, I could learn new skills. I could also save the producer some time doing things herself and going back and fixing my mistakes. As would make sense, I gained a greater understanding of what's required to get shows off the ground.
The same mantra (ask questions) also applies when gathering information for the stories I write. Occasionally, I will have to call dispatches about blurbs heard on the scanners. I may have a press release or an email from an event organizer that leaves out important information (like the time or place) or that leaves a person wondering why they should care at all about a certain event. In that case, I'll troll the Internet. It seems half my morning is spent on Google. I'd probably spend more time on the phone if I weren't writing at 2 a.m. and didn't want to wake spokespeople from their night's sleep.
This interrogation has had its clear advantages. With the exception of a few typos, I haven't had any complaints about accuracy. Another tenet of the SPJ code of ethics is to be accountable. If anyone questioned the information I put in, I could defend it and give a source I trusted.
But now I want to change gears and show how asking will not only help you improve your own work but will also give you a leg up on competition.
As may be expected working at a news station, I worked on Election Day, gathering numbers. Unfortunately for me, the county I was assigned had no easy way to get these results. Regardless, I asked. When I called their board of elections, I asked multiple ways just to make sure I was understood. Even when my EP double-checked my phone call questions, I was still correct.
I ended up having to drive to the elections location to pick up the final numbers. Long story short, I was misdirected several times, but I never stopped asking. I eventually ended at the correct location because I asked. I could have wasted much more time and looked like "clueless PA" at the bottom of the newsroom totem pole if I hadn't been so inquisitive.
When I got to the correct location, I was still early (there before the numbers were in), so I don't know how any media outlet could have results from that county earlier than I did. I saw numbers scrolling on a projection screen, but I asked around and managed to procure the paper copy we'd been promised.
After returning to the station and inputting the numbers, another PA returned from a similar run. She told me she did have to write down the scrolling numbers. Maybe there wasn't a paper copy; I wasn't there so I can't be sure. But I have a feeling she didn't ask, and believe me, she returned much later and more frustrated than I did.
So, really, ASK. It saves time. It saves reprimands. It saves credibility.
