Eight Steps to News Interviewing and Writing

You have seen a lot of news every day from mobile phones, web pages, TV, and newspapers. "Well, this kind of news can be published in newspapers, and I can write it." You might think so. Don't be in a hurry. Writing is not difficult, everyone has been writing since elementary school, and you may have participated in various writing competitions. But writing good news takes talent, study, and a lot of news writing practice. The late James Carrey, a professor of journalism at Columbia University, said: "News writing is the most rigorous art of description." Rigorous, including rigorous training, and strict control of every aspect of interview writing.

Of course, no writing routine is set in stone. The news interviewing and writing procedures we introduce to you here are summed up by many reporters in their own practice. It can help you choose topics, interview, and write more effectively, and it can also help you avoid misreporting due to sloppy, sloppy reporting.

Step 1: Pick a topic idea

The generation of news topics requires a pair of curious eyes, a pair of sensitive ears and a smart brain. Sensitive journalists can get news topics in conference venues, restaurants, on the street, and online chat. Even on major events that all journalists cover, good reporters find a different angle.

　Step 2: Data research

Data research helps you flesh out your reporting, expand your thinking, and ask valuable questions. If you report hepatitis B, do you know how hepatitis B is contagious? Do you know how many people in the country are carriers of hepatitis B virus? If you cover Lenovo Group, do you know what year this company was founded? What year was it listed? Who is the founder? Who are the current chairman and president? Although you won't use all the answers to these questions in your reporting, the more you know, the more confident you will be, and the more options you can choose from.

Step 3: Establish the focus of the report and write the main points of the news

News without focus is blurry like an out-of-focus photo. Writing news bullet points helps you ask yourself: What is news? What is the story? What kind of information do I need? The attitude I want to take? What facts do I choose to grab the audience's attention?

　Step 4: Material Collection

The material you want to collect includes: direct quotes from text reports, voice-overs from radio reports, images from TV reports, and finally, photos. When collecting material, pay attention to balancing the sources and interview people with different viewpoints. During the interview, observe and record the details of the scene while interviewing.

Note: Steps 2, 3, and 4 are not linear. Sometimes you want to change the focus of your story after gathering material because you have found more valuable content; or you need to do more research after your interview. These three steps can be done simultaneously or alternately until you find what you think is the best focus and gather enough footage.

Step 5: Reporting Framework

Before writing, you need to review the materials you have collected. Around the news focus and topic, determine the frame of the news report, and around the news frame, mark and select those relevant quotations, details and background in the interview notes. Also, in what format and structure do you best convey your message? Make a small outline so you don't run wild.

Part 6: Write the introduction.

The introduction is the most important part of a news report, it determines whether your report can attract readers. If you spend two hours writing, then an hour and a half for the introduction is not an exaggeration.

　Step 7: Is there anything unclear?

Whether you're doing it in one go, or checking as you write, don't forget to ask yourself questions like: Is my news organization structured right? Have I explained what the reader doesn't understand? Did I provide the necessary background? Did I make the problem clear? Is my news based on facts? Am I using direct quotes?

　Step 8: Check and Verify

Check at least twice, paying particular attention to factual errors such as dates, names of people, places, organizations, titles, etc. A little trick is when writing, highlighting the places that cannot be guaranteed to be accurate, so that they will not be forgotten when checking. For uncertain information, it is necessary to re-verify the news material, and grasp the source of each quotation and the source of each data.

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