This post started out rather ambitious. In fact, it was always intended to be several posts i.e. ” What I learned in:” RW1, NYC24, business and economics reporting, Ken Leher, etc. But I should have known better. I’m already in Vietnam, managing a new media startup by Ringier and it’s been impossible to find the patience and concentration to reflect on my time at Columbia. So I’ve condensed this post into a list of quick reminders, lessons-learned, matters-of-attention, etc. They are not in any order of importance, but rather there to help remind me of what I learned while at the J-School. Feel free to add your own or criticize mine. This list is not exhaustive.

Reporting and Writing 101 – RW1

• What is news? See earlier blog article. I learned more about this in NYC24 than in RW1.
• The first quote in your story should be your magic quote. It should get to the heart of your story. Another useful way to think of this is to imagine that this quote is something you could never write. Again, this was emphasized more in NYC24, than in my RW1.
• LIRQS  or lede, impact, react, quote, scene. Legend has it that Lawrence Van Gelder, a former reporter/editor at the New York Times developed this form of article writing. Up late at night at the Times office, Van Gelder scrutinized the papers’ best articles to see what they all had in common. The result, LIRQS – a loose formula for writing a news article. Columbia Professor Ari Goldman is incorrectly credited for LIRQS. Though it’s not his fault. Blame the Internet.
• Develop a beat list – a diverse source of contacts. Use it. Pre-reporting is more important than reporting, as you’ll more often have to go story-hunting than story-reporting.
• Don’t fall into the trap of exclusivity of new and print media. It’s not a zero-sum game. The two need to work together and serve each other.
• Don’t bury the lede/nut.
• You’re not “off the record” till I agree. Politicians are always on the record until you both agree otherwise. If it’s not “on the record,” it’s non-attributable background info.
• AP Style. Follow it. It’s a sign of professionalism and training. I’m sure I’ve butchered it in this blog post.
• Attribution. Don’t say “many” or “several,” be specific. Be very wary of using anonymous sources.
• Overall lesson, journalists tell stories. Practice and engage in story-telling.
• At times, employ the usage of a “cosmic graph.” This section or paragraph of your story describes how the story has a larger impact than the nut graph.
• For criminal reporting, start with the action in the story that has the most impact and circle back to it in a somewhat complicated chronological fashion. This writing pattern is known as an “e,” due to the shape your story would take if you began your article with the crime and then moved forwards slightly before circling back into time.
• Smile when you pitch story. Be passionate. Be excited. Articulate the news value and be sure to be able to rattle off a very clear and fascinating nut graph. Be able to be brief.

NYC|24 – Digital Media (when I was there, they called it “new media”)

• Take your time setting up your shots/interviews. Don’t let the source or yourself rush you. Make sure you’ve got the best light. The best sound. Don’t settle for hasty b-roll. Take you’re freaking time! Haste makes waste. The trick is moving quickly – as you know what to look out for, you’ve done your pre-reporting and have a script – but it doesn’t mean you should overlook LIGHT, BACKGROUND and SOUND.
• Zoom with your feet. Don’t be intimidated.
• Use the highest ISO before you go tinkering w/ f-stops, etc.
• Get close, medium and wide shots EVERY time you shoot a story.
• Hold your video shot for at least eight seconds. Count it out.
• Use a tripod when you shoot video. Only professionals can go without and they plan that effect.
• Script-preparation. Don’t go out unarmed. Have a script that identifies precisely the audio and video you’ll need for your story. You should be able cross-off items as you go along.
• Confirming sources. If a source is truly willing to be a part of your story, don’t be afraid to be explicitly clear and upfront about what you’re looking for in your story. If you are afraid your source isn’t strong, then they aren’t. Don’t rely on PR handlers/agents etc.
• Pre-reporting. The best stories come from having thoroughly canvassed your beat. You should know the environment, people and general happenings related to your story before you begin shooting it.
• B-roll is not throwaway video that’s helpful when making L cuts. It’s supposed to support your story and your nut.
• Revealing the “Scene” (see LIRQS above) shouldn’t disappear from your multimedia story-telling.
• Another difference between amateur video and professional story-telling is capturing the “action” and the “reaction.” For example, you have crisp B-roll of a boxer punching, and his trainer saying something like, “Keep em’ up. Keep em’ up.”

Learned and/or improved on:

1. Final Cut Pro
2. FTP Management
3. Dreamweaver
4. Photoshop
5. Flash 3.0
6. WordPress
7. Podcasting
8. Blogging
9. Twitter
10. Computer Assisted Reporting

Business and finance reporting

• Ask dumb questions.
• Whenever banks go chasing companies to loan money, be afraid.
• Be sensitive to ethics.
• Interview CEOs out of their office – out of their comfort zone.
• Don’t do topics, focus on stories.
• Ask yourself why you should be a journalist when you could be a short-seller.

Random

• You think you’re there to learn about journalism, and you probably will, but it will be the relationships and friendship you form with your classmates that will prove to be the most influential and educational.
• Watch your back. Without word, my master’s project adviser published an article in the New York Times about our story two days before our project went live. Very upsetting. Very suspect. Sadly, this industry requires you have lots of good ideas privately and very quickly. No one will give you a story and worse, some peers may steal them.
• Take classes outside of the J-School.
• Make sure you make at least one solid professional contact. Whether she likes it or not, I am determined to work for Cyndi Stivers at some point in my career.
• Know how to clearly articulate what is news and opinion.
• Read the WSJ, not just the Times.
• Lament that there is no good coffee shop nearby school.
• Ride your bike more often.
• Use the university gym.
• Enjoy New York.

He started with an example of crime statistics in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Crime rate in the neighborhood had doubled and many residents and rookie journalists were quick to assign blame to the rash of new bar openings nearby. But a crosscheck of the location of the bars against the reported crimes revealed a weak link. Most of the bars were due south of the reported crimes. A journalist who actually went to the location discovered that the areas where most crimes were occuring were actually inside or near contruction lots. “This is not Wikipedia reporting. We hit the streets,” said Duy. Point taken, but it seems to me that we could have also reviewed the type of crimes reported in the police precinct report as well. Right?

We spent the rest of the class going over the ridiculously easy and simple My Maps feature on Google Maps. This is where I 100% agree with anti-new media advocates, it’s the how you use the tech here than the tech that matters. I hope not to waste any more time on Google Maps. Sadly, we won’t be going over how to make a map mashup this year.

After reviewing our profile pitches, Jennifer Preston, of the New York Times, followed with advice true to that of my own and my esteemed colleagues back in Beijing and Shanghai heart:

Editors need to work with their freelancers upfront. The better you understand the story together, the less work you’ll end up having to do later.