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General Assignment Reporter

I n November 2015, STAT was launched as a new national media brand focused on health, medicine, and life sciences. Since then, we have grown to be the authoritative and trustworthy news media source in the industry and our all-star team of editors and reporters have won numerous journalism awards, including being named as a 2021 Pulitzer finalist. The STAT brand includes a website, mobile app, numerous newsletters, live and virtual events, and other products. STAT is affiliated with Boston Globe Media Partners but is independent from The Boston Globe.

Job Description STAT, the leading health and science site, is looking for a general assignment reporter who can do it all: jump on breaking news, whip up smart enterprise stories, force institutions to answer tough questions, and deliver compelling profiles. Part of the job will by its nature include coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic, but we’re also looking for a utility player — a candidate who can range widely across topics related to health and science. That might mean reporting on Covid one week and heart disease the next. This reporter will excel at writing about research, and be capable of translating complicated science into crystal-clear prose. Lastly, this reporter should come with ideas, while also being eager to take on assignments.

Responsibilities

• Tell smart, compelling stories about health and science, with special attention to groundbreaking technologies and the people behind them.
• Be a key player on a top-notch team producing deep and vital reporting of the life sciences industry.
• Stand ready, along with others on staff, to sub in on our newsletters from time to time.

Qualifications

• A versatile reporter with at least five years experience covering health and science issues.
• A self-starter when it comes to stories, but also collaborative in nature. STAT thrives on a tight-knit, all-hands-on-deck culture and a strong team dynamic.
• Committed to excellence in your reporting.
• A willingness to adapt and be audience focused, with a curious mindset and a commitment to creating an inclusive work environment

Compensation/Location

The minimum salary for this position is $70,000. We offer a competitive benefits package, including health insurance, a 401k plan, generous vacation, and more. We also provide Care.com back-up care and have numerous wellness offerings, including free access to HeadSpace for all full time employees.

While we’d prefer you to be based in Boston, we also are considering remote candidates who would be willing to spend time at HQ once Covid recedes.

STAT is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace . We strive to create a culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates all voices. A staff that reflects the world around us makes for better — and more accurate — journalism.

Vaccination Statement

BGMP will require that all employees, including temporary employees, co-ops, and interns, regardless of work location, provide the company Human Resources team with proof of vaccination status through the secure system that will be provided for these purposes. For those who are not vaccinated for company-approved and verified medical and/or religious reasons, that same system will also allow you to upload required weekly COVID test results. Failure to comply with or enforce any part of this policy, or misrepresentation of compliance with this policy, may result in discipline, up to and including termination of employment.

EEO Statement

Boston Globe Media is an equal employment opportunity employer, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, age, disability, national origin, citizenship or any other protected characteristic. Boston Globe Media is committed to diversity in its most inclusive sense.

How to Apply

Please send your resume, cover letter, and links to up to five clips that showcase your reporting attached to your resume or following your cover letter here .

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8.1: Types of Journalism

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Introduction

Although "journalism" is a singular term, which may imply a homogeneous entity, it is helpful to think of it as an umbrella term for a number of distinct forms, practices, and genres. Put another way, journalism has many looks, can be produced in many ways, and can be about many things.

There are many ways to categorize different types of journalism. One helpful schema involves three dimensions: media vehicle , beat , and method . A single story is likely to be shaped by its categorization within each dimension. For example, you may have a television (media vehicle) segment about politics (beat) reported through a breaking news approach (method). That story would be tailored to meet the expectations (and advantages) of each of those dimensions, from its storytelling structure to the depth of the report.

Media Vehicle

There are a number of different media vehicles that can be used for conveying journalism. These include text-oriented (e.g., newspapers or online articles), audio-oriented (e.g., radio or podcasts), and visual-oriented (e.g., television or photography).

The media vehicle matters because it offers certain technical affordances (possibilities and limitations). For example, photojournalism relies primarily on still photographs to convey the essence of a development or issue. A photojournalist may need to capture multiple facets of a complex issue through a single, representative photograph — perhaps a melting glacier with a skeletal polar bear in the foreground. Put another way, the photojournalist may need to aim to convey a thousand words with just one shot. (They also write accompanying photo captions, but those rarely exceed a couple of sentences.) Alternatively, the photojournalist may be tasked with producing a photo essay, wherein they piece together multiple photographs that capture different dimensions of an issue in a manner that conveys a narrative. Photojournalism shoots can involve candid, heat-of-the-moment reporting (e.g., documenting a battle in a conflict zone) as well as documenting daily life for a particular group of people (e.g., homeless veterans).

Similarly, news produced for a television newscast is likely to differ in important ways from news produced for an online news article. For example, a story about local opioid addiction rates may need to be condensed into a three-minute TV segment. That might involve just 200 words of voice-over narration on the journalist’s part. In contrast, an average article on the BBC’s website is roughly 750 words in length. (If they’re writing for The New York Times , that’s closer to 1,000 words.) The shorter length for the newscast requires the journalist to hone in on a narrower aspect of the issue, or perhaps offer a more superficial account of its many aspects. Moreover, the style of writing differs: Writing for the ear is distinctly different from writing for the eyes.

Reporting jobs are often oriented around either beat reporting or general assignment reporting .

Beats are niche categories of journalistic coverage in which individual journalists may specialize. A beat can be a topic, a person, or an institution, though they are most commonly niche topics. For example, a political journalist might cover the politics beat, the election beat, or the Kamala Harris beat — or all three. Beat reporters immerse themselves in their beats and gain specialized insights and knowledge of the key stakeholders, actors, trends, and influences within those beats over time. As they do so, they become experts in those beats, and that expertise appears in the stories they identify and cover. Moreover, by virtue of repeatedly covering the same topics or people, beat reporters tend to develop deep and specialized sourcing networks, often resulting in elevated access to some sources and exclusive information.

Beats are not just genres. They may require distinct approaches to newsgathering and involve different audience expectations for storytelling structures. Consider the film beat: It may involve a mixture of reported and objective pieces (e.g., news about the latest film Ryan Gosling has signed on to), short lifestyle features (e.g., a non-combative and abridged interview with Gosling about his morning workout routine), and subjective opinion pieces (e.g., a review of Gosling’s latest movie). By contrast, the courts beat is more likely to have inverted pyramid-style stories detailing incidents and events derived from reviews of court documents, or reports about arguments in an on-going case. (Audiences are unlikely to expect short interviews with judges about their morning case review routine.)

Common beats include business, courts and crime, education, film, food, health, international affairs, music, politics, science, sports, style, and technology. Some outlets (especially niche publications) have even more specialized beats, like Big Tech, Medicare, or Green Energy. Many journalistic outlets organize their staffs and their editorial content based on distinctions between specialized beats, meaning that they will have a reporter (or group of reporters) who occupy a particular physical space in the newsroom and publish primarily on a dedicated portion of the news product (e.g., a "Science" section) based on their beat. While many journalists focus on a single beat, some journalists may be tasked with covering multiple beats — especially during times of newsroom cutbacks.

Not all journalists are assigned to a beat, though. Some journalists' expertise lies in their ability to quickly learn new topics and make sense of them for non-specialized audiences. These journalists are often called general assignment reporters because they may be tasked with covering an entertainment story one day and a court story the next. The need to cover such a wide array of topics often comes at a cost, though: General assignment reporters are typically more likely to get facts wrong (especially with an unfamiliar topic), may struggle to offer deep coverage, and their sourcing network for a topic may be sparse or superficial. Nevertheless, many journalistic outlets will complement their beat reporters with at least one general assignment reporter in order to have a frequent and predictable stream of news stories and to help round off the outlet’s news coverage as needed.

Journalism may also be distinguished based on the approach to reporting that is used. Examples of common approaches are breaking news reporting , straight news reporting , feature reporting , enterprise reporting , investigative reporting , and advocacy reporting .

Breaking news reporting involves covering a development with a particular emphasis on timeliness. Breaking news stories depict current events, recent developments, and information that is generally just coming to light. For example, this might include a shooting outside a bar. Breaking news stories are often updated regularly as news develops and as journalists uncover new information about the sometimes ongoing event. Put another way, breaking news reporting doesn’t aim to deeply report multiple aspects of a development and package it as a single, stand-alone news product. Instead, it concedes its incompleteness and focuses on unearthing and describing the most recent developments.

Straight news reporting aims to synthesize recent developments and contextualize them into a stand-alone news product. It is similar to breaking news reporting in that it emphasizes the timely presentation of information in a clear, quick, and straight-to-the-point manner — often by using a story structure like the inverted pyramid. However, compared to breaking news reporting, there is more of an emphasis on sense-making and contextualizing information, with the expectation that a story will be more complete and not require constant updating (even if the event is still developing).

Feature reporting allows journalists to take a more creative approach to the information they present. While the newsgathering methods may be similar to those of traditional reporting, the newswriting approach is quite different. First, they are typically written with a more open-ended and less-strict story structure. Feature stories often apply creative storytelling techniques, such as playful or poetic language, narrative structures, detailed anecdotes, and multi-part vignettes. Second, because of their more open-ended writing styles and less strict relationship to timeliness, feature stories are often long-form and evergreen . Evergreen stories are not tied to a specific time peg, or timely event. They are designed to maintain their relevance to audiences for a longer period of time.

Enterprise reporting relies heavily on original reporting driven by a journalist. It is called enterprise reporting because it requires an enterprising journalist who is able to develop their own story ideas, sources, and means of gaining access to information. (The opposite of enterprise reporting would be reporting that relies primarily on press releases, press conferences, or news that is given in some way to a journalist rather than uncovered by that journalist.) Enterprise reporting often involves creative and advanced reporting methods, such as public records requests, data collection and analysis, and access to historical documents. The result is often, though not always, a longer-form and in-depth news product.

Investigative reporting is a particularly rigorous form of reporting and one of the most powerful types of journalism for advancing the public’s knowledge. Investigative reporters dedicate themselves to the sleuth-like pursuit, through a wide variety of investigative techniques, of information about a niche topic that is often difficult to access. The subjects of investigative reporting are frequently topics of deep conflict and vast public importance, such as political or corporate corruption, violence, crime, financial malfeasance, or other cases of wrongdoing and injustice. Investigative journalists dedicate weeks, months, and even years to the dogged pursuit of a specific person, entity, or topic in order to bring their subject to public light. This type of journalism is strongly associated with watchdog journalism because of the role it plays in holding powerful actors accountable. In this case, investigative journalists are the metaphorical watchdogs who seek to make the actions of the powerful transparent to their audiences. (However, watchdog journalism is a broader form of journalism that also includes traditional, day-to-day reporting on the mundane matters of governance, such as attending School Board meetings.) Investigative stories often take the shape of long-form stories (or a series of shorter stories) because of the amount of reporting and information they comprise.

Advocacy reporting is a form of reporting that distinguishes itself by formulating a clear opinion, or substantiating an existing one, with timely, factual information. This approach outwardly rejects the norm of neutrality, and instead aims to promote a cause or intervention. For example, advocacy reporting may focus on illustrating the plight of young undocumented immigrants by including anecdotes about the challenges they face, statistics about the prevalence of the issue, and offering the journalist’s evaluation of a key policy presently being considered by lawmakers. Such reporting is typically labeled as a "news analysis" or presented as an author’s column in an Opinion section. However, it may also be the approach to reporting that defines the identity of a journalistic outlet (and is therefore not segregated from the other reporting done by that outlet). Not all opinion pieces warrant the label of advocacy reporting, though. Many are better categorized as "opinion writing" if they do not follow at least some of the staple practices of journalism, like verifying information.

Hard vs. Soft News

Another way of categorizing journalism is through the distinction of "hard" and "soft" news.

Hard news journalism refers to breaking news and reports about serious or hard-hitting topics that are both timely and of civic interest. They are usually based on factual information and rigorous research. Political journalism, business journalism, and watchdog journalism are all typically recognized forms of hard news.

Soft news journalism refers to reports about predominantly lifestyle and entertainment affairs, or other topics of human interest. While such journalism may involve rigorous research, it is also more open to interpretive and literary accounts. Sports journalism, entertainment journalism, and celebrity coverage are all typically recognized forms of soft news.

Although this categorization schema is quite popular — it is not uncommon to hear those terms in the newsroom — it is also arguably over-simplistic and does a disservice to certain genres. Specifically, hard news is often used to connote a superior form of journalism, and is often talked about within the industry as being more important (and pure) than soft news. However, consider the case of a rigorously reported investigative piece unearthing corruption in a multi-billion dollar sports league, resulting in criminal prosecution of league executives. It would be a disservice to label that as soft news — with its implied inferiority — simply because it is "a sports story." Conversely, a puff piece on a politician designed to help a journalist gain access hardly warrants the label of hard journalism.

Instead, it is more fruitful to view journalism through a more nuanced typology that takes into account dimensions like the media vehicle, beat, and reporting method associated with that piece of journalism. This focuses less on a shortsighted heuristic for determining a story’s import based on its genre and instead allows us to think more about the norms and expectations associated with a journalistic form.

Key Takeaways

• One way to categorize different types of journalism is to focus on three dimensions: media vehicle, beat, and method.
• The media vehicle matters because it offers certain technical opportunities and limitations, and will have some associated norms. Most media vehicles can be sub-categorized under text-oriented, audio-oriented, and visual-oriented, but hybrid forms also exist.
• Reporting jobs are often oriented around either beat reporting or general assignment reporting. Beats refer to niche categories of coverage that journalists may specialize in.
• Journalism may also be distinguished based on the journalist’s approach to reporting. Common approaches include breaking news reporting, feature reporting, and investigative reporting.
• Journalism is also sometimes categorized under labels of "hard" news and "soft" news, with the former encompassing genres like crime and politics, and the latter genres like entertainment and sports. Although popular within the industry, this typology is arguably overly simplistic and problematic.

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How Newspapers Work

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Reporting the News

Curiously, for a publication called a newspaper, no one has ever coined a standard definition of news. But for the most part, news usually falls under one broad classification -- the abnormal. It is human folly, mechanical failures and natural disasters that often "make the news."

Reporters are a newspaper's front-line eyes and ears. Reporters glean information from many sources, some public, such as police records, and others private, such as a government informant. Occasionally, a reporter will go to jail rather than reveal the name of a confidential source for a news story. American newspapers proudly consider themselves the fourth branch of government -- the watchdog branch -- that exposes legislative, executive and judicial misbehavior.

Some reporters are assigned to beats , or an area of coverage, such as the courts, city hall, education, business, medicine and so forth. Others are called general assignment reporters , which means they are on call for a variety of stories such as accidents, civic events and human-interest stories. Depending on a newspaper's needs during the daily news cycle, seasoned reporters easily shift between beat and general-assignment work.

In the movies , reporters have exciting, frenzied and dangerous jobs as they live a famous pronouncement of the newspaper business: "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Although a few members of the media have been killed as a result of investigations into wrongdoing, newspaper work for the great majority of reporters is routine. They are our chroniclers of daily life, sorting, sifting and bringing a sense of order to a disorderly world.

All reporters are ultimately responsible to an editor. Depending on its size, a newspaper may have numerous editors, beginning with an executive editor responsible for the news division. Immediately below the executive editor is the managing editor , the person who oversees the day-to-day work of the news division. Other editors -- sports, photo, state, national, features and obituary, for example -- may also report to the managing editor.

However, the best known and in some ways the most crucial editor is the city or metro editor . This is the editor that most reporters work for directly. The city or metro editor assigns stories, enforces deadlines and is among the first to see reporters' raw copy. Underneath the city or metro editor are other editors who report directly to him or her.These editors are called gatekeepers , because they control much of what will and will not appear in the next day's paper. Often working under the stress of breaking news, their decisions translate directly into the content of the newspaper.

Once an editor has finished editing a reporter's raw copy, the story moves to another part of the news division, the copy desk. Here, copy editors check for spelling and other errors of usage. They may also look for "holes" in the story that would confuse readers or leave their questions unanswered. If necessary, copy editors may check facts in the newspaper's library, which maintains a large collection of both digital and print reference materials, including past newspaper issues.

The copy-desk chief routes finished stories to other editors who fit local and wire service stories, headlines (written by the editor, not the reporter!) and digital photographs onto pages. Most newspapers do this work, called pagination , with personal computers using software available at any office supply store.

Before we see what happens to the electronic pages built by the copy desk, it will be helpful to understand how other divisions of a newspaper contribute to the production cycle.

Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article:

GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTER JOB DESCRIPTION

Find detail information about general assignment reporter job description, duty and skills required for general assignment reporter position.

Who are journalists assignment?

An assignment editor is an editor ? either at a newspaper or a radio or television station ? who selects, develops, and plans reporting assignments, either news events or feature stories, to be covered by reporters. An assignment editor is responsible for making sure the reports they produce are high quality and meet the needs of the publication in question. They also have a great deal of control over what is reported, and can choose to run features that will attract readers or viewers.

What do general assignment reporters do quizlet?

The general assignment reporter, like all reporters, is a people-watcher. They are always on the lookout for the latest development in their chosen topic, and they are always looking for ways to get their stories out there. In most cases, they work freelance or as part of a team.

What type of job is a reporter?

Journalism is the profession of researching, reporting, interviewing and writing for news outlets such as newspapers, magazines, websites and broadcast news. Journalists are media and communication professionals who observe and record newsworthy events and report them to the public. Journalism is a critical branch of reporting that helps reporters provide objective information to the public. Journalism can be used to help reporters tell powerful stories that can change the way people think or feel about important issues. Journalists use their skills to investigate crime, politics and other important topics.

Who assigns stories to general assignment?

A television station assigned a story about a young girl who is raped by her father to cover the news. The reporter who covers the story tells the story of how she was able to get justice for the victim and how she has been able to heal from the attack.

What are the 4 parts of a newspaper layout?

The four basic elements of a newspaper layout are photos, headlines, cutlines, and text. Photos are the pictures that accompany stories. Headlines are the most important part of a headline, and they must be catchy enough to make people want to read more of the story. Cutlines are places where information is cut away from the main story so that readers can see what else is going on in the story. Text is what is used to explain what happened in a story and how it affects people around the world. Strong headlines are a way to show off your writing skills and make sure your stories get read by as many people as possible.

What is a specialty reporter?

Reporting specialist reporters are constantly keeping up-to-date with the latest news in their field so they can provide reporters with the most current information that they can use to inform the public. Their creativity and ability to find stories makes them perfect for any reports or articles you might want to write.

What does a freelance reporter do?

As a freelance journalist, you are responsible for uncovering the news, writing the story, and pitching content suggestions to an editor. Your job is to make your ideas shine through and get your message across to readers. As a freelance journalist, you have access to resources that other reporters do not, so it is important that you use them to your advantage. By using online tools and sources such as social media and Google search, you can quickly piece together information and find new stories that might not have been reported. When pitching your content ideas to an editor, be sure to include a clear explanation of what you are trying to achieve and why readers should care about it.

What does a beat reporter always cover that a general reporter does not?

In recent years, beat reporters have had a growing appreciation for creativity in their reporting. They are able to focus on one area and develop in-depth knowledge about that topic. This way, they can produce journalism that is both powerful and informative.

What does the term beat reporter refer to?

As a news reporter, you walk the beat and talk to people to get their insights on what's going on. You often call, visit, and e-mail sources to gain any new information that may be helpful for your story. You have great experience with the beat so you can gain a wealth of knowledge and sources. This allows you to write creative stories that are informative and interesting for your readers.

What point was the newspaper motto it does not soil the breakfast cloth trying to make quizlet?

The motto of the paper "It does not soil the breakfast cloth" was likely trying to emphasize that the news stories would be more matter-of-fact and less sensational.

What are the three kinds of reporters?

Objective reporting is the type of reporting that tells the story or reports what has been found. Interpretative reporting is the type of reporting that tells the story or reports what has been done to try to understand what happened. Investigativereporting is the type of reporting that tells the story or reports what has been found and/or done to find out what happened.

What is difference between journalist and reporter?

Reporters are people who work in the media and have a lot of responsibilities. They help to report news, and sometimes they also write about it. They often have to be careful about what they say, because it could be used to hurt someone else.

What are the qualifications for reporter?

Do you have a love for the written word andreporting? Are you passionate about making a difference in the world? If so, look no further! You can become a news reporter in India with the right courses, skills and eligibility. To be a good news reporter, you must first complete a Bachelor's degree in Journalism or Mass Communication. You must also pass an English language test to prove your ability to converse in English correctly. After passing these tests, you will be able to start working as a news reporter.

What is the work environment like for a reporter?

On a recent morning, a group of reporters from different media outlets were positioned along the busy streets of downtown Los Angeles. They were waiting for a major story to break, but nothing did. The reporters started to get restless, so they decided to take a walk around the city. They walked up and down the streets, taking in the sights and sounds of the city.

How do you report news to the media?

The most important part of any press release is the angle. By choosing a good angle, you can create a powerful story with the right audience. You can also build relationships with local press contacts to help promote your story.

How many types of news editors are there?

"When I was a child, I always loved going to the library. It was such a fun experience to sit in the reading area and read stories that I never knew existed before. Even now, as an adult, I love going to the library because it's such a great way to learn new words and phrases. A developmental editor is someone who helps you develop your writing skills. They may help you with grammar, word choice, and sentence structure. A substantive editor is someone who looks for errors in your work and helps you fix them. They may also help you with formatting issues and making sure your work is error-free. A copy editor is someone who helps you make sure your work is formatted correctly so that it will look its best on the screen. They may also help with making sure your work is easy to read and that errors are corrected." - source.

What is general news section?

In today's paper, an important story is being reported about a hacker who has taken over a large part of the internet. This hack has caused a lot of disruption and isangering many people's lives.

How do you write a newspaper report?

The school was in a lot of trouble. The Principal had to call in the police and they arrived just in time for the final exam. Unfortunately, one of the students had killed another student and it was all over the news.

What are the 7 parts of newspaper?

On the first page of every newspaper, you will find the title and other important information. This includes the masthead, which lists all of the major news organizations that are published by the paper. You will also find a list of editorial pieces and feature articles. These are some of the most popular stories that newspapers publish each week.

What does an assignment editor do in news?

As an assignment editor, you are responsible for developing, selecting and assigning news stories to reporters and journalists. You work in a newsroom where you monitor the activities and make sure all areas of production are covered. As an editor, your job is to provide the story ideas that will make the paper's readers happy.

What is input desk journalism?

The News Desk is a place where reporters and anchors get all the information they need to cover breaking news stories. They also keep track of other incidents so that they can present them in a balanced way.

What does an assignment manager do?

On assignment desk, the newsroom supervisor oversees all daily news coverage and special events. They also keep track of the newsroom's planning for future events. They are responsible for writing creative English paragraphs that capture the excitement and excitement of the newsroom.

What are types of reporters?

A freelance journalist is responsible for translating spoken words into text during court proceedings. They may work as a reporter, broadcaster, or cart provider.

What are some types of reporters?

Reporting can be defined as the process of gathering information or reporting on events through writing, spoken or video transmission. It can also refer to the act of writing, recording, transmitting or publishing information. Types of reporters include assignment reporters, broadcast captioners and freelance reporters. Assignment reporters are responsible for gathering information from sources within a certain topic area and then reporting this information in a written or televised form. Broadcast captioners are usually used to insert captions into television programs in order to provide an overview of the action taking place on-screen. They may also be used for sound effects during live events. Freelance reporters are those who work without an assigned project and instead report news from their own personal perspective. They may work for both local and national news organizations. Official reporters are those who work for a specific government agency or company and are responsible for gathering all the necessary evidence before releasing any information. Webcasters are individuals who create and stream live webcasts from their personal computer Screencasts can also be defined as reports which originate from one person's point-of-view while they're engaged in some other activity such as studying, working on a project, playing video games or watching a movie

What are the 4 types of journalism?

There are different types of journalism, each serving a different purpose and audience. Investigative journalism is focused on uncovering the truth, usually through reporting on sensitive or confidential information. News Reporting is the type of journalism that typically covers the news as it happens, with no editorial interference. Columnists are writers who focus on one or more specific topics and write pieces that are meant to be read by a large audience. Feature Writing is a type of Journalism that often focuses on creative writing and tells stories that are not typically covered in other genres.

How do I become a reporter with no experience?

In recent years, the number of journalists working in the United States has decreased. This is likely due to a lack of interest in the profession by consumers and businesses alike. However, there are still many opportunities for journalism students to gain experience and learn about news reporting. If you are interested in becoming a journalist, you may want to consider attending an accredited college or university where you can receive a degree in journalism. Additionally, it's important to have strong research abilities so that you can understand complex stories and develop meaningful reports.

What are the 7 types of journalism?

There are many types of journalism one could explore, such as investigative, watchdog, online, broadcast, opinion, and sports. Each has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. It's important to consider which type of journalism best fits your needs before making any decisions.

Can you be a journalist without a degree?

The media is a vital tool for journalists. Not only can they report on the news, but they can also help people understand it. By writing stories and creating reports, reporters can help people learn more about the world around them and what's happening. They can also make sure that people know what's going on, so that they can make better decisions. There are many opportunities for reporters out there. If you're motivated and committed, there's no reason not to try to be a part of the media. There's definitely a lot of competition out there, but if you're determined and willing to work hard, you'll be fine.

How do you get the best reporter in MUN?

As a first-time MUN-goer, it is important to be aware of the different aspects of press delegation. Faculty advisors usually assign delegates with little or no press experience. This can lead to lack of interaction and creativity. Additionally, chairs often do not allow for much interaction with the press corps. This can lead to a feeling that the delegates are just there to answer questions and not to make a difference in the context of the conference.

Why it is important to do beat reporting?

In a recent article, the reporter described how beat reporters help to build in-depth knowledge of their beats and how this can help them give detailed informed and timely reviews, commentary and news reports. This type of reporting is also great for building a good rapport with their sources. By chronicling the events that take place in their beat, reporters are able to develop an understanding of what they are covering, as well as the potential implications it may have for the community they live in.

What are the two main types of beat?

Stressed beats are the 'strong' beats and unstressed are the 'weak' beats. They can be found in a person's heart rate, breathing, and speech. When a person is stressed, their heart rate increases and they may also experience an increased respiration rate and an increased number of breath mints. They may also speak more loudly and faster than normal.

What is a new reporter called?

An anchorman is a person who anchors a news program on TV. They are responsible for reporting the news and ensuring that the audience understands it. Anchormen must be able to keep the material organized and on point, while maintaining a high level of communication with the reporters covering the story.

Is news anchor a journalist?

One of the most well-known Broadcast journalists is David Letterman who anchors the late night talk show on CBS. He is known for his clever and informative jokes that always keep the audience entertained. Letterman also has a long history of activism, having visited many impoverished areas of America in his time as a journalist.

What are the qualities of a beat reporter?

Today, the paper had to report on a story about a young girl who was beaten up by her family. The news made national headlines and the paper was able to get important information from the source. The story is well-reported and gives readers a good understanding of what happened.

What is Penny Press journalism?

In the early 1800s, penny press journalists were the first to report on crisis and crime news. This was something that became a staple in newspapers since. The reports kept people updated on the latest events and gave them a sense of safety.

Which of the following is generally considered the biggest threat to the future of newspapers?

In recent years, penny press newspapers have become more popular than ever. They're favored by human interest stories, general assignment reporters, and even decline readership among younger people. However, there are many reasons why penny press newspapers may be declining in popularity. One reason is that their readership is especially among those who are younger. Another reason is that they're not as popular withDeclining readership, especially among younger people.

How do you introduce yourself to a reporter?

Janet Falk is an experienced public information officer. She has worked in a number of different settings, including the newsroom, as a spokeswoman for a public relations firm, and as a law enforcement officer. Janet has learned a great deal about how to communicate with the media and how to work with clients. She is excited to share her knowledge with you in this case study.

How many types of reporting are there?

Informal reports can be very beneficial in helping to gather information. They can be helpful in understanding what is going on and can also provide a way to communicate with people who may be involved in the situation. Formal reports, on the other hand, are more formal and may require a bit more planning and thought before they are created. They can provide a more accurate portrayal of what is happening and can also be used to present findings to others.

Do reporters write their own stories?

The Rebus Community is a community of reporters who write their own scripts for their packages and "vosots" which stands for "voice over/sound on tape," a live voice-over with a sound bite. If they are focused on only one story, they will conduct interviews, attend press conferences, and collect video for that package. The Rebus Community is an online community of reporters who share their stories and ideas with others in order to create a shared experience that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Is journalism a good career?

With the increasing number of people that are using the internet and other communication channels, the demand for quality journalism has increased as well. Many students are choosing to pursue a career in journalism because it is a challenging field that is playing a key role in the development of the nation. Journalism is a challenging field that requires great writing skills as well as an understanding of complex topics.

Who is a staff reporter?

The staff writer for a magazine or website is an office-based role. They work with a variety of clients, such as businesses, organizations and governments. They are responsible for providing standard content, such as news reports, reviews and features. In comparison with a newspaper journalist or reporter which requires traveling, a staff writer for a magazine or website can be more creative. They can write creative English paragraphs that capture the essence of their clients and the world around them.

How do I get a job as a reporter?

In India, the media is a very important part of the society. It plays an important role in transmitting news and opinions to a large audience. Journalism is the study of writing, producing newspapers, magazines, or television programs that are meant to be read by people all over the world. Many journalists in India start their careers as reporters. They work on stories that are reported by newspapers or television networks. After they have worked their way up through the ranks, many journalists become editors or producers. They work on programs that are meant to be watched by people all over the world. One of the most popular journalism programs in India is journalism school. This program provides students with skills that will help them in their future careers as journalists. Many newspapers and television networks in India require reporters to pass a course called journalism academy. This course covers everything from reporting basics to writing about different topics. Journalism schools in India offer many different courses that can help journalists learn how to write about different topics and produce great stories. After they have completed their studies at one of these schools, many journalists go on to work for various news organizations around the world.

How much a reporter earns in India?

A journalist in India is paid a median annual salary of ? 3.0 lakhs. This salary is likely to increase as the journalist?s skills and abilities develop. The pay scale for journalists in India is typically more lucrative than that of other professional occupations, making it an attractive career choice for those with creativity and a strong writing instinct.

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General Assignment Reporter Salary in the United States

General assignment reporter salary.

How much does a General Assignment Reporter make in the United States? The average General Assignment Reporter salary in the United States is $57,500 as of May 28, 2024, but the range typically falls between $52,000 and $66,500 . Salary ranges can vary widely depending on many important factors, including education , certifications, additional skills, the number of years you have spent in your profession. With more online, real-time compensation data than any other website, Salary.com helps you determine your exact pay target.

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The General Assignment Reporter researches a variety of news stories through interviews, observation, and library and/or online resources. Develops, investigates, and writes a variety of news stories. Being a General Assignment Reporter organizes the facts and writes the story consistent with an agreed-upon style or standard. Determines tone and intended audience of story. In addition, General Assignment Reporter validates news story leads. May require a bachelor's degree. Typically reports to a manager. Being a General Assignment Reporter occasionally directed in several aspects of the work. Gaining exposure to some of the complex tasks within the job function. Working as a General Assignment Reporter typically requires 2-4 years of related experience. (Copyright 2024 Salary.com)

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What Are the Different Types of Reporters?

Reporters work in different areas and mediums; however, many professional reporters are journalists trained in fact-finding, writing and researching. If you have a flair for getting the facts right and working under pressure, you might consider a job as a reporter.

Overview of Jobs in Reporting

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), reporters and correspondents held more than 37,140 jobs, as of May 2018. However, the BLS predicts that the number of jobs in the field will fall, mainly due to decreased newspaper and magazine readership.

Still, there are many other types of mediums where reporters can find work, ranging from TV to radio to the Web. In each of these jobs, reporters gather facts, conduct interviews and write stories. Some reporters cover a wide array of topics while others stick to one subject. As a reporter, you'll be able to direct your career toward the kind of reporting you'd like to do.

Important Facts About Reporters

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Types of Reporters

There are many types of reporting in journalism, and subsequently many different types of reporters. Reporting roles include:

Assignment Reporters (Media Correspondents)

Assignment reporters, sometimes called general assignment reporters or media correspondents, cover the notable incidents in their news coverage areas. Working as an assignment reporter means writing stories about community news events, such as car accidents or celebrity visits, as they are assigned to you by an editor.

Beat Reporters

A beat reporter specializes in one area of interest, from shopping to the environment to education. Sometimes called reporter specialists, these reporters keep up-to-date in their field so they can find stories and inform the public of new developments.

While assignments and beat reports must tell the facts as they are, columnists get to insert their opinions. They may specialize in a particular field in order to make their opinions well-formed.

Sports and Weather Reporters

Most media outlets have specialists in sports and the weather. Many of these reporters are highly trained, such as weather reporters who have degrees in meteorology or sports reporters who have played or studied sports at the college or professional level.

Reporters in Different Types of Media

Media is changing due to the influence of technology. There are now many different types of news reporting, but all media forms still use the same basic journalistic techniques. Each kind of reporter can be found in different media types.

Reporters in print media work for traditional outlets, such as newspapers and magazines, or increasingly common Internet publications. If you work in this medium, you'll use the traditional journalistic methods of completing research, interviewing experts on a topic, then developing a piece for publication, but Internet outlets might demand knowledge of video or photography principles too.

Television and Radio

You may wish to work in television or radio in order to be the face or voice of the news; however, reporters in broadcast media must still do the work of composing stories, often under a deadline. Once you have learned the basics of journalism, then you can begin to learn skills that are particular to the broadcast medium, such as reading from a teleprompter.

Education Requirements for Reporters

Because there are several types of reporters, each career will follow its own educational path. It's not unusual, however, for reporters to have formal education. In order to become a journalist , you might consider entering an undergraduate program with a major in journalism, mass communications, broadcasting, political science or English. Experience is also important. You might try to find a position with the newspaper, radio or television station run by your college or university.

While you can become a reporter after earning a bachelor's degree, if you wish to become a specialist reporter or hold a position in a national market you might consider earning a graduate degree. According to the BLS, job competition is not uncommon in larger markets. The BLS also notes that education can help further job prospects and expand the number of reporting jobs you are qualified to do.

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Journalist’s Trade

June 15, 2003.

Learning To Be a Medical Journalist

‘if you already are a skilled reporter and writer, the transition to medical journalism should be relatively easy.’, thomas linden, tagged with.

T alk to 10 medical journalists and you’ll find 10 different career paths. Common to most medical reporters is a love for writing and a deep interest in medicine and science. But how does someone prepare for a career in this field, a hybrid of science and art?

It’s really the same problem that the late and great physician essayist Lewis Thomas wrote about in 1978 for The New England Journal of Medicine. Only then Thomas was talking about pre-medical students. As he noted in his essay, “How to Fix the Premedical Curriculum,” the problem with many pre-medical students (and, dare I say, many doctors) is that they don’t study enough literature, language and history. Thomas’s proposal was to study classical Greek as “the centerpiece of undergraduate education …. The capacity to read Homer’s language closely enough to sense the terrifying poetry in some of the lines could serve as a shrewd test for the qualities of mind and character needed in a physician.”

Now I’m not proposing that aspiring medical journalists study Homer, although a little poetry can go a long way in a story. The theme here is that the best way to prepare for a career in medical journalism (as Thomas proposed for medicine) is to gain an appreciation for the poetry of language. So if you are a college student and want to be a medical journalist, take courses in the humanities (English, literature, foreign languages, history) as well as basic science courses in biology, chemistry, genetics and physics. The best preparation to be a journalist—any kind of journalist—is to read voraciously and write prolifically. Subscribe to at least one newspaper (in addition to the five you follow on the Web). Read a variety of magazines. If you don’t have a pile of reading material at your bedside, ask yourself if you really want to be a journalist. Oh yes, and read books. Books about medicine and science are good, but don’t limit yourself to that field. Finally, be sure you have an English and a medical dictionary (I prefer Stedman’s) handy at all times. Words are the clay you work with, so choose them carefully.

Beyond words lies knowledge. An understanding of medical science is what separates medical journalists from general assignment reporters. “At its best, journalism mediates between the worlds of expertise and general knowledge,” Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University, wrote in his 2003 Journalism Task Force Statement. “To do that well—to write for the present and to weave in broader meaning—is remarkably difficult. A necessary element is substantive knowledge, the kind of knowledge you cannot just pick up in the course of doing a story.”

What Bollinger is saying—and I agree—is that to really own the medical beat, you need to know the subject matter. You don’t need to be a scientist or a doctor, but you do need to understand how scientists think and be able to translate their jargon and their ideas into simple English.

So let’s jump ahead. You’re already a journalist, maybe a general assignment reporter with an interest in medicine and science. Or a health care provider who feels your creative energies are stifled by the tedium of daily practice. In other words, you’re thinking about becoming a medical journalist.

The first question you might ask is whether to pursue post-graduate medical journalism training. The answer is, “It depends.” If you’re a general assignment reporter with no background in the sciences, then a master’s course of study in medical journalism might make sense. If you’re in the health care field with no prior journalistic experience, then you’ll need to learn how to write for the popular media. The advantage here lies with the journalist. If you already are a skilled reporter and writer, the transition to medical journalism should be relatively easy. Enrolling in a medical journalism program makes sense if you want to use the opportunity to deepen your background in health sciences and increase your knowledge of public health.

If you’re already in the health care field and want to retool, that’s a lot more difficult, especially if you’ve had limited writing or reporting experience. If you’re a doctor or nurse and fantasize about becoming the next Larry Altman or Atul Gawande, then start writing. Take a journalism course at your local community college or university. Submit articles to your local newspaper. Or apprentice yourself to a producer or reporter at your local television station. The bottom line is that if you’re a health care provider with little reporting experience then you must develop your journalistic skills. There’s no substitute for hours spent in the field gathering information, interviewing sources, and writing good copy.

Medical Journalism Programs

RELATED ARTICLE “Medical Journalism Training” For some individuals, matriculating at a graduate-level medical journalism program is the way to go. In our master’s program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, about half of the entering students have worked as a full-time newspaper reporter or freelance magazine writer for at least one or more years after college. A few students have entered without formal journalism education or reporting experience. About half of the students have majored in a science-related field. Interestingly, I have received several inquiries from physicians who want to either switch careers or pursue a combined career in medicine and medical journalism. So far, none has applied.

If you have some writing experience and decide to pursue a post-graduate program, what should you look for? First, make sure the people who will teach you have worked in the field. Second, talk to enrolled students and ask them what they’re learning. If they don’t mention “writing” in the first few sentences, then look elsewhere. As for the course curriculum, make sure you’ll have lots of writing practice with teachers who are willing and available to critique your work. Be sure courses train you to write for a variety of media including print, broadcast (television and radio), and the Web. Inquire whether the program offers courses in public health (including epidemiology) so you’ll know how to interpret and evaluate medical studies and put research findings in context. Check out the syllabi for the medical journalism courses offered. Make sure you’ll read some of the best writers in the field—Oliver Sacks, Lewis Thomas, Randy Shilts, Jon Franklin, and Laurie Garrett, to name just a few.

If you’re broadcast-oriented, make sure your program offers courses in print journalism. If you’re print-oriented, be sure to take a broadcast course. Some of my first-year master’s students in medical television reporting were sure they wanted to be print journalists until they produced their first medical television report. Then, some of them realized the power of the broadcast media to put a “face” on their medical stories. We’re all aware of the limitations of the 90-second television package replete with eight-second sound bites and simple story lines, but don’t underestimate the poetry of good television storytelling. You can have enormous impact. A survey conducted in 1997 by Roper Starch Worldwide, Inc. for the National Health Council and PBS’s “HealthWeek” showed that Americans rate television ahead of health professionals, magazines, journals and newspapers as their principal source for most medical information.

Lastly, ask yourself if you really want to embrace the life of a medical reporter. There will be hours spent analyzing generally poorly written medical journal articles. You will place repeated phone calls to health professionals who often don’t want to talk to you. There will be a lack of appreciation from newspaper editors and television news directors and not enough column inches or broadcast airtime to adequately tell your story. And the pay will be not at all commensurate with your skills or level of education.

If none of the above deters you, if you find science and medicine inherently fascinating, and if you write just for the joy of turning a good phrase, then medical journalism is for you.

Thomas Linden, M.D., is director of the Medical Journalism Program and Glaxo Wellcome Distinguished Professor of Medical Journalism at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Linden was the first health and science correspondent for CNBC, medical reporter for KRON-TV in San Francisco, medical editor of Fox 11 News in Los Angeles, and co-anchor of “Physicians’ Journal Update” on Lifetime Medical Television.

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Beat Reporting: What Does it Take To Be The Best?

What does it take to be a great beat reporter?

Beat reporters in the Knight Ridder Washington bureau faced a difficult challenge when I worked there in the early 1990s. We weren’t on the top rung of the newsgathering ladder.  “People here aren’t going to answer your calls first,” I remember news editor Bob Shaw telling me. “At the end of the day, there may be a stack of messages from reporters. By the time they’ve finished calling The New York Times , The Washington Post , The Wall Street Journal and the networks, it’s time for them to go home. So how do we get the stories, the information, the access we need?” Reporters handled it differently, Shaw said.  Owen Ullman and Ellen Warren , the White House reporters, did it with persistence by demanding that officials treat them with the same respect as more high-profile competitors.  Ricardo Alonzo Zaldivar , Charles Green and David Hess did it in Congress by being everywhere, from committee hearings and bill markups to news conferences, and by talking to as many people as they could.  Mark Thompson at the Pentagon and investigative reporter Frank Greve did it by knowing the turf so well that often their sources wanted to talk with them to find out what they knew. Probably the hardest part of being a beat reporter is staying on top of things and dealing with sources you have to return to every day even if you’ve written a story they don’t like. Unlike other journalists, beat reporters every day face the challenge of encountering sources who may not be pleased with their reporting. That experience, although sometimes painful, helps instill the quality of persistence that defines good reporters.  That’s a lesson George Judson learned early in his career. Judson’s first job in newspapers had been in rewrite, turning other people’s reporting into stories. Years later when he went to work as a reporter at The Hartford Courant in Connecticut, he saw what he had missed. At the Hartford paper, newcomers at the paper were assigned to cover a specific town — everything from police and fire news to zoning commission meetings. “What they were learning (and that I was not learning as a rewrite man) is that they had to go back to the same people day after day and develop relationships that got beyond the superficial, to find out what was going on that wasn’t quite public,” Judson recalled in My First Year as a Journalist , a collection of insightful memoirs by reporters and editors looking back at the lessons of their first year. “They had to learn to be better reporters than I was required to be.” Beat reporting takes courage, discipline and judgment, knowing which story has to be written today and which can be put off. It requires teamwork with an editor and other reporters. Working quickly: getting to sources and obtaining information and then writing on deadline stories that give the news and why it matters. Not getting into a rut. Some reporters take a limited view of their beat. The city hall reporter haunts the corridors of power but rarely visits the neighborhoods where the decisions take effect. The police reporter shoots the bull with the desk sergeant but spends little time talking with victims or suspects. Beat reporters get comfortable with their sources, the jargon and the process, forgetting who they’re working for. Defining your beat is crucial, says Jane Mayer, who covered the White House for The Wall Street Journal and is now a staff writer for the New Yorker . “Beats can be constricting,” Mayer says in “Speaking of Journalism: 12 Writers and Editors Talk About Their Work.” She says, “Some people think that if you cover city hall you should never talk to anyone outside city hall. But I urge anybody whose job is to cover a narrow assignment to interview everyone who touches your beat.” Mayer’s suggestions for broadening your beat include:  “Interview the caterers who come in with the food, interview the photographers who take the pictures. Talk to relatives. Talk to officials who come in contact with the person you’re covering. Those things can lead to wonderful stories, and generally people who are on the periphery are looser with the details than those working directly for the person you’re covering.”  Covering a beat isn’t easy. For me, schmoozing was probably the toughest part. You often feel like an alien, especially during your first days on the job. You have to acknowledge your ignorance and learn the language, learn the process, learn the people. The best reporters know how the world works, whether it’s the world of law enforcement, the laboratory or the corporate boardroom. That takes time, dedication, discipline and courage. Beat reporting demands a wide range of skills, talents, attitudes and work habits. Which ones do you think are most important?

[ What does it take to be a great beat reporter? ]

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Beat Reporting

Beat reporting, as opposed to general assignment reporting, gives journalists the opportunity to focus on one area. Many beats are defined geographically, others focus on important issues like health, education or the environment.

Beat reporters develop in-depth knowledge. They get to know experts related to their beat and create a thorough contact list of people to help them tell compelling and credible stories. Beat reporters should stay up to date on all major developments about their topic.

Being a beat reporter allows journalists to delve much deeper and pushes them to uncover enterprise stories. Beat reporters help bring context to stories and explain how each story affects the audience.

My biggest piece of advice is to document everything . You will forget a person’s name. You will misplace their contact information. You should write down what you did before you leave work every single day. I kept a word doc open all day and would add notes as I worked. Write down every interaction you have  in person, on the phone, via email or social media. Include their name, title, phone number, email address, physical address and photo if possible. Include any links to related stories. This is especially helpful when there’s breaking news on your beat. But it also pays off in the long run because you can search for key words that perhaps never made it to your publication. This will help you with enterprise and in-depth stories.

I also encourage you to keep a digital folder with story ideas. Don’t rely on stacks of messy papers. This old school reporting style is inefficient. Keep everything on your computer so you can easily search. Also, back up everything onto external hard drives in case your computer crashes or gets hacked.

A great reporter always leaves a story with a new one in mind . While you’re conducting your interviews, ask people if they know of any other stories that you should look into. Most people like being useful and will often give you story ideas if you ask them. I also encourage you to ask your followers on Twitter and Facebook for story ideas and people to interview.

Not sure where to start? Bookmark USF experts who you can reach out to with questions about your beat. Congratulations, you just started.

Poynter’s NewsU provides a free resource for journalists called “ Introduction to Reporting: Beat Basics .” Here are the key suggestions for beat reporters:

• Make a contact list of all officials, activists, and experts related to your beat.
• Add calendar alerts to remind you to regularly check in on people related to your beat.
• Follow related people and organizations on social media.
• Bookmark websites you should check regularly.
• Add related meetings to your calendar. Decide which meetings you’ll attend.
• Which public records and databases are the most helpful?
• Who are interesting (non-official) people you can feature?
• What are the most important issues on your beat?

Here are some of the resources Poynter suggest you use regardless of the beat you have:

• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Census Bureau
• DocumentCloud
• Freedom of Information Letter Generator
• Investigative Reporters and Editors’  beat source guide
• Journalism Tools (articles by the Project for Excellence in Journalism)
• Journalist’s Toolbox  from the Society of Professional Journalists
• New York Times’ Navigator
• Open records and meetings laws for every state,  compiled by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
• Reporter’s Desktop
• Switchboard
• White pages

Courts and Criminal Justice Links

• Cornell University Law School database of state court opinions and legal resources
• “Covering Crime and Justice,”  a guide for reporters on police and court beats compiled by Criminal Justice Journalists
• Covering Criminal Justice, a resource guide published by the Center on Crime, Communities and Culture and Columbia Journalism Review
• The Crime Report
• Criminal Justice Journalists’ guide to reporting about guns
• Death Penalty Information Center
• Findlaw,  database of lawyers and legal cases
• Journalist’s Toolbox crime resources
• LexisNexis,  a subscription service that offers legal, news, public records and business information
• Martindale-Hubbell legal directory
• Pacer,  online service to federal courts
• Poynter’s crime and courts coverage bibliography
• USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism

Local Government Links

• Center for Urban Policy Research
• National Association of Counties
• National League of Cities

Neighborhood or Suburban Links

• Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media
• National Neighborhood Coalition
• National Neighborhood Watch Institute
• Texas Center for Community Journalism

Police and Public Safety Links

• Anti-Defamation League  (source on hate crimes)
• Brady Center To Prevent Gun Violence
• Bureau of Justice Statistics
• Center for Sex Offender Management
• Children of the Night  resource on child prostitution
• Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants
• Court Appointed Special Advocates  (CASA), volunteers appointed by judges to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children
• Covering Criminal Justice , a resource guide published by the Center on Crime, Communities and Culture and Columbia Journalism Review
• Criminal Justice Journalists’ guide to reporting about guns *  The Crime Report
• Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma
• FBI crime statistics
• Federal Bureau of Prisons
• Federal inmate locator
• International Association of Arson Investigators
• Justice Department COPS Office
• National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement
• National Center on Institutions and Alternatives
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
• National Criminal Justice Reference
• National Drug Intelligence Center
• National Gang Center
• National White Collar Crime Center
• Office of National Drug Control Policy
• Officer.com,  law enforcement news
• Official Directory of State Patrols and State Police
• Police Executive Research Forum
• Police Foundation
• The Sentencing Project
• Tips for Covering Cops (by Chip Scanlan)
• U.S. Department of Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
• Learn whether your state prison system has an online inmate locator. For example, check out  Nebraska’s.
• Learn whether your state courts have an online database. For example, check out  Iowa’s.

A Closer Look At 3 Beats: Environment, Health, and Education

Environment beat.

Being on a beat like this means foreseeing cause and effect. There are times when you’re stories will just be a reaction to news events. But, your goal should be to uncover new stories.

One example is understanding that things like sea level rise will inevitably hurt coastal property value. When the value of properties drops, the amount of money local governments can collect from property taxes drops too. What does that mean for your audience? Property taxes pay for schools, police, fire departments, and much more. So the quality of those services will also drop unless local governments find ways to make up the loss. Governments often turn to tax hikes to meet the basic needs communities rely on. So, ask yourself again, how does sea level rise affect your community?

If you’re on an environment beat, you may find some inspiration and context in Al Gore’s 2017 film “ An Inconvenient Sequel .” I encourage you to check out the website and pay attention to the multimedia layout. Draw inspiration from the story ideas and visual representation of data. Part of providing value to your audience is informing them on how they can take action if your story inspires them to do so. Here you’ll find a list of ways your audience can make a difference like:

• how to lower your carbon footprint at home
• where to join a town hall meeting
• how to reach your governor about state regulations
• how to push for clean energy in your city
• find your elected officials’ stance on climate action

You should also subscribe to get emails from the National Wildlife Federation .

“An Inconvenient Sequel” is an update to the documentary “ An Inconvenient Truth ” that Gore helped create in 2006. You can find dozens of environmental resources to use in your reporting here:  http://an-inconvenient-truth.com/links-and-resources/  

Health Beat

If you’re on a health beat, you may want to watch the documentary “ Fed Up .” The film was released in 2014. The trailer got more than 11 million views on YouTube by 2017. There’s clearly an interest in this content. The creators of this film did an exceptional job making easy to understand visuals about sugar in foods and what it does to your body. I encourage you to create similar multimedia content to help your audience quickly consume complex information.

The film’s website has a list of sharable statistics like:

• Individuals who drink one to two sugar-sweetened beverages per day have a  26 percent higher risk  of developing type II diabetes.
• 98% of food related ads  that children view (3920/year) are for products high in fat, sugar, sodium.

The site also lists some of their sources:

• Kick the Can
• Lasater G, Piernas C, Popkin BM. Beverage patterns and trends among school-aged children in the US, 1989-2008. Nutr J. 2011;10:103
• Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine: Trends in the nutritional content of television food advertisements seen by children in the United States
• American Academy of Pediatrics
• Obesity Action Coalition
• OnlineNursingPrograms.com Via: Forbes
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Food and beverage marketing to children and adolescents research brief
• Whole Health Source

Looking for story ideas? Here are just a few you can find on the “Fed Up” website.

• What Should You Really Eat? A Healthy Eating Plate
• A Shopping Guide: Good Food on Tight Budget
• Real Food, Not Junk Food
• The 10 Day Detox
• Recipes to Cook Seasonally
• Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children
• Cooking Medium Raw
• Leave out the Sugar and Cook with the Soul, Soul Food Recipes
• Fat Land: How we got overweight
• UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight
• An Organic Manifesto 
• What Should I Cook? Tips from Mario Batali
• Vegan Cooking Recipes 
• Don’t Eat this Book!
• Why Diets Fail 
• Kitchen Tips

Education Beat

Poynter suggests using the following resources on your education beat:

• Education Resource Information Center
• Education Writers Association
• Council of the Great City Schools
• Journalist’s Toolbox education resources
• Journalist’s Toolbox school violence resources
• National Center for Education Statistics
• National Education Association
• U.S. Department of Education
• Great Schools

Higher Education

The CNN film “ Ivory Tower ” looks at student debt and higher education institutions. It reveals how the business of higher education changed in the past few decades.

PBS NewsHour interviewed filmmaker Andrew Rossi about the rising costs and if college is still worth it.

CNN’s website provides several breakout stories related to the film. There are lots of powerful statistics and animations. Much of this information was collected in 2014, so you’ll want to confirm updated numbers if you use any of these. I encourage you to review them here:  http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2014/11/18/ivory-tower-education-debt.cnn/video/playlists/ivory-tower/

Here are some of the videos I found most valuable:

• Is college worth the cost?
• This is how an online college gets made
• Students build their own dorms to lower tuition
• From homeless to Harvard

College Sports

The EPIX original documentary “ Schooled: The Price of College Sports ” interviewed former student athletes and experts about the business and controversy around college sports.

Campus Sexual Assault

The documentary “ It Happened Here ” explores campus sexual assault. The film features five young survivors and shows what they’re doing to change the way schools handle sexual assault.

Here are some resources from the film’s website:

• It’s On Us
• SSAIS – Stop Sexual Assault in Schools
• SAFER – Students Active For Ending Rape
• Generation Progress
• Jules C. Irivn-Rooney J.D.  – President, Title IX and Clery Act Consulting, LLC
• Rebecca Leitman Veidlinger, Esq . –  Sexual misconduct attorney.
• Culture of Respect
• End Rape on Campus
• Know Your IX
• It Happened Here Discussion Guide

Public Schools

A great resource for education reform is TEACHED . The non-profit project is a series of films about racial inequality in America’s education system. I encourage you to raise your awareness by checking out their videos. They may inspire you to think of new story ideas.

Here’s one of the video descriptions from the  TEACHED YouTube channel :

The latest in the TEACHED short film series, “Code Oakland” examines the evolution of Oakland through the eyes of social entrepreneurs determined that youth of color not be left on the sidelines as Silicon Valley expands into the city that is home to the second largest black community in California. Kalimah Priforce, whose first success as a social justice rebel was a hunger strike at the age of eight, and Kimberly Bryant, a successful electrical engineer turned founder of Black Girls Code, are organizing large-scale hackathons to teach youth how to redesign the future through coding. Joined on the national stage by #YesWeCode founder Van Jones, their work represents the cusp of a movement changing both the face and use of technology in America. But is Silicon Valley ready to be hacked?

A National Disgrace

Dan Rather created an investigative documentary about public schools called “A National Disgrace.” Here is the full film and description from The Rathers Reports YouTube channel:

This special two-hour report documents a pivotal year and a half in the Detroit Public Schools, set against a backdrop of history and the plight of one student desperate to succeed despite the odds. “A National Disgrace” is part historical documentary, part investigative report and part personal profile detailing the political strife, corruption, and systemic breakdown during the tumultuous 2009-2010 school year when the state of Michigan imposed new leadership on the school district. The result is a searing portrait of a local tragedy that asks the question, does the situation in Detroit demonstrate how we view public education? Is the real “national disgrace” the fact that something like this could happen at all?

Segregation

Charter Schools

Standardized Testing

Additional Resources

Additional reading.

• Beat Reporting: What Does it Take to Be the Best?  by Chip Scanlan
• Breaking and Entering: How to Dissect an Organization  by Eric Nalder
• Commandments of Beat Coverage  by John Sweeney
• Finding and developing story ideas  by Steve Buttry
• The Heart of the Beat  by Chip Scanlan
• Living on the Beat  by Robin Sloan
• Turn the Beat Around  by Diana Sugg
• Writing About Place: The Boundaries of a Story  by Jeff Klinkenberg

Reporter Organizations

• Arena Football League Writers Association
• Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors
• Association of Food Journalists
• Association of Health Care Journalists
• Criminal Justice Journalists
• Football Writers Association of America
• Investigative Reporters and Editors
• Military Reporters and Editors
• National Association of Science Writers
• National Collegiate Baseball Writers
• North American Agricultural Journalists
• Obituary Writers
• Outdoor Writers Association of America
• Religion Newswriters Association
• Society of American Business Editors and Writers
• Society of American Travel Writers
• Society of Environmental Journalists
• U.S. Basketball Writers Association

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Published by jeanetteabrahamsen.

I am an instructional designer and TV news instructor at the University of South Florida. My passion for innovating learning led me to pursue my PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Instructional Technology. I love creating media to enhance eLearning and foster online engagement. I teach students to create multimedia stories for broadcast, web and social media platforms. I lead the Florida Focus class where students produce daily news shows that air on Tampa's PBS station. My reporting classes collaborated with Tampa's NPR station to produce award-winning stories. I am an Emmy Award-winning journalist. I produced thousands of hours of TV news in some of America's largest media markets at Tampa's NBC station, San Diego's ABC station and the San Diego Union-Tribune. I also produced immersive 360-degree virtual tours at the University of South Florida and reported for Hashtag Our Stories. View more posts

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Types of Journalism

Introduction.

Although “journalism” is a singular term, which may imply a homogeneous entity, it is helpful to think of it as an umbrella term for a number of distinct forms, practices, and genres. Put another way, journalism has many looks, can be produced in many ways, and can be about many things.

There are many ways to categorize different types of journalism. One helpful schema involves three dimensions: media vehicle , beat , and method . A single story is likely to be shaped by its categorization within each dimension. For example, you may have a television (media vehicle) segment about politics (beat) reported through a breaking news approach (method). That story would be tailored to meet the expectations (and advantages) of each of those dimensions, from its storytelling structure to the depth of the report.

Media Vehicle

There are a number of different media vehicles that can be used for conveying journalism. These include text-oriented (e.g., newspapers or online articles), audio-oriented (e.g., radio or podcasts), and visual-oriented (e.g., television or photography).

The media vehicle matters because it offers certain technical affordances (possibilities and limitations). For example, photojournalism relies primarily on still photographs to convey the essence of a development or issue. A photojournalist may need to capture multiple facets of a complex issue through a single, representative photograph — perhaps a melting glacier with a skeletal polar bear in the foreground. Put another way, the photojournalist may need to aim to convey a thousand words with just one shot. (They also write accompanying photo captions, but those rarely exceed a couple of sentences.) Alternatively, the photojournalist may be tasked with producing a photo essay, wherein they piece together multiple photographs that capture different dimensions of an issue in a manner that conveys a narrative. Photojournalism shoots can involve candid, heat-of-the-moment reporting (e.g., documenting a battle in a conflict zone) as well as documenting daily life for a particular group of people (e.g., homeless veterans).

Similarly, news produced for a television newscast is likely to differ in important ways from news produced for an online news article. For example, a story about local opioid addiction rates may need to be condensed into a three-minute TV segment. That might involve just 200 words of voice-over narration on the journalist’s part. In contrast, an average article on the BBC’s website is roughly 750 words in length. (If they’re writing for The New York Times , that’s closer to 1,000 words.) The shorter length for the newscast requires the journalist to hone in on a narrower aspect of the issue, or perhaps offer a more superficial account of its many aspects. Moreover, the style of writing differs: Writing for the ear is distinctly different from writing for the eyes.

Reporting jobs are often oriented around either beat reporting or general assignment reporting .

Beats are niche categories of journalistic coverage in which individual journalists may specialize. A beat can be a topic, a person, or an institution, though they are most commonly niche topics. For example, a political journalist might cover the politics beat, the election beat, or the Kamala Harris beat — or all three. Beat reporters immerse themselves in their beats and gain specialized insights and knowledge of the key stakeholders, actors, trends, and influences within those beats over time. As they do so, they become experts in those beats, and that expertise appears in the stories they identify and cover. Moreover, by virtue of repeatedly covering the same topics or people, beat reporters tend to develop deep and specialized sourcing networks, often resulting in elevated access to some sources and exclusive information.

Beats are not just genres. They may require distinct approaches to newsgathering and involve different audience expectations for storytelling structures. Consider the film beat: It may involve a mixture of reported and objective pieces (e.g., news about the latest film Ryan Gosling has signed on to), short lifestyle features (e.g., a non-combative and abridged interview with Gosling about his morning workout routine), and subjective opinion pieces (e.g., a review of Gosling’s latest movie). By contrast, the courts beat is more likely to have inverted pyramid-style stories detailing incidents and events derived from reviews of court documents, or reports about arguments in an on-going case. (Audiences are unlikely to expect short interviews with judges about their morning case review routine.)

Common beats include business, courts and crime, education, film, food, health, international affairs, music, politics, science, sports, style, and technology. Some outlets (especially niche publications) have even more specialized beats, like Big Tech, Medicare, or Green Energy. Many journalistic outlets organize their staffs and their editorial content based on distinctions between specialized beats, meaning that they will have a reporter (or group of reporters) who occupy a particular physical space in the newsroom and publish primarily on a dedicated portion of the news product (e.g., a “Science” section) based on their beat. While many journalists focus on a single beat, some journalists may be tasked with covering multiple beats — especially during times of newsroom cutbacks.

Not all journalists are assigned to a beat, though. Some journalists’ expertise lies in their ability to quickly learn new topics and make sense of them for non-specialized audiences. These journalists are often called general assignment reporters because they may be tasked with covering an entertainment story one day and a court story the next. The need to cover such a wide array of topics often comes at a cost, though: General assignment reporters are typically more likely to get facts wrong (especially with an unfamiliar topic), may struggle to offer deep coverage, and their sourcing network for a topic may be sparse or superficial. Nevertheless, many journalistic outlets will complement their beat reporters with at least one general assignment reporter in order to have a frequent and predictable stream of news stories and to help round off the outlet’s news coverage as needed.

Journalism may also be distinguished based on the approach to reporting that is used. Examples of common approaches are breaking news reporting , straight news reporting , feature reporting , enterprise reporting , investigative reporting , and advocacy reporting .

Breaking news reporting involves covering a development with a particular emphasis on timeliness. Breaking news stories depict current events, recent developments, and information that is generally just coming to light. For example, this might include a shooting outside a bar. Breaking news stories are often updated regularly as news develops and as journalists uncover new information about the sometimes ongoing event. Put another way, breaking news reporting doesn’t aim to deeply report multiple aspects of a development and package it as a single, stand-alone news product. Instead, it concedes its incompleteness and focuses on unearthing and describing the most recent developments.

Straight news reporting aims to synthesize recent developments and contextualize them into a stand-alone news product. It is similar to breaking news reporting in that it emphasizes the timely presentation of information in a clear, quick, and straight-to-the-point manner — often by using a story structure like the inverted pyramid. However, compared to breaking news reporting, there is more of an emphasis on sense-making and contextualizing information, with the expectation that a story will be more complete and not require constant updating (even if the event is still developing).

Feature reporting allows journalists to take a more creative approach to the information they present. While the newsgathering methods may be similar to those of traditional reporting, the newswriting approach is quite different. First, they are typically written with a more open-ended and less-strict story structure. Feature stories often apply creative storytelling techniques, such as playful or poetic language, narrative structures, detailed anecdotes, and multi-part vignettes. Second, because of their more open-ended writing styles and less strict relationship to timeliness, feature stories are often long-form and evergreen . Evergreen stories are not tied to a specific time peg, or timely event. They are designed to maintain their relevance to audiences for a longer period of time.

Enterprise reporting relies heavily on original reporting driven by a journalist. It is called enterprise reporting because it requires an enterprising journalist who is able to develop their own story ideas, sources, and means of gaining access to information. (The opposite of enterprise reporting would be reporting that relies primarily on press releases, press conferences, or news that is given in some way to a journalist rather than uncovered by that journalist.) Enterprise reporting often involves creative and advanced reporting methods, such as public records requests, data collection and analysis, and access to historical documents. The result is often, though not always, a longer-form and in-depth news product.

Investigative reporting is a particularly rigorous form of reporting and one of the most powerful types of journalism for advancing the public’s knowledge. Investigative reporters dedicate themselves to the sleuth-like pursuit, through a wide variety of investigative techniques, of information about a niche topic that is often difficult to access. The subjects of investigative reporting are frequently topics of deep conflict and vast public importance, such as political or corporate corruption, violence, crime, financial malfeasance, or other cases of wrongdoing and injustice. Investigative journalists dedicate weeks, months, and even years to the dogged pursuit of a specific person, entity, or topic in order to bring their subject to public light. This type of journalism is strongly associated with watchdog journalism because of the role it plays in holding powerful actors accountable. In this case, investigative journalists are the metaphorical watchdogs who seek to make the actions of the powerful transparent to their audiences. (However, watchdog journalism is a broader form of journalism that also includes traditional, day-to-day reporting on the mundane matters of governance, such as attending School Board meetings.) Investigative stories often take the shape of long-form stories (or a series of shorter stories) because of the amount of reporting and information they comprise.

Advocacy reporting is a form of reporting that distinguishes itself by formulating a clear opinion, or substantiating an existing one, with timely, factual information. This approach outwardly rejects the norm of neutrality, and instead aims to promote a cause or intervention. For example, advocacy reporting may focus on illustrating the plight of young undocumented immigrants by including anecdotes about the challenges they face, statistics about the prevalence of the issue, and offering the journalist’s evaluation of a key policy presently being considered by lawmakers. Such reporting is typically labeled as a “news analysis” or presented as an author’s column in an Opinion section. However, it may also be the approach to reporting that defines the identity of a journalistic outlet (and is therefore not segregated from the other reporting done by that outlet). Not all opinion pieces warrant the label of advocacy reporting, though. Many are better categorized as “opinion writing” if they do not follow at least some of the staple practices of journalism, like verifying information.

Hard vs. Soft News

Another way of categorizing journalism is through the distinction of “hard” and “soft” news.

Hard news journalism refers to breaking news and reports about serious or hard-hitting topics that are both timely and of civic interest. They are usually based on factual information and rigorous research. Political journalism, business journalism, and watchdog journalism are all typically recognized forms of hard news.

Soft news journalism refers to reports about predominantly lifestyle and entertainment affairs, or other topics of human interest. While such journalism may involve rigorous research, it is also more open to interpretive and literary accounts. Sports journalism, entertainment journalism, and celebrity coverage are all typically recognized forms of soft news.

Although this categorization schema is quite popular — it is not uncommon to hear those terms in the newsroom — it is also arguably over-simplistic and does a disservice to certain genres. Specifically, hard news is often used to connote a superior form of journalism, and is often talked about within the industry as being more important (and pure) than soft news. However, consider the case of a rigorously reported investigative piece unearthing corruption in a multi-billion dollar sports league, resulting in criminal prosecution of league executives. It would be a disservice to label that as soft news — with its implied inferiority — simply because it is “a sports story.” Conversely, a puff piece on a politician designed to help a journalist gain access hardly warrants the label of hard journalism.

Instead, it is more fruitful to view journalism through a more nuanced typology that takes into account dimensions like the media vehicle, beat, and reporting method associated with that piece of journalism. This focuses less on a shortsighted heuristic for determining a story’s import based on its genre and instead allows us to think more about the norms and expectations associated with a journalistic form.

Key Takeaways

One way to categorize different types of journalism is to focus on three dimensions: media vehicle, beat, and method.

The media vehicle matters because it offers certain technical opportunities and limitations, and will have some associated norms. Most media vehicles can be sub-categorized under text-oriented, audio-oriented, and visual-oriented, but hybrid forms also exist.

Reporting jobs are often oriented around either beat reporting or general assignment reporting. Beats refer to niche categories of coverage that journalists may specialize in.

Journalism may also be distinguished based on the journalist’s approach to reporting. Common approaches include breaking news reporting, feature reporting, and investigative reporting.

Journalism is also sometimes categorized under labels of “hard” news and “soft” news, with the former encompassing genres like crime and politics, and the latter genres like entertainment and sports. Although popular within the industry, this typology is arguably overly simplistic and problematic.

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Suspended Counterparty Program

FHFA established the Suspended Counterparty Program to help address the risk to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks (“the regulated entities”) presented by individuals and entities with a history of fraud or other financial misconduct. Under this program, FHFA may issue orders suspending an individual or entity from doing business with the regulated entities.

FHFA maintains a list at this page of each person that is currently suspended under the Suspended Counterparty Program.

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What do news anchors do.

Wondering what the job is really like for news anchors?

You've come to the right place.

Keep reading to find detailed information about what news anchors do, including the type of work they are tasked with on a daily basis, industries in which they work, and the specific skills needed for a successful career.

News Anchors Overview & Description

Let's get started with the basics about news anchors by taking a look at a simple description and popular job titles.

News Anchors narrate or write news stories, reviews, or commentary for print, broadcast, or other communications media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, or television. May collect and analyze information through interview, investigation, or observation.

Popular Job Titles For News Anchors

Sample of reported job titles.

• Multimedia Journalists
• News Reporters
• Staff Writers
• News Anchors
• Anchors/Reporters
• General Assignment Reporters
• Sports Reporters
• News Anchors/Reporters
• Investigative Reporters
• News Writers

Read on for insight into the industries where the highest concentration of jobs for news anchors can be found.

Best Industries for News Anchors

News anchors jobs by industry.

• Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers: 40.4%
• Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers: 29.2%
• Radio and Television Broadcasting Stations: 23%
• Motion Picture and Video Industries: 1.6%
• Education and Hospitals (State Government): 1%
• Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services: 0.8%

When it comes to jobs in the United States, the largest single category of news anchors can be found working in the Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers sector. In 2022, about 40.4% of all jobs for news anchors were found there.

Other top industries by percentage include Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (29.2%), Radio and Television Broadcasting Stations (23%), Motion Picture and Video Industries (1.6%), Education and Hospitals (State Government) (1%) and Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (0.8%).

Top Online College For Working Adults

Franklin University is a top choice for adults who need to balance school with busy lives. Founded in 1902 in Columbus, Ohio, Franklin's main focus has been serving adult students and tailoring education to fit their needs. Nonprofit and accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (hlcommission.org/800.621.7440), Franklin offers more than 50 affordable bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs — all available 100% online.

Degree Options for News Anchors

Learn to craft clear and effective messages while adding new media communication methods to your professional toolkit.

• Class Type: 100% online
• Cost Per Credit: $398

What Do News Anchors Do on a Daily Basis?

So you have a high-level understanding of what news anchors do and the types of industries in which they work - but what do they really do each day?

A great way to understand the type of work news anchors do is to examine actual job postings and focus on the specific skills that employers are seeking. That will help paint a clearer picture of the tasks that news anchors tackle each day.

Continue reading for a breakdown of specialized skills found in job postings for news anchors, as well as common skills - interpersonal qualities and attributes - that can help you thrive in the workplace.

In-Demand Skills for Today's News Anchors Based on 25,610 job postings

Top 5 specialized skills for news anchors.

Top 5 Common Skills for News Anchors

Based on 25,610 job postings related to news anchors, journalism was the top specialized skill sought by employers, with 53% of all postings looking for that skillset. Skills for news stories, social media, storytelling, content creation and news anchoring were also highly sought.

As for common skills, writing was the most desired skill found in job postings for news anchors, followed by communications, editing, research, ability to meet deadlines and english language.

Most In-Demand Jobs for News Anchors

Top 5 posted job titles.

Expand the section below to see unique job postings for all occupations related to news anchors.

Ready to dig deeper into career information for news anchors? Visit our other pages focused on salary and education for news anchors.

All Occupations

The Best Adult Colleges and Careers Guide has compiled data for dozens of in-demand jobs. Explore our full catalog of occupation data by visiting the link below.

About This Data

The Best Adult Colleges & Careers Guide is sponsored by Franklin University, a nonprofit, accredited institution. The guide uses 2022 information from Lightcast™ to provide data on dozens of in-demand jobs.

Job titles used in government data may differ slightly from the job title on this page, so the closest matching government job classification may be used as a proxy to present data here.

On this page, data corresponds to the following occupational classification: News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists.

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