Chapter 10 Week 10

1. In the situation where I must choose between loyalty to my editor or loyalty to a source, I think I would choose to be loyal to my editor, especially in this case where my job could be on the line. Withholding information from an editor can lead to big problems for a journalist, as discussed on page 223 of the text book.

Even if the story I produce within the time limit wasn't as good as it could be, my paper would still be the first with the story, which I think is more important in a world where people are wanting their information faster.

2. I would tell the editor the information I already had about the phone calls and the potential result if the story is published. As mentioned above from the textbook, it isn't a good idea to keep information about stories from your editor.

3. Sub-editors simply review and edit other journalist's work (text book p226). In this situation I wouldn't rely soley on the 'drunken' source's words, but call an authoritative person to make sure the story wasn't going against any wishes of the judge.

4. If I was in an argument wih my editor and a police reporter about the angle of a story I would try to organise a meeting where we could all discuss the issue at hand.

The police reporter would probably know more about the story than the editor so it would make more sense to take the angle suggeseted by the police reporter, however the editor is my boss, so i would probably end up following my editor's wishes.


Points of Interest:

- Like every other career, newspapers have an order of importance of positions in the news room. The news hierarchy: editor in chief, editor, deputy editor, news editor, chief of staff, journalists.

- A media release should be seen as a story idea only, which will be treated like any other assignment, rather than as a ready-made news story. Media releases are more advertising events more than reporting on them, which is what newspapers and journalism is for.