TINA DAHELEY:I'm Tina Daheley, a journalist for 大象传媒 news. It doesn't matter whether I'm writing a news report for the website, TV or radio.
TINA DAHELEY:The most important part of my job is gathering all the information I need for my story. This is called research.
TINA DAHELEY:'I'm preparing a news report about President Trump. 'He continues to dominate the news 'and proposed a ban stopping people from some countries 'getting into America.
TINA DAHELEY:'When gathering information, the internet is a good place to start. 'You might look for other news reports, official documents 'or speak to people who have been affected by the story. 'These are all examples of news sources.'
TINA DAHELEY:大象传媒's Outside Source is a news programme that gathers information from lots of different places around the world.
DONALD TRUMP:I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. We don't want them here.
TINA DAHELEY:This video clip is a really useful piece of information for my news report.
TINA DAHELEY:President Trump is declaring the ban on people entering America as new vetting measures.
TINA DAHELEY:He says that the ban is a good thing because it will keep terrorists out of America but when gathering information it's good to get lots of different opinions to include in your news report.
TINA DAHELEY:This is a document put together by some of Trump's colleagues they don't agree with his ban at all.
TINA DAHELEY:This is really useful because President Trump's colleagues have a contrasting opinion to the president.
TINA DAHELEY:Contrasting opinions are opinions that oppose, they are opposite each other.
TINA DAHELEY:'News reporters should always try to source contrasting opinions. 'They represent both sides of an argument.'
TINA DAHELEY:This section best sums up the document. "A vanishingly small number of terror attacks鈥 have been committed by foreign nationals who recently entered the US鈥"
TINA DAHELEY:'This is saying that only a small number of terrorist attacks have been committed by people coming into America.
TINA DAHELEY:'So, the document claims, President Trump's ban is not justified.'
TINA DAHELEY:This section of the report has quotation marks at the beginning and at the end. These indicate that the words are quoted from a specific source.
TINA DAHELEY:'There are also three little dots, like full stops, 'in the middle of the quote here, and at the end here.
TINA DAHELEY:'They are called Ellipses. 'Ellipses are used to make quotations shorter and clearer but words should only be removed if doing so 'doesn't change the meaning of the quote.'
TINA DAHELEY:I mentioned before that people can be hugely important news sources.
TINA DAHELEY:Talking to someone who knows more about the story or who is personally affected by the story is a really good way to find out what's going on.
ELHAM KHATAMI:A wife was travelling back to Iran to visit her sick father leaving behind her husband and two-month-old son and now she is stuck in Iran and cannot get back to see her family.
TINA DAHELEY:Interviews are a big part of a reporter's job but it's important to do lots of research before carrying out an interview.
TINA DAHELEY:That way you can ask all the right questions and get the information needed for the report.
TINA DAHELEY:'It's also important how you ask the questions 'because this can affect what sort of answer you get from the interviewee.'
TINA DAHELEY:Being friendly and making them comfortable makes the interviewee more likely to open up and talk freely and make sure you ask open ended and not closed questions.
TINA DAHELEY:'These questions will only get short, often one word, 'yes or no answers from your interviewee.'
TINA DAHELEY:They aren't really very useful for a news report because they don't provide much information beyond establishing basic facts but by rephrasing the questions, writing them in different ways you can get much more interesting answers from your interviewees.
TINA DAHELEY:These questions might look similar but the way they are phrased means the interviewee is going to give you longer answers.
TINA DAHELEY:Answers that contain more information. 'Asking your interviewee what they like about something 'or using words such as "describe" or "why" 'will generally lead to more interesting answers.'
TINA DAHELEY:Social media is becoming more and more important as a source of news. Donald Trump uses it more than any other president.
TINA DAHELEY:It's a great way for people to express their opinions on news stories and get reactions from people involved in news stories but reporters should be very careful when using social media messages as a source of news.
TINA DAHELEY:Posts on Facebook or Twitter only offer opinions, not fact. A fact, is a truth, it's beyond dispute whereas an opinion is just one person's view.
TINA DAHELEY:'Anyone can post on social media 'so it's important to make sure your news sources are credible. 'Are they trustworthy? 'Is the person who has provided the information reliable?'
TINA DAHELEY:A good way to check the credibility of news sources is to verify it, to see if you can find the same information from a different news source.
TINA DAHELEY:Gathering information is important but can also be lots of fun. Reporters use their initiative to find out information no one knows about, to be the first to write a big story that could rock the world.
TINA DAHELEY:'They do this by checking lots of different news sources. 'The internet, documents and people.
TINA DAHELEY:'Reporters carry out interviews 'and get opinions from both sides of an argument.
TINA DAHELEY:'Most importantly, news reporters 'verify their sources 'and they should never 'mislead their audience 'or misrepresent a news source.'
TINA DAHELEY:Bye for now.
Tina Daheley demonstrates ways to conduct research and introduces the key concept of news sources.
The 2017 'Trump immigration ban' is used as a focus for this film, and the importance of using a range of sources is explained.
She explores the need to find contrasting opinions to present a balanced news report and looks at how quotation marks and ellipses can be used.
The process of interviewing is also presented, with an emphasis on preparing good questions to get the most out of an interviewee.
Using open and closed questions can affect responses, and students are shown how to rephrase questions to make them more useful.
Finally, the value and credibility of social media messages is looked at with an emphasis on fact checking.
This clip is from the series Making the News.
Teacher Notes
Working in pairs, students could use the clip as the basis for writing a 鈥楬ow to鈥 leaflet about researching a news report.
You could also provide students with a range of sources on a current news topic 鈥 include websites, news articles, videos of people speaking on the topic.
They should sort these into facts and opinions.
Use a hotseating technique to practise interviewing and questioning skills.
Either use teacher-in-role as an expert, or use students to play the parts of people with opinions on the topic being reported on.
Curriculum Notes
This series is relevant for teaching English and Media Studies at Key Stage 3 in England, Northern Ireland and Wales and at Level 3 in Scotland.