Thorough Reporting Methods for Citizen Journalists

If you're a citizen journalist who wants to write credible articles and gain an audience, then you need to develop thorough reporting methods. Thorough reporting is rare. Most writers only scratch the surface of a topic by talking about the basics. Many writers take a vast subject and jam main issues into a "Beginner's Guide." If you want to be a reliable social media writer with an upper hand over the competition, you must develop an in-depth writing style.

I'm sure you remember from elementary school when you learned about who, what, when, where, why, and how. Apply that to your article or blog. Asking questions will develop your material enormously. Not only will you have a well-thought journalistic piece, but you will also create ideas for new works. As you ask questions and discover answers, you'll develop new queries and so on. Keep digging for answers. Curiosity is important to any type of journalism. If you're not willing to search out answers, then journalism may not be for you.

"Always write what you know about" was an overused phrase from all of my high school English teachers. They said it so much because it is true. How can a person write what they don't know about? A citizen journalist can write about anything, but a great citizen journalist knows the topic from all angles. Research and delve into a project by finding all sources of information.

If the topic is "How lemurs communicate with each other," then read an encyclopedia about lemurs and contact a person from the Wildlife Foundation. After you find out how they communicate, call the people in charge of deforesting their habitats. Ask those guys if they knew how lemurs communicate. Then ask them how they feel about being the cause for the lemurs' almost extinction. They might hang up on you, but at least you asked. And, you'll never know what those guys think unless you ask. The more information you gather will only make you smarter.

When I worked as a news host and reporter at an NPR station, I loved calling people and performing interviews. There's one thing I learned about people: they love to talk about what they do. If you need to know something, then call someone in that field of expertise. You don't have to own fancy phone recording equipment. Just write out or type up your questions ahead of time and take notes on what they say. When you say, "Hello, I am So and So, a citizen journalist, writing a report on how lemurs communicate. Do you have a moment to answer a few questions?" The only time anyone ever asked me to call back later was when I called government officials. Overall, people love to talk.

Street reporting is another way to get an added bonus to your story. Street reporting is exactly how it sounds: get out on the street and ask people their thoughts. You'll want to have a decent microphone and a recorder for this take on reporting. Nowadays, you can purchase a handheld digital recorder smaller than an iPod for under thirty dollars. Before you go out, write down a list of questions and memorize them. You will also want to look nice. Nobody likes to be approached by freakish-looking dirty people. Comb your hair, put on some nice clothes, and represent yourself as a professional. College campuses are a great place to find people to interview and students are usually eager to talk to a reporter.

This may sound like a lot of work just to write one article. If you want to be the best in your field, then you need an upper hand on the market. And, right now the citizen journalism market is a booming industry. Even big name companies and media producers are partnering with citizen journalists. In order to stand out from the massive crowd of citizen journalists, you're going to need an exhaustive approach to writing and reporting. Creating thorough, well-developed works will keep the readers coming back for more.