The importance of reporting basics

By, Sarah keller

I decided to look at videos on youtube to see if I could find anything news worthy, when I came across “Anchor vs Reporter”, after watching this video I laughed a lot, when I was finally done laughing I decided that maybe it could be something that I could blog about.

This video was about a news anchor, who was interviewing a man and woman at an apartment. The anchor cut the questioning off too soon, the camera then shot back to an anchor on the set of the news station, and that anchor told the other one that he should have continued to interview the people at the apartment. The two anchors started arguing on air about how to do each others jobs, the on set anchor told the other one that he did not want to teach him how do his job, while the on the scene anchor told the other one that he used to be his boss.

After listening to the two argue it made me think about the chapter of “reporting basics” from the Harrower text, and if the on the scene anchor would have followed some simple reporting rules, he could have avoided the confrontation all together.

First off he should have remembered to not interrupt; he interrupted the person being interviewed by saying that they were out of time, which leads me to my next tip to “budget your time” (page 77 of Harrower), if he would have budgeted his time he could have avoided the argument altogether. The anchor should have stayed flexible, asked follow- up questions, and should have not forgotten that he was in charge (when the other anchor started scolding him).

If only the anchor had remembered the basic tips that every good reporter should know maybe he would have had a much better and smoother interview, no wonder he is no longer the other reporters boss.