Advanced journalism

Our advanced section explores specialised topics for experienced journalists seeking to deepen their expertise. Develop your skills in data journalism, multimedia storytelling, investigative techniques, and complex narrative structures that elevate reporting to the next level. All our material is free to download, adapt and use. Scroll down our site map for all the content in this and other sections.

Image of a news conference courtesy of Mariusz Kaminski

Brand values in news

All news organisations have values. They are the biggest part of the organisation’s brand. Journalists need to uphold these brand values at all times.
Climate change protest image by Michael Gwyther-Jones — Creative Commons 2.0

Climate change – language

Climate change is a complex and high-profile story, demanding careful consideration of tone and language from the journalists covering the issue.
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Causes of climate change

Journalists must avoid providing false equivalence and false balance when covering news stories – particularly climate change.
Image to illustrate AI in the newsroom - created using Imagen 3 by David Brewer of MHM

Using AI in journalism

Media organisations using AI should set clear newsgathering and production guidelines to protect journalistic integrity and maintain audience trust.
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How to deal with press releases

Press releases often reflect someone else’s agenda. Discover how to analyse, verify, and transform them into strong, independent journalism.
Image of a media lawyer - created using Imagen 3 by David Brewer of MHM

The role of the media lawyer

Many news stories involve straightforward reporting on events, but some more complex stories might require legal advice before they are published.
Image by Ed Yourdon released via Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0.

Examining rumour to find facts

The role of a journalist is to publish facts. To do that they often have to examine rumour and gossip as part of the newsgathering process.
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False equivalence and false balance

Journalists can sometimes present an inaccurate or false version of events by trying too hard to 'balance' a story or incorrectly treating elements of a story as being roughly equal.
Journalists in Vietnam applying critical thinking to story treatment - image by David Brewer

Critical thinking for journalists

Critical thinking is the bedrock of quality journalism, serving as the essential foundation to help audiences better understand the world.
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A journalist must not have an agenda

Our role as journalists is to unearth information, prepare it and then display it for the benefit of the audience. We are not there to fabricate, manipulate or force.
Image to illustrate a MHM training exercise. Image created by Google Gemini

Understanding post-truth in journalism

For journalists, post-truth is a direct challenge to our mission to inform the public debate with verified facts. Here is how to handle post-truth content.
Image of a storm in a teacup - created using Imagen 3 by David Brewer of MHM

The use of idioms in journalism

Journalists producing serious news coverage must always write in a way that is clear, accurate, free from jargon.

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