In association with Fojo Media Institute, Linnaeus University, Sweden
Search

Basic journalism

Our basics section provides foundational knowledge for journalists starting their careers and for those wanting to refresh their skills. Learn techniques including news writing, interviewing, story structure, and reporting practices that form the bedrock of quality journalism. 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 by David Brewer released via Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0

Clarity is as important as accuracy

Journalists must write clearly as well as accurately using accessible language that the audience can understand.
Graphic for a Media Helping Media Training Tool

Tool: News story checklist

The follow is a structured checklist tool for journalists to consider in order to ensure they produce strong news stories.
Image courtesy of Gerlos and released under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.0

Spotting a news story

How does a journalist know when they are on the right track? What are the telltale signs that distinguish fact from fiction? 
Image by PDPics from Pixabay

Grammar for journalists

Journalists need to observe important grammatical rules when writing news stories and avoid common mistakes that could confuse the audience.
Image of a newsroom - created using Perplexity AI by David Brewer of MHM

Editorialising is not for news

The free training materials on Media Helping Media are all aimed at encouraging one particular kind of journalism: accurate, fact-based, impartial news reporting.
The inverted pyramid in journalism

The inverted pyramid

The inverted pyramid model puts key news first, followed by supporting details, with the least important background information at the base of the article.
Image of a journalist researching created using Imagen 3 - created by David Brewer of MHM

Lateral reading

When it comes to fact-checking and adding context to news articles, journalists need to apply ‘lateral reading’ in order to broaden their knowledge.
Image to illustrate covering and event - created using Imagen 3 by David Brewer of MHM

Covering a news event

Check our news event coverage guide with tips on preparation, on-site reporting, ethical interviews, and capturing compelling photos and video.
Image by David Brewer released under Creative Commons

Writing a radio news script

Radio journalists must write clear scripts that weave together compelling audio clips, ensuring listeners understand a news story's significance.
Man writing on notepad. Image by NegativeSpace released via Creative Commons

Adjectives and adverbs in journalism

When it comes to writing - not just news writing but any kind of writing - adjectives and adverbs have a bad reputation.
The reference books used to create this page - image by David Brewer of MHM

Words that are frequently misused

It's essential for journalists to maintain precision in their use of language, especially when dealing with words that sound or look similar but which carry different meanings.

Developing news sense

How do we know what is news? There are millions of things going on in the world all the time and only some of them become news stories.
Load more

Hosted by the Fojo Media Institute

Fojo logoMedia Helping Media is hosted by the Fojo Media Institute at Linnaeus University.

Follow Media Helping Media on Facebook

MHM on FacebookCheck our Facebook page for regular updates from Media Helping Media.

Content released under Creative Commons

Creative Commons logoThe content on Media Helping Media (MHM) is released via Creative Commons BY NC SA 4.0.

© Content on Media Helping Media is released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 unless otherwise stated.