Basics

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.

Photo of woman reading newspaper by Photo by Abhijith S Nair on Unsplash

Assessing news value

Boris Johnson interviewed by Anna Tsekouras 2014 - image by David Poultney released under Creative Commons

The power of quotes in journalism

Image by Alexandre Dulaunoy released via Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0

Shoe-leather reporting

Interview training for radio journalism students in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, image by David Brewer of Media Helping Media

Introduction to interviewing

The interview is one of the basic tools of journalism. You cannot be a good journalist without being a good interviewer and a careful listener.

Image by Vladimir Khmelnytskyi released via Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Developing important news angles

Seeking out new angles on a breaking, developing or running news story is an important part of the editorial process.

Graphic for email interviewing created with Gemini AI

Interviewing remotely

Here we explore the key issues journalists face when interviewing sources via electronic media instead of face-to-face and in real time.

Journalism training in Africa. Image by David Brewer shared via Creative Commons

What is takes to be a journalist

Journalists should be accurate, first with news, trusted, easy to understand, straight, aware, disciplined and realistic.

Graphic for a Media Helping Media Training Tool

Tool: MHM Story Builder

The Media Helping Media’s Story Builder is a simple tool created to help those who are new to journalism write informative news articles.

Grammar for journalists

Journalists need to observe important grammatical rules when writing news stories and avoid common mistakes that could confuse the audience.

Radio production training Jaffna - image by Media Helping Media

Constructing a news package for radio

This is a short training module setting out the basics for creating a news package for radio. It's been created for those starting out in radio journalism.