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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 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.
sub-editor and reporter working on a story. Image created with Gemini AI

The roles of reporters and sub-editors

Streamlined newspaper workflows with minimal editing benefit reporters and sub-editors, ultimately enhancing publication quality.
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.
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The qualities of a journalist

Journalism is a demanding profession that requires a unique combination of intellectual curiosity, linguistic skill, and a deep understanding of the world. 
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.
Photo of woman reading newspaper by Photo by Abhijith S Nair on Unsplash

Assessing news value

The job of the journalist is to sort through daily events and package them into stories in order to inform the public.
Graphic of a construction kit and instructions created using Google Gemini AI

Creating a structured news report

Writing news without a plan is like building a kit without instructions. Use a structured story plan to order facts logically and engage your readers.
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Fact-checking and adding context

An essential part of the editorial process is to examine everything we are told to make sure it is factual.
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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.
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Preparing for an interview

A journalist needs to be well-prepared when planning an interview. However, after all your research, try to keep the interview to three questions in order to avoid over-complication and confusion.
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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 journalist researching created using Imagen 3 - created by David Brewer of MHM

SIFT for fact-checking

Journalists who are committed to fact-checking, as we should all be, have several methods available to help them deal with fake news.
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