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 Tessa Kavanagh from Pixabay

Translation in journalism

If you are a journalist working in a multilingual society, you may have to work in more than one language.
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.
Pitching a news story infographic created by MHM using Gemini AI

Pitching a news story to an editor

Every great piece of journalism starts with a pitch — and how you pitch can make the difference between being published or being rejected.
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.
Image by Brandon Anderson released via Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Crime reporting for beginners

Crime journalists must balance the public’s right to know with ethics, ensuring accuracy and sensitivity while avoiding sensationalism or prejudice.
Image courtesy of Freedom House and released under Creative Commons CC BY 2.0

Reporting from conflict zones

When reporting from a conflict zone a journalist needs to be sensitive, understand history and cultural issues, and put people first

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.
Word Power graphic by Media Helping Media released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0

The power of words

Journalists need to understand the power of using the right words when writing news stories
Gazeta Lubuska Newsroom image by PawelJanczaruk released via Wikimedia Commons

Journalism’s roles and responsibilities

Journalism demands a diverse skill set across various roles. Explore the different tasks and career paths available to modern journalists in our guide.
Photo of woman reading newspaper by Photo by Abhijith S Nair on Unsplash

How journalists assess news value

Learn what makes a story newsworthy. This guide explains the five criteria journalists use to assess news value, with clear examples.
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.
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Language and style

Learn how to write clear, impactful sentences for better understanding and discover why choosing the right language is essential for your readers.
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