Scenarios
Test your editorial awareness with our news scenarios, which are all based on real situations faced by journalists.
Emotional assumptions – scenario
Try our scenario on how to remain objective when reporting from a live event. It's about how to avoid 'heat of the moment' language and stick to facts.
Right of reply – scenario
Try our right of reply scenario where you are the editor of a morning radio news and current affairs programme and just before the bulletin you receive conflicting information that is too late to fact-check.
Public interest – scenario
This scenario looks at some of the issues that need to be considered when deciding whether a story is in the public interest.
Journalistic integrity – scenario
You are a political broadcast journalist and are invited to speak at public event where the organisers want you to explain the role of the journalist in covering elections. After the event they offer you a gift, and ask whether you would be prepared to do some media training for politicians. What do you do?
Transparency and full disclosure – scenario
Try our editorial scenario in which a radio reporter hears supposedly conflicting information during an organised media trip, and has to decide which material best represents the facts for their news broadcast.
Off-the-record chat – scenario
What should a journalist do with off-the-record information? Should they agree to conditions on its use? Should they ignore any conditions and do the story anyway? Or should they use what they have been told as background information and dig further? Try our scenario and decide what you would do in the circumstances.
Privacy protection – scenario
You are working on the online news desk of a large media organisation. News breaks of fighting overseas. Raw footage arrives showing identifiable dead bodies. What do you do?
Returning ‘favours’ – scenario
In this scenario you are a parliamentary reporter being put under pressure to cover a story by a politician who says they did you a favour in the past.
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