Journalists reporting about crime must balance the public’s right to know with ethical considerations, ensuring accuracy, fairness, and sensitivity while avoiding sensationalism or prejudice.
This workshop is presented in two formats, both using the same source material from Media Helping Media. The first is a two-hour workshop designed for those who are already familiar with the topic but who would like to deepen their understanding. The second is a four-hour, half-day workshop for those who are new to the topic.
Trainers are invited to select the format that best meets the needs of those they are training. The source material for this outline is provided in the article Crime reporting: tips for beginners which we recommend trainers send to participants before the workshop starts.
Workshop outline 1: Two-hour session
(Designed for participants who have some familiarity with the concepts of crime reporting and ethics.)
09:00–10:00 – Session 1: Ethical challenges and sensitive reporting
- Aims:
- To reinforce the core ethical considerations in crime journalism, specifically balancing the public’s right to know with sensitivity.
- To understand the responsibility of maintaining a rational tone and avoiding sensationalism or exaggeration.
- To discuss best practice for interacting with and reporting on victims and suspects.
- Presentation: Trainer delivers a 20-minute presentation covering:
- Ethical balance:
- Explain the need to ensure accuracy, fairness, and sensitivity while avoiding sensationalism. Define ethical reporting in the context of high-emotion stories.
- Tone:
- Explain the proven link between news media reporting and public fear of crime. Emphasise reporting rationally and factually, not exaggerating the worst aspects.
- Victims and suspects:
- Discuss the different approaches required.
- Explain that victims must be dealt with respectfully and sensitively, acknowledging their stress.
- Explain the principle of presumption of innocence for suspects – it is not the media’s role to prosecute or deliver verdicts.
- Ethical balance:
- Activity: Case study analysis (15 minutes):
- The trainer presents two short crime report extracts: one sensational and one factual/rational.
- Trainees work in pairs to audit (check) the extracts in terms of tone and suspect reporting.
- Discussion: Group critique (15 minutes):
10:00–11:00 – Session 2: Sourcing, security, and context
- Aims:
- To master the professional techniques for cultivating contacts and gathering comprehensive factual details.
- To differentiate between ‘on the record’ and ‘off the record’ sources and understand the commitment to protect anonymity.
- To ensure the reporter’s personal and digital security when gathering information.
- Presentation: Trainer delivers a 20-minute presentation on practical tradecraft:
- Contacts and facts:
- Explain the importance of cultivating a ‘Patch’ (a specialised area of coverage) and developing excellent contacts (police, courts, press officers) to receive timely information. Stress Joseph Pulitzer’s advice: “details, details, details.”
- Source types:
- Define ‘on the record’ (identified source) versus ‘off the record’ (anonymous source).
- Explain the reporter’s obligation to protect anonymous sources, even when facing legal consequences.
- Safety and security:
- Discuss the dangers of dealing with criminals.
- Explain the vital rules: always be open about being a reporter, tell your editor where you are, and encrypt confidential electronic information to protect against ‘discoverable’ data.
- Contacts and facts:
- Activity: Source role-play (25 minutes):
- Trainees form groups of three (Reporter, News Editor, and Police Press Officer).
- The Reporter has received an urgent tip about a crime that might compromise a surveillance operation (a ‘news blackout’ request).
- The Reporter must contact the news editor, explain the situation, and recommend a course of action (always refer the decision to the editor).
- Discussion: Wider context (15 minutes):
- Trainer leads a discussion on assessing ‘Trend or one-off?’.
- Ask the trainees to give examples of local crimes that reflect a wider societal issue (e.g., corruption or homelessness) and how they would include that context without losing the focus on the immediate story.
Assignment: The assignment is set out below following the four-hour outline.
Materials needed for the workshop:
- Handouts summarising interview types and essentials.
- Example interview transcripts.
- Research resources (internet or printouts).
- Recording devices (optional, for mock interviews).
Assessment:
- Participation in discussions and activities.
- Quality of drafted questions and peer feedback.
- Performance in mock interviews and reflection.
Workshop outline 2: Four-hour session
(Designed for participants who are new to the concepts of crime reporting.)
09:00–10:00 – Session 1: The foundations of crime reporting
- Aims:
- To understand why crime reporting is essential to an audience and society.
- To define the essential basic journalism skills required for reporting any crime story.
- To establish the fundamental professional rules of integrity and behaviour for a crime reporter.
- Presentation: Trainer delivers a 25-minute presentation:
- Why report crime?
- Explain that journalists are the only people with access to both courts and media outlets and that it is part of a news organisation’s role to inform the audience.
- Set out how crime reports sell news because they tap into powerful human emotions (greed, violence) and often reflect important societal issues (corruption, lack of education).
- Basic skills:
- Introduce the core requirements for all journalism: accuracy, correct spelling, supporting every sentence with facts, clarity, and unambiguous language.
- Personal and professional behaviour:
- Define integrity in this context (being honest, thorough, trustworthy, fair-minded).
- Explain the ‘do not’ list: do not accept gifts, condone or provoke crime, or glamorise criminals. This is crucial for maintaining professional standards.
- Why report crime?
- Activity: Fact-check and clarity exercise (25 minutes):
- Trainer provides a short, fictional police press release containing some vague language or missing details.
- Trainees work individually to identify three sentences that lack sufficient facts, rewrite them for clarity, and list three immediate questions they would ask the police for more details.
- Discussion: Defining the line (10 minutes):
- rainer leads a discussion on when a story about crime reflects a ‘powerful human emotion’ versus when it reflects a ‘societal issue.’
- Discuss the ethical difference between reporting factually and sensationalising.
10:00–11:00 – Session 2: Cultivating contacts and digging for details
- Aims:
- To learn the necessity of cultivating excellent sources to work effectively.
- To adopt the mentality of a detailed-focused reporter.
- To understand the safety and ethical precautions when dealing with people who have broken the law.
- Presentation: Trainer delivers a 20-minute presentation:
- The ‘patch’ and contacts:
- Explain that good reporters do not wait for news; they work their ‘Patch.’
- Stress the importance of having excellent contacts with all relevant agencies (police, courts, press officers) and building a relationship so they call you first.
- Details, details, details:
- Emphasise the audience’s expectation for facts.
- Use examples (mask type, car colour, weather) to show that exhaustive factual detail improves the story.
- The danger and ethics of criminals:
- Discuss the risks involved in knowing criminals.
- Reiterate the safety rules: be open about being a reporter, keep notes, and inform the news editor of your meetings.
- Stress the need to avoid building obligations, which is a temptation for corruption.
- The ‘patch’ and contacts:
- Activity: Contact mapping (25 minutes):
- Trainees work in small groups.
- Given a scenario of a major local crime, they must list and categorise at least five potential official sources and five unofficial sources they would try to cultivate, explaining how they would approach each one.
- Discussion: Personal safety (15 minutes):
- Trainer leads a discussion on practical security measures.
- Discuss the difference between being ‘friendly with criminals’ versus becoming their ‘friends,’ and why that distinction is an issue of impartiality and professional integrity.
11:00-11:15 – Break
11:15–12:45 – Session 3: Ethical reporting of people, privacy, and sources
- Aims:
- To differentiate between and correctly handle ‘on the record’ and ‘off the record’ sources.
- To understand the responsibility of protecting a source’s anonymity.
- To apply sensitivity and respect when reporting on victims.
- To respect the legal process and the presumption of innocence for suspects.
- Presentation: Trainer delivers a 30-minute presentation:
- Source handling and security:
- Define and contrast ‘on the record’ (source identified with credentials) and ‘off the record’ (anonymous source).
- Explain that the reporter must be clear on usage and protect the ‘off the record’ source’s anonymity at all costs.
- Discuss the need to encrypt confidential electronic notes (security).
- Victims and sensitivity:
- Emphasise dealing with victims respectfully and sensitively, remembering they are under great stress.
- Suspects and the court:
- Reiterate the presumption of innocence.
- Explain that media must not usurp (take over) the role of the courts by delivering verdicts or passing sentences.
- Dealing with police requests:
- Explain that requests for ‘news blackouts’ must always be referred to the editor, never decided by the individual reporter.
- Source handling and security:
- Activity: Scenario task: Off the record and privacy (45 minutes):
- Trainees are given a scenario where an anonymous source (a police officer) provides vital information about a suspect but demands complete anonymity.
- Trainees draft a short internal note explaining the information, how they will use it, and the potential risk if the source is revealed.
- Trainees draft a short paragraph for the final report that maintains privacy and the presumption of innocence for the suspect, while using the facts provided.
- Discussion: Source protection (15 minutes):
- Trainer leads a discussion on the seriousness of source protection, even to the point of being willing to go to jail.
- Discuss the ethical reasoning behind this commitment to fairness and trust.
12:45–13:00 – Session 4: Tone, context, and good taste
- Aims:
- To ensure the final report’s tone is rational and does not increase public fear.
- To apply sensitivity and good taste when reporting appalling crimes.
- To identify whether a crime is an isolated incident or part of a wider trend.
- Presentation:
- Trainer delivers a 5-minute summary reinforcing the importance of tone (rational and factual) and handling material with taste and decency, especially concerning the potential for causing offence and respecting the sensibilities of the community.
- Activity: Context assessment (10 minutes):
- Trainer gives three examples of local crimes.
- Trainees quickly decide for each one if it is a “Trend or one-off?” and what potential wider societal context they would investigate (e.g., rising youth crime linked to lack of education).
- Discussion:
- Trainer leads a final quick Q&A ensuring trainees can define and explain all key concepts covered.
Materials needed for the workshop:
- Handouts summarising interview types and essentials.
- Example interview transcripts.
- Research resources (internet or printouts).
- Recording devices (optional, for mock interviews).
Assessment:
- Participation in discussions and activities.
- Quality of drafted questions and peer feedback.
- Performance in mock interviews and reflection.
Assignment
- Ethical crime report audit and action plan
- Trainees are tasked with finding a published crime story from a local or regional newspaper/website.
- They must conduct an audit (a detailed check) of the story against five key points:
- Details: Did the reporter include enough factual ‘details, details, details’? What facts are missing?
- Tone: Was the report rational and factual, or did it exaggerate and increase public fear?
- Suspects: Did the language respect the presumption of innocence, or did it imply guilt?
- Victims: Was the handling of victims respectful and sensitive?
- Context: Did the report explore whether the crime was a ‘Trend or one-off’?
Based on their audit, trainees must then draft a short, three-point ‘Action Plan’ outlining how they would have written the story differently to ensure it fully complied with professional ethics and best practice.
