Each writer has their own style of writing, and we’re not going to talk about that.
The Speaker has it’s own style of news journalism, however, in terms of the types of stories we cover and what we include in an individual article. Easiest to understand will be the differences from news that you see everywhere else:
1. We don’t publish unnecessary information. An article that is just a one- or two-sentence headline (with no content) is better than adding content to it that is not necessary to understand the story. Lots of times, there is a valuable piece of news, but it takes no more than one or two sentences to report it. Do not write information readers don’t need. We are not concerned with article lengths. We only care about quality. Know the story before you write, otherwise you will find you have written a full article but looking at it you see that almost none of it is really important and you’ll have to delete it.
Some examples, on the other hand, of full reports:
North Korean camp escapee interview
Science article on math of crowds
Minimum wage and politics
2. We don’t publish attacks on political figures, popular figures, or anyone else. We’re not a gotcha! rag. The hate people feel for a political figure or ex-Hollywood producer is not something we indulge in. We are interested in developments in society and the world that are relevant to our understanding and to future possible events. Relatedly, anyone accused of a crime or something unpopular that is not a crime is merely accused. To be accused is nothing more than that. Do not treat anyone as if they are guilty when they are accused. Many people found guilty and universally believed to be so are not guilty. The law is just a constantly changing system that is far from a perfect instrument. The same can be said of social opinion.
3. We don’t publish things to appeal to people’s attraction to titillating or scandalous information. We don’t publish on sex unless it is, like mentioned above, valuable for our understanding or for its relevance to meaningful past, current or future events (often they are relevant to changes or effects of laws, but in those cases the real meaningful story usually is the change or effect of the law, not the people who happen to have been the ones). Claims someone makes are merely claims.
4. We present both sides of political, social, or opinionated stories. This isn’t always necessary for something like Science or Tech or a basic World News event, where we are merely presenting what a scientist or entrepreneur is saying they have done (although if there is valuable doubt or criticism we should include that) or something that is known to have happened. Presenting both sides is most important when you feel strongly on one side of any dynamic or pair of opposing forces, people, theories, whatever. Check yourself. Keep your integrity and your ability to say to your reader that they can trust you to present the news to them. If you are against something, your writing will often reflect that. That is fine. However, you must fairly give voice to the opposition, no matter how weak or ridiculous their statements. You are a journalist and this is your job.
5. A lot of news organizations focus on stories that will excite emotion today or tomorrow, and on breaking news, because these are the most profitable in terms of money. That is not our interest. Breaking news, yes. It’s exciting and we can do it sometimes. But for our journalism, we are covering meaning and value. A simple, often-useful test is to ask yourself, ‘Will this story still be relevant or important one month from now?’ If yes, it’s a go. The same question you can ask yourself when you’re considering which information to include in your article. If the answer is ‘no, not really,’ or ‘no, not at all,’ don’t write it. If the answer is yes, include it. (Sometimes, however, you will not write it although it is valuable simply because the amount of words or the complexity of understanding the meaning is not outweighed by a small amount of value.)
6. Don’t get overexcited by the immediacy of a story and publish something that isn’t accurate or respectably written. You will lose, incrementally, your integrity as a journalist. Don’t publish unconfirmed information as fact. If everyone is talking about something, but there is no real confirmation, don’t be like the other news organizations and state it as fact. You can write that many people are talking about something, but you can also note in your article that it is not confirmed. You may be able to inform the public what the story is waiting for in order to be confirmed.
7. Sometimes a story is good just because it is funny, ironic, surprising, or includes something the reader would never have considered before. A sense of humor or sardonicism is also something we appreciate in basically all news writing, though, not just the ‘funny’ stories. This is an ability and not something everyone can pull of appropriately, of course.
Journalists are one of the most important jobs going, but only if you are a real journalist. Keep your integrity and be a trustworthy voice. Try to improve your ability to do journalism. We will pay you to write with integrity and we’re not going to want you to try to write stories that will get clicks and bring in revenue. We have already accepted a loss. Do a good job. We’re making something here. All your fellow journalists here will be doing the same.