Last week our out-of-town reporters travelled to join our Saskatoon staff for three days of discussion and training.
One of the debates among editors and reporters was how much detail to include about the origin of quotations in a story. Were the quotes obtained from a phone or face-to-face interview? A press release? A news conference? A scrum (where reporters gather around a politician after an event to do a quick question and answer exchange)?
Was the person being quoted at his farm or at an annual meeting? Should the story say the exact date of the interview, or be more vague with “last week” or “recently”?
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Editors will occasionally cut some of these details for the sake of brevity.
The issue becomes how much to cut. Readers may want to know when and where the quotes came from, to help provide context.
It becomes especially important to distinguish the sources of quotes if the story is complicated.
For example, president Joe McBlow presented a speech at the annual meeting of the Albino Six-Legged Horses Association. During a question period with delegates, he contradicted himself. Later, in a scrum with reporters, he angrily announced his resignation. A day later, in a calmer phone interview with one reporter, McBlow stated he was just kidding about resigning. He added that his facts were wrong in the speech, but right in the question period.
Each time the reporter got the quotes “straight from the horse’s mouth,” but it would be necessary to put the statements in order, chronologically and geographically, so that readers can understand the story.
If the story came from just one interview with the source, then there’s a more likely chance the reference to “said in an interview” will be dropped.
Next week: clues from placelines.
