A good specialized reporter is a bit like a farmer: Each doesn’t stop thinking about the job when the day is done.
“The beat never stops. You’re always thinking about it,” said Dian Duthie, who hosts and produces The Health Beat, a weekly CBC TV feature on health, medicine and fitness.
Rather than feeling frustrated because she can’t escape her job, Duthie told a recent Women in the Media conference she finds specialized reporting “enormously satisfying. I love what I do.”
Another specialized reporter, Joanne Chianello from the Ottawa Citizen, said reporters should read everything they can, talk to everybody they can and use their colleagues as resources.
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Understand the subject. “Don’t be afraid to say ‘I’m not sure what you’re talking about’,” said Chianello. “Ask people to explain it to you, because they don’t want you to write from a point of ignorance.”
Duthie told reporters to “go in as well-prepared as you can, but keep asking how does it work, what makes it happen. When stuck, tell someone to draw a picture.”
While it’s valuable to learn a lot about a beat – such as agriculture – a reporter needs to pause sometimes.
“While familiarity with a subject is wonderful, it can be washed over by the experts and you lose your perspective. Step back and ask, ‘What drew me to this story in the first place?’,” said Duthie. “Go back to that. That will be the way you write and present it most effectively for your … (audience).”
She said stories should have the “gee whiz” factor: What makes a story good is when people say “gee whiz” when they hear or read it.
Include the most interesting people with strong ties to the local community, and make sure every story answers questions, Duthie advised.
