{"id":5048,"date":"2020-03-17T19:20:11","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T19:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/?p=5048"},"modified":"2021-03-25T00:19:09","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T00:19:09","slug":"the-does-10-simple-tips-for-reporting-on-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/the-does-10-simple-tips-for-reporting-on-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"The Doe\u2019s 10 Simple Tips For Reporting On Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reporting on politics can be tricky business. You need to keep your audience well informed without injecting your own personal bias into your reporting.\u00a0 Milan Kordestani of The Doe<\/a>,\u00a0 shares ten important pieces of advice for journalists covering politics.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    Listen Well<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Everyone knows politicians don’t like to give a clear answer to anything.\u00a0 They don’t want to be boxed in and always try and leave themselves some wiggle room.\u00a0 This means, as a journalist, you have to listen carefully to not only what they are saying but the specific words they are using and how they are saying it.\u00a0 They aren’t going to make it easy for you.\u00a0 This is especially true when talking about another politician, such as the Prime Minister. whom they may need to work with later, and can’t afford to alienate them.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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    1. \n

      Don’t Trust Your Memory<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      You never know when something that seems insignificant at the time may be important to a story.\u00a0 Don’t trust your memory to being able to recall everything<\/a> at a later point in time.\u00a0 If anything seems interesting, write it down or record your notes so that you’ll have it for later without having to trust yourself to remember it accurately later.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

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      1. \n

        Know The Language Of Politics<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Politics has its own language, from “whip” to “second reading” or even the job of a “select committee.”\u00a0 It’s important that you know and understand these words.\u00a0 It will make reporting on politics a lot easier for you to understand and you’ll worry a lot less about making an embarrassing mistake because you didn’t understand the meaning of something.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

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        1. \n

          Remember That Statistics Lie<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Always questions numbers.\u00a0 People can use and manipulate statistics to support almost any position on anything.\u00a0 For example, politicians might scream about how the funding for some important pet project is being cut.\u00a0 When the reality is, they are getting an increase in funding, just not as high as what had been originally projected in a budget.\u00a0 Or that they are putting a billion dollars into something but it turns out it’s being spent over a 20 year period.\u00a0 Ask questions about numbers so you can get specifics and narrow in on what the statistics really mean.<\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n

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          1. \n

            You Don’t Need To Be An Expert<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Your job isn’t to be an expert in everything political.\u00a0 Your job is to ask a lot of questions in order to get the information for your audience.\u00a0 Sure, it helps to be informed but you don’t have to know everything. The Doe is an anonymous blog to voice opinions without bias and judgement.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

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            1. \n

              Make Your Questions Specific<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              Politicians love to sound like they are answering a question without actually answering it.\u00a0 They talk and talk but they never say anything important.\u00a0 It’s okay to repeat a question if they avoid answering it the first time.\u00a0 Try and be specific as possible so they can’t avoid an answer. It can take a lot of persistence to get a politician to answer a question.<\/p>\n

               <\/p>\n

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              1. \n

                Be Respectful<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                Journalists need to ask tough questions.\u00a0 That’s your job.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll never get the answers your audience deserves.\u00a0 But know that there is a difference between being persistent and asking tough questions, and just being rude.<\/p>\n

                 <\/p>\n

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                1. \n

                  Hold People Accountable<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  Politician’s love to answer questions differently depending on the audience.\u00a0 They just assume no one will go back and look at what they said last year or five years ago.\u00a0 Do your research and know where the politician stood on the issue on the past.\u00a0 If it’s different now and they don’t acknowledge that fact, you have a story!<\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

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                  1. \n

                    Watch The News<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                    As a journalist this may be the last thing you want to do but it’s important.\u00a0 This goes well with number eight above.\u00a0 You need to know what politicians are saying other places.<\/p>\n

                     <\/p>\n

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                    1. \n

                      Your Opinion Doesn’t Matter<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                      At least, your opinion doesn’t matter when you are reporting on the news.\u00a0 It’s your job to inform your audience, not try and get them to think the way you think.<\/p>\n

                       <\/p>\n

                      Follow these ten pieces of advice and you’ll be well on your way to being a top-notch reporter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                      Reporting on politics can be tricky business. You need to keep your audience well informed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aikdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}