Fundamentals of Great Reporting

John Simpson provides Greatreporter.com it's first profile article by offering an overview on reporting. Written in the first person, he describes what he considers to be essential components for young journalists as they pursue the business of reporting.

In Simpson's words, "So what makes a great reporter? Well, there are a number of qualities that you'll need and among them are a real sense of curiosity; a profound interest in details and that real instinct that makes you want to grab people by the lapels and tell them what you're doing."

Simpson presents a number of pointers for reporters who are starting out. They include:

• stick with it and use endurance. "Hang on a little longer and keep going..."
• "journalism is a nasty, clubby little outfit...it's one of those things you just have to accept and understand...then very slowly, you tend to get there."
• do not give up too soon
• "the quality of the stories you produce for that portfolio far outweigh the locations."
• go to the doors of television and radio stations. They are "growth industries" and need staff.
• "you gain a great deal from academic courses but I think you gain more from getting a job first off."
• "Keep a sense of your own individuality and when you see traditional methods of working are a lot of nonsense, just bide your time..."
• "The focus must be on what's happening in the place and to the people and the most important thing is not: “I, John Simpson, am there to make a name for myself” this is real life and this is other people's real lives and it's not some sort of entertainment that's been put up for one's own benefit to make a name from."
• "I think the thing to do is just to avoid the big and obvious examples and go and do something more interesting and harder to do. I would much rather have someone come to me who had just been to Tibet and had got some good material there, rather than someone who had gone to where everybody else was going."
• "I really do detest that whole business of “going off to war” and I urge young journalists to be careful of it."
• "...people quickly forget your achievements. The reporting business in general is not about you but what you've gone to see."

As for important skills Simpson says, I think it's difficult to do the job without being able to speak a few languages and without being able to write in shorthand..."

Click here for the paper in PDF format.