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CHAPTER 15 Other Types of Local Stories
Overview
Most young reporters can expect to cover crimes, accidents and fires, and court news early in
-gathering skills, are often
assigned to beginners. The chapter emphasizes the reporting and writing of the news from the
Teaching Tips
Crime Stories
We suggest that you emphasize the importance of having a good understanding of libel law
when writing about crime. Since the potential for libel is so great in this type of reporting,
you may want to consider assigning Chapter 19
chapter.
This material also provides an excellent opportunity for you to add variety to classroom
sessions by inviting guest speakers. You may want to arrange for the local police chief, a
police officer or a detective to visit the class.
We have deliberately avoided the issue of a major disaster, such as an airplane crash with
hundreds of fatalities. The reporting of such events is likely to involve a team of reporters
rather than a single individual, and your students probably are not ready to handle the
massive amount of information that could be thrown at them in such an exercise. Keep it
simple and emphasize the importance of detail.
Court Stories
The section on court news gives an overview of how the court system operates. This
knowledge is important to the reporter assigned to cover a court proceeding or to write about
a case as it progresses through the court system. We have tried to take into account most of
Obituaries and Life Stories
The value of obituaries often is overlooked in both newsrooms and journalism classrooms.
Because the form of the standard obituary is rather rigid, many instructors find the obituary
helpful in teaching the inverted pyramid and accuracy.
You might find it useful to scramble information from obituaries printed in your local
newspaper. You can introduce errors in the spelling of names, ages, addresses and so forth. If
the necessary telephone books and city directories are available, you can ask students to
If you use names with these letters, some students probably will misspell
them.
You might also arrange with your local newspaper to copy or get access to the contents of
two or three biographical files. Distribute this background material, along with information
from a mortuary form. Ask students to write a news obituary.
Lecture Notes
I. INTRODUCTION
A.
Discussion and transcript of Columbia Missourian reporter Joseph Vozzelli Jr
on the resolution of an eight-year-old murder case.
II. YOUR PREPARATION
A. Do some background research, if at all possible, even on breaking stories.
B. Preparing for the crime story.
1. Initial reporting often at the scene.
2. Most information comes from police, victims and witnesses.
3. Think convergence (audio/video, digital camera).
D. Preparing for the court story.
1. Most stories are follow-ups.
2. Court stories are often difficult and complex, so ask attorneys and judges questions
before and after court sessions and during recesses.
III. WRITING THE STORY
A. The crime story.
1. Chronological order vs. inverted pyramid.
2.
B. Accident and fire stories.
1. Observe and actively solicit information.
2. At accident scene, keep digital recorder and camera handy, and collect basic
information:
a. Names, ages, addresses, condition of victims.
b. Witness accounts and/or police re-creation.
c. When and where accident occurred.
d. Why or how it happened, or who was at fault (as determined by officials).
3. What to do at accident scene:
a. Question person in charge of investigation.
b. Try to find and interview witnesses; social media might reveal the identity of
some witnesses.
c. Try to find friends or relatives of the victims.
d. If possible, interview the victims.
e. Talk with others at the scene.
f. Be sensitive to victims and their families.
g. Sketch elements of the scene on a piece of paper or take photos with your
cellphone.
h. Record your interviews.
4. sing;
collect basic information:
a. Location.
b. Names, ages, addresses of those killed, injured, missing.
c. Name of building owner or landowner.
d. Value of building and contents, or land value.
C. The court story news value is paramount.
1. Avoiding libelous statements.
a. Accuracy is critical.
b. Ask lots of questions.
c. Everything in open court is fair game, but no privilege for spectator comments
during a recess.
2. Types of courts and cases federal vs. state courts; jurisdiction; misdemeanor vs.
felony.
3. A breaking-news tweet announcing an arrest.
4. A typical first story arrest and charges.
5. Follow-up story: first court appearance reporters must know about basics of law,
federal and state court organization, and procedure.
6. Follow-up story: preliminary hearing in some states, defendants are indicted by a
grand jury.
7. Follow-up story: arraignment pleas and plea bargaining happen at this stage;
motions for disclosure or suppression of evidence, and for a change of venue, can
follow.
8. Follow-up story: first day of the trial jury selection, opening statements.
9. Follow-up story: trial testimony examination of witnesses (direct, cross, re-direct)
including rebuttal witnesses, jury deliberation.
IV. OTHER ISSUES IN CRIME AND COURT REPORTING
A. The free press/fair trial controversy Sheppard case; O.J. Simpson case.
B. Gag orders and closed trials currently, courts generally support trials being open to
the public and the media (Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart, Richmond
Newspapers v. Virginia).
D. Press-bar guidelines not legal contracts; many media groups are withdrawing
because of concerns they could become mandatory.
E. Cameras in the courtroom allowed in 47 states and in some lower federal courts.
F. Coverage of minority groups avoid gratuitous mentions of race in crime stories;
also, sexual orientation should be off limits unless it is the focus of a story (Dahmer
case in Milwaukee).
G. Coverage of terrorism alleged terrorists being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
H. Crime and social media citizens who witness a crime are prone to post about it on
social media; verify with better sources.
I. Issues of taste and ethics:
V. OBITUARIES AND LIFE STORIES
A. Crafting a lead.
1. Include who, what, why and how of the death.
2. Other basic information: time/place of services and/or burial, visitation, survivors,
date and place of birth, achievements, occupation, memberships.
B. Building the story get beyond the dry biography.
C. Writing life stories
D. Sources of information:
1. The mortuary form.
2. The newsroom library.
3. Interviews with family and friends.
Class Activities and Discussion Questions
Activity 1: Using a local fire story as your source, give students
incident who, what, where, when, why, how and quotes. Have students work in pairs to
write a quick inverted pyramid story. Choose several pairs to read their stories. Then, pass out
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the actual story, and ask students to read and analyze it. (You can also do this activity with
the facts from a local crime story or court story.) Discussion questions: Which story is more
Activity 2: If you have a computer lab with Internet access, have students work in pairs to
find examples of each kind of crime story a typical first story (arrest and charges), first
court appearance, preliminary hearing, arraignment, trial, verdict and sentencing. After
students have gathered the stories, they should select the stories they like best and least. They
Activity 3:
partner to find every crime story published during the week. First, ask students to identify the
crime and whether it will most likely be prosecuted at the state or federal level. Then have
students categorize the type of crime story in each case. Finally, they should select the stories
Activity 4: Put students in groups of three, and assign them one of the two sides (plaintiffs or
respondents) in the Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia case. Give the students a copy of the
majority or dissenting opinion for the case, and tell them they have 20 minutes to read the
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opinion and summarize the key arguments. (This link provides access to majority, consenting
and dissenting opinions for the Richmond case:
www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0448_0555_ZS.html.) Have each
group share its results with the class. Discussion questions: After reading the U.S. Supreme
Sixth Amendment trial rights ever supersede First Amendment press rights? Why or why
not?
Activity 5: Most newspapers run paid obituaries that are not staff-written, and they are
mostly rather dry biographies put together by mortuary staffers. Choose eight of these brief
obituaries, and post them around the classroom. (Make more sets to accommodate more
students.) Pair students and have them examine each obituary; ask them to look for themes
Activity 6: Pair students and give them 15 to 20 minutes to interview one another for a
Solutions to Textbook Exercises
1. Two- to four-person teams probably will work best. As is often true with these exercises,
relative strengths and weaknesses of the news coverage, and how those strengths and
2. Your journalism blog. Students should be able to articulate the quality of coverage as
measured by whether or not the local news meets, exceeds or fails to meet appropriate
3. This useful exercise requires students to think about sources of information. It is easy to
complete and is not time-consuming.
4. All city fire departments have policies about things such as who is allowed to talk with
reporters at the scene of a fire and how close reporters may get to fire lines. An
understanding of these policies can help the time-strapped reporter at the scene of a fire. If
5. Unless your circuit court is located so far away from the campus as to be inaccessible, it is
a good idea to use this exercise. Any time students get out of the classroom and into a
realistic setting their reporting skills are greatly enhanced. If you can arrange with the
judge or prosecutor to meet with the class afterward and discuss the experience, the
6. There has been ample coverage of the rights of terrorism suspects in recent years because
of U.S. imprisonment of suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. A basic Google search will
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produce plenty of results, but more articles are available if students have access to
LexisNexis. That service also will have court cases pertaining to terrorism detainees.
7. This exercise is intended to develop some local awareness in your students and to get
them out of the classroom. A well-written life story requires both research (probably
Solutions to Workbook Exercises
Crime Stories
1. Traditionally, television coverage has emphasized visuals and speed, while print provided
more detail. The Web blurs those differences, with speed increasingly important even to
newspapers and video common on all websites. The biggest difference your students may
2. Here is one way to write the story.
A police officer arrived at the scene of a liquor store robbery (Monday) in time to fire a
shot at the fleeing robber, but the man escaped.
Officer Anne Fulgham and her partner, Jose Lopez, arrived at the Black Derby
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A witness, John Paul Reinicke, 35, of 109 Ninth St., Apt. 3C, said he was walking
down Ripley Way when the incident occurred.
The alarm was triggered by Steve Bellinos, 28, of 4673 Bellinghausen Court.
Bellinos told police the robber entered the store at about 7:12 p.m. with a pillowcase
over his head. The man pulled out a pistol and demanded money. Bellinos was able to
trigger the silent alarm, and Fulgham and Lopez arrived within three minutes.
3. The rape victim should not be identified in the story. Here is one way to write it.
A 19-year-old college student told police (Monday) that she was raped (Sunday) night
near the Chemistry Building on the college campus.
The victim said the attack occurred as she was walking back to her dormitory room
after going to a movie downtown. A man with a stocking mask displayed a knife and
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The victim said her attacker was about 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighed about 210
pounds, had blond hair and blue eyes, and appeared to be athletic. Two of the earlier
victims of campus-area rapes gave similar descriptions of their attackers.
The 16 reported rapes this year compare with two for the same period last year.
4. a. –year-
b. Bare-bones Web story: the first two or three paragraphs of the story in exercise 3.
c. Expanded print story: something that looks like the story from exercise 3, though
possibly with more direct connection to (a.) and (b.).
5. Here are three possible sources.
a. Police officials and their reports. These sources can provide most of the information
needed, including an outline of what happened and the details of who was involved.
b. The victim. A firsthand account is a valuable source of details and quotations.
c. Witnesses. Witnesses can provide additional details and quotations and are particularly
valuable if the victim is unavailable. (Because the assault happened on a school
campus and because the witnesses are mostly students, getting information from them
6. Students should know to contact the top-ranking police officer immediately to obtain as
much information as possible about the robbery. Next a reporter would look for the store
manager or the clerk who was confronted by the robber. Then the reporter would try to
find witnesses.
7. If the local information is not online, you may want to obtain it yourself and give it to
8. a. Story suggestion: Emphasize that although murders rose dramatically (from one to
seven), violent crime overall fell 8 percent (from 435 to 400).
b. A sample chart:
2011 2012
Murders 1 7
Rapes 35 27
Burglaries 576 603
Larcenies 3,404 3,420
Accidents and Fire Stories
9. a. Both fire and police officials will probably be at the scene. Fire officials most likely
will be attempting to recover the body by dragging the river or sending divers into it.