US Consulate Training workshop on ‘Investigative Reporting’
Tools of fiction writing should be used in fact-based reporting
Karachi:Delivering a lecture at a training workshop on ‘Investigative Reporting’, US journalist Sherry Ricchiardi said that tools of fiction writing should be brought into fact-based stories.
She called ‘observation’ as an investigative reporter’s tool and said that it should be used frequently during investigative reporting.
The workshop was organised by the US Consulate General and was attended by a number of journalists from print and electronic media.
Currently in town, Ricchiardi is a professor at the School of Journalism, Indiana University. While discussing on the theme of investigative reporting, she stressed upon the need of reporting on street children and child beggars in Pakistan. She said that the subject of child rights should be investigated and reported including the health, education and human rights issues. “According to a study, there are some 1.2 million street children living in the country. This is a very alarming issue and should be definitely looked into.”
She said that investigative stories should also be done on crime, displaced people, refugees along with political corruption and social services issues.
Ricchiardi categorised investigative reporting into three sections — abuse and misuse of money, abuse of power and abuse of people.
In this enlightening workshop, she shared the basic guidelines necessary for investigative reporting. “A reporter should first have a basic idea about his story. He should then get a reality check that whether his editor will print the story and also if the people whom he will talk for the story will share the news with him or not.” A reporter should also decide whether to go ahead with the story or not, and then move on to the next one.
Ricchiardi said that a reporter should plan, research, gather informarion before writing the story. She emphasised that stories should be written in a humanised form in order to reach out the reader and tell the story in such a way that the news affects the reader. She added that anonymous sources should be used when there is no option left for the reporter.The news
