Email me: m and ep_AT_ang elfire _DOT_ com (remove spaces etc to make it work).
The Reporter's Job
Inform and Entertain
Whichever medium you work in - newspapers, radio, television or the Internet - the duties are much the same.
Find the facts, present them interestingly, and the job's done.
How you present them will vary; radio, for instance, will say something like "Two people were injured in a crash on Holyfield Road today. Police have appealed for witnesses." The local paper will give much more detail: identities, ages and addresses, maybe occupations too, of the people involved; weather and road conditions; comments from those living nearby ... and so on. But the radio reporter will still have asked for all that other information. Why?
Because if anybody famous had been involved, the whole incident would be reported in a different way;
If a history of accidents on that particular road was building up there might be a story in that;
... and so on.
Contacts
Contacts are your professional life's blood.
Make as many as you can
Keep your contacts file up to date
Protect your contacts: they may be risking their job or worse by feeding you information, so never reveal their identity.
What is a contact? Anyone you meet who may one day give you information;
in a word, anyone.
