-Isms

A common conversation at our house focuses on the difference between fact and opinion. I’m positive Scott knows the first words I’ll say when we discuss news or politics: Have you fact-checked it?

Recently, during discussions with friends and other families, I’ve noticed similar trends. I know, I say fact check a lot.

At a time when so many options exist for your news listening or reading habit, and considering how the fast-paced nature of news bombards consumers, fact versus opinion findings are understandable. Yet, as a news publisher, the findings are concerning.

A Pew Research Center survey of more than 5,000 adults determined that when presented with 12 pieces of information - five facts, five opinion and two borderline statements (which were not easily defined by fact or opinion) - only 26% could identify the five facts, while 35% of those surveyed could identify all opinion statements.

One year ago, the Advocate-Messenger began a partnership with Trusting News, a project of the Reynolds Journalism Institute and American Press Institute. Our team worked to develop strategies to promote our responsible and ethical journalistic beliefs. We believe trustworthiness is important. We value our work and strive to bring facts where they belong - in news articles - and opinions where they belong - on the opinion and editorial Page.

One goal I set with Trusting News is to provide a breakdown of the difference between a news story, an editorial and a column, and provide vocabulary associated with each. This week, I am breaking down news coverage.

The majority of the paper is comprised of news and feature articles.

Feature articles, like the Page one story about breast cancer survivor Misty Nilson, focus on a specific topic or person. Personally, feature stories are my favorite to write because I am able to focus on members of our community and what is important to them. Features are an important piece of the newspaper, they allow others to learn more about a person or topic and offer in-depth reporting. Features have a distinct style and information may be presented in different ways, including subcategories or alternating storylines that come together in the end.

News articles, including meeting updates, court coverage, press conferences, accident coverage, etc., are filled with verifiable facts and expert testimony. When SAM journalists cover school board or commissioners meetings, we record the entire proceeding. It ensures we report the facts and use accurate quotes.

When writing a news article, we answer the five Ws and H: who, what when, where, why and how. It’s the basic information readers want to know and should expect to discover while reading the paper.

Typically, in the first paragraph, we establish the time peg - the day news is released. The timely element is tricky with weekly papers. Sometimes, we have already released news on our website before it appears in the paper. Being timely is important and we believe timeliness, coupled with accuracy, is our number one priority.

News articles include a strong lede that captures attention, including facts. Then, we use an inverted pyramid style to flesh out the remainder of the article. The body includes supporting facts, background material and quotes. The tail includes extra interesting or related information; however, if a reader stops reading, they will still be able to understand the 5Ws and H - based on facts.

Our lede styles are interesting. I prefer to ask a question or present a what if situation. Mark uses puns to make a point. Sandy dives into the facts. Elizabeth presents historical data, tying it to the present. In all instances, though, we rely on our sources to provide facts and then we fact check information that needs to be confirmed.

Our front Page includes a mix of straight news, features and photos. Most of the time, our reporters do not write headlines associated with each story. That’s the editor’s responsibility. But, if a reporter has a catchy or clever idea, we’ll entertain the idea.

How do we develop ideas? We created a master list of ideas and each week, we review our progress, adding or subtracting ideas. We appreciate when readers offer an idea or two. We review and critique our work because that’s how we continue to get better, to fine-tune our craft, to bring you the best product.

In large newsrooms, beat reporters - think specific areas like court, sports, business, investigative, news, features - report to editors, who report to a managing editor, and so on up the chain.

While as publishers, Scott and I have the final word, we at SAM prefer to take a group approach. We rely on our reporters experiences and honestly, their gut instincts, when it comes to reporting. If something in an article seems amiss, if a piece doesn’t make sense, we resolve it together. And, we aren’t afraid to tell our colleagues, “Job well done,” when they hit a piece out of the park ... er, the newsroom.

The bottom line: We believe in transparency and will continue to work toward our goals set as part of the TN project.