Tutorial #6

This week the class revised much of what we have learnt in the past, such as the inverted pyramid technique and what it means to be a journalist. However, there is a new aspect of journalism that was explained to us. In every story there are facts, and these facts have to come from somewhere, right? They come from sources, which are the people who are responsible for the information.
Any facts which are not well known or widely accepted must be referenced, otherwise it counts as plagiarism.
Sometimes, however, a source may not want to be recognised for the information they give. This could be due to many reasons. Perhaps they are revealing negatives about a company they work for and fear for their job, or maybe they witnessed a crime and would like to keep themselves safe from criminals. There are many scenarios that could lead a person to wish to remain anonymous.
The source may or may not wish for their statements to be put directly in an article. When information is "on the record," the source can be quoted and named. "Off the record" information may be used, but the source can not be named or attributed to it in any way (anonymous source). "Background" information cannot be used in the article in any way, but is rather there for the journalist's background knowledge so that they gain a better understanding on the discussion.

During the tutorial, the class divided into pairs (although I was in a group of three) and we were told to write a profile story on each other. A profile story is a journalistic story about a particular person and what they have done, what has happened to them, or anything that would make a good story. However, the main focus is on the person in question. For example, I interviewed a girl named Brittany, and I will be able to write a story on her love of music and the concerts she has gone to and plans to go to in the near future. The story has a word limit of five hundred words, so I will be able to expand it, giving brief histories of the concerts and their beginnings and explaining the style of music that Brittany appears to like.