Analysis: Records
by Dallas Johnson
This story, from the San Francisco Public Press, about a bridge and the cost behind it is a good example of a reporter using records in a story.
This story is about a bridge being built in the Bay Area that, apparently, is taking much longer than expected to be completed and is costing a lot more than the public was originally told.
One of the documents used in the story was a chart showing the public where the money from their tolls go. The pie chart shows that 16 percent of the money collected is going to the company building the bridge.
They also have a graph about what the state paid for a bridge in the past, and what they are paying now.
The reporter needs to have some basic computer skills in order to use the set of information acquired from the record.
They needed to be able to compile the information into a graph on a the computer. The pie chart and the graph allows the reader to understand the situation visually. Allowing a reader to visualize your information is extremely important because it helps to get your message across. In this case, the message is about the money being spent on the bridge.
On top of providing the evidence in text form and visual form, the reporter needed to make sure that the information was important, relevant and reputable.
The reputation of the organization providing the document is everything. In this case, the document comes from the government, which the public tends to trust when dealing with statistics.
If the information had come from an organization with no or little knowledge of the situation, the public would be suspicious of the information.
Providing information that is relevant and trustworthy in a form that allows the reader to understand the story and the information quickly is one of the most important aspects of reporting today.
by Dallas Johnson
This story, from the San Francisco Public Press, about a bridge and the cost behind it is a good example of a reporter using records in a story.
This story is about a bridge being built in the Bay Area that, apparently, is taking much longer than expected to be completed and is costing a lot more than the public was originally told.
One of the documents used in the story was a chart showing the public where the money from their tolls go. The pie chart shows that 16 percent of the money collected is going to the company building the bridge.
They also have a graph about what the state paid for a bridge in the past, and what they are paying now.
The reporter needs to have some basic computer skills in order to use the set of information acquired from the record.
They needed to be able to compile the information into a graph on a the computer. The pie chart and the graph allows the reader to understand the situation visually. Allowing a reader to visualize your information is extremely important because it helps to get your message across. In this case, the message is about the money being spent on the bridge.
On top of providing the evidence in text form and visual form, the reporter needed to make sure that the information was important, relevant and reputable.
The reputation of the organization providing the document is everything. In this case, the document comes from the government, which the public tends to trust when dealing with statistics.
If the information had come from an organization with no or little knowledge of the situation, the public would be suspicious of the information.
Providing information that is relevant and trustworthy in a form that allows the reader to understand the story and the information quickly is one of the most important aspects of reporting today.
