Reporting Techniques

By Samantha Burden

Ross Markman is a reporter for the Havre Daily News, a small newspaper in Montana. In reading his article, I learned many things about him as a reporter and several of his techniques. Ross Markman reports on more than one event per day, sometimes writing 10 articles per week. He writes about county government, city government and local schools; topics that would only be interesting or important to the local readers. Being at a small paper, Markman has the opportunity to write about several topics and this gives him immense experience.

Due to the abundance of writing Markman does, he has different techniques in order to get his articles written efficiently and quickly. A reporter should be educated in the subject they are going to write about. Background information is crucial to writing a strong article. The beginning of the story is also very important in having a good story; it is what draws the audience in and paves the way for a strong article. It is imperative to try to make the story you are writing about seem interesting and worth-while to the audience.

In comparison to Lillian Ross of The New Yorker, Markman has a very different style of writing. In his articles he is very fact based and there is not a lot of personal opinion. Lillian Ross, on the other hand, preached for the journalist to be a part of his/her writing and to not just be “a fly on the wall.” She incorporated style, while Markman utilizes quick reporting of news.