52 lessons.
A craft to practise.
Lesson guides adapted from the manual: the essentials, a practical takeaway and an exercise to try. Follow a pathway or choose the skill you need.
Read everything, all the time
Language is a journalist’s working tool, and reading keeps it sharp. Newspapers, novels, brochures, posters and unfamiliar subjects all have something to teach. The…
Keep your ears open
Listening belongs beside reading in a journalist’s daily routine. Radio reaches conversations and audiences that other media can miss. Whatever your own platform,…
Learn to observe
A journalist is a professional witness. You go where the public cannot always go and report faithfully on what happens there. That value comes from disciplined…
Tell a story, not a list
Two reporters can cover the same event with equal accuracy and produce very different reading experiences. One lists facts; the other finds a scene, people and a…
Serve the public debate
Journalism does more than transmit decisions made by powerful people. It equips the public to understand, discuss and judge those decisions. The work begins with…
Ask better questions
Journalists are professional discoverers. Many useful stories remain untold not because someone has hidden them, but because nobody has looked carefully. The familiar…
Make the complicated clear
People feel the effects of debt, taxation or monetary policy without necessarily understanding the mechanisms. Journalism helps make those mechanisms clear. The…
Defend values and public rights
A journalist defends the accuracy of facts, the dignity of people and the public’s right to know. These commitments have a foundation beyond the newsroom: Article 19…
Separate reporting from comment
Journalistic formats belong to two broad families: reporting and comment. Readers should always know whether they are receiving verified information or an argued…
Know who you are writing for
Before writing, ask who the audience is, what it needs and what it already knows. These answers shape the angle, language, length and explanations. Writing for a real…
Master the short news form
Length is not a measure of journalistic talent. A short item exposes every weak word and every missing fact. Learning to identify the central information, attribute…
Make field reporting come alive
Field reporting lets people see, hear and understand a situation they did not witness. Scenes, settings, voices and actions give the account its substance.…
Choose an angle and stay with it
The assignment may be given to you, but the precise direction of the reporting often remains your choice. That direction is the angle. It lets a reporter go deeply…
Go deeper with long-form reporting
Beyond the immediate news event, long-form field reporting helps people discover a world they do not yet understand. The distance can be social or cultural rather…
Build an investigation from evidence
An investigation examines a disputed question through documents, witnesses and competing explanations. The reporter gathers evidence that supports and challenges the…
Ask short questions and listen
Interviewing is used constantly in journalism, but preparation alone does not make a good exchange. Three simple rules improve the encounter: ask short questions, ask…
Write a portrait, not a CV
A good profile makes a person present through observation and carefully chosen details. It does not merely tell the reader what someone has done. It reveals…
Develop a voice people return to
A regular column belongs to the family of comment. It offers a recognisable voice and a personal interpretation of current events. That freedom comes with demanding…
Make the editorial’s position clear
An editorial speaks for a publication rather than simply for an individual writer. Its position carries the weight of the institution’s credibility. A clear…
Write an opinion piece with a point
An opinion piece gives a focused view on a public issue and supports it with facts. It should move readers as well as inform them. A strong claim is only the…
Find stories in ordinary places
Story ideas are everywhere when you develop the habit of noticing them. Your own outlet, the street, public records and online searches each offer leads. The task is…
Build files before the news breaks
When major news breaks, audiences expect journalists to provide the first elements of understanding. The difference often lies in what the reporter already knows. A…
Understand what your sources want
Journalism depends on sources, but sources also have interests, loyalties and reputations to protect. A person can be honest while offering only the part of the truth…
Choose a structure that serves the story
Before drafting, identify the audience, the information it needs and the gaps in your reporting. Structure follows those choices. Context, local relevance and a…
Open strongly and end precisely
An article’s first and last sentences carry particular weight: one invites the reader in, the other shapes what remains. Strong openings and endings depend on the…
Write for the ear
Radio writing is a person-to-person relationship. The listener must understand the story as it unfolds, without rereading a sentence. Clear, accurate words, a natural…
Radio formats and the art of going live
Radio has its own vocabulary of formats and its own demanding test: the live report. Learn what each form can do, then prepare a clear route through your facts so…
Accuracy and verification: the basic discipline
Accuracy is the foundation of the ethics that follow: fairness, independence and source protection. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel describe verification as…
Fairness, impartiality and honesty
A story can contain only accurate facts and still mislead if it selects them from one side alone. Fairness asks whether the whole account is just: whose positions are…
Conflicts of interest, gifts and cash envelopes
Gombo in Cameroon, coupage in the DRC, the brown envelope elsewhere: different names describe pressures that can purchase a journalist’s attention or silence.…
Protecting your sources
Some information reaches the public only because someone takes a risk to reveal it. Source protection sustains the trust that makes such reporting possible. It begins…
Reporting pain with dignity
A survivor’s story is not material to extract at any cost. The author recalls an interview that forced him to question what his reporting offered the person whose…
Writing Africa without clichés
A familiar image can replace observation before the reporting even begins. The author’s lesson about the supposed African sun becomes a wider discipline: name the…
Correcting errors and answering to the public
Errors can survive even a careful verification process, particularly under deadline pressure. The ethical question is what follows discovery. A visible, precise…
Journalist safety is part of the job
Physical, legal, digital and psychological safety belong within reporting practice. They make the work possible. Begin before the assignment, consider the whole team…
Writing for the web and mobile
Design your story for someone reading on a phone, perhaps between tasks or with an unstable connection. Readers often scan before committing. The headline, opening…
Social media as a reporting desk
Social networks can reveal story ideas, potential sources and early signals of change. They are a reporting environment, not a substitute for verification. Treat what…
Verifying images, videos and rumours online
A genuine image can carry a false story when it is detached from its original place or date. Verification begins with that possibility. Trace earlier appearances,…
Covering disinformation without amplifying it
Finding a falsehood does not automatically make it newsworthy. A correction can introduce the claim to people who had never heard it. Assess the reach and possible…
Data journalism, starting on the ground
Data journalism need not begin with code or a specialist department. Begin by reading numbers carefully, making fair comparisons and examining public records around…
Podcasting: audio on the listener’s terms
Podcasting draws on radio’s familiar disciplines: writing for the ear, a personal voice and strong beginnings and endings. It also changes the relationship with the…
Mobile video: a newsroom in your pocket
The phone is a reporting tool, but equipment alone does not make journalism. Stability, clear sound and deliberate shots turn a recording into a usable account.…
The newsletter: building a direct reader relationship
Search engines and social platforms stand between much journalism and its audience. A newsletter develops a more direct relationship with people who have asked to…
Your professional identity as a journalist
Your professional identity is already taking shape in the mind of an editor who encounters your name. Make it intentional: show your best work, connect your public…
AI: the essential starting point
Before using AI to research, write, transcribe or verify material, understand the kind of tool in front of you. Generative systems can produce fluent language and…
What AI can and cannot do for journalism
Deciding to use AI is only the beginning. Decide what you can delegate and how you will check the result. The manuscript organises the decision into three zones:…
Researching with AI without outsourcing proof
AI can help explore an unfamiliar subject, but poorly controlled assistance can multiply mistakes. Give it a precise research assignment, retrieve the underlying…
Using AI to improve your writing, not replace it
The book draws a clear editorial boundary: the journalist writes the first draft, then may use AI as a critical reader. This keeps the work of thinking, checking and…
Transcription, translation and subtitles across languages
African reporting often moves between several languages: an interview, a working document and a published story may each use a different one. AI can assist with this…
Checking potentially AI-generated media
Recycled images are only part of the verification problem. Synthetic pictures, videos and voices can depict events that never occurred. Do not build the decision on…
An ethical framework for AI in the newsroom
Combine responsibility, independent verification and a personal rule for AI into an editorial framework a newsroom can explain and uphold. Four principles organise…
The augmented journalist: stay in control of the tool
After 51 lessons, the question is what the journalist becomes among tools that write, translate, summarise and generate media. The answer is a professional who…
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A foundation,
many pathways.
The chart shows how the 52 lessons are distributed. It describes the book’s structure, not a ranking of each subject’s importance.