Course Overview
- Title:
- The Ethical Investigator
- Type:
- Seminar Snapshot
- Cost:
- $24.95
- Time Estimate:
- One hour.
About Seminar Snapshots
A Seminar Snapshot captures the key learning points of a seminar presentation at The Poynter Institute or at another training event. A snapshot features edited video highlights and other materials offered during a seminar presentation.
Al Tompkins, The Poynter Institute's Leader for Broadcasting and Online, leads a lively discussion on what goes into making an ethical journalist.
In this Seminar Snapshot, recorded Sept. 1, 2010, at a Poynter conference on "Investigating Local Government on a Budget," participants listen to and weigh in on all the ways a story can be written fairly or unfairly.
It's fun to watch as they get epiphanies on just how powerful their words are -- and just how much damage they can do if not weighed carefully.
What Will I Learn:
- How having ethics will empower you to write great stories.
- That you can't think of causing no harm but causing as little as necessary.
- There are 100 ways to tell a story but many of them much less fair than others.
- How your eyes can deceive you.
- That going undercover for a story should be your last resort.
- It's not only words that can be unethical, it's photos, too.
Who should take this course:
This course is for anyone who writes or edits stories. It's also for anyone who wants proof that journalists do indeed take their jobs very seriously -- and always try to do the right thing. It's a fresh and lively take on a subject that journalists deal with on a daily basis.
Al Tompkins
Al Tompkins is Senior Faculty/Broadcast and Online at The Poynter Institute. He is the author of Aim for the Heart: A Guide for TV Producers and Reporters, which is being used by more than 70 universities as their main broadcast writing textbook, and the Poynter NewsU course Reporting, Writing for TV and the Web: Aim for the Heart. He is also the author of Telling Memorable Video Stories, a video tutorial series at Poynter's NewsU. You can follow him on Twitter at @atompkins.
Tompkins teaches in seminars at Poynter and teaches at workshops and conferences on the road. He has been a presenter at national conventions for IRE, RTDNA, NABJ, NAHJ, AAJA, Unity, NLGJA, PRNDI and NPPA. Since 1998, he has taught seminars and workshops in 41 states and four countries.
