I can't tell who said what in this thread, but my comments are directed at
whoever wrote: "They taught me to write about what I know".

May I suggest that you probably have a very good case for a tuition refund?
"Write about what you know" is the mantra of creative writing courses, not
J-school.

Think of everyone you know, and what their job is. There is no way a
journalist, or anyone else, can be an expert in all of those fields.

Your beeper goes off at 3:00 AM, drive 50 miles into the middle of nowhere,
and there's your story. You don't have the slightest idea what you are
looking at, and there are no experts around to explain it. And what does a
real journalist do? He/she looks at the camera and says:

"I am standing in front of a vast crater, approximately one mile across. I
cannot determine how deep it is, some type of smoke is wafting up from the
bottom. The crater is surrounded by large, unidentifiable, torn and broken
pieces of metal, each about four to five feet long and two or three feet
thick."

That's how the pros do it. You don't need to know anything about it to
report it, as long as you stick to what you observe with your senses. If you
know something about the story, put that information in, but only what you
actually know. And keep your BS detector on high; possessing a uniform
doesn't make someone an expert, neither does possessing a degree.



"gatt" wrote in message
...

"Jack" wrote in message news:

gatt wrote:

Did they teach you the difference between aerodynamic
and mechanical stall in high school?

They taught me to write about what I know.

Did you take any coursework in Journalism, then, or did their teaching
fail
you? How do you "know" how the media works?

=-c