Rules for reporting meetings and speeches

Journalists new to a beat often take the easy route when it comes to reporting on regularly scheduled meetings: They recount the meeting agenda item by agenda item. From a NEWS point of view, we want to lead with the most important, most significant or most earthshaking event or action taken during the meeting.

Very rarely is this the first item on the agenda. Often the most significant part of a meeting is buried deep or may not even be on the agenda except in vague terms like "other matters." Also it is common practice to break coverage of a significant meeting into several stories. In this situation, one of your stories may focus on just one agenda item. Another story may focus on several related items. A third story may be devoted to reporting on less significant matters.

Speeches (such as political stumping) can be thought of in the same way: Your job as a reporter is not to just retell the speech. Your job is to seize upon what is most significant and to build your story (or stories) around the newsworthy words.

To guide you through reporting on meetings and speeches, following a few rules should help you.

Rule 1: Come straight to the point.

Tell what happened, what was said or what action was taken.

Never start a story "X ... will meet ..." or "X ...met ..." or "X ... will speak ..." or "X ... spoke."

Bad Example: "Texas Tech Regents Thursday and Friday met to discuss a varied agenda of matters important to the future of the campus. Among matters on the agenda were library expansion, increased lab fees, and parking rate hikes."

Always begin by telling your audience what they (X) will (did) do. Tell what is at issue. Tell what "X" resolved to do (or did do). Tell what X said, not that X spoke.

Better Example:"Two major building projects on the Texas Tech campus may be one step closer to completion, pending approval by the university's Board of Regents Thursday and Friday."

Corollary 1: Specifically report what is unique

Don't be generic. Tell how this event (a school board meeting) is clearly distinct from other events like it (other school board meetings).

Bad Example: "The Lubbock City Council will hold a city council meeting work session Thursday, February 9, at 8:30 a.m. The council will discuss regular agenda items along with new business."

Note how this lead could be used for any council meeting, any work session. Contrast this with the next example.

Better Example: "Lubbock City Council Thursday will decide whether to help bring a professional baseball team to town."

Rule 2: After an event, tell what is NEWs

This goes back to Rule 1. But simply stated, it means we want to know NOW what we did NOT know before. Don't tell us again what was on the city agenda; tell us what action the city took. On a speech, you do NOT report what a great person the speaker is and what he/she has done. Tell us what the speaker said.

Rule 3: Always report the debate on an issue

Tell who took what stand on the issue. Quote people. Give their names. Names are news. The Press, as a constitutionally guaranteed participant in the process of governing ourselves, needs to give the citizenry the information its members need to make intelligent decisions (including voting for candidates and ballot measures) about governing their lives.