Angie Pitt's response
- How
do you gather your sources?
Lots of different ways! I look for
reliable information - this often means contacting somebody who knows about the
subject I’m covering (an eyewitness, an expert, an official spokesperson) but
you may also have to look for other sources, like statistics or old stories
about the issue. You need to make sure your sources are reliable - where are
you getting the information from? Do you trust the source? Don’t forget to
credit your source - if the figures you are quoting are from the local council,
say that is where you got them!
- Do
you get a lot of negative comments and criticism about your
job?
Not really. The BBC sometimes gets
criticised in the media and we have to be aware of people’s concerns - we
are funded by licence fee payers so we have to make sure we’re listening to
what our audience is saying.
- How
do you target your audience?
I think about what they need to know,
want to know and might be interested to know! I also think about the best way
to give them that information. I work with schools, teachers and young people,
so I try to understand what’s going on in those worlds - which means keeping up
on the news that relates to them! I read about education, learning and issues
affecting young people. It’s really important to listen - so I try to learn
from what teachers and young people tell me!
- How
far would you go to get information on a particular news or event?
BBC journalists have a responsibility to
be fair, accurate and ethical - we have lots of guidelines about how we can
ensure we are living up to that. I would always follow those guidelines - it’s
important that we do the right thing. We can always discuss our plans with our
colleagues and editors as well. Lots of journalists are incredibly brave
and go to very dangerous places - like war zones for example - to bring
important stories to us. I really admire those people - without them, there
would be huge gaps in what we know about really important things that are
happening in the world.
- How
does modern/new technology help you in the news industry?
A lot! A smartphone can enable you to
take photos, shoot video and record audio, then send it back to the newsroom to
be published within minutes. I started working at the BBC four years ago and
people told me about how making the news used to be done years ago - recording
on tapes, having to physically slice the tape to edit a radio piece. I never
had to do that!
I learnt that reliability and usefulness plays a huge role in extracting
information, also most journalists produce primary research therefore they need
not worry about reliability. The BBC are led by the British public because it
is paid through TV licencing, therefore the newscasts must reflect the opinions
and thoughts of the British public. On the whole journalists do not get
criticised individually but as a radio organisation (if they do face
criticisms). The method used to target a certain audience is based on their
interests, majority of it comes from shadowing young people and teachers. This
is useful because journalists know how to grab the attention of their audience
by having close contact with them. There are codes and guidelines in which a
journalist must comply to. Some journalists travel to different countries to
broadcast the information. Some also tend to go to war zones providing accurate
and ethical information. Journalists and many business live on technology. It
make the service easier- you can record, shoot photos and videos which can be
broadcasted within minutes if given to the newsroom quickly. Technology has
helped us understand the world more as there are oversea journalists which can
be broadcasted live.
