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Reading an interactive graphics "book" to learn the fundamentals.

START HERE 1) What is the news? 2) Who tells us the news? 3) Why is the news important? 4) How is the news made? 5) Where can I find the news? 6) How do I tell if information is real? 7) What is media bias?

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  • 4) How is the news made?

    Tap the side arrows to navigate. (Pro tip: You can also swipe if you're on a phone or tablet!)

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    Journalists follow a specific process in order to publish a news story.

  • A news story begins with an idea or new piece of information.

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  • Like a new mayor getting elected or a big investigation.

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  • A journalist starts by figuring out these key points:

    • What is the story about?
    • When and where did this happen?
    • Who is involved?
    • How did this happen?

  • From there, a journalist will interview people who know about or are a part of the news.

  • Journalists will ask objective, or fair, questions to use in the news story.

  • A journalist can interview any number of people for a story.

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  • The more sources, or people interviewed, the better the story can potentially be.

  • When writing, journalists begin with the most important information at the top. From there, they will try to answer all the questions that someone might have.

  • This kind of writing looks like an upside-down pyramid.

  • It's important for journalists to attribute, or give credit, to people they've interviewed or are using information from.

  • This is so the person seeing the news knows the information is accurate and honest.

  • Once finished writing, a journalist will give their story to their editor.

  • Editors are very experienced journalists.

  • Editors make sure the other journalists are doing the best reporting and writing they possibly could be.

  • An editor checks over the news, makes changes to the writing, and asks questions about the information.

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  • After an editor approves a news story, the story is often sent to more people for even more checking.

  • The goal is to make sure everything is accurate and truthful.

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    Once everything is approved, the news story can then be published and read by everyone in the public.

  • Journalists are regular people, just like you and me, and sometimes journalists make mistakes.

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  • If this happens, journalists will fix the mistake and explain what happened.

  • Mistakes don't happen too often because of all the checking and editing,

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    but journalists should always be honest about when mistakes happen.

  • This is how journalists, too, take accountability!