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| This explains the use of the stages & ingredients of SM-14 for story and investigative reporting. It will help if you review the areas mentioned below (from The Scientific Method Today booklet) as we proceed.
Curious Observation -- Stage #1: Most stories originate in curious observation. You develop your senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting to find news. Read other periodicals extensively; listen. Creativity and curious observation are used in every stage. Is There A Problem? -- Stage #2: Having found or been assigned a newsworthy problem that needs reporting or investigating, you have to analyze it thoroughly and then define it. Goals and Planning -- Stage #3: Set your goals and plan how to reach them. Plan along the lines of the old guides of Who, What, Where, Why, How, and When. Meet deadlines. Search, Explore, and Gather the Evidence -- Stage #4: Get all the information, not relying on rumors. Look for various angles, leads, differences, or surprise discoveries. Utilize all resources. Challenge all “facts.” Ask experts and others the right questions. Make notes. Generate Creative and Logical Alternative Solutions --Stage #5: While searching, load your mind; then watch for rest-illumination, gradual insight, or illumination triggered by reading or other activities. Use imaginative, skeptical, reflective thinking. Evaluate the Evidence -- Stage #6: Now start to whip your story into shape. Evaluate and recognize pertinent, important and unusual data. Need more data? Check for accuracy. Make the Educated Guess (Hypothesis) -- Stage #7: Put the beginning, middle, and end of your story into working shape in a form that the public can understand. Challenge the Hypothesis -- Stage #8: Hold on! There are libel suits and critical chief editors to be dealt with. Challenge, review, and polish your story so that everything is in order. Reach a Conclusion -- Stage #9: You challenged all phases of your story. If necessary, you’ve backtracked and modified. You then reach a conclusion that your story is okay and that you’re helping readers attain real world smarts. Suspend Judgment -- Stage #10: Conceit and bias have no place in reporting. You tried hard, but keep an open mind about your conclusions. Others will be challenging you! Take Action -- Stage #11: Finally, you are ready to submit your story for review or to go to press with it. Acceptance will be easier if you followed SM-14. Supporting Ingredients #12-13-14: Creative, Non-Logical, Logical and Technical Methods (#12) all are used in reporting as are procedural principles and theories (#13), and attributes and thinking skills (#14). |
