The principles of reporting are the fundamental Guidelines and standards followed by Journalists and other communicators for creating stories articles or any informative content. It helps in proper management and planning, These principles maintain fairness, accuracy, and integrity while reporting.
Hence, some principles of reporting are followed for making the reporting system more effective and interesting, these principles of reporting are explained below.
Principles of reporting:
Accuracy:
A report should be accurate and true. check the report twice before submitting it. You should have a habit of cross-checking the report to maintain accuracy. A single word can change the whole angle of view of the report.
So always check the report after completed, Because if you publish the wrong report there’s no chance to re-correct it in print media.
For example: If any famous personality passes away and you mistakenly write another’s name and report printed in a newspaper, so you are not able to improve your mistake, you should have a habit of rechecking.
Fairness and Balance:
The report should be fair and true, This means you have to be fair and you can’t choose one side You should treat equally both sides. In a situation, where you don’t like the opposite party But you have to be fair to both parties.
Do not try to show your side of view to the audience. You can’t get biased because you are the one whose duty is to show the truth to the audience.
For example: If two political rival parties are standing against each other and you like one of them And you decide to write well about your favorite party and bad about the other party. So you are breaking the principle of reporting. You have to be fair in any condition.
Timing:
Timing is an important part of the reporting. Reporting should be done before the deadline, this time the most important because News after the deadline is of no use. Every day and every hour new news comes in this field and you have to prepare the report in the same given time. Because after the passage of time, there is no use for that report.
For example: If a bus accident happens and you get the news of that bus accident after two days, then that news will be of no use Its proper timing has passed.
Completeness:
A report should be completed properly because if you give incomplete information the reader will confused and misunderstand the information. Reporters are supposed to write every detail of information in their reports.
For example: If there is a fight between two leaders, and you write wrongly about one without one, the whole thing then it gives a bad impression to the public. Viewers will not trust you again after this. So think before writing anything without knowing the whole story.
Clarity and simplicity :
A journalist is supposed to use easy and clear language in their report, Report should be presented in a very simple form and can be clearly understood by anybody.
Because our target audience is very vast and not everybody is too literate always understand jargon( special Or technical words that are used By a particular group of people in a particular profession And normal people can’t understand) and complex words.
For example: If you use high or difficult words in your report normal people won’t understand it and do not want to read your article again.
Ethical Considerations:
Our report should be made under the proper guidelines and responsibility. It means that you should respect others’ personal life and You don’t have the right to ask anything without their permission. You should respect their privacy.
For example: Such incidents happen, mostly with celebrities, There has to remain good in front of the world, so they never protest these things.
Independence:
A reporter should always support the truth and should not write lies due to the greed of money. If you do this once, you will never be able to write freely after that. Such things happen, mostly in politics.
For example, Political parties give money to reporters, and they write according to their wishes. Political parties have always written bad things for an opposition party so that people oppose them.
conclusion
In conclusion, the principles of reporting are important guidelines that journalists and communicators follow to uphold fairness, accuracy, independence, and integrity in their work. These principles include accuracy, fairness and balance, timing, completeness, and independence.
By following these principles of reporting reporters are able to reliable and unbiased information to their audience, and by this, they can get public trust. I also prepared an article on Elements of reporting, for more information stay connected with me.
