Some experienced reporters said that the journalism school is a waste of time. They thought reporters should go directly to work in the media if they could write. But could a good writer become a good reporter?
At least not in business journalism. Accurancy and factual is the most important character when reporting a rumor in the market. Yes, reporters should report rumor, but how to report rumor is more important than rumor itself.
A Chinese business newspaper today reported (the story is quoted in Sina.com, sorry in Chinese) a follow story on Shanda's acquistion of Sina.com. The headline is "Shanda bought Sina aiming at cooperating with Microsoft. Wow, it was big news at the first sight. But after reading the story I couldn't find any evidence supporting its headline in the context. The story said that Shanda was planning to get into the market of digital set-up box, a equipement connecting TV and PC(Microsoft tried the marketing several years ago), and acquistion of Sina.com may be part of the plan, according to source close to the company. Also, the Chairman of Shanda visited Microsoft last week, and a senior manager in Microsoft said that there was opportunity to cooperate with Shanda on the digital set-up box. But no people or source said in the story that the acquistion of Sina is aimed at cooperating with Microsoft, nor it could be a condition in the negotiation between Shanda and Microsoft. Then how did reporters get to the conclusion? Just in the three of "A love B, and B love C, so there must be some relation between A and C"?
Reporters are not analysts, partly because analysts could guess or speculate on something, but reporters can't.
That's the reason I am addicted to my business journalism class, where you could know what is good, what is bad, and what you should do in the future.
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1 comment:
hehe, how about the feeling being the writer and scientist-in-training?
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