Athens
Donator
First of all, welcome to Newspeak Network. This guide will cover most of the basics of journalism and especially crime journalism. The guide will assist you in learning how to become a journalist and help you integrate a journalism faction. This guide's purpose is to guide you through how NSN processes and deals with the news. You should know that this guide will not tell you exactly how to roleplay being a journalist, but rather guide you towards that. It teaches you the basics of journalism and how to begin your roleplay. We hope this guide will bring forth and assist many people who are interested in roleplaying journalists.
Foundation of Journalism
Journalism is not about writing news; it is far more than that. Journalism is essentially the act of reporting news along-side the network’s views and goals. Essentially, you are not just a guy/girl that gets on the microphone, acting like a programmed AI, always happy. This is a flaw I see in many journalists. In theory, journalism is about neutrality in reporting, however, in reality, it is not about neutrally reporting what has happened, but rather your view on it. Say, for example, a town in Red County has recently fallen into a large gang war. What you would do is report on it with your feelings written in the comment. Do not just tell people what happened, instead tell them what they could think, should they react positively or negatively to this news. Should they be scared, angry, frustrated, happy, or sad? It is determined by how you write the articles and the words you use, our subconscious essentially translates these words without our consciousness even realizing, for example, using “Us vs. them”, etc.
To expand on this, you must realize that we, as journalists, are the only connection between isolated groups. Most factions on RCRP are isolated groups of close-knit friends, which means, that forums, role-play and discord are the only connections between these groups. Sometimes, these factions do not role-play together or they do not get along enough to be communicating in discord. This means, that the forum is the only region on RCRP where ideas can be exchanged between factions. However, that is speaking about the player’s mind OOCly, speaking ICly, NSN is the only IC connection that reaches all factions.
The Reporting of News
News is not just a certain event at a certain angle, it is more than that, it is an event that can be viewed in millions of angles. Let’s look at an example from real life. The death of George Floyd triggered the BLM protests. Leftist media such as CNN, VOX and more choose to cover the protests as a kind of liberation with thousands following it peacefully, they always cover them positively. On the other hand, rightist news such as FOX News portrays these protests as an extremely violent riot that loots thousands of businesses. That is exactly how your approach should be with the news. When you look at the information you have, you should decide first what angle you should take, should you attack, defend or stay neutral. Let’s take SASP to expand on our example. SASP recently arrested an individual; they then accidentally killed him during the arrest. You could either defend SASP, claiming that they were arresting a dangerous individual who broke the law, OR you could take the other approach and attack the SASP, stirring people against them. One last approach, which is not favourable, is taking total neutrality as if you are writing a thesis. However, this is not favourable as it is not engaging and does not match NSN’s views.
Your choice of wording is essentially what makes the difference.
Attacking:
“If the situation continues on this scale, then deaths could reach 450 deaths per month. Those 450 deaths are 1/6th of a 9/11 happening in Blueberry every month. The shootout involved multiple gangs around the area including Hispanic-Americans, Neo-Nazis (Skinheads), African-Americans and even the SASP. Bodies are filling the streets with nobody still alive to clean it up, left to decompose, not even the gang members’ families are brave enough to venture out into the street and pick their dead son’s body.”
Defending:
“If the situation continues on this scale, then deaths could reach 450 deaths per month. Those 450 deaths are 1/6th of a 9/11 happening in Blueberry every month. The shootout involved troubled youth groups from various ethnicities include Hispanic-Americans, Whites, African-Americans and even the local police force. Bodies are filling the streets due to the poverty bound to the town of Blueberry. Yet the teenagers who make up the ranks of the groups are forced to kill each other for their survival from poverty.”
You can see in the first example, the gangs are bashed for their actions against one another and are essentially portrayed as bloody psychopaths while in the second example you can see that they are portrayed as the victims of poverty. It is the same news except what you choose to put on the spotlight, how you word it and portray the subjects in the story.
The best way to think of news is describing a fight. A has a verbal fight with you. B is a spectator. A would describe the event as him being the victim oftentimes, what you did to annoy him and how you started the fight. On the other hand, you would describe it as you being the victim and how he was the one that started the fight. B on the other hand would describe the situation where it escalates; he does not mention what A did or what you did. He could take a side and describe it as A starting it or you starting it. It depends on your relationship with B.
Crime Journalism
Crime Journalism is a slightly complicated subject, however, I will try to cover the basics. Your first objective is finding your target, is he a mobster, gangster or a serial killer? Your target will heavily depend on your approach and you simply cannot use the same approach for all. You should know whether, your target desperate for money, or your target is desperate for prestige and acknowledgement. It all depends on who your target is and what he wants. For example, a gangster would more likely accept cash in exchange for an interview; however, this approach will not work for a mobster as they are not tight for cash as a gangster could be. You need to realize that while mobsters are desperate for cash, they are not impoverished and if they are a made-man then they most likely have enough cash to last them a few years. A gangster on the other hands is an impoverished individual born in an impoverished region where cash rarely slips by, most of their cash comes from their hustling and you as a journalist are one of their hustles. By determining who your target is, you can find the best and most suitable way to approach him.
Firstly, you should avoid at all looking like a federal agent or a detective, for example, do not show up with a suit in a black premier in a Palomino hood. The more normal you are and look, the less likely they would be suspicious of you. You should identify yourself to them; give them proof such as your work I.D or other items that may confirm your identity to them. You should know that criminals prefer anonymity; so of course, mentioning that they would be fully anonymous would make them more likely to accept your offer.
Another thing, remember that gangsters and such are desperate individuals, who will attempt to bully you in any way possible, do not let them push you and do not push back. For example, you would offer them cash after the interview is over, not before, not during. What this means is, gangsters will always attempt to manipulate situations to their favour with as less loss to them as possible. What this means is that, less information for you and more cash lining their pockets.
An interview may proceed on in a private area, once your interview has started, you should let them talk, remember, you should attempt to make the interview as much of a “chat” as possible. What most people would do is constantly asking questions, this causes pressure and stress on your subject. Simply, let them speak and let them talk, asking an only broad question. For example “How is your daily life like here?” They might mention events that recently happen or more, on the opposite side “What recently happened around here?” would simply pressure them into giving you a broad answer back.
Lastly, you should know that your safety is important, do not act tough in-front of these individuals and speak with respect without insult. They are the ones who have a weapon, ready for use, while you simply have a camera.
Political Bias
As an individual, you are allowed the freedom of writing in your articles; however, your political bias must not conflict with the Network. Meaning, you could be conservative and attack gangs and such, however fully displaying your bias is not allowed. NSN is a leftist news network, what this means is that it sometimes supports impoverished communities, more diversity-friendly, etc. However, NSN and the employees of NSN are separate entities. What this means, is that NSN releases leftist-friendly article while the individuals in NSN could have a very different goal in mind. Think of bias as hints with a girl, sometimes a girl might hint something mid-sentence and it’s up to you to catch it.
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