Reporter's notebook

September 25, 2009 7:07 AM

Journalists' notes: how do they take them, store them and reference them later?

I am looking for resources and tips on how journalists take and manage notes, especially how they store them for later reference.

I've read this question but specifically I'm looking for info on the actual taking of notes and then organizing/filing them away once the story is finished.

posted by Brittanie to writing & language (9 comments total)

My journalism professor, a former editor at Harpers, used Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes as a textbook. It's focused more on deep writing than on, say, reportage of the arson over on Fifth and Vine, but it's very useful. As for how people reference notes later, most of the journalists I've talked to or read about say "whichever way works for you." Michael Pollan described his technique: For each story he's working on, he creates one reference document. Every day at the end of the day, he adds to that document by putting in everything he wrote, thought, remembers, quoted, anyone he met with, their quotes, etc. He does a section break for each day, but it's all in one file. Then he has another file going where he's doing the actual writing of the story. That may be one file, or multiple files if chapters are large or have their own tangents. (To leverage technology even more, I'd add tags to the file each day as well, to help you find material at a later date.)
posted by cocoagirl at 7:33 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]

My friend is married to a tv reporter. She said he has a drawer in the bedside table filled with reporters notebooks in piles, rubberbanded by date. Probably this isn't the ideal technique you're looking for.
posted by toastedbeagle at 8:00 AM on September 25

Actually, that is an idea. I'm more concerned with the physical paperwork than any kind of digital organizational system (I'm think in terms of saving notes for legal purposes, later reference, etc.)

Right now I write in a notebook, then tear out the pages for each story and staple them together. Date them and tag them with the story topic, them place them in a file labeled with the publication name in order of story date.

I am a freelancer working on many different stories for different publications at a time. I am wondering if I should just keep a running notebook of notes instead of tearing pages out all the time. I do not like my system and am looking for other (better) ideas.
posted by Brittanie at 8:05 AM on September 25

I keep mine organised like this. The first page of an interview has the name and title of the person. The left-hand column is so I can note any good quotes, remember to check spellings and write down any questions that arose in the conversation. The bottom of the page will always be the name and date of the interview. The folded-over page is so I can glance at my questions without turning pages.

For research, it's all the same, except the title of the source and the quotes are at the top of the page.

On the front of the book is the date I started and date I finish the book. I keep all of my books in chronological order...I expect I'll have to start scanning them soon.
posted by katiecat at 8:07 AM on September 25

My mother has been a journalist for about 25 years. She uses reporters' notebooks. On the cover she writes the dates covered and names of interviewees. These are rubber-banded together and stored in copier paper boxes. Other copier paper boxes hold her clips. Yes, it's bulky and messy, but it means the clips don't get damaged, and aren't mixed with the notes, which are only used in rare cases.
posted by Miko at 11:13 AM on September 25

I suspect it will depend on the nature of the reportage. I have a friend in radio and I highly doubt she intentionally retains the notes at all once they've been used for the story in question. It seems like an ever-changing, forward-looking profession. There are notebooks laying around her place but they don't appear to be organized in any fashion.
posted by Pomo at 11:27 AM on September 25

My apt is filled with tottering piles of notebooks. None of them are organized or labeled or dated and I honestly can read maybe 10% of the scrawl they contain. It can take me 5 minutes of puzzling over one to figure out what the story was, and often I can't figure it out at all. Sometimes I get in a decluttering mood and just throw some out.
That said, I'm not an investigative reporter and I don't like to do long-term projects, which means I've never ever needed to look at any of them. The only information they might contain that I'd need - phone numbers - are already transferred to a source list. And indeed, one of the times I was subpoenaed, I was actually advised that the less extant notes you have the better: you want to testify to the accuracy of what you reported, and no further. Not sure how good that legal advice was, though. Most people I know keep their notes for at least a few years.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:30 AM on September 25

I used a reporter's notebook, drew a line straight down the middle, took shorthand notes (half T-line and half my own) on each side, scribbled the date in the top right hand corner and the interviewee name along the bottom of the page, along with the story slug. I'd try and flick back through the day, for example while I was on hold on the phone or whatever, to make sure each page had the info on it. I also dated the front of the notebook with the first interview date and the last interview date in that book. I'd always start a new page for each interview. Special trips / projects got their own notebook.

I had little scribbled icons that I'd circle on the left of my notes. So ''!'' was for a good story idea that came up in the course of the interview, that I wanted to follow up later; ''?'' was for a WTF of one sort or another, ''#'' was for contact details.

I stashed each finished notebook in archive boxes under my desk with the most recent books on top. When I was *super* organised (rarely) I would scribble the interviewee / story names on the inside cover of each book. I never, ever dug into the boxes, but I did sometimes flick through books that I hadn't stashed yet, that were still floating around on my desk or in my overflowing ''to file'' tray.

When I took notes on a computer, I'd just open up a word document, name it with the date in year, month, day order and the interviewee's name and file it in a folder called ''Interviews''. So 2080721 Bob Smith.doc, for example.
posted by t0astie at 5:03 PM on September 25

One note about rubber bands: they tend to disintegrate and (a) snap and (b) stick to things.
posted by kristi at 9:47 AM on September 30