Chapter six of Jonathan Kern’s book Sound Reporting teaches a very tough truth in the opening paragraph: the job of an editor is a demanding and often thankless job. Afterward however, the chapter delves into tips and tricks for editing stories.

1. Story structure can vary dramatically, with the focus of the story being structured “vertically” or “horizontally.” While vertical stories are in-depth reports that narrow into a single idea, horizontal reports have an overarching, “wide view” theme of a news event. (pp. 94-95)
2. There are various ways to tell a story, and while writing to the actualities is always key, the book advises against the simplistic “connect-the-dots” approach, where the reporter structures the story around the various sound bites he or she has. Sometimes it’s easy– chronological or geographical stories are structured for the reporter, but other possibilities include the “interrupted action” or illustrating the problem. (pp. 97-99)
3. Copyediting is a major part of the editing process, and things to avoid producing in reports include echoes (consonant actualities and lead-ins), unidentified actualities and convoluted identifications. While copyediting can go a long way toward eliminating these devices, that’s not always the case, so Kern advises the best practice or listening to the report and reading the copy at the same time. (pp. 108-111)

Meanwhile, chapter twelve of Kenneth Kobre’s Photojournalism: The Professionals’ Approach covers the varying aspects of multimedia as they relate to journalism, a relevant and useful topic for prospective journalists, particularly in a generation where knowledge of those tools is becoming nothing short of vital.

1. The book answers an often-asked question of whether to interview or photograph a subject first by suggesting the best practice might be to interview, photograph, then follow up, so sound and visuals can best coalesce with each other. (p. 274)
2. Kobre includes some interesting tips for interviewing, and while some are fairly obvious (listen, ask follow ups, ask open-ended questions), others aren’t. Among those, the book recommends asking questions in pairs, including your answer in the question, and pausing after responses to allow a subject time to fill in, all of which could make for better actualities. (pp. 280-281)
3. Another interesting suggestion Kobre makes is to interview subjects in their active environments. Interviewing people while they are at work gives what the book calls “a more immediate feel to an interview”, allows for better ambient sound and often contributes to producing a better story. (pp. 281, 286)
4. A useful tip that the chapter closes on can be applied toward our upcoming photo/audio story. Kobre writes about pacing one’s photographs; on one hand, you don’t want to bombard the viewer with multiple images in a short time, but you need enough images so as to keep their attention through the story. As a general rule of thumb, 3-7 seconds for each photograph seems sufficient. (p. 305)