Beats, Spot News, and Reporting Assignments

Reporters spend much of their careers covering spot news, which dominates the contents of all radio and TV newscasts. Spot news includes fires, accidents, holdups, and other incidents that occur every day, with varying frequency, in every city and town in the nation. Regardless of whether stories are planned, spontaneous, or enterprised, the newsroom must also decide who will cover a given assignment. In some situations, this is fairly straightforward; a basketball piece will fall to the sports reporter, whereas a medical update is given to the health reporter. This chapter covers these specializations, as beat reporters are looked on as the newsroom’s resident experts on a topic. There is also a discussion on the theories of how to cover spot news appropriately, especially those stories that may trigger an emotional response. Further, this chapter discusses the most common types of spot news story. In a fast paced newsroom, the producer or assignment editor may have limited choices regarding who can be dispatched to a breaking story. Although it is not ideal for a business reporter to cover a crime story, it is not uncommon. The ability to cover a broad number of spot stories, in addition to having a solid background in a given beat, makes any reporter a more valuable addition to the newsroom.