What's your source?

As outlined in every "How to" guide about the occupation, journalists are obligated to maintain their credibility for readers. Their sources must be carefully selected and reliable, and their articles must be concise and succint. Unfortunately, with the constant flow of news, journalists can simply get lazy.

For example, take the article, "Fatal fire guts downtown townhouse complex under construction," written by Natalie Alcoba of the National Post. In the first grafs, Alcoba writes about a Tim Baubie and his reaction to a fire in Toronto. The reader is not given any details as to who Baubie is, or why his opinions have been deemed important enough to base an entire article around. In fact, it isn't until the last few grafs when Alcoba finally slips in the line, "Mr. Baubie, a supervisor for the TTC." That's it? How is that relevant? We are forced to read through the majority of an article, not knowing who the main source is, and then, when we are given information, it just doesn't seem enough.

Along with the enigmatic Baubie, Alcoba includes another source. This time, a Captain Mike Strapko with Toronto Fire, is attributed. His place in the article seems right: a firefighter on the scene, discussing the five Ws of the tragedy. Baubie, on the other hand, seems out of place.

Here, it is evident why sources are so important. With the above case, instead of focusing on the actual news story, the reader may be left wondering, "Who the heck is this guy, and why is he so important?" The lack of credible sources, in this case, renders the article ineffective because the reader is not given a sense of who this Mr. Baubie is.

Similarily, in the article, "Darfuris face execution in beheading," the announcement of the sentencing of ten Darfuris to death by hanging for the beheading of a Sudanese journalist is attributed to "statemedia," or the Sudanese Media Centre. A specific individual is not given, and the reader is not given any information to confirm the source's credibility.

Sources and credibility are absolutely necessary in order to supply readers with the most accurate of news, and to avoid any possible backlash (i.e. lawsuits) from information that may be incorrect or offensive. Sourcing, in turn, becomes vital to an article's credibility because the more reliable a source is, the more likely readers will believe a journalist's word to be true. And is that not what they get paid to do?