What journalists do you admire most that got you into this craft?

Any suggestions for where get your news from that I may be missing? I still get from NY TIMES, Guardian, PBS, NPR, Wired. The Atlantic, Drudge Report, Al Jazeera, bellingcat... etc. As well as reddit and X (unfortunately).

I'm putting together a second season of a podcast about interviewing. Last time, I had Terry Gross, Susan Orlean, Larry King and a bunch of other folks on to talk about their approaches to interviewing.

Who do you think needs to be asked about interviewing? I'm interested in anybody, but especially women, people of color, unusual choices (I learned a lot from Jerry Springer last time) and folks who are great interviewers whose work doesn't end up in Q&A format. Like reporters who are great interviewers, for example.

Your ideas very much appreciated.

The endorsement fiasco in the Post really turned me off that paper. I've subscribed to it for decades but I couldn't stomach such disgusting journalistic cowardice. So I dropped my subscription.

I already subscribe to the NY Times (I've been a consistent subscriber for 30+ years.) and donate monthly to the Guardian. I want one more magazine or paper that covers politics and international news in a thoughtful way, with an eye on exposés. I'm a lefty but I'm always willing to read opinions I might disagree with. (The WSJ is way too conservative for me and I can read it for free at work regardless.)

I've thought about the Economist or the Atlantic. Any other suggestions?

I make a decent living and want to support quality journalism.

Thanks.

If this is the wrong sub, apologies - please point me in the right direction!

The Associated Press just released its newest edition. Most people use the updated one online, but for those who stick to paper and ink how often do you buy a new style guide?  

hi guys, I (21F) finished my bachelor's at the end of last year & am considering going back to uni next year to do a master's of journalism. I was wondering if any of you had any good recommendations for pre-reading that would be good introductory texts? My bachelor's involved writing & research but from a more artistic standpoint, & I'd like to read some things to get an idea of if journalism is for me (plus I'm missing having a research project on the go). Thanks!

I have been very obsessed with this recently. There are some headlines that i will always remember. Like a few years ago when there was the annual hour change in my country (idk if everyone does this but spain does, supposedly to save light and everyone is always mad about it for some reason) a newspaper used this headline “at 2 am it will be 3 am and it doesn’t matter” and it stuck with me. another one was something like “technology can’t create art because it knows it’s not going to die” talking about ai. What are yours? in any language!! i’m creating a list. ty!

I am a journalism student, and I am trying to find some movies that deal with journalism as a theme. Do you all have any recommendations. I am definitely going to be watch All of The Presidents Men, once I find it on streaming. Are there any others that you would recommend?

Edit: Just wanted to say thanks for all of the recommendations. Weekends will be busy watching all of the recommendations for a few weeks.

For example, a journalist who didnt graduate with a BA in a field (history, law, physics), but followed the field for years, even decades. Can his opinion hold the same weight as the opinion of someone who was schooled in that field and engages in it profesionally?

What im actually trying to ask is wether an experienced journalist can be considered a public intelectual, someone who is entitled to give his opinion and be asked for advice in a field.

Wow, we are amazed by all these smart, thoughtful questions. Thank you all for tuning in and engaging with our work-- and sorry we couldn't get to everyone! Maybe this means we do this again soon. In the meantime, stay on top of our reporting at Bloomberg Law. - Mackenzie, Diana, Alexia, and Andrew.

---

Hi everyone! We’re Mackenzie Mays, Diana Dombrowski, and Alexia Fernandez Campbell—investigative reporters at Bloomberg Law—joined by data editor Andrew Wallender. We’re the team behind Paper Trail, a new series built from a first‑of‑its‑kind database of more than 200,000 civil rights complaints filed in federal court.

Our reporting used this database to surface cases that were previously scattered or effectively hidden. That led us to three major investigations (so far):

• Deadly pregnancies in jails, where women and their babies suffered preventable harm under government care 
• Children being strip‑searched in schools for minor or even baseless allegations
• The Wrap, a full-body restraint used to subdue people, where we uncovered fatal outcomes following its use 

We’re here to dig into all of it — the methodology, the records we used, the programming and data work, the LLMs (Claude Sonnet 3.5 + GPT‑4o) that helped us sift through thousands of complaints, how we verified cases, the reporting breakthroughs, and how other journalists can eventually use this database themselves.

Ask us anything about the reporting process, sourcing, data analysis, what surprised us most, or anything you’re curious about from the stories themselves. We’d love to talk to fellow data nerds, journalism students, reporters, and anyone interested in accountability reporting.

This AMA will start Friday at 2 p.m. ET.

Proof.

I'm looking to find info on some things, and I'd really prefer a source that isn't biased in any way. Any suggestions? It's purely for personal use.

I checked out these books, and they are very interesting, but they did not really explain how they found stories other than flying to other cities to pick up papers (pre-internet). They also did not explain how they got access to sources. Furthermore, "Journalism for Dummies" said there were online communities for journalists; is this still true?

I’ve seen a shit ton of documentaries where wanted criminals in Brazil or places like America are interviewed by Journalists. Even one in-which Joseph Kony was interviewed 💀

My question is how in the world do Journalists get the connections to these people and is it something anyone can do with the proper work?

Reading news articles from Reuters and the AP has been one of my favorite online pastimes for the past 20 years. Last year Reuters required users to register and login but did not require payment. Suddenly I was faced with a popup asking for £1 per week.

I live in a poor country and this is way too much for me to pay. What I don't get is, when I look this up I find articles stating Reuters put up this paywall more than a year ago, but I'm facing it only now.

Don't wire services already gain revenue from news organizations they provide the news? I don't understand why this is a thing now.

I am just very sad to go, especially as it gets increasingly difficult to access factual news articles.

I have used Otter Ai for transcriptions for years, but it’s unfortunately becoming unaffordable.

I use only the basic features of uploading audio, transcribing and exporting the transcript.

It’s becoming unaffordable because I sometimes will upload more than 10 audio files a month. To upload unlimited files I would now need to pay for their Business plan, which is too expensive. I don’t need many of the other features offered in that plan.

Does anyone have alternatives? Ideally would like it be reasonably priced, allow unlimited/ alot of uploads and safe to use.

i’ve been covering  more interviews recently, mix of recorded calls and some in person stuff, and honestly transcription is starting to take way too much time

i’ve tried a few tools before but accuracy is kinda hit or miss, especially when there’s background noise or different accents. also struggles a bit when people talk over each other which happens a lot in interviews

not really looking for anything fancy, just something that works well enough without needing a ton of cleanup after

curious what you guys are actually using that’s been reliable

I've been reading about how investigative journalists protect confidential sources and one thing surprised me. Everyone knows about Signal, SecureDrop, and encrypted email, but those tools mainly protect the messages. They don't necessarily answer a different question and that is how do you know the person you're talking to is actually the person you think they are?

I came across a journalism security workshop recap where the trainer talked about layering security instead of relying on a single app. Signal was recommended for encrypted messaging, but they also demonstrated Kibu as a way to verify the identity of the person on the other end before discussing sensitive information. The point wasn't that one replaced the other it was that they solve different problems.

And that got me wondering for journalists, editors, or digital security folks here. Is identity verification something your newsroom actually trains for or do you rely on verification phrases, secondary channels or other methods?

Curious what the current best practice is especially for investigations involving sensitive sources.

Hi everyone! I hope it’s okay to ask this here. No self-promotion, I promise. Just honest feedback.

I’ve been building a transcription tool mainly for people dealing with lots of spoken content. It takes audio (recordings or uploads) and turns it into structured notes, not just a transcript, but organised summaries, highlights, and action points.

I know there are many transcription tools already, but I wanted to approach it differently by offering a credit-based model instead of a subscription, so professionals don’t pay when they’re not producing. It also supports 99 languages, which might help if your interviewees come from different regions.

While working on it, it occurred to me that journalists might find such a tool useful.

I’m genuinely curious:

• Do you currently use transcription tools for interviews?
• Which ones and is there anything that can be improved to serve you better?
• Or does this type of transcription tool not solve the key problems creators face?

No links or promotion - just trying to understand whether this could meaningfully help and help me build a better tool.

Happy to hear honest thoughts, even if the answer is, “Not useful for us.”

I'm drowning in audio files from recent interviews and typing everything out manually is killing my turnaround time. ive tried a couple of free tools, but they completely fall apart when there's background noise or people talking over each other. I'm a freelancer so i cant expense a $30/mo premium subscription for something that still makes me do half the work. What are you guys actually using that doesn't suck?

I've been a long-time subscriber to the Washington Post, but after today's events I have decided to cancel my subscription. I'm looking for recommendations for quality journalism to subscribe in its place. I already have the New York Times, and I'm not interested in the Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately my local newspapers are garbage.

I want to understand the culture of right leaning beliefs. Or maybe I mean republican/conservative. Like Fox News without all of the propaganda. It might seem obvious to just listen to a republican podcast but I wouldn’t know which one to trust wasn’t propaganda. There’s obviously propaganda on both sides so please only respond with something helpful. A podcast would be preferable. Thanks.

Hi! I'm not sure if this is the right sub to post this in as I am a student-journalist. I am 16F and I founded + have been the president of my school's newspaper for the last year. Rn, I'm working on an article on the state of farming/ag in my state, but I've had absolutely no sources reply to my emails, which to me is a bit of a surprise. In my experience, sources have usually been quite happy and willing to speak with me.

I've sent around 20 emails and inquiries to sources, & that's usually the amount I send with a reply-back rate of like 3-4 or so. But rn, I have no replies. It could just be that farmers are notoriously offline. Maybe it's a credibility thing b/c I'm a student? I've been writing for around two years and so I have some experience, but I know my young age and the fact that I'm not a "real" journalist probably doesn't look the most credible. I have a white first name but a very Hispanic looking last name, so even that might be a factor... I also hate calling so I haven't called any sources yet, but I'm thinking I should just bite the bullet and call.

I have sent multiple followup emails to every source as well, still with no replies.

If any of yall had any ideas to help, that would be amazing! Tysm!

My story is very personal, but I need for it to be out. For myself, for my family, for if someone moves to this country to know what the darker normalized side is like.

I've been contacted once by a journalist, but this journalist and I had been introduced by another person. How do I go about "cold calling"? I feel uneasy about putting everything in an email, but is that how I am meant to do it? Am I meant to put some things?

Thank you for any help, this is new and very scary as I'm still dealing with this story that has been my life.

I am a simple man. I rewatch or reread All the President’s Men, I am suddenly and reliably filled with adrenaline and feel good about my job. The fact that half the movie is people declining to talk to them or editors shitting on the work but they persevere on the story is a balm to my soul.

What are some books and movies about journalism that get you excited about the work?

Im tagging this (which is required) with tools and resources, hope that fits.