How would you balance the need for speed and accuracy in the breaking news reporting process?

How To Approach: Associate

  1. Reflect on practical experiences in the field.
  2. Outline your strategy or methodology for balancing speed with accuracy.
  3. Application of tools or software to aid the process.
  4. Share a concrete example where you had to balance the two.

Sample Response: Associate

In my career as a journalist, I've always been faced with the constant juggle of speed and accuracy in news reporting. First and foremost, I believe it's essential to build a broad set of reliable sources. Secondly, I always ensure to cross-check information from multiple sources.

I've also found modern tools like fact-checking software extremely useful in speeding up the verification process. In one instance, I received a hot tip on a political scandal. While it was tempting to break the story immediately, I held back to ensure my facts were right. I cross-checked the details using various sources, used fact-checking tools to verify the information and even went through the legal implications with our in-house attorney. We were not the first to break the story, but ours was more comprehensive and accurate, which was appreciated by our readers.