Associated Press Reporting Handbook

This book seemed to be speaking mostly to war correspondents or extreme journalists. Much of the information was not helpful to a small town journalist who is just looking for tips on how to interview and ethics.

Most of the book consisted of examples of great writing. All you have to do is pick up the front page of any large newspaper and you will get high quality examples of journalism. I thought this was completely unnecessary. Not what I expected.

The "Associated Press Reporting Handbook" is not so much a how-to handbook as it is a series of glimpses behind the scenes to see how reporters work and what it takes to create the magic that makes it into print.

Rather than acting as an all-knowing instructor, Jerry Schwartz treats the reader as a fellow journalist who might be able to learn from the other reporters he introduces. The majority of the book reads like a collection of human interest stories in which the subjects are the reporters and specific examples of the stories they produced. Every chapter begins with an AP article and is followed by the story behind the story as told by the journalists themselves. This makes the book both enjoyable and incredibly informative because it gives real world examples of what it takes to be a good journalist, what goes into a great story and many of the factors and circumstances a non-journalist would never even consider.

Schwartz does a good job of covering different types of stories and situations (overseas reporting, investigative journalism, etc) so just about every journalist should be able to find something useful.

Those considering a career in journalism will probably benefit most from this book as will those new journalists just learning the ropes or trying to find their niche. Seasoned pros may enjoy reading the experiences of other journalists and may even pick up some ideas, but I think those who will benefit most from this book will be the rookies.