How to cover hot topics in the news: Lessons shared by veteran journalists Mark Hamrick, Angela Greiling Keane
- Rick Dunham
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
By HAN VU
Global Business Journalism reporter
In an age of policy whiplash, economic uncertainty and information overload, explaining complex issues to the public has become one of journalism’s most demanding tasks. Drawing on decades in U.S. business and political journalism, Mark Hamrick and Angela Greiling Keane told Global Business Journalism program students that clear reporting begins long before the first sentence is written.
“You have to understand what you’re dealing with before you can translate it for someone else,” Hamrick, the Washington bureau chief and senior economic analyst for Bankrate.com said during a Zoom session on Dec. 8.
He illustrated this point with a personal anecdote from his early exposure to journalism. As a teenager working at a local radio station in Kansas, he watched an experienced sportscaster deliver a long,
coherent broadcast after only briefly consulting wire copy. The lesson, reinforced later by his father, a newspaper editor, stayed with her throughout his career: mastery of the subject allows journalists to communicate with clarity and confidence.
Understanding starts with source development
At the Associated Press, where he worked as a broadcast journalist for many years, Hamrick said he sometimes saw reporters struggle because they sat down to write scripts before they fully understood the issue at hand. While acknowledging that journalists do not always have the luxury of time, he said time spent in advance developing sources and studying hot topics in the news can pay off with moments of clarity under deadline pressure. These conversations, he noted, also can spark ideas for future stories.
"I would encourage you to develop as many sources as you can have," he told the Tsinghua audience. "Ask them about a range of things to understand the complicated world we live in."
Asking “basic” questions is a professional skill
One of the advantages of journalism, Hamrick told students, is the freedom to ask basic questions without stigma.
“As a journalist, you’re allowed to ask what might seem like ‘stupid questions,’” he said.
Such questions are often essential for uncovering gaps in understanding. They also are ways to fact-checking public figures or comparing inconsistent remarks made by various government officials.
Write for the people who need the explanation
Hamrick, a former president of the National Press Club, encouraged students to imagine explaining complex topics, such as the economy, financial markets, or central bank policy, to someone outside the newsroom.
“If you’re writing for people who already understand the beat, you’re probably missing your real
audience,” he said.
Hamrick suggested communicating the news this way: "How would I explain this to my mother-in-law?"
Facts matter, especially when public figures stray from them
Reporters must defend and explain the truth when reporting on hot topics, the reporters agreed. Rather than accusing public officials of lying, Greiling Keane said, responsible reporting involves placing verified facts alongside misleading claims.
"You can add a sentence," said Greiling Keane, a senior newsroom leader and former editor at Bloomberg Government and Politico. "You can state the facts."
But be careful of calling people liars.
"You would never state that somebody lied necause you don't want to ascribe intent," she emphasized.
The most important part of fact-checking is deep knowledge of the subject matter, said Greiling Keane, former president of the Journalism and Women Symposium.
"You need to know your topic and be prepared," she said. "Be ready to be able to refute them."
In print and digital journalism, this can be done by directly stating the factual record immediately after quoting an inaccurate assertion. For broadcast journalists, the challenge is greater, as responses must often happen in real time. Preparation, she stressed, is essential: knowing the topic well enough to calmly and confidently state the facts without becoming confrontational. “The power comes from being prepared,” she said, adding that audiences benefit when journalists provide clarity rather than simply amplifying falsehoods.
Making policy stories human
Greiling Keane, a former president of the National Press Club, urged students to move beyond numbers and technical language when covering policy. Reporters covering hot topics can have more impact by using personal stories describing how decisions affect real people.
She pointed to examples such as the human impact healthcare funding decisions, immigration rule changes, environmental policies and public health measures, where individual stories can illuminate broader systemic issues. Finding people willing to share their experiences often takes extra effort, she acknowledged, but many are eager to speak if they believe their stories may help others.
“Numbers matter, but people are how you bring readers in,” she said.
She emphasized the need for empathy and ethical reporting when working with vulnerable sources.
Speed, depth and the future of delivering news on hot topics
Coverage of hot topics is a bundle of contradictions. Modern news audiences increasingly want information quickly, sometimes in just a headline or a few sentences, but they also value investigative reporting, Greiling Keane said.
"They want to know fast and they want to know deep," she said.
Readers want to know what happened, why it happened and what might happen next. For journalists, this means balancing fast updates with longer-term coverage, analysis and investigative work when resources allow. Forward-looking journalism, she said, often matters more to audiences than a detailed recap of what has already happened. With the proliferation of ideological websites pushing news with a political agenda, Greiling Keane said there is room for news organizations built on facts and trust.
"There is a really important place for objective journalism," she insisted.