Interview log
One row per interview, a corrections table, and a short debrief with one change for next time.
The interviews table and the debrief are essential on a first pass: they hold the work of After the interview. The corrections table is optional unless a story had a factual error.
Interviews
Essential on a first pass (After the interview). One row per interview. Accurate is your reading of the story against the facts, not a rating of the reporter.
Corrections
Optional unless a story had a factual error (After the interview).
Debrief
Essential on a first pass (After the interview and Your media kit). Write one thing to change.
How to use this sheet
- One row per interview. Add the link to the story when it runs.
- Sort a problem before you act. A factual error, missing context and a choice you dislike are three different things. Only a factual error gets a correction request with evidence.
- One change for next time. The debrief asks for one, not a list.
Dana Ruiz (fictional) logs the Miami Valley Courier story as "Factual error": the story says 140 members, her sign-up sheet says 260. In the corrections table she records the wrong text, the correct fact, her sign-up sheet as the source, the reporter as the recipient and, later, the outcome the paper gave.
The log helps you ask for a correction. It does not say whether a story is libelous or what remedy you have: a media lawyer settles that. The outlet decides whether an error gets a correction, a clarification or an update.