Assignment two: What makes a good reporter? 24/10/2011

The Movie News Editor, Stephen Leng, believes his good reporting skills led him to interview celebrities like Christina Aguilera.

From a lawn mower to a partygoer. Stephen Leng 

photographed with Christina Aguilera (taken, with 

permission, from Leng’s Facebook page)

To be a good reporter, Leng believes it is “most important to be inquisitive and interested in your surroundings.”

“If you’re not interested, how can you expect your audience to be interested? Also, don’t take anything at face value. There is always something more to what you’re told.”

But his career has not always been so self-satisfying for the Movie News Editor. “I used to work in copywriting. It really was the sh**tiest job! It involved getting news about lawnmowers. So boring!”

Leng also believes a good reporter should always be prepared, something he has had to learn the hard way.

“Once, when I was interviewing Mena Suvari, the actress, over the phone, my Dictaphone ran out of space. So I had to remember the rest of the interview. To make it worse, all of the more interesting stuff happened at the end of the interview. I had to try writing it down from memory. It wasn’t good.”

Leng, now 25, is now the Movie News Editor at BANGshowbiz.com. He was previously a Multi- Media Journalism student at Bournemouth University. Whilst at university, he secured placements with Attitude magazine, Meridian TV and PinkNews.co.uk.

It was the latter that helped him obtain his current position at BANGshowbiz.com.

“It was Pink News that stood out the most. It proved I could work in an internet-based environment, which is really important these days.”

Leng is now earning £20,000 a year.