Quiz Entry - updated: 2026.07.14
What are the "W-questions" a journalist uses to nail down a story?
Who, what, when, where, how, why — and crucially "from where?" (the source of the information).
The classic reporting checklist (German W-Fragen, since each word starts with W) forces you to pin down the facts of an event before writing about it:
| Question | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| Who? (Wer?) | did something |
| What? (Was?) | exactly did they do |
| When? (Wann?) | did it happen |
| Where? (Wo?) | did it happen |
| How? (Wie?) | did it happen |
| Why? (Warum?) | did it happen |
| From where? (Woher?) | does the information come |
The last one — woher? — is what distinguishes journalism from gossip: every fact has to be traceable to a source you can name and defend. If you can't answer "from where do I know this?", you don't yet have a story.
Tip: In English this is the "Five Ws (and an H)"; adding an explicit source question is the journalistic twist.