Sources: We Need A Range

Journalism isn't about just getting one side and the other side. That's just enabling an argument. What we're trying to do is get a range of dies and perspectives, in hopes of capturing all the degrees of complexity of a story and discovering a larger truth as a result.

There are various types of sides we should get. For JRN 400, the instructors came up with some category terms to help illustrate a basic range of sides. Those include:

• Affected subjects: These are people affected by whatever action is central to the story. For example, for a story about East Lansing banning alcohol sales to students, an affected person would be a student. Are they ticked by this? Also affected are those who sell alcohol; what does this do to their livelihoods?
• Subject users: These would be people who take advantage or are disadvantaged by the action taking place. In addition to students and East Lansing liquor stores, this could include Lansing liquor stories: do they expect a surge in business as a result of the ban in E.L.?
• Subject drivers: Who is making the action happen? In this case, it would be the people making the decisions (the City Council, which sets city laws) and those enforcing the decisions (the police department).
• Subject experts: This would be a neutral expert, who is expert in the subject area but doesn't have a stake in this particular fight, or any particular interest in the outcome. They help the audience make sense of the various sides and their positions. For example, perhaps a political science prof could talk about local alcohol enforcement, since he or she is an expert on government. Or a history prof could talk about the history of prohibition in America and how well it's worked in general. Or a sociologist could talk about alcohol culture and how this impacts that. Please see the blog posts on neutral experts for more on these subjects.
• Subject observers: People who are part of the environment and not directly affected, but may have an interest in the outcome. Like East Lansing residents in general; are they happy that those damn kids can't get their drink on any longer?
• Subject examples: Could be any of the above, that you think best illustrates the impact of the story.

Your stories should have AT LEAST three of these categories covered.

Neutral Experts: WTF Is That?

Today, I'm going to introduce a new concept that you'll need for completing your self-reported out-of-class stories. And that concept is that of neutral experts.

Neutral experts are people who have a great deal of knowledge and/or expertise regarding the subject you're writing about, but importantly they don't have an interest in the outcome. It's someone who can offer analysis that helps readers decide which side of an issue is more credible. In a one-sided story, it helps readers evaluate whether the people you're writing about are on the up and up.

Think of it in terms of a game: you normally have one side and the other side, right? How you view the game depends on which side you're on. Unless you have a referee, that is. A neutral expert is sort of a referee, helping point on when one side is telling the truth and the other side is stretching it a bit -- or a lot.

Let's say you're doing a story on a new business coming to East Lansing. You'd certainly talk to the business owner, but he or she has an interest in telling you positive stuff, since they own the biz. You can talk to rival businesses, but they have an interest in making themselves look better than the new guy. You can talk to shoppers who do have a valid viewpoint, but they are not expert at economic development.

That's where a neutral expert like, say, a business school prof  at MSU, can come in handy. That person doesn't have a stake in whether a business succeeds or fails, but they are expert at business, and can comment on the pros and cons not based on self-interest but rather on expertise. And that expertise helps a reader sort out all the competing perspectives, and decide which ones are credible and carry the most weight and relevance.


Most news stories at least attempt to include at least one neutral expert. And you can find a neutral expert about almost anything, no matter how obscure.

Let's look at this example: during the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, a lot was made about how the Obamas would fist-bump each other. The New York Times Sunday Magazine even did a story about it.

Here's how the story started:

Is this the end of high-five? On the night in June that Barack Obamaclinched the Democratic nomination, he and his wife, Michelle, exchanged what was variously described as a “closed-fist high five,” a “fist pound,” a “knuckle buckle” and a “fist jab.” Jonathan Tilove in The New Orleans Times-Picayune called the gesture “the dap heard ’round the world,” which he felt encapsulated “the new cultural trajectory of American politics.”

Believe it or not, they found an expert on fist-bumping. And that expert was right here. Let's continue the story:

Prof. Geneva Smitherman, director of African-American language study at Michigan State University, says: “Pound is when knuckles touch in a horizontal position. That’s the gesture that Michelle and Barack used.Dap is when the knuckles touch in a vertical position. Both gestures can be used as a greeting, to signal respect, agreement, bonding.” 

Dap started among black soldiers during the Vietnam War; to give “some dap” (not usually “a” dap) means “to offer kudos, congratulations”; Prof. James Peterson of Bucknell, a hip-hop historian, says he thinks it is rooted in dapper, “neat, fashionably smart.” Pound came out of hip-hop in the late 1980s. Fist bump came later: a 1996 note in the Sports Network wire service reported that Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles was accepting congratulations from baseball teammates with “high-fives, handshakes or fist bumps.” Peterson says the new phrase robs the gesture of its cultural significance, which includes the Obamas’ “quiet but pronounced in-group affiliation with all of black America.”

Hand signals have a checkered history in politics, from Prime MinisterWinston Churchill’s V-for-victory sign to the famed photo of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller “giving the finger” to hecklers to the clenched-fist salute of “black power” to Lyndon Johnson’s fondness for “pressing the flesh.”

When Michelle Obama visited Barbara Walters on “The View” on ABC, the candidate’s wife sought to soften her image with “I have to be greeted properly. Fist bump, please. It is now my signature bump. . . . I got it from the young staff. That’s the new high-five.” 

Colleges are notorious for being loaded with neutral experts (think of all your profs doing research, and all the TA's working on their thesis papers!) So really, there's no excuse for you NOT to find a neutral expert, especially here or at other schools.

Like many other schools, MSU -- in hopes of getting free publicity -- even makes it easy to find experts. The MSU News Office's Web site has an experts list, which you can link to here: http://news.msu.edu/experts/Results/?

Just looking at the first page, these are just some of the topics for which MSU can find you a neutral expert: wind power, renewable energy, water preservation, breast cancer, breast cancer education, medical education, microfinance, filmmaking, documentary production, sensors and nano-bisensor devices for biodefense, health diagnostics and theraputics, child welfare, biblical references and history, Samartian population, meteorology and climatology, Isreali-Palestinian conflict, Israeli politics, society and culture, international relations, U.S. foreign policy, school funding, school choice, school district building projects, the effects of mass communications, health communications, communications campaigns, international relations, the Middle East, Muslim issues, the early formation of galaxies, tax and expenditure policies, state and local public finance, poverty and income distribution, campus sustainability, Internet governance, new wireless technologies, telecommunications regulation and policy, bone and tissue engineering, labor markets, chaos theory, alternative dispute resolution, primitive stars, galaxy formation, labor unions and collective bargaining, international and domestic labor policy, work and family policy, flexible scheduling policy, tropical diseases, malaria, AIDS/HIV . . .

. . . and those are just a FEW of the subject areas!

You can also search by typing in a topic here: http://news.msu.edu/experts/

I took some general topics and looked for experts. Like Google, sometimes you have to try the same general term in different ways (like if you're searching for an expert in campus safety, you try that term, then campus, then safety, then police, and so on).

Under "campus living" I found one expert. For "transportation" I found two. There were three each for "housing" and "discrimination" and "elections." I found four each for "police" and "campus" and "drug." For "safety" I found 14! And "health" produced 35!

And you can filter by these general topic areas: agriculture and environment; arts and humanities; athletics; board and administration; business, economy, law and communications; education; family and social issues; health, medicine and veterinary medicine; international; science and technology; staff and faculty; students and campus life; tuition, costs and enrollment.Plus, there's always Google, right? And other schools as well. And think tanks. And private research institutions.

Wherever you find a good one, it's critical that you do. Journalism isn't about just getting both sides of the story. Getting one side and the other side and nothing else is just enabling a fight.

We're about trying to arrive at a verifiable version of the truth based on facts and checking out what people have to say, right? That's the role a neutral expert helps accomplish.

To paraphrase legendary baseball announcer and willful drunk Harry Caray -- and this might be the only smart thing he ever said in his life, God rest his soul -- there are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth.

We need to get more than two out of three. We need all of 'em. And we need our out-of-class stories to cite AT LEAST one neutral expert!

So go find some neutral experts!

Neutral Experts: Imagine If ...

. . . if this story didn't have a neutral expert. Or two. A reader would just get two people arguing. And that's not journalism.

Journalism isn't about simply getting one side and the other side; it's about fact-testing the sides that are presented through the use of empirical evidence and expert testimony that helps make sense of what was said, and helps the reader determine what is true -- and what is not.

In this instance, the reporter didn't simply stop at reporting an argument over the Constitution between two politicians during a debate; rather the reporter went and found an expert in constitutional law who did NOT participate in the debate, to help answer what was right and wrong from the various positions claimed by the candidates.

And that completes journalism's true mission, which isn't simply to report the facts. Today, it's about helping the audience make sense of the facts, without partisan bias. 


Here's a link, and here's the text (with the neutral expert's passage highlighted. See the difference it makes?):

O'Donnell questions separation of church, state

By BEN EVANS, Associated Press Writer 

WILMINGTON, Del. – Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to disagree or not know that the First Amendment bars the government from establishing religion.

The exchange came in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O'Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons' position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.

Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that "religious doctrine doesn't belong in our public schools."

"Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O'Donnell asked him.

When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?"

Her comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, generated a buzz in the audience.

"You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp," Widener University political scientist Wesley Leckrone said after the debate, adding that it raised questions about O'Donnell's grasp of the Constitution.

Erin Daly, a Widener professor who specializes in constitutional law, said that while there are questions about what counts as government promotion of religion, there is little debate over whether the First Amendment prohibits the federal government from making laws establishing religion.

"She seemed genuinely surprised that the principle of separation of church and state derives from the First Amendment, and I think to many of us in the law school that was a surprise," Daly said. "It's one thing to not know the 17th Amendment or some of the others, but most Americans do know the basics of the First Amendment."

O'Donnell didn't respond to reporters who asked her to clarify her views after the debate.

During the exchange, she said Coons' views on creationism showed that he believes in big-government mandates.

"Talk about imposing your beliefs on the local schools," she said. "You've just proved how little you know not just about constitutional law but about the theory of evolution."

Coons said her comments show a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the Constitution.

The debate, their third in the past week, was more testy than earlier ones.

O'Donnell began by defending herself for not being able to name a recent Supreme Court decision with which she disagrees at a debate last week. She said she was stumped because she largely agrees with the court's recent decisions under conservative chief justices John Roberts and William Rehnquist.

"I would say this court is on the right track," she said.

The two candidates repeatedly talked over each other, with O'Donnell accusing Coons of caving at one point when he asked the moderator to move on to a new question after a lengthy argument.

"I guess he can't handle it," she said.

O'Donnell, a tea party favorite who stunned the state by winning the GOP primary last month in her third Senate bid in five years, called Coons a liberal "addicted to a culture of waste, fraud and abuse." 

Coons, who has held a double-digit lead in recent polls, urged voters to support him as the candidate of substance, with a track record over six years as executive of the state's most populous county. He said O'Donnell's only experience is in "sharpening the partisan divide but not at bridging it."

Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Job Shadows: A How-To Reminder

The job shadow assignment in JRN 300 is unique from our other work in that it is not intended for publication.

It is intended to help students explore career options.

To do this, choose a person who is doing a job that you might like to do and plan to spend half a day with them as they work. This is one of the last things due, but set it up early so you are not in a tight spot late in the semester. It might take several tries to set this up. Some people, we have found, are not responsive.

Your are to shadow a professional, not another student. We do not shadow people at The State News, WKAR or places where we have interned.

The person may work in any form of news media and can even work in public relations or some other field related to your career interests. They can work in any city.

THE QUESTIONS

Learn largely by observing what they do, and use your own questions. Here are a few you can use:

* What is a really fun day on this job?

* What happens on a terrible day?

* What are the best parts of the job?

* What are the worst parts?

* How is the job changing -- and how fast?

* How did you get this job?

* What are its basic requirements?

* What do you like/dislike about it?

* Is job security an issue? How do you cope with that.

THE REPORT

You will not write a news article about this, as it is not a news story. You will be writing a 300-word report. About two thirds should describe what you saw and heard. About a third should describe how well this job -- or parts of it -- would fit you. Include any lessons you learned about your career path or getting a job someday.

Be ready to give a brief report in class on what you learned on your job shadow.

JRN 300: Messages From The J-School

Story Ideas: A Starting Point For Discovery

HOW TO FIND GOOD STORY IDEAS

We can make finding good story ideas so much harder than it really should be. So often, we are looking for the spectacular and the obvious, when many great stories are hidden in plain sight, if only we would be curious and then act upon that curiosity.

Case in point: not long ago a documentary filmmaker found a sensational topic that led to an award-winning movie: seven immigrant brothers,essentially living and growing up locked into a small New York City apartment.

The documentarian didn’t find the topic by Googling it or from having super-secret sources leak their whereabouts to her. It was much simpler than that: she wandered NYC’s streets looking for something interesting, and then when she found something she got nosy. From The New York Times:

Ms. Moselle said she first met the brothers in 2010 as they walked “in a pack” down First Avenue. All of them were wearing black Ray-Ban sunglasses inspired by “Reservoir Dogs,” and their long hair was blowing in the wind. “I just started running after them to find out more and was instantly obsessed,” she said.

That form of story-finding doesn’t have a formal name, but what I call it is …

>>> ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVATION. What do you notice when going around

your community? What things do you come across that makes you stop and stare or wonder or ask a question? What makes you go “wow!” or “WTF?” or “huh?”

For example, some time back a reporter from The State News was at a basketball game as a fan, and noticed there was some odd-looking guy mimicking the band director as the band played during breaks in play.  Instead of just moving on, the reporter decided to try and find out what this person’s deal was.

The reporter ended up getting a great story about thisperson with Down syndrome who became an unofficial leader of the Spartan brassband, which empowered the audience in two ways: if you never noticed him, you had someone to look for. And if you did notice him, now you knew the back story.

Environmental observation is a great way to come up with story ideas that are original and organic, and to which the audience can actually relate. It takes things in the day-to-day world they actually inhabit and puts a spotlight on it.

>>> WHAT ARE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT? When you are having lunch with friends or when you are on the bus or when you are at a party, what are people talking about? Complaining about? Worrying about? What do they look forward to, or dread? Often, these are great trends and issues to further explore.

To cite another piece of student journalist work, a few years back everyone seemed to be talking about “friends with benefits.” Is it a good thing or not? How did it go for people who tried this? One State Newsreporter turned that talk into a trend story, further investigating the issueand combing anecdotal examples with scholarly research on the subject.

This technique allows us to identify which trends and issues are relevant in people’s lives, and that’s no small thing. Journalism needs to connect with the audience to be successful, and while we can’t always necessarily be interesting, we can always be relevant and useful to our audience by reporting on things that matter in how their lives actually play out.

We can stimulate this process by quizzing people around us. It can help to ask leading questions. You ask an MSU student the simple question of what’s going on around campus or what news they want to read about, they may look at you and simply shrug. You ask one what ticks them off, and they’re far more likely to give you a laundry list of topics – parking! MIPs! Textbook prices! – that can give you good direction.

>>> WHAT ARE PEOPLE ACTING UPON? Based on looking at the day-to-day lives of people around you – friends, acquaintances, coworkers, peers, grown-ups, everybody – what are people needing to do? And can anticipating what is ahead of their life paths help us identify story ideas on trends and issue they will soon be facing, or need to be aware of ahead of time?

Let’s say your target audience consists of college students. Thinking of topics they will be acting upon includes looking for internships for the summer and jobs after graduation; paying back student loans; getting used to post-graduate lives without much free time, and so forth.

>>> WHAT DO THE EXPERTS KNOW? Every field has an endless amount of professionals that spend their whole careers delving into topics at which we are novice. Tapping into their insights can help us discover trends and issues from a more researched perspective.

For example, of you’re a police reporter you may regularly check in with the police chief to ask what’s new. You may keep several beat cops as sources to see if they’re noticing anything new on the street level. A university criminology professor may be someone you visit every now and then to see what trends they are picking up on. You may make a habit of checking the Web for articles from news organizations and think tanks and universities on crime to see what’s new.

>>> WHAT DOES DATA TELL US? Data can help us visualize trends that we can then start asking people about to get explanations as to why a trend or issue is happening. Numbers create questions that then lead us to look for answers, which with we populate a story.

For example, let’s consider a very basic document – our debit card statements. Looking at it could tell me a lot about what you’re going through these days and what your immediate priorities are and how they’ve shifted simply by looking at what you’re spending your money on. (Why so much on booze lately? You’re spending a lot less on books this year than last; why is that? What was that urgent care charge last month about?)

Finding and looking at budgets and studies and surveys and spending patterns and such can help us not only make sense of issues we know about, but discover issues we didn’t even know existed.

>>> ALL OF THESE APPROACHES SHARE ONE COMMONALITY: we find and develop story ideas by tapping into the eyes, ears and brains of various perspectives onto the world: everyday people and expert personalities; looking at numbers and looking down the road, etc. It’s looking at our target community from various perspectives, and trying to put ourselves in the shoes of as many others as possible to see what they see.

Being a reporter looking for story ideas is like being a sports scout looking for the next superstar: the more eyes and ears you have helping you, the more you’ll find and the better you’ll do. This is no different. In journalism, we write or shoot or blog or whatever based on what we find, so we need to cast a wide net at ground level.

>>> DON’T JUST GOOGLE FOR IDEAS. While Googling is a good way to find experts and data, for example, it’s a terrible way to find story ideas in general. That’s because if we can Google for a story idea, so can our audience. And if the topic is something they can already find out about on their own, then why would they need us?

The role of a journalist has always been to discover and share what people can’t discover for themselves, and to make sense of what people already know. The age of the search engine has raised the bar for us as journalists, so we need to concentrate on finding what our audience has neither the time nor ability to do themselves.

And quite often, that simply means we need to be curious, and then act on our curiosity.

Finding Story Ideas: Step Away From The Google

Reporters: Get offline and visit one of these 24 places to find your next story

TOPIC: 

• BASIC JOURNALISM

David Brewer

Journalists working in a modern newsroom benefit from a steady stream of wires stories, social media feeds, and messaging tools enabling instant collaboration with sources - all delivering information to the desktop.

But before the Internet, reporters had to rely on other means for finding stories and verifying facts. And it often meant getting out and about, making contacts, following leads, reaching dead ends, turning round, and starting again. A lot of the skills involved in so-called shoe–leather reporting still hold good today.

Shoe-leather reporting

If you turn up for the daily news meeting without a story idea, you're in the wrong job.

News releases, diary events and the wires play their part in the daily news diet - and, sadly, a large part for some media organizations - but the journalism resulting from such sources will always be stimulated and prompted by others.

A journalist should be living and breathing stories 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. This means that there is no excuse for turning up in the newsroom with a blank mind and no ideas. Real journalism knows no shift patterns – they are there only to ensure that the newsroom works well. Journalism is a vocation, not a job.

So, what were the sources of stories in the days before the web? Here are 24 tips for potential story sources to ensure that you will always have ideas and will never turn up at the morning news meeting looking for a place to hide.

All these suggestions come from the days I was a local newspaper reporter and was judged on what stories I found, rather than the stories I was given.

Real journalism knows no shift patterns - it's a vocation, not a job.

Your foot soldiers and spies

These are the people who, on your behalf, will spot changes and notice the unusual. They include those who are delivering mail, newspapers, milk and groceries. They are particularly useful contacts. But you have to invest time to get to know them - preferably on first name terms. Security staff at clubs, delivery drivers, post-room staff, and local bar staff are all useful contacts. Build a network of these contacts.

Make friends with anyone who drives or walks around your patch every day.

Window shopping

Local meetings, lost and found items; in fact all the standard hand-written adverts that appear in shop window could turn into a story. Many are rich pickings, but you will probably have to jot down the numbers and make a few calls before that becomes apparent.

Always look carefully at all the adverts posted in local shops.

Everyone has a story to tell

Start with public figures, but expand to include everyone. Artists, retired academics, shopkeepers, business leaders, union leaders, a cleaner, a road sweeper. Draw up a list. Create a diary. Do at least one interview a week. Some may be rubbish and may never be used. Others could be explosive. Interview people - anyone: Everyone has a story.

Daily calls

It used to be called "doing the calls" on my first newspaper. Every day, one of us would be sent to call at the front desk of the local police, fire and ambulance station. We could have done it on the phone, but we wouldn’t have got half the tip-offs had we not knocked on doors and chatted about events over a cup of tea. This personal touch could also mean that you get an early heads-up when a big story is about to break. Visit the emergency services regularly.

What’s on at the local court?

You have to be careful here in terms of legal issues, but if you know your patch you will know some of the names listed. This source of stories is more about being aware and alert. Always ensure that you have the court listings. Once you have the listing you can do some background digging. You won't be able to publish your background research as a story until the case is over and the verdict delivered, but once it is you will be ahead of the rest with a background piece.

Court listings are great sources for upcoming stories.

Planning and development

The local planning office is often a source of great stories. It's there where you will be able to find out what’s been approved, rejected, and what is subject to appeal. Check the names of the developers. Look through the records. Jot down the areas where an appeal is under way. Go to the site and talk to residents about what they think about the decision. Keep digging; you will find some great stories in the local planning department. Look out for new building work and then go through the records to track the planning process. Look for the unusual.

Look closely at appeals, there is usually a good story.

Original surveys

Buy a cheap clipboard and write down 10 questions on a burning local issue. Then go out to shopping areas, railway stations etc and invite people to take part. Try to interview 100 people. Read it all back and think through what the survey is telling you. Think about who you should talk to next to turn your research into a story. Make sure you ask those you question whether you can quote them. Some will want to remain anonymous; that's fine as long as the quote is real and you can stand by it.

Don't be afraid to carry out your own survey on a local issue.

Local concerns

Again, get out in the street and ask people what concerns them most, what they would like to see changed, what annoys them the most, what they would like to see happen in the town. What they like, what they don’t like. Categorize the topics raised into issues. So, for example, if someone is concerned about the time it takes to see a doctor or get an appointment for an operation, list that under 'Health'. If someone is angry that the last bus home is at 10pm, list that under 'Transport'. Try to find 10 local issues with 10 local topics under each. Then work through them producing original journalism addressing local concerns.

Listen to your audience to find out what they want you to cover.

A year ago today

Recording recent history: Keep your own news diary each year and jot down all the stories you covered along with relevant contact details. Then always look back at what you were covering six months and a year ago. Check with the contacts you spoke to in the past. Ask them whether anything has changed. A responsible journalist will always follow-up on important stories. Your follow up will probably present you with a new exclusive – and you will have some great archive material to support the news update.

Create your own, unique, forward planning diary.

Local statistics and trends

Turn numbers into stories. Think through how the town you are working in compares with neighboring towns, such as whether it is growing, shrinking, has more or fewer people in work, has a younger or older average age, has more expensive or cheaper property etc. Talk to local politicians. Don’t just take the statistics at face value. Ask questions. Keep pressing until those with the information give you what you want.

Statistics are stories, not just numbers.

Trends can also be a great source of news. Talk to academics, business leaders, the man and woman in the street. Get to know about how things are changing and find out why they are changing. What do the old think of the young and what do the young think of the old? What are the benefits, what are the risks, where are the opportunities, where are the threats? Keep gnawing away at the bone to ensure that you get all the meat off it.

Comparisons can be odious, but can make good stories.

Garden maintenance workers

Talk to the garden maintenance workers. They often have a van and a trailer stacked with rakes, spades, bits of trees and shrubs etc, and they usually take lots of tea breaks. Catch them at the right time and they will often be happy to chat. They have some great stories; treasures found, most unusual shrubs, biggest snakes, decline of one species and the flourishing of another. Dig through the weeds for human interest stories.

Pest-control officers

There will be companies in your town specialising in pest control. The biggest wasp nest in the most unusual place, the fattest rats, the worst cockroach infestation - all are the makings of great stories. And those dealing with pests are usually well-informed and keen to talk about what they have found. Talk to those who know how to smell a rat.

Rubbish and recycling

What are the trends? What is being reused? What is being thrown away? What are the door-to-door recycling teams looking for? What happens to the material? Who buys it? In what ways could people recycle more? Look for the extremes – the biggest, the most valuable, the strangest etc. Recycling centres are a rich source of stories.

A day in the life

This can provide a rich source of local-interest stories. Everyone has a story to tell. Ask permission to follow someone around for their working day. Ask them questions all the time. Watch what they do. Look for the unusual. Their lives will touch on the lives of others, too, so bring them into the story. News is about daily life; don't be afraid to investigate it.

Who goes where

Which airlines use the local airports? Where do they fly? Is travel on the increase or decrease? Who is travelling? Are they leisure or business travellers? What are the business links? The same with railway and bus stations. Who is going where to do what? Sounds simple, but this, too, can uncover some interesting leads that may be worth expanding on a slow news day. It's amazing how much people will talk in the arrivals hall of an airport if they have had a) a great trip b) an eventful trip c) a bad journey.

Arrivals, departures and international connections can be newsworthy.

Local infrastructure

Is the town expanding? If it is, how will it cope? Roads, schools, policing, hospitals, doctors, utilities etc. Good news for the politicians, the businesses and the banks may not always be great news for the community. Don't get carried away with all the hype. Is the infrastructure sufficient? Are there enough schools, roads, hospitals? Is the water supply adequate? You will get a steady stream of PR (public relations) press releases. Don't take what you are given on face value. Dig deeper. Is your community coping or creaking? It's your job to find out.

Charity shops

Junk and jewels: Is trade up or down? What is most in demand? What is the most common donation? Have they found anything unusual? Money in pockets, rare stamps, expensive heirlooms. Charity shops are often a useful barometer of the local economic climate and can reveal stories of hardship and social struggles - as well as generosity.

Are local charities struggling and, if so, what are the implications?

DIY stores

What is selling most? You can then check out how that is affecting local tradespeople. Get permission from the manager to talk to staff about DIY disasters – these always make great stories. Talk to customers, too. They may be prepared to let you go round to their homes and take pictures. You are looking for the unusual. I once came across a man who had a fully plumbed bathroom suite at the bottom of the garden because he liked to wash in the open air. Strange man, but he was happy to talk about it and it gave me a front page lead.

DIY nightmares. A great source of human interest stories.

The marginalized

You should be representing the whole community. Find out if anyone is getting a rough deal. Are some shunned and avoided? If so, why? Who are they? What is being done for them? Visit them and get their side of the story. Then seek out any other side. Talk to people at the job centres or those hanging around during the day.

Talk to those who others ignore, and take on to tell their story.

Local petitions

The usual stuff: speeding, accident black spots, dog mess, litter, bonfires, noise pollution, immigration, travellers etc. Find out who is campaigning, ask why, and then look for all sides of the story. Every town has local pressure groups. You need to know who they are, what they are campaigning about, and what their diaries look like.

Always talk to petitioners because they all have stories you should be covering.

Health and safety

Keep in touch with the watchdogs for alerts and ailments. Food standards agents carrying out restaurant checks, building regulations officers monitoring so-called cowboy builders, the trading standards officers who are keeping an eye on dodgy goods etc. Don’t wait for the news release. Make contact with those who carry out the checks and talk to them regularly. It can take such departments a couple of days to agree and write a news release, but they may tell you what they are investigating earlier in the process and you can get the exclusive.

Food warnings, dodgy appliances, cowboy builders - all make good stories.

Lost and found offices

There will probably be one at the local airport, the main railway terminal and bus station; the lost and found office is often a treasure trove of great stories. Ask for permission to be taken round, interview one of the staff and take pictures. If you get too many stories, keep some for a thin news day.Check out your lost property offices for unusual items.

Hospitals and A & E

Many people visiting your hospital's accident and emergency waiting room could be a potential story. People with their hands stuck in jars, children who have swallowed coins. Not all will talk, but it's amazing how readily some people will tell you how they came to grief.

Follow the flashing blue lights.

Farmers, food and famine

Always find time to talk to farmers. This is a tip recommended by Jonathan Marks. Those working the land will always have a story to tell. It could be about a new pest that's destroying crops, it could be about the benefits/unfairness of government policy. It could be about cheap imports destroying their livelihoods. Make time to talk to them to find out what is the story behind local food production.

Harvest some great stories by talking to those who work the land.

And if you fail...

If you try all these leads and still end up without a story idea, you are probably not cut out to be a journalist. You might find a career in processing information prepared by others, but you are probably not the sort of person who is going to produce original journalism that digs where others don't, shines a light in dark places, and reflects the real issues facing your audience. Please consider another career.

David Brewer is a journalist and media strategy consultant who set up and runs Media Helping Media. He delivers media strategy training and consultancy services worldwide. His business details are at Media Ideas International Ltd. He tweets @helpingmedia.

This post first appeared on Media Helping Media and is published on IJNet with permission.

Media Helping Media is a training information site that provides free media resources for journalists working in transition states, post-conflict countries and areas where freedom of expression and media freedom is under threat.

Finding Story Ideas: Lots Of Ways To Do That

Finding and developing story ideas

by Steve Buttry

This is a handout for a workshop, developing story ideas, which I presented for staff members at Gazette Communications. We discussed how to come up with good story ideas and how to develop a plan to execute them.

Every good story starts with a good idea

Story ideas are literally all around you. You need to be alert and imaginative in recognizing and pursuing them. You can generate story ideas by looking in a variety of places:

News. By the nature of our business, most story ideas will come from the news. Don’t fall into the trap of simply covering the events or the debate. You’re not a board secretary recording what happened. Think of other ways to cover the news. Should you write a blow-by-blow narrative of a big event where you’ve provided incremental daily coverage? Can you take a different approach to a news event or issue by writing an explanatory piece, a follow-up, looking ahead, assessing the impact, placing it in context of other events or historical background? Will a behind-the-scenes account add insight or interest? Is a person involved with the event or issue worth a profile? Can you tell an interesting story about a power struggle or personality clash behind the surface issue? Should you liveblog this event or host a live chat about the issue?

People. The people in your readership area are interesting and important. Many are worthy of stories just by themselves. And they know the stories that are interesting. Spend more time outside the newsroom, talking to your sources and developing new sources. Ask them what’s important. Ask what’s the best story that hasn’t been covered yet. Ask what they do outside the office. Ask what you’re missing. Ask who the most interesting and colorful people in their office or agency are. Ask who’s shy or modest and might not tell you something interesting if you don’t ask. If someone’s routines or behavior catches your attention, consider whether you should inquire and find out whether she’s worth a story.

Social media. Follow the Twitter, Facebook, SlideShare YouTube and other social media accounts of organizations, officials, scholars, experts and activists on your beat. Monitor the community conversation on social media. You will get ideas for breaking news stories as well as enterprise. You can also use social media to seek story ideas, asking for suggestions for stories about an annual event, such as a holiday or festival or asking for tips about a breaking story such as a snowstorm.

Paper. Boring reports often contain nuggets of information that can lead to an exciting story. Take a closer look at the mountains of paper (and pdfs) produced on your beat. Ask someone to explain some of reports, to help you cut through the statistics and jargon to what’s important. Look at some documents that aren’t going to turn up on your regular rounds. For instance, if you’re a courthouse reporter, you probably spend little time looking at probate files or bankruptcy cases. But maybe a probate file will reveal a huge fight brewing in a prominent local family, or a frugal old lady no one knew was a millionaire. A bankruptcy file might turn up some prominent names or lead you to a poignant story of broken dreams. You probably report on a big lawsuit when it’s filed and when it comes to trial. But most suits are settled and might be noted just briefly then, if at all. Take a look at the motions and depositions that follow the initial suit. Maybe that’s where the story is. Look over the affidavits filed with a search warrant.

Data. What offices on your beat keep data that might reveal some interesting stories through computer analysis? The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting publishes books of examples of CAR stories and has online resources (forInvestigative Reporters and Editors members only) of CAR stories. Might the same data be available on your beat in your community? The reporters who do such stories are almost always eager to discuss the challenges and obstacles they faced in obtaining and analyzing the data.

Internet. Stay familiar with your community web resources. A blog may reveal information that will launch you on a story. Maybe a local business is finding customers around the globe because it is using the Internet wisely. Maybe a clever webmaster gives the electronic world an entirely different view of the company or organization that’s known locally as stodgy and old-fashioned. Maybe a service available online is putting people who used to provide the service in person out of work.

Context. Put a news event or issue into context by asking whether other communities or people or agencies are experiencing the same things. If so, maybe you have a trend story. If not, maybe you have a “first” story. If it’s a trend story, see whether other communities have learned any lessons that might apply in your community. The flip side of this, of course, is localizing a national story. Is this trend happening here? How will this development affect us here? Are local people involved in this national event?

Impact. Who will be affected by the issue or event you have written about? Who will be inconvenienced? Who has to pay? Who profits? Who’s harmed? What’s likely to happen a year from now as a result of today’s news? Or five years from now?

Conflict. Who won’t like something that’s happening? Who will try to prevent it from happening? Who had to be pushed aside to get it accomplished? If a group is having a convention in your community, see whether some internal conflict might provide a better story than the sweetness-and-light image leaders portray. Who are the dissidents and outcasts, and will they make their presence felt with a rump convention or by making a stir on the fringes or the convention floor?

Repetition. If you encounter a single issue again and again in different news stories, maybe you need to take a broader look at that issue and its widespread importance or impact. If you hear a tip a second or third time, consider whether it’s a better or more urgent story than you thought the first time you heard it.

Inquiry. Find answers to your questions (and always have lots of questions): Why is that? Who’s getting away with something here? Why doesn’t this work? If you’re wondering, your readers may be wondering, too. The answers are probably a story. Ask some readers and sources what questions they have about your community.

Technology. How is technology changing things on your beat? How do these changes affect the public? Might the new gadgets you see on your beat be showing up in other parts of society?

Silent voices. Are you writing about an issue on which some interested parties may be reluctant to speak out? This is common on social issues such as substance abuse, sexual abuse, sexual orientation, welfare, abortion, unemployment, immigration, domestic violence. Seek out these people, using third parties such as counselors, pastors, advocates and interest groups if you have to. Win their trust, listen to their stories and tell their stories.

Challenge. When a source gives you that tired old line about writing only about the bad news, challenge her to fill you in on a positive story that’s just as important or just as interesting as whatever negative story she’s complaining about. Maybe you’ll get a lame tip, or maybe you’ll get a valuable one. Or take the initiative. If you’re covering a murder, scandal or disaster in a small town, you can take for granted, whether you hear it or not, that people are thinking the press only cares about them when it’s bad news. Tell the people you deal with that you’re interested in good news, too, and give them business cards with a specific plea to let you know when something important, good or bad, is happening in town.

Persistence. Sometimes a good idea will not pan out because the central character doesn’t want to talk. Try again later. Maybe the time wasn’t right the first time. Maintain contact. Show interest without being a pest. You might get the story eventually. Many times a source who says “no” really means “not yet.”

Theft. Steal good story ideas wherever you can. If you see a story you admire in another news source, ask whether the same story could be done in your community. Call the reporter up and ask how he came up with the idea and how he went about pursuing the story. If you see a story that reflects a really clever idea, even if the story itself couldn’t be replicated in your community, call the reporter up and ask how he got the idea. Network with reporters on a similar beat through organizations such as Religion Newswriters or the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, and share ideas with colleagues. Read Poynter’s annual Best Newspaper Writing books (be sure to read the essays by or interviews with the winners) or study the winners of other journalism awards and consider whether the same ideas could be pursued on your beat. Steal ideas from sources, too. Ask what else they know of going on in the community. Ask what stories they would assign if they were running your news organization. (They will give you some bad ideas that you can discard and still get points for asking and listening, but you also might get some good ideas.) Check the timely resources and story ideas at the Journalist’s Toolbox or Al’s Morning Meeting at Poynter.

Share. If you hear tips or think of ideas for stories on a colleague’s beat, pass them along. Maybe a few tips will come back your way.

Different perspective. Tell your community how people in other parts of the country view something that is a source of pride, embarrassment, amusement or anger in your community.

Humor. If you hear something funny on your beat, consider whether it may be a bright story to be shared with your readers, rather than just repeated to colleagues.

Questions. The questions we learned our first week in our first journalism class remain fundamental to developing good story ideas? Who’s responsible? What’s going to happen next? When is that likely to happen again? Where did the money go? Why wasn’t anyone watching? How can we prepare ourselves for the next time? In addition to the traditional 5 W’s and How, include at least two others in your list of basic questions to ask for each story, and to use for generating story ideas: So what? and How much? Come up with your own questions to ask.

Story elements. OK, I’ve mentioned how important the W’s are, but let’s think beyond them, every step of the way, starting with the story idea. Think in terms of story elements: setting, plot, character, conflict, climax, resolution, action, scenes. Each of those story elements might suggest some stories to pursue or some fresh angles to pursue on a continuing story.

Looking back. Of course, obvious anniversaries are a journalism staple. But sometimes you can find an interesting story by looking back on an anniversary that might be overlooked without your enterprise. Or you can look back as a means of accountability. What did a politician promise during the last campaign? Did he keep the promises? What goals did the school board set in hiring a new superintendent? Did she meet those goals?

Follow the money. On virtually any beat, you can find good stories by following the money. Who’s paying for this? How much will it cost? How much will it raise my taxes? What will need to be cut to pay for it? Did the people who benefited from this vote contribute to the campaigns of those delivering the votes?

Source development. Spend time with prospective sources so they know you’re interested in doing a thorough job. Seek out sources who aren’t the “usual suspects” on your beat. If you always find yourself talking to white men, find some women or minorities who might bring a different perspective to your stories and steer you toward different ideas. If you find yourself always talking to the professionals and bosses, spend some time talking to the folks in the trenches. If you spend most of your time talking to liberals, seek out some conservatives. If you spend most of your time talking to people your age, seek out some younger or older sources. These people with different perspectives will point you to different stories. Look around the agency you cover for the people or office who attract the least attention. Spend some time there to see if you’ll hear some different tips. Don’t seek information and story ideas just from the officials on your beat. Seek out the consumers, the former officials, the gadflies.

Prospecting. Take time to go “prospecting” for stories. That means to take a trip or set up an interview with no particular story in mind. You’re visiting a source you haven’t seen for a while or a community or agency you haven’t covered for a while. You go just to familiarize yourself, to take someone to lunch or chat in the office or home a while. Maybe you’ll come back with a terrific story you never would have known enough to pursue. Maybe you’ll come back without a particular story, but with some tips to pursue. Maybe you’ll just come back with a valuable source to contact in future stories. At the least, you’ll gain a greater understanding of your community and your beat. Prospecting almost always yields stories and is always time well spent. You just can’t tell the boss in advance what it’s going to produce. As Chip Scanlan says, when you get out of the newsroom, “the chances increase of finding stories in the world that no one has yet told.”

Developing your story idea

Enterprise stories, especially long-term projects, may require considerable reporting and writing before you even decide whether and how to pursue the story. Many of the points presented here apply to almost any kind of story beyond routine daily coverage. The scale would be different if you’re suggesting a quick-hit story to do in a few days, a major enterprise story you might spend a few weeks on or a major project you might spend months on. But the principles are the same: Before reporters can persuade their bosses that they should invest significant time, space and money in a story, you need to develop the idea. Before you can pursue the story efficiently, you need to develop the idea.

Put your idea in writing. For an important enterprise story, especially a project idea, write a detailed proposal. This gives your supervisor something more substantive to consider and discuss with other managers. A written proposal demands consideration and response. Writing also starts you on the exercise of focusing your work and writing the story. Sometimes a well-written proposal can become the framework for the overview of a series or the introduction to a story. On a shorter-term story, the proposal may be just a one-paragraph e-mail or a one-page memo, but putting an idea into writing always helps.

Propose timely stories. Editors and producers are and should be interested in newsy, timely stories. Even projects should be timely. In your proposal, address the news peg your story would have. Should it run before, after or during an upcoming event? Would an anniversary, holiday or hearing provide a time peg? Has a recent report or decision given urgency to the issue? If a reporter proposes an “evergreen” story that could be done at any time, a supervisor could reasonably respond that the story could be done at any time, which often means something else is more pressing now. If your story looks like an evergreen, tell your boss why it is timely now. If you’re dusting off an old proposal, look for a news angle and explain why now is the time to do the story.

Propose specific ideas. Don’t propose “an in-depth look” at city street construction projects. That’s broad and unfocused, as well as being an evergreen. Propose a project examining why construction projects take so long and whether the city sets and enforces deadlines for contractors. The specific focus helps your supervisor get a feel for the story right away and start sharing your excitement.

Propose relevant ideas. Explain in your note why this story will matter to readers. Even if you think the relevance is self-evident, tell why this story matters to readers and how you will make that relevance clear.

Think beyond the story. Reporters are used to focusing on a single story that will air on television or be published in the newspaper. But think of ways to turn a story into a running conversation or to help users dig deeper into a story. A story might start with an event liveblog that includes lots of interaction with the community, then a story explaining a particular issue related to the event, with a live chat following the story, or with a running conversation (joined by the reporter) in the comments or on a blog. Databases, source documents, videos, slideshows and interactive multimedia projects let the user engage even deeper, personalizing the story experience.

Consider national comparisons. If you’re examining a local issue, find out how the local situation compares to national averages and national extremes.

Consider local impact. If you’re examining a national issue, explain how your story will cover the local and regional angles. How does the issue affect your local area? Who here is involved on either side? Who here is an expert? Are members of your local delegation dealing with the issue in Congress? Will the issue cost us money or generate spending locally?

Consider previous coverage. Check your own organization’s archives and do some browsing online. Read coverage by other newspapers, TV stations and blogs. If someone covered this issue a couple years ago or another paper wrote about it a couple months ago, tell how the situation has changed or how this story will be different. Tell how you’re going to examine issues the competition has missed. If your proposal sounds like stories your supervisor has already seen, you’re not likely to get the go-ahead.

Tell what you know. Do some preliminary reporting, so you can describe the general situation or the scope of the problem. The more you know, the better you can sell your need to learn still more. The more hypothetical or speculative your story sounds, the stronger your chances of being told it might be a good story to pursue “someday.”

Describe avenues of inquiry. Tell what you need to find out. Maybe you have some tips that you need to check out. Maybe you have a hypothesis. Tell your supervisor where you expect to look and what you think you might find. You don’t need all the answers in your proposal, but you need to know enough to present some good questions.

Outline possible stories. Of course, the information you find will shape the final stories, but include a possible outline in your initial proposal. Say you’ll write a first-day main story about the odyssey that brought a group of refugees to your community, with a sidebar on the violence in their homeland, then a second-day story about the cultural adjustment that the refugees face. The outline may change. Maybe you’ll decide that domestic violence is worth a sidebar to the story on cultural adjustment. A working outline helps editors envision your final stories and start anticipating them.

Consider usefulness. Think of ways this story will be useful to your readers and explain in your proposal how you will make the finished product easy for readers to use.

Consider visual elements. Visual elements such as video, photos, slideshows, graphics, maps and interactive multimedia need to be part of your plan from the very first. Think about statistics you might find that should be presented graphically. List possible maps you would need. Identify events or interviews that should be photographed. If you have no visual ideas, admit that and suggest in your proposal that you and your supervisor should meet soon with visual colleagues to brainstorm and begin coordination. Maybe you should involve a visual journalist in your original proposal and pitch it together. Or if you’re a visual journalist, you should consider how you might work with a reporter and pitch the story together.

Consider audio elements. Who are the voices that will tell this story best? Does music or the ambient sound of a particular event or location help tell the story?

Consider interactive opportunities. Think about ways to involve users in the story. Could you provide supporting data in more detail online than in the print or broadcast version, or can you set up an interactive database or calculator to help users personalize the story? Can you present the content in a quiz or game format?

Consider narration. Consider whether this is an opportunity for some narrative journalism. Is it a story that unfolds through time, with story elements such as plot, setting, characters, conflict and resolution?

Consider navigation. In the print or broadcast story, the reporter controls the story. In the digital presentation, you can share the navigation with the user in ways that can heighten the experience. Consider whether a map, timeline, graphic or photograph can serve as a framework for multiple parts of the story that stand on their own. The storyteller can share control and navigation of the digital story with the user.

Consider mobile. Would your story have lasting value as a mobile application? What would make your story work more effective for mobile users? You need to consider the mobile use of a story early. Even if your organization does not have strong mobile development capability, ask about mobile possibilities. No reason you can’t be first.

Consider location. If location is important for a story, consider how you might involve users in providing content for a map. For instance, perhaps you are examining whether some parts of town get plowed before others when it snows. You could ask users to report when their streets get plowed the next time it snows, using the data for a color-coded map.

Consider crowdsourcing. Journalists are just starting to tap the wisdom of the crowd. Use social media, your web sites and your traditional media to ask the community for help on a story. If you are seeking people who have experienced a particular situation or witnessed a particular event, one of the quickest ways to connect with the right people is to ask. Of course, you need to consider competition in such public appeals, but collaboration is becoming much more important than competition in today’s media environment.

Consider travel and expenses. If you need to travel, include the plans in your proposal. If you’d like to do some polling or hire an outside consultant, explain what you would need and why. Don’t expect managers to spend big bucks without a strong explanation from you about what your organization would get for its money. And don’t assume that your bosses won’t spend the big bucks.

Consider computer analysis. What data are available that could explain some aspect of the topic you are examining? If you don’t have the computer expertise to analyze the data, you will need to learn and/or involve a colleague who does. But your initial proposal should address data that may reveal a problem or prove a point. You might want to consult a reporter who does more work with data to brainstorm how data may be used.

Consider other beats. Does your proposal overlap with someone else’s turf? Tell the other reporter as a courtesy, or ask the other reporter’s advice on angles to pursue. Ask whether the other reporter wants to collaborate on the proposal and the story.

Consider a timetable. How long would it take to do the project as you’re proposing? Acknowledge that delays can happen, but suggest a timetable, dealing with your news peg and with realistic expectations of how long the proposed work could take. Maybe you are proposing something that is immediately timely but also requires a longer-term inquiry. Suggest what you could do right away and how long it would take for the deeper look. Would the deeper look still be timely when it’s finished? What news peg might you have at that time?

Consider your daily duties. Can you juggle this story, at least for a while, with your regular duties? Your supervisor is going to have to consider this question. Help her out by explaining how much, if any, of your regular duties you could continue while working on this story. If you need to be fully detached, state that clearly.

Think big. Your proposal is no place to scrimp on time, space or money. Propose the best way to deliver the best package possible for your readers. Propose spending as much time as it takes to do a thorough job, but not so much that the story won’t be timely, or that someone else will do it first. Propose devoting as much space or air time as it takes to do a thorough job, but not so much that you bore your audience or distort the importance of the issue. Propose spending whatever money it takes to do a thorough job. Your bosses may trim your plan back in terms of time, space or money. And maybe they should. They are responsible for the budget, the balance of the news report and for deploying the staff. Your role here is to advocate for a story you believe in. The managers’ role is to fit that story into the big picture.

Think small. Don’t lose enthusiasm for the plan when supervisors don’t adopt your grand design. Make adjustments. Decide what’s the best way to do the story with the time, space or money the managers decide it’s worth. If your basic idea is good, you need to maintain your enthusiasm for the story.

Don’t say no for your boss. Propose doing the story as thoroughly and aggressively as you think you should do it. You aren’t responsible for the budget. You don’t make the decisions about space and use of your time and taking on tough targets. Your boss might say no to travel or consultants or time or space that you propose. Your boss might not want to take the story on at all. But if you think it’s a good story, propose doing it the way you think you should. If you believe in the story, make the manager say no.

Don’t give up easily. If you really believe in a story idea, but your boss doesn’t want to do it, ask why. Try to learn specifically what your proposal is lacking. Be open to the possibility that the manager is right. Maybe you got excited about the idea and lost perspective. Or maybe you failed to include some important points in your proposal. Maybe you need to do more research to demonstrate the local impact. Maybe you forgot to give the proposal a news peg. If the supervisor raises valid objections that you can address, maybe you can agree to pursue the story. Or maybe you should propose it again at a later date when it is more timely.

Keep the ideas coming. Learn whatever lessons you can from the discussion and rejection of a story idea and try again. Your best defense against bad story assignments is to keep your boss considering your own good story ideas.