Now, we will get to work on what we will soon be making a weekly habit: coming up with a story pitch that we will then turn into a developed trend or issue story from our geographic beat.
The exercises we have done until now have been to get you familiarized with your beat and the sorts of trends and issues percolating on the grass-roots level. Now, we need to take one of our ideas and start developing it.
So, you have this week to develop your first story pitch. That means settling on a trend or issue topic; summarizing what you think what may be most interesting, relevant and /or useful about your story FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A READER WITHIN YOUR BEAT; thinking about what kinds of sources you'll need; and then sending a summary of all that to me. (Examples of story pitches are included in the next blog post here.)
For our first pitch, you must send me your pitch in a Word doc to my email at omars@msu.edu. YOUR FIRST PITCH DEADLINE WILL BE NO LATER THAN 9 A.M. MONDAY, JUNE 12. I expect to have your pitches approved and returned to you by the end of the next day; at that point, you may begin working on your first weekly story.
It's important that we make sure we don't work on duplicate topics, so I ask that each group work on some way to coordinate what topics you're each working on. That may be by emailing each other or forming a Facebook or Google group where you can keep track of who is working on what story idea.
Either way, I won't allow more than one person to do the same topic as another has done, or that has already been done by the group this semester.
In developing a pitch, if you feel like you don't have a strong handle on a good topic, look at revisiting or even redoing the exercises we have done to date. That includes:
The exercises we have done until now have been to get you familiarized with your beat and the sorts of trends and issues percolating on the grass-roots level. Now, we need to take one of our ideas and start developing it.
So, you have this week to develop your first story pitch. That means settling on a trend or issue topic; summarizing what you think what may be most interesting, relevant and /or useful about your story FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A READER WITHIN YOUR BEAT; thinking about what kinds of sources you'll need; and then sending a summary of all that to me. (Examples of story pitches are included in the next blog post here.)
For our first pitch, you must send me your pitch in a Word doc to my email at omars@msu.edu. YOUR FIRST PITCH DEADLINE WILL BE NO LATER THAN 9 A.M. MONDAY, JUNE 12. I expect to have your pitches approved and returned to you by the end of the next day; at that point, you may begin working on your first weekly story.
It's important that we make sure we don't work on duplicate topics, so I ask that each group work on some way to coordinate what topics you're each working on. That may be by emailing each other or forming a Facebook or Google group where you can keep track of who is working on what story idea.
Either way, I won't allow more than one person to do the same topic as another has done, or that has already been done by the group this semester.
In developing a pitch, if you feel like you don't have a strong handle on a good topic, look at revisiting or even redoing the exercises we have done to date. That includes:
- Googling your community to look for good topic ideas
- Doing environmental observation by walking around your community, being curious and then acting on your curiosity
- Polling passers-by to try to get a sense of what the concerns are of the community
- Looking at Census data online to see if there are statistics that underscore a potential trend or issue worth exploring
- Reviewing earlier blog posts on how to develop story ideas
You can also supplement what you've done by scheduling meet-and-greets with civic leaders like mayors, city managers, police chiefs, chamber of commerce officials, and such. Ask them what are key issues and challenges facing the community and what is being done about them. Don't assume they'll blow you off. They may, or they may not.
Later this week, we'll post more examples of previous stories done by 300 classes to give you a better sense of what you need to be working on, along with some helpful tips on how to put together your stories and a publication schedule for the summer that you'll be responsible for following.
But for now, let's get rolling on our first story pitches. If you need any help; please contact me at 702-271-7983 or omars@msu.edu.
Good luck!
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