Let me tell you a little bit about police reporting, it's probably my least favorite thing. While I enjoy covering breaking/hard news, I have found over my two years here at Cal that the police are the absolute hardest people to get in touch with. It's frustrating. But it's probably my favorite beat that we covered this semester because it's always interesting and different. It's fasted paced and constantly developing, which is nice because there is always more to say.
Meetings on the other hand, not very fun. Pretty boring, really dull. I think they are something that you need to be able to cover thought in order to be a well rounded reporter. Depending on which meeting you are covering, will depend on the story you can write. It's only as interesting as you make it, so use your senses. What do you see? What are they talking about before the meeting? How are people reacting to what is being discussed? It's your job to make the story worth reading.
Reporting from the Westmoreland County District court, is casual. Definitely not what I originally expected. Depending on where you are reporting from and who the judge is, he could brief you on the cases that he is going to cover that day so you have a little bit of what's going on before the cases are actually heard. Fortunate for me, the judge was nice enough to do this for me. The most important thing about reporting in a court room, is that when you are writing you have to make sure that you are writing in language that everyday people will understand. The first case that I witnessed, I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about until at least half way through. Write in everyday English, not court lingo.
Reporting is tough. One source can potentially make or break your story, but you can't let them dictate what you write. It's your job to be persistent, pushy and even annoying when you need to. At the end of the day, all you need is that quote and the rest is history. Quotes are what make the story, it's what makes it personal and real. Our job is to tell stories about other people, to give them a voice and to be as accurate as possible when doing so. I have my own voice, sure, it's snarky and sarcastic but when I'm writing a news article I can't write that way. It's hard to turn it off, but after writing so ma y serious news pieces instead of just features, I'm starting to get the hang of it.
This might be bad advice, (sorry professor Wilson) but I think it helped me to not always go to the meetings with the class. Not because I needed extra time to write my stories, but because it gave me a fresh perspective and gave me the opportunity to write about things that they weren't covering. I think it's hard for fourteen students to sit in the same room and all come up with different story ideas, but at the same time, in the world of reporting you are not the only reporter or newspaper that is trying to get the scoop so being able to find a good angle is probably one of the best things that you can know how to do.
Meetings on the other hand, not very fun. Pretty boring, really dull. I think they are something that you need to be able to cover thought in order to be a well rounded reporter. Depending on which meeting you are covering, will depend on the story you can write. It's only as interesting as you make it, so use your senses. What do you see? What are they talking about before the meeting? How are people reacting to what is being discussed? It's your job to make the story worth reading.
Reporting from the Westmoreland County District court, is casual. Definitely not what I originally expected. Depending on where you are reporting from and who the judge is, he could brief you on the cases that he is going to cover that day so you have a little bit of what's going on before the cases are actually heard. Fortunate for me, the judge was nice enough to do this for me. The most important thing about reporting in a court room, is that when you are writing you have to make sure that you are writing in language that everyday people will understand. The first case that I witnessed, I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about until at least half way through. Write in everyday English, not court lingo.
Reporting is tough. One source can potentially make or break your story, but you can't let them dictate what you write. It's your job to be persistent, pushy and even annoying when you need to. At the end of the day, all you need is that quote and the rest is history. Quotes are what make the story, it's what makes it personal and real. Our job is to tell stories about other people, to give them a voice and to be as accurate as possible when doing so. I have my own voice, sure, it's snarky and sarcastic but when I'm writing a news article I can't write that way. It's hard to turn it off, but after writing so ma y serious news pieces instead of just features, I'm starting to get the hang of it.
This might be bad advice, (sorry professor Wilson) but I think it helped me to not always go to the meetings with the class. Not because I needed extra time to write my stories, but because it gave me a fresh perspective and gave me the opportunity to write about things that they weren't covering. I think it's hard for fourteen students to sit in the same room and all come up with different story ideas, but at the same time, in the world of reporting you are not the only reporter or newspaper that is trying to get the scoop so being able to find a good angle is probably one of the best things that you can know how to do.