A Game Plan For My Future In Journalism

Personal News Gathering Process

This week I was looking for a story with a strong central compelling character.  A strong character can tell a story more effectively and can have a greater effect on the audience.  I wanted to find a newsworthy story that had a strong character, but this was harder to find than I thought.

Everyone has a story to tell, so I thought it would be relatively easy to find a story idea.  But it's not finding an idea that's the hard part; it's finding a story that can be told visually.  Broadcast is a visual medium and requires images to advance the story.  It's easy to tell a story, but I was presented with a challenge when I tried to find a solid story that provided good visuals.  There are an infinite amount of good stories, but not all of them can be told visually.

In order to tell a story visually, I realized that it has to have action.  That narrowed down my list of ideas.  After reading the news and searching for stories, I learned that there is a local 5K that raises money for foster care children.  I thought this would make for a great idea because it has all the components a recipe for a great broadcast story should have.  There is lots of action with the 5K run/ walk, and the race dives deeper into a human interest story in which children are affected.  This story contains visually interesting images and repetitive action; the footage I shoot from the 5K will be exciting video that advances the story.  I can shoot the 5K and explain the race in my story, but I can also connect this race and the money donated from this race to someone who is affected by it.  I can find someone who this donation money will affect, and I can show how the race impacts their life. 

 I watched a story like this one in my class.  The reporter was Jana Shortal, a University of Missouri graduate.  The story was about a 5K run/walk established in honor of a runner who died of cancer.  The piece gives a backstory on the runner, and ends with the race and the impact the race had on the community.  The story was well done, so I want to use it as a guide to help me put together a meaningful piece.  I am inspired by good journalism; I'm attempting to improve as a broadcast journalist, and I plan to use Jana Shortal's piece to help me see what it takes to put together a strong, compelling story.

Journalism Reflection

As I mentioned earlier, I am inspired by good journalism.  I found a piece that ties together strong, concise writing with eye-catching visuals.  The story "Outside the Lines: OTL: Game Plan" sparked my interest not only because of the subject matter, but because of the way the story was put together.

Outside the Lines OTL: Game Plan
The story opens with great nat sound of the football team in a huddle.  The team looks intense, and the players seem like they have years of experience.  The reporter mentions that the team's quarterback has already accepted an offer to play college football at USC, which makes viewers think the team is a high school team.  But the story takes a turn when the reporter says the team is made of up middle school students and the quarterback is an eighth grader.  The reporter uses the element of surprise to take her story from ordinary to unexpected.  This is a great tool is storytelling; it keeps viewers guessing.  Surprise is key in storytelling.  The story starts like any ordinary football story might, but then it takes a twist.  I realized that I have to incorporate more surprise in my stories.  I want to use more unexpected turns in my stories to keep them fresh and original.  By doing this I can also improve my storytelling abilities.  I'll have a better understanding of how to use the components of a story to draw a reaction and emotion from the viewers.

This piece uses a number of elements to tell the story.  Storytelling involves finding the best ways to get the message across.  You have to think about ways other than using words to tell the story.  This piece uses great footage of football games and practices.  The shots vary from tight, medium, to wide and show a number of angles on the football field.  The reporter also uses video from outside sources to communicate the message.  In part of the story, she uses video from the Flash Training program, as well as video from the FOCAS Foundation.  She uses video from other outlets, then cuts back to video from the middle school football team.  This keeps the story fresh; instead of watching the same video throughout a nine-minute story, the reporter cuts to clips of other footage.  This helped me think about how to use video from other outlets in my story.  I learned how to think more creatively about what video to use from watching this piece.  She incorporates a broad mix of various video sources, and to keep a longer story interesting I think this can be helpful.  Her edits and cuts were still smooth and the story was fluid.  The different pieces of video fit together smoothly to create one unified story.  This inspires me to think deeper about how I put my stories together.  After watching this piece, I have a few mental notes on how to link pieces of my story together to create a more fluid story.

The reporter also links graphics to her story to help illustrate the piece.  She used graphics when she mentioned a lot of numbers and statistics that would be hard for viewers to remember.  The statistics added valuable information to the story so they were key to include; instead of overloading the viewers with facts numbers, she presents the information clearly with a graphic.  I was looking for a way to tie graphics into my stories more smoothly.  The way this reporter used graphics in her story helps me visualize when, where, and how graphics should be used in a story.  I also like the layout and page design of her graphics.  The type is bold and each statistic is located in its own separate box so viewers can see each separate fact.  This piece taught me more about using different ways to tell a story.  I learned how to use the element of surprise to keep a story interesting, I saw how other videos can be incorporated in a piece to help tell a story, and I saw how clean, concise graphics can help viewers retain the information discussed in a story.  I now have a better game plan for my future stories.