In-depth reporting/working with editors - Blog #3

The theme for today's class was looking at traditional print publications and exploring how to work with the human resources available to us as writers as well as the teamwork that goes into producing a package.

The class reading in "Reporting that Matters" (there is a link in blog #2) covered chapters 11, 12 and 13. Chapter 11 dealt with covering in-depth stories, and series and team reporting. One of my favorite memories from Journalism 241, Introduction to Journalism, was having the opportunity to meet Bill Rempel.

I was assigned by Dr. J to write a story on a successful alumn from Pepperdine, or in this case George Pepperdine College. Mr. Rempel at the time was settling into his new position over-seeing the investigative reporting efforts of the Los Angeles Times. Mr. Rempel worked for the Graphic and gained national notoriety while investigating then Gov. Bill Clinton during Troopergate. Having lunch with Mr. Rempel and having the opportunity to discuss his career was a highlight of that course. This becomes relevant because during that meeting Mr. Rempel explained the difference between a breaking news reporter and an investigative reporter.

He said that breaking news reporter jump into a story gather facts, quotes and a general sense of the events and come back to the newsroom and make deadline. An investigative journalist is met with closed lips and closed doors. These journalists have to be especially creative to get their information and sources and the stories can take months to break, even with the help of a team of research assistants.

Chapter 12 covered working with editors, designers and photographers. This chapter has tips and coaching ideas for inexperienced writers, but the most important part of the chapter was the section on information graphic, or info graphics. These graphics are hard to create so they are generally only seen at newspapers that have a large and talented art staff. Graphics can be any type of creation that tells a part of the story.

During class today we broke up into group and critiqued the new issue of the Graphic. We looked at three inside pages and brainstormed how to make the stories better. My idea for a story on club convo was to package the story with a info graphic about the process of a student creating a club convo. The graphic would have steps showing a student filling out the paperwork in the convo office, meeting with their club, organizing the time and ending with the group holding their convo.

The final chapter of the reading was on data and numbers. Numbers are great for stories but scare reporters to no end. I read the Wall Street Journal to keep apprised with the business world and to gain a level of comfort in dealing with numbers and budgets.

The final component of the class was a discussion on how to package a story on the marines assigned to informing the families of other marines that lost their lives. The story, "Final Salute" by Jim Sheeler would be greatly served with a narrative lead that introduces a family and soldier and then expands to the larger picture of the marines assigned this duty and the families dealing with their loss. This is a gripping story that would be served well with some dynamic photos and referring to other resources for families to use while grieving.

I would like to invite you to take a look at the online Graphic and make some suggestions on how we could package some of our big news stories, such as the parking fines increase, the suspended coach or the student serving in Iraq.

Next weeks blog will unveil what agency I will be exploring for public affairs reporting.

Here are some photos of Graphic editors working together.