Lessons

Research has been the fun part of the experience for me. I like finding out about the candidates and it has been exciting to go to different events. But lesson I have learning throughout this experience is that it takes being assertive to actually find the angle to a story. I don’t really know how to create a new angle on many of these stories because I have been doing more research and looking at the facts of the candidate. Also another research issue I have come across is keeping my personal political biases out of the questions I ask my interviewees. It is difficult for me as a political science major (with many opinions) to not start a heated debate with someone who has a very different point of view.

Reporting has been a lot more difficult for me to do. I don’t always get what can be relevant information and what is just fluff. The things I have learned about reporting is that it takes a skilled story teller to make a town hall meeting meaningful and, tools like pictures an videos are just as important as the article itself. Seeing the face and expression of an interviewee can add dimension to a piece. Telling a good story and having a good angle can make it even greater. A 3-d picture of what happened is what the reader wants and without good story telling that will illicit emotion and intrigue and multimedia resources to which help to define your setting, a news story could fall flat.