First Convergence story!
David and I are almost done with the first week’s convergence feature story. There were some high points and some low points to the week, but overall it was okay for our first time!
The bad…
- What happened: When we pitched our story— one about the formation of the Missouri Modern Whig Party, a political third party, and what they’re doing to get the chapter up and running, we thought it would be best for NPR-affiliate radio station KBIA. It was kind of an intellectual, quirky topic; NPR listeners like political systems, how things work, and features on interesting people. So we ran with it. On Monday, we got interviews with five people; they went well, with nice soundbites and good stories. The problem? A story about a new group forming, without a meeting coming up that you can get sound at, is not easy to get natural sound for— and because of that, the story really suffered.
- What I learned: You have to choose the right medium for every story. Sure, the story’s topic applied to a KBIA audience, but it didn’t make for interesting storytelling for solely the ear. In the future, I’ll be sure a story fits both the outlet and the audience. I think this is what a lot of convergence class is supposed to be about— learning how to tell a story best, and learning how to do that well.
The good
- I had a fantastic partner, student editor and faculty editors that made the project fun to work on. I know that this semester is going to be heavily about working with other people, and since I’m usually pretty independent (and can, admittedly, be a control freak!), this semester I’m working on my people skills. Plus, interviewing people in person for this story was really fun, and its true that when you do interviews in person rather than on the phone, you can draw up better conversation.
- What I learned: Working with people brings in a lot of great ideas, and learning from other people is the easiest, fastest and best way to do it. Plus, people are what journalism is all about; exploring what affects them and what they affect, and they’re why I love it. With every story, we need to focus on people, as individuals— not just numbers or cold facts.
Also in good news, I found out yesterday that I’ll be headed to Philly in February for something journalism related as well, so I’m excited for that!
Next week, I’m headed to KBIA for two shifts to work on audio stories, and the next week, Ryan and I are doing our team story today— hopefully it will be epic!
Stay tuned, and we’ll post the finish projects of our team stories here soon!
