A Developing Story.....

As I am sure many others would agree with me when I say that this week’s reading was very beneficial in helping me to begin to narrow down my ideas for writing my news feature. Chapter 11 discussed what qualifies as a good starting point for a story. One thing I learned that I need to do is sign up for RSS. I have heard of RSS before; but, I never realized just how important RSS can be to someone going into the field of Journalism. This will without a doubt help me brainstorm ideas for possible news features in the future. Chapter 11 also mentioned ways in which to share information that could possibly be useful in a story. Even though you have to be careful in what you read these because it may not always is 100% accurate, fact or truth, but, things such as Blogs, Blackboard, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are all updated regularly, which can also help you gain a tip of an idea for a possible story. However, a good story cannot be created unless it is filled with quality information, facts, etc. but is also straightforward, interesting and gets to the point without rambling on or being too unclear You have to know your limits. In other words, if I am giving a tip from someone regarding a story of a body found in Massachusetts, I wouldn’t know where to even begin because that tipster hasn’t really giving me enough information to even want to start writing. If this tipster were to say “there was a young women’s body found dead around 355 Beacon Street in Boston last that is a more developed story idea.  Now, I have enough information to want to write a story on and continue further with research and finding out a bit more information involving this story idea. Sometimes, a good, detailed story idea is right under people’s nose and they won’t even know it. Just stop and look around once in a while and you could have a potential great story right underneath you.

A great example of this in the “real world” would be how a lot of television stations are advertising news aps for the iPhone and Droid, texting and/or calling in to a certain phone line or email regarding a tip on a possible story. Some news stations, in particular, 7News (I know first hand since I intern there) sometimes rely and love it when people call in with a story idea that is NOT too broad and has enough information for them to then do some more digging and research and then get it on the air. In fact, I can actually say that at least 1 story you see on 7News DOES come from the tip line. No lie. In fact, a lot of ‘Help Me Hank’ or other ‘special’ investigative stories are from tipsters.