As we begin Advanced Reporting

The first chapter of Aim for the Heart discusses how a reporter finds a story focus and maintains that focus. News stories are narrow and deep, because you cannot bombard the viewer with too much information about a wide variety of subjects. It is important to be selective with the details and not compress the story. I think this concept really exemplifies the idea that journalists are miniature experts on a new topic every day. We must grasp a vast understand about a specific thing and share those findings.

I was surprised to realize that a lot of stories follow the fairytale outline. Who knew that news stories followed the same format as Cinderella? The second chapter made me think about how I develop my stories. Perhaps I should try writing the heart of the story first and then coming back to develop the opening and close. It makes sense that it would be easier to be creative using paraphrased sound bites in the beginning and end of the story. That method also grabs viewers attention with nuggets of feeling and emotion.

The third chapter focuses on memorable characters and while reporters often look for human characters and for compelling interview sound bites to convey a feeling, tone or emotion, the book reminded me that objects can have just as much character. Great video and intense NAT sound can be just as compelling, maybe even more so because the visuals are saying it all. An example of this is the story described in the previous chapter that focused on the bulldozing of an old building that had a deeper story of crime, concern and pain for the community. I hope to use these storytelling tips during my future shifts.