mr derusha
I have a cub scout requirement to talk to a news reporter.
can you tell me where does the reporter get the news?
how does the reporter put the story together?
where does the story go after the reporter finishes it?
can you help me answer these questions?
thank you
alex
scout pack 374
Hi Alex! I was a Cub Scout too! So is my 7-year-old son, Seth.
Reporters get the news from many different sources. Sometimes we have “tipsters” who call or e-mail us with news story ideas. We also get news stories from public records: so we’ll go to the police station or the courthouse and look through arrest reports, or criminal charging papers. We get breaking news stories often from hearing things on the police scanners: for example, when the 35W bridge fell down five years ago, we heard police 9-1-1 operators sending officers to the scene.
How does the reporter put the story together? I work with a photographer to tell my stories. When we decide what story we’re working on, we start making phone calls to set up people to interview. Sometimes we just go to the town or the area where the story is. We interview people on camera, we talk to people off camera, we do searches on Google and other websites. It’s not that different from what a student does when doing a research project for school: we try to gather as much information as we can, and then we have to decide what’s in the story and what’s out. Usually we only have one minute and thirty seconds to tell our stories: 90 seconds isn’t that long! So deciding what interview “soundbites” to play is tough!
Then we bring all of that video and sound back to the station, look at it, and then use it to write our own stories. We do a lot of research, interviewing, and writing. After we write the story, our photographer will edit the story using a computer to put it all together into one neat “package.”
The challenge is getting it all done on time! Usually I’ll start a story at 2pm and then have it on the air that night at 10pm. Sometimes I start at 2pm and am on TV at 5pm! It’s a tight timeline.
I hope that helps! Good luck with your project, and I hope you enjoy being a Cub Scout! Pinewood Derby time is in two weeks for our pack.
Jason DeRusha
Reporter/Anchor, WCCO-TV
