Student often complain that "nothing newsy ever happens at school," which mostly means that those students are not clear on how to define "news." That complaint may also translate to "please don't make me think too much about what happens at school."
Or it might mean that they are so immersed in school that they would prefer to focus on something and somewhere else.
Advisers must always be ready for this attitude and have some prompting questions and provocative examples of finding interesting stories amid life's routines at the ready.
Journalism instructors need to discuss the elements of news from the very beginning of any journalism course. There are many factors that go into deciding if something is news or not, but two of the most compelling are "prominence" and "oddity."
Prominence recognizes that people who are well-known often get more intense interest from readers. Bad things that happen to famous people are particularly attractive. "Hey, that guy is just like me!"
Oddity, or the unexpected or the exaggerated, might be the most powerful news element of all.
And that takes me to this story lead from today's Washington Post, following up on reporting that I mentioned yesterday about the big snowstorm.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) felt bad for the stranded families packed in their cars and minivans all around him on Interstate 95. Then, when the temperature dipped even lower overnight, as he shivered alone in his car, he started to envy the larger groups, wondering if maybe their cars were warmer.
“It was cold,” he said in an interview around 10 a.m. Tuesday about his overnight experience being stranded on the interstate. “It was very cold.”
Kaine, a former Virginia governor, was one of myriad people trapped on one of the state’s busiest thoroughfares in below-freezing weather for hours — more than an entire day — on what was supposed to be a typical commute to work at the U.S. Capitol from Richmond. Instead, it turned into a marathon nightmare of fuel rationing, hunger and sleep deprivation for no doubt hundreds of people, although officials said they did not know exactly how many people were trapped on the 48-mile stretch south of Washington.
The report begins with the "who" of the story and immediately places this well-known politician in the midst of a scene. We can imagine the reporter asking questions like, "Help me understand what you saw and felt last night." Or perhaps, "What were you thinking as the hours stuck on the road dragged on?"
Beginning journalism students often feel the necessity of including the questions they asked. So a first draft might include something like, "When asked about how he was feeling 12 hours into being stuck on I-95, Sen. Kaine said, " ...."
It is important to get into this truth: readers don't need to be reminded that the journalist was asking questions. Readers want the answers (and they can infer what questions MUST have been asked to elicit certain responses).
But back to prominence and oddity, this story demonstrates both elements clearly. Even former governors and current senators may fall victim to nature -- just like us regular folks -- and the idea that people might be stuck on a busy interstate for over 24 hours, without food, water, bathroom facilities, etc., certainly is odd (and a bit horrifying).
In tomorrow's post I will dig into the narrative structure of this lead and how it is a model for student writing about an event.
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