For journalists, it's always important to be "present"

This morning I presented a couple sessions at a local high school journalism workshop that brought about 300 students and advisers from 12 high schools together for various learning sessions.

One of my sessions asked this: "Why spend so much time prepping to go out and report on a coverage area, when we usually don't discover what the true story will be until we spend time observing and asking questions on the scene?"

I urged students to think about spending less time yakking about possible angles and sources and instead for the reporter to schedule a "first contact" in-person visit to the sport or performance or class or club or activity -- at least 30 minutes -- and then get back with the editor to finetune how the coverage should go.

Then the editor and reporter would work to schedule a longer reporting observation time, and again meet to settle on the final structure of the reporting. If the coverage lends itself to a narrative format, great. If there is no clear narrative thread, there are lots of alternative coverage options (and that was the topic of my second session of the morning). 

Bottom line: I have been thinking lately about what I would do were I to be thrust back into a journalism classroom and I honestly believe I would give up most of the control that comes with using a week of class time to plan and create interview questions and "guess" about what the coverage is really all about. 

Reporters should spend much time observing and much less time predicting. The phrase I kept repeating was based on the power of showing up. "Be there." Don't wait until after the event or meeting to call someone up and interview them. 

A bonus from this approach might be to create more credibility with the larger school community and make it less likely that people will feel like journalists are "swooping in" and highlighting something controversial or embarrassing or sensitive (what often happens in professional journalism).

I am fully aware of how packed many students' schedules are and how difficult it might be to find even 30 spare minutes to simply hang out and ask question about a sports practice or a play rehearsal. But I would argue that this is the homework for the journalism course and that everyone will have a better experience if we are curious and prepared to be surprised.

The goal is to avoid publishing material the public largely knows about, particularly when we publish so infrequently. We need fewer "olds" and more compelling "news."

I have no idea if any of my provocations will result in better reporting and more in-person observation. There is a lot of inertia that fights that sort of change.

But they laughed and some nodded and a few even jotted down a note or two ("wonder who that old guy is up there yakking about how we should report?").

It's kind of invigorating to hang out with smart high school students, even with me being 12 years out of the classroom.