Finding the Story
In the past month, I have a new most hated phrase: Original News Story.
I’m being dramatic. If I hated finding and reporting Original News, I’m wasting a lot of time and money. And I don’t hate it, not really, but the stress of that first assignment in News Writing nearly drove me to tear my hair out.
It should’ve been a sign that whenever the subject was brought up to a second year in the program, they laughed both with sympathy but also the unmistakable glee of watching us naïve first years be put through the ringer just like they were. And just like them, I fully expect to come out on the other side, better for the experience. But until then, I had a story to find.
What qualifies as Original News? The trick is to get a new angle on a story, one that people don’t really think of. It was eye-opening, that process of racking my brain for anything that would be interesting enough to qualify, and I can’t imagine how many different ideas I thought off, only to dismiss them in seconds.
Everything interesting had been reported on. What was left to talk about?
Quite a bit, as I found out. I did end up finding my story, simply by looking to personal experience. My old high school isn’t in the best shape, and talking to students there gave me a perspective on a problem that not a lot of news outlets have reported on. And when each of my classmates stood up one by one to tell the stories they had found, it struck me that there is news everywhere — one just has to know what to look for.
So the next time around, I’ll try not to stress so much. Or maybe just start looking a little earlier.
