An American Dream

With Journalism, Personal Stories Can Make Policy Decisions Real

Tim Matsui
Sep 7, 2018 · 4 min read

Reading the story summaries sent to the workshop coaches, this particular description stood out:

There are sixty mobile home parks across the city. Inspired by other cities, the idea is to designate areas specifically for mobile home parks. About 40 home residents attended last week’s meeting and represented their position. The final decision was postponed...

It sounded dry, but I was intrigued by the potential. Mobile home residents may own their houses, but the land beneath them is owned by someone else. With real estate development booming in Portland, Oregon, that someone else might want to sell the land out from under them.

It was June. With the City of Portland planning to vote on the proposed policy in August, the story was timely.

Would they vote for land owners looking to cash in on the 56 mobile home parks across the city? Or, would they vote in favor of the roughly 3000 residents — many of them low income or otherwise marginalized?

Mike Connors, representing the Hayden Island Enterprises, which owns the largest manufactured home park in Portland speaks at the Planning and Sustainability Commission warning the council that land owners will want to collect on their investments.

Socially, mobile home parks get a bad rap. But during the four-day journalism workshop, we would meet residents, activists, and city officials who put a face to the mobile home parks — and the upcoming policy decision.

One resident, Susan Knoke, summed it up:

“Mobile home parks are the poor man’s American Dream.”

With our project summary and a main point of contact, we headed into the field to turn a story about policy into a story about people.


Journalism workshops promising to shape a reporter into a multimedia / video journalist are usually a crash-course in everything: how to think visually in motion, how to use the equipment, the importance of audio, editing techniques, all on top of pulling together the actual story. Often, each student is solely responsible for a single story. Those workshops are good, and I have fun coaching, but I think for some, it can be too much, all at once.

The Story Arc Workshop, hosted by the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communications, is primarily about the collaboration and teamwork, especially since students come fairly proficient already. Teamwork is key to real world project success: it’s incredibly difficult to do everything alone. Story Arc is not an entry-level workshop, it’s a finessing of skill.

Some coaches like to take control, teaching through example. I’m more of a “guide and suggest” type of coach. I have a high expectations, but it’s an educational environment and it’s important to make the time to learn.

I prefer the students make, and own, their decisions. As the final story speaks to both their investment and mine, we discuss our decisions and make them collaboratively. Less lecture, more hands-on, done together.

Getting hands-on with gear, choosing interview locations, dealing with data. I had the team switch roles so everyone had a chance to step out of their comfort zone and try something new.

Our project wasn’t without its issues. I could tell you about almost losing story access before we’d even started, and what it took to negotiate the relationships. Or squeezing in grocery store meals, so our team could bend our lives to those of our subjects. Or how the team supported each other, both during the workshop and afterwards as they shot extra b-roll and produced several edit revisions.

The skills each team member brought, Jay Kosa as a communications manager, Patty Torchia as a former on-camera reporter, and Ty Boespflug’s proficiency with equipment and vision behind the lens, were complimented by their dedication to doing their best on this story.

I could critique the work, the things I’d change, tell you why we made certain decisions or how we managed the unexpected moments out of our control.

But that’s what being in the workshop itself is about.

I hope this short film gives you a sense of who these mobile park residents are and the importance of the Portland City Council’s decision.

Speaking of which, they voted unanimously to change the zoning, protecting the mobile home parks from development. How that plays out could be a story for next year’s workshop.

Wes Pope, workshop co-producer, preparing to return all the Canon equipment on loan (thanks Canon!).

Tim Matsui

Written by

Visual journalist and filmmaker specializing in human trafficking, supply chain, food systems, nutrition, and healthcare.

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