Story Update

Since my initial story pitch, I have made a few substantial changes to how I am creating the story itself and the angle in which I tell the story. As a reminder, my story is about volunteer firefighting all throughout the United States. After meeting with Terron, he helped me realize that concentrating on one specific part of the issue won’t grab the attention of the audience in the way it should.

Initially, my story was going to focus on the health risks associated with becoming a firefighter and in the case of this story, about why it may or may not deter many from volunteering their time. The focus of my story has now shifted slightly to focus more generally on bringing awareness of the diminishing volunteer force and also inspire the audience to possibly volunteer their time for a great cause. Within bringing awareness to the issue, I will still be focusing on health risks that may deter some, but I will also be discussing the bravery and courage that come along with the job, as well as how fun it can be to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Finally, I will touch upon the hard truth about the volunteer service, discussing topics such as the future of volunteerism if the numbers stay where they are and how that will directly affect the general public.

After meeting with Terron, the way I am going about utilizing my social media platforms has also drastically changed. I will be utilizing Facebook to post statistics about firefighting and, specifically, volunteer firefighting to generate a conversation among the public and fellow members of the volunteer service. I will then utilize Instagram to create my produced story. My produced story is going to consist of an Instagram account that I will create displaying photographs of volunteer firefighters at work. Under each photo will be a short 150–200 word caption which tells that firefighter’s personal story. These personal stories may be about why they joined the volunteer service, memorable calls that they went on and more. The focus of this produced story will be to show the humility of those who volunteer their time risking their own lives to help others. Originally for my experimental platform, I was going to use Periscope but Professor Ryan led me towards using a mapping application to show where volunteer fire departments are in the US, specifically detailing heavily-populated areas that rely on volunteers. I will most likely utilize Google Maps, as their interface is perfect for it. For my live element, I will be utilizing Snapchat. I am still deciding on how I will be using it, but I will either use it for interviews with volunteers about their opinions on the volunteer service or I will, hopefully, go on a fire scene and describe what volunteers do on a daily basis.