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Rethinking news in community journalism

Rethinking news in community journalism

Tommy Thomason shows how to write news when many of your readers have already heard that news in personal interactions or social media.

Transcript

  1. Rethinking news
    It’s not your father’s newspaper –
    how the news has changed and
    what that means for community
    journalism
    Tommy Thomason

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  2. “It’s all about that bass…”

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  3. “It’s all about that bass…”
    news

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  6. The most basic
    question in all of
    journalism has always
    been this: What is our
    philosophy of news?

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  7.  How do you determine which events are news
    and which aren’t?

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  8.  How do you determine which events are news
    and which aren’t?
     What’s important enough to send a reporter?

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  9.  How do you determine which events are news
    and which aren’t?
     What’s important enough to send a reporter?
     And once you have the facts, which ones will
    you emphasize?

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  10.  How do you determine which events are news
    and which aren’t?
     What’s important enough to send a reporter?
     And once you have the facts, which ones will
    you emphasize?
     Anytime someone says “Why didn’t you cover
    X?” they are questioning your news philosophy.

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  11.  How do you determine which events are news
    and which aren’t?
     What’s important enough to send a reporter?
     And once you have the facts, which ones will
    you emphasize?
     Anytime someone says “Why didn’t you cover
    X?” they are questioning your news philosophy.
     Anytime they don’t read stories you consider
    important, they are saying they don’t agree
    with your news philosophy.

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  12. Let’s put this
    in perspective

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  17. News is a commodity we
    care about – even need –
    and media are delivery
    systems to bring us that
    commodity.
    But what’s
    happened in news
    isn’t unique

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  18. Movies

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  19.  What’s the news?
     Where are people
    getting their news?

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  20. What’s the news is your
    community?

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  21. And where are people
    getting that news?

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  22.  Your newspaper
     TV
     Radio
     An Internet news site
     Another newspaper
     Social media
     Word of mouth

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  23. What are people
    getting from other
    people and other
    media?

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  24. What they used to
    get from
    newspapers.

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  25. We’re talking
    basic news
    events – headline
    and lead info

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  26. We don’t
    dominate this
    market anymore.
    But we write
    like we do

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  28. How can we
    redefine what we
    do to meet the
    basic need for
    news?

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  29. Here’s what we can do better than
    anybody…

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  30. Why?
    Here’s what we can do better than
    anybody…

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  31. Why? How?
    Here’s what we can do better than
    anybody…

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  32. Why? How?
    So
    what?
    Here’s what we can do better than
    anybody…

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  33. Here’s an example of how we can apply that
    to a typical story

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  34. Don’t just think about the machinery of
    government, think about issues
    What’s the problem or issue?
    Who are the people affected? How?
    What are the possible solutions?
    What are the political alignments?
    Example: Let’s
    say there’s a
    proposal to ban
    smoking in
    restaurants…

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  35. The City Council met Tuesday night for its
    regular session to consider several proposed
    agenda items.
    Leave chronological
    treatments to novelists.
    It doesn’t work
    with news.

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  36. The City Council voted Tuesday night to
    rename a street on the west side of town, to
    purchase a new police cruiser and to ban
    smoking in Center City restaurants.

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  37. The City Council voted 4-3 Tuesday to adopt
    a smoking ban that will prohibit smoking at
    all Center City businesses.
    Proponents had argued that banning
    smoking would protect the health of both
    patrons and employees. Those who opposed
    the ban said business owners should be able
    to make decisions on whether or not to ban
    smoking.

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  38. Frank Smith, owner of Joe’s Bar and Grill
    downtown, said the smoking ban enacted Tuesday
    by the City Council may force him to close his
    business.
    “Lots of my patrons like to light up after a meal,”
    Smith said. “The economy is already bad for
    restaurants and I can’t afford to lose any more
    customers.”
    The City Council passed a smoking ban for all
    Center City businesses in a 4-3 vote Tuesday.

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  39. How can reporters change the way they
    think about news that isn’t new?

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  40. How can reporters change the way they
    think about news that isn’t new?
    Ask the following questions…

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  41. How can reporters change the way they
    think about news that isn’t new?
    Ask the following questions…
    1) What’s already common knowledge?

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  42. How can reporters change the way they
    think about news that isn’t new?
    Ask the following questions…
    1) What’s already common knowledge?
    2) What’s the one most
    important/significant/impactful thing that
    happened?

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  43. How can reporters change the way they
    think about news that isn’t new?
    Ask the following questions…
    1) What’s already common knowledge?
    2) What’s the one most
    important/significant/impactful thing that
    happened?
    3) What interested you the most?

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  44. How can reporters change the way they
    think about news that isn’t new?
    Ask the following questions…
    1) What’s already common knowledge?
    2) What’s the one most
    important/significant/impactful thing that
    happened?
    3) What interested you the most?
    4) What’s likely to get people talking?

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  45. How can reporters change the way they
    think about news that isn’t new?
    Ask the following questions…
    1) What’s already common knowledge?
    2) What’s the one most
    important/significant/impactful thing that
    happened?
    3) What interested you the most?
    4) What’s likely to get people talking?
    5) What will my readers care about the most?
    (This may not be what the newsmakers care
    about.)

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  46. Out-of-the-box techniques for looking at news
    • Find the tension or
    conflict
    • Personalize – find an
    individual who is
    affected
    • If the news is a
    cause, what are the
    potential effects?

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  47. Treat news stories
    like metro papers
    treat a second-
    day story

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  48. Try a delayed lead
    Key terminology:
     Hard news vs. soft news
     Soft news approach to hard news
     Direct vs. delayed leads
     Nut graf

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  49. Frank Smith, owner of Joe’s Bar and Grill
    downtown, said the smoking ban enacted Tuesday
    by the City Council may force him to close his
    business.
    “Lots of my patrons like to light up after a meal,”
    Smith said. “The economy is already bad for
    restaurants and I can’t afford to lose any more
    customers.”
    The City Council passed a smoking ban for all
    Center City businesses in a 4-3 vote Tuesday.

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  50. Here’s an
    example
    from sports

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  51. Colby Lewis continued to dominate on the mound
    and the Rangers offense gave him plenty as support, as
    Texas defeated the Kansas City Royals 8-2.
    The Rangers started off the second with three
    consecutive walks from Robinson Chirinos, Leonys Martin
    and Thomas Field to load the bases with no outs.
    A double from Delino DeShields scored Chirinos
    and Martin, while Field scored on a wild pitch from
    Danny Duffy. A single from Shin-Soo Choo extended his
    hitting streak to 11 games, while scoring DeShields. For
    the rookie DeShields, it was only his second career start
    in left field, and taking opportunity of the playing time
    and scoring runs was key.

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  52. The Texas Rangers are not ready to write off the
    2015 season.
    Last week, during a 5-2 road trip, veteran players
    asserted themselves while young players stepped up to
    the task more often than not.
    The week started May 4 with both general
    manager Jon Daniels and manager Jeff Banister explicitly
    hailing the coming week as a put-up or shut-up moment
    for key parts of the roster.
    A week later, they acted.
    Struggling second baseman Rougned Odor was
    sent down to Triple A Round Rock and replaced by
    Tommy Field, who started Monday’s 8-2 series-opening
    win against the Kansas City Royals at Globe Life Park and
    hit his first career home run in the seventh inning.

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  53. Let’s look at some stories
    The 2015 Chamber of Commerce Banquet was
    held last Thursday, April 16, at Smithville High
    School with the theme, “Shop Smithville…It all
    Comes Back to You!” A yellow boomerang
    imprinted with that message was given to each
    banquet guest.
    Joe Blow, master of ceremonies, welcomed
    guests, followed by an invocation given by the
    Rev. I.M. Holy of the Smithville House of the
    Lord.

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  54. Frank and Melba Farb were walking into City Hall to
    pay a water bill six months ago when they stopped to
    lament the poor condition of the landscaping.
    “I told Melba, this place looks disagraceful,” Frank
    remembered this week. “The lawn was full of weeds and
    the flowers were dead.”
    They complained about the landscaping and found
    that there was no budget for lawn beautification, so the
    retired Smithville couple “adopted” the City Hall lawn
    themselves. In a few hours every week, they have
    transformed the lawn into a lush green, accented by red
    and yellow tulips in the flower beds.
    The Smithville Chamber of Commerce honored the
    Farbs’ efforts Thursday night with the Chamber’s Citizens of
    the Year award.

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  55. On Thursday, March 12, 2015, Joe Straus, Speaker of
    the Texas House of Representatives certified that H.R. No.
    503 was unanimously adopted by a rising vote of the
    Representatives. A.B. Bollix, District 99, introduced the
    resolution.

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  56. Why is this so
    important to do?

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