With post number one now in the books, I now want to talk about my news gathering experience so far and my struggles to find out what the real story is from some of the things I've covered. I want to go back to my first story of the year: which had to do with the safety of kids walking to school in Columbia, Mo.
I didn't end up knowing that would be my story until fairly 'late in the game.'
I first thought that my story would be about the East Columbia Area Planning and Zoning Meeting that was going on and how the plan's draft to the city council might be affecting a family within the jurisdiction. I feel like that's a fairly decent idea. What was not a good idea was shooting as much footage as I did. I shot a lot of the planning and zoning meeting that night, a lot of stuff that was absolutely boring and irrelevant, no offense to anybody that was there. The fact was it didn't relate to my story.
When the planning meeting was over, there was a little comment q&a session. One little old lady stepped up and started talking about how she thought there needed to be more sidewalks in neighborhoods in future residential areas. I thought okay, this person might be my central compelling character, until I find out she doesn't live in the city limits. She thought there needed to be more sidewalks within the Columbia city limits, but that there really didn't need to be out in Boone County. So when I got a critique on my raw video afterwards, it was very low. I know now to never shoot as much from a city council meeting like that or all the video I shot of her and her husband at their home when what they want doesn't even have an affect on them.
So I went to a neighborhood that didn't have sidewalks and talked to some people in that neighborhood and asked them if they thought it was an issue. The problem was, they all said no. They told me to go near a school and see if the neighborhoods there had any sidewalks because that is where they'd definitely need some. One person pointed me in the direction of Smithton Middle School and Paxton Keeley Elementary. There I finally found a woman willing to talk to me. She had a daughter who walked to school every morning and the traffic by her house was absolutely horrible. When I was trying to shoot her as she was walking home from school one day, another kid got hit by a car. I started recording video no more than 15 seconds after it happened. Fortunately the kid was okay, but that kid getting hit there made my story complete.
If people didn't think safety was a concern at that intersection for children walking to school, they should after that happened. I was extremely lucky in getting video right after that incident. However, I remember something my teacher told me in lecture: 'Those who work hard get lucky.' I thought to myself: man this is that in a nutshell. I had been to so many places to find that story. My grade didn't necessarily show how hard I worked to find that story, but it did give me a bit of confidence in ways that I can 'go get' the real story in the near future.
See a story the Columbia Tribune did on the video I got at the scene:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/sep/10/
Thursday, September 23, 2010
My first post!
My first blog ever and it gets to be on something none other than one of the best sports journalism series ever made: 'Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.' First off, I'd like to say that HBO Sports is one of the best sports television programs out there. Nobody is better at telling sports stories going on now than ESPN, but nobody is better at telling sports stories that happened in the past than HBO Sports. I myself love looking at the history of sports, especially baseball. HBO did three one hour episodes called 'For Love of the Game' on baseball in the 1940's, 1950's, and 1960's. Then they did another two hour special called 'Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush,' which tells the story of the burrow's love and infatuation with their baseabll team, and how it was all of a sudden taken away in 1958. Both of those series were phenomenal. HBO truly is a 'network of champions.'
But back to my reason for writing this, I just finished watching a 14 minute piece Bryant Gumbel did on Barack Obama's love for the game of basketball. First off, what a great piece and second off, boy can Barack still play. Barack, or 'Barry,' as he used to be called is probably the most athletic president in this country's history. What I'm curious about though has nothing to do with Barack Obama.
I'm curious to know how much a reporter's race involves what story they get to do. Was Bryant Gumbel chosen to do this story because he is African-American? Because he's the anchor/ head hancho? (meaning he's probably a bit more crucial to the program's success) Did it involve both of these things? Or did it not involve either of the two?
I have no idea. That's something only the production people at HBO sports would know. Did he want to do the story? Probably. My goodness who wouldn't want to interview the president? When it was planning day though, I'd be curious to know if this was a story that Bryant was set out to do from day one.
I would imagine that there are some people out there who might have taken it offensively that he was the one who got to do it, but I believe the question is, how much better of a story can Bryant tell than any of the other Real Sports reporters, who all are white?
I would say probably a lot better. Bryant would know the struggles young Barack went through coming over to the continental U.S. from Hawaii better than Andrea Kremer or Bernard Goldberg would because he may have gone through those harsh struggles himself (not coming over from Hawaii of course). Not taking anything away from Kremer or Goldberg, but they didn't have to go through the same things that those men might have had to go through during their young adult years. I believe Bryant could ask Barack a somewhat sensitive question about what basketball means to the black population in the U.S. and feel more comfortable about it then Kremer or Goldberg would. Plus Barack probably opened up more to Gumbel than he would have those other two for instance.
As a journalist, I would love to be able to relate to somebody not the same skin color as me just as well as somebody who's caucasian. That's something hard to do. I want to have everybody's trust equally. I guess very few people will ever know or really ever give much thought to this story that Bryant did because in the grand scheme of things, it's really not that important. It's just something that made me think whle I was watching the piece on their thought process. One thing's for sure though, I would have wanted to cover this story like none other to try and prove that I can relate to more people than just those that are the same skin color as mine. I'm sure Mary Carillo, Frank Deford, Jon Frankel, Kremer, and Goldberg felt the same way.
Watch Barack's story yourself at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Lqm5emQl4
But back to my reason for writing this, I just finished watching a 14 minute piece Bryant Gumbel did on Barack Obama's love for the game of basketball. First off, what a great piece and second off, boy can Barack still play. Barack, or 'Barry,' as he used to be called is probably the most athletic president in this country's history. What I'm curious about though has nothing to do with Barack Obama.
I'm curious to know how much a reporter's race involves what story they get to do. Was Bryant Gumbel chosen to do this story because he is African-American? Because he's the anchor/ head hancho? (meaning he's probably a bit more crucial to the program's success) Did it involve both of these things? Or did it not involve either of the two?
I have no idea. That's something only the production people at HBO sports would know. Did he want to do the story? Probably. My goodness who wouldn't want to interview the president? When it was planning day though, I'd be curious to know if this was a story that Bryant was set out to do from day one.
I would imagine that there are some people out there who might have taken it offensively that he was the one who got to do it, but I believe the question is, how much better of a story can Bryant tell than any of the other Real Sports reporters, who all are white?
I would say probably a lot better. Bryant would know the struggles young Barack went through coming over to the continental U.S. from Hawaii better than Andrea Kremer or Bernard Goldberg would because he may have gone through those harsh struggles himself (not coming over from Hawaii of course). Not taking anything away from Kremer or Goldberg, but they didn't have to go through the same things that those men might have had to go through during their young adult years. I believe Bryant could ask Barack a somewhat sensitive question about what basketball means to the black population in the U.S. and feel more comfortable about it then Kremer or Goldberg would. Plus Barack probably opened up more to Gumbel than he would have those other two for instance.
As a journalist, I would love to be able to relate to somebody not the same skin color as me just as well as somebody who's caucasian. That's something hard to do. I want to have everybody's trust equally. I guess very few people will ever know or really ever give much thought to this story that Bryant did because in the grand scheme of things, it's really not that important. It's just something that made me think whle I was watching the piece on their thought process. One thing's for sure though, I would have wanted to cover this story like none other to try and prove that I can relate to more people than just those that are the same skin color as mine. I'm sure Mary Carillo, Frank Deford, Jon Frankel, Kremer, and Goldberg felt the same way.
Watch Barack's story yourself at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Lqm5emQl4
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