This morning, I found my focus. It should have hit me last week, but I’ve been struggling with an idea the whole time. I didn’t just want to choose a story that would fit the criteria but one in which I had a personal interest. I immediately knew I wanted to do a story about animals, but the “environmental/health/science” and “must be news right now” criteria had me stumped.
As I browsed the Alachua County Humane Society Web page for approximately the millionth time, an ad about free spaying and neutering caught my eye. I hadn’t noticed it the other times I was on the site. I guess I was so used to seeing them that it didn’t occur to me to do a story on it.
As I thought about it, though, I realized that not only are the free programs health-related, but they’re also news. The story would fit right into my idea about tying in economics—now more than ever, people can benefit from free health services for animals.
I spoke to my first real person today about an interview. I have 5 voicemails floating around to other people, but for now I have my first interview scheduled for tomorrow morning. The man sounded really enthusiastic about the story. I told him I would try to gt it published.
I hope someone, maybe The Alligator, will take the story. I think it’s important that pet owners realize that it’s possible to be a responsible owner even if you don’t have money.
Today, I looked all over the internet trying to narrow my story idea for Lab 10. I looked for Gainesville animal news and found some shelter Web sites as well as the University of Florida site for the veterinary program.
http://www.alachuahumane.org/
http://www.vetmed.ufl.edu/
I spoke to a woman at the Alachua County Humane Society, and she said that I should call (again) tomorrow to speak to the health specialist for an interview.
My plan is to focus on how shelter medicine is being affected by the economic crisis, since animal shelters function mainly on money from donations. Shelters now are becoming more and more popular because a lot of people cannot afford to take care of their pets anymore.
I hope that my interviews will bring out what the people at the shelter really want to talk about. I think it’s important to tell the stories that people want to have told rather than telling stories the journalist thinks should be told.
I’m finding it really difficult to approach people about interviews. I think that it will become easier as the class progresses and that it’s one of the reasons we are required to take the class in the first place. In the meantime, though, I’m having a rough time with my sources.
This assignment, lab 10, is going to be easier for a lot of people. There’s a lot of freedom, which most people love. I, however, think this lab is going to be the toughest because I’m not being told what to do in explicit terms.
My plan is to do a story on how the current economic conditions are affecting overall pet health.
Over the summer, the veterinary program at the University of Florida received a grant from a pet-rescue program called Maddie’s Fund. I hope to get interviews from people involved with that.
I find that finding sources is extremely difficult when you’re not writing hard news. People seem to have the general opinion that only breaking news is worth being covered. It certainly doesn’t help that I’m not writing for certain publication but rather a class.
I sent several emails to potential sources and have yet to get responses. Hopefully, people will be refreshed Monday and willing to take pity on an aspiring journalist trying to wade through MMC2100.
The photography part was a lot more fun. It was also a bit more difficult. One thing I learned is that people do not like to be photographed. Maybe on a red carpet, they’ll mug and pose, but in the real world, people don’t respond well to a girl with a telephoto crouched behind a tree. If they saw me, they looked a little nervous. When they didn’t see me was when I got the good shots.
This assignment was easy, though, because I could get away with taking photos of a moving subject and not getting their information. For the next assignment, it will be harder. I’ll worry about that then.
After about an hour of lurking around and snapping away, I ended up with 100 or so pictures. After uploading them, I realized there weren’t a whole lot of good ones. Backgrounds were too busy, the car in the background was in focus instead of the subject, the person’s face was obscured by a pole.
I ended up cropping one to make the proportions right. Outdoor photos are eary—plenty of light. Indoor shots are going to be the tough ones.
Today is my first day as a blogger. The first five entries will be about media writing and MMC2100. Since I don’t know anything about blogging yet, you’ll follow me as my blogs get spiffier. This first one won’t be spiffy at all.
Lab eight forced me to have my first real reporting experience and, more importantly, my first photojournalism assignment. The reporting part wasn’t a cakewalk, but it wasn’t overwhelming, either. For the most part, I feel like people aren’t exactly waiting in line to be interviewed. They’re on their way to class, or they’re tired, or they’re annoyed, or they have to pee, or they don’t like your shirt. I didn’t run into anyone who was jazzed to talk to me. That’s not to say, however, that they weren’t largely cordial.
It was a good experience. Sure, I’d rather conduct email interviews for the rest of my life, but that’s not good journalism. That’s not really journalism at all.
