Journalism 1: The results and the lessons

On the very first Journalism class of 2010, my instructor Steve Vogelsang, treated his bright-eyed students to our very first assignment. Pair up and interview a classmate for 40 minutes. Ask them questions about who they are, what they do, and their interests. Then you have another 40 minutes to write a profile about your new classmate.

Problem 1) What the heck is a lead?
Problem 2) How do I decide what is relevant about another person’s life?
Problem 3) Who is this crazy person that expects me to have this written, printed, and in his hand at EXACTLY 2:49 p.m. Oh, and why does he keep mentioning he was on TV? 

Start at 6:46 and just let it run.

One of the best and worst parts of CreComm is the way you do something first and learn how to later. This was the case with leads. I didn’t know how to start, so I started the way I would with an essay: an anecdote about my classmate’s tendency to stockpile items. 

Later, we learned that leads were a brief summary highlighting what the rest of the article will be about. Note, this does not give away all important or exciting information in the first sentence, as we still want to keep readers interested.

For instance, I wouldn’t say, “John Smith remembers waking up to his cat struggling through the cat door with the neighbour's beach towel in its mouth. It was 1 a.m. and his cat was at it again.” 

Instead a lead for this type of story would be, “Wolesley is on watch for a four-legged critter that appears to be spending its nights bleeding the neighbourhood dry.”

Fast forward to our Blue Bombers human interest assignment where we would be interviewing the masses about anything and everything that was somewhat relevant to the football game. This is when I learned a few lessons. 

1. Don’t ask if you can ask someone questions. Say something like, “Hi, I’m doing (blah blah blah) and I just need two minutes of your time for a couple questions.” And continue on with your questions.
   
2.  Make sure you get someone to spell their name for you or copy an organization/business name directly from a reliable source. Caps and Spelling is your best friend, which reminds me I need to find mine…
   
3.  Know what is happening around the city. For instance, I was thrown into a conversation with David Asper about his plans for the new stadium and what would happen to the Polo Park location. And well, embarrassing as it is to admit, I knew next to nothing. I didn’t even know about the high-end strip mall he wanted to build.
   
4. Tim Hortons is not spelled with an apostrophe.

4)    These rules and lessons learned play a large part in the current analistic work strategy that I practice when conducting important journalism assignments. Reading your work over and over again doesn’t mean anything unless you question everything you thought was safe or common sense. (ie. How did YOU think Tim Hortons was spelled?)