great sources, great storytelling by rosland gammon
DESCRIPTION
The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism presents "Great Stories, Great Storytelling" by Rosland Gammon at the 50th Annual Society of American Business Editors and Writers Conference in Washington, D.C. For more information about free training for business journalists, please visit businessjournalism.orgTRANSCRIPT
Title Slide ORGANIZATION
PEOPLE DATA
Great Sources, Great Storytelling
Briggs-Gammon Rosland
Ø Blogger for the Reynolds Center for BusinessJournalism.org
Ø Communications instructor at Alverno College, Milwaukee
Ø Freelance writer Ø Former business reporter and/or editor at
!e Philadelphia Inquirer, Bloomberg News and the Milwaukee Business Journal
Hudson Mike
Ø Senior Editor at International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
Ø Author of “THE MONSTER: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America—and Spawned a Global Crisis”
Ø George Polk Award winner Ø Former Wall Street Journal reporter Ø BIB winner: “Fraud and Folly: !e Untold
Story of General Electric’s Subprime Debacle”
Young Alison
Ø Investigative reporter for USA Today Ø Winner of two Scripps Howard Awards,
two Gerald Loeb Awards and two National Headliners
Ø Former reporter and/or editor for !e Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Detroit Free Press, !e Arizona Republic and the Dallas Times Herald
Ø BIB winner: “Ghost Factories”
GREAT STORYTELLING
ORGANIZATION
PEOPLE
DATA
LLCs, property records
“!ere was an existing paper trail, and no one ever went looking for it.”
-Brian Grow, Reuters, on Chesapeake coverage
Public utility "lings
“All of the information is there, but nobody ever reads it….Companies count on the fact that no one will ever read it.” – Mark Jaffe, Denver Post, on
Xcel’s SmartGridCity project story
Denver Post graphic
“A lot of times, business reporters give up, but there is so much information about private companies in SEC "lings.” - Julie Wernau, Chicago Tribune, on stories about electric cars in Elkhart, Ind.
Full-text search on SEC site
https://www.fpds.gov/fpdsng_cms/index.php
Tobacco libraries “It’s so rare that you have access to this level of detail. It’s like being invited into executives’ offices and have them open their "les and say, ‘Here, have a look.’”
-Patricia Callahan, Chicago Tribune, on the series on the risks of "ame retardants
Chicago Tribune graphic
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/
Data arranged by: Ø Business Ø Election campaigns Ø Environment Ø Federal spending Ø Health Ø Public safety Ø Transportation
Your suggestions?
GREAT STORYTELLING
ORGANIZATION
PEOPLE
DATA
Not just the numbers “What makes a story come alive is being able to physically see what a place is. Who lives there? Who works there? From then on, that place is a reality to you.” – Byron Harris, investigative
reporter WFAA-TV in Dallas
“Finding Mr. Johnson wasn’t easy. Most workers didn’t want to share details as freely as he did.”
- Leslie Patton, Bloomberg on McDonald’s CEO pay vs. employee wages story
Sources
h"p://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm
h"ps://www.linkedin.com/
h"p://www.pacer.gov/
http://www.publicinsightnetwork.org/partners/
“Fraud and Folly: !e Untold Story of General Electric’s
subprime debacle”
GREAT STORYTELLING
ORGANIZATION
PEOPLE
DATA
Tag everything “Trying to remember what documents you have is a challenge…. Every time I get a report, I tag it with content, speaker, source and source type.”
- Kate Willson, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on human tissue series
Organizing tools
h"ps://www.box.com/
h"p://www.copernic.com/
h"p://www.documentcloud.org/home
h"ps://vimeo.com/62188625 Password: ghos,actories
GREAT STORYTELLING
ORGANIZATION
PEOPLE
DATA
Storytelling “People respond to deep narrative stories with a beginning, middle and end. Newspapers focus on the beginning and the end. But the middle can be fascinating. !at’s where some of best stories come out of.”
- Charles Duhigg, New York Times on “#e Power of Habit”
“When I outline, I set aside my notes and focus on storytelling.”
- Mina Kimes, on her Fortune story about railroad consolidation
Storytelling
Writing techniques
Overcoming challenges Focusing tips
Giving the story life
When to stop
Great storytelling
Phot
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Flic
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ser K
orjar
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CONTACT US
Alison Young [email protected] Twitter: @alisonannyoung
Mike Hudson [email protected] Twitter: @michaelwhudson