Generating Story IdeasGenerating Story IdeasUniversity of North Texas

Department of JournalismSeptember 22, 2008

Where Do You Begin?Where Do You Begin? Newspapers Web News Television News Blogs Press Releases FaceBook, MySpace Comments/

Feedback/ Letters to the Editor

Observation Sources Events’ Calendar Anniversaries of

local, regional, national events

Brainstorming Story Mapping “Story Tree” Scenarios – ‘What

if?’

Story MappingStory Mapping

Source: http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=17432

‘‘Story Tree’Story Tree’

Source: http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=17432

Once You Have An Idea, Now Once You Have An Idea, Now What?What?

Key questions to ask yourselfa) Why is this news?

i) Timeliness? Trend? Celebrity? Human Interest?b) What’s the ‘so what’?c) Who wants to read the story?d) Why is it important?e) Can I localize it?f) Can I make it into a regional? National story?

Civic Sources – ‘Layers’Civic Sources – ‘Layers’

Private

Official* Politicians and institutions in a community. * City council meetings and public hearings.

Quasi-officialCitizen associations, local municipal leagues, advocacy groups and other groups.

IncidentalWhere people interact informally on sidewalks, at the market, in backyards.“Bumping into” someone you know

Third PlacesWhere people gather to talk and do things together. Churches and synagogues, community socials, barber shops, diners, child care centers.

PrivateAt home

Source: Pew Center for Civic Journalism - Framework 1: Seeing the Layers of Civic Life - http://www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/pubs/tcl/framework1.html

Now What…..Now What…..

Once I have an idea, what’s next?a) Who are my sources? b) Where do I find them?c) How much research do I have to do to better

understand the background of the story, the person I’m going to interview?

i) Newspaper/magazine articles/archivesii) Documents – reports, public filingsiii) Other individuals

Now What…..Now What…..

d) What questions do I need to ask?i) Assess for each source: You may need sets of

questions for each source, depending on the story

ii) Constantly remind yourself: “What’s this story about? What’s the ‘so what’”?

e) Evaluate what graphic/interactive elements you need to bring the story alive

i) Photosii) Chartsiii) Mapsiv) Audio and/or video

Creating a ‘Budget Line’Creating a ‘Budget Line’

‘Selling your story’Capturing the ‘so what’/’who cares’Very short, clear and accurateHelps editors understand what stories are

available from all reporters

The Inverted PyramidThe Inverted PyramidThe Lead

Backing Up the Lead

The Nut Graph – ‘So What Graph?’

Lead Quote

Impact