Fat Tuesday benefit raises money for CMN

For package three, I decided to cover an event. Last week, I spoke with other students in Broadcast 2 who covered events, and they comforted me with words like, "it's easy" "less stressful" and "fun." I don't know that I can agree this week's package was any easier or stress-free, but it was a ton of fun. But, I am a nerd and love meeting people and putting together packages. 

This Tuesday, the 24th, which was also "Fat Tuesday," IHOP along with the Children's Miracle Network (CMN) held National Pancake Day. IHOP offered a free short stack of pancakes, but asked customers to make a donation benefiting CMN.

Nationwide, IHOP's goal was $1 million dollars. The Columbia location set a goal of $2,500, which dollar-for-dollar goes to the Columbia Children's Hospital. I have yet to hear the official amount raised. I've been in contact with Molly Meyers, Coordinator of MU CMN, who has been a joy working with and I'm hoping she will fill me in as soon as possible. 

I went to the restaurant early that morning, and it was packed. The general managers said they prepared for the event months in advance, and some people said they only waited 10 minutes to get a table. Not bad. 

I found there were tricky components to this story. I wanted to make it seem relevant and newsworthy. So I tried my best to make sure the story conveys the fundraiser is something that potentially benefits all Mid-Missourians. You never know if you'll have a child, grandchild, niece, nephew or friend that needs pediatric care. I found a man who's son received care from CMN at the MU Children's Hospital. Although, I could not get footage of his son or home, I had one sound byte that made the story a little more humanized. 

Another difficulty I ran into was capturing footage of the children's hospital facilities. Because of privacy agreements, reporters can't shoot video in patient areas. So, all of my footage was from the actual event. However, I do feel like I had a few good shots and natural sound. I especially liked my closing shot - I utilized depth-of-field to make pancakes a little more interesting. 

Week 2

This week, I was back and forth between two different stories, because neither was coming together well.

My original story idea was to visit a small scrapbooking store in Mexico, Missouri. I was originally supposed to meet with the owner to talk about how her business is doing in light of the bad economy and competition from online outlets. However, our original meeting date and time became a conflict and there was no other time to do it this week. So, I moved on to staying in Columbia for the story.

I started making phone calls and set up a meeting at Hobby Lobby, where I was to meet with the store manager and hoped to find shoppers who were in to scrapbooking. I did manage to find both, but my next challenge was to find someone who would let me come into their home to shoot video of them scrapbooking. I talked to about ten people, got phone numbers from one woman who scrapbooks in a group and still had no success. With our stories, we try to find sources to humanize our story, to make it easier for viewers to relate. I was at a dead end. I tried the phone book "dart game," basically stalked people around Hobby Lobby and gave up. I decided to try for my backup plan.

The backup - a quick story on a bill that would remove "red light" cameras at intersections. I thought this would be a visually strong story and somewhat easy, but again ran into dead end's when trying to find a CCC.

Because of my deadline, I decided to go ahead with the scrapbooking story. Considering I don't have a solid CCC, filmed in one location, and one with poor lighting to boot, I think I managed well. A few colleagues looked over my script and were surprised at what I had come up in having so few material.

My biggest challenge was keeping an open mind. Originally, I went into the story with an idea of what I wanted it to be - in terms of content. But, when I actually started talking to people and researching, I discovered it would take on an entirely different angel. This is one of the things we learn. We must let the people tell the story, and not structure interviews in a way to the the story that WE want. That is not our duty. 

The frustrations of Journalism

Over the past two weeks, I spent every spare minute of my time working on my first package for Broadcast 2. I encountered more obstacles than anything else, but can honestly say I made it!

Choosing a story proved to be the easiest part of my quest. I am very interested in political reporting and agriculture. So naturally, I picked up a story about a new piece of legislation that concerns the agriculture industry.

Jackson County Republican Senator Matt Bartle sponsored Senate Bill 11, which would lift the requirement that all Missouri gas stations carry ethanol-blended fuel. The bill jumped out at me because I am familiar with Bartle's platforms, and the ideals of this bill didn't seem to resonate with his usual legislation. 

I decided this is a great story for viewers because it affects everyone who has a vehicle, as well as the farmers who provide the corn used in ethanol.

I spoke with Sen. Bartle as well as a Kingdom City Farmer, Fred Atkinson. He too, was surprised to hear Sen. Bartle sponsored this piece of legislation because Bartle comes from an agriculture background. Mr. Atkinson provided very colorful soundbytes and definitely humanized my story. I walked around his farm - shooting video of various aspects of his operation. 

We had a second chance to re-shoot video, which I definitely needed to do. However, nothing worked out for me this week. First of all, I couldn't meet with Mr. Atkinson due to scheduling conflicts, and because I have to attend an earlier lab session this week, I am not able to re-shoot video at the second hearing of the bill.

Regardless of the less-than-perfect package I produced, I must say I am glad to see my work come together. The story provides an insightful look on what normally may be a boring political story with "BOPSA" video. But through the things I learned in the course thus far, I took the story to a level that people can now relate to.

Newbie

I am expanding my horizons in journalism by creating a blog of my own. I have blogged in the past through a web hosting created by my news director at Missouri Digital News (MDN). However, I'm hoping this blog will develop into a more long-term record. You can view my blog from MDN by visiting http://www.mdn.org/2009/STAFF/GRIMMETA.HTM

I am currently a Junior at the University of Missouri. I am majoring in Broadcast Journalism and am completing my second semester in the Broadcast sequence. As part of Broadcast Two, I will be completing weekly entries that review my journalistic experiences.

I am contemplating on creating a Twitter account as well. This way I can manage a formal blog dedicated to my journalistic experience, along with a more informal account of my random life thoughts.