Finding stories is the most fun thing about journalism and also the most daunting. Keeping up with the news and seeing where stories are going, or should go to be complete, is where we start. Those stories already have the interest of the public because they saw them in the media, which makes people think they must be important. It’s a bit circular, but a good place to start. The trick is to break out of that circle and start finding your own stories–stories that you know about because of who you are–where you live, your hobbies, your challenges, your friends. Of course, social media, especially Facebook, is probably the go-to source for stories from your circle. Twitter is another one–I mostly follow other journalists. There are other types of social media that are favoured by different types of people. My daughter uses SnapChat and Instagram and some people I know are addicted to Pinterest. All of these “places” are sites where you can find story ideas. And your nose for news will develop over the next seven weeks. To start with, the most basic considerations–news values–are proximity, timeliness, magnitude, impact, prominence, human interest, conflict and currency. Consider the stories that catch your eye as you read the paper, scroll through news, listen to radio and watch TV. Which of these news values are the reasons those stories are interesting to you?
Finding Stories
