Being a journalism student is hard enough. Getting used to pitching stories, working on a hard deadline, and working equipment are just a few of the difficult tasks we have to get used to. But when story ideas fall through because we cannot tout our years of experience at an established station, things get even more difficult. That situation was my experience this week. My attempt was to cover a story on voter fraud, and what Missouri representatives planned to do in order to prevent voter fraud in Columbia and Boone County. Not only did my initial attempts to obtain an interview with the County Clerk and the Secretary of State fall through, but I never received call-backs or email responses. I had to scratch all of my plans and start over from square one. I understand that I have to "pay my dues" within the journalism world, and I'm not going to score some of those interviews that a more experienced and established journalist would. I just wish I could at least get an official rejection, rather than no response! I really enjoyed the piece I came up with this week, as I believe my scripting, voicing, and editing techniques were much better.
In terms of what I saw this week in journalism, a lot of the news stories were related to midterm elections. While I personally think citizens should stay generally knowledgeable on political events and issues, I hate pre-election coverage. I can't stand the commercials, the articles written from pure speculation, and the never-ending segments of political analysts trying to hypothesize on election voting numbers. In my opinion, journalists need to do a better job of really examining election issues, and discussing candidates platforms, rather than boring listeners with statistics from polls and surveys. CNN, FOX, and MSNBC are all guilty of this problem, which I think needs to change.
This week also provided a prime example of the impact news coverage can have on decision-makers. With the "Faurot Field Thirty" incident last weekend, the news coverage of their arrests this week and the negative publicity and growing conversation about the students' arrests no doubt played a role in the University's decision to drop charges. After the University received negative attention for selling field-rush photos to students and alum, the pictures were quickly removed from the bookstore website. It reiterated to me how much impact journalism can have on people's lives and the overall sentiment of the public.
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