Reporting Takeaways

This class has been very insight for the process of becoming a beat reporter. I have learned how important and useful creating contacts and sources in you beat can really be.

As for most journalism classes I have been a part of thus far, you usually just write random stories about this and that. However, this class has really helped me understand the need for beats. It allows for journalists and reporters to get information more quickly from the sources that have already made.

For example, if I ever need information on the internal city affairs of Johnson City, I know I can now easily contact Johnson City Mayor Jenny Brock or if I need information on the Scott County Virginia Public School System I can easily contact Robin Hood.

Two things I have learned from this class would definitely be the importance of beat reporting and the difficulties of creating news by use of enterprise/investigative stories.

My enterprise story has been the most difficult to write of all the stories we have written through this entire class. I believe this difficulty has come from my inability to get responses from any sources and part of this difficulty comes from the COVID-19 pandemic.

One thing I would change about this course is the need for one of our stories to be related to the Overlooked in Appalachia project. This has required me to essentially almost abandon my beat as the environment and crime/politics are completely unrelated and have little overlap. It’s not easy to find environmental crimes being committed in this area. The Eastman Chemical company had some lawsuits back in 2008, but they have cleaned up their act and are looking for even better alternatives since.

Another thing I would change would be our need for Zoom classes, as I will always prefer in-person classes to online ones any day.

I will always take with me my newly found love for writing meeting stories. Upon attending my first local government meeting, I expected to be bored out of my mind, but found it to be quite interesting. I would love to have the opportunity to write more of these stories in the future as well more national level meetings.