Spot News Prep

Trying to pick an event for your first news story can be hard, especially when you have a specific beat to stick to and in my case a very specific beat.

After a little digging online, I found that the Johnson City Board of Commissioners meets twice a month, the perfect timing for me to do my project and the meeting is right up my alley as I am a political writer, specifically political law, crime, and courthouse hearings. So, I decided to attend the meeting.

However, before the meeting I decided to find a little information on what I was getting myself into. I found the boards website that stated what they do and who they are. The meeting sounded interesting and like I could get a lot of good information from attending. Another plus was that all of their meetings are live streamed and put on YouTube giving me a chance to fact check all of my quotes.

I then realized I was going to have to interview some people in order to write my story. I knew I would have an opportunity to interview some of the citizens who would be involved with the meeting, but I also wanted to interview someone with more authority.

Who has more authority in this situation than the mayor? No one. So, I emailed her hoping to secure a moment of her time for an interview. After hours of no replies and anxiety, she finally responded and told me she would happily speak with me.

Along with answering the many questions I had on what had happened during the meeting, the mayor also helped me to understand what the board is and the procedures they have to go through.

All in all, this experience helped me confirm that I have picked the right journalistic beat for myself as I felt comfortable, but also interested.