News Gathering

My career in news writing and gathering began as a freshman when I become highly interested and dedicated to a hot topic of debate in the Madison County School System. The debate revolved around how BRAC funding would be used to benefit our community: a brand new high school or additions and renovations to the current high school. I jumped in the middle of the community divide and interviewed the superintendent, board members, teachers, parents and elected officials to convey both sides of the story. I attended board meetings and even joined the superintendent advisory council to make connections with my sources. After gathering the news, I wrote article after article and tweeted board meetings live.  

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Like I described in the writing tab, the majority of my news gathering is done from talking to everyone I see and asking an endless amount of questions. I have found that the more you get to know your source and personally connect with them rather than just ask them a few questions, you begin to find the real story. My gathering of news I discussed above is just a brief example of my process that includes: following beets, taking extensive notes, recording interviews, writing a rough draft, editing, editing some more and finally producing a final draft. 

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Read An Example of My News Gathering Coming Together from the Tweets Below Here

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