An Amateur's Beginnings

My First Independent Story

<!— @page { margin: 0.79in } —>

Last week, I had my first glimpse into life as a reporter.

In MMC2100, I did my very first news story outside of class. The whole thing was stressful, to say the least. I had to come up with a story focus, tie in the source given to us, interview two additional sources, write the story and have it all done within five days.

When the realization that I only had five days to complete lab eight hit me, I was definitely worried. To make things worse, I would be in Orlando for three of these five days visiting my best friend. Time was not on my side.

Thursday came around sooner than expected. Dr. Dodd introduced to the class Rob Carr, the director of engineering services for the College of Journalism and Communications, and the first source for our stories. I got out my pen and notebook and anxiously waited for the interview to begin, envying all the people who had tape recorders and cursing myself for not buying one.

As Carr started speaking, the whole class simultaneously started scribbling. This did not stop until the last minute of class when the interview was finally over. My hand hurt from writing four pages of notes, and I’m sure many of my classmates were the same. I was tired from writing and was beginning to panic about story ideas, but at least I was finished with the interview. Phase one was complete. Now, onto the hard part.

Coming up with a story idea was the hardest part for me. I wanted something special, something different from the other 250 people in the class while still using the same quotes from Carr’s interview. This proved to be a lot more challenging than I thought.

After a day of brainstorming and asking people for advice, the best I could come up with involved the current trend of smartphones. This definitely wasn’t the epiphany I was waiting for but, due to time constraints, I decided to give it a shot. I had notes from Carr’s interview about wireless technology and the upcoming 4G network that could be included in the topic. I also planned on interviewing an AT&T salesperson and a student who owned a smartphone. But my story would have to wait until Monday. I had a two-hour drive ahead and was already running an hour late.