Hyperlocal News Gathering Ten Tips

The following tips have been provided by Chris Jones of OurSouthValley.com

1. Know your audience: If you are a liberal, in a conservative town, it probably isn’t a good idea to spend all day bashing Glen Beck, vise versa, If you’re a conservative in Connecticut, You might want to keep your critique of Obama to a minimum. You have to understand who you serve. By starting the Facebook page first, I got to see where the political and religious views of my audience fall.. The folks I service lean a bit to the right. I have to keep that in mind when I’m writing stories.
2. Know the players: Meet everyone, the mayor, the police chief, the council members. Know who’s paying attention in your area and connect with them. Mildred up the street may seem like a nosey nag to her neighbors, but she is a wealth of information to a reporter.
3. Connect on Social Media: My guess is your mayor has a Facebook Page. If he or she does, become friends. I’ve found half a dozen stories just from what appear to be innocuous comments made by the movers and shakers on their social media sites. Your police department may also be on Facebook or Twitter, if so, find them immediately.
4. Spend $300 bucks: On things like a little camera. I have a little Kodak, Flip like camera. It’s HD, and nearly broadcast quality. Yesterday I shot one minute of video of a guy holding a sign dancing on the street.
5. Be Fearless: So much of this profession is putting your self in uncomfortable positions. You may find yourself knocking on the doors of people who have experienced tragedy. If that is not for you, that is absolutely understandable. My wife tells me I need to mind my own business sometimes, but that is not my nature, asking too many questions is not for everyone.
6. Find on-line resources: You’d shocked how much information is on-line. From jail logs to state employee salaries. Find them in your community and use them.
7. Write…A lot: Get in the habit. Write about everything, the more you write, the better you get.
8. Don’t think everything has to win a Pulitzer Prize: You aren’t going to expose the crooked mayor everyday. Most of the time your telling folks about Little League Baseball registration or a 5 K in March, accept that your role is to inform most of the time, if you blow the lid off city hall, awesome? But don’t shy away from telling people, there won’t be a trash pick up this week
9. Post, post, post: You have to post stories everyday. Three minimum, 5 is good, 10 is better.
10. Enjoy it: If you like poking around in other people’s business, then this is the gig for you.

Read More:

http://www.amazon.com/Guerilla-Journalism-Sunday-Dare/dp/1425754856