How Blogs Help Journalists and Other Reporting Tips
Alex Blumberg, a producer for This American Life, who along with Adam Davidson reported and produced “The Giant Pool of Money,” has advice for how to produce in-depth stories on big issues often glossed over by the Mainstream Media.
“The Giant Pool of Money,” produced in May 2008, is a fantastic piece of radio journalism that puts the financial crisis into terms we can all understand. Here is their most recent follow-up: “Another Frightening Show about the Economy.”
Here are some of the subheads on the advice given by Blumberg in a Steve Myers interview at the Poynter Institute:
- Start with a question that no one has asked in quite the same way.
- Use your ignorance and your status as an outsider to your benefit.
- Use the specialty press and the blogs.
Blumberg expands on the blogs:
“I could never have done this story without blogs,” he said. One of his favorites was called Calculated Risk. The blogs, experts and specialty press all spoke a language that was unfamiliar to him, but once he delved in, he started to understand what they were talking about.
- Look for people who aren’t experts.
- Make the story concrete.
- Ask people to tell their stories, ask about key moments, and get out of the way.
