California made me a job offer today. I was in my car driving to Chastain park when my phone ring-a-linged and I saw an unrecognized number pop up. I knew it. I let it go to voice mail because I always screen job related calls - plus driving and trying to hold that conversation probably would have resulted in very bad driving.
I'm flying to Los Angeles this Sunday and am planning on spending most of Monday in Barstow. I feel like I need to check out the place and see if I could survive life in the Mojave Desert.
Next week is gonna be a big week! Sunday to Tuesday in L.A., back to Atlanta on Tuesday = Nov. 4th = Election Day = The Day America Redeems Itself, and Wednesday to Friday in Jamestown, North Dakota. I'm already leaning towards California, but I think I need to be open minded. Ahhh I'm excited!!!
10.28.2008
10.25.2008
Where the deer and the antelope play...
I'm flying up to North Dakota in two weeks for an on-site interview. And to see what Jamestown has to offer. Yahooooo....
10.22.2008
Sleepless in Seattle
I had trouble falling asleep last night. I was thinking about the interview I was going to have today with the Jamestown Sun. This newspaper, comparable in size to the California one, is located in North Dakota. The thought of North Dakota kept me tossing for a good 30 min in the dark.
When the prospect of a job gets within range - where you can picture yourself saying goodbye, packing up a U-Haul, and apartment hunting in a foreign place - the once fuzzy picture comes into frighteningly sharp relief.
While waiting to fall asleep, I tried imagining myself living in some small town somewhere (this applies to both papers I've recently interviewed with). It was hard to picture. It was also hard to think that the main reason I turned down the Wisconsin offer was to go to a bigger, better place (paper and city). Well...the prospects I'm facing lately aren't all that grander...
I've had to come to terms with thinking about the job trajectory of my chosen career path. I think I'm going to be starting off small. Smaller than I was originally willing to settle for.
Anyway, back to the interview. I've had conference call phone interviews before but this was the first time I had three people interviewing me at once. It seemed a little excessive, but to their credit, the editor and her assistant editor were originally going to interview me, but the editor had to step away, so another reporter joined in and in the end it just ended up being three vs. me.
I think the interview went okay. The main thing was that since it was a conference call on speaker phone, they sounded all far away and echoey and there was a noticeable lag time. Every time I asked a question or finished a sentence, there was a pause. In my head, I imagined them making eye contact, looking at each other, while I sat and squirmed. I don't like having to imagine what sort of non-verbal cues a group of people are sharing on the other end of the line.
The interview ended with a cool and ominous "we'll be in touch." There weren't many sparks flying with this one.
When the prospect of a job gets within range - where you can picture yourself saying goodbye, packing up a U-Haul, and apartment hunting in a foreign place - the once fuzzy picture comes into frighteningly sharp relief.
While waiting to fall asleep, I tried imagining myself living in some small town somewhere (this applies to both papers I've recently interviewed with). It was hard to picture. It was also hard to think that the main reason I turned down the Wisconsin offer was to go to a bigger, better place (paper and city). Well...the prospects I'm facing lately aren't all that grander...
I've had to come to terms with thinking about the job trajectory of my chosen career path. I think I'm going to be starting off small. Smaller than I was originally willing to settle for.
Anyway, back to the interview. I've had conference call phone interviews before but this was the first time I had three people interviewing me at once. It seemed a little excessive, but to their credit, the editor and her assistant editor were originally going to interview me, but the editor had to step away, so another reporter joined in and in the end it just ended up being three vs. me.
I think the interview went okay. The main thing was that since it was a conference call on speaker phone, they sounded all far away and echoey and there was a noticeable lag time. Every time I asked a question or finished a sentence, there was a pause. In my head, I imagined them making eye contact, looking at each other, while I sat and squirmed. I don't like having to imagine what sort of non-verbal cues a group of people are sharing on the other end of the line.
The interview ended with a cool and ominous "we'll be in touch." There weren't many sparks flying with this one.
10.20.2008
On the road again
This week's tag-along trip takes me to Columbia, Tenn. I'm here with my roommate Yen who has meetings to attend to while I have cable tv to attend to. It took us about six hours to get here when it probably only should have taken about four. There were various hold-ups: the delay getting our rental car from The Most Skeevy Enterprise rental place in The Known Universe (it kinda looked like it could have been a crack house not too long ago...), a couple pit stops, and one 45 min phone interview.
We pulled into a Wendy's parking lot where I had Interview Numero Dos with the HR lady from the Desert Dispatch. And thankfully, the interview went very well. Even though I was in a car, sitting with my laptop in my lap, and battling the last flickering bar that T-Mobile was threatening me with, I managed to eke out a pretty decent conversation with my interviewer.
I think there's such a thing as making a Professional Connection - the counterpart to the idea of a Personal Connection. A Personal Connection is when you hit it off easily with a person you're meeting for the first time. The encounter is fresh. There's momentum in your conversation. You hope (and are already plotting ways) to talk to them again in the near future.
A Professional Connection is similar, despite a different agenda and balance of power. Usually for an interview, you put on your happy face, which for me is trying to be a Chatty Cathy. You're trying to break the ice but it only really shatters when the Interviewer acknowledges your effort and responds to it - by being nice. It's simple enough.
If you quickly convince them that you might be friendly/tolerable enough to work with, they feel no need to intimidatingly lord over you. This, in turn, frees you to be more honest and less uptight. In the best case scenario, the Interviewer will genuinely spark to something you say. After all, you're both in your mutual element. This drives the momentum. Even while in the interview mode, you dream of when you'll hopefully speak to them again - gainfully employed, of course.
It's a delicate act, however, to balance being friendly and appearing qualified and wanting to please. And in the end the Professional Connection is always dictated by keeping one's eye on the prize. It can be genuine and enjoyable, but the stakes remain.
I think I made that connection today. I hope I made that today.
We pulled into a Wendy's parking lot where I had Interview Numero Dos with the HR lady from the Desert Dispatch. And thankfully, the interview went very well. Even though I was in a car, sitting with my laptop in my lap, and battling the last flickering bar that T-Mobile was threatening me with, I managed to eke out a pretty decent conversation with my interviewer.
I think there's such a thing as making a Professional Connection - the counterpart to the idea of a Personal Connection. A Personal Connection is when you hit it off easily with a person you're meeting for the first time. The encounter is fresh. There's momentum in your conversation. You hope (and are already plotting ways) to talk to them again in the near future.
A Professional Connection is similar, despite a different agenda and balance of power. Usually for an interview, you put on your happy face, which for me is trying to be a Chatty Cathy. You're trying to break the ice but it only really shatters when the Interviewer acknowledges your effort and responds to it - by being nice. It's simple enough.
If you quickly convince them that you might be friendly/tolerable enough to work with, they feel no need to intimidatingly lord over you. This, in turn, frees you to be more honest and less uptight. In the best case scenario, the Interviewer will genuinely spark to something you say. After all, you're both in your mutual element. This drives the momentum. Even while in the interview mode, you dream of when you'll hopefully speak to them again - gainfully employed, of course.
It's a delicate act, however, to balance being friendly and appearing qualified and wanting to please. And in the end the Professional Connection is always dictated by keeping one's eye on the prize. It can be genuine and enjoyable, but the stakes remain.
I think I made that connection today. I hope I made that today.
10.16.2008
The latest news
I'm having my second round interview by phone with the Desert Dispatch (the California newspaper) on Monday afternoon.
Originally, the Desert Dispatch was suppose to have made their final decision about the position by Friday the 17th and have told me either yay or nay. They had also told me to expect a second round interview call from human resources before that time. As the time passed from my less than illustrious phone interview performance, I grew more certain that I had blown my chances and should chalk one up for a "learning experience."
But today, I received a call. It's the kind of thing that confirms my theory that unemployment = experiencing life as a bipolar person. Manically excited and drooling one moment. Listless the next.
Originally, the Desert Dispatch was suppose to have made their final decision about the position by Friday the 17th and have told me either yay or nay. They had also told me to expect a second round interview call from human resources before that time. As the time passed from my less than illustrious phone interview performance, I grew more certain that I had blown my chances and should chalk one up for a "learning experience."
But today, I received a call. It's the kind of thing that confirms my theory that unemployment = experiencing life as a bipolar person. Manically excited and drooling one moment. Listless the next.
10.15.2008
Vacations are for people who don't have jobs
What better time to travel then now? I have time to burn, after all, and heck with the exorbitant gas prices after Hurricane Ike and generally trying to save money (note: I said time to burn, not cash), I've gotten a bit of cabin fever and needed to get out. So. I have the privilege of living with a few friends who have jobs (like steady-eddie-get-paid-to- travel-job-jobs) so I've taken up their offers to tag along on business-y trips. Don't worry, I won't be crashing any board meetings in sweats and sneakers - I'll be keeping me and my sweats in hotels...web lounging/surfing, reading, sleeping, job searching, etc., essentially the same things I do at home. That's how Hattie convinced me to come, anyway. Made sense.
So this week's trip takes me and Hattie to Macon, Ga. We're staying overnight, which is just about perfect, because I'm not a big fan of motels.
Next week - if I'm good (haha) - I'll be going with Yen to Columbia, Tenn. Heej, are we doing a Savannah trip??
Anyway, in keeping with my blog's theme of journalism-y related topics, keep an eye out for my first book review in the coming days. Last night I finished reading an awesome book that made an incredibly convoluted and dense topic totally riveting. And what, in our day and age, is a better study in complexity than the Iraq war? NBC Middle East correspondent Richard Engel wrote about his five years covering the conflict, from the moment the first American bombs fell in 2003 until, well, he's still there now, so that gives you a feel for his commitment and utter entrenchment in the war, in War Journal: My Five Years In Iraq. So there's the teaser....
So this week's trip takes me and Hattie to Macon, Ga. We're staying overnight, which is just about perfect, because I'm not a big fan of motels.
Next week - if I'm good (haha) - I'll be going with Yen to Columbia, Tenn. Heej, are we doing a Savannah trip??
Anyway, in keeping with my blog's theme of journalism-y related topics, keep an eye out for my first book review in the coming days. Last night I finished reading an awesome book that made an incredibly convoluted and dense topic totally riveting. And what, in our day and age, is a better study in complexity than the Iraq war? NBC Middle East correspondent Richard Engel wrote about his five years covering the conflict, from the moment the first American bombs fell in 2003 until, well, he's still there now, so that gives you a feel for his commitment and utter entrenchment in the war, in War Journal: My Five Years In Iraq. So there's the teaser....
10.08.2008
The method behind the madness
Here are my responses to the questions about why certain info was used or omitted from the story. While interviewing with the Desert Dispatch editor I asked him what he thought about my story. "I liked your style," he said, but raised concern about the fact that I included a paraphrased statement about "criminal activity." He said, however that I couched it pretty carefully and it would probably have been safe, but it's one of those things that wouldn't have made it passed an editor. Anyway...
1. What information is missing in your news-gathering that could have made the story more complete?
There are several pieces of information that leave the newsgathering for this story incomplete. First, I need the official coroner’s report stating the cause of death. Next, I want to know why Martha did not call 911. I’m also curious about the smoke detectors – were they purposefully disabled? Tampered with? Did they malfunction?
If the police proceeded to sweep the house after the fire was contained, I would want to know if they found anything out of the ordinary, especially in the bedroom where the fire supposedly started. It seems like determining how the fire started will answer several questions in this case.
I would also want to know on what basis the neighbor, Jeanine Jordan, makes accusations that Jason Blevins uses or possesses meth. This would also require learning more about Jeanine and what kind of history she has with the Blevins (because she clearly has strong feelings towards Jason).
A big looming question, and perhaps the most difficult to determine, is whether the delayed emergency response contributed to Martha Blevins’ death. This would require information from several parties – from doctors and paramedics who could determine Martha’s condition at various times during the incident, from the fire department on how long responses usually take, and from city officials who had been made aware that train crossings were impacting emergency responses to that particular neighborhood.
Lastly, I want to fill in the gaps regarding Jason Blevins. Does he have a criminal record? Why was he with his father that day? Why have both he and his father been unreachable immediately following the incident?
2. What info did you decide not to use and why?
I chose to not include Jeanine Jordan’s quotes that placed blame on Jason Blevins and accused him of using and possessing meth. These are criminal accusations that are potentially libelous. The accusations have not yet been proven true by either police statements or documents, and the accused person has not yet had the opportunity to respond to the statements. Further these statements were made during a crisis situation while Jeanine was likely highly upset and distressed. Jason is also a minor and deserves, I feel, a certain level of protection.
Also, I did not include what Lt. James Henderson stated about not finding any signs of a drug lab in Jason’s room in the past. Although this is a statement from an official, including it in the story without any other information on whether Jason had a criminal record could imply that Jason did, which could be interpreted as libelous. However, I think this statement would be appropriate to use in a future story after investigation confirms Jason’s record.
There were smaller details that I chose not to include, such as the fact that the Jeanine Jordan mistakenly gave police the wrong address because it did not add significant information to the story.
3. Your editor tells you to follow up on the story tomorrow for the following day’s newspaper. What possible angles could you take and whom would you need to contact for the story?
There are many angles to pursue for a follow-up story the next day. The most natural follow-up to the previous story would be to investigate what caused the fire. I would talk to police and other investigators who swept the house after fire was contained and see f they had learned anything new. This would also require further reporting on why Martha did not call 911 by talking to her neighbors and tracking down family members to learn more about Martha and any reason why she might have avoided seeking help. Also wrapped up in this follow-up story would be to explore the meth accusations. This would require asking police if they found any drugs in the house after the fire and going to the police station and reviewing Jason’s record to see if he has a drug-related criminal past.
Another approach would be to see how many emergency responses have been delayed by train crossings in that neighborhood in the past year. This would require contacting the police and fire departments and seeing how many ambulances, fire trucks or police cars were held up at trains during the past year and how much time it added to their normal response time. More importantly, however, would be to investigate how the delay impacted the emergencies – whether criminals got away, medical conditions worsened, or how many people perhaps even died.
1. What information is missing in your news-gathering that could have made the story more complete?
There are several pieces of information that leave the newsgathering for this story incomplete. First, I need the official coroner’s report stating the cause of death. Next, I want to know why Martha did not call 911. I’m also curious about the smoke detectors – were they purposefully disabled? Tampered with? Did they malfunction?
If the police proceeded to sweep the house after the fire was contained, I would want to know if they found anything out of the ordinary, especially in the bedroom where the fire supposedly started. It seems like determining how the fire started will answer several questions in this case.
I would also want to know on what basis the neighbor, Jeanine Jordan, makes accusations that Jason Blevins uses or possesses meth. This would also require learning more about Jeanine and what kind of history she has with the Blevins (because she clearly has strong feelings towards Jason).
A big looming question, and perhaps the most difficult to determine, is whether the delayed emergency response contributed to Martha Blevins’ death. This would require information from several parties – from doctors and paramedics who could determine Martha’s condition at various times during the incident, from the fire department on how long responses usually take, and from city officials who had been made aware that train crossings were impacting emergency responses to that particular neighborhood.
Lastly, I want to fill in the gaps regarding Jason Blevins. Does he have a criminal record? Why was he with his father that day? Why have both he and his father been unreachable immediately following the incident?
2. What info did you decide not to use and why?
I chose to not include Jeanine Jordan’s quotes that placed blame on Jason Blevins and accused him of using and possessing meth. These are criminal accusations that are potentially libelous. The accusations have not yet been proven true by either police statements or documents, and the accused person has not yet had the opportunity to respond to the statements. Further these statements were made during a crisis situation while Jeanine was likely highly upset and distressed. Jason is also a minor and deserves, I feel, a certain level of protection.
Also, I did not include what Lt. James Henderson stated about not finding any signs of a drug lab in Jason’s room in the past. Although this is a statement from an official, including it in the story without any other information on whether Jason had a criminal record could imply that Jason did, which could be interpreted as libelous. However, I think this statement would be appropriate to use in a future story after investigation confirms Jason’s record.
There were smaller details that I chose not to include, such as the fact that the Jeanine Jordan mistakenly gave police the wrong address because it did not add significant information to the story.
3. Your editor tells you to follow up on the story tomorrow for the following day’s newspaper. What possible angles could you take and whom would you need to contact for the story?
There are many angles to pursue for a follow-up story the next day. The most natural follow-up to the previous story would be to investigate what caused the fire. I would talk to police and other investigators who swept the house after fire was contained and see f they had learned anything new. This would also require further reporting on why Martha did not call 911 by talking to her neighbors and tracking down family members to learn more about Martha and any reason why she might have avoided seeking help. Also wrapped up in this follow-up story would be to explore the meth accusations. This would require asking police if they found any drugs in the house after the fire and going to the police station and reviewing Jason’s record to see if he has a drug-related criminal past.
Another approach would be to see how many emergency responses have been delayed by train crossings in that neighborhood in the past year. This would require contacting the police and fire departments and seeing how many ambulances, fire trucks or police cars were held up at trains during the past year and how much time it added to their normal response time. More importantly, however, would be to investigate how the delay impacted the emergencies – whether criminals got away, medical conditions worsened, or how many people perhaps even died.
Phone interviews gone rusty
There were several awkward pauses in my phone interview today with the editor of the Desert Dispatch. All on my part. I've had my fair share of interviews and I felt pretty comfortable going into this one - I knew what to expect and knew my lines. I expected to talk about journalism, why I wanted to report for their newspaper, and stuff like that....
So it threw me off a bit when the editor opened -after the typical formalities -by asking me, "What's been your biggest challenge and how have you overcome it?" Then followed straight by, "What are you most proud of?" But let me back up here. Most newspaper interviews, in my experience up 'til now, aren't interested in your life story/world view/idealism. They want to figure out if you can write a story competently and quickly, and that's what I've grown accustom to discussing. So when the editor lobbed his first question at me, I naturally followed up by saying he meant relating to journalism, right?
Wrong - he meant life. In general. Gah. I sputtered for a few moments and then came up with some BS answer that, I think, didn't reek too much of BS. Whew, I thought, dodged that one ok...but then the next 15 minutes proceeded to be more life-y stuff where I just had to scrap together answers off the top of my brain. It was not off to a good start.
Luckily it got much better once we started to talk about more concrete relevant things such as past internships, experiences, stories, etc. I felt like we were back in familiar territory. I have to say, though, I felt really outta practice and rusty today, and I think it showed. It's been two months since my internship ended and my brain's already starting to turn mushy along the edges........oh no.....moan.
After about 80 minutes of talking, we ended and he left me with hope that I might get a second round interview sometime in the coming days. The final decision will be made by the end of next week, he said. After I hung up, I stood up and walked into my room and had to lie down for a bit and recover from Mushy Brain Syndrome.
So it threw me off a bit when the editor opened -after the typical formalities -by asking me, "What's been your biggest challenge and how have you overcome it?" Then followed straight by, "What are you most proud of?" But let me back up here. Most newspaper interviews, in my experience up 'til now, aren't interested in your life story/world view/idealism. They want to figure out if you can write a story competently and quickly, and that's what I've grown accustom to discussing. So when the editor lobbed his first question at me, I naturally followed up by saying he meant relating to journalism, right?
Wrong - he meant life. In general. Gah. I sputtered for a few moments and then came up with some BS answer that, I think, didn't reek too much of BS. Whew, I thought, dodged that one ok...but then the next 15 minutes proceeded to be more life-y stuff where I just had to scrap together answers off the top of my brain. It was not off to a good start.
Luckily it got much better once we started to talk about more concrete relevant things such as past internships, experiences, stories, etc. I felt like we were back in familiar territory. I have to say, though, I felt really outta practice and rusty today, and I think it showed. It's been two months since my internship ended and my brain's already starting to turn mushy along the edges........oh no.....moan.
After about 80 minutes of talking, we ended and he left me with hope that I might get a second round interview sometime in the coming days. The final decision will be made by the end of next week, he said. After I hung up, I stood up and walked into my room and had to lie down for a bit and recover from Mushy Brain Syndrome.
What I came up with...
Bedroom blaze claims resident’s life
By EUNICE LEE
A 35-year-old woman was found unconscious in her burning house and died Thursday evening at Barstow Community Hospital.
Two firefighters found Martha Blevins collapsed in the hallway of her house on 1455 W. Elm Ave. around 4 p.m. on Thursday. Although the coroner’s autopsy report has yet to be released, smoke inhalation was likely the cause of death, according to Barstow Fire Protection District Chief James McAlvey.
Blevins and her 16-year-old stepson were the only residents of the now charred house. Martha Blevins had legal custody of Jason Blevins, who was away during the fire with his father who lives in Redlands. Officials have not been able to reach either the teenager or his father, Peter Terwilliger.
The cause of the fire is still unknown; however several factors seemed to have made a bad situation even worse.
Blevins was at home alone when the fire appeared to have started in one of the bedrooms and the smoke detectors did not work, fire department officials said.
When the firefighters rescued Blevins, they found her on the floor next to an empty bucket. They theorize that Blevins – who didn’t call 911 – tried to fight the fire but then collapsed from breathing the smoke.
“If they had working smoke detectors, Martha might have found out about the fire while it was still small enough to manage,” McAlvey said. “We don’t know why she didn’t call 911.”
It was Blevins’ next door neighbor, Jeanine Jordan, who called for help. And it was after 24 minutes that fire trucks arrived at the scene.
“We had to wait about 10 minutes for a train to pass, and there’s just no way to get to this neighborhood without crossing the tracks,” said McAlvey, citing the reason for the delay.
“We’ve complained to the city that this is going to keep happening unless they build some way to bypass the tracks,” McAlvey said, “but they keep saying they don’t have any money.”
Jordan, Blevins’ neighbor, claimed that criminal activity likely sparked the fire and said that police had frequently paid visits to the Blevins’ home.
“I’ve lived here for five years and I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the cops here at the house,” Jordan said. Lt. James Henderson, Barstow Police Department spokesperson, also confirmed that the police have been called to the Blevins house multiple times but said he would not comment on the details.
Firefighters were able to contain the blaze Thursday evening with minimal damage to surrounding houses.
By EUNICE LEE
A 35-year-old woman was found unconscious in her burning house and died Thursday evening at Barstow Community Hospital.
Two firefighters found Martha Blevins collapsed in the hallway of her house on 1455 W. Elm Ave. around 4 p.m. on Thursday. Although the coroner’s autopsy report has yet to be released, smoke inhalation was likely the cause of death, according to Barstow Fire Protection District Chief James McAlvey.
Blevins and her 16-year-old stepson were the only residents of the now charred house. Martha Blevins had legal custody of Jason Blevins, who was away during the fire with his father who lives in Redlands. Officials have not been able to reach either the teenager or his father, Peter Terwilliger.
The cause of the fire is still unknown; however several factors seemed to have made a bad situation even worse.
Blevins was at home alone when the fire appeared to have started in one of the bedrooms and the smoke detectors did not work, fire department officials said.
When the firefighters rescued Blevins, they found her on the floor next to an empty bucket. They theorize that Blevins – who didn’t call 911 – tried to fight the fire but then collapsed from breathing the smoke.
“If they had working smoke detectors, Martha might have found out about the fire while it was still small enough to manage,” McAlvey said. “We don’t know why she didn’t call 911.”
It was Blevins’ next door neighbor, Jeanine Jordan, who called for help. And it was after 24 minutes that fire trucks arrived at the scene.
“We had to wait about 10 minutes for a train to pass, and there’s just no way to get to this neighborhood without crossing the tracks,” said McAlvey, citing the reason for the delay.
“We’ve complained to the city that this is going to keep happening unless they build some way to bypass the tracks,” McAlvey said, “but they keep saying they don’t have any money.”
Jordan, Blevins’ neighbor, claimed that criminal activity likely sparked the fire and said that police had frequently paid visits to the Blevins’ home.
“I’ve lived here for five years and I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the cops here at the house,” Jordan said. Lt. James Henderson, Barstow Police Department spokesperson, also confirmed that the police have been called to the Blevins house multiple times but said he would not comment on the details.
Firefighters were able to contain the blaze Thursday evening with minimal damage to surrounding houses.
10.02.2008
The reporting/writing exercise
Here's the reporting test the Desert Dispatch gave me to assess my basic reporting, writing and news judgement abilities. Take a gander. I'll post my copy of the story I cobbled together as well as my responses to the follow-up Q's below - but in a few days or until I hear back from them, just to play it safe. Warning: this could take longer than the usual 15 second glance at blog post.
Dear Eunice Lee,
I've received your resume and clips of your work. At this point, I'd like to pass along the writing test we give to all candidates who meet our base requirements to be considered for the position. Below is a sample of the type of on-deadline story a reporter might be asked to pursue at a small community newspaper. While it's not the only kind of reporting we do, it's certainly something each reporter at the Desert Dispatch will likely face at some point.
Please read the information below and then follow the instructions. Due to some difficulties we occasionally have with attachments, I would ask that you submit your sample story and response in the body of an e-mail. Let me know if you have any questions.
Scott Shackford
Editor in Chief
Desert Dispatch
130 Coolwater Lane
Barstow CA 92311
Phone: (760) 256-4104
Fax: (760) 256-0685
Basic news reporting test
Situation:
It’s 4 p.m. on a Thursday in a cold January. It’s been a fairly quiet day and you’re working on a story about the latest crime statistic trends for Barstow when you hear alarms on the scanner. Fire trucks and rescue personnel are being called out to 1457 W. Elm Ave., where there is a structure fire. Your editor sends you out to the scene to get a story for the next day’s paper.
News Gathering:
You arrive at the scene of a burning house, which is actually at 1455 W.Elm Ave. Firefighters are working to put out the fire, as well as keep it from spreading next door to 1453 W. Elm Ave.
By the time you get there (you were delayed by a train crossing), somebody that you couldn’t see has been loaded into a nearby ambulance. The ambulance drives off.
Barstow Fire Protection District Chief James McAlvey is too busy to talk to you at the moment until they have better control of the fire. Jeanine Jordan, 48, the sole resident of 1453 W. Elm Ave., is standing on the sidewalk along with some other spectators. She looks worried and also a bit angry. You don’t even need to approach her, as she stomps over and starts yelling about what happened.
“It was her son!” Jeanine yells. “Everybody knows he’s a meth freak!” She complains about this unnamed man for a little while until you can calm her down and get more information. She tells you that the people who live at1457 W. Elm Ave. are named Martha Blevins and Jason Blevins. Jeanine explains that Martha is Jason’s mom. Jason is a teen (Jeanine’s not sure of his age) and a student at Barstow High School. Jeanine witnessed Martha being loaded into the ambulance.
Jeanine was the one who called the fire department. She claims she heard a“woomph” sound outside. When she went to investigate, she noticed fire through one of the bedroom windows in the Blevins house and called 911.
“That boy of hers is trouble,” Jeanine says. “I’ve lived here for five years and I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the cops here at the house. Everybody knows Jason was on meth. I bet he had a lab in his bedroom and that’s what exploded.”
“And another thing!” Jeanine says. “It took 30 minutes for the fire department to arrive!”
Meanwhile, the fire department has managed to save Jeanine’s house, though she’s upset that one of her favorite rose bushes has been destroyed. Chief McAlvey has time now to fill you in one some details.
The residents of the house are Martha Blevins, 35, and her stepson, Jason Blevins, 16. Jason was not home at the time of the fire, as far as they know, and they don’t know where he is. Police officers are trying to track him down.
The house was on fire when they arrived. Two firemen were able to make their way into the house and rescue Martha. She had collapsed on the floor of a hallway. There was an empty bucket next to her on the floor. They theorize that Martha was perhaps trying to fight the fire herself rather than evacuating and was overcome by the smoke. She has been taken to Barstow Community Hospital for treatment.
The fire department can’t speculate as to the cause of the fire as yet.What they can say is that the fire did appear to start in one of the bedrooms (too soon to say which one) and the home’s smoke detectors didn’t work.
“If they had working smoke detectors, Martha might have found out about the fire while it was still small enough to manage,” McAlvey says. “We don’t know why she didn’t call 911.”
The house is likely a total loss, McAlvey says. You bring up Jeanine’s complaint about the time it took the fire department to arrive.
“Actually, it was 24 minutes, though that’s still too long,” McAlvey says.“We would have been here much sooner if it weren’t for the fact that we had to cross the train tracks at First Street. We had to wait for about 10minutes for a train to pass, and there’s just no way to get to this neighborhood without crossing the tracks. We’ve complained to the city that this is going to keep happening unless they build some way to bypass the tracks, but they keep saying they don’t have any money.”
You decide to stay at the scene a little while longer to see if there are any other developments. But as you wait, you call Lt. James Henderson, the officer who serves as spokesperson for the Barstow Police Department, to ask about Jason. Henderson can only confirm that the police have been called to the Blevins house multiple times. He says he can’t reveal details about any incidents involving Jason, as he is a minor. You bring up Jeanine’s comments. Again he can’t say anything about Jason’s record,but he is willing to say that the police have not found any signs of a drug lab in the Blevins home in the past.
They also still haven’t found Jason. Through some friends of Jason’s police were able to contact, they determined that his father, Peter Terwilliger, had come pick him up earlier in the day, but police have not been able to reach them yet. Terwilliger lives in Redlands, but comes to visit Jason on a regular basis. Martha, however, has legal custody of Jason.
That’s all the information you can get from Lt. Henderson. As you end your call with him, you get some bad news from McAlvey: Martha Blevins died at the hospital. The coroner’s office will have to do an autopsy, but McAlvey is confident in saying it was likely due to smoke inhalation.
And with that bad news, your editor calls and tells you deadline is approaching and you’ve got to come back to the office to write what you’ve got.
WRITING EXERCISE:
Given just the information above, write a story for the next day’s newspaper. You will have to use your best judgment when it comes to confusing or incomplete information. There is no “length requirement”— the story should be as long as it needs to be to be as complete as possible.
Dear Eunice Lee,
I've received your resume and clips of your work. At this point, I'd like to pass along the writing test we give to all candidates who meet our base requirements to be considered for the position. Below is a sample of the type of on-deadline story a reporter might be asked to pursue at a small community newspaper. While it's not the only kind of reporting we do, it's certainly something each reporter at the Desert Dispatch will likely face at some point.
Please read the information below and then follow the instructions. Due to some difficulties we occasionally have with attachments, I would ask that you submit your sample story and response in the body of an e-mail. Let me know if you have any questions.
Scott Shackford
Editor in Chief
Desert Dispatch
130 Coolwater Lane
Barstow CA 92311
Phone: (760) 256-4104
Fax: (760) 256-0685
Basic news reporting test
Situation:
It’s 4 p.m. on a Thursday in a cold January. It’s been a fairly quiet day and you’re working on a story about the latest crime statistic trends for Barstow when you hear alarms on the scanner. Fire trucks and rescue personnel are being called out to 1457 W. Elm Ave., where there is a structure fire. Your editor sends you out to the scene to get a story for the next day’s paper.
News Gathering:
You arrive at the scene of a burning house, which is actually at 1455 W.Elm Ave. Firefighters are working to put out the fire, as well as keep it from spreading next door to 1453 W. Elm Ave.
By the time you get there (you were delayed by a train crossing), somebody that you couldn’t see has been loaded into a nearby ambulance. The ambulance drives off.
Barstow Fire Protection District Chief James McAlvey is too busy to talk to you at the moment until they have better control of the fire. Jeanine Jordan, 48, the sole resident of 1453 W. Elm Ave., is standing on the sidewalk along with some other spectators. She looks worried and also a bit angry. You don’t even need to approach her, as she stomps over and starts yelling about what happened.
“It was her son!” Jeanine yells. “Everybody knows he’s a meth freak!” She complains about this unnamed man for a little while until you can calm her down and get more information. She tells you that the people who live at1457 W. Elm Ave. are named Martha Blevins and Jason Blevins. Jeanine explains that Martha is Jason’s mom. Jason is a teen (Jeanine’s not sure of his age) and a student at Barstow High School. Jeanine witnessed Martha being loaded into the ambulance.
Jeanine was the one who called the fire department. She claims she heard a“woomph” sound outside. When she went to investigate, she noticed fire through one of the bedroom windows in the Blevins house and called 911.
“That boy of hers is trouble,” Jeanine says. “I’ve lived here for five years and I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the cops here at the house. Everybody knows Jason was on meth. I bet he had a lab in his bedroom and that’s what exploded.”
“And another thing!” Jeanine says. “It took 30 minutes for the fire department to arrive!”
Meanwhile, the fire department has managed to save Jeanine’s house, though she’s upset that one of her favorite rose bushes has been destroyed. Chief McAlvey has time now to fill you in one some details.
The residents of the house are Martha Blevins, 35, and her stepson, Jason Blevins, 16. Jason was not home at the time of the fire, as far as they know, and they don’t know where he is. Police officers are trying to track him down.
The house was on fire when they arrived. Two firemen were able to make their way into the house and rescue Martha. She had collapsed on the floor of a hallway. There was an empty bucket next to her on the floor. They theorize that Martha was perhaps trying to fight the fire herself rather than evacuating and was overcome by the smoke. She has been taken to Barstow Community Hospital for treatment.
The fire department can’t speculate as to the cause of the fire as yet.What they can say is that the fire did appear to start in one of the bedrooms (too soon to say which one) and the home’s smoke detectors didn’t work.
“If they had working smoke detectors, Martha might have found out about the fire while it was still small enough to manage,” McAlvey says. “We don’t know why she didn’t call 911.”
The house is likely a total loss, McAlvey says. You bring up Jeanine’s complaint about the time it took the fire department to arrive.
“Actually, it was 24 minutes, though that’s still too long,” McAlvey says.“We would have been here much sooner if it weren’t for the fact that we had to cross the train tracks at First Street. We had to wait for about 10minutes for a train to pass, and there’s just no way to get to this neighborhood without crossing the tracks. We’ve complained to the city that this is going to keep happening unless they build some way to bypass the tracks, but they keep saying they don’t have any money.”
You decide to stay at the scene a little while longer to see if there are any other developments. But as you wait, you call Lt. James Henderson, the officer who serves as spokesperson for the Barstow Police Department, to ask about Jason. Henderson can only confirm that the police have been called to the Blevins house multiple times. He says he can’t reveal details about any incidents involving Jason, as he is a minor. You bring up Jeanine’s comments. Again he can’t say anything about Jason’s record,but he is willing to say that the police have not found any signs of a drug lab in the Blevins home in the past.
They also still haven’t found Jason. Through some friends of Jason’s police were able to contact, they determined that his father, Peter Terwilliger, had come pick him up earlier in the day, but police have not been able to reach them yet. Terwilliger lives in Redlands, but comes to visit Jason on a regular basis. Martha, however, has legal custody of Jason.
That’s all the information you can get from Lt. Henderson. As you end your call with him, you get some bad news from McAlvey: Martha Blevins died at the hospital. The coroner’s office will have to do an autopsy, but McAlvey is confident in saying it was likely due to smoke inhalation.
And with that bad news, your editor calls and tells you deadline is approaching and you’ve got to come back to the office to write what you’ve got.
WRITING EXERCISE:
Given just the information above, write a story for the next day’s newspaper. You will have to use your best judgment when it comes to confusing or incomplete information. There is no “length requirement”— the story should be as long as it needs to be to be as complete as possible.
FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS:
1. What information is missing in your news-gathering that could have made the story more complete?
2. What information did you decide not to use in the story and why?
3. Your editor tells you to follow up on the story tomorrow for the following day’s newspaper. What possible angles could you take and whom would you need to contact for the story?
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