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.

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?