Reporting

My aggregation experience: The Michigan government shutdown

Four years ago, aggregating at Central Michigan Life was virtually unheard of.
Staff policy was fixed on reporters and editors doing the legwork themselves – as in, make the phone calls, cross-reference and analyze. Don’t base your reporting on another newspaper’s reporting. Every story at CM Life required 2-3 sources at least before it could even [...]

Journalism, Reporting, Social Media

Lights, camera, practice: A Final Four trip to remember

When you are a fledgling journalist, you don’t get many chances like these.
I knew this three months ago, walking into Ford Field in Detroit, Mich., for the fourth time in two years. All three previous trips were for CMU football games as a beat writer, including two Motor City Bowls. This trip was similar in [...]

Reporting, Sports

5 feature/profile reporting tips for beginning journalists

Sometime last Spring, Central Michigan Life’s adviser, Neil Hopp, asked a coworker, Dan Monson, and I to spend some time working with some of the newer sports reporters on how to write extensive feature and/or profile stories. The request came after our Hearst wins – Monson placed 14th in Personality/Profile Writing for “Hidden pain” and [...]

Journalism, Multimedia, Reporting