I know it's completely unoriginal to write about my profile story this week, but hey, sometimes I like to be a tad predictable.
Let's state the obvious first: this is hard. I'm not exactly sure what it is about journalism, but for starters: exposing the truth is downright exhausting. I've uncovered so much dirt on everything and everyone this week that it's kind of incredible. I had no idea the Haight had so many secrets to offer.
Turns out it's got its dirty laundry like everyone else.
I don't really want to get into specifics (off the record, journalistic bias, and all that jazz), but this whole profile has shown me all kinds of things that organizations and merchants and residents (on my!) think about how things are going down in the Haight.
At first, no one knew. I couldn't find a single freaking person who knew anything about anything at all. It was absurd.
Then I realized: I'm looking in all the wrong places. So, I changed up my strategy and - voila - results!
Instead of talking to just people who worked in the stores, I shifted my sights to owners and managers, realizing that that's who knows what's up with HAIA. Suddenly, I start spitting out keywords to these people and they definitely know what I'm talking about. Even better, EVERYONE has at least a little something to say, even those with minimal involvement and interaction.
It was excellent. I got a little something from everyone, and I was amazed at myself and my newfound reporter excellence.
Cue new problem: I had too much information, with absolutely no idea of how I was going to direct it. There were just too many possible angles to figure out, lots of info to reconcile. I could easily write several stories off the information I've gathered in a little over a week (insert another party for Cassie here), which actually makes things even worse on the one hand because my question then becomes:
Which story do I tell?
I settled on the he said-she said format Yvonne suggested, trying to stick as close to the truth as possible, and only putting in the most highly relevant of the highly relevant information in an attempt to keep it concise.
It's due in less than 14 hours and I'm still trying to accomplish that.
Do the words "perfectionist" and "journalist" go together, I wonder?
Oh and did I mention that my subject wants to read it, and it's definitely NOT the most flattering piece for him? Cue hella stress.
Where am I?
The view from here
Doorway
Where is it? Is it in your neighborhood?
Gino
Corner of Haight and Octavia
I think it's great when you have a lot of information to choose from, it's better then having nothing that's for sure. As for your subject if he really wants to read it, let him know what other people think of him before you show him the story, it might take the sting off maybe.
ReplyDelete