Multimedia Minutes: Finding “Real People”
How do you breathe life into your stories by including “real people”?
MMJs who do a good job of this make a flurry of calls on ongoing issues — like health insurance — to find people who are affected. They also invite viewers to contact them to share their stories.
This approach works because they’re not waiting for one person to call them back. By calling a dozen insurance agents, for example, their chances of finding a “real person” are much better. It might take a day or two to hear back, then you have to line up the interview, but at least you have a “real person” to breathe life into your story. Maybe more.
An MMJ who takes this approach says: “It’s simple. You double the odds in your favor when you just make two calls rather than one. And leaving a voicemail message is fast. While other MMJs are always waiting for people angles, I have several people angles in the hopper.”
Here’s a strong print example showing two “real people” angles as www.wsj.com reveals an issue that will affect young and old.
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Since health insurance or the lack of it impacts on just about everyone, it’s not too late to start making your calls. Without the human angle, you’re left with officials and grabbing people on the street.
This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 8:52 am and is filed under Multimedia Journalism, Power Tools for TV Journalists, TV news training, broadcast journalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.