Читать книгу Feature Writing and Reporting - Jennifer Brannock Cox - Страница 51

Breaking news stories often revolve around the immediate basics, but feature reporting can include reaction pieces that carry a story beyond the preliminary information to help deepen readers’ knowledge of the topic. Usually, these stories involve a blend of expert sources and community officials who can provide big-picture perspectives on the issue and people who can talk about how they were personally affected.

Reaction pieces can help readers better understand the effects of a community tragedy. After a devastating fire in Northern California ravaged more than 1,000 homes in 2018, Los Angeles Times reporter Joseph Serna spoke with a man who had lost his wife and two great-grandchildren. Serna used the man’s story as one example of how the community reacted to the destructive fires. This excerpt illustrates how his story is one of many:

Ed Bledsoe cradled the stone in his calloused right palm, using his thumb to scrape away a layer of dust and ash. Finding nothing but a gray, smooth surface, he hunched over and tossed it back into the dirt.

The Carr [Powerhouse Road] fire had destroyed his home and killed his wife and two great-grandchildren. Bledsoe was looking for something to hang on to, even if it was just the rainbow-painted rock 4-year-old Emily had decorated.

“The paint would’ve survived” the searing heat, he said.

The fire took pretty much everything else. His wife, Melody. The great-grandchildren they were raising: James, 5, and Emily. A firefighter who had tried to warn residents of the coming danger. Another resident who could not get out in time. More than a thousand homes across Shasta County.

—JOSEPH SERNA, Los Angeles Times⁵

Understanding issues on a larger scale can be difficult or uninteresting for readers. Localizers are reaction pieces detailing how issues affecting the larger city, state, nation or world are impacting the local community. These can help readers process how broader national decisions and world events affect their daily lives. Think about ways you can go deeper following a national or state legislative decision. For example, suppose your state passes a new law banning plastic bags at local stores. How can you capture reactions from your community?

 Who would you talk to? Local shoppers, grocery store managers, retail store managers and environmentalists.

 What records can you get? How many plastic bags are used each year in your town? What effects have they had on the local environment and wildlife? How much money will this save local retailers and cost customers?

 What do you want to know? Are people feeling pleased or inconvenienced by the new law? How do store managers think the law will affect their businesses? What are environmentalists hoping to achieve, and what do they think will happen next?