You be the editor (part one)
I got an email yesterday from a friend who is a reporter. He was looking for another journalist's take on a potential story. Put yourself in his situation and decide what kind of story you would write, based on his email:
I received an e-mail forwarded from my editor today that just stated "News Tip" in the subject line. The body of the e-mail came from a woman who left the number of a hotel where she could be located. Long story short, she was writing about her best friend, who has a son with a mental disorder. I interviewed the best friend, who gave my information to the mom, who she implied would call me back (I haven't heard back yet).
Background:
The son was sent to two remedial schools in my county even though his mom thought he should be in regular schools. They moved to another state and the kid was granted admission into a regular school there, where he made the honor roll twice. The mom ran into financial trouble (more on that later), moved back to my hometown, and the school system again decided to enroll him in a remedial school. She eventually signed him up for a school in the next county over, where he now goes to a regular school and receives occasional side help.
The catch:
• On the one hand, the mom and her best friend argue that the son should have never been sent to remedial school in the first place and that his education there amounted to squat. That put him behind other students when he transferred. The best friend called it "organized babysitting."
• On the other hand, the mom is homeless and living in an extended stay hotel. I looked into her court record and found out that she's been sued in my county four times for debts (lost three cases) from her landlords, whom she owes thousands of dollars, including one judgment issued just last month. She's also got a traffic court hearing coming up for three counts stemming from one incident: driving on a suspended/revoked license, not buckling in a minor, and driving an unregistered vehicle. That came just months after she lost another traffic court case.
The main question I'm dealing with is how much does her personal life play into the overall issue of her son's education? She's had a ton of legal problems, I haven't heard anything about a second parent or even grandparents (they lived with the mom's great-grandparents for a while), and she's homeless. When I go to the school system to ask about this case, her legal record will inevitably come up. She's basically setting herself to have all her legal drama go public, which is potentially bad for her and her son.
My question for your students (and the one I'm asking myself) is what's appropriate to include and what's not? How much relevance do the mom's legal troubles play in a story about her son's education?
No one's holding a gun to my head telling me I have to write this story, so should I just drop it or pursue it because it does raise some interesting questions about my county's school standards versus other localities.
Evaluating the stakeholders, the son's in a good school system now by the mom's standards, so how does airing his past laundry to my audience affect him? Does identifying a minor in the newspaper with his mother's permission-assuming that's what she's seeking-and mentioning his disability hurt his reputation? After all, his name and his disability will be linked together in a Google search.
So, yeah, just another day on the job. If you have any recommendations or anything else for me to consider that I've overlooked, please pass them along.
If you were his editor, what would your call be?
In part two, I'll write about what I told him, and I'll also write about how my friend and his editor decided to handle it.
I received an e-mail forwarded from my editor today that just stated "News Tip" in the subject line. The body of the e-mail came from a woman who left the number of a hotel where she could be located. Long story short, she was writing about her best friend, who has a son with a mental disorder. I interviewed the best friend, who gave my information to the mom, who she implied would call me back (I haven't heard back yet).
Background:
The son was sent to two remedial schools in my county even though his mom thought he should be in regular schools. They moved to another state and the kid was granted admission into a regular school there, where he made the honor roll twice. The mom ran into financial trouble (more on that later), moved back to my hometown, and the school system again decided to enroll him in a remedial school. She eventually signed him up for a school in the next county over, where he now goes to a regular school and receives occasional side help.
The catch:
• On the one hand, the mom and her best friend argue that the son should have never been sent to remedial school in the first place and that his education there amounted to squat. That put him behind other students when he transferred. The best friend called it "organized babysitting."
• On the other hand, the mom is homeless and living in an extended stay hotel. I looked into her court record and found out that she's been sued in my county four times for debts (lost three cases) from her landlords, whom she owes thousands of dollars, including one judgment issued just last month. She's also got a traffic court hearing coming up for three counts stemming from one incident: driving on a suspended/revoked license, not buckling in a minor, and driving an unregistered vehicle. That came just months after she lost another traffic court case.
The main question I'm dealing with is how much does her personal life play into the overall issue of her son's education? She's had a ton of legal problems, I haven't heard anything about a second parent or even grandparents (they lived with the mom's great-grandparents for a while), and she's homeless. When I go to the school system to ask about this case, her legal record will inevitably come up. She's basically setting herself to have all her legal drama go public, which is potentially bad for her and her son.
My question for your students (and the one I'm asking myself) is what's appropriate to include and what's not? How much relevance do the mom's legal troubles play in a story about her son's education?
No one's holding a gun to my head telling me I have to write this story, so should I just drop it or pursue it because it does raise some interesting questions about my county's school standards versus other localities.
Evaluating the stakeholders, the son's in a good school system now by the mom's standards, so how does airing his past laundry to my audience affect him? Does identifying a minor in the newspaper with his mother's permission-assuming that's what she's seeking-and mentioning his disability hurt his reputation? After all, his name and his disability will be linked together in a Google search.
So, yeah, just another day on the job. If you have any recommendations or anything else for me to consider that I've overlooked, please pass them along.
If you were his editor, what would your call be?
In part two, I'll write about what I told him, and I'll also write about how my friend and his editor decided to handle it.