COVERING MEETINGS & SPEECHES

Covering Meetings

A story is inadequate if it offers nothing but basic facts from an event or about an event.

Do not just offer basic facts such as – when the event took place, who spoke, the name of the speech or presentation, where the event took place, why the event was presented, and how the event was assembled. Most of these details can be included, but as part of a themed story.

Covering Meetings

There’s no need to write long stories on boring meetings. File information on breaking news and then follow up with focused news features on individual aspects of the meetings.

Don’t feel compelled to files stories if nothing occurs at a faculty senate or tree commission meeting. Nobody wants to read that.

Can brief events if very little takes place.

Covering Meetings

Find a way to make the meeting part of a larger story. The meeting supplies part of the story, not all of it.

For example, if an author comes to town you can focus on aspects of this person’s writing instead of just writing what he said.

Covering Meetings

If someone wants money to build something, go to the location and see how that construction would affect the neighborhood. Interview locals. Don’t rely on a bunch of people in a meeting to tell you what is going on.

Covering Meetings

You are not there to sell an event. Leave that to the PR people. Don’t run stories for the sources.

Covering Meetings

Nobody wants to read stories on how people organized events or ran meetings.

Before the event

• Do some reporting before covering a speech. That way, you can cover the event on deadline. Check clippings in the office and call some potential sources about the subject materials.

• Look for research on this topic by checking sites and publications online and/or by calling experts in the community. You could call somebody at a local art gallery concerning the styles typically offered by Spanish artists. A specific question like this can yield great insights and respect from the person interviewed.

Before the event

• Find out what people would like to know about this event. Ask friends and classmates what they would like to know about mosquitoes. Or about Spanish artists.

Before the event

• Arrive early so you can speak to the presenter. If he is busy, ask if you can spend 10 to 15 minutes asking questions afterward. Introduce yourself as a reporter for the Daily Eastern News.

During the event

• Get a copy of all handouts.

• Take notes about anything the speaker says—these can be used as direct and indirect quotes.

• Count people attending.

• Measure audience reaction on specific points.

• Record questions by individuals. Make sure you get their names before they leave.

During the event

• Listen for things that are NEW, IMPORTANT, UNUSUAL.

• Listen for the issues that illustrate the struggles and drama faced by those involved with complaints.

• Listen for themes that you can use as a LEAD for your story.

• Don’t settle for a one-liner or metaphor to characterize the speech.

During the event

• Find one person to write about at a meeting. Make the event part of the story on someone who is interesting. The organizer of a sausage festival that hates sausages for example.

• Listen for stories that you can use as well to illustrate some points. Record the specific details. Was it a small turtle or an eight-inch box turtle? Where on the coast did he go? Cite the specific town or beach.

During the event

• Speak with audience members who posed questions.

• Ask follow-up questions regarding comments made during the presentation.

After the event

• Tell stories. In other words, SHOW, don’t just tell. Don’t describe boring details about how the meeting.

• There is no need to narratively and sequentially explain what happened at a boring meeting. Just cite the highlights.

• Find the interesting story behind the meeting by making connections and some additional reporting.

After the event

• Call other experts in the field – other artists, entomologists, marine biologists, political leaders. Ask them to respond to the ideas presented by this speaker. You can write this as straightforward news or as a feature where you experiment with the lead by offering narrative or some other technique.

• This works especially well for precedes when you have more time.

After the event

• You are the eyes and ears of your readers who cannot attend meetings.

• Write about what’s most relevant and interesting from these meetings.

• Give readers only newsworthy material.

Speech leadsWith a call to charity from author Stephen King, approximately 625 Vassar students became Vassar graduates on Sunday.Calling himself ''America's Boogeyman,'' King presented a political yet humorous commentary on today's world, concluding with a call to those present to match his donation of $20,000 to Dutchess Outreach, a charitable organization located in Poughkeepsie.''I want you to consider making your life one long gift to others,'' King said.

Lead cont’d

King, whose two sons attended Vassar, is perhaps best known for his suspense novels and the blockbuster movies adapted from them including ''Carrie,'' "The Shining" and ''Misery.'’ (brief background)

Many in the audience were inspired to make donations, which totaled more than $2,000 by the end of the ceremony. The Vassar administration expected further donations.

Times versionPOUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — Most graduation

ceremonies mention the importance of service to others, but the writer Stephen King turned the ideal into action today at Vassar College's 137th commencement.

In a speech in which he focused on the 624 graduates' mortality and acknowledged "casting gloom, even the pall of death, on what should be a joyous and wonderful day," Mr. King, who was badly injured when he was struck by a minivan in 1999 while on a walk in Maine, noted that he had learned, "You can't take it with you." So as an example to the graduates and in their name, he said he was donating $20,000 to a charity that serves the homeless, the hungry and those with H.I.V.

As his audience nodded, Mr. King, whose sons, Joe and Owen, are both Vassar graduates, evoked a characteristically creepy picture of a happy family eating fried chicken and cake in their backyard as hungry men, women and children watch silently from behind a fence. The backyard, Mr. King said, was America, and the starving people were the rest of the world. He asked the graduates and their families to remember this vision as they sat down to celebratory luncheons, and to contribute to the same local charity that he was giving to, Dutchess Outreach. The new graduates' class gift — nearly $17,000 from themselves and an alumnus for laptop computers in the library — is the largest in Vassar's history, and after Mr. King's remarks, $20 bills and personal checks for Dutchess Outreach were piling up in a cardboard box.

Stewart lead

• Sometimes, the best thing to do is to get out of the way and to lead a good speaker speak directly to your readers in a story.

Twenty years after he received his undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary, nationally known comedian Jon Stewart returned to his alma mater with some serious advice for 2004 graduates. “Today is the day you enter the real world, and I should give you a few pointers on what it is,” said Stewart, a member of the Class of 1984 and host and executive producer of Comedy Central’s fake newscast “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. “It’s actually not that different from the environment here.” “The biggest difference is you will now be paying for things, and the real world is not surrounded by a three-foot brick wall,” he joked. “And the real world is not a restoration. If you see people in the real world making bricks from straw and water, those people aren’t Colonial re-enactors. They are poor. Help them.” Roughly 13,000 people packed into William and Mary Hall to see Stewart, who has become a cultural icon when it comes to political satire and projecting comical criticism on everyone from members of the media to world leaders.

Stewart did not disappoint an enthusiastic crowd. “I know there were some parents that were concerned about my speech here tonight, and I want to assure you that you will not hear any language that is not common at, say, a dock workers union meeting, or a Tourrett’s convention or a profanity seminar. Rest assured,” said Stewart, who joined the distinguished ranks of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Harry Truman and Margaret Thatcher when he received an honorary degree. “When I think back to the people who have been in this position before me, from Benjamin Franklin to Queen Noor of Jordan, I can’t help but wonder what has happened to this place. Seriously. It saddens me. As a person, I am honored to get it; as an alumnus, I have to say I believe we can do better,” said Stewart, poking fun at himself. “But it has always been a dream of mine to receive a doctorate, and to know that today, without putting in any effort, I will. It’s incredibly gratifying.”

However, most of the comedian’s speech focused on the stars of Sunday’s event – the 2,033 graduates of William and Mary. "When you are in college it’s very clear what you have to do to succeed,” Stewart said. "And I imagine everyone here knew exactly how many more credits they needed to graduate, where to buckle down. But the unfortunate, yet truly exciting thing about life is there is no core curriculum. The entire place is an elective." He added, “College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don’t worry about your grade, or the results or success. Love what you do. Get good at it.” In recognition of his remarkable list of accomplishments in the entertainment world, Stewart was awarded an honorary doctorate of arts from William and Mary President Timothy J. Sullivan, who also introduced the “host” of graduation.