Module 4: The Feature Story
In this module you will complete your VOF journey by writing a full-scale Feature Story! A feature story offers in-depth reporting, analysis and insight about a particular issue in your community. Often, feature stories follow up on breaking news events—like elections or violence. Feature stories can also highlight ongoing issues in your community—like health concerns or a community project to address illiteracy. You will also learn how to use Twitter and Facebook for more than just social networking.
You may find it helpful to review your citizen journalism assignment before reading the sections below. To do so, click here.
Citizen journalism materials created by The Global Press Institute exclusively for World Pulse. Citizen Journalism Learning Materials Section 4-1: Finding your Angle
Review Section 2-3. Narrative leads are the most common lead types in feature stories. You are, of course, free to choose any lead style that feels most appropriate to you.
Remember to:
Choose an issue that is important to you. Narrow down your topic by choosing a specific person or aspect of a larger issue. Do some preliminary research to ensure that your idea is feasible and safe to write about.
Optional Journal Question: Post 3 story ideas to PulseWire to spark discussion among your fellow correspondents to help you determine which story idea to choose.
Steps to creating a strong feature story.
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Sample VOF Features:
Political:
A Call to Save Nigeria http://www.worldpulse.com/node/13073
A specific issue:
Children/Healthcare In Search of a Mother's Voice http://www.worldpulse.com/node/14227
Maternal Mortality Should Women Die Giving Life? http://www.worldpulse.com/node/14302
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Section 4-2: Sources
Cultivating sources is the most important part of being a successful journalist. Whenever you are out reporting, it is important to be professional. (Distribute business cards and press passes!) By introducing yourself, conducting thorough and professional interviews, and leaving a source your business card, you are telling that source that you are trustworthy and a good person to call in the future when other news stories or ideas come up.
Where do we find sources? A source is anyone who, or anything that, provides you with information that you can use in your story. Sources can be government officials, farmers, restaurant owners, documents, court testimonies.
Credibility Who a source is, is almost as important as what he or she has to say. A source with a criminal record, or someone with a reputation in the community as an alcoholic or swindler, may have a lot to offer your story, but remember that your sources' credibility is linked with your own. There is no rule that says you have to use quotations from every person you interview. Section 4-3: Where to Look for News
There is no exact formula that dictates how a Correspondent should find the stories that she writes. We recommend using a combination of personal contacts, events, following the news, and honing into an issue area to develop stories.
Using Personal Contacts
A reporter should avoid interviewing or writing about close personal friends or associates. It is considered poor journalistic form because bias is inherent in dealing with friends. However, one of your best tools as a journalist are your relationships within the community. Sometimes while you are talking to a neighbor or with your partner and their work colleagues, you may pick up on a potential story idea. There is nothing wrong with that.
The catch is that your partner and your neighbor SHOULD NOT be sources in your story. You will have to take the information you have learned and find other sources and documents that can tell you the complete story.
Steps to developing a story from a personal contact:
Find other sources who can talk about an issue, such as nurses, doctors, people who work in clinics. Look for supporting statistics—how common is this problem?
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Find out the history of the problem, if relevant. What are current laws and political viewpoints?
Finding at least three sources, as well as background information and statistics about an issue, is a great way to begin developing a story you first heard about from a personal contact.
Following the News
Now that you are a journalist, it is important that you stay up on the news. Once you determine what issues you are interested in, you should follow any political or international developments that could have an impact on life in your community and country. For example: If you are interested in writing about HIV/AIDS and you read a story from a newspaper in the U.S. that says International aid from the U.S. government for AIDS clinics in your country is going to decrease by $10 million/per year for the next five years, what should you do?
Attending Events
Attending political, cultural, and any other type of event is a great way to find stories. Sometimes the event itself can be the story; it can be a great lead-in to a related or more in-depth story, or may allow you the opportunity to meet new and interesting people in the community.
For example, if a group of local teachers is having a protest or demonstration in the street, you should use the opportunity to meet and interview teachers, get an idea of the issues they are protesting, collect a lot of opinions. Take notes about the color and the details of the events—are they holding signs? If so, what do they say? What do they look like? How many protestors are there? Where are they? How long have they been there?
Then, after the event, review your notes and interviews and decide if the underlying issue of the event—the teachers’ demands—is worthy of writing about. If you decide to pursue the story, only about half of your reporting work is done. You’ve collected the opinions and information of half of the debate; now you must seek out the other side—local government, the union they were protesting, or any other parties named in their grievances. Review and use Chapter One concepts: fairness, balance.
Honing in on an Issue Area
Issues that have impacted our lives, our family, and our communities often provide the most fertile ground for news stories.
Sidebar Body:
Frequently Asked Questions About Finding News
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Q. What if my contact does something I consider terrible and wrong, but is relevant and important to my story? Should that change my reporting method in any way?
A. Of course not! Acknowledge any personal feelings and biases right away and then move on from them.
Imagine this scenario. You are chatting with a friend after work, and she tells you that her 17- year-old daughter is ill. She tells you that her symptoms are fever, cramping, bleeding and nausea. She takes you into her confidence and tells you that her daughter was raped, became pregnant, and obtained a clandestine abortion. There were complications from the abortion and now her daughter is ill, but too scared to see a doctor.
You are passionate about reproductive rights, but against abortion. However, if your friend's daughter is sick and may be in serious danger after obtaining an illegal abortion, your job as a correspondent is to shed light on that situation and perhaps prevent it from happening again. Our goal is to bring about change through truth and solutions-oriented information.
The point of being a journalist is not to impose your personal views on people, but rather to try to make a difference by disseminating unbiased, accurate information. Your job is to shed light on a situation and perhaps prevent it from happening again. More important, as a World Pulse correspondent, your role is to bring forward solutions to the problem you are covering.
Q. Should I be careful to observe from the sidelines when covering an event?
A. No! Don't attend an event and hang out in the back. Get in there, get up close, ask questions and try your best to understand what is going on! Section 4-4: Online Research
Finding and Using Statistics
A strong feature story not only tells a compelling story, it also provides factual context so that the reader understands the full scope of the issue.
Using statistics in your writing is an important way to educate yourself and your audience about a topic. But beware! Too many statistics can be boring and too few can be confusing. Follow the simple guide below to gather good statistics and use them in your writing:
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Check out how VOF grad Gifty Pearl used statistics to make a compelling point in her feature about maternal mortality in Ghana:
...Although a relatively advanced health system exists in Ghana, maternal mortality is still soaring.
In the Tema metropolis, which is part of Accra, 30 pregnant women died through complications out of 7,800 deliveries at the Tema General Hospital in 2007 and in 2008, there were 28 maternal deaths out of a total of 8,000 births at the same hospital according to the Ghanaian Journal.
From conception to delivery, the Ghanaian girl or woman is prone to death. Poor girls and women especially those living in rural communities are the most vulnerable and are at the highest risk of maternal mortality as there is a delay in accessing a medical facility and also difficulty in affording medical health from cost of transportation to cost of drugs. — by Gifty Pearl, October 20, 2009
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Section 4-5: Safety and Reporting
Remember, as you venture out to report your feature story keep your safety in mind at all times. Please go back and review our Safety and Security module.
Here is a list of items for you to review to ensure that you keep yourself safe while continuing to tell powerful stories:
Section 4-6: Finishing the Feature
Now that you have chosen a topic, done some research and gathered relevant statistics it is time to write your feature story. Follow the tips for organizing the body from Module 2!
Remember to:
Choose a strong topic. Gather plenty of facts to create a compelling case. Practice writing with details and passionate description.
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Closing Notes:
Remember, in your new role as a journalist, you will be faced many new possibilities, challenges and responsibilities.
Strive to create journalism that:
Accentuates your voice Suggests solutions for your community Creates awareness about your country. Strives to create a better world!
Change starts with you!
Citizen Journalism Learning Materials with Pixetell
Voices of Our Future Classroom
Due to technical difficulties, we may be unable to provide a Pixetell video for this month's module. We apologize for any inconvenience.
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New Media Learning Materials
Twitter and Facebook
In this section, you’ll learn all about Twitter and Facebook, two of the most popular social media tools being used today. You’ll soon learn that they are good for more than just connecting with your friends and family and can help you advance your citizen journalism and social activism work.
What is so useful about 140 characters? What can you communicate in such a short phrase or question? Why should you, as a citizen journalist, use Twitter?
First of all, what is Twitter? Twitter is a micro-blog which allows you to share information quickly, in an easily-digestible format. The main difference between micro-blogging and regular blogging (like your PulseWire journal) is the size of the content being shared. With Twitter, you are limited to 140 characters (letters, numbers or symbols). Many people use Twitter for social networking, staying up to date on the lives of their friends and family. But journalists and media outlets are now using this tool to help them break news stories, do research and promote their work. Below, we’ve listed a few ways to consider using Twitter as a citizen journalist.
Post or discover breaking news stories: These days, many breaking news stories show up on Twitter first: from earthquakes in Mexico and China, to violence at the G20 meetings, and gossip on your favorite film star. On the ground citizens just like you are Tweeting the news before traditional media can even get to the scene. Additionally, many media outlets actively search Twitter on a daily basis to find breaking stories. Find Sources and Performing Interviews: Do you want to interview someone in the field of ending gender based violence for an article you’re writing? You can search for people on Twitter and connect with them to ask for interviews. Check out the tools listed below to help you identify people! Once you’ve secured an interview, what questions are you going to ask? You may have some ideas already, but by asking your followers on Twitter for suggestions you’ll be able to find out what people want to know. This is a good way to also determine your angle or hook! Conduct Research: If you need background information for an article or are conducting research for an organization, you can quickly post questions to your network of followers to get rapid replies and piles of information that might otherwise take you a long time to acquire. Test out Ideas: Are you thinking about writing an article on environmental pollution in South Africa? Tweet your idea to your followers to get feedback and help you brainstorm. You may discover an angle that you’d never thought of!
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Increase visibility for your work: We have already mentioned that cross-posting can drive traffic to your work. Use Twitter to notify your followers when you post an article in your PulseWire journal, or if an article you write is picked up by a local or international newspaper. Connect with other journalists and grow your network: There are thousands of other journalists who are using Twitter on a daily basis. Follow them and grow your network. You can also engage in real-time chats with other journalists.
Getting Started
Now that we’ve covered why Twitter can be useful, let’s delve into the basics of getting started and talk about some tools that can help you become a Twitter expert.
Twitter can seem confusing at first—there is definitely a learning curve. But just like any other new media tool, it just takes time and practice. To get started, you should first sign up for a Twitter account. See our quick and easy guide by clicking HERE.
Then, do your homework. You can do this by going to the Twitter Help Center and checking out their Twitter Basics.
Useful Tools
There are many different tools that have been developed to help you become a Twitter expert. Below, we’ve listed some of the most popular ones and ones that you can use specifically for journalism purposes.
Hootsuite and Tweetdeck: Using Hootsuite or Tweetdeck allows you to work more efficiently with Twitter, or even multiple social media accounts. Using these tools, you can create dashboards (a virtual control panel) where you can send or schedule messages to multiple accounts, track your real-time statistics (who “likes” your status, or how many times you’ve been retweeted, etc), manage information flows, and much more. You can create these dashboards online (a web page), create a desktop tool on your computer, or upload the latest mobile phone application. Muck Rack is a site that compiles real-time reporting by journalists. You can see what other journalists are talking about, reading or who they are following. Media People Using Twitter Around The World is a wiki that categorizes journalists by country and lists their professional information (who they work for) and their Twitter name. There is a link to the North America list on their right-hand side bar. Media Outlets Using Twitter is a wiki that does the same as Media People, but lists news organizations instead. Twitter Fall is a tool that allows you to track trends and topics on Twitter. You can create custom searches, including controlling where the Tweets are coming from, the speed that you receive them, and themes.
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Tweet Beep is an online service that notifies you when someone mentions your name, your company, your website, etc on Twitter. TweetGrid is a service that allows you to watch multiple search terms in real-time. You can also use TweetGrid to send Tweets or direct messages. HelpAReporterOut (HARO) brings together reporters, bloggers and news sources to tell and pitch stories, promote brands and find local sources. #journchat is an online conversation that uses Twitter to connect journalists, bloggers and public relations professionals. It is also a real-time chat. Go to their site to find out the next meeting time. Twibes are Twitter groups organized around specific interests. Just like joining or starting a group on PulseWire, you can do the same on Twitter using Twibes. We Follow is a directory of Twitter users by category. For example, there are celebrities, bloggers, musicians and more. Just Tweet It allows you to search for other Twitter users based on common interest.
Using Twitter for Social Activism
Another way you can consider using Twitter is for your social change work. It is free to use and widespread, making it is easy to reach a large audience of supporters. As seen in the last year, Twitter can be a powerful platform for organizing, mobilizing and raising awareness around specific issues or causes.
Twitter is an incredible message distribution system and, if used in a strategic way, can help raise awareness and accelerate change. Two of the best tactics for using Twitter to advance social change are Hash-Tags and Lists.
Tag your content with a relevant and engaging hash-tag (#yourtaghere)
Hash-tags are a way to “tag” content with a relevant and consistent term. Simply insert the hash symbol (#) before your keyword. For example, during the uprising in Egypt early in 2011, the hash-tag #Jan25 was used to identify Tweets related to the protests on that day and beyond. Once visible, your hash-tag can be used and re-used by anyone. Twitter users can then search for that hash-tag to find all related content. In this way, your message or action can quickly go “viral” and spread around the world. Before you create a new hash-tag about a campaign or event, search to see if something is already in widespread use, or ask your followers to help you create one!
Connect with More Change-leaders and Interested People through Lists
Twitter lists can be useful for social change work by serving as a way to organize people you follow into groups, or by helping you find new people to follow. A list is the equivalent of small directory, or group listing of Twitter users.
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Creating Lists: Lists can be a great way to spread awareness among your followers of new people who you recommend. To create a new list, just click the Lists tab on your Twitter home page, and select “Create New List”. Give your list a clearly defined name, and select your privacy preference. Lists that you create can either be private to you only, or publicly viewable. After you make this selection, start adding users to the list. Finding Lists: One way that you can find Lists that interest you is on the site Listorious (http://listorious.com). Browse by topic, or key-word, and start following lists today! Another way to find Lists is by seeing what lists people belong to. For example, @WorldPulse is on over 400 lists (click “Listed” on our profile to see what lists we belong to).
If you browse through these lists, you’re likely to find a number of new and interesting Twitter users that are grouped by topic, such as “Activism”, “Feminism” or “Journalists”. Note that when you choose to “Follow” a list, you are not following each and every user in that List, but you will see a live feed of all of their updates.
For more information on using Twitter as a tool for social activism, please see this guide from DigiActive: http://www.slideshare.net/DigiActive/digiactive-guide-introduction-twitt...
Do you have a new way to use Twitter as a citizen journalist? Share it with us on your PulseWire journal! New Media Learning Materials, continued
Like Twitter, Facebook is a social media tool that is being used around the world to connect people to friends and family and grow online communities. Journalists are also using Facebook in a professional capacity as well. Below, we’ve listed the most common ways you can use Facebook as a citizen journalist and some tools for getting started—you’ll discover there are many similarities with Twitter.
*Important note: To ensure that your Facebook sessions are secure, you need to go to your Account Settings, select “Security” and then enable “Secure Browsing”. This will ensure that you are operating from an “https” connection and not the more hackable “http” connection.
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Post or discover breaking news stories: NPR, CNN and many other media organizations are searching Facebook for up to date information on events happening around the world—what you post could be picked up as the basis of a breaking news story. As a journalist, people in your network can also post tips and stories to your Facebook Page which can help you find the most interesting and newsworthy events in your region. Find Sources and Perform Interviews: You can search for specific people or organizations on Facebook using their simple search engine to help you find sources for your story. Sometimes people who would not normally respond to an inquiry may be more responsive if you contact them via this more personalized method of communication. Remember—you can send private messages to people who are not yet in your network!
You can also perform interviews using Facebook’s new video chat feature and record your conversation. See the below list of tools to help you get started.
Conduct Research: You can use Facebook’s new Questions application to create a mini- survey of your network. This is a great way to test out new ideas and find out what is on peoples’ minds. Increase Visibility for Your Work: As we’ve discussed in earlier materials, cross- posting is a great way to drive more attention to your work. If you have posted a blog in your PulseWire journal, let the people in your Facebook network know!
Facebook Tools
Facebook is more like your PulseWire journal than like Twitter. There aren’t as many specific tools for journalists outside of what Facebook already offers. We encourage you to fully research all that Facebook has to offer. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the most useful tools and groups for citizen journalists.
Create a Public Page: There are two options on Facebook when creating your profile. You can create a personal profile or a public page. A personal profile is just what it sounds like--a place for you to be your authentic self, to grow your network of friends and family. A public page is where you can build your professional presence, promote your work and grow your professional network. Creating a public page also allows you to have more than the 5,000 friend limit on personal profiles. Using the new "Subscribe" feature, you can allow anyone to receive your public updates without becoming your "Friend". For more information on this feature, visit this page in the Facebook Help Center. Facebook video chat: Just like with Skype, you can now chat with your friends and colleagues with real time video. At the top of the chat window you will now see a new video camera icon. All you need to do is click on that icon and make sure you have a webcam and microphone. Even if your friend isn’t around, you can now leave a video message.
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Record your Facebook Video Chats: If you’re conducting an interview via Facebook video chat, it may be a good idea to record it. Of course, make sure you get the permission of the person you’re interviewing first. The tools that currently exist to record are slightly imperfect, so do a little research on your own to see what works best for you. Here are some of our suggestions: o Screen Recorders: Screen recorders record everything that is happening on your desktop. Whether you’re chatting on Skype or Facebook or Gmail chat, screen recorders can capture it: Cam Studio, Jing, and HyperCam. o Audio Recorders: For audio only you can use both Audacity and Pamela, however Pamela is only free for the audio lasting 15 minutes or less. Facebook Question Tool: If you go to your Facebook page, you should see a line under the “News Feed” section at the top that says “Share” with the following options: Status (for posting your updates); Photo (for uploading photos); link (for uploading websites); video (for uploading videos); and questions (for conducting surveys of people/groups in your network). Simply click on “questions” and follow the directions for getting started. Post Videos/Photos: Click on the video and photo options mentioned above to post your multi-media. Remember that providing your audience with multi-media along with your written work can help expand interest and the number of people who read your story. Facebook and Journalists Home Page: This page is your go-to resource as a citizen journalist on Facebook. The Facebook team has put this page together to keep you updated about new tools you can use professionally and to connect journalists across the site.
Using Facebook for Social Activism
With over 600 million users, Facebook is an enormous networked community with lots of potential for your social change work. Their easy-to-use and free platform makes it an appealing choice for organizing online.
Organize Large Numbers of People with Facebook Groups
A good place to start is creating a Group. Groups serve as an online hub for supporters to connect, share stories, photos, videos, links and event updates. Simply click “Create a Group” in the left sidebar to get started. Then, choose the privacy setting appropriate for your goals (“Open” if you want the world to know and join; “Closed” if you only want specific people to join, or to ask to join; “Secret” if you don’t want anyone to know about the group unless they are already in it).
The advantages of Facebook Groups are many! They are free, they allow easy sharing of information and content, they are loosely held by an administrator and allow full participation from members, and finally, members choose to be in the group so you know they are interested in supporting your cause to some degree.
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Facebook groups do have some potential down-sides though. If you have a completely Open group there is a potential that you may draw unwanted attention from authorities, or be overloaded with Spam messages. As a Group administrator you are responsible for keeping an eye on the Group and removing irrelevant posts—this can be a lot of work if your Group grows quickly! Also, since Open groups are available to the entire community of 600 million Facebook users, people may join who are only slightly interested in supporting your work rather than deeply committed to act.
If you choose to start a Group for your social change work, here are a few pointers:
Maintain activity: Posting twice a month is a good standard for keeping a group engaged but not overwhelmed. Also, make sure you remove irrelevant comments. Merge with other Groups: If a Group already exists for your cause, but is inactive, consider contacting that Group’s administrator and merging their contacts into your Group. If another Group is already active, then do not re-double the effort! Build multiple presences: Having a Facebook Group should be just one strategy in your online and offline organizing efforts. Re-post content from your group to a blog or static webpage dedicated to your cause. Make sure your online work connects to on- the-ground events in order to implement the changes you want to see. Engage the Media: If there are free-and-fair media outlets in your area, work hard to get their attention and help raise awareness of your Group’s cause and opportunities for action.
Content in this section references material from the DigiActive Introduction to Facebook Activism (http://www.digiactive.org/wp- content/uploads/digiactive_facebook_activis...)
To read a guide on how to Organize on Facebook securely, check out this guide published by Movements.org (https://s3.amazonaws.com/access.3cdn.net/d6c8d06f03f92ed029_cim6b9gu0.pdf)
Survey a large community with Facebook Questions
Mentioned earlier in this module, Facebook Questions are a great way to survey a large number of people all around the world. You could ask your friends and followers to select their opinion on a certain topic, or have them help you choose the best slogan for your campaign. The possibilities are open to your creativity!
Raise Money and Spread Awareness with Facebook Causes
With Facebook Causes, you can help raise money and awareness for organizations working to make an impact in the world. Simply search “Causes” in Facebook to get started. One way to use this App is by searching for a specific Cause or non-profit organization (for example, World Pulse!) that relates to your passion or vision and start a fundraising effort among your friends and
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colleagues. The App tracks your recruitment and fundraising work, making this an interesting social change networking opportunity.
Sidebar Body:
Module 4 Suggested Activities:
Set up a Facebook Public Page for your personal brand or create a Facebook Group for organizing with other people. Set up a Twitter account, and add new followers. If you’re already on Twitter, find some new Lists to follow or create a list of your own. Wellness Video
This month we are happy to be able to offer you two Wellness Videos, and an audio file from Amy Lombardo of True Nature Wellness!
First, you can learn about deep breathing here: http://blip.tv/file/4831664
Secondly, you can learn a set of quick tips for boosting your brain power here: http://blip.tv/file/4904458
Also, Amy has created an audio file of a Guided Visualization for relaxation. You can listen to that file here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11542138/Web/VOF/2010/audio/Guided%20Visualizati...
Enjoy! Module 4 Writing Assignment
Write a Feature Story
Your assignment for Module 4 is to write a Feature Story. Each country is unique. Whether you live in a hotspot of violence, are living under an oppressive regime, struggle to find clean water for your family or find a job, there is a political, social and economic context that readers outside of your community or country do not know or understand.
The goal of this assignment is to get you to tell that story and give the context that will help create better global understanding of the issues important to you. By doing this, you are promoting global issues through the eyes of women. Your story could inspire one reader to support your cause, or even gain such recognition that it impacts international policy.
Suggested Process
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At a pace that fits within your busy life, we recommend the following steps:
1. Review the learning material to help create an outline and help shape your feature story. 2. Post your story angle to the correspondents' group or your personal journal for feedback and input from the correspondents and editorial midwives. 3. Go into the community to interview people, conduct research, and observe the issue through a reporter's lens. 4. Review the learning material again, if needed, to get grounded and create an outline to your story. 5. Write your story! 6. Send a draft to your Editorial Midwife at least one week before the due date. 7. Post your final Feature Story in your PulseWire Journal.
Instructions
Your article should be between 2,000 and 2,500 words. Post your final article in your personal journal on PulseWire by 11:55pm Pacific Standard Time, 12th March 2012. You must tag your assignment with "2011 VOF Module 4" At the end of your assignment, please copy and paste the following text:
This article is part of a writing assignment for Voices of Our Future a program of World Pulse that provides rigorous new media and citizen journalism training for grassroots women leaders. World Pulse lifts and unites the voices of women from some of the most unheard regions of the world.
It will appear like this:
This article is part of a writing assignment for Voices of Our Future, a program of World Pulse that provides rigorous new media and citizen journalism training for grassroots women leaders. World Pulse lifts and unites the voices of women from some of the most unheard regions of the world.
Safety and Security Reminder
Your safety and security is always important to us. When you choose the topic for your assignments, always make sure to consider your safety first. We want to hear what is going on in your country and community, but not at the risk of your life or well-being. Carefully consider the implications of an article that criticizes government, important figures or a contentious issue on your safety.
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