EWA Contest Winner Tips: Advice on Beat Reporting

EWA has asked the first-place winners of the 2011 National Awards for Education Reporting to share  tips and advice with their colleagues based on their experience. Several have graciously responded and over the next week or so, we will publish their observations.
Phyllis Fletcher, KUOW Public Radio, Broadcast Beat Reporting

My EWA contest entry was comprised of stories and serial reports from my culminating years as education reporter for KUOW Public Radio Seattle.  I am now an editor there.  In my final year of  reporting, I was working on a four-part series when fine reporters at the Seattle Times scooped me—and everyone—on a major story at Seattle Public Schools.  I had to drop my series, report the story I had been behind on from day zero, and then get back to my series to finish it on time.  As you can imagine, when I was in the thick of that, I did NOT feel like an award-winner on our beat.  I felt like the opposite of a winner.  (Commonly called “a loser.”)  But by the end of the year, I looked back on everything, and my editors and I realized I had managed to do a lot. So I am very humbled and pleased to be asked by EWA to give you my advice.

• Do not be discouraged or give up early when you are scooped on a big and developing story.  Do as much original reporting as you can, and attribute the big scoop to the outlet that beat you. They deserve it. Your listeners/viewers/readers just want the information. If you missed part of it a long time ago, you can report that too. As the story develops, stay on it. It may get strange; it may veer from your beat.  But your colleagues and readers will appreciate that you’re still bringing information even after it’s off others’ radar.

• Don’t avoid talking about race and class. On this beat, you have to do it. Do it frankly and simply.  Do not crowbar it in when it’s irrelevant. Do acknowledge it when it appears to be a factor.  If you’re not sure, check it out—with your sources and your editor.

• When an audit is released, file a public records request for the “working papers” right away. That’s where names, invoices, receipts, and interview logs are.

• Think about different ways to deliver the news. Depending on what I was reporting, I would produce a long piece, a short one, tape and copy for our newscaster, I would go live on the air with tape and analysis, or I would tweet. Things that didn’t sound quite right in a pre-produced piece sounded very natural when we were talking live on the air. Details that didn’t quite fit into a story were fun “cutting room floor” bits on Twitter.

• Understand that your obligation is not to know everything. But try to know—or have the desire to know—at least as much as the people you cover. Want to learn from them. (H/t Bill Marimow, and his Seven Components of Mastering a Beat.)

•  Consider the “customers” on your beat (parents and students) just as valid sources as teachers, administrators, academics, and watchdogs. That doesn’t mean you will apply different editorial standards to their story ideas. It means you will apply the same ones, and that you are equitable about whom you will listen to. This is the right thing to do, and it will help you break stories.

•  Have fun with stories that are fun! As Dr. Seuss wrote, “these things are fun, and fun is good.” 

•  If you’re covering something tooootally boring (school board meetings, hello), tweet it.Some people who can’t go to the meeting want to know what happens, and they will tell each other you’re live-tweeting it.

• Collaborate with colleagues at other outlets, especially in other media! You can each help different parts of the story sing.

• Get kids, parents, and teachers into your stories! And other staff members at a school.  They all see different aspects of the education system every day.

• Treat administrators and spokespersons like people. They are people.

• If your outlet does not employ a photographer, improve your photography. Conceive of a photo for each story, and try to take one.  Your outlet will not post them all, but taking them will help you learn.  Build your own library of stock photos of the people and places you cover.

• Try to further your own education. We’re education reporters, right?  We’re into learning!  Afraid of numbers?  Take a math class, or a class that applies math in a way that would help your coverage—like demography, finance, or accounting.  Have problems communicating with people you cover?  Take a class in how to have difficult conversations.

I have more to say about beat reporting, at Poynter, and about news reporting for radio, on Transom.