September 2006

While working through my internship at the Kingston Whig-Standard, one of the most frustrating assignments I was given was to complete a “streeter”. For those who don’t know, a streeter consists of formulating a single question, usually related to current events, which is then posed to a number of random strangers (hence the ’street’ part). The idea is to gather opinions from a cross-section of genders, age groups, races, and social situations. The results are then published, usually with accompanying photographs.

For a journalist, this is pure grunt work. However, in many ways, it puts all of your skills to test at once. And hey, that can’t be a bad thing, right?

• Bring back more than you need. If your editor tells you to go out and interview 10 people for the streeter, make sure you come back with 15. There will almost always be a problem with one (or more) of your interviews or photographs and you don’t want to be forced to go running out into the street to try and find another person to bother. Give your editor more than what he wants and you’ll ensure your success while saving yourself some time and trouble.
• Interview many different types of people. Unless your town is completely homogeneous, you should be striving to present as accurate a picture of your community as you can. This means making a concerted effort to interview people with as many different nationalities, genders, ages, and social situations as you can. Interviewing the guy in the business suit is all well and good, but see what the homeless guy on the corner has to say too. You may just be surprised at what you can learn.
• Stay consistent. Figure out what question you want to ask and stick with it. If you vary from interview to interview, your results will be confusing for the reader and you will hurt the entire goal of doing a streeter. Only one question will be published, anyway. Write the question down, exactly as you’d like to word it, and read it back to every single person.
• Make sure you collect any necessary information. At the Whig, I was asked to find out each person’s name , age, employment status, and what street they lived on. Your publication may require other details, but you need to make sure you get them. In my experience if you are missing any of the required items, the interview cannot be used.
• Wear comfortable shoes. You are going to be doing plenty of walking around. If you’ve made a habit of wearing dress shoes in the newsroom, make sure you change into something more comfortable while out on a streeter. I made the mistake of wearing dress shoes once. Never again.
• Keep a positive attitude. A streeter, by its very definition, involves getting out into the community and dealing with the general public. By staying happy and cheerful, you make yourself more approachable and easier to talk to. Reporters can be very intimidating for many people, particularly young people and women. By presenting a positive demeanor, you stand a better chance of getting good results.

A streeter is usually one of the few times a publication will ask a reporter to take their own photographs. It just doesn’t make sense for the paper to send two people out for such a simple assignment. Many reporters who don’t handle cameras on a regular basis, can find this awkward and intrusive. Here are some tips to hopefully make the process go a little more smoothly.

• Let them know ahead of time. Make sure you inform the interviewee that you will be requiring a photograph for the story. Often times, you’ll get all the way through the interview, only to have the subject refuse to be photographed. Of course, this leaves you back at square one.
• Keep talking. When the time comes, keep talking with the person while you set up the picture. This can often help put people at ease and makes the camera feel a little less intrusive. Most people don’t mind having their picture taken if you offer them some positive words of encouragement.
• Frame the shot correctly. Most streeter photos are head shots — spanning from just below the shoulders, to a little bit above the person’s head. Make sure you frame each shot in this manner, otherwise the photo department may not be able to use them.
• Shoot more than one photo. Grab a couple shots of each person, just in case. Going back to the newsroom, only to find none of your photos are suitable for print, is an experience I would wish upon only my greatest enemies.

The most important thing to remember is to relax. The best part of being a journalist is having the opportunity to get out there, meet new people, and have new and exciting experiences. What better way than through a streeter?

My apologies go out to anyone who may have tried to access Ekonoline from roughly 12:30am to 8:44am today. The site wasn’t inaccessible, per se, but it might as well have been. While working on my local development server (the one I use to code up all of my treats and goodies for this site before making them live), I accidentally logged into Ekonoline and changed a few settings that, well, I just shouldn’t have. Not for a live site, anyway.

I won’t bore you with the details but, needless to say, things weren’t working right around here for roughly eight hours. But, the ol’ gal has been all patched up and is ready to go once more. My eternal thanks go out to Josh, whose message regarding the problem was waiting for me when I woke up this morning. Cheers, buddy.

Anyone who knows me really well, knows that I love nothin’ more than talkin’ like a buccanneer. `Tis true. Nothin’ in this world makes me happier than throwin’ on th’ old eye patch, screwin’ on me favourite peg leg, an’ makin’ some poor sap keel haul th’ plank. Or, jump off th’ roof o’ a Volvo, if ye will.

T’ that end, I be more than happy t’ take part in Talk Like a Pirate Day! So, sea dogs an’ land lubbers get ou’ thar, display yer finest piratin’ skills, an’ be sure t’ download Chris J. Davis` fine wallpaper while ye`re at ‘t!

Arrrrr!

In the days following the tragic shootings at Dawson College, Canadian news organizations, along with their readers, have spent a considerable amount of time trying to get a picture of what happened and, more importantly, why. Details have become clear about the shooter, Kimveer Gill, and his mindset. We have learned what the scene inside the school was like during his rampage. And, much to every one’s sadness, we have learned of a young victim — Anastasia De Sousa. Two others still remain in critical condition today.

For many national papers, this situation presents a problem — how to tell the story of a young life extinguished far too early, while also attempting to explain a killer’s motivations? Both stories are at the forefront of many people’s minds and both deserve front page coverage. Flipping through a couple of editions yesterday it became abundantly clear, while some papers pulled it off, many did not.

The Toronto Star

The cover of the Toronto Star (pictured above) was the worst offender. By opting to place the two stories side-by-side, each with a prominent photo of the subject, the page ended up looking more like a boxing match promotion than two meaningful stories worthy of attention.

In my opinion, pictures of victims — particularly victims of such a violent crime — should never be played right next to one of their killer, and certainly without the same prominence. It serves only to cheapen the victim’s story and to remind their family of the confrontation which took place between the two individuals. Even my mother, who has no experience in news page design, gasped when she saw the layout. “If I was the family of that girl, I would be pretty ticked off right now,” she said.

Of course this could have been the Star’s intention, to stir up controversy and confrontational feelings. If so, I don’t think they went about it the right way. Strong feelings can come from many places in a newspaper, cheap layout tricks needn’t be one of them. It was a bad call.

Note (9/17/2006): It would seem at least one Toronto Star reader agrees with me, writing in to say, “…a large picture on Page 1 only seems to validate the gunman’s desire for attention and infamy. The emphasis should be on the victims, not the killer. I hope you show better judgment in the future.”

The Globe and Mail

The Globe, taking a much more sensible approach, chose to run both photos on front, but with De Sousa’s story given much more prominence. Like the Star, they ran both photos next to each other, but the difference in size is what makes this a better page. It’s much less confrontational.

Where they fell down, however, is in their choice of lead story. Certainly the death of a young student is more important than proclaiming ‘Quebec to push PM on guns’? Of course Jean Charest is going to make this a hot issue, he’s a politician. Is there really anyone who didn’t see that coming?

The National Post

The Post decided to run with a huge “sidebar” in the middle of the page, detailing Gill’s weblog entries from the day of the shooting. Topped off with a photo of Gill pointing his rifle directly at the camera, it made for a menacing page. The story surrounding De Sousa’s death was relegated to a thin, one-column spot at the side of the page.

While I would’ve liked to see De Sousa’s story given the more prominent spot, I applaud the Post for not taking the easy way out. They could’ve very easily ran both stories side-by-side, complete with huge photos of both De Sousa and Gill. Instead, they chose one story and just went with it.

A never-ending struggle

These are the sort of decisions page designers and copy editors are making each and every night, holed up in the newsroom. What sort of image are we presenting to the public? Is this the kind of message we want? How do we affect the people involved in the story? How do we accurately tell the story? Sometimes they get it right. Just as many times, they don’t.

But, such is life in the newsroom. You take what you can from the experience, learn as much as possible and, before you know it, you’re back at the copy desk. It’s 11 PM and it’s time to package the day’s news once again.