Wednesday, December 27, 2006
A Place For Reporting
How Myspace can aid the reporting process.
(part of my University of Oregon Professional Master's Terminal Project)
When I began the reporting process for my final project, I was in the rare position of already owning a degree of expertise on the subject. As a former bmx rider reporting on the state of Cincinnati’s bmx world, I felt confident in my ability to get the story right and to have some of fun with it. There was only one small problem: I had been out of the loop for a while, and things had changed quite a bit since I was a punk-rock listening, 360-twisting bmxer.
Since possibly everyone I know could read this story after its publication, I felt a great deal of anxiety writing about so many people who I already somewhat knew. I decided to give every bmx-involved person who I knew a chance to guide me in the right direction. I wrote a short query explaining my project, goals and thoughts on the subject, and I asked what others thought the story should be. I sent this query to every Cincinnati bmx rider’s Myspace account.
For those who don’t know, Myspace.com is the most popular social networking site on the Internet, reportedly representing 80 percent of traffic on such sites. As of October 2006, there were more than 130.8 million accounts and 106 million estimated users. A typical Myspace profile offers the user’s age, interests, photos, blog and links to each of their Myspace friends’ pages (most users have anywhere from dozens to hundreds of “friends”). There is plenty of information to gather, even if you must sift through seizure-inducing layouts and really bad music to find it.
I found surprisingly little enthusiasm from the Myspacers to entertain my query with a response. I received two or three thoughtful responses (out of about 20) and a handful of “Oh, sorry about that. I’ll get around to it,” from others over the phone. All was not wasted during this process, however. With access to the profiles of nearly every source for my story, I learned tidbits of information by surfing (some call it stalking) around. Next, I reverted to a more “traditional” form of information gathering called the “telephone.”
During my first interview, with a Cincinnati rider who frequently photographed his colleagues for magazines, I got the low-down on the current scene and gathered all the phone numbers I needed. I interviewed seven or eight local riders, past and present, and felt fairly confident in my understanding of the situation. I began writing the story.
I researched the sport’s growth (almost entirely using the Internet and my Google advance-search prowess) from an underground culture to a mainstream, money-making entity. The most important issue at hand was the connection between increasing revenues and the rise in degree of difficulty. I supplemented the local story with what I found regarding trends in the sport’s development – both the stylistic evolution and the impact of made-for-TV contests. Google searches were imperative in finding such information about past contests as results, prize money and television airtime. I found an ESPN press release from 1996 regarding the name change from “Extreme Games” to “X-Games” and also the cell phone numbers of two ESPN public relations officials.
Once I reverted to the profiling of local riders, I found problems keeping track of the minor, similar details of so many riders. As I proofread my first couple drafts, I put every statistic, date, bike company and questionable name spelling in bold. Most of these issues could be checked with a quick visit to a company’s website or a similar authority on the subject. But many of these details could only be verified by the individual sources, so I regularly made lists of pieces of information that I either needed because I missed them in the original interview or because I wanted to verify them. I sent out Myspace messages to the riders with short, declarative sentences explaining what I believed was true about them. “Si o no?”
Through Myspace, it was easy for the riders to quickly respond with verification or a correction. The messages were well-organized in my inbox, and I didn’t have to keep track of 10 email addresses. Additionally, the Myspace inbox lists the status of every message you send to another user - either “sent,” “received” or “read.” If I checked the status of a super-important question I had sent, and a rider had “read” the message and not responded, I knew that I had to either look elsewhere for the detail, or chase the person down on the phone. This method of fact-checking, especially considering the numerous sponsorships and dates involved, was especially efficient.
Myspace is a weird world, and the information you’ll find there will most likely not be credible enough to repeat. But the medium, in all its voyeuristic glory, is a bounteous source for journalists who want to familiarize themselves with younger subjects before hitting the reporting trail. It potentially allows the source to become familiar with the reporter, building trust and perhaps lessoning the formality of the interviewing process. It’s also a useful means for keeping in touch with sources in longer stories to ensure that no major changes occur while you’re busy polishing your precious narrative arc.
One last warning before you professional journalists out there venture into the strange land of Myspace: Young people can’t spell worth a crap. Be prepared.
(part of my University of Oregon Professional Master's Terminal Project)
When I began the reporting process for my final project, I was in the rare position of already owning a degree of expertise on the subject. As a former bmx rider reporting on the state of Cincinnati’s bmx world, I felt confident in my ability to get the story right and to have some of fun with it. There was only one small problem: I had been out of the loop for a while, and things had changed quite a bit since I was a punk-rock listening, 360-twisting bmxer.
Since possibly everyone I know could read this story after its publication, I felt a great deal of anxiety writing about so many people who I already somewhat knew. I decided to give every bmx-involved person who I knew a chance to guide me in the right direction. I wrote a short query explaining my project, goals and thoughts on the subject, and I asked what others thought the story should be. I sent this query to every Cincinnati bmx rider’s Myspace account.
For those who don’t know, Myspace.com is the most popular social networking site on the Internet, reportedly representing 80 percent of traffic on such sites. As of October 2006, there were more than 130.8 million accounts and 106 million estimated users. A typical Myspace profile offers the user’s age, interests, photos, blog and links to each of their Myspace friends’ pages (most users have anywhere from dozens to hundreds of “friends”). There is plenty of information to gather, even if you must sift through seizure-inducing layouts and really bad music to find it.
I found surprisingly little enthusiasm from the Myspacers to entertain my query with a response. I received two or three thoughtful responses (out of about 20) and a handful of “Oh, sorry about that. I’ll get around to it,” from others over the phone. All was not wasted during this process, however. With access to the profiles of nearly every source for my story, I learned tidbits of information by surfing (some call it stalking) around. Next, I reverted to a more “traditional” form of information gathering called the “telephone.”
During my first interview, with a Cincinnati rider who frequently photographed his colleagues for magazines, I got the low-down on the current scene and gathered all the phone numbers I needed. I interviewed seven or eight local riders, past and present, and felt fairly confident in my understanding of the situation. I began writing the story.
I researched the sport’s growth (almost entirely using the Internet and my Google advance-search prowess) from an underground culture to a mainstream, money-making entity. The most important issue at hand was the connection between increasing revenues and the rise in degree of difficulty. I supplemented the local story with what I found regarding trends in the sport’s development – both the stylistic evolution and the impact of made-for-TV contests. Google searches were imperative in finding such information about past contests as results, prize money and television airtime. I found an ESPN press release from 1996 regarding the name change from “Extreme Games” to “X-Games” and also the cell phone numbers of two ESPN public relations officials.
Once I reverted to the profiling of local riders, I found problems keeping track of the minor, similar details of so many riders. As I proofread my first couple drafts, I put every statistic, date, bike company and questionable name spelling in bold. Most of these issues could be checked with a quick visit to a company’s website or a similar authority on the subject. But many of these details could only be verified by the individual sources, so I regularly made lists of pieces of information that I either needed because I missed them in the original interview or because I wanted to verify them. I sent out Myspace messages to the riders with short, declarative sentences explaining what I believed was true about them. “Si o no?”
Through Myspace, it was easy for the riders to quickly respond with verification or a correction. The messages were well-organized in my inbox, and I didn’t have to keep track of 10 email addresses. Additionally, the Myspace inbox lists the status of every message you send to another user - either “sent,” “received” or “read.” If I checked the status of a super-important question I had sent, and a rider had “read” the message and not responded, I knew that I had to either look elsewhere for the detail, or chase the person down on the phone. This method of fact-checking, especially considering the numerous sponsorships and dates involved, was especially efficient.
Myspace is a weird world, and the information you’ll find there will most likely not be credible enough to repeat. But the medium, in all its voyeuristic glory, is a bounteous source for journalists who want to familiarize themselves with younger subjects before hitting the reporting trail. It potentially allows the source to become familiar with the reporter, building trust and perhaps lessoning the formality of the interviewing process. It’s also a useful means for keeping in touch with sources in longer stories to ensure that no major changes occur while you’re busy polishing your precious narrative arc.
One last warning before you professional journalists out there venture into the strange land of Myspace: Young people can’t spell worth a crap. Be prepared.
# posted by PASStheTEA_B @ 11:39 AM 
