Preliminary research.

This week I am preparing to write my first feature story, which will eventually be published on themiamihurricane.com. There are several steps I have needed to take before doing the actual story and I would just like to share them with you here:

1. First I needed to find something to write about, obviously. My story is going to be about music. Since my audience will mostly be UM students, I thought I would do it on Cane Records, the record company of The University of Miami. So I started asking people I knew what they thought about the idea. I soon found out that that story had already been written, recently. Good thing I asked, though. Otherwise I might have ended up doing a story, which really would not hold any news value.

2. Then I thought about doing my story on one of the university bands. I hadn’t really heard about any of them, but had just been invited to a release party for one of them; a Cane Records’ artists called Les. So I went to the release party and thought that I might do my story on Les. Then today I checked the web for information about him. I found out that he is an r’n’b singer from Miami, things I already knew. What I didn’t know was that The Miami Hurricane, just yesterday, published a full story about him…Damn! But again, I was glad I did some research before actually starting the story.

3. Earlier today I called one of my friends, who also happens to be working for Cane records, and asked him if he had any ideas on an interesting band. He did have some suggestions for my story that didn’t seem too far fetched. I also checked with Greg Linch who put me in contact with the music guy at The Miami Hurricane. You will be able to read my story sometime in the near future. Where and when, I will be sure to let you know.

The essence of what I want to tell you, through my own experiences, is that doing preliminary research is essential in journalism. The web is a great place to find background information, story ideas, and to double check sources. Just make sure that your story hasn’t just been published by someone else. Even as important, if not more, are the people around you; your colleagues, friends, family, professors, and other students. They will tell you if you, to their knowledge, are moving in the right direction with a story. Never be too proud to listen to good advice!