Just after a day at the office there was a long weekend because of the Memorial Day. This was the time that I spent on reading reporters' blogs on the paper's website and familiarizing myself with the issues that were hot in the city and its neighbourhoods. I would take a bus and go to some place. There I would simply roam around, observe the environs and read anything that I could find written on plaques, signboards or notice boards.
In fact I was able to talk to a delegation of Pakistani women legislators in the very first week but it took me good ten days to get the story published. It was while working on this story that I realized that sometimes it is very difficult to get people's comments even in the United States.
Houston Chronicle building at Texas Avenue
The legislators wanted the story to be based on their statements and what they thought they had achieved during the visit. But the editors wanted the story to have some point of interest for the readers. Back home our newspapers publish endless texts of speeches made by politicians without even thinking it for a moment that readers have no interest in such trash. I totally agreed with this point and pegged my story on Americans' perceptions about women's role in Muslim countries.
I worked on this story for a while and would share the draft with the editors on city desk. They helped me write the lead again and again, till it took a pretty good shape. I really enjoyed going through this practice as it is one of my ambitions to learn writing attention-grabbing news leads.
The next to follow were the interviewing techniques and finding experts who could dwell on the issue. I talked to public relations officials at two big universities and from then onwards it was their headache. I talked to the experts introduced by PR people and added their comments to my story. In fact I had to talk to them repeatedly as the editors were always asking for more information.
For a moment I got frustrated but then realized that the American readers want to read in-depth reports supported by logic and do not believe in cliches. You can simply go through readers' comments on a story and get endless ideas for followups on the same issue. For example there was a comment on my story on women legislators from Pakistan. It read comparing the lives of these women with the lives of ordinary women in Pakistan is just like comparing the life of Paris Hilton with that of an ordinary American women. This was very helpful for me. I immediately realized I should also have discussed the plight of ordinary women in Pakistan and asked a question related to this issue.
A glimpse of the newsroom.
In Pakistan, reporters do not normally take pains to go into extra details. I am sure the reading habits are far changing in Pakistan and such practices will soon take roots there as well. Now I believe it's the responsibility of journalists to produce quality content for readers and do not make assumptions on their own.
Coming to problems, I think I have been unable to fully understand the accent of the people who I talk to. Some speak too fast whereas there are those also who mince words or use slang too much. Lately, there has been an improvement on this front also. Sometimes I also use slang; but on realization I immediately correct myself.
I have learnt how to use newspaper archives and find material relevant to different news stories. Unfortunately, our newspapers only keep last one year's issues in their online archives. My paper has a huge collection of newspaper clippings but it is of not much use as this data is not searchable digitally. I will try to convince my editors in Pakistan to get this content digitized, and explain it to them that how useful it can be for the publication. They can even charge a fee from others (non-staffers) for accessing this resource material online.
I used these archives to write an obituary of a famous hotelier. I had some information that even the family members of the deceased did not have with them.
Over the last three days I have had a series of discussions with the Chronicle staff, my mentor and the editor of the paper. At a brownbag session I gave a presention to the staff on life, politics and journalism in Pakistan. It was followed by a reasonably long Q&A session. It was good to be at the receiving end this time. There were some really good questions. I got an idea of how to frame a good question and say something harsh in a way that it doesn't hurt the person it's meant for.
Next week I will be moving to the editorial and column writing section. I have also talked to the editor about the possibilty of starting a blog of mine on Chronicle website. So, there seems to be a lot of action and fun in store for me. I'll narrate all that I go through in my next blog posting. Till then Good Bye
