How do you tell a story as a reporter?

TORDA'S FALL 2025 TEACHING SITE

How do you tell a story as a reporter?

10/8/2025

I started class by saying that the one thing that unites all of the reading we are doing in class is that everything is, on some level, a story. Sometimes it is easier to see than other times. For this ICRN, write about the collection of articles you were assigned to discuss in your small group. Think about what you said and what you heard from your colleagues in the class. Then consider this: what is the story that your collection of articles wants to tell? And, equally importantly, how does it do it? If it helps, think about it in terms you might apply to fiction--is it character driven? Plot? Dialogue? How does it employ pathos? What is the narrative arc?

Try to include details from the reading that would support your ideas. Remember that part of what the ICRN is is evidence you actually did the reading.

6 Comments

Paul Sweeney

10/8/2025 03:19:09 pm

My group discussed the criticism articles by Alexander Lange. Both articles placed a heavy focus on the development of youth as well as fostering a more positive environment in the face of locations that tend to be less inviting than they ought to be. Both articles paint a picture of cultivating a more positive world for young people as well as creating a larger sense of community. This is achieved primarily through contrasting the main subjects with their less than stellar counterparts, such as the more isolated swings and the cold and clinical mental health facilities children and teenagers are put through. This creates a baseline that helps establish what the examples Lange wants to talk about do that is exemplary compared to their contemporaries. It also employs more sharp critique of these negative examples than the other articles may have, as Lange is able to be less neutral and therefore exert a greater control over the narrative and how the reader is meant to feel in both articles. It is not so much character driven as much as it is driven by a kind of narrative, one that guides you through their subjects in a way that builds a greater understanding of what makes them unique.

I.S.

10/8/2025 03:20:39 pm

The “criticism” collection of articles wants to tell a story critiquing how things are currently done and the innovation of these new places that can lead to a better future for mental health facilities and playgrounds. The articles focus on teenagers, addressing how this is a demographic that’s often not considered and that they’re in need of community. It begins with a contrasting description of the past and/or how things currently are versus the description of these new and improved places. For example, the average mental health facility is described as sterile and harsh while Ohana is open, warm, and nature-based. Past playgrounds and swings were simple yet fun, then they became less community focused because of regulations, but this new mega swing is both community focused and safe. The importance of aesthetics are emphasized to demonstrate how it impacts people’s mental health and how they feel in a space. Ohana uses warm, neutrals with splashes of brighter colors to avoid a sense of sterility while still being appropriate for teens. The article about the playground mentions how neutral colors associated with the fall season were used to communicate that it’s not just for kids. Accessibility is briefly mentioned as well. Ohana is working with California’s version of Medicaid to make their services affordable. Additionally, they hope to make more, less inexpensive versions of their facility. The mega swings at the playground are accessible for people of all ages and abilities. The articles then end positively. These new creations show that a better future is possible, especially regarding our sense of community and ability to connect with one another.

Overall, the narrative arc begins with what’s common in our society, the broader social issue at play, the innovation that’ll help mend this issue, a discussion that brings together the past, present, and future, then ends on a hopeful note by showing how improvements are being made. Individual experiences are included throughout the pieces as well, which gives specific examples of the articles’ topic and personalizes it.

Glen Beaulieu

10/8/2025 03:21:58 pm

For me, the local reporting pieces were about the way injustice and fraud (to kind of steal what you were talking about in our discussion) ripples throughout a local community. In that regard, this piece is much more character driven, as it focuses much more on how these billions of dollars being spent in the name of faux environmentalism are affecting the community rather than just the fraud itself. In that way, we as readers are really connected with the people in this story, as these issues are not exactly foreign. There are millions of Ron Rickers and Chintu Patels who have been wronged by forces beyond their control, and yet, if the authors of these pieces were just to say something like "Washington State seizing local businesses due to salmon culverts," the reader would be much more removed from the issue in question because that more intimate human element has been removed. That's why I think this human side is the most important part, because that's how you connect readers to these issues in a way that actually makes them feel, well, human! Even beyond that, the salmon themselves are made into characters! By actually trying to detail the salmon's journey through this "gauntlet of pipes and concrete tunnels," the authors are "humanizing" the salmon, which makes readers actually understand what these animals endure as opposed to just having some abstract idea of a "salmon culvert."

Alexandra O'Brien

10/8/2025 03:23:40 pm

In the collection of all the articles I read for breaking news, they all seem to touch on different aspects of the story of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump. Some focus on events leading up to the shooting, some on the aftermath of the shooting (in terms of the political climate), and some on what was happening during the event itself.

They are all touching on the event, but what is important for each report varies (in terms of the points they want to hit on regarding the events). For some, the meaning of reading it is to understand the fear of what happened; for others, it's to highlight political divides; for others, it's to prompt readers to ask specific questions about politics.

They tell us these stories about the events by providing details on what happened that day, and by also tying them into what others are saying about it, as well as what it means for past and future ways of doing things.

They write these articles in an informative way, for sure. However, they also incorporate a narrative element into it. They want us to feel what it was like to be there in that moment, and language plays a key role in this.

For example, "Trump grabbed his right ear. He ducked. A cluster of Secret Service agents in dark suits piled atop him, ready to take a bullet. More shots." - This is excellent writing. We feel tension build here, and shots are sudden and shocking. So when the author writes that there are more shots, he doesn't drag it out. he makes the reader FEEL like the shots are sudden and stop by writing "more shots." Instead of "and then out of nowhere there were so many more shots". If the action was quick, they reflected that in their writing, which is a great example of craft and making the reader feel what you saw or envisioned.

Another craft choice is the opening statement or sentence to an article - or anything you are writing... one article says - ‘“Tone it down”, that was the plea from one Republican congressman as he came to grips with the assassination of Donald Trump’…. and the opening statement of this feels very attention-grabbing and intriguing. They all begin their stories in different ways, and their craft is shown through these small details.

A few other notes are that direct interviews and quotes from people make these quick, to-the-point, and sometimes clinical reports feel a lot more personal. And although they can feel like a bit of a police report to read, they are engaging in the sense that they paint a picture for us of the events that occur, using good language and effective transitions when discussing one event in relation to another. You can feel like you were there to witness the events from the way they report it.

Anna

10/8/2025 03:25:07 pm

The series of breaking news articles tells the story of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, including what physically happened on that day, but also what the implications of the event may be. The articles evoke specific questions for the reader : Why did security not stop the gunman? What will this mean for the future of the political climate? In presenting the existing information for the reader, such as the fact that the gunman was found shot on top of a manufacturing plant, and secret services had already identified him as suspicious, the authors make room for curiosity and questioning of the systems that allowed this to happen, without explicitly stating that they should be concerned about it.
The structure of release of the articles additionally plays an important role in telling the story of the assassination and what political tools may be at play. The first two articles address the reader's immediate concerns: what happened, who was injured, and did Donald Trump actually get shot? After establishing the concrete events of the shooting, the articles have more leeway to specifically answer follow-up questions: "Who was the gunman and why wasn't he stopped earlier? What will this mean for the political climate and the upcoming election? The final article leaves the reader with the question: "Why did he do it?" followed by information about the 2024 election. The lack of identified motive, capping off the failures of the secret service, leaves the reader with the impression that this part of the government is not functioning in the way it is supposed to. To read into the articles further, they even present the idea that most of the government is not functioning well with how they handled the situation and the aftermath. There was immediate finger-pointing and political schemes following the assassination attempt, and encapsulating this through pulling quotes from politicians and social media posts allows the article to show how quick they jumped to agenda building without the gunman having to give a single motive or cause.

Ashley Luise

10/8/2025 03:25:32 pm

The selection of local reporting articles explore how injustice and fraud at the organizational level impacts real people living in real communities. It frames this story in a very humanistic light though, instead of framing the corporation’s wrongdoings through half-doing the project, and thus wasting the finite funding for salmon culverts, as an expose or breaking news story may be more likely to focus on. This is the hallmark of this genre of reporting—it has time and space to understand the precarious nature of humans' stories. Through this, reporters can flesh out a story arc like a piece of fiction would, with exposition, rising action, a climax, and falling action; though these pieces were more thought-provoking and didn’t have clean solutions, readers could come to those on their own after they finished, such as whether Ricker should keep or demolish his auto shop. Interviewees are more than soundbites, and real people are at the heart of each piece—whether it be the salmon, members of Indigenous tribes, or the auto shop owner. Each story looks at the greater issue at hand from the perspective of its main character. By framing the stories in this light, greater nuance on the topic can be held; the example that stuck out to me most was the auto shop owner’s moral and ethical dilemma of whether his shop should stay or be demolished because it eloquently, especially within conversation with the first article about the impact on the salmon, explores the effects of other community members—whether it be fish or people. By framing the stories in this light, local reporting appeals to pathos because readers are put in the community members’ shoes and wonder what they think is the right thing to do in this situation. While they may never have had issues with the salmon runs in their areas, they may have been in similar environmental or ethical dilemmas and feel for the people involved. While there may not be a clear solution available, it can get readers thinking about what they should do. For local readers, this could look like petitioning their government or corporations involved in this matter to do the right thing (and give rationale why, as these pieces use sound evidence to give a full glimpse of the situation); for readers from other communities, they could explore how they could do similar things with issues they could be facing in these areas.

How do you tell a story as a reporter?

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