I have realized the beauty of the back-up plan.
As journalists, we have the pleasure of talking to interesting people to pick their brains. There's times when you can just walk up to someone and have a friendly conversation and presto! One source down.
But what if a source doesn't call you back?
I constantly wonder about the great juxtaposition that is The Journalist. As a journalist, you are required to pry and dig for details and push the boundaries to get the story. Maybe even be a little annoying. Face it, folks-- people think journalists are annoying.
So when is it too annoying? If a source doesn't get back to you, and you're on a deadline, obviously you try and get in touch with them. Sometimes twice. Sometimes a couple of phone calls and an e-mail.
To bring me back to my original point, it's good to have a back-up plan. Plan ahead. Call/e-mail the sources who are priority first and then talk to other people. If the priority sources don't get back to you, try again. But still talk to other people. And then if they never get back to you (which is just rude) hopefully you'll have enough information to go off from the other people you talked to.
Note the word hopefully.
2 comments:
Good points.
You're right: At the end of the day, we might have to sit down and write a story with whatever callbacks are in hand. Deadlines, deadlines.
A reporter's reputation sometimes rides on having a fat list of phone numbers, especially home phones and cell phones.
Excellent comment, the back-up is key.
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