The dreaded meeting story

Perhaps the worst thing about being a reporter on the evening shift is the fact that you often get stuck with meeting stories. Public hearings, council gatherings, school boards, whatever. You get handed a press release at three in the afternoon for a meeting that starts at seven. So you kill time, go to dinner, and knock out a package that features video of people sitting in chairs and speaking at a podium.

Riveting.

You have just missed out on a great opportunity.

A great meeting story takes a little planning, and a good assignment editor knows these things are in the file several days in advance. If I know there's a meeting about a proposed steel mill on Tuesday night, I'm going to give that assignment to my evening reporter a day or two ahead of time.

But, you're thinking, if the meeting doesn't take place till tomorrow, what's the big deal?

The point is to avoid as much meeting b-roll as possible. So if I know I'm going to be talking about that steel mill tomorrow, I need to get my mill video today. If there's already one in town I go there. If not, I call the network for b-roll or an affiliate in a market that has steel mills. Then I go out to the neighborhood that will be affected and talk to the people while they're at that location. I want to know how they're going to deal with the pollution, the traffic, and whatever else a new business might bring. I'll hear about it at the meeting; I'll see it out in the field.

Let's say you have a school board meeting to cover about the system buying new computers for the classrooms. If you got that assignment the day of the meeting, well, school's already out for the day. If you got it the day before you can go to a school and show what the kids are currently using and what new computers might mean.

Sure, you can pull a bite or two from the meeting and use one set-up shot, but 90 percent of your story needs to take place away from the meeting site.

Remember, it's all show and tell. If you're going to tell what the meeting is about, you've got to show what any decisions might mean.