Sources: We Need A Range

Journalism isn't about just getting one side and the other side. That's just enabling an argument. What we're trying to do is get a range of ideas and perspectives, in hopes of capturing all the degrees of complexity of a story and discovering a larger truth as a result.

There are various types of sides we should get. For JRN 400, the instructors came up with some category terms to help illustrate a basic range of sides. Those include:

• Affected subjects: These are people affected by whatever action is central to the story. For example, for a story about East Lansing banning alcohol sales to students, an affected person would be a student. Are they ticked by this? Also affected are those who sell alcohol; what does this do to their livelihoods?
• Subject users: These would be people who take advantage or are disadvantaged by the action taking place. In addition to students and East Lansing liquor stores, this could include Lansing liquor stories: do they expect a surge in business as a result of the ban in E.L.?
• Subject drivers: Who is making the action happen? In this case, it would be the people making the decisions (the City Council, which sets city laws) and those enforcing the decisions (the police department).
• Subject experts: This would be a neutral expert, who is expert in the subject area but doesn't have a stake in this particular fight, or any particular interest in the outcome. They help the audience make sense of the various sides and their positions. For example, perhaps a political science prof could talk about local alcohol enforcement, since he or she is an expert on government. Or a history prof could talk about the history of prohibition in America and how well it's worked in general. Or a sociologist could talk about alcohol culture and how this impacts that. Please see the blog posts on neutral experts for more on these subjects.
• Subject observers: People who are part of the environment and not directly affected, but may have an interest in the outcome. Like East Lansing residents in general; are they happy that those damn kids can't get their drink on any longer?
• Subject examples: Could be any of the above, that you think best illustrates the impact of the story.

Your stories should have at least THREE of these categories covered.