The Story Behind the Story: Missouri State Auditor's New Citizen Summary

Dry, unexciting story ideas can make really interesting stories--it all depends on how they are told.

Everybody loves the story about their favorite team winning the championship, the blizzard story, or the child prodigy. I also enjoy those stories, but true journalistic ability is taking a hard subject and making it simple; taking a boring subject and making it entertaining.

In addition to my broadcast class at the University of Missouri, I am also taking an investigative reporting class. It was while I was searching through state audit reports that I came across this story. The Missouri State Auditor had just taken office a few weeks prior and was changing the way things are run. He was implementing a new "citizen summary" so that it is easier for the average Joe to understand which government agencies are wasting money and which ones are running effectively--that is to the Auditor's standards.

I left Columbia, uneager to head south to Jefferson City. There was snow on the roads and several accidents on the highway. I finally made it to the Capitol building and passed the only open parking space near the dome. Don't you hate it when that happens? I thought it was too good to be true so I passed it thinking it wasn't a spot but then when I realized it was I had to do the loop again and by then it was filled. I would have to park far away.

Finally I got to the building and did my interviews. B-roll was very hard to come by, but I did my best. I was hoping that the person I would wrap the story around had worked at the office for a long time but that was not the case. (In a few ways this is a good example of the difference between preplanning and prewriting.) Nevertheless, I got what I needed, filmed my stand-up and headed back to Columbia. I am proud of the end result. It might not be the best story I have ever told, but it is one I don't mind putting my name on.

It is up to you as to decide whether I made this dry topic entertaining and human. Even if you think I did or didn't, I learned about journalism in the process and I hope to do even better in the future. After all, everybody will take an interesting story any day over a dry, boring one.

Watch the video and leave me your comments below.