This last week was not too terrible for me as far as how busy I was. My convergence group managed to put together our story after getting our ideas rejected about four times. When we finally were approved Monday morning leaving us only 4 days to work on a week-turn story. We got lucky and managed to research and set up all our interviews quickly. Luckily for us, everyone we needed to talk to was available and willing.
Our story was on medical marijuana, looking at how the new federal guidelines will not affect Columbia's ordinance. We also took the time to find out how legalizing the possession of medical marijuana in a state that doesn't allow it has worked since it has now been five years since it was implemented.
We quickly found a great source to be our main character around the story. She has multiple sclerosis and has to uses the drug every evening before going to sleep to help control her muscles. She was easy to find, and very open. The part that was difficult in this story was trying to figure out how much about her we wanted to tell and exactly how because the topic is so controversial and illegal in the rest of the state.
The biggest concern came with how she gets the marijuana. Since the law only allows possession of medical marijuana, she still can't legally buy it in any way. She briefly mentioned that she gets hers through the mail, but mentioning this in our story might get her into trouble, but it does bring up a good point. Safety of the product, working with the black market and sending it all through the US postal service added an interesting aspect to the story.
In the end we decided that mentioning how she got it was irrelevant to the rest of the story, so we stayed with saying that she gets it from the black market, but not saying how. This may have been a mistake, because the small fact did add an extra "umph" to the story because getting the marijuana is something she still has to be cautious about.
The next step, advocates say, is making it legal to buy the marijuana for medical purposes, and having a safe place to buy it, as in NOT in the black market. This alone should have led me to explore where and how she gets the marijuana further.
"Birdmen" - 60 Minutes
Steve Kroft went to Norway to follow a group of skydivers that use special suits that allow them to glide longer than a typical free fall.
The video alone for this story is incredible. They had cameras hooked up to the bodies of the divers, they had cameramen on the edge of the cliff, in a helicopter and on the ground. They had to have done several jumps to get all these angles.
Had they not had the cameras hooked up to the bodies, the video would have been boring and less dramatic. You would not have been able to feel the speed. The quality of the picture from those cameras were also, surprisingly, very, very good. Usually when they hook up video camera's to skydivers the picture seems very amateur. They did a good job of setting the cameras up in a great position.
The quotes were fine but nothing great. It was definitely the video (not to mention the Norwegian scenery) that made this story.
She has multiple sclerosis and has to use((s OMIT))the drug every evening before going to sleep to help control her muscles.
ReplyDelete((AWKWARD SENTENCE. KEEP IT STRAIGHT LINE SO IT'S CLEAR AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND.))The part that was difficult in this story was trying to figure out how much about her we wanted to tell and exactly how because the topic is so controversial and illegal in the rest of the state.
THE PART THAT WAS DIFFICULT IN THIS STORY WAS FIGURING OUT HOW MUCH WE WANTED TO TELL ABOUT HER, AND EXACTLY HOW TO SAY IT, BECAUSE THE TOPIC IS SO CONTROVERSIAL AND ILLEGAL IN THE REST OF THE STATE.