Bob Dotson writes for his audience. He doesn't talk about himself and how great he is, he's giving advice to help the reader become better. He also explains himself in everything he says so that he isn’t just telling them what to do, he’s explaining it and going into detail so they can go out and do it on their own. For example, Bob says, “That story was scripted in an hour. Under deadline. How do you write a longer story at the speed of spot news? This is how I do it.” Not only does he show what happened and tells you what you should do, he goes onto to explain himself and guides you through the process.
- What did you learn from reading pages 9 to 27? (75 words)
I learned from reading pages 9 to 27 that you need to capture information that people will be interested in but also what other news anchors look past. People don’t like sound bites of the same exact thing over and over after natural disasters or accidents, they like things that they haven’t heard before and stories that are unique within the big things that happened. Another thing I learned was that you need to ask the “Non-Question/Question.” Instead of asking about the tragedy or the accident that happened, get to know them and make them feel comfortable with you first. Such as asking how their day was or something their currently doing or focused on. Somehow tie in the non-question with the real question you want to get too.
- With the scripts: What do you suppose is described in each column? Why would it be split like that? What else is interesting about the scripts? (50 words)
In each column of the scripts, Bob Dotson describes and helps the audience better understand what he was teaching and going over in the pages before. It is split like that so the reader isn’t thrown a bunch of different things to learn and understand. Its much easier to go over something you are supposed to do and then get an example and explanation of it from the person teaching it to you in his own work. An interesting thing about the scripts is that they are all unique in some way. They each have something sad about it that makes you think about it but then it ties in with a heroic story or a happy ending to it.
- On Page 34 (and to the end of the section), Dotson writes about a long-form feature. Find one of these (a story at least 4 minutes long) on a TV news magazine such as Rock Center, 20/20 or 60 Minutes. Then, give and explain examples of how the storyteller uses the five bulleted traits Dotson gives on Page 34. (200 words)
I watched a 5 minute clip on 60 Minutes called the anatomy of an interview with a serial killer. A little background about the story was a serial killer Charles Cullen murdered twenty-nine people by pretending to be a nurse and lethally injected medicine into them and killing them. A reporter, Steve Kroft, interviewed Charles Cullen after nine years of being in prison to see if he had come to grips with what he had done. The first thing Bob Dotson talked about was scene setting. The scene was set at the prison where Kroft was sitting behind one glass on the phone interviewing Cullen who was on the other side. Another scene was at the courthouse with Cullen sitting down and the victims’ families talking at the podium. The natural sound was the background noise of the cell doors shutting in the prison and also the muffled cries of the families when they were talking. The foreshadowing was Charles Cullen walking in with handcuffs and then the guards unlocking them and Cullen coming to sit down and begin his interview. The conflict of the story is a man killing innocent people by pretending to be a nurse and inserting medicine into them and the world trying to figure out why. The character growth was when the interviewer was making simple conversation with Cullen and then went into more serious questions as to why he did it and how he felt about the crime he committed. The resolution is in the courtroom and having Charles Cullen sitting there while the families say how they feel and gaining some progress to closure with what happened.
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