I only had two days to come up with a good newsworthy story idea. I had three story ideas. The first idea was about Skinny Jeans and how it might be dangerous to our health. Experts found out that too tight of pants can lead to ‘tingling tight syndrome’. This story failed because it proved too difficult to find a person (ccc) who had ‘tingling tight syndrome’. It wasn’t doable.
The Second idea was about summer school. Enrollment for a summer educational program in Columbia is highest this year. This story failed as well because of the low new values and lack of the visuals. Story about the summer educational program was on the news every summer and there was no amazing visual to shoot.
My third idea (which I really did not want to do because the topic itself was hard to understand) was about the Columbia’s water safety. It had very good news values because residents should be informed about the city’s new water process. Covering water issues was okay for me, but the theory and science behind water treatment was hard to understand and the professional words made the reporting harder.
So the first thing I did was read all the materials about the water, ammonia, trihalomethans (THM formation), chlorine, and disinfectant to understand the story better. After that I met three MU graduate students who are majoring in City water at the MU Water Research Center. Ja Xu(China), Ok Jin Choi (Korea) and Millesia Xadosue (India) helped me better understand the topic and taught me how the MU Water Resources Research center handled the issues.
The next day I had an interview with Floyd Turner who is the manager of water operations for the city and Jim Haymen from Water and Light. I basically asked about the safety issues and the risk of drinking water with THMs formation in it. I had a hard time understanding the water operation system in Columbia, so Floyd kindly gave a small lecture about history of water operation system in Columbia and the new process.
Because Columbia drinking water was cited as having a higher level of the THMS, the City spent more than $90,000 on a contract with the MU Water Research Center to identify the cause of the problem. So I tried to meet the MU Professor in charge, Thomas Clevenger but he was too busy. I emailed him twice and went to his office seven times but he was never there. So I planned to interview two other professors but they were afraid to be on the camera. When I left the building with no interview, I had a big camera and tripod on my both hands. And this one gentleman started talking to me at the elevator.
“That thing looks so heavy on you.”
“ It is usually not that heavy but today it is…”
“ Why?”
‘ I came here more than seven times to get a interview from this one professor but he is never in his office!”
‘Oh... I am sorry. Maybe I can help you”
“Do you know anything about the water issues in Columbia?”
“Yes! That is my research field!”
It was Dr. Clevenger. Earlier he had been to China for his research but he had come back. Unexpectedly, I had a great interview with him and my package was done.
This story was very challenging and I spent a lot of time to find the right person for the interview but at the end, it all paid off.
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