Club Member Rachel Jimenez Recaps First Meeting of Spring Semester
Club Member Rachel Jimenez at last nights member meeting. Photo by Hannah Nunez.
By Rachel Jimenez
NAHJASU started the 2011 spring semester off with guest speakers from KPHO 5 to discuss investigative coverage of immigration in Arizona on Feb. 16.
David Paredes, investigative photographer, and Morgan Loew, investigative reporter, showed clips of immigration stories that have aired on KPHO 5. These clips included an interview with Governor Jan Brewer. The reporter discredited statements made by the Arizona legislature that crime rates in the state were high due to border issues when in reality crime rates were decreasing.
Loew said his previous bosses would not have allowed the investigative team to work on such a story as it could upset those who supported anti-immigration reforms. He said it’s important the way a reporter presents a story to their editor.
“It’s all about the pitch,” he said. Loew explained its necessary to describe to the editor why viewers need to hear the story and why it’s journalistic.
Sometimes part of the pitch discussion is whether or not a journalist needs to go undercover. Loew went undercover to get the true story about minutemen guarding the border. He said these men usually put up a façade on camera, so it was important they didn’t know they were videotaped. In situations as these Loew discussed the importance for the journalist to stay silent maintaining an ambiguous opinion of the subject at hand.
Loew instructs future investigative reporters to give themselves up as a journalist during potential dangerous situations. Let the subject know he or she is on camera, before they attempt to take a risky action.
With another clip Paredes explains the importance of maintaining great relationships with sources. He was able to use connections from high school in order to make an interview with a federal prison inmate occur within the federal facilities very smoothly.
The two warn the investigative reporter position is not easy. These reporters don’t get their stories from press releases, or newspaper articles, they get stories from sources, from knowing their communities. In-depth stories usually provide the most revenue to a production company, so there’s added pressure to produce the best work possible.
To those still aspiring to reach this position Loew advised, “Be the best general assignment reporter in the news room.”
After the first meeting of the semester, the members of NAHJASU decided to meet for a social gathering on Feb. 24 at ASU’s Women’s basketball game.
