The media and your story, Part II
After the reporter or researcher has spoken to you, and got answers to their questions, he or she makes a professional judgment as to whether there really is a story in it for them, and, if so, how to write or present it for their particular audience.
The reporter chooses an opening angle, a lead-in, an intro, an opening paragraph. Just a few well-chosen words designed to hook the reader, listener or viewer, and perhaps also to tell the story at a glance.
The reporter selects the facts and quotes that he or she feels are relevant, and he or she then writes or produces the story for that outlet's audience, in that outlet's style.
You can see, already, that what you think the story is – and your answers and comments – are being filtered through the reporter's view of what he or she sees as the story, and through how the reporter needs to tell and present that story for their audience.
Whether this story is for a newspaper, for radio, TV, a magazine or a website, the reporter's story will then be reviewed by one or more editors.
They're checking for the "big" things – newsworthiness, completeness, logic, accuracy, taste, legality and so on. And for how the story will come across to the audience.
So now there enters another, and usually unseen, layer of people who are further filtering your story
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