Preparing to Investigate

Next week we start working on our investigative stories, so the bulk of this week's work was spent preparing for that. Not only were story pitches due on wednesday, we actually had to pitch them on wednesday this week, which put some extra pressure on coming up with good story ideas. It was an imposing task coming up with a good investigative story because it requires a few extra components not present in normal team stories. I was forced to ask myself, what makes a good investigative story? I decided that it has to uncover something not previously known, often fulfilling the watchdog role of journalism. Or it must explain something that it complicated to understand, but necessary for citizens to know. I think that Tony, my partner for the investigative stories, came up with a good idea about exposing the seedy side of Craigslist, particularly in Columbia. It fits in well with current events, as a man was arrested for murdering a prostitute he met on Craigslist just a few days ago. I think this would be a very interesting story to pursue and anticipate that it would be extremely popular. I came up with an idea to investigate the plans Columbia has to spend stimulus money on giving two fire stations in town a face lift. When I discovered these plans my immediate question was, is this a good use of stimulus money? Is giving these two fire stations a makeover really going to help firefighters do their jobs better? Wouldn't this money be better spent on new equipment for the fire fighters to help them in the field? In order to answer these questions I would ask fire departments in other counties/cities how they would spend a large sum of stimulus money. We still do not know which story the editors will want us to pursue (if either) but Tony and I will get working on our story as soon as we find out what it is!