Cross Cultural and Principles of American Journalism are out to get me!

In the process of completing my latest Convergence Reporting 4804 project, I felt like I was going through a live, in-the-action test over concepts covered in previous MU pre-journalism courses.

My reporting partner and I tackled the Boonville, Mo., controversy over the construction of the new Kemper Village Homes subsidized housing development. The opposing sides discovered mainly covered the residents versus the city government, however a last-minute trip to Boonville brought the rift between higher and lower class citizens to my attention. I visited the town on Wednesday evening in attempt to interview low-income citizens or residents of the city's current subsidized housing developments to see if they were supportive of the Kemper Village Homes. Luckily, the handful of sources I found were extremely helpful and very open in sharing their opinions, but I discovered that they almost took the opposition to the Kemper homes as a personal strike against them. When I explained why the over 500 residents signed a petition to prevent the Homes construction, they typically responded by questioning why anyone would want to prevent low-income families from finding a home. One resident emphasized, "I don't see the harm in it." Quickly, I found myself repeating the lessons of my Cross Cultural Professor Perry as I interaction with the residents of the current subsidized housing developments. I spoke more casually and didn't try to make my project seem too important. I even took off a frilly scarf I had worn all day to make my dress more plain so that the sources could focus more on my questions than anything.

Another source we spoke with earlier in the week was the president of the Boonslick Area Landlords Association who frequently challenged the questions we posed to him. Jim Edwards seemed like a very down-to-earth, wholesome man who was simply trying to ensure that the citizens of Boonville were not being suckered into a new housing development that was unneeded. When he got heated, however, his demeanor became somewhat accusatory and judgmental on Boonville City Council. We would ask him simple questions for clarification and reaction like, "So what should the Council do next," "How did you feel about that," or "Why would the Council do that." Jim's generic response: "Well, what do you think?" We knew, based on the ethical principles presented in the Principles of American Journalism course we'd both taken, that including our personal views on a matter when accomplishing a story would be inserting the journalists into the story. Anything we say may influence what the sources say and how they react. Jim's demeanor made the interview a little awkward for us at times, however we were able to acquire all our needed information and made the interview a bit longer than most so that he would be able to get all of his frustration out - and get to the points we needed from him.