Today we had the unique opportunity to spend some time with Steve Andrews, WFLA investigative reporter, at The News Center, in downtown Tampa. During this visit Andrews took the time to show us some stories he had done and then explained how he used public records to help bring these stories together. In addition to watching these stories we also got a brief tour of The News Center itself. While we could not get a first hand look at the studios we did have the opportunity to see a variety of areas that are essential to get the news out to the public daily.
Andrews showed us several stories, but the one that hit home with me was the one about an elderly man who was not given the proper care at an adult living facility. This story showed that by using public records you can not only tell a compelling story but help fix a gross injustice but getting the word out. He used the fact that many people did inspections of this facility and not one time did they see what kind of abuse this one particular patient had to endure. In addition he also found that a doctor that did see the patient many times also neglected to report the living facility for their lack of care. Another story he shared was about a about a water retention facility that had cracks all over the place. The public records he was able to gather for this story were extremely helpful in that he not only got documents but video as well. This video helped show that the project was not built to the specifications needed for it to be successful and last. After everything was said and done, fixing this problem could have been paid for by the citizens of Hillsborough County but due to Andrew’s efforts the battle wages on as to who is going to pay for this mess.
In all, this visit was both insightful and exciting in that we got the chance to see all the interworkings of a news room and the guts that makes reporting hard work. Andrews showed all of us that while it is viewed as glamorous to be on television it is also a tremendous amount of work. Many times during our visit he talked about how he had to comb through materials to find what he was looking for. These painstaking efforts showed in the quality of his work and is something we should all try to emulate in our chosen profession.
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6 comments:
Nice job. You made the post detailed as well as personal by including which of Andrews's stories impacted you the most. You might want to separate the middle paragraph by story to make it a bit more readable for the web.
The story about the elderly man hit home with me the most as well, but that story would not have been nearly as good without some help with access to his medical records. I thought the story that public records had the most impact on was the water retention story.
I enjoyed that you highlighted which stories had the most effect on you. Nice comment about how these stories would affect taxpayers.
Very good telling your perpective on the visit. Maybe discuss more about how you could use public records in your chosen profession, since you brought it up.
I liked how you talked about the story which interested you the most. I, also, was most affected by the elderly man.
very detailed and well written...paragraphs are a little long, but nice job
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