Here’s what I am reading this week. Will share some thoughts on the book soon.
Didn’t realize how true the statement is. Everybody knows everyone in a small town. Yep, it took an assignment that sent me down to Nova Scotia’s South East coast to understand this.
Two towns there were hit by a weekend snow storm in February. My assignment editor sent me down to a couple of areas that received the worst damage.
Camera man and I getting ready to hit the road.
Our first stop? The Shelburne waterfront, which had been inundated with storm surges the day before. But today, the water had receded as if it never happened. There was really nothing to see. And the locals knew it. That’s why the waterfront was dead. But we got our shots anyway.
Just came from the Shelburne water front. You can’t tell this place was under storm surge waves yest’d. Things look fine. #CBCNS
— David Thurton (@CBCDavid) February 10, 2013
But then all of sudden a car drives by. Then a couple more. Soon enough there’s a steady train of cars passing.
My cameraman stops filming and mentions; “Oh! You know why these cars are all here?”
“Huh?” I mumble without glancing from my iPhone’s Twitter feed.
“They’re coming to see you,” he says and then inserts his head back into the camera’s viewfinder.
I smile and think how self-important it would be to think all these folks would come here just to see me.
We continue on our site seeing tour. Was there anymore damage? There was.
Just arrived in Barrington. Seeing some wind damage like this sign. #CBCNS twitter.com/CBCDavid/statu…
— David Thurton (@CBCDavid) February 10, 2013
The town of Barrington had returned to normal, but some were cleaning up from the storm’s vandalism.
Winds, that were at times hurricane strength, looted its way through signs, leaving shreds hanging in the afternoon breeze. The rampage continued as the storm ripped off the facade of a local No Frills and smashed its glass like a bandit.
Stopping by Martin’s No Frills in Barrington, where part of the front entrance was torn down by the wind. #cbcns twitter.com/CBCDavid/statu…
— David Thurton (@CBCDavid) February 10, 2013
A short distance away, the winds lifted the roof off a trailer park home and dropped it on the street a couple metres away, the crime scene still fresh.
The damage made for great TV. So like the wind, we arrived, got all the footage and interviews we needed, and took off.
***
The next day, back at the newsroom, one of the producers who didn’t work that weekend, asks.
“Where you down in Barrington this weekend? Because my mother, heard from her cousin, who said her friend met a Black reporter down there.”
“Yes,” I respond; blushing.
“Yep, they said they saw you. You’re the talk of the town.”
A quick observation how covering live reporting has changed. For integrated broadcast giants it just doesn’t mean only live special reports on radio and TV. But organizations must consider the online component as well. The BBC does a great job with this. The death of PM Margaret Thatcher is an example.
My story Tuesday night had a multi-platform angle. We requested a list of all the speeding tickets police doled out in the HRM. The spread sheet we received contained a lot of data. After some organization, it showed what locations people get the most tickets
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We also could see which days of the week and months people speed the most and which gender speeds more; men or women. Overall, a boring spreadsheet turned into a great story. Special thanks to CBC web developer Dean Gallant who organized the data and designed the interactive.
