Beat Reporting: Covering Oxford's City Council

While covering the Oxford City Council I had a multitude of sources to communicate with for articles. Even if I didn't have a story do that particular week I'd chat with some of my main sources on a weekly basis to see if anything new was happening. My main sources included: City Council members, the interim and then the new city manager, the city planner, MU students serving on the Student/Community Relations Committee, and other local government officials who were pertinent to a specific story. The few students that I talked to were much more willing to get in contact with me than all of the City Council members which really surprised me. I figured that the local elected officials would be eager to get their voice out there and put a positive spin on what they're trying to do. I know that the council members are busy and have other jobs, but several of them snubbed when I tried to set up individual one on one time with them. Maybe they were less willing to talk with me since I'm still a student and I wasn't planning on publishing my stories. One of the main local bodies that citizens look to for news on their city is the City Council. Oxford's council is very involved in the community and there was always a newsworthy event or debate which made generating story ideas easy. The deadlines that were set for the six stories were pretty conducive with the events/issues on which I wrote my stories. Throughout the semester I grew as a journalist and my reporting and writing improved.

-- Betsy Sinn
Nov. 27, 2007