Portland Grassroots Media Camp
A few of the many things I learned this weekend at the Portland Grassroots Media Camp:
1: to pitch a progressively framed story to mainstream media, you have to give it the ‘aww’ factor. Meaning, turn said situation into a human interest story preferably featuring a parent and child and the difficulties said situation is causing them. Entails only mentioning the larger situation or complexities in passing. Good for getting people aware of said situation, not good for really informing them about it, though.
2. Three or more members of city government gathered together discussing city business constitutes a public meeting. Even if they’re in a cafe. Citizen-you has a right to pull up a chair and start taking notes.
3. Don’t bother with FOIA requests, unless your investigation is set to take years, anyway. Rather, go to someone who is likely to have an unredacted copy of the document you want. Such as a politician.
4. When handling a mic during a recording — well, don’t handle a mic during a recording. It picks up all your tiny hand movements as scraping sounds. Before starting the interview, make sure your arm is comfortable and your hand on the mic is in a position where it can stay during the whole interview.
The PGMC workshops I attended were all great! So wonderful of the presenters to share their knowledge. Thanks, PGMC presenters!
Portland Grassroots Media Camp