You received a story assignment, but you’re uncertain about where to start gathering information. Even worse, the one person you thought would provide information is unavailable.
What do you do when your primary source is missing in action? You can’t just take your ball and go home. Instead, you have to seek out alternative sources of information.
Here are some alternate sources of information when your initial contact is MIA:
Other people
There’s no single person who knows any story. If only one person knows about something, it’s probably not newsworthy. If you can’t determine who else might know information about a topic, call the original source’s office and ask the assistant (or whoever answers the phone) who else you could interview. You also can ask colleagues who have covered the area/topic who you should interview. Using your resources in the newsroom is just smart.
Check the archive
Honestly, you already should have done this as soon as you received the assignment. You should always check your publication’s morgue (library/archive) to determine what already has been written about your topic. This will help you identify sources and ask questions about the most up-to-date information on the topic. And, because most archives are electronic, this process is easier than ever. Good-bye, microfilm! Hello, instant fingertip access!
Go online
Use the city, school, county, company, organization, etc. website to find sources in the same area as your topic. You also can Google the topic, but make sure you are getting information from a legitimate, credible source. Remember, anyone can put anything online. Also, website URLs don’t add a lot of credibility to stories. You still will need to interview people.
Other online sources to consider:
- Public records (Oklahoma State University provides a good resource. You also can find Oklahoma court records here.)
- Congressional directories that provide profiles of members of Congress
- Reverse phone directories (I like 411.com.)
- Property record databases (You can search Oklahoma County’s records here.)
- Databases like Lexis-Nexis that allow you to search other publications’ archives for information on a topic
- Your electronic telephone directory. This provides a wealth of information if you’ve done a good job of keeping track of all source’s phone numbers and official titles.
Search your desk
If you’ve gathered resources and tools as you go, you may be surprised how many paper resources you have filed in your desk (or, more likely, buried in the pile of crap on your desk). Paper resources to consider:
- Public records
- Maps
- Public records (including agendas and minutes)
- Organizational phone directories
- Phonebooks
- Books
If you’ve exhausted all of your resources and still can’t find another source, go sit outside of the original source’s office until he/she agrees to talk to you. You’ve got nothing else to do, right? Well, except maybe clean your desk, but we both know that’s not going to happen.
