One of the first rules that you learn when you study journalism is to avoid being part of the story. We already know that objectivity doesn’t exist, but the closest way to get to that utopia is to be as honest and truthful as possible. However, whenever you gobble scrambled eggs on a Sunday morning, and you see your name printed in a newspaper, it’s unavoidable to feel a little bit of proud. I don’t consider it a bad thing, if it’s measured.
When I published my first web story in the Columbia Missourian, I was also working on a larger piece on an architectural renovation in three fire stations and the fire training academy facility in Columbia, Missouri.
To be honest, I didn’t pitch the story. It was my editor who suggested me covering it after telling him that I wanted to start helping and writing. I was told that the first weeks it’s hard to pitch your own stories, specially for public life reporters who aren’t from Columbia or from the U.S. at all. My editor gave me a City Council report and a phone number to start, and it was harder than I expected to get in touch with the people I was looking for.
I wasn’t lucky with my first five calls, and if that wasn’t enough, when Brad Frazier, Columbia Fire Battalion Chief, returned my call, I wasn’t available. I also tried reaching him at his office, with no luck. When I walked in and asked the secretary at the front desk, he had just left to a meeting. I left him a note, and we finally got in touch to make an appointment.
After the foreign insistence, I got a tour with Randy White, Fire Chief. I had to take an Uber at 8:00 AM and wait for 45 minutes in the cold because Mr. White forgot about me. In the end it was totally worth it. I was about to leave, but he finally arrived, apologized and showed me everything that I wanted.
He even gave me a lift back to the newsroom when I finished with my questions, since I don’t have a car or an American license. The policy in the Missourian is not to take any gifts from other people, but I didn’t consider a ride to be a gift, and I really needed it.
This is how it finally looked in the website. You can also take a look at the post in the actual website.
Nobody ever told me that there was going to be a 360 image, but I find it very accurate, since it gives a perfect view of how restrooms are arranged in that fire station. I talked to the photographer, but we only discussed the two still images.
The happy news came when I was having breakfast the next Sunday, and I found my story at the front page. This is how it looked in the print edition.
Cabina Cero 