Ask an Expert
Others are simply lazy. If it takes hunting up someone outside the area, whose name isn’t already on their Palm Pilot, they don’t want to bother.
But that does a disservice to the reader. Von Schmeisel will take the journalist’s call, but he won’t give the reader the time of day. Journalists often forget that they serve the public in a number of ways ,Äì by reporting things readers need to know, by explaining things they need to understand and for talking to people they need to hear from. The reporter serves as the go-between connecting the reader who might be a nobody to the somebody who has the relevant information.
In my investigative reporting class, I emphasize that to do a good investigative story you rarely have to wrest information from people who don’t want to give it. Instead, you find hard-to-find people who have information they can offer.You connect different people and different bits of information to get a better understanding of a difficult problem.
Your ologist doesn’t necessarily work in the Ivy Leagues or the West Coast equivalent. When I worked out of the Bay Area, I found Von Schmeisel at San Francisco State, the University of San Francisco and Cal State Hayward. Here at Humboldt we’ve got a number of them. I suspect Bay Area reporters call Dr. Steve Sillett when they need a treeologist, Dr. Steve Steinberg when they need a mapologist and Dr. Micaela Szykman Gunther when then need a wild dogologist.
In a rural county of 130,000 people, 5 hours and worlds away from the Big City, sometimes you need an outsider to help you understand what’s going on in your own neighborhood. But you don’t need Dr. Von Schmeisel to tell you that.
Marcy Burstiner is an assistant professor of journalism and mass communication at Humboldt State University. She is no doctor and has yet to write the book on the subject. But in her basement gathering dust is a screenplay for a B-movie she will one day sell and the first draft of a novel she will one day finish. Anyone needing an expert on neurotic middle-aged women with inflated egos and height insecurities may feel free to e-mail her at mib3@humboldt.edu.
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on the cover
Railroad!
Proposed lines ‘set rich blood a-tingling’ in early 1900s
Some Other Proposed North Coast Railroads
Choo-choo Fantasies
Exposing this east-west rail nonsense
seven-o-heaven
Undeterred Will
Will chides Andrew for lack of attention to detail and makes plans for his inevitable victory.
Recent media maven
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Not in My Court Yard
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Today
44th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship Race
STAFF PICK / events, art, outdoors, sports, for kids, free / 9 a.m.-6 p.m. A 3-day, 42-mile kinetic sculpture race over land, sand, mud and water! LeMans start at the Noon Whistle on the Arcata Plaza. Follow the race through Manila, Eureka and into Ferndale on Memorial Day for the Glorious Finish. kineticgrandchampionship.com. 889-3024.
Flow 2012 Fashion Show
STAFF PICK / events / 8 p.m. Arcata Theatre Lounge, 1036 G St. Student designed and produced clothing. Fundraiser for Arcata Arts Institute. $35/$25 students. artsinstitute.net. 822-1220.
Woodside Preschool's Rummage/Bake Sale
events / 8 a.m.-noon. Woodside Preschool, 900 Hodgson St, Eureka. www.woodsidepreschool.com. 445-9132.
Lanphere Dunes Restoration
STAFF PICK / outdoors / 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Meet at Pacific Union School. Help remove non-native invasives at the Lanphere Dunes Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tools and gloves provided, wear work clothes and bring water. Carpool to the protected site. 444-1397.
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