Guest Column by Jennifer Thall

November 27th, 2006

As I’m sure you’re all well aware, there have been some changes around VOICES this year. With the addition of ten more youth staff, we’ve been able to split the group into Junior and Senior Apprentices (but we’re always intermingling). We also have two new AmeriCorps positions, occupied by Kristen and Steph.
    At this point, training is in full sway. Yesterday, Katie sent half of the group off in pairs or trios to research various topics around
downtown Tucson. The topics ranged from "Dumpster Diving in Downtown Tucson" to "Places where Youth Hang Out in Downtown Tucson." Each pair (or trio) could choose to use tape recorders for interviews, computers, the library, and personal experience for resources in order to research. After almost an hour, everyone came back and each mini group gave a mini presentation on their topic, especially to explain how they decided to research their subjects, and why. After all of the groups had presented, we started discussing research methods and that big issue of credibility.
    Credibility is such an important thing to consider in journalism. Without credibility as a writer, no one has a reason to listen to you.
If your sources aren’t credible, no one has a reason to believe you.
    Then, you have to decide which types of research are appropriate for the piece you’re writing. For example, if you’re writing a personal essay about your experiences with living on the streets, you probably want to appeal to your audience’s emotions instead of drowning them in statistics.
    We’re learning a lot, but we still have a long way to go. Soon enough, everyone will have their topics that they’ll either be
photographing or writing about, and there won’t be quite so much "together" time around the office – everyone will have different
schedules and we might not all see each other all of the time. So relish this training period! Try to get to know everyone else in the
program, because you might find that you have something in common with them, or they may just be really cool people.
    Good luck and keep up the good work!
    Jennifer

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