ABSTRACT
Novice reporters may begin their careers with dreams of covering the White House or serving as a foreign correspondent in some exotic capital. But they are unlikely to start with such glamorous assignments. Instead they will most likely find themselves buried in routine, covering the kinds of day-in/day-out stories that are at the core of the news: crime reports and obituaries and weather features. For some journalists, getting away from these kinds of topics as quickly as possible is an early goal, but other journalists develop an expertise in these areas and even build their reputations there. This chapter will show how to use the DOT methodology to get the most out of these kinds of stories—and maybe even to move on to more prestigious assignments.
