Our goal is to take readers into the heart of the story. Observation is an acquired skill. Just like taking notes and interviewing. In note taking, we learn to improve our speed by developing a form of personal shorthand. In interviewing, we learn to ask better questions and to listen closely to answers.
Observation is just as crucial as getting the quote right or gathering the important facts.
It requires the reporter, I once read, to develop his eye. Jim Holt, a former police reporter at the Hamilton Spectator , loved to talk about how he would do a 360-degree turn when he was working on a story. Holt said he could be so focused on talking to or trying to get the attention of the fire chief, for example, that he could miss the three bodies being carried from the burning building. I once observed a group of journalism students as they watched a fire in a warehouse being converted to condominiums. When they saw the platoon chief emerge from the building, they attacked him like a swarm of bees.