So What? (A post on relevance)

"So what?" is one of the most important questions a journalist needs to answer and they need to do so in every single story they tell. Answering that question tells the public why you, the journalist, felt the need to do the work to tell them this story in the first place. If a citizen feels as though the question is not being answered, they won't be watching or reading your stories for very long.
So how do we know what is relevant? Is relevant what the public needs to hear? Or what they want to hear?

The answer is both. People come to the news to find out important information about the world around them so they can keep up to date on current events, but they also come to read things that are interesting and attention grabbing. The key is making sure both those types of stories, the hard news and the attention grabbing, focus on only the most relevant facts.

Diana Sugg was able to do just that. She took a story that at face value could have been a feature on a twelve year old boy struggling with sickness, on the verge of death, and the pain he and his family were going through. But she was able to turn the story into piece that was based on Rj (the twelve year old boy) but explored the larger issue of the pain that families have to face when going through situations like this. It explored whether there was a productive way that families could deal with their pain and help their dying child. (The story is found at the Diana Sugg link above). Sugg took an attention grabbing story and made it very relevant to those who read it. This is what we as reporters need to do for every story we write. Sugg answered the question, "So What?" by bringing in the bigger picture.

Writing coaches Roy Peter Clark and Chip Scanlan explain that there is a type of scale to follow to keep your story relevant and interesting. On one end of the scale is civic clarity which is information citizens need to know. On the other end is literary grace which is more storytelling. The perfect journalistic piece is found in between these two, in the middle of the scale. For instance, a hard news story on an upcoming election that would usually be on the civic clarity side could bring in humanizing elements of the candidates (their family, etc.) that would give it a little more of a story telling element and lead it towards the middle of the scale. A feature story on a church youth group donating their hair for those in need could take a deeper look into the lives of those who need the hair for wigs, and their conditions. That gives it a little more of an edge and more people can relate to the relevance because someone they know, or themselves, might be going through the same thing.

A journalist needs to make any kind of story relevant in the lives of the audience. Otherwise the audience won't be interested anymore. Always remember to answer the question "So what?" before the audience decides that your story doesn't apply to them.