Michael Lawson on business trends and finding human narratives
Michael Lawson, a reporter at the Investigative Reporting Workshop, has covered a variety of topics. Since business is not exclusively his beat, he shared a few techniques he uses to keep informed on top trends.
• Keep clicking: “When I’m in the course of my research I just let myself go into it so that if I’m reading one thing I follow the link to another source, and then I follow another link from there, and then another, until I feel like I can tell someone else about this.”
• Utilize alerts and online data: “I try to read up on topics using general databases like Lexis Nexis or even by just doing a Google News search.”
• Use Twitter for story ideas: “I get a lot of ideas from my Twitter feed these days. I follow a lot of people, especially organizations like nonprofits and governmental departments. All day there are links to different sources. Twitter is good to keep you informed in real time when it’s used professionally.”
Lawson was a fellow during the Society of American Business Editors and Writers’ Covering Public Pensions Seminar in June. In the video below, he offers advice on finding human stories behind the numbers.
