Writing the news by knowing the buzz

Writing every day is tougher than I thought it would be. I'm always consulting my friends for help finding topics that people care about. And I owe lots of story ideas to my good friend Steve Webb. Steve (son of the recently infamous MLB scorer Bob Webb) is much better than me at keeping up-to-date with current trends and ideas in just about any subject: business, technology, music, sports, politics, science, pop culture, etc. If I ever hear anything and want more information, I hop on Gmail chat, ping Steve, and ask, "so what's the buzz?"

If I want to know what the buzz is with a new musician's album, he fills me in. How about the buzz on the new VP pick? Or on Pandora for the iPhone? What about the controversial party-boy writer Tucker Max? Spotting things that buzz around the globe is his sixth sense. In fact, I'd challenge anyone to write a thoughtful, professional paragraph on a larger number of topics than Steve. He's a hybrid of the RSS news feed in my web browser and the website howstuffworks.com.

I'm thankful to have a friend as resourceful as Steve. But many other writers are not so lucky. My wife is a news reporter. Chasing stories, she spends hours of her day driving throughout southeastern North Carolina, sometimes resembling Clark Griswold following Christy Brinkley's red convertible to Wally World. News informants are few and far between, and their leads sometimes send her down a rabbit hole.

But recently, I noticed that many local reporters are finding new ways to "catch the buzz" and elicit leads from a number of once-untapped local informants. They're using Twitter. When you think about it, by "following"people in their communities, reporters are mining a rapidly growing resource that only recently came to exist. Professional writers are able to "catch the buzz" without ever needing a friend like Steve or sneaking up on a whispering circle of conversation and slyly pointing their ear toward the gossip.

In my recent post about strangers following me on Twitter, I didn't realize that some of the unsolicited members of the Scott Fan Club were actually local news reporters. It wasn't until I read the author's name on an article in my local paper that I put two and two together: Jim Ware, one of my mysterious followers, was a night editor at the Star News -- not some creepy stranger that wanted to know when I was mowing the lawn or watching The Office. He was merely a local journalist that wanted to improve the efficiency of his story procurement and save himself a little legwork when determining, "what's the buzz?" And I applaud it!

I would encourage more local reporters of follow their neighbors on Twitter to get story ideas. However, after choosing to follow them, send a direct introductory message to inform them of your intent. It's a nice gesture and puts the ball in their court.

On another note, if for some reason Google is down and you ever need the buzz on something, give me a call and I'll forward your question to Steve...we'll put my paragraph theory to the test.