After two weeks of fast-paced reporting, the instructors announced the trend story assignment — the week-long crux of the program. Cherubs investigated trends from African net sponges to the rise of misinformation.
Trendiness can be elusive. Many cherubs pivoted their angle during the reporting process as they realized their trend was the opposite of what they expected or simply not trendy enough.
“Originally, my trend story was going to prove that there is more teen pregnancy at schools that only teach abstinence,” said Chloe Lewcock of Austin, Texas. “I couldn’t find data about that, but one of my sources was teaching sex education to elementary school students. My story went from being about teens to 5-year-olds.”
Cherubs learned that interviews can reveal discrepancies between expectations and reality.
Oliver Konopko of New York wrote about screen time-limiting apps, which have reached millions of users over the past three years. He said he expected people to praise the apps for drastically minimizing their time on social media.
“A lot of people download the apps, and they don’t work for them,” Konopko said. “My story switched from what I thought would be a piece about how all these people thought these apps are life changing to a bunch of people saying they are mildly helpful.”
International cherub Lizi Schierman of Tbilisi, Georgia, said she also pivoted after a few interviews.
“My story was originally about the rise of the term ‘alpha male,’” she said. “As I was researching and talking to a linguist, I found out the term is being replaced by ‘sigma male,’ which carries more positive connotations.”
An important journalistic ethic is to “seek truth and report it.” The trend story taught cherubs that good reporting requires openness to new information, perspectives and nuance.
“When a reporter is married to an idea that is not there or is not panning out, this can set them back,” said instructor Joe Grimm. “The best strategy is to interview lots of people who have different perspectives to discover what is really going on.”
