Monday, September 22, 2008

'Adderall' story on KBIA

I found the KBIA story titled "Adderall" very interesting. The story had at least five sources, including two anonymous sources, a pharmacist and MU officials.
KBIA reporter Justin Ray used a clever introduction to segue into a serious story about prescription drug use among college students. He uses an "avalanche" of words — "Tests, papers, stress, projects, deadlines, sleepless nights ..." — to describe just how difficult the end of a semester can get, and then transitions into interviews with two anonymous students about their use/sale of a prescription drug.
Of course, the issue is that one student is using the drug without a prescription, which is illegal, while the other is selling the drug to which she alone is legally entitled because of a prescription.
But the intro provides a sense of compassion, and one of the objectives of good journalism is to do the least amount of harm. Therefore, the introduction mitigates a sticky situation in terms of the legal implications of drug use.
In this case, I think anonymous sources were appropriate — these students could face serious consequences if identified. It's an important story, and it helps others understand the situation.
The story didn't rely so much on natural sound as it did in-depth interviews and explanatory narration. Again, in this case, I think that was an appropriate decision. Ray does a good job of explaining how people who use these drugs obtain them, how much they pay for them, what the implications of those actions are (legally, physiologically, etc.) using narration and source commentary.
It was interesting me that Ray also mentioned the name of his producer as he closed his piece. I think it's a nice touch.

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