If we're being honest, we laugh at people on television who accidentally say curse words, or reporters and photographers who have to react quickly before a bad situation gets worse. But, we rarely know the story behind the story. Here's one of those. Missouri School of Journalism professors Earnest Perry, Mike McKean and Amy Simons discuss the issue.
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It all started when WMC-TV's Jerica Phillips was reporting live during a flash flood in Memphis. One woman from the community came into the shot and vented her frustrations over the number of times her home had been flooded because of ongoing infrastructure problems in her neighborhood. But what most people saw was a woman cursing on television.
In the days that followed, the video went viral. Everyone was poking fun at the station and the woman for dropping the F-bomb on live TV.
But reporter Nick Kenney wanted to know more about the woman and her story. He found 51-year-old Priscilla Lester-without a camera- and wrote a storyabout his conversation.
Missouri School of Journalism Professor Earnest Perry said providing context about Lester and the basis for her emotional outburst is an important part of the story that reporters often miss.
You don't see that very often. [Journalists] go in, we get a story, and we move on to the next story.
Professor Mike McKean said he hopes the station's next step will be to investigate the infrastructure problems that made Lester so upset.
