Some questions I hope to answer: How do you find the process of generating story ideas? Are you able to fully form the idea and think it through in a way that helps you assess its feasibility? How does this process allow you to anticipate challenges with ideas and/or stories and what skills must you have to navigate a story idea when something unexpected happens (ie you can’t reach a subject, your initial conceit is challenged (obliterated), etc.? What will you do if your story idea becomes unwieldy or problematic?
I love generating story ideas. For awhile when I was younger I thought that news just "happened". That reporters would get a call and just show up to a place with something going on. As a journalism major I know that news is scoured for. You don't just show up to a place, turn on a camera, and say "hey guys, here's what's happening". It's more interesting, and news is better than that. If you go into a refugee camp, you would be a journalist about it, and find an angle, like this is how the being refugees is effecting the mothers and the children, here is what's happening with the water supply, these are the living conditions, etc. News angles are one of my favorite things about journalism because you can craft a story to whatever you want it to be. News angles provide creativity to the project, and journalism needs that.
Usually I find a nugget of a story idea based on any number of things, including administrative notifications, people I meet, and my personal observations. From there I take it to any number of "editors" I might have, however because I don't work in a formal newsrooms it is usually a student or professor, and see if it is work exploring. Pitching stories is probably my favorite thing about journalism, separate from actually working on the stories, but I think it's such a shame that so many stories get shut down at the pitching stage. Some of getting a story approved is just the swagger and confidence you bring to the table when pitching. As a journalism student I've been told that you're not really pitching a story, you're pitching yourself.
What I pitch more often than stories is interactives. I'm always trying to come up with concepts that are lend themselves to an interactive, for example in CNN this week there was an interactive page involving heartfelt voicemails, and I pitched the idea for the Ithacan, that we should do something similar but with alum couples that got married after college. It is such a cute idea for a story! But with that the big thing is finding subjects. If I can't find at least three IC couples who want to talk about their love, that super cute story is a bust. There's not much you can do about a lack of subjects in my experience, but their is something you can do about how you go about finding your subjects. With being a journalist, you have to stay persistent.
I'm working on this other project based on the Seattle Times "Under Our Skin" video series. I was super inspired by that, so in the same format I am creating a series for the Ithacan about mental health buzzwords. I think it's important to note that pitching never really stops as you go on with a multimedia project. One you pitch the concept and get that approved you need to pitch the questions, the visuals, etc. At least with student journalism, that has been my experience.