Heather Brooks

News Story Plan

December 9, 2014,

I would like to develop a news story for Oregon Public Broadcasting. The topic of the

story would be on how police officers and other emergency workers are trained to interact with

people that are on the autism spectrum. I would like to create a long form story and incorporate

additions to this story such as an audio clip from an interview or a video clip that further

describes autism. This news story is appropriate for OPB’s audience. This form conforms to

OPB’s style and it has covered several autism related stories and cases. They are also a trusted

news source for families and communities in Oregon.

In addition to the research I will do on existing or non-existing policies in place for

emergency workers, I will also use social media to connect with families and individuals who

care for people on the autism spectrum to learn and ask about their experiences and worries

about emergency workers interacting with those individuals on the spectrum. I have already

found several existing dialogues on social media about this topic that I may use for my story. I

will continue to do research and collect more coverage from social media. I intend to gather

these comments and stories from Facebook if that is possible without causing any privacy issues

for the individuals involved. My news story will be shared on the OPB website on the news

section. From the website, there is also an option for the audience to share the story on any of

their social media platforms as well. I would also share my news story with my social networks.

Using social media will be a huge asset to this news story. Being able to put names and stories

behind the topic I am covering will help to show the audience that it is a prominent issue. Being

able to integrate my story onto social media sites where readers can add and share their

comments will also be a great addition to my coverage of this story. It also helps to reach my

targeted audience, because when people who have someone on the autism spectrum that they

care for, and they comment or even just share the story with their network, there is a high

probability that that network they have also cares for that person on the spectrum as well and

identifies this issue with people that they know and care for.

The audience is better served by using social media in this way, because they are not only

able to view and share this story easily, but also because it allows for a sense of community to

people that may have felt like they were alone in worrying about their loved ones being

misunderstood and even mistreated by emergency workers who may not realize that they have

autism or know how to deal with autism.