City Hall

So I went to Dallas City Hall today for a press conference. In all the years I lived in Dallas before I never had any business there.

I was able to practice an AP skill of dictating a story from the field.

I'm sure other news mediums do this as well, but it was cool to do it for the AP. I had never tried it before.

I was a little unsure of how to do it at first. I wondered if I was supposed to just spew the facts, or talk in sentences I would want written....

After talking to my trainer, he told me to collect my thoughts then call him back with the story. He would take care of the rest.

So I hung up the phone, quickly wrote the short 130 word story (what AP calls a News Now) and called him back.

I read the story and he typed it up and edited it to send to the wire. It was a great experience!

Can't wait to try it again!