Our story led us in a direction my teammates and I didn’t intend. However after a week filled with back to back interviews, we managed to pull together a solid story before the deadline.
Initially, we planned to do a feature story on non-Greek-affiliated Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students who have lived in a “party house” for 3 or 4 years in San Luis Obispo. Although we solidified our topic, we had a hard time honing in on an angle.
My team and I shifted our angle slightly several times over the course of 2 weeks. Because of this, Sophie Kelley found it challenging to align her multimedia piece with the other two main components of the story, print and broadcast. “Multimedia has been pretty challenging to tackle. Our story was going in a bunch of different directions so I essentially had to decide on an angle for multimedia that would compliment and make sense for the entire story before the final story angle was established,” Kelley said.
I am working on public relations this story, and after speaking with students and community members and gauging interest through social media platforms such as Facebook and Reddit on our topic, we found that people were interested in knowing more about noise violations, and how the San Luis Obispo Police Department (SLOPD) keeps the college party-scene in check.
How does SLOPD determine the cost of noise violations? What is the Student Neighborhood Assistance Program (SNAP)? and Who normally calls in, students or non-Cal Poly community members? were all common questions we encountered throughout out story. My group and I feel that we addressed a majority of the questions that arose from our potential readers and viewers in regards to our topic.
We reached out to college students, over the age of 21, who have experience with noise violations and ideally have received one or more within this academic year. We were able to interview 7 sources, 6 Cal Poly student party house owners and the San Luis Obispo Police Department Neighborhood Outreach Manager, Christine Wallace.
As we were interviewing sources, we ran into an obstacle. Many of our prospective sources were hesitant to talk to us, fearing their interview will draw attention to their household. Group members, Cameron Bones, found it challenging finding a student who felt comfortable going on record. “Finding sources that are willing to go on camera to talk about parties has been pretty difficult, but there are a lot of people with really interesting stories about getting violations,” said Bones.
A key source for our story, specifically print, was the San Luis Obispo Police Department’s Neighborhood Outreach Manager Christine Wallace. Thursday, May 4th, Lexy Solomon and I had the pleasure to speak with Christine on the “behind the scenes” of the SNAP, and her take on college partying in San Luis Obispo.
Christine Wallace has been working with SLOPD since 1993. She has witnessed the Cal Poly party scene throughout the years, and believes students can still party, as long as it’s done correctly. San Luis Obispo community residents can now register their parties to avoid receiving noise tickets and warning. The SLOPD party registration is accepting applications starting today, Friday, May 5th. “We have expectations for folks if they want live in the neighborhood. I think you can party as much as you want in our neighborhoods if you fly under the radar,” said Wallace.
Group member, Lexy Solomon, believed that Christine Wallace was a great addition to our story. “I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to speak with Christine today. She was very open and honest in answering our questions, and was a positive resource. I appreciate her contributions to our story, and look forward to seeing it all come together,” Solomon said.
