What's All The Rukus?
Waylon Jones
Flomaton High School
Flomaton, AL
All the rukus you are hearing out of Calhoun County is the work of none other than Anniston Star Editor Bob Davis.
Davis spoke to a group of 38 prospective journalism students at Auburn University’s Summer Journalism Workshop on Tuesday. He shed some light on being the person that ruffles so many feathers within the community.
He told students about numerous stories that he and his staff had covered, including the continuous coverage that he does on the never ending bickering between Anniston City Council members.
The Anniston Star also published a video and story about Calhoun County’s Sheriff choking a 14- year- old boy in the jail. His method of reporting has caused some backlash among Anniston’s elected officials.
Davis says he covers these things because it is “current stuff….that relates to everyday people and impacts the community.”
He also discussed the Anniston Star’s coverage of the spring tornadoes in north Alabama, particularly a small rural community called Goshen. The Anniston Star sent its reporters into the devastation very quickly after they heard of the storm knowing that Goshen had been hit previously with a deadly tornado in 1994.
Davis says he knows that good journalism is about personal relationships as much as it is about news coverage, so he knew that to get the story meant that his reporters would have to spend time getting to know the victims and trying to show compassion for their situation.
This is a method he advised up and coming journalists to use because he feels that you are more likely to get the information that you need if you treat the subject like a person and build a relationship with them.