Life in the 21st century is more complex than ever. Virtual communities (and their accompanying disinformation issues), gene-editing technologies, and generative AI are just some of the futuristic developments society has had to navigate in a few short decades. It took more than five decades for about half of U.S. households to adopt the telephone after its invention, but tablet computers only needed about five years to get to the same adoption rates. Consider the whiplash felt across different generations.
Alongside these technological advancements, there has been a loss of communal spaces where people can share a common experience. Historically, people often gathered to witness televised events, such as the first time someone walked on the moon or coverage of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Gone are the days when ABC, CBS, and NBC were the major networks, and there were only a handful of “sources of truth.” These days, there is an app for everything and a forum or social media platform for every interest. Information has become increasingly siloed in this fractured media landscape, and finding a shared vision is more challenging. This is why coverage that builds on lived, everyday experience is so crucial. These relatable experiences provide an entry point where people can connect on a fundamental level.
Here are a few steps I take when trying to transmogrify something seemingly far out, strange, or out-of-the-box to something that people would read and resonate with:
Identify the personal questions
Ask yourself, “What questions does nonjournalist me have about this particular topic?” If you’re curious, there is a good chance someone else is also asking that same question. As a journalist, you are a reader’s advocate. You’re there to help articulate and answer those questions by finding sound sources. So break out a fresh piece of paper or pull up a new document and start listing questions on your mind.
Take AI—some questions you may have could include:
The list of questions that will come out of the exercise is also a helpful guide for identifying further areas of interest. If you’re doing this practice with a group, evaluate the level of interest to prioritize which stories to produce first. Any decisions about which research topics to explore should, of course, consider a publication’s objectives and target audience.
We could fill reams just with our questions, but the exercise doesn’t stop there.
The next task is to research and reach out.
Find your topic’s people
Even with niche subjects, there are usually people who have started down the road of exploration ahead of us. Good research includes identifying the people who can best shed light on the topic. On this journey, it’s best to rely on sources that have already shown commitment and rigor in that subject area. These information sources could include vetted research from thought leaders, experience and expertise from those in the field, and recent data.
Read industry reports about the topic. For example, McKinsey, IBM, and Stanford’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence have all published reports on AI.
Find the experts. Sometimes, the right person can be found in a professional organization or universities that specialize in the topic. Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, for example, has been looking into AI since 1963.
Seek out people with lived experience. How are students feeling about artificial intelligence? Are there people who have seen the incremental ways AI is starting to creep into their workplaces? Who are the people programming these technologies and what do they think? How has coming into contact with this changed their outlook on life? Often, conversations with people who can give you a personal perspective bring a topic closer to home.
There are many ways to reach out to these organizations and experts. Sometimes, it’s enough to scan our professional networks for connections. Company websites can also provide information for key people in an organization. Most people with data and information typically want to be found and make that information available for the public. One can start looking at an organization’s “Contact Us” or “Press” page, which usually links to the communications staff.
Once located, an email with a few sentences about who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish will usually suffice to start a conversation with the hopes of scheduling a pre-interview. This pre-interview can give a researcher an idea of what more specific avenues of questioning to explore or whether there is enough information to build a story on.
Make relatable, emotional connections
Another way to make a niche topic more relatable is with relevant juxtapositions. What does this topic have to do with something people already care about?
Trucking might not be the most glamorous topic, but it forms the backbone of much of our next- and same-day deliveries (hello, Amazon Prime!). A question Stacker’s newsroom posed was, “How is the rise of e-commerce affecting trucking and the people behind the wheels?” It turns out that while there is more demand for truckers, there is also increasing pressure on them, which leads to dangerous working conditions. It was a story 324 partners thought was compelling enough to republish as well.
Metals is another topic area that can feel prosaic, but overlaying an upcoming mammoth event like the Olympics gave it an interesting angle. How do metals relate to the Olympics? Could we tell the story of how each Olympic medal was designed from the last 50 years? The resulting story was picked up by 344 of Stacker’s publishing partners.
Or what about jewelry? It’s easy enough to write a lighthearted story on gemstones and what they mean—a common approach—but adding a question that relates to an emotional milestone event in most people’s lives (a wedding) and a technological innovation birthed a more interesting angle. So, what does it mean to have the ability to grow diamonds in a lab? The answer intrigued more than 650 of our partners as well.
These are just a few approaches that may gain you results and readers, and there are many more tips that can provide valuable entry points, but the common thread that runs through each of these tips is to keep it human.
There may not be a living, breathing person behind the driver’s wheel, weight loss can be achieved by consuming a “magic pill,” and tiny organisms have been found to gobble up carbon dioxide—but all of these discoveries, innovations, and esoteric findings exist on a chain of events that eventually ripple out to real people whose lives are concretely changed.
Good stories create a bridge from the outlandish to the relatable, accessible, and relevant. They illuminate corners of the world we all live in, allowing readers to see themselves on the page.
Carren Jao is a Senior Editor at Stacker and a children's book author. She previously worked at PBS SoCal, and has over 15 years of experience as an independent journalist, writing for The Los Angeles Times, Fast Company, and many others. She has a Master's of Art in Journalism from Sycaruse University.
Featured Image Credit: Photo Illustration by Stacker // Canva