Pitching a public safety story

• Teach students the components of a strong pitch in journalism, particularly within the context of public safety stories.
• Foster critical thinking about the types of stories that are often overlooked but are important for community safety.
• Discuss the impact of systemic issues like poverty, racism, and resource inequality on public safety and crime.
• Engage students in active research on public safety issues that are not part of index crimes.

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

• Identify the key elements of a strong pitch for public safety stories.

• Critically analyze sample crime and public safety stories to identify themes, gaps, and opportunities for more comprehensive reporting.

• Discuss the concept of social harm in the context of public safety, identifying areas not currently covered adequately in the news.

• Develop a pitch for a public safety story focused on a non-index crime or a broader systemic issue.

• Dorling, D., Gordon, D., Hillyard, P., Pantazis, C., Pemberton, S., & Tombs, S. (2008). Criminal obsessions: Why harm matters more than crime.

• Drakopoulos, S. & Theodossiou, I. (2012). Workers’ Risk Underestimation and Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. European Journal of Law and Economics, 41. 

• McMahon, S. (2021, February 1). Journalism Industry Grapples With Rebuilding The Crime Beat. WBUR. 

• Pauli, H. (2017, August 8). Why I quit: local newspapers can needlessly ruin lives for empty clicks. The Guardian.  

• Quillian, L., & Pager, D. (2010). Estimating risk: Stereotype amplification and the perceived risk of criminal victimization. Social psychology quarterly, 73(1), 79-104. 

1. Explain how journalists brainstorm and pitch stories. Inform students that a good pitch determines which stories get told and which don’t. This in turn influences how people understand important issues like public safety.

2. Discuss the components of a solid pitch. Use this template to identify the components of a strong pitch. Emphasize the difference between pitching for feature stories vs. daily episodic writing.

• For daily episodic stories, use real-time data or current events to emphasize the immediate relevance for the community.

• For feature-length stories, focus the pitch on the larger systemic issues by integrating expert insights and historical context.

• Regardless of story type, include local voices in the pitch to underscore the story's direct impact on the community.

3. Instruct students to do a quick Google search and identify 5 headlines from crime or public safety sections of local or national news outlets. Ask students to share examples until you have 15 sample stories to look at as a class. Review the content of the sample stories with students. Ask students to identify themes or patterns they notice with the stories.

4. Introduce the concept of index crime and social harm (the latter of which is laid out in the Dorling et al. reading). Ask students:  

• Are there things happening in the community that cause harm other than index crime?

• Are those issues adequately covered by the news media? 

• What is the role of the news media in informing people about public safety issues? 

5. Inform students that they will be researching a social harm issue in their community and pitching a story for a public safety beat about this issue.

6. Wrap-Up: Have students reflect on the question: What does it mean to pitch a story? What are the components of a good pitch for a public safety story?

Students will complete a pitch for their public safety story. Provide time in class for students to develop a pitch or assign as homework. Students should use the template to assist them in structuring their pitch.