By: Jonathan Aguilar
A conversation with Bob Dotson
Retired special correspondent for NBC’s “Today Show” Bob Dotson spends his days teaching journalism to students at Syracuse University, but before that for forty years he told the stories of the American people.
In his long running Emmy winning segment on the Today Show called American Story, Dotson dove deep into the lives of people. He was a master at grabbing audience’s attention and making them care about the subjects in his pieces. For him the most important thing was to get people hooked on the people in his stories.
“Go out and find the details the universal buttons as it were that everybody can relate to. That starts with a strong central character, somebody that they care about,” said Dotson.
Making people care about stories is always difficult but it is especially so when first starting in the industry. For Dotson one of the most liberating things he experienced when he began his career was when another reporter told him that that storytelling is a craft you can learn.
“If you learn the craft even if the other person is more talented as a picture maker or writer or whatever, it doesn’t make a difference because the craft will beat them,” he said.
The art of storytelling is so important to Dotson that he wrote a book about it, “Make It Memorable.” In his book he teaches journalists how to write to the corners of the frame and how not to be redundant.
“Fill in what they can’t see, in other words, you give a little background,” he said.
In his book Dotson mentions a story where he covered the aftermath of a tornado. Most reporters would describe to a viewer the destruction they were seeing. What Dotson did, however, was use his other senses to paint a broader picture. He began the report with, “You could smell the path of the storm before you could see it.”
There are often stories that are reported in the same way over and over. To get away from that as a journalist you need to go down the path others haven’t. While covering an event it is easier to write about what is occurring but to make a compelling story it is important to find an interesting character who people can relate to and become invested in.
“It always starts with a strong central character who is struggling to do something,” he noted.
People want to find something they care about and since in society we are constantly bombarded with large figures and broad details on all the bad that is occurring we have become desensitized. By having a strong character in a story, it allows people to relate to what the character is going through. No longer are you talking about a problem as a whole rather you are talking about a problem on an individual level which makes a story much more interesting.
A reporter’s job is to cover the stories their editors have assigned but what a reporter can also do is find those interesting angles that allow people a new insight. When president John F. Kennedy was killed most reporters were in the press pool at his funeral giving a play by play of what they saw but one great reporter decided to take a different approach. The reporter found the man who dug the grave for the president.
“The man did it on overtime the night before and took no overtime for it because that was his gift to the President,” said Dotson.
Stories like the gravedigger’s get people hooked. “It’s not that the other stuffs bad, but that’s where everybody else is standing,” Dotson said.
Being a good storyteller isn’t about the gear a reporter has, having lots of money to produce content, or being born with stellar visual communication skills. It is about the details and finding ways to capture people’s attention. There are a lot of reporters covering similar stories, the great ones take different paths.
“Try to make yourself one of a kind,” advised Bob Dotson. “Now you never will be, but the pursuit of that goal will keep you awake for the next 50 years.”
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