Do you ever think your life is like the movie, “Groundhog Day”? As you watch, listen to or read the news, does it seem like you’re seeing the same thing over and over? You may be but the people involved often change. It was in an unknown time long ago that journalists (story tellers) learned that listeners want to hear from what we today call “real people”. Authority figures can tell the facts, but it’s “real people” with whom real people identify. For example, we go into a neighbordhood where a crime has been committed. We ask neighbors who often know absolutely nothing about the crime or the people involved what they think about what’s happened. One of the answers that’s been heard so often that it’s become a cliche’, “…I never thought anything like this could happen in our neighborhood…..”. But it did and it will again and again in other communities. Similar events will occur. The mortality of individuals means that new people will experience them. It’s news to them.
