"If I don't have respect for who I am writing about and like them personally, then it is very hard for me to write about them--because I just don't want to spend time with them," explained author Nick Reding, today's guest on Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu, talking about his immersion reporting in a community rocked by methamphetamine abuse.

He continued: "It's impossible to get away from the idea that if you are a journalist, you are a little bit like a vulture sitting on their shoulder. You're not writing a book about how everything is great."

Reding wrote new book, "Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town" after spending four years reporting in a small town. Click here to listen to the whole show, where Reding shares tips about working with subjects during long-form nonfiction pieces.