Welcome to Methland

“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.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.