Janek Rubes: The Honest Prague Guide | December 2016
Ironically, my final story for The Visitor began with a class project at CIEE. For my profile story assignment in an international reporting class, I decided to focus on Janek Rubes, a local videographer whose weekly YouTube series, "Honest Prague," exposes tourist scams in the city.
When I finished the story and mentioned it to The Visitor's publisher, who is a fan of Rubes' YouTube channel, he suggested we print a version of the story in the December issue. Of course, I was eager to see my work published—but first, I had to think about how to re-frame the story slightly to fit our audience.
While the original story was intended for American readers who may know little about the Czech Republic (or as we like to refer to it in class, for our "Aunt Agatha"), The Visitor attracts readers from various countries, all of whom have presumably done some research on Prague and the rest of the country. Because The Visitor focuses primarily on arts and entertainment, I also felt I had to gear the story more towards Rubes' video series instead of the political side of his work.
Reconstructing the story taught me the importance of keeping your audience in mind. While the two versions differ only slightly, the subtle changes are significant.