The assigner: Dr. Tarah Hadley of Atlanta. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Dr. Tarah Hadley)
Dr. Tarah L. Hadley explains her main criticism of the first installment of Assignment: You.

It was your idea. We just did the legwork.

Dr. Tarah L. Hadley of Atlanta came up with the story idea for the first installment of "Assignment: You," a new series that puts you in the assigning editor's chair and sends out an asap reporter to do your bidding.

Hadley's assignment, in short: Explain how The Associated Press works.

"I get most of my news from the Internet and most of it is AP news," the exotic pets veterinarian said in her e-mail to asap. "I'd really like to understand how it all works. I'd like a feature that shows how stories bubble up from thousands of local news outlets to reach the big time."

asap reporter HILLARY RHODES took on the assignment. She broke down the basics of the world's largest news organization, and then turned to reporters and editors who contributed to a new book on AP history for examples of the AP doing what it does best. (See that story here.)

So, "Assignment: You" mission accomplished, right?

Not so fast. It's the assigner's turn to weigh in.

asap got in touch with Hadley to get her opinion on how the first installment of this series went. Did we answer her question? Educate her? Confuse her? Leave her wanting more? Bore her to tears?

Here, in her own words, is what she had to say.

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QUESTION ANSWERED?

"My question, overall, was answered. It did leave me wanting a little bit more. For instance, I was interested to find out what the enterprise reporters and enterprise editors -- what areas they cover."

"I was just interested overall in what happens when the news gets to the world headquarters and how the editors sift through the news and figure out what they're going to put near the top of the news wire, versus not at the top."

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NEW QUESTIONS

"The story answered my basic questions and I think it also made me more interested to find out, in depth, how the process works."

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A PLEASANT READ?

"I thought the story was very interesting."

"I think my favorite part were the vignettes that the different reporters and editors contributed to the story. It kind of gave me a different outlook into how the stories get from one point to another point. It's not always cut and dry or black and white."

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SHOULD WE DO THIS AGAIN?

"I absolutely think you should. And in fact I was looking at some of the other ideas that had been submitted and I'm interested to see the go-go story."

"I think that the regular person is more on the front lines of what's going on sometimes and it helps to get their perspective. There may be things going on that reporters don't notice or editors don't notice, so it kind of helps bring them more in perspective with what the day-to-day person is seeing and what they have questions about."

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SINCE YOU ASKED...

We at asap don't want to leave you hanging, Tarah.

Since you wanted to learn more about how stories are prioritized at a place like the AP, we asked AP Deputy Managing Editor Tom Kent to explain some of the top factors that go into the decision.

"To begin with, we have to be confident that a story is true, that the sources are identified as fully as possible, and that the story is balanced," Kent said.

While it would be impossible to come up with a comprehensive checklist for determining a story's importance -- one that works in every situation -- Kent ran down some of the big questions AP editors ask themselves:

-- Is the story something truly new, rather than a repetition of something we already know?

-- Does the story not only tell what happened, but explain why? Does it have enough background?

-- Does the story report important national or international developments, or raise humanitarian issues that readers need to know about? Even if such stories don't always get a lot of readership - or clicks -- we feel it's important to have them.

-- Is the story relevant to our readers' personal lives? If not, is it written so compellingly as to make clear why it's important to the people or country involved?

-- Is the story interesting, humorous, the kind of thing people will retell? Is it tied to people and events of broad public interest?

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NEXT ON ASSIGNMENT: YOU

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the next installment of "Assignment: You" -- the one Hadley mentioned above, about a genre of music called "go-go" that's been popular in and around Washington, D.C., for years.

Iris Scott, a 32-year-old IT consultant, assigned the story to us, and asap reporter JAIME HOLGUIN will be heading to Washington to learn all about go-go.

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Eric Carvin is asap's news editor.

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