MISSOULA — For veteran reporter Mike Dennison, change is always a part of the landscape.
As he outlines in his new book, "Inside Montana Politics: A Reporter's View from the Trenches", Mike's been the observer to some of the biggest developments in the state's history over the past 30-years. And he had plenty of stories to share with a full house at Missoula's Fact and Fiction.
Dennison has watched and reported as Montana transitioned from another Western state where resource extraction and history were the hallmarks, to a state that is now mentioned on the national political stage.
But for himself, Mike has also been through a lot of changes too, from his initial start in print to the Chief Political Correspondent for MTN, producing for television and our websites.
"The transition of shooting video, and editing video, thinking visually, that was a big change for me. I really did kind of enjoy it. But the one big change I noticed was how much time it takes to produce a story," Dennison said.
"And you know that. We used to make fun of TV reporters when we were print reporters. 'Ah, look a these guys. They just traipse in here. They're just shooting their video'. We never realized how hard you guys work to put together a story. And now I know," he added.
Dennison originally transferred to the University of Montana to study Creative Writing, before developing his interest in journalism.
