A reminder: you will be doing visits to your assigned beats this week. Beat assignments are as listed in a blog post last week.
This summer, what you will be doing is working as a staff reporter for a public news Web site run by MSU's School of Journalism.
This week, we will have a number of in-person exercises designed to help us get accustomed to our beats, which in journalism is what we call our coverage territories or topics. For those assigned to the Lansing beat, our beat is the actual City of Lansing (since you are students who are here in the Lansing area this summer). For national correspondents, it's the area in and around where you are living this summer.
What I need for you to do is to make on-site visits to your beats on Tuesday, May 30; Wednesday, May 31 and Thursday, June 1. This will be our work for the week. The Lansing team may go as a group if you'd like. Spend some time walking around your community and doing interviews -- at least 1-2 hours per day.
Then, there are three things I'd like you to submit to me via a Word document with the following heading:
Your name
Date
JRN 300
Your beat
In the document, include:
1. A list of observations. Tell me five things you noticed about your community. For example, was its downtown busy or dead or booming or kind of sad? Why or why not? Great story ideas can come from simple environmental observation, so look for things that stand out and are crying out for an explanation.
2. Questionnaire responses. I want you each to interview five random people on the street and get answers to the following questions from each: what drives you crazy about living or working here, and why? What excites you about living or working here, and why? What would you like to see changed here, and why? What do you want to never see changed and why? And what question or questions do you have about living or working here that you'd like to see answered, and why?
You may tell people you are MSU journalist students doing research for a public news Web site run by the school.
3. A list of possible trend or issue story ideas, based on what you found from environmental observation and interviewing passers-by. Please list five ideas. I will not hold you to doing any of these story ideas (though you absolutely may do them), but I want to get a sense of what you're seeing and how your observations are helping you develop things we can actually report on in the heart future.
Then, email me your submissions to omars@msu.edu. Your deadline will be Friday, June 2 at 9 a.m.
I also need you to make contact with your other group members; please see last week's blog post on your group assignments for details on why and how to do that.
Questions? Call or text me at 702-271-7983; email me at omars@msu.edu, or schedule ban appointment to see me at my office in CAS 360.
Good luck, everyone!
This summer, what you will be doing is working as a staff reporter for a public news Web site run by MSU's School of Journalism.
This week, we will have a number of in-person exercises designed to help us get accustomed to our beats, which in journalism is what we call our coverage territories or topics. For those assigned to the Lansing beat, our beat is the actual City of Lansing (since you are students who are here in the Lansing area this summer). For national correspondents, it's the area in and around where you are living this summer.
What I need for you to do is to make on-site visits to your beats on Tuesday, May 30; Wednesday, May 31 and Thursday, June 1. This will be our work for the week. The Lansing team may go as a group if you'd like. Spend some time walking around your community and doing interviews -- at least 1-2 hours per day.
Then, there are three things I'd like you to submit to me via a Word document with the following heading:
Your name
Date
JRN 300
Your beat
In the document, include:
1. A list of observations. Tell me five things you noticed about your community. For example, was its downtown busy or dead or booming or kind of sad? Why or why not? Great story ideas can come from simple environmental observation, so look for things that stand out and are crying out for an explanation.
2. Questionnaire responses. I want you each to interview five random people on the street and get answers to the following questions from each: what drives you crazy about living or working here, and why? What excites you about living or working here, and why? What would you like to see changed here, and why? What do you want to never see changed and why? And what question or questions do you have about living or working here that you'd like to see answered, and why?
You may tell people you are MSU journalist students doing research for a public news Web site run by the school.
3. A list of possible trend or issue story ideas, based on what you found from environmental observation and interviewing passers-by. Please list five ideas. I will not hold you to doing any of these story ideas (though you absolutely may do them), but I want to get a sense of what you're seeing and how your observations are helping you develop things we can actually report on in the heart future.
Then, email me your submissions to omars@msu.edu. Your deadline will be Friday, June 2 at 9 a.m.
I also need you to make contact with your other group members; please see last week's blog post on your group assignments for details on why and how to do that.
Questions? Call or text me at 702-271-7983; email me at omars@msu.edu, or schedule ban appointment to see me at my office in CAS 360.
Good luck, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment