Interview Basics, Part 2

On Wednesday, you are going to interview a partner in class, in preparation for your real interview that is coming up next week.

Here are the directions:

1. pick a partner in class to interview
2. write down at least 20 interview questions that you'd like to ask.
- think about the interviews you watched yesterday and which questions are going to produce the best answers.
- you should have questions that cover the basics (like how do you spell your name... where were your born...) and questions that get people to talk (tell me about your best childhood memory... or describe what it was like when you moved from california to seattle...)
3. take turns interviewing your partner and taking notes
4. Write down any observations you have about that person. Funny things that they do, the clothes they are wearing, their mannerisms, etc.
5. LISTEN for QUOTES.
6. Quotes are something funny, memorable, interesting. Quotes add "color" to your story. Quotes are something that you couldn't have said better yourself.
7. Title the story in less than five words. Think back to the titles in the "1 in 8 million" series you watched.
8. Write a short story, no longer than a page double-spaced, about the person you interviewed. Include as many basic details as possible, include observations, and include your three quotes.
9. Don't worry about how to start your story. The point of this exercise is to get as much information in the page as possible.
10. You will be assessed on the quality of your QUOTES.

Please leave your finished story in the comments section of this blog entry.

Thank you!

Interview Basics, Part 1

Hello Journalism Class! This is your assignment for Tuesday, September 28. You are going to watch two interviews today. As you watch, you are going to think about what makes a good interview.

First, watch Barbara Walters interview Miley Cyrus. Everyone must watch this one.

UPDATED 9/28/10 - this isn't working, sorry...

Then, go to www.charlierose.com, click on "Guests" or "Topics" at the top, and watch at least one interview of your choice. Anybody you'd like. Please ask the substitute teacher for some headphones if you don't have any.

If you can't find any that you are interested in, watch one of the following:

Charlie Rose interviews LeBron James, CLICK HERE.
Charlie Rose interviews Jay-Z, CLICK HERE.

At the end of the day, turn in answers to the following questions:
1) Who did you watch Charlie Rose interview?
2) How would you describe the difference in interviewing styles, between Barbara Walters and Charlie Rose?
3) What do Walters and Rose do or say to make their interview subjects feel more comfortable?
4) What kind of research do you think Walters and Rose did before their interviews?
5) Did any of the questions that Walters or Rose asked surprise you? Which ones? Why?
6) What do you think good interviewing is?
7) Write down 3 questions that Walters or Rose asked, that you thought produced good answers.

Last assignment

First, look at the March 9 entry, assignments for this unit:

Make sure you have everything finished. We will begin a new unit on Friday. I will accept late work on this unit until the end of the quarter.

If you are done, I want you to read at least 5 of the following editorials:

http://truefriendship06.blogspot.com/ - “Lying”
http://asinksinksintopaper.blogspot.com/ - “he’s the DJ, I’m the rapper”
http://tec2942.blogspot.com/ - “Robotics editorial”
http://bloggeryanb.blogspot.com/ - “Gun violence story”
http://intheworldofcars.blogspot.com/ - “Supercars" by Oscar”
http://intheworldofcars.blogspot.com/ - “Future Classic" by Khanh
http://krisbeezy.blogspot.com/ - “Editorial – hip hop stereotype”
http://productoslacteosvalencia.blogspot.com/ - "should milk be re-pasteurized?"
http://rachelflansaas.blogspot.com/ - “Advertisers are NOT to blame”
http://flipside2489.blogspot.com/ - untitled top post about reckless driving – “…we need to change and some of us are doing that…”
http://diana73martinez.blogspot.com/ - “the reality of suicide prevention”
http://bkaea.blogspot.com/ - “KB24 vs. LJ23” - Kobe vs. Lebron
http://shawnergao.blogspot.com/ - “Payin’ too much”
http://petersvision.blogspot.com/ - "Hit in White Center"
http://daymons4thperiodblog.blogspot.com - "3D - a bit too far?"

Leave a thoughtful, respectful response to each editorial you read. Continue the "community dialogue" discussion in the comments section under the editorial.
- You may disagree.
- You may add some thoughts that came into your mind as you read/after you read.
- You may want to argue.
- You may want to add a point that the author missed.
- You may agree and give the author praise for making good points.

examples of student editorials

here's a link to some editorials written by students.

use these as examples if you need some help.

Editorials

Remember the formula

Editorials = Opinion/Message + Information

Assignments for this unit

Here are all the assignments you are responsible for this unit:

1. Set up a blog with vision statement
2. Set up links to other blogs from 2nd and 4th period
3. News story w/Soft and Hard Lead
4. Lost Wallet Interview Worksheet
5. Story about the man behind the wallet
6. Feature Story w/ Research/observations/interview
- Graded on quality of details, quality of interview, the lead
- Should have been posted on March 8 or before
7. Editorial (Information + Opinion) (we start this today)

How do you start your story?

Different kinds of leads here:

http://www.notrain-nogain.org/Train/Res/WriteARC/lex.asp


By the way, in this instance, the word "lexicon" means a collection of terms used in a particular profession. So the lexicon of leads refers to all the ways leads are talked about by writers and journalists.

Today's Objectives

1. Identify who you are going to interview, and describe what makes them qualified to speak on your topic.

2. List at least 10 open-ended questions that you plan on asking this person in your upcoming interview.

Remember, one of our core values is curiosity.

The Power of Leads

(before computers, they were called "ledes")

Read this first:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=35609

Read this for examples of good leads:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=35612

One more source:

http://www.poynter.org/resource/35609/PowerofLeads.pdf

Examples of feature stories on people

A high school student in Lynnwood who won a national championship in roller skating.

A Korean pitcher on the Mariners.

News Story assignment

You will need to post a news story on your blog, by the end of class Friday.

We've discussed two kinds of leads already.

Here are two examples of news stories about the same topic: the government is beginning to ban texting while driving.

This is from a student newspaper.

This is from CNN, a professional news site.

Notice some of the basic parts of a news story.

You have a lede, which is the start of the story.
You have the actual news, or what happened that is important enough to share.
You have the background facts that talk about why the news is important.
You have some quotes from some of the stakeholders, or the people who consider this an important issue.

In every news story, you should aim to answer 7 questions:
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?
So What?

Click here for some more background on those seven questions.

Your assignment is to write a news story on a topic of your choice for your blog. It will be due Friday at the end of class. You need to answer all seven questions.

what is news?

What is news?

-Truth, information, without bias, current, important enough for other people to know.
-Related to specific real-life person, event, happening, statistic or fact.
-What is important for some may not be important for someone else.
-There is judgment of what is news.
-If your topic is drunk driving, drunk driving itself is not the news. The news is that someone was arrested for drunk driving, or someone killed an innocent person while drunk driving, or a law was passed about drunk driving.
-If your topic is photography, then photography itself is not the news. The news is that a famous photographer is coming to town, or that the local museum has a new photography exhibit, or that Canon – a company that makes cameras – has released a new kind of camera.

Elements of a news story:

Lead: the beginning of the story.
The Nut Graph: “In a nutshell” what is the news?
Sometimes the nut graph and the lead are the same; sometimes, they’re not.

All news stories should answer the 7 basic journalistic questions:

Who
What
When
Where
Why
How
So What

two kinds of news story leads

Your basic "what happened story..." - hard news lead

Example #1
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002189982_webcaphillfire25.html

Example #2
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/news/story?id=4903388


A "softer lead" where the actual news comes a little bit later...

Example #1
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20050207&slug=lunar07m

Example #2
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012503078.html

check out this site...

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/

Your first assignment

Hello,

I'd like you to respond to this post by giving me your blog's web address. Write it below in the comments section.

Your first assignment is to post your vision statement for the blog. A couple sentences will do.

You can start it with, "This blog is about..." or "In this blog, I plan to..."

Then, I want you to post a picture on your blog somewhere.