High School Journalism Institute » journalism tips

HSJI Round 3

Jay Seawell - HSJI Webmaster — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:49:40 +0000

Photo by Jay Seawell

Multimedia Workshop instructor Lori Henson discusses a possible story topic with Jackson Wen of Bloomington High School North and Hannah Alani of Bloomington High School South on Saturday, July 17, at Ernie Pyle Hall.

Today is the first day of the final chapter of summer 2010 HSJI. A much smaller group has come to campus this time (just fewer than 90) but it's another group of people from a remarkable range of places outside the Midwest, including New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and India.

After registration concluded this afternoon, HSJI Director Teresa White welcomed the new group to campus and then introduced the faculty and staff for the week. The new classes for this session are the Multimedia workshop, taught by Lori Henson, and Sports Reporting and Writing, led by Tony Willis.

Classes met in the afternoon and resumed after a dinner break. In the Multimedia Workshop, Henson had her students research their possible topics for multimedia stories, and told them to decide on which platform they will use for the story, whether it be an audio slideshow or video. With journalism becoming more Multimedia-oriented, this workshop will surely provide great experience for its students, whose projects we will be posting on this blog later in the session.

Down the hall, in the Ernie Pyle Hall auditorium, Terry Nelson addressed Newspaper students with a talk about how to improve coverage of stories. Nelson stressed that there are current themes, such as bullying, that scholastic publications can tackle, and she also recommended that staffs of these publications establish ethics policies to define how they will go about covering such stories. For example, a staff should criticize an action or practice rather than an individual, and if a staff is critical in an editorial, then the editorial should suggest a solution for what it sees as the problem.

Nelson also gave the students a host of suggestions of how to find content for their respective publications. To name a few, Nelson told students to assign a reporter to cover all school board meetings, to routinely check daily school announcements and to get in the habit of scheduling monthly meetings with school principals.

After giving suggestions, Nelson closed on an encouraging note. She commanded the students to not think of themselves as just kids, but to have the mindset that they can change the world for the better. She proceeded to show the students a video titled "Lost Generation," in which a teenage voice turns negative statements about this current generation into positive statements.

Nelson said that bringing about positive change "can start with your high school newspaper." And with that, the students filed out of the auditorium to embark on a new session of HSJI.

Please check back for more updates and student work.

Here we go again

Jay Seawell - HSJI Webmaster — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:48:04 +0000

Photo by Jay Seawell

HSJI Newspaper editors-in-chief teacher Diana Hadley gives a talk entitled "Improving coverage while tackling stories that matter" to HSJI Newspaper workshop students on Sunday, July 11, in Ernie Pyle Hall.

A new week, a new session of HSJI. Around 160 high school students from around the country and two international students, one from Switzerland and one from South Korea, have come to Indiana University for the middle session of summer 2010.

As usual, students went to work right away. Director Teresa White addressed the group after registration at Teter Quad, and then students began class time this afternoon. Alan Bates, who is here to teach the Television News Workshop this week, even had students practice using equipment during dinner at Wright Food Court.

After dinner, Diana Hadley, who is co-teaching the Editors-in-chief division of the Newspaper Workshop with Jim Lang, gave a talk in the Ernie Pyle Auditorium to Newspaper students entitled "Improving coverage while tackling stories that matter." Hadley discussed the power of observation as well as the importance of localizing national issues, putting a face on statistics, studying multiple sources and studying different writing styles, among other strategies.

Hadley used The Bagpiper, the Floyd Central High School publication, as an example of putting a face on a story, citing its issue concerning the closing of a school in the local district. When discussing studying multiple sources, Hadley pointed to As You Were: To War and Back with the Black Hawk Battalion of the Virginia National Guard by Christian Davenport of The Washington Post,who talked to 5 soldiers who fought in Iraq for the book. Some came through the war positively, while the war affected others negatively. Also, Davenport talked to both male and female sources. Davenport’s decisions led to variety in sources and perspectives, Hadley said.

In terms of studying different writing styles, Hadley told the students about The Forever War by Dexter Filkins of The New York Times, in which Filkins unconventionally uses both 1st and 3rd-person narrative to describe the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hadley’s lecture about coverage tips dismissed, and students went back to their classes to push ahead with the second week of HSJI. Please check hsji.org throughout the week for updates.

Handling an Interview 101

Allie Medellin, Avon High School — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:37:28 +0000

Interviews are pivotal to any kind of journalistic article. I always thought that it was the quotes and not the writer that write a good story. Depending on what you are writing about, it is important to try to find the best sources possible. Sources need to be knowledgable and have at least something interesting to say about your topic. Mediocre sources make for mediocre stories.

I remember being intimidated walking into an interview. I always thought that I was taking away from my interviewee’s busy day. I wasn’t sure if I would get what I needed. To reduce these stressors, you need to engage in your topic. Show your interviewee that you understand that their time is important and that you appreciate their cooperation.

The key to interviewing is simple: Research, research, research! As a reporter, you should be knowledgable about your topic, even if you don’t want to or don’t care about what you are writing. You don’t want to look dumb in front of anyone because you didn’t do any research.

Writing out questions before an interview is important. They help you stay on track and hit key points in an interview. But, as a reporter, you should not rely solely on written questions. Be prepared to think on your feet. Your sources may have something interesting to say that you didn’t anticipate, and you might have more questions about it. Ask them! The more you get from your sources, the better. Also, it shows your interviewee that you are actually listening to them and are interested in what they have to say.

For those reporters who are somewhat shy, like myself, you just need to remember that these people are just people. They want to help you out and you need to show them that you can be in control of your story.

Although I dreaded interviews in the beginning, they have become one of my favorite steps in writing a story. There are so many things to learn about and so many interesting people to talk to. I already can’t wait to get to know them!

Good luck interviewing!