Story Ideas Assignment

Story ideas. Where do we get them? How do we convince others that we have a good story worth doing? How do we keep our audience interested in the story we are telling?

It all starts with a good story idea that is well-written, has a distinct angle, good characters, relevant to our audience, compelling visuals, well-researched and newsworthy.

The reason we turn in story ideas every other week is because I want you to begin to think in terms of a reporter, producer or photographer about what makes a story worthy of your time and research. I also want you to become better writers and researchers as well as being a good journalist. You have to be able to incorporate numerous pieces of data yet filter out the irrelevant information to focus your stories. That's hard. So, let me tell you what I'll look for when I grade story ideas.

Start out by looking around for something that's interesting to you. Look at local news in papers, newscasts, magazines and radio. Look at bulletin boards, newsletters or subjects that you and your peers are talking about. As your parents what's going on or look on the internet news websites.

If it is a national story, you must localize it, or determine an angle that's relevant to your audience. Your audience would be teenagers in the metro Atlanta area as well as adults (parents and educators) who might see your story on Eagle TV or on Cobb EdTV.

Do research. Do you have information that supports your angle? Are there enough visual possibilities to make it TV-friendly? Are there local experts that are available for you to interview about it? And most importantly, can you tell the story through the eyes, or experience, of someone who has been there?

Once you've done these first few steps, you are ready to write your proposal. The elements that need to be in your proposal are: a statement of what story type it is, a summary, how will you tell the story, who are your potential characters, elements to include in the story and any background information or statistics.

Here's my idea....I recently saw on the TV news the results of a recent study that says that teenagers are physically incapable of waking up early because of their body clocks and a later start time for schools is being pushed in some states. So I did some internet research:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/teens-health/CC00019

The Story Idea Summary part of your proposal begins, "this is a story about..." and explains what makes the story relevant or newsworthy? Why would your audience want to see it? This is your "elevator pitch".

This is a story about a new study that says teenagers are biologically incapable of being alert during the early start times of middle and high school. Some people believe that later start times would decrease absenteeism and increase grades.

Telling the Story. Describe how you'll open the story, what you'll go to next and how you will end it. Tell us who we will be meeting and why they are important.

I will open the story by talking about the role sleep plays in our life then spotlighting a student who has had incredible difficulty with staying awake for his early classes over the last few semesters (not just one semester to rule out a problem subject matter) perhaps even find someone who has had sleep studies done. I will then go into the study and other statistics about sleep patterns and teenagers. I will then revisit the student at the end of the story with his solution to sleep deprivation.

Potential Characters. List the characters in their order of importance to your story. Who are the people you want to interview or what kind of people do you want to interview? What role do they play in your story?

I will interview, of course, a student or students who have trouble staying awake in the mornings, parents of those students who can talk about their son or daughter's sleep habits (and maybe frustrations with teacher calls!) and sleep experts from a local sleep study center. I may also talk to a teacher or two. I know a student named Jason who has had a very difficult time in his first block classes over the last few years. Perhaps he would be willing to talk about his experiences.

Elements. This is for you to describe any visuals or pictures that will be part of your story. Very important! How do you plan to cover your story outside of interveiws? There must be pictures or video! Warning...you don't want to "stage" your video!

I will get video (and permission to use it) from a sleep study center and possibly use some of the video of people sleeping, I'll get alarm clock videos, unmade beds, students attentive in class and some with their heads on their desks. Footage of class changes and teachers teaching in class, maybe students drinking coffee or caffeinated soda to stay awake.

Additional Background. This is for statistics and background information that supports why your story is newsworthy. this is NOT copied and pasted research. It is information that indicates that you've done your research and drawn your own conclusions about how it relates to your story and angle. It shows that you understand and care about your story and how it can be relevant to your audience. It could also be background information on your characters who are in your story. It is information that you may use in your story, but not necessarily. his shows me that you've at least done some preliminary research and that you have evidence to support that this is a valuable story and not just piles of data.

According to the Mayo clinic website, our internal clock guides when we feel sleepy or awake. They are called our circadian rhythms. As a young person, our circadian rhythms signal us to get sleepy around 8 or 9pm. As we approach our teenage years, that internal clock doesn't make us tired until about 11pm or midnight. Because studies reveals that teens need at least 9 hours of sleep to feel alert during the daytime, early morning start times for school make that difficult. Countries as far away as Isreal are looking at this data and are beginning to take note by changing school start times in hopes that teens will succeed more in school. The Sleep for Science research highlights why teens are challenged by an early school start.

Lastly, make sure that you attach any supporting materials to your story idea. Print out websites or cut out articles of your sources. Remember that if you quote statistics in your story, you must attribute them to the proper source.

Your deadline is Wednesday, get writing!