Just tell me one thing....

Coming up with story ideas is easy; it's telling them that's hard.

After all the research and interviews are done with your news story, coming up with the script that will put all that information together in a cohesive tale that flows is difficult. But it's even harder to come up with an interesting story.

Here's how you know if your story is interesting or not...are you telling your viewers something they didn't already know? That's the key. Don't tell me the same old story with a teenage point of view...tell me a new story with interesting facts that I didn't already know, with a teenage point of view. Tell me through the eyes of someone who has experienced it, or give me a perspective I didn't experience before. Do something different!! Make it interesting, visual, engaging. Just tell me one thing I didn't already know. One thing.

Use all the storytelling tools I've taught you for this last story. Surprise, parallel parking, nat sound breaks, silence within the story, etc.

I'm going to ask you to propose your story to me. You will need to complete your story, a separate VO/SOT, a presentation on your best story and quite possibly a documentary. Three weeks is all we have. Get going.

For your response to this blog, I'm going to ask you to tell me what motivates you and what you want to get out of this class this semester. What are you going to improve upon or what do you want to know more about? Be your own advocate for your learning.

With three weeks left in the semester, I'm going to ask you to work harder than you've worked so far this semester. We have a lot to do.

In the meantime, check out this story by Steve Hartman about Unlikely Friends. Some of you have already seen it, but it illustrates what makes a story interesting. Watch it again.

Are you a Real Journalist?

I've always treated each one of you as a journalist. In my mind, there is very little difference in what you do and what employees of a news organization do except that you get a grade... and they get a paycheck.

I'd like to see more from you, but I've seen some really good stories. I've seen a lot of you take chances, ask tough questions, and get phenomenal video and write moving stories. I want more. I want you to not give up when it gets a little difficult; when someone doesn't call you back right away or when you don't get the answers you want. What ever happened to the corn maze story, for example? Did we give up because someone couldn't make it? Do it without them!

You stand a better chance of getting a job in the journalism industry if you show that you don't back down. You show that now, while you are in high school. You're building your resume as we speak. In fact, in college, you're expected to do daring interviews if you major in journalism...in high school, it's a surprise if you do. And, very impressive, I might add. Show what you got. You ARE real journalists...act like it!

See the short excerpt below from Advancing the Story Blog and let me know what you think about how you can be more driven. Take advantage of the unique opportunity you have right now. Don't let life's moments pass you by; you'll regret it later. Trust me.

Are J-school students really journalists?

Posted on November 10th, 2009 by Deborah Potter

If a journalism school offers real world experience, should the students who participate be protected by reporters’ privilege? That’s a key question in a case involving a professor and students at Northwestern’s Medill J-school.

David Protess runs the school’s “Innocence Project” in which students investigate old crimes looking for wrongful convictions. In the past decade, the school says, “[they] have uncovered evidence that freed 11 innocent men, five of them from death row.”

Protess and his students believe they’ve found another wrongful conviction and Northwestern’s legal clinic has filed a petition for a new trial. But local prosecutors are suggesting that the students may have been under pressure to prove the case in order to get a good grade in the class. As the Associated Press reports, the prosecutors have subpoenaed the students’ grades, private emails, notes, unpublished memos and expense claims. That kind of information would typically be protected by the state shield law but the prosecutors claim the students aren’t journalists, so they’re not covered.

The case raises concerns for all students who do “real world” journalism as part of their course work. And it underlines the need to bring shield laws up to date in today’s multimedia world when anyone can be a journalist. The latest draft of a federal shield law does just that, by covering anyone who does journalism, even if they don’t get paid for it.