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Reporting
Reporting
Interviewing
Interviewing
To me, there is no such thing as asking too many questions. My interviews are infamous for taking 10-30 minutes per person only to use less than a minute long of sound bytes in a 2-minute package or a 3 sentence quote for my articles. But my method works, because by the end of the interview, I will know the interviewee's story. That's the most important part of an interview, listening to someone's story and knowing it so well that you can retell it with proper justice.
My motto this year has been "If I don't have you emotional, laughing, or crying by the end of the interview, I didn't do my job right." I also have been going beyond my prepared interview questions to ask deeper questions beyond my original angle.
Audio Interviews
Audio Interviews
Recently I started a profile on one of my previous teachers. While I originally intended to interview him about his new role as a theater director, I wanted to dig deeper. Last year, he had openly talked about his father passing away and I felt that what my story needed was an angle on the human side to teachers that are often overlooked. I posed my question carefully on the topic and his answer led to thoughtful and inspiring quotes I hope to use in my story.
Recently I started a profile on one of my previous teachers. While I originally intended to interview him about his new role as a theater director, I wanted to dig deeper. Last year, he had openly talked about his father passing away and I felt that what my story needed was an angle on the human side to teachers that are often overlooked. I posed my question carefully on the topic and his answer led to thoughtful and inspiring quotes I hope to use in my story.
What makes audio interviews so different from video interviews is the ability to interview more people. Setting up camera equipment makes video interviews more time-consuming and makes possible interviewees more hesitant to participate. But audio interviews can be on the fly with lots of people.
So when I began writing a bigger article in journalism (New Clubs Offer Opportunity for Student Input), I involved a total of 9 people. Some I even interviewed at the same time. I got different perspectives and information from both students and teachers by asking questions specific to their club involvement.
Video Interviews
Video Interviews
Video interviews involve another level of emotion through providing visuals. Seeing the speaker's reactions and faces allows for viewers to really empathize with the person. However, this creates another set of guidelines to be followed. Before conducting an interview, I take these video aspects into consideration in order to ensure that I produce a quality story.
I also created a student resource about interviewing titled PATV Interview Question Guide. It contains information on how to write questions and follow-up questions and provides question examples. The presentation helped students create more variety in their interview questions and understand the interview process better overall.
Writing
Writing
Journalistic Writing
Journalistic Writing
In my journalism class, I've written a total of 6 articles for our Padua360 website. With each article my vocabulary expands, quality improves, and the content lengthens. I've covered a broad range of topics from Freshmen Convocation to an opinion piece on the Peach Blossom Eatery. My portfolio on the website is linked here.
Caption Writing
Caption Writing
In order to remain consistent in creating captions for similar posts, I created a Google Document reference containing past captions. I divided the caption by what type of post they apply to for easy access. I also purposely color-coded each caption section by social media platform to accommodate for Twitter's word count maximum.
Scriptwriting
Scriptwriting
At the beginning of the year, I taught the PATV staff how to create all types of scripts through this google slides presentation. It involved general scriptwriting advice along with responsibilities and writing styles specific to each job. The presentation acted as a reference for the staff as they started creating scripts for the live show on their own.
Anchor Scripts
Anchor Scripts
At the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, I created the skeleton of the script for our live shows. As we added more new swipes, camera angles, graphics, and intros throughout the year, I would rewrite the script accordingly. But our first script acted as a base for the changes made later in the year. In it I incorporated banter between the anchors and weather girl in order to create a more animated show as well as stating "Here are the three things you need to know today" before our news stories as a transition since the news swipes had not yet been added to the show.
Our most recent script accommodated for 3 news swipes, 2 intros, 2 graphics, and 3 different camera angles on the anchors. We decided to incorporate a brief listing of the 3 stories before the regular intro and then continue with the anchors after as well. I also made the decision to order the news stories from smallest to largest working from Padua news to world news to create logical organization in the script.
Weather Script
Weather Script
This year I created a weather script with more writing freedom. The bolded words are adjusted on a daily basis by the weather girl according to the change in temperature but also what conclusion can be drawn about the weather forecast. This allows the person in the weather job position to get more creative in their own script and apply their critical thinking skills.
Sports Script
Sports Script
The last type of scriptwriting I utilize in the classroom is sports scriptwriting. This type of writing involves game announcements, score reports, congratulations, sports lingo, and well wishes. While each script is unique due to the different sports season schedules and scores, the intro and outro remain the same. Although I can't take credit for the iconic scoop on sports, I did incorporate the consistent use of anchor names and using phrases "thanks" and "back to you" with them. This eliminated the overuse of "girls" that had caused an issue in the past. It also helped transition the show more smoothly between segments.
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