News Gathering
Story Ideas
The Knight Crier is a digital newspaper, meaning that we can publish every single day. The editors hold staff meetings every Monday throughout the entire period. Traditionally, we would write our ideas under our names on the white board (as shown in the header). Now, everything has to be digital, so we transferred it to a Google Doc (shown under the “Leadership and Team Building” section).
During a staff meeting, everyone is expected to have one new article idea for that week, even if they’re already working on something else. If people are assigned to work on a bigger project that requires multiple interviews and additional research, we expect them to publish other articles in the meantime like profiles or smaller articles.
In order to help the staff think of unique ideas, we encourage them to do the following:
Consume the news. As journalists, this should be expected. It is essential in order to be in the know of what’s going on, but it’s also important to help develop ideas
Be aware of your surroundings. We have 3,000 students and over 100 staff members in the building, which means that there are a multitude of people to write about; I also tell the writers to look closely into what people post on social media because you might find something intriguing about them that would be fantastic to write about.
Write about the things you love and care about. I am a passionate environmentalist, which means that I can (and should) write informational pieces about the environment from time to time because it’s something that I personally love, but it’s also an opportunity for people to learn about something they never knew about.
We also encourage the staff to come up with ideas for other people to take. If they are genuinely struggling with finding story ideas, Connor, Jojo, and I have created a list of students and staff members who would be good to write about and it has been referred to quite often.
When people pitch ideas, we often ask to provide some detail on how they plan on writing it. We also suggest people to interview and share emails or phone numbers if necessary. As they say their ideas, we write them down in the doc.
Research and preparing questions
The type of research you do depends on what exactly you’re writing. You can either read articles or book about the topic, search up the person on social media to gather basic facts, or talk to people who may know about the person you’re writing about so you at least get the gist of who they are, among many other options.
A few tips on how to think of good questions (pre-planned):
Make them general and open-ended. I love it when people go on an on when answering a question—more for me to work with. If they’re too specific, your interviewee might not know how to answer it. You might even get short answers that aren’t enough to work with.
Drop yes or no questions—details are key. The responses you get are supposed to help you develop your article. If you’re only getting yes or no responses, what are you trying to write?
Get the easy questions over with. Interviews can be super awkward, especially if you’re new to it or if the person you’re talking to is not familiar with it. Start with easy questions because this gives you the basic facts to work with. It’ll also help you gradually make the conversation less uncomfortable.
During the Interview
What to do doing the interview:
Don’t strictly follow the questions in order - improvise! The interview should replicate a conversation. If you’re going from one question to the next based off of your plan, you might miss opportunities to dive deeper and get more information. Listen closely to what they have to say and if anything stands out within their response, talk about it.
“Can you elaborate on this?” “You briefly mentioned ____, can you talk about that a little bit more?” Details. Details. Details. Don’t be afraid to ask for more. Make the conversation worthwhile and get as much information as you possibly can.
“Do you have anything else you would like to add?” I always make sure to ask this question towards the end because it gives the interviewee a chance to say what else they want you to know. This could also act as a way to get some wrap up quotes.
Outline and preparing for the writing
Normally, when I write up questions, I keep in mind of how I want to organize everything. I transcribe my interview on Otter.ai, so when it’s ready to be looked at, I go through it, I double check and see how I want to set the article up. I’ll usually make a list of bullets.
Examples
Digital high stakes testing meets mixed reviews
Published: January 15, 2019
This story was about how our district transferred our midterms and finals online. I asked students from different grade levels about their thoughts. I also reached out to a math teacher and chemistry teacher since those subjects require work on a separate sheet of paper most of the time. I got their thoughts on administering the tests, specifically for their particular subject. I also reached out to our district’s tech person and our principal to get information on why the decision was even made in the first place.
District approves to return students back to school
Published: December 6, 2020
Our county decided to close all schools for 2 weeks after Thanksgiving break. After the two weeks were up, the district got to decide whether or not they wanted to return. Our school chose to resume hybrid learning. I reached out to both our superintendent and our principal to get information for why the decision was made and whether or not they made changes in the hybrid plan. I asked my principal questions geared towards the high school while asking our superintendent questions about the district as a whole.
Winter sport athletes making up for lost time
Published: December 31, 2020
Our winter sport athletes had a tough season because it started so late. Gyms and schools were closed, so it was difficult for them to properly train. For this article, I contacted the boys track and field coach to get the perspective of a coach and see how he’s handling it. I also spoke to one athlete per sport, wrestling, swim, track, and basketball, and got their perspectives as it related to their specific sport.