#MediaMonday: Research your Interview
Good Morning Everyone,
Before I forget, collaborative podcast deadline has been extended by two weeks! You can register on the Dashboard.
Also, before I forget, we have a new update to judging entries:
We've all been there. Your students work hard all weekend on a contest, you submit and then you wait for the judges. Maybe they judge in your favor, maybe they don't. All you know is that you are supposed to trust their judgement and applaud the winner. The problem is: Who are the judges? Well, unless you were on the contest committee, you really have no way of knowing.
That is about to change.
This year, we are trying something new with judges. We are asking you to send us your best suggestions for judges so we can reach out to them. That way, when you send off an entry, you can do so with confidence knowing that you had a voice in the selection of STN contest judges.
To offer a judge suggestion, fill out the form below and we will do the rest. It is that simple. Thanks for your help and we look forward to meeting the people that you send our way.
https://www.studenttelevision.com/judge-referral-form
Now, onto today's lesson. It's called RESEARCH YOUR INTERVIEW:
Yesterday, I had a long interview with actor and director Tom Sullivan for a research project that I am doing regarding Irish Cinema. Leading up to the interview, I spent days scouring the Internet for interviews and videos of Tom speaking on the topic that we were going to discuss. I researched all of the previous quotable work that had been done and avoided those questions when we spoke. I noticed that all of the previous interviews were fairly surface-level and I made sure I knew enough so Tom never felt like he needed to fill me in on "the basics" so we could get into deeper questions, quicker.
When speaking with Tom, I was amazed to discover that, not only did this actually work, but he seemed impressed that I took the time to research the topic and come to our meeting prepared. The interview went great and what I got on record was entirely new content that no one had previously recorded. I got really excited about the results of my interview and the preparation before the interview...and then it occurred to me:
WHY IN THE WORLD DON'T I TEACH THIS SKILL TO MY KIDS?
I mean, I have told kids to do their homework on their topic before, but student journalists tend to fall back on what is easy. They step into an interview and conduct it mostly cold with little to no background information on the topic. What they bring back is introductory, basic and otherwise undeveloped. While journalism exists to inform, we cannot inform on anything that we ourselves do not first understand.
My Challenge to all broadcast journalism teachers: Talk to your students this week about researching the interview. If they are going to a bonsai shop, then research bonsai practices. If they are interviewing a school board member, then research that member's policies. If they are going to a protest, then research the movement.
The additional research will serve two immediate purposes:
Students get more excited about the topic as they learn about it and thus feel more connected.
Their final stories will be better.
So my challenge this week is to talk to your kids about researching their interviews and challenge them to do so. I would think that, once they experience a well-prepared interview, they will never go back to "winging it"; I know I won't.
Talk to you soon,
Josh Cantrell