Coach D's Blog

FWB Story Provides Opportunities

At least four times in the past three years, students on my staff have tried to do a story about “friends with benefits.”  Each time the result was the same:  Epic Fail.

It is a good topic.  We know from recent studies that FWB has reached the middle school level, and we already knew about high school students who were practicing this casual lifestyle.  The problem is, if you say it, you gotta prove it.  That’s journalism.  

Reporter Kaley Prier and photographer Kimberly Moore had to overcome the  same obstacles that faced students in the past when they tried to cover this issue.  Getting someone to go on camera to talk about it.  Getting a qualified expert to discuss the ramifications FWB can have on young people.  Getting visuals that help move the story along, without using copyrighted movie scenes, or incriminating shots from school.

They finally found a young man to talk on camera, and Kaley was satisfied he was being honest.  So was I after hearing the sound bites she used.

When it came to finding a female’s perspective, it was extremely difficult.  It took weeks.  Lots of “asking around” and mentioning the topic here and there, hoping to find someone who would talk about it.  In the end, a very credible female who asked that her name, face and voice not be identified, was willing to talk.  Her story was raw and sad.  It was also “too much information.”  That’s right, when the interview finally took place, with just Kaley and Kim in the studio, the girl told us more than we wanted or needed to know about a very traumatic life, and some very troubling decisions.  

While we are always hesitant to hide a source’s identity, we realized after the interview with the 17-year-old female that there were certainly enough extenuating circumstances surrounding her story to justify the backlighting and voice altering.

So the story is the second segment on HTV #197, which can be found at www.htvmagazine.com   Give it a look.  Show it to your students. Discuss.  

It is far from perfect, but it should lead to some nice teaching moments.  Considering how hard it was for us to land this story after all the previous attempts, we felt it was pretty effective, and sheds some light on a troubling aspect of some teenagers’ lives.

Possible discussion questions:

*What does it say about our world that the male was willing to be indentified on camera, and the female was not

*What were the challenges in finding appropriate visuals for this topic?

*Did the expert offer insight you had not considered?

*What other questions would you like to ask the young people in the story>?

*Was there are “moral” to the story?  Is so, what was it?

What Are You Gonna Show Me?

I love tough topics, and encourage my students to tackle them.  The problem is, some of the stories they want to tell are incredibly challenging to show.  But we are not doing radio here, so we have to have pictures.  Yes, sound is always important, but we know video beats audio.  Interesting visuals trump sounds and words. We remember what we see more than what we hear.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received about covering a visually-challenging topic was to make the most of the simple shots you know you have to have.  You don’t need to get breathtaking visuals every time you shoot a story.  Shoot the obvious if that’s all you have.  The challenge is to shoot the obvious in a creative way.

In a few weeks I will find out if we can do just that.  Two of my students are covering “friends with benefits,” and they already have three people willing to talk about it. I am anxious to see how creatively, and tastefully, they cover the visual side of that story.  

One suggestion you might make to kids who say they have no visuals is to simply watch “Dateline” or “48 Hours” and see how both programs do an amazing job making the most of simple images.  I would especially encourage you to remind students to always ask for still photos when they do features about people.  Those can be extremely powerful, and there are a lot of creative ways to make those photos come to life in a video story.

Those First-Story Mistakes

Students in my Broadcast Journalism I class are finishing up their very first stories for our magazine show.  They had just under three weeks to come up with a 2-minute feature. They worked in teams of two, reporter and photographer, and they all made deadline.

That’s the good news.  They made deadline. The bad news was, they had a lot of “learning experiences” that caused frustration and some serious doubts about all this journalism stuff. Don’t look now, but it’s kind of hard.

The biggest challenge seemed to be simply finding a good topic.  A few did.  A few others chose issues like ACT stress, or our FCA club, and realized the visuals were really boring.

The Take-Away: Try to help your first-time reporters and photographers find VISUAL topics. They will have enough trouble just finding the beginning, middle, and end of their story. Do them a favor and make sure they have some decent video opportunities on their first shoot in the field. Let them cover an event, or a game, and avoid the social topics or dry, academic issues they can better handle later on.

Another challenge came after all the shooting was completed. This broadcast writing stuff is really different, and really difficult. Several of the kids in my first-year class are excellent writers. Their English teachers back that up. Still, the kids have been encouraged to “expand” and “describe,” and to use colorful language each step of the way. In my little corner of the world, I am asking them to write lean, to leave out the hyperbole, to avoid adjectives they can’t prove, and to forget using 50-cent words when a 5-cent one will do just fine.

The Take-Away: It will take kids a long time to learn to write short. Let them find out just how hard it is to read aloud those first, awkward scripts, and they will start to understand.

Tip:  Inexperienced kids will use lots of questions in their VO tracks. They have not learned to write into the bite. So I suggest you tell them they can not use any questions in their script.  None of this, “What did Coach Brown think about tonight’s loss?” stuff. 

While I saw plenty of flaws in my kids’ first efforts, I saw plenty to encourage me as well. My former students can always recall their very first stories, and that tells me it is an eye-opening experience that leaves an impression on them. My job is to make sure that “impression” leads to better experiences in the future.

What Teens Would Report

The national media outlets always do “the year in review” features as one year ends and another begins.  I usually like watching them, because so much happens that I forget about during every year.  These “rewinds” always give me a sense of how big the world is, and how much happens outside of my little bubble.  

Since I teach teenagers, I think I’ll try something when we get back to school on Tuesday. The assignment will be this:  You are the producer assigned to create a five-minute looking back at 2011.  The catch is, your segment has to be about only the news events that are of interest to teenagers.  That is the only audience to consider.

Right away you could argue that the usual “big stories” of the year are always important to teens, even if they do not recognize it.  That may be true, but I am not willing to assume the kids will go for superficial content just because they are young. Let’s give them a chance.

This will be a research-and-plan assignment, not one that actually results in an edited piece for our show.  Not every assignment has to end up as a video project. Rather, this one will force them to prioritize the news events they find.  They will be thinking like a producer, and I hope, like a reporter.  

I will have them turn in an outline of how much time they will allot to each event included in their feature.  They have to be prepared to defend their choices, including why certain news events are on their list, and why some get more time than others.

So once we finish this one, I will let yo know how it goes.  Maybe 2011 will look a lot different through the eyes of teenagers.  

Anonymous Critiques

Here is a great way to provide feedback to your kids about their show, and there is an ulterior motive, which makes it even more fun.

Each week, or month, when your show airs at school, ask two of your teaching colleagues to be anonymous critics.  Ask them to write down four or five things they liked, and four or five things they thought could have been better.  Just have them e-mail you if that is easier.

This way, your students get some valuable feedback, and they know it comes from educated adults who took time to seriously consider the content of the program.  Even if the faculty members you solicit to do this have no TV production background, or journalism background, guess what?  Neither does most of your audience.  I think that makes their comments legit, and worth sharing with the broadcast students.

You will be surprised, I think, with the results.  Teachers are in the feedback business.  They are very good at it.  Even your show’s harshest critics on the faculty, if they agree to do this for you, will consider what the write, measure their remarks, and be very fair in their criticism. They will also provide surprising positive feedback, because again, teachers know they are dealing with students who need some strokes along with the criticism.

What about that ulterior motive?  Oh yeah.  When you have teachers who are not exactly supportive of your program, asking them to do a critique is a great way to call their bluff, and at the same time, get them to take a little more ownership of the show.  Don’t believe me?  Give it a shot.  When they are asked to “consult” and provide input, you will be surprised how it will impact their future reaction to your kids’ efforts.  It will also open up a chance for dialogue that gets past the typical “Your TV kids are missing my class too much” conversations that pop up when our overzealous students forget that science and math really are important.

So give your colleagues a chance to provide some constructive feedback.  You might be surprised how valuable their thoughts can be as your kids digest them, and reconsider their approach. 

We can always get better, but not if we are only told how great we are.

Let’s Go Crazy

Every once in a while, I think it’s a good idea to let the young journalists on the staff of “HTV Magazine” go a little nuts. So our December show will be a crazy, uneven, random mess. And I’m okay with that.

We added a new segment called “Random Play” two shows ago. It recalls the first year of HTV in 1989-90, when we would place our creative, off-the-wall segments right after the final credit rolled, separating the insanity from the main program. That’s where we got the idea.  

So far, we have had a rather good parody of “The Twilight Zone” in October followed last month by a music video created in just 72 hours for the recent “VidCon” conference at Drury University. (It was actually created in more like 48 hours by the time the boys actually got started)

Now we are producing “HTV Magazine Special Edition: Random Play.”  It will include several short, light-hearted, or just plain wacky segments produced by the same kids who regularly cover serious, dramatic topics every month.

Why do this kind of show?  For one, December is a short month for us, with the Christmas break and such.  For another, I have some kids who love to be well…random. So why not let them have a little non-journalistic fun now and then?  We cover plenty of “real” stories all the time. Stepping aside for some humor, or at least attempts at humor, will be worthwhile, I think.  They will all find out just how difficult it is to be funny.  They will also utilize some production techniques and face some challenges they do not usually encounter when they tackle their journalism assignments.

So give the show a look on our home page when it goes online.  We do not promise it will work on any level, really.  This is one of those projects where the work involved in producing it may far exceed the impact of the final product.  And again, I’m okay with that.

Albert: What’s the Story?

On one hand, I am not surprised Albert Pujols left the town he owned, St. Louis, for southern California.  I had a feeling something was not right between the slugger and the Cardinal owners when they failed to work out a new contract last winter.

On the other hand, I am stunned with the developments of the last week, and the decision the first baseman made to leave behind a situation where even in his declining years and beyond, he would have been loved and appreciated.

Is this a story about hard feelings, a greener pasture, a chance for a fresh start?  What is the story here, exactly?  As a Journalism teacher, this situation presents a lot of chances to talk about angles and approaches you might take in covering one of the biggest sports-related stories in years here in the fly-over state of Missouri. 

Pujols still has some ‘splaining to do about this decision.  After his appearance at the Angels press conference on December 10, there were still a lot of questions unanswered.  He said it was not about the money, the 254 million offered by the Halos, about 30 million more than the Cards put on the table.  He said is was about how Angels owner Arte Moreno talked about Albert Pujols after his playing days, showing concern for him as a person and not just as a player.  

For me, as a Cardinal fan since 1964, Albert’s “It’s not about the money” nonsense is, well, nonsense.

Are we supposed to believe that Moreno, in three conversations with Pujols over a 48-hour period last Tuesday and Wednesday, proved that the California…er, Anaheim…er, Los Angeles Angels were going to provide a better future, full of love and joy and SoCal sunshine, than the legion of Cardinal fans who had provided nothing but love, support, and loyalty to Pujols for the last 11 years?  What did Arte offer in those three conversations that the Cardinals had not offered?  Only this: 254 million dollars.

The questions I would like to pose to Albert are simple:

*Your comments about wanting to be a Cardinal forever—what happened? 

*Are you sure the Angel fans will be as tolerant of your occasional lack of hustle, and your deteriorating skills in the latter years of your contract?

*Did you leave because all the talk about you taking a place alongside Stan the Man made you nervous, considering the legacy he has as a player and a person?  After all, he once asked for a pay cut after a down year.  You asked for 250 million.

Really, that’s about all I want to know.  Not too complicated.  Those are things a lot of Cardinal fans are asking or thinking right now.  It will be interesting to see if anyone gets a chance to put those to him directly, and if he answers.

Albert is a great player, a certain Hall of Famer.  So maybe there is one more question that will definitely be answered in about 15 or 16 years:  

Mr. Pujols: Will you go into the Hall as a Cardinal or an Angel?  

I gotta tell you, right now, that “Angel” thing might be hard to sell in St. Louis, where some consider you the devil for leaving Cardinal Nation behind.

21st Century Skills: We’re There, Aren’t We?

Broadcast Journalism teachers know this, but maybe our colleagues don’t.  Our video classes are all over the “Framework for 21st Century Learning.”

It is natural for people to assume our courses fit best under the “Information, Media and Technology Skills” section, as it relates to the ever-important “21st Century Skills” our kids need to possess, but I beg to differ. 

Sure, our students get to work on computers, research stories on the web, handle fancy digital cameras and do some pretty advanced editing and graphics production. Those are all crucial and necessary when you are creating a newscast of some kind.

But we fit even better, I think, under “LEARNING AND INNOVATION SKILLS.” 

The “Partnership for 21st Century Skills” says “Learning and innovation skills are what separate students who are prepared for increasingly complex life and work environments in today’s world and those who are not.”

I like that.  Why?

Because they go on to state say that those skills include:

*Creativity and Innovation

*Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

*Communication and Collaboration

Are you kidding?  Thanks for composing this list to exactly fit what our young journalists do for every show they produce.

Creativity and innovation happen every time there is a decision to make about the visuals, the sound, the graphics that add to the presentation of the final piece.  

Critical thinking and problem solving happen every minute our kids are in the field, or in the edit bay.  No shoot, no edit, is without challenges that must be solved, and often they have to be solved by the photographer or editor in minutes, even seconds. Selecting content for a news story is about as critical as it gets.

Communication and collaboration are not only required in our classes, they are expected.  They are inherent.  No day goes by without them.  We work together in small teams, and pull it all together as one big team.

It appears that kids in Broadcast Journalism classes will be very successful in the century ahead based on some of the criteria the experts are throwing at us.

So the next time some “higher-up” asks you to justify your program, or your approach, point to the 21st century skills we should all be teaching our kids, because you know what, we’re already about a decade ahead of that little movement.