Coyer story ideas

“Institutional” idea:

Story idea: A Tale of Two Lip Dubs; this is the 6^th (?) year of our annual lip dub. Reporters could do a VOX POP audio story of students during the lip dub: those who love it and those who don’t.

Story mission and need: Reporter would acquire audio via their cellphones to capture NAT sounds of the event as well as soundbites of random students (hopefully a wide variety of males and females of all grades).

Why report it now? It’s timely and a different way of covering the event other than the normal “hey, this happened”.

Essential questions: What did you think the lip dub would be versus what it actually was? What is your overall opinion of this event, which is used in lieu of a beginning of the year pep assembly.

Sources to use, live and non-live (expert, authoritative, knowledgeable, bozo): Many students, as stated previously. Could also interview the dancers/lip syncers, camera operators, Leadership teacher who runs and organizes it, the head Leadership kid in charge of the event.

Potential issues with sources and how to solve them: As long as there are at least 3-5 student reporters capturing audio then there should be enough audio. Potentially there could be more of one side than another but we could try to balance coverage when we are in the editing bay.

Medium/media to best tell the story? Why this or these choices? VOX POP podcast. It’s a different approach, could supplement with photos.

Depending on media used, what visuals would you suggest? Action shots during the event would help round out coverage.

Range of story angles, supporting materials: see above

How will the various information pieces be visually, alternatively presented? The VOX POP could run on Soundcloud and then be packaged online with the photo collage of the day. We could even producer a teaser of the VOX POP running over some of the photos from the event on the Viking News Network.

From infogathering to presentation, what legal, ethical and social responsibility questions might you face and what are some ways they might be handled? Some of the students in the lip dub photos may be on the “Do not Photo” list that, while I understand are supposed to deal with adults and not students, my district still wants my students to adhere to. If we record any audio of the actual lip dub, there may be questions of copyright with the music used during the lip dub.

Other questions, points, approaches or media: What am I missing?

Story we have always wanted to do:

Story idea: Conflicts in the classroom: When discussions in the classroom go south, what can students do?

Story mission and need: With the ever-increasing political divide, conversations regarding current news topics ahead of the 2020 election are going to increasingly find their way into the classroom. While some teachers are equipped to handle such conversations, not all teachers are, nor are all conversations going to happen in the classroom and around adults.

Why report it now? It’s timely, current, involves prominent figures and has human interest. Students need to have time to practice the information provided through the reporting and possibly have follow up stories. I don’t think this is a one-and-done story topic.

Essential questions: What place to these conversations have in the educational setting? How can students deal with conversations (whether or not the teacher is present in the room) that are highly electric? Why do students have a harder time now working with the conversations than they previously did?

Sources to use, live and non-live (expert, authoritative, knowledgeable, bozo): Rey Junco, Senior Researcher at the Center for Civic Learning and Engagement, Tufts University, rey.junco@tufts.edu; Jay B. Marks, Ph.D, jaybmarks@yahoo.com; District Civil Discourse committee member, Principal, students in senior civics or AP Gov/APUSH.

Potential issues with sources and how to solve them: Students may or may not feel comfortable in providing information about their views of tough conversations in the classroom. It will be important for reporters to make sure their sources understand that they will not be granted anonymity and that the quotes are accurate and non-libelous. The expert from Tufts might also be hard to get a hold of and the reporter would want to factor that in to the deadline timeframe. There are probably some professors at some of the local universities that would work too.

Medium/media to best tell the story? Why this or these choices? The main way would be a long form online story with a shorter teased version in print. Supplementally, there could be a video teaser produced that acts as more of a PSA. Students currently are not drawn to the website and we would want to be able to present them with a way to get drawn into the story.

Depending on media used, what visuals would you suggest? Main graphic could be blurred side views of two people angrily yelling at each other. You wouldn’t be able to make out what they look like but it would be clear enough to feel the tension and anger. The headline could go between them with a sub-head explaining the story mission.

Range of story angles, supporting materials: Would definitely want a step-by-step infographic that boils down what students could do in tough conversations emotionally charged. Student reporters could also conduct an informal poll at lunch regarding tough conversations. Where are they having these conversations? Which grades are having the conversations more than others? We could then use multi-media visualizations (alternative storytelling) to document that data.

How will the various information pieces be visually, alternatively presented? See above

From infogathering to presentation, what legal, ethical and social responsibility questions might you face and what are some ways they might be handled? Again, the reporters would want to make sure that the quotes from the students are sound and wouldn’t potentially put their sources into harm’s way.

Other questions, points, approaches or media: What am I missing?

Idea you never thought could be done in your school and why now:

Story idea: The Kids are Not Okay

Story mission and need: An examination into the causes of student mental health issues and how students can take better care of themselves as well as get their friends the help they need.

Why report it now? One student committed suicide last year and a variety of other students at school had a hard time dealing with that death as well as their own personal situations. I have seen an increase in the number of students suffering from crippling anxiety, depression and stress.

Essential questions: Has there been an increase in the number of students reporting mental health issues? What is the current student perception regarding mental health issues (given a list of issues—like depression, anxiety, etc—what do students associate with those issues? What is the reality of those situations? What could students be doing to take better care of their mental health and themselves? What are the

Sources to use, live and non-live (expert, authoritative, knowledgeable, bozo):If we can get it—The Healthy Youth Survey that students take (our school as well as other schools in our district and neighboring districts); Annette M. La Greca, Phd, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics, University of Miami, alagreca@miami.edu, (305) 284-9146; William Reynolds, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Humboldt State University, (707) 826-3162, wr9@humboldt.edu; school nurse; various students; local pediatric or hospital doctors (with the help of the Health and Human Service teachers); Carol Mitchell, Senior Counsel for Pierce County’s Justice System and NAMI Pierce County representative.

Potential issues with sources and how to solve them: Some of the sources are professors at major universities who have literature written about adolescent mental health issues and might not get back to the students in time. Also, we have asked for the Healthy Youth Survey before and never gotten it, let alone copies of other schools. Getting a hold of that data might be challenging. Is it something we could submit a FOIA for?

Medium/media to best tell the story? Why this or these choices? It would be interesting to see if there have been any mental health initiatives at the district and local level. The district did implement a week-long mental health event with the culmination of a speaker at a local event center. It would be interesting to see if anyone took any data from it to measure its success. It would also be interesting to see if there was any qualitative information available after that event. That might be the first story with a follow up in another issue. Depending on story length, the series on mental health could begin in print with follow up stories produced online with teasers shown on The Viking News Network.

Depending on media used, what visuals would you suggest? Logo graphic for the series that is easy identifiable for print, online and broadcast. Some sort of infographic as mentioned above, photos of the aforementioned event would be a nice reminder of what was done previously. Each story package would probably need some larger graphic to tie it all together.

Range of story angles, supporting materials: First story about the previous attempt to solve the problem and measure of its impact and limitations. Second story could explore other things the district may be implementing throughout the year to address student mental health; there probably won’t be any data available, however. A third story could talk about the city of Puyallup and non-profit organizations in the area and some of the things they are doing. Finding these local programs may be a little more challenging, so they should be planned for several months into the cycle with students working from the start on locating those services (maybe the lack of services could be a problem journalism story). The National Alliance on Mental Illness local Pierce County chapter is creating a “Birth to 25” Commission to help Pierce County residents under 25, one story could examine what they are doing and measure its success.

How will the various information pieces be visually, alternatively presented? Note above.

From infogathering to presentation, what legal, ethical and social responsibility questions might you face and what are some ways they might be handled? If students are able to find local programs and actually go to those facilities, they will want to make sure they are careful about photographing patients and students.

Other questions, points, approaches or media:

 

Social media only coverage:

Story idea: Homecoming Spirit Week Coverage in a multitude of ways

Story mission and need: Utilize social media in order to encourage audience engagement and involvement.

Why report it now? It’s timely and this would be a new way to cover the story.

Essential questions: How can we use social media during a spirit week to encourage interaction between the audience and our media organization? Why did students choose the outfits that they decided upon? How long did they plan their outfits? What inspired their outfits?

Sources to use, live and non-live (expert, authoritative, knowledgeable, bozo): Students could be interviewed on camera at lunch then a story put together as a video story on Instagram. Students could also Tweet out selfies of themselves dressed up and tweet at the media organization with the most creative (and school appropriate) hashtag appearing in either the opening credits or the end credits on the YouTube channel throughout the week. The multimedia editor could re-tweet the photos as they come in.

Potential issues with sources and how to solve them: Some of the students could have FERPA status (do not picture/do not name) and, while I know FERPA does not apply to student journalists, my school still makes us follow it.

Medium/media to best tell the story? Why this or these choices? Use Twitter to help students understand what the different events and days are. Use Instagram to tease the week’s coverage.

Depending on media used, what visuals would you suggest? Photos of students EVERYWHERE!!

Range of story angles, supporting materials: Different outfits each day, inspiration for spirit week, favorite spirit week memory.

How will the various information pieces be visually, alternatively presented? See above

From infogathering to presentation, what legal, ethical and social responsibility questions might you face and what are some ways they might be handled? As stated above, some of the students may be on the FERPA list, which the district makes us follow.

Other questions, points, approaches or media: I really want to use some of the videos to create GIFs of students dressed up but I worry about it appearing like the staff is “picking on” different students.