Week 8 - March 9-13
We’ve covered a lot of ground in recent weeks.
We’ve looked at some of the technical side and some of the editorial side. You have written features and sidebars, including vox pops and backgrounders, used photos and in some cases video and audio.
You are (or should be) pulling together a final feature that will knit some or all of these elements together.
So it is time to take a bit of a breather and look at the big story.
How everything fits together whether you are working for a newspaper, a wire service, a TV or radio station or a combination of the above. One thing to remember; all (or nearly all) have a web element.
So let us look at your job from the other side of the street. As the boss!
Today you will be in charge of the world.
You will divide into groups.
One of each member of the group is the editor of a global news organisation (not someone who has been an editor before). Others must provide suggestions and useful feedback - and advise the editor wisely. You are part of a team.
Your team will choose a major international story and decide how to cover it.
You have one correspondent, one photographer and one video team you can send out.
You have access to all the major wire/broadcast services. You have a team of editors, including
web editors, at hand at home to put together packages.
What will you do?
Step 1: choose the editor.
Step 2: choose the story.
Step 3: Start roughing out how you plan to cover the story.
A) Where will you send your staff, and why? What reports do you want them to cover? How and with whom should they conduct interviews in the field? Bear in mind your dual responsibility of collecting news and protecting your staff from being killed, arrested … etc …
B) Order up a maximum of TWO sidebars - what do you need? Vox pop? Timelines? A backgrounder?
C) Come up with a main headline for the piece - decide which elements are best conducted as print, audio, pictorial or video pieces (or as combos)
D) Compile a wish-list of potential interviewees that can be interviewed EITHER/OR at homebase/in a remote studio/in the field (where your correspondents are located).
2. Update and file your Prague/Cambodia story OR …
Choose the top stories (max two per category) for the North China Evening Post – based in HK – tomorrow we’ll see if any local news outlets have chosen similarly …..
Local News
China News
Asia-Pacific
Europe
Americas
Business
Technology
Lifestyle / Features
SUGGESTED LINKS
http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/index_news.htm
http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/today.htm
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/
http://news.google.com.hk/news?um=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=bloomberg+hong+kong&as_qdr=d&as_drrb=q
