Feature Story

SO I am doing my feature on a basketball player from Australia. Does anyone have any ideas of an angle for the story or something I should focus on? Any thoughts and or comments?? Thanks!

I'm doing one of my stories on bad behavior in schools. I have a lot of it covered, but if anybody knows a middle or high school teacher that thinks behavior/respect has been decreasing please let me know! merci beaucoup!

Eating Disorders and Obesity in Logan

Hey! So this is my story, I think... anyone have any ideas and/or suggestions for angles or what I should write about or sources? Let me know!!

Makenzie

Hey guys! For my feature story, i am doing it on Facebook and the time that it consumes in our lives and the way that our generation is changing because of the way we interact on facebook. let me know what ya think! how often do you use facebook? are you a facebook stalker? what do you use facebook for? do you communicate with teachers or use it for classes?

PostSecret

For one of my in-depth stories, I am writing on a man who met his girl friend through PostSecret after she responded to his thread. What are all the other places people meet online? Any success stories?

Hey I'm writing a story about gays and lesbians at Utah State, and what it is like for them living in such a conservative environment. I want to include their thoughts about Prop 8, and any other important events. If any of you know anyone willing to talk, or any other good sources, please let me know!

Quadriplegics

Ok I might do my profile story on a guy that works here on campus who is a quadriplegic. He works for the center for persons with disabilities and has had some cool life experiences, his name is Gordon Richins.

Does anybody know anyone else here on campus that has disabilities or works with any other disabled persons? Maybe even someone who might know Mr. Richins?

Journalists!

Okay I posted about this earlier but didn't end up doing the story, I keep changing my mind :) For my issue story I want to cover student journalists in a struggling market. We all know that newspapers are going down the drain and I want to know what you guys's reasons for being in this major are. Have any of you changed your mind because of the struggling market or for other reasons? If you are remaining in journalism are you nervous that your degree will end up being useless? All you journalism majors would be BRILLIANT sources. I'd appreciate the help :)

My Issue Story - Ex-Mormons

For my issue story I'm writing an in-depth artical on Ex-Mormons. Does anyone know anyone that is or has left the church and has a really interesting story. Obviously there would be a semi-compelling reason if they are leaving the church. Email would be the best way for me to contact anyone who you provide me with. Thanks.

President Albrecht News Conference Prep

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NewsHounds Memo

Tomorrow (Monday) in class, please come prepared with everything there is to know about USU’s (and Utah’s) budget crisis—tuition, budget cuts, measures the university is taking to make ends meet (including early retirement buy-outs), etc., etc.—so we can prepare for Wednesday’s live press conference with USU President Stan Albrecht.

You can start researching this with this entry on the USU Today website, and then look for everything else you can find elsewhere on USU Today and the other Utah press (Trib, HJ, etc.) about financial issues in higher education. If you find particularly good sources as background, please post them here with URL links on NewsHounds1.

Two weeks ago, the president announced a 4.5 percent Tier II tuition increase. The student body also adopted a $130/year athletics fee increase. Also, today’s (Sunday) HJ reports that 200 faculty/staff are taking the buy-outs. Who are they? What departments? Faculty or staff? How much will that save USU? How will this effect YOUR education @ USU? Is that enough to keep the university afloat? Look for other old news to use as the basis for your questions of the president on Wednesday.

You need to have a clear understanding of both the state’s fiscal shortfall that has precipitated this crisis, as well as the particulars of USU’s budget woes. So do some homework! What do you think your readers (at USU, in Cache Valley, in your hometown...) will want to know from the president about economic shortfalls and the university?

Come to class tomorrow prepared with SPECIFIC questions and lines of questioning that you’d like to hear the president address when we meet with him.

• What do you want to know about the university's fiscal situation that you don't already know from previous press reports?
• What kinds of issues or topics would you (and your readers, whom you represent) want to hear the president of the university discuss?
• What specific aspects of the economic challenge do you think need explaining to your readers?
• What specific subjects have you heard the president (or others in higher ed) discuss that are unclear, fuzzy, confusing, of particular concern?
• If you had USU President Albrecht’s focused attention for five minutes (which you will!), what do you think USU students, parents, local residents, faculty, etc., would want to ask him?
• Remember to think of followup questions. If you ask him X, and he answers Y, what (from your research) would be a probing follow-up question that would get closer to the “truth” you want to discover?

Remember the three basic rules of interviewing:
1. Do your homework.
2. Set parameters of the interview.
3. Repeat No. 1.
(3.a. Be flexible. Think. Bring your brain...)

We’ve already set No. 2: our conversation will focus on the university’s fiscal issues and whatever related areas that you see being affected by the budget shortfall. So you all need as much info and understanding (see Nos. 1&3 above) as you can get so that you can ask informed questions, and recognize when you may not be getting the full, accurate response from the president.

I will expect EVERYONE to ask questions at Wednesday’s press conference, which will last only 30 minutes. So get ready. Remember that, like every interview, the conversation may wander. So you must be prepared not only to follow the wandering, but to bring the subject (President Albrecht) back to the primary focus.

Remember that any interview, and especially a press conference with a public figure like the president, is a bit of a struggle between the interviewer(s) and the interviewee to control the direction and tenor and subject matter of the conversation. If you let him, the president is perfectly capable of talking without a breath for 30 minutes, which means that he will have controlled the conversation, and that the representatives of the press (you) will not have gotten a word in edgewise. We call those kinds of sessions “speeches,” not press conferences or interviews.

Be ready to discuss—substantively!!!—these issues when we meet tomorrow. I am copying this to Tim Vitale, the university’s PR guy, who will attend our session on Wednesday. He may have other suggestions (and is welcome to come to class Monday—10:30 a.m. Tim?)

El Peez

Student Unemployment!

Hey Newshounds!
I want to do my issue story about student unemployment. I want to look into jobs on-campus and off-campus that students generally have to cover the costs of school that will be cut next year. I especially need students who are worried about this. Do any of you know someone who has lost or will lose their job next year? Also is there an off-campus employer that employs a lot of students? Also I was thinking of focusing on the middle class. It seems to me like they often have the hardest time paying for school because the government pays for the poorest people to go to school, and the richest bunch can turn to Mom and Dad. I feel like the economic climate would affect the middle class the most because they have to fend for themselves, does anybody know someone with this problem? THANKS!

The Last Big PUSH

Housekeeping

Good meeting with you all yesterday and Tuesday. Hope that helped you focus on the final requirements in our last three weeks of classes (GASP!?!).

1. For Monday: Read everything you can about the USU and Utah higher ed budget crisis situation, including the tuition increase, faculty layoffs and whatever else seems to relate. This will be in preparation for our news conference Wednesday with President Stan Albrecht. The news conference REQUIRES that reporters ask questions and steer the focus. Otherwise, savvy politicians (including university presidents) will simply spoonfeed you press releases. So think about SPECIFIC questions/topics you want to ask the president about. So Google topics that will give you good background for questions. Also, see the USUToday website to see what the president has posted there on the budget/tuition/program cuts/layoffs etc. topic—USUToday will be the official policy on these issues. We’ll discuss all this in Monday’s class.

2. Next week’s story: ...will be your story based on the president's news conference. It will be due by noon on Friday.

3. The Final BIG Stories: We’ve talked about these, in-class and individually, but I’ve also posted some advice on these stories on AskDrTed. Click here for that link. They are due in any order on the last two Fridays 4/17 and 4/24.

4. The Final Exam: Will be a take-home, which you may start Friday, 4/24—due Monday 4/27 at noon; or may pick up Monday, 4/27, due Wednesday, 4/29, at noon.

5. EXTRAS! You may hand in as many extra stories (or rewrites) as you like between now and the last day of classes (Friday 4/24) at noon. These might improve your grades, assuming that they are not worse than the other stuff you've already done(!). If they are not more complete and better sourced stories than you've already done, I will wonder if you’re wasting my time. That would be bad.

OK? Questions, let me know or ask in claass Monday. I have COMPLETE FAITH in you!

El Peez

Lord, give me strength!
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Story for the week...

Hey I'm doing my story this week on "brain food." I wanted to know if eating certain things can really help you on tests, and be able to focus better. I have been talking to a doctor about it, and wanted to know if any of you guys know anything about this topic? ... or any other sources?

Eating

I'm doing my issue on eating disorders/dieting habits of college students. I'm looking for some real live people that suffered from an eating disorder that will share their story. Or even just somebody who was a friend of someone with the disorder and would talk about it.

I would also like to find someone who is obsessed with dieting- we all know someone like this can you guys maybe give me some names and numbers?

Pease said a sorority would be a good place to ask around, can anyone connect me to some sorority girls that would talk to me about the pressures to be thin and diet?

Out of State Students

for my feature, i'm doing on students from out of state. know any people with wild, crazy stories on how they got to utah?

Story Idea—Bottled Water

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Newshounds:

See this link on AskDrTed for an idea for a story. Could be either a feature or an issue, depending on how you use the data.

El Peez, Grand Poobah

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