Assignment 1: Fresh Air … with Bill O’Reilly

In October 2003, NPR’s Terry Gross, longtime host of NPR's Fresh Air, aired an interview with populist Fox News talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

The interview was scheduled to coincide with the publication of O'Reilly's book, “Who's Looking Out For You?” which claims that America is in the midst of what O'Reilly calls a "cultural war between left and right."

O'Reilly walked out of the interview because he said he found Gross’ line of questioning objectionable and hostile and “full of typical NPR liberal bias.” He said NPR was unfair to him although it had given left-leaning author Sen. Al Franken a pass when his book came out.

To others, the interview was a model of unflinching interviewing skill that showed O’Reilly as a delicate ego unable to back up his assertions under pressure.

Listen to the interview in class and take notes. Did Gross betray the principles of objectivity and balance?

Write a short letter to the NPR ombudsman detailing what you think. (You don’t have to send it.) If you think questions were unfair, describe how you would have presented them differently. If you agreed with the tenor of Gross’ interview, say why.

Public Domain Source Material:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1459090 

Assignment 2: Man on the street

Description of Assignment: Journalists often need to talk to officials, whether they are police at a crime scene, the mayor’s chief of staff, or the CEO of a hospital. These sources are accustomed to dealing with the press and are always ready for questions because their jobs are so public. Less frequent in news stories are the voices of “real people.” Journalists call them “RPs.” These are the private individuals who make up most of the world, who interact with journalists mainly as consumers. What do these people see, think and feel? The more a journalist incorporates the lives of real people, the richer their stories will be.

Your job is to conduct interview three to five RPs for what reporters call a “man on the street,” or MOS.

First, come up with a juicy topic. Try to pick something that people are talking about--a controversial speaker scheduled to come to campus, or a rash of burglaries in dorms. Then come up with the question you’ll ask.

Then get out on the street and start working. Walk up to someone who looks inviting, introduce yourself as a student reporter and ask your question. Make sure the source lets you use their name and age. If not, move on--no matter how much time you put into it. We don’t quote anonymous people if we don’t have to.

Once you have at least three sources, write up your story using the inverted pyramid.

The link below has some good advice for conducting a proper MOS.

Public domain source material:
http://penandthepad.com/how-2283844-do-man-street-interviews.html 

Assignment 3: Campus safety official

Description of Assignment: Perhaps no one on campus has a more important job than the campus police chief or public safety director. While campuses aren’t usually , there can be higher incidence of underage drinking, sexual misconduct, burglary, and vandalism. The role of a campus security officer is often to keep student safe from themselves.

Who is your campus security chief? Your job is to write a 700-word profile, with your audience being the campus community. So that the chief is not bombarded by individual requests, invite him to an interview either as a class, or in a small group. Use the principles described in the text for introducing yourself and setting a time and place for the interview.

Do your research so you don’t waste time on questions to which you could easily find the answers online.

Assignment 4: Interview the interviewer

Description of Assignment: What does it take to conduct a great interview? And what can happen when an interview goes awry? Your assignment is to contact three professional journalists in your area and pick their brains about the best and worst practices of interviewing. Encourage them to tell you about their greatest successes--and nightmares.

Then write a 700-word story based on what you find. If you find that one of your interviewees wasn’t a good interviewee, don’t be afraid to leave it out of your story.