Term 1 Weekly Assignments
Most times you’ll have set topics for your weekly assignments. A topic however is not a story, you’ll need to find an angle and a story yourself. I’d suggest checking future assignments one week ahead, to give you a little time to research and consider what you might do.
However, please remember, the first term assignments are to build familiarity and competence with technical skills, and ease you into reporting — while we’ll generally want to see some news value we are not asking you to do challenging journalism. Pick stories that are accessible.
By Tuesday morning you’ll need to give your tutor a very brief pitch.
Pitching is something you’ll need to do your whole life as a journalist. All good stories start with a good pitch: a clear angle, a clear reason for doing the story, a clear idea about how you’ll tell the story, about the sources you’ll use and a realistic time plan. You should be spending two full 8 hour days reporting, editing and uploading your assignments each week. You’ll usually want to spend two hours or so researching, preparing and creating access for your story a day or so ahead.
A good pitch starts with some good research, you’ll need to spend some time online and / or on-foot, figuring out potential story angles — and what kind of access is available.
Watch this short video below; AP editors Jon Resnick and Donna Cassata explain how to prepare your story idea and pitch it to a news editor.
In class we’ll want to know in five minutes or less:
- What’s your story angle?
- What’s interesting / important about your story — why will an audience care?
- Who is your audience? (Usually this will be fixed by us, if so — make sure you check out the publication and consider the audience and style in your own reporting.)
- How will you tell the story? (Often this too will be fixed)
- Which sources will you use?
- What’s your time management plan?
- Use the template below to help you:
Here are some good reads to help you develop your pitch:
Pitch examples:
In the Pulitzer Centre Project story outlines, journalists use 250 words or less to explain the stories they are working on. They are often wonderfully crafted pitches, explaining what the story is about, why it’s important and how it will be told. Notice also the sparing inclusion of impact facts and data.
