Story ideas are the coin of the realm in journalism.
What are you or your friends curious about? How about comparing UAF coach salaries with those of rival schools? Is tuition at this school still a good deal when you include student fees? What the rage among gamers on campus? This class is your license to get answers.
Late this spring a former student accused of murdering a young woman in Bartlett Hall is due to stand trial. Do current students, particularly women, feel safe on campus today?
Dorm security was non-existent at the time Sophie Sergie’s ’93 murder. It improved afterward, of course. For a while anyway. Years later, Alaska Public Radio’s Casey Grove, then an enterprising journalism student, discovered that budget cutbacks left no one monitoring the front door of MBS after midnight. His story about that resulted in overnight changes making hallways safer. What’s dorm security like these days?
Stories for this class can be serious, but don’t need to be. What’s likely to interest your target audience? That’s always a good starting point.
All of you will publish at least one news story through this website. Many News-Writing students have published work through the News-Miner and other outlets over the years.
Let’s hear those ideas. The staff meeting begins now.
For this week: Use the reply button and briefly sketch three ideas for stories, one should be an event, that you think might interest your target audience. Pitch your own ideas, then comment on at least one classmate’s story list.
1. Investigate more into Russia’s claim into the northwest passage and if they will try and claim how China claims the South China Sea
2. Coronavirus spreading in the Fairbanks/North Pole area compared to Anchorage
3. Alaska’s Coronavirus response compared to other states
Coronavirus coverage is something that everyone can relate to, it is a universal issue. The Russian story will become a hot topic in the coming years with the melting of the Arctic sea ice and the further opening of oil reserves in the Arctic ocean.
1) A story about the UAF mens basketball team and the way we had a major turnaround from last season.
2) How the cold affects people in Alaska rather than other states.
3) The success rate of student who graduate from UAF rather than UAA.
1) Could we propose having higher security in the tunnels so they could still be of use and help students combat the cold?
2) How does the cold affect intermingling of college kids? Does it make it harder for them to extend their circles?
3) Is the brutalist style architecture at UAF have an affect on students perspective of/draw to campus?
Tunnels? I’m not what you mean. A security story would be timely. Staffing is likely very thin due to budget cuts.
Three topics would be of interest for me to pursue in a news story:
1. The 2020 Ice climbing competition put on by the SRC and Outdoor Adventures.
2. A story about the tunnels under UAF, why or why not it is a good idea to reopen them.
3. The effects of the UAF budget cuts have had on student’s and staff’s health, mentality, morale, and plans.
OK, now I know the tunnels mentioned earlier. Some may need safety work for regular use. Stories about nearly any organization/service unit’s budget budget would be timely.
Competitions of any sort make for good event reporting opportunities. My main advice is cover actual events, interviewing participants and observers, describing what you see and hear. Don’t settle for interviewing organizers.
These are very cool story ideas. I would like to look into some of these ideas you mentioned and see what I could come up with.
1. Festival of Native Arts. What a day would look like, details of the event etc.
2. Investigate what the best coffee shop around Fairbanks is. I thought this was really interesting because I feel like there are so many just located around the college here.
3. The pros and cons to having a vehicle on campus.
I would love to read a story about the best coffee shop around Fairbanks. I love coffee shops and would like to find out which has which features, as in which coffee shop stays open late and which has free wifi. A story like this might even encourage a few coffee shops to stay open late, which is a feature that Fairbanks is lacking in.
I love the coffee shop idea! That would seriously be the best! Also, you could have so much fun writing and researching this piece. Your job would literally be to go around the city of Fairbanks and figure out what is special, unique, and beautiful about each coffee shop. That would be a great feature story!
If the focus is on what’s special of distinctive about each one– that’s a straight-forward mission. Objective comparisons about price, how much a 16-oz mocha costs, for example, or the most expensive coffee on the menu, can make for a good story. It gets tricky when you begin subjectively critiquing atmosphere, service, cleanliness, taste… That’s when you, the reporter/reviewer, need to have thoughtfully applied standards.
The coffee shop idea would be a great story, there are so many in this city and it is hard to chose between them. I have like 5 ones that i believe are on the same level. I bet there is a hidden gem out there somewhere.
1. 2020 World Ice Art Championships: This is one of the largest ice art competitions in the world. The carvers that creates the ice sculptures come from places like Russia, Japan and Netherlands. This is held every year from mid- Feb. to Mar.
2. The first ever Alaska ComiCon is taking place Feb. 22-23.
3. What if any effects will the coronavirus have on Fairbanks residents and UAF students? Are there any protocols in place if a case shows up here?
1. The Banff Festival coming up at UAF on March 1st. I’ll be attending that event and I’ve heard that it is pretty popular to attend.
2. In my opinion, in-state tuition, is a fair price. You get a quality education for a fair price. I am originally from California. And resident in-state tuition was a lot more than in-state tuition in Alaska.
3. The Coronavirus? But really more people die from the flu everyday even in Fairbanks then from the Coronavirus.
1. With the University of Alaska considering a single accreditation, how would this affect the Kodiak College campus? (I live in Kodiak)
2. The Kodiak Harvest Food Co-op Potluck & Produce Stand is happening this Sunday, Feb. 23rd at Kodiak Island Brewing Company. Lots of folks on Kodiak raise their own veggies and we have an active Farmer’s market in the spring. I think my audience (local Kodiak Island residents) would like to learn more about this home grown produce.
3. The local Art group is holding a gnome painting event This Sunday and I think there would be lots of local interest in this event, this isn’t their first and is already sold out. Perhaps the painting events are gaining a real local following.
#1: There has been an ongoing debate about whether or not the meal plan should be required for students living on-campus.
#2: Is the Job Fair diverse enough for all majors or is it catered towards certain majors?
#3: The contrast of the American education system compared to other countries.
These topics are ones that I’ve had conversations with friends/co-workers about and are curious about what others think of them.
#1 Is your best bet here. Clear target audience. Points toward key interviews: vice chancellor or staff responsible for overseeing meal plan, etc. Students affected by proposed change. Keep your mind open to sharpening the focus as you learn more. YOU WILL GET A STORY!
#2 Possible story here, likely the major representatives simply reflect department’s and industry representatives available and willing to staff a table. I’ve done this in the past, so have some local media outlets.
Sorry I left off #3… BECAUSE IT’S A BOTTOMLESS PIT. This is subject matter for a book, or research for the rest of your life. It’s important, but far, far too wide open. Better to pick one type of school, or narrow line of education-related innovations as a starting point. There are endless stories in this topic… That, in itself, makes it easy to waste a lot of time and energy.
#1 Solid angle on a news story of direct impact on campus readers.
The other two are broad subjects, not sharpened starting points.
1) In March, the 47th Annual Festival of Native Arts is taking place. It’s a three day event, at UAF’s Davis Concert Hall, and appears to be student-led. I have never attended such an event and I think it would be fascinating to see what it entails.
2) The Patty Center is looking at installing a new basketball/volleyball court, in the gym. An interview with the Patty Center Director would be great to get information on the reasoning behind a new court, the funding, and the timeline, if it happens.
3) A story covering the coronavirus may interest students at UAF. It’s current and fairly alarming. Not a lot of people know the facts, including myself.
#1 You can pick any hour of the day during UAF’sNative festival and find a good story on some aspect or person, or village delegation active when you walk in.
Avoid trying to report on the entire event in a single story. Like reporting on education in America… the possibilities are vast. Very tough to bring that into focus. Not impossible, challenging. Check “Showcase” for “Together We Dance” Billie C’s coverage of similar gathering. She pulled it off, in no small part, because she’s attended the annual event for years. Thus, she’s got an idea of what rates attention and select moments worth sharing.
–BBall court improvements, totally doable
–Caronavirus: A story reporting local preparations would be timely, but not likely to offer a lot of meat until Alaska sees it’s first case. Always good to be thinking ahead. On a slow news day, I’d pick up the phone and see what I could collect from local health sources. In the very least, that will give your an inside track, in the form of sources and numbers, for followup when the dread plague finds us.
I’m interested in exploring the experiences of a non-traditional student at UAF. A non-traditional student is usually defined as someone much older than the “normal” age group that attends college. For example, what is it like for a non-traditional student to be older than most of the other students and sometimes older than most of their professors? Does that student feel welcomed into the learning environment? What is the reaction of the professors to having a mature student in class?
Narrow the scope. “Experiences” is too broad. Think more in terms of a consistent starting point. Something like, how do you think your experience separates you from students coming straight from high school?
tjackels, I am one of your classmates who is a non-traditional student at UAF. A long distance one, at that. However I’m not certain I’m older than most of the professors as I’m only 41. But I would definitely like to read this story! It’s definitely something that impacts my life directly.
Hello, I would definitely be interested in reading your story about non-traditional student. I am a non-traditional student that would be an interesting to read different perspectives from other non-traditional students.
What makes students pick UAF for college? How is their reason different between in-state and out-of-state students?
There’s an event happening on campus in April sponsored by REI. It’s an all-women adventure film festival. I think that would be a really cool event to write a story about basically reviewing it.
Recently the age to buy nicotine and tobacco changed from 19 to 21. How do students feel about this?
#1+#3 Are challenging in that you need a lot of interviews for a representative collection of opinions. A well reported story of that sort of story often draws on the results of a poll, which can be used in follow up interviews with random participants and experts commenting on the results.
#2 Covering the all-women adventure film festival is more straight forward. It’s an event that takes place over a set span of time. Forget inverted pyramid, I’d be looking to write a feature story, one that has a memorable beginning and satisfying ending. Depending on the number of movies you might summarize plots and get reactions. Your reporting might extend to describing the scene and crowd reactions to a thrilling moment. All the while you need be thinking about how to open and close this one.
Great perspective on why Asian’s place more value on face. What they display is a direct representation of their family and co-workers. Americans are far less concerned because there is less of an effect on others, when their character is at stake. And, Americans tend to place great emphasis on individuals taking responsibility for their own actions, rather than the actions of a group.
The REI sponsored event on campus sounds like it would be a lot of fun and something I could see myself attending.
Great ideas, all.
Sorry for the late post but some story ideas I have are:
1. What is so unique and interesting about life in Alaska? What would want to bring someone here and how often do people travel out of Alaska?
2. What is life like being a mom in Fairbanks? What are patterns people experience?
3. How education is changing from the 90’s 00’s to today because of technology.
– I felt fairly safe on campus, personally. I used to live in the Eieleen House. I am glad there are bigger on saftey now than they were 25 years ago. It is very sad about Sophie Sergie’s death, but we are all glad they found who killed her and that he is being sentenced.
Adele,
I’m interested in your third idea. I think it would be very interesting, but maybe too broad? Maybe a good focus might be how classrooms have really changed now that there are entirely electronic classrooms like this one.
I have background and contacts for the first two of these ideas, the third one is more of observational with general curiosity.
1. Local business owners in media and production professions stories of how they started to where they are now, and advice they could give to those starting out.
2. Is there an effect from European tourist in Native Alaskan villages selling walrus ivory products due to international ivory bans?
3. Due to more air force or lower 48 residents moving to Fairbanks is there an increase in the demand for football over hockey?
#1 is an ever-green business story. Pick any specialty area. Collect three owner-operator perspectives. Look for points in common, as well as specific warnings, or accounts of good bets. If there are big consensus points, you might lead with a summary, or use the nut graph to emphasize those lessons will be addressed. You also may end up with a story that points out each business operator succeeded for very different reasons or strategies. In any event, I call it an ever-green because you this story form never gets old.
#2 A great straight-forward direction for reporting, you my find there’s been an effect. You may find it hasn’t hit, but artists who work in ivory are worried. As always, keep asking “who else should I talk to?”
#3 Impact of military newcomers favoring football vs. hockey– That premise reflects a hunch on your part. When you ask around, you may end up with a very different story about broader changes in youth interests, parental health concerns, or perhaps enrollment-driven changes. As a reporter, always keep an open mind. Be ready to shift focus if something else emerges that readers may find more interesting, or important to know.
Three ideas that are interesting to me at the moment to follow up and see if I can find more information would be:
1. What is Peacemaking and how is it used in rural villages.
2. Sled Dog Soldiers is a movie that I recently watched, and I would like to bring the information to local readers.
3. Certificate Authorities (CA’s) which allow devices to connect to devices. CA’s are used as a type of security certificate for devices.
These topics have meaning and can inform the readers with new information that may not have been in the news. These topics are challenging as there is so much information that it will be hard to narrow the quality of information into a readers connection with the information.
One story idea I have is sexism in the job market. I know from personal experience that women are still often offered lower salaries than men when applying for jobs, and I’d like to investigate and see how far it actually goes.
Another idea is the connection between subsitance activities and mental health for men in their teens and early twenties. This is the main demographic for suicide in our region. There recently was an article in the Arctic Sounder about a man from Noatak who was thinking about bringing back the traditional Qargi or men’s lodge, so this topic is something people are talking about right now.
On a lighter note, I’d like to investigate the cruise ship that goes through the Northwest Passage. I think the subjects interesting and people don’t know a lot about it even though it sails past us.
I am intrigued by the story of the Northwest passage and would like to know more about that.