News Gathering
Interviews and news stories go hand in hand in the journalism world. A story canʻt be good unless the reporter goes out and captures the testimony of people who have opinions, experts, and critics. When I write stories, I venture out to the community or the student body and I ask questions on their thoughts of a situation, what they think could be done, what has an event impacted in their lives, etc. A lot of my interviews are conducted in person, however, I have done email interviews before and phone call interviews. The most important part of a story is to connect it back to the reader and incorporate the voices and input of officials and those in the community.
Song Contest Postponed
One of my most extensive interviews happened on March 12th when, for the first time in the history of Kamehameha Schools, our annual tradition of Song Contest was postponed. My school held a special broadcast on our school's student broadcast system to inform all 1,600 faculty, staff, and students the grim news that our song contest would be postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As soon as the broadcast was finished, I immediately began drafting a story to push out as breaking news. I obtained the video of the broadcast from the broadcasting department, I emailed my institutionʻs communications division for a statement regarding the postponement, I asked alumni what their thoughts were, and I asked students for their opinions about the schoolʻs response. I got all the information that I gathered and I created an in-depth report on the situation at hand.
Notes
When I write down notes for an interview, I put down who the person is and I confirm with them the spelling of their name and their job title or their graduating class. I then write down what the question they are responding to is. After that is when I write down their statements and jot down any side notes that they have. After my interviewee completes their statement, I normally go over all of the information that they gave me to ensure that I got an accurate statement of what they said. Accuracy is one of the biggest things I like to focus on because you only have one chance to make a good impression and it is my duty as a journalist to produce the most accurate and quality information that I can.
Emails
If I am unable to contact a person due to distance or time, I send that person an email. I introduce myself in the email as apart of the school newspaper and I ask for their consent to have their statement put into the newspaper. I put under the asking of consent line, ”if you consent to have your statement in the newspaper, can you please answer the following:”. After that, I list all of my questions. My institution has all of its legal teams, executives, and communications team all at a site off-campus that is inaccessible for students to go to because of school hours. I find that email works the best for pulling the exact quote of a person and be able to incorporate that in a story. I have done this on several occasions before such as the Song Contest story, Midkiff renovation, Chef Dean, etc.