It's All Been Done Before

Generating fresh, interesting story ideas or angles is one of the hardest obstacles for my beginning journalism students to overcome.   During our weekly brainstorm session students have access to the school’s weekly and monthly calendar, the school’s Facebook page, and the internet.  They are also encouraged to consider what is going on in classrooms, clubs, or the community at large, but inevitably they fall back on stories that are represented on the weekly events calendar and rarely have fresh or innovative ideas for coverage.   I feel like I am beating a dead horse when I remind them to look beyond the obvious or to consider telling the story no one has heard before about their event.  I share with them alternative story ideas, which they are always excited about, but so many of them are unable to come up with these ideas on their own.  Many of the beginning students want to fall back on what’s been done before rather than step out and try a new story idea.  Consequently, a lot of the coverage they generate is dry, monotonous., and skipped over by their peers.

I stumbled across the video, Teens talk about the stories theywish their school newspapers covered, and thought of my beginning journalism students.  Perhaps showing them this video where teens share stories they believe need to be covered would inspire them to branch out to reach their target readership with interesting, relevant, relatable, and meatier topics. 

Jennifer Woolsey
Sunrise Mountain HS
Peoria, AZ