Are you tired of trying to come up with new story ideas? Do you feel that your publication does the same types of stories over and over again? This lesson is designed to help students create new and interesting story ideas using the internet. At the conclusion of the lesson, students can actually produce a video package. However, students should already have the skills to edit videos because this lesson does not teach those skills.

 

You have been given the title of senior editor for your school's broadcasting show and the responsibility of increasing viewers and advertising!

First, call a meeting with your staff and tell them no more stories on parking and the cafeteria ladies! From now on, story ideas cannot be decided upon on the way to class...they will have to research and really think about the topics that will be aired!

Now, I suggest you have doughnuts or candy readily available because you will more than likely have some hostile staff members ready to retaliate.

So what do you do? Where will you find resources to come up with these great story ideas? Remember, your job is to increase viewers and advertisers. Remember your audience is usually made up of students, teachers, administrators, support staff, parents and often other community members. So where can you find information that that might be relevant to all of them?

The Newspaper!

That was easy! Or was it?

With thousands of newspapers in circulation, how will you decide which newspaper to use? The largest types of newspapers are daily, weekly and college formats. While the daily newspapers are often larger and carry more stories, the smaller weekly newspapers may carry more news about your community.

When you see this symbol, it is time to refer to your handout to answer questions.

 

Note: Any time you are doing research, the links will be opened in a new window. To get back to the iAdventure, simply close your window browser.

Click on the following web sites to research various daily and weekly newspapers.

http://kansascitystar.com/
http://www.globe.com/
http://www.dallasnews.com/

http://www.metropulse.com

http://www.lsjournal.com

http://www.newssun.com

Now that you have looked at several examples of daily and weekly newspapers, take a minute to find at least one daily and one weekly newspapers in your area. Use the following websites below.

http://www.allnewspapers.com/

http://www.showbizdata.com/treehouse/showbiz/news/daily.htm

http://www.wheretodoresearch.com/News/US_Newspapers.htm

Thinking about your city and local papers, which one would better suit your publication?

You should now see the difference between daily and weekly newspapers. Keeping your program in mind, choose one of the following.

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