On July 31, nine journalists in Jamie Flanagan’s Entertainment Coverage class conducted a Skype interview with Alanna and Jonathan Brown of The Rua, a British family pop rock band. The interview will be included in their articles about the band, which students will write through the course of the week.
“It’s a confidence builder to know that these international recording artists were eager and anxious and excited to talk to [the students],” Flanagan said. “They’re working journalists and this is going to go hopefully into their papers and onto their websites.”
Later this week, according to Flanagan, students will get a chance to interview another recording artist, country singer Ayla Brown.
Senior Anna Weigel said she enjoyed interviewing The Rua, and she is beginning to write a lede and gathering quotes for her article.
“I liked interviewing [The Rua] because it was a lot of fun and it was good to just see that they’re just like normal people,” Weigel said. “It helped just interviewing people in general and being less nervous.”
By the end of the course, Flanagan said his main goal is to instill confidence in the students.
“If you put some hard work in, do the footwork, you have access as a young reporter to everything the ‘big dogs’ do and you should be willing to go out there and put the work in to get it,” he said.
The students in the class will also learn how to write music, restaurant and movie reviews to enhance their entertainment writing skill.
Watch The Rua class interview below.
My name is Sophie Baus and I am in the Opinion Coverage class for the MIPA 2017 camp. I really liked the quotes included in the brief because I felt as if it contained good information about the interview experience and the take away from the interview. I think that the lede is a bit dry and ‘typical’ (starting with the date). To make is more interesting and really hook the readers you could start with a quote or maybe even one of the questions asked in the interview. I also think it might be more interesting to add how they even got the interview. I really like the pictures and captions at the end of the story, it adds a visual element readers can connect the story to and who the students and teacher are.
Hello, my name is Victoria Gardey and I’m taking the opinion coverage class. I thought you did a really good job with the LQTQ format as well as finding interesting quotes. You had really informative information throughout, however, I wish that your lead grabbed my attention a little more. I also like how you included video of the interview! Great job overall!