Planning Audio Reports & Identifying a Driving Question
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The document discusses how to effectively narrow the focus for an interview and story planning, particularly when addressing broad topics such as homelessness. It emphasizes the importance of formulating a clear driving question to guide the narrative and gather relevant audio, pictures, or video that support the story. Additionally, it suggests brainstorming and feedback within groups to refine story concepts and identify essential elements for the report.
Planning Audio Reports & Identifying a Driving Question
- 1. Narrowing your Focus Interview questions & Story Plan
- 2. Do you have a topic or a story? “I want to report on homelessness in our city.” “We need to do a story on this new environmental policy.” Too often, the resulting feature remains a broad topic that never quite fi nds its story.The focus isn’t clear and it sounds more like a collection of quotes than a purposeful story with a beginning, middle and end.
- 3. • You need to imagine the sorts of pictures or “tape” you need. • Gathering pics/audio/ video takes time, and it’s not easy to go back and get something you need. • For the sake of ef fi ciency you’ve got to think ahead!
- 4. The scope should be narrow but not too narrow: • What is going on with homelessness in city? • What does the mayor say about the homelessness issue? • What has been the impact so far of the city’s new initiative to reduce homelessness? <= too broad <= too narrow It asks “why?” or “how?” • Why has homelessness increased so much in the past 5 years? You can at least begin to answer it The driving question
- 5. The driving question 1. What’s the problem your story seeks to explore? 2. Who is affected? 3. Who is doing something about it and what are they doing? 4. What question do you personally really want to know the answer to? 5. What’s most important, new or different about this topic? 6. What does my audience need to understand? What about this story is relevant to their lives? 7. Describe 1-2 pieces of must-have audio. Start basic.The point of this prompt is to ensure that your story will actually answer the question it’s exploring.
- 6. The driving question 8. My driving question for my audio report is: 9. List 6 questions to ask the person you will interview for this assignment 10. Identify an expert you can interview who would be able to answer your questions. Provide name, contact info and an explanation why they are an expert on this topic.
- 7. Brainstorm the driving question (3-5 minutes) What might be the single, driving question for your story? Write everything that comes to mind, even if it seems silly. Each question could present a different pathway for the story. At the end of this step, take a moment to scan through what you wrote and identify one or two questions that seem most promising.
- 8. Explore where the story could lead You’re not making fi nal decisions, you’re testing out the concept. 1. Get into groups of two or three. 2. One participant begins by laying out the premise of their story and their chosen driving question. 3. The group weighs in, offering feedback and questions.
- 9. Describe 1-2 pieces of must-have “tape.” What kind of story is this? What will you leave out? What elements do not help to answer your central question? Questions to ask: