midterm news story

The Midterm Exam has two parts:

• Part 1 asks how you would go about gathering and documenting information for a story about a news tip that I have provided. Part 1 is worth 40% of your exam grade. 
• Part 2 asks you to write a complete news story based on information that I have provided. Part 2 is worth 60% of your exam grade.

Please submit your responses to both parts of the exam as a single document.

Part 1

For Part 1, answer all five questions below in essay format. You can bullet some items if you’d like, just be sure to answer the questions thoroughly and clearly.

Story Scenario

You are a reporter for the Providence Journal and you are writing for today’s paper. It is January and you have just received a tip from an anonymous caller that a homeless person was found dead last night behind the Crossroads building. That’s all the information you have.

Explain in detail how you would “track down” the information for this story. Do so by answering all five questions below:

1. Does this constitute news? If so, what do readers need and want to know about this incident? What “merit” or “value” does this story have in terms of its potential impact on the Rhode Island community?

1. Where would you go to get the information you need? Who specifically would you call and why? Who, if anybody, would you personally interview? (Allow this exercise to take you wherever you need to go to get the full story.)

1. What questions would you ask? What records, if any, would you ask to see?

1. Would you include the victim’s name in the news story? Why or why not?

1. Would you ask the editor to assign a photographer to shoot a picture to accompany your story? If yes, explain what kind of a photograph you envision. If not, explain why.