"OUR first package for the NewsHour" by Sam, Libby and Corbin
Lynn gives Corbin and Libby last minute feedback
At the begining of the last Six weeks of the 2010 fall semester, The Advanced A/V Production Class at Austin high was blessed with an oportunity that is for most student journalists, a once in a life time chance... to get a package onto the PBS News Hour program. Gil introduced us to his friends Lynn Boswell and Erica Aguillar who are both professional journalists and set the expectations for the coming year. We would be working with The PBS NewsHour to make packages. So Gil split the class into groups, which we picked ourselves, from which we were to make a package concerning either immigration or the economy, but with a student's perspective.
With all the necessary materials in a our hands the first step was to decide what topic was most tender in our hearts at that time. Originally Corbin, Libby, and I had forged a group based on the concept of capitalism and lobbiests controlling the government and for that matter America at the time. After further reviewing of the topic we decided that it was a little bit too "crack-pot" of a theory and we wouldn't have much luck finding credible sources for the interviews, as well as it being a very broad topic. so we began to brainstorm ways on how to refine the idea into something more manageable. Brainstorm after brainstorm, revision after revision, it wasn't until we were on the subject of economy when Corbin mentioned that he helped out for a local non-profit regularly and he had noticed that the economy's downward tailspin had had a perfuse effect on peoples giving to non-profits. We then speculated and hypothosized possible reasons why people might give less when those people they give it to need it the most. And with that thought still reverberating in our heads we set out to discover the closest thing we could to the truth while still staying ethical in our journalism, sadly this is not as easy as it should be to get a solid factual story without snooping around and going behind organization's backs or lying about the interview questions. Several organizations actually declined interviews on the premise of not wanting to draw attention or be brought into the same light of certain non-profit groups that went crooked over the years.
The six weeks is at a close, and as we wrap up the final touches on our PBS News Hour package we can't say we learned anything new or "christmasy" about ourselves but we did learn how hard it can be to go through all the steps necessary for making a package and how important integrity and ethics are in good journalism. And that making a package for Gils Media class is as hard and can be related to a science project with a thesis, hypothesis and testing of the idea. Even now as we want to add the right touches our story continues to change and morph and refine into exactly what we want and i know that even if we dont get the grade we want on it, we will get the package we wanted and thats the most important thing to an ethical journalist. Take a look below to check it out
