Beat Reporting (JOU-4881-01)

Posts

Week 12 (11/26) Update

The week before our Thanksgiving break, I completed my fourth story. I did a broadcast package for the grand opening of “A Special Blend” in High Point. A Special Blend is a non-profit coffee shop business that originated in Greensboro, North Carolina. It expanded to a new location in downtown High Point. What makes this place so special is that it only employs workers with disabilities. The goal is to not only provide these workers with a comforting and improved working environment, but also to broaden the public's perception of people with disabilities. When going to film this package, I was a little more timid than normal because I knew I wanted to get an interview with one of the workers, but I wanted to make sure I approached the situation the right way to make sure he/she felt as comfortable as possible. To prepare for this, I planned extra ahead of time. I not only developed my interview questions with a different technique than normal, but I also created a relationship w...

Week 11 (11/12) Update

This past week, I submitted my story #3 beat broadcast package on Congdon Yards and the impact it is having on the entire High Point community. This week, on Wednesday, our story #4 drafts are due. I originally was planning on doing a story on the new homeless shelter, in association with Open Door Ministries, that is coming to High Point. After giving that more thought over the weekend, I decided to save that for my fifth story and do a multimedia version of it. Now, for my story #4, I will be doing it at the new coffee shop downtown, called “A Special Blend”. A Special Blend isn’t a typical coffee joint, it is a welcoming space that hires only special needs girls and boys to have a place to work. It just opened last week. Over the weekend, I reached out to the owner/creator of the cafe, and I am planning on going tomorrow to meet everyone and get some interviews and footage for a broadcast package. My overall beat in general has a lot of new upd...

Week 10 (11/5) Update

This week and weekend, I have taken the time to develop deeper into my story 3 assignment. After my rough draft was due last week, I have taken my extra time to add and tweak my original plans. This weekend, I went back to Congdon Yards to get even more b-roll for my package. On Friday, I also followed up with my two interviews to get even better soundbites and information from them. Tomorrow, I am meeting with the CEO of Congdon Yards, Rachel Moss, to get her information and facts on the transformation of this downtown sight. On Tuesday, I will be finalizing all my edits then revising my script, as well. Within my lifestyle beat itself, I spent time today looking over what is going on in the triad area and gathering more ideas for my next story. For example, on Friday, a High POint resident won $100,000 from a $30 scratch off ticket. I thought this was a light-hearted story, but I don’t think it would be effective to cover. Another story that stuck out to me that I could possibl...

Week 9 (10/30) Update

Throughout this past week and after submitting my final story 2 on Wednesday, I’ve made decent progress with my story 3. I took time to expand on the google document of information on my third story of Congdon Hall, and gather more information. I also came up with a few strong interview questions to ask my subjects later in the week. Tomorrow, I will be going to Congdon Hall again to get a good amount of my b-roll filmed for my package. When I am there, I also want to see if I could get a couple of sound bites from any students or community members who are there. My beat in general has a few things going on. One that stood out to me was a NC student who just became the first transgender royal court queen. This would be a good story to do. More locally, the proposed High Point homeless shelter announced its plans moving forward. I also believe this would be a good story to cover.

Week 8 Update (10/22)

This week, I worked more in depth on my wakelet story on the top 5 Halloween-themed events in North Carolina. Even though our draft was due last week and I had a good chunk of it complete, I decided to make it the best that I could, so I did even more research to provide the best information possible on my five events. On Saturday evening, I even physically went to the one local event myself (Woods of Terror) to get a real life experience about the event. I took some of my own photos to incorporate into my wakelet story. I also took some time over the weekend to look into my third story on Congdon Yards. I created a google doc sheet on some research I found along with some contact references to use. I looked up what good days and times are to go to Congdon Yards to check out the building on my own time. This week, I plan on finalizing, perfecting and submitting my final wakelet story and also getting ahead on my third story. My beat in general has a lot of updates as ...

Week 7 (10/15) Update:

Over fall break, I took some extra time to finalize what I am reporting on for my second story. Originally, I was planning on doing my story on the Congdon Yards facility and the fall art exhibit that is being hosted there for the community of High Point. After learning in class how to use the platform Wakelet, I decided to work on this for my second story in my beat, and save Congdon Yards for my third. I decided to do this because I wanted to work on it over the fall break week, but realized it would be hard to do without physically being in High Point. Since the Wakelet assignment is all done through personal research and design, I chose to work on that. Over the break, I took time to decide what to focus my Wakelet beat story on. Because it is the Halloween/Fall time of year, I decided to focus my story on the top 5 best Halloween-themed events throughout the state of North Carolina. I took time to research the most popular events that are hosted in the ...