The document contains summaries for four potential news stories:
1) The impact of school mergers in Melbourne and challenges obtaining photos and interviews.
2) Issues with animal abandonment and evaluating programs to address the problem.
3) Continuing drug usage in Melbourne and examining perspectives of users and rehabilitation.
4) Challenges for a journalism student in finding newsworthy stories, conducting research, and applying skills to create effective news pieces.
3. CONTENT SUMMARY
• Story about the impact of multiple schools
merging to form one larger school
• Worsened in some areas because of population growth
but diminishing facilities
• Government putting funding on hold
STORY CHOICE and SIGNIFICANCE
•The story is timely and has newsworthiness because
there were a number of reports about a shortage of
schools in the area
•It is significant because it affects different
communities across Melbourne
4. AUDIO VISUAL SUMMARY
Includes video vox pop and photos
Photos were hard to come by because the
school was not really keen to have photos of
its general grounds taken while students
were around
Vox pop was challenging because not many
students around uni understood what school
mergers were
Asking people is always a challenge because
they are reluctant to appear in video and/or
online
5. CONTENT SUMMARY
Many animals abandoned, homeless or not
adequately cared for
Want to look at why this occurs (frequency,
circumstances, consequences)
Examine the programs and initiatives that
exist to counter these problems
Look at whether these programs are
effective and if there is more that could be
done
6. AUDIO VISUAL PLANS
Record audio of interview with ‘talent’ to
create audio grabs (about 2 mins)
Could have different views in audio
Photos of animal hospitals and facilities
Graphs and data images of problems that
exist as well as charting effectiveness of
programs
7. STORY CHOICE and SOURCES
No ‘break through’ news piece, but always
prevalent, especially in local newspapers
Different spin on issues: rather than another
report about animal cruelty, look at reasons
why it is happening
Research for education campaigns, facts and
figures about frequency of occurrence and
effectiveness of programs
Interviews with RSPCA, Lort-Smith Animal
hospital, Vet students and animal rights
advocates
8. New report shows drug usage is not
diminishing, experts saying war on drugs is
failing
Briefly look at who is using drugs, what type
and why
Maybe photos of ‘nightclub’ and ‘drug’ scene
in Melbourne
Has a lot of timeliness and relevance with
multiple reports in the news
Interview health experts and potential casual
users
9. STORY SUMMARY
Feature story relates to the hard news about
drug use in our communities
Examine victim’s perspective: people who
have used drugs as well as family members
who have been impacted by others using
Effectiveness of programs implemented and
debate about decriminalisation
A culture of drug use?
10. AUDIO VISUAL PLANS
Interview from victim’s perspective to draw
human interest element
Have audio grabs and video on top of photos
and potentially reporting
Photos of drug rehabilitation centres
Vox pop of society, either in audio format or
in print with photos
11. STORY CHOICE and SOURCES
Significant because very current and
newsworthy, affects many parts of society
Wanted to highlight different perspective –
drug users are not all ‘bad people’ who
actively choose to live their lives like that
Sources are health professionals, drug
experts, rehab clinic personnel, victims and
family of victims
12. Finding suitable ideas that were newsworthy
and had enough depth to write a feature and
investigative story
Doing preliminary research to find potential
sources and information
Using new software and technology
Keeping up with lecture content and theories
of electronic journalism as a DE student
Putting theory into practice and applying
hands on experience to put together
effective news stories