SOURCES FOR HIGH SCHOOL STORY IDEAS
Struggling to find a newsworthy topic? Here are some ideas to guide your topic selection. Remember, as news story producers, you have the powerful responsibility to control and shape what information is included or withheld from your story.
WALL POSTERS: Create a "wall poster beat" especially for first-year broadcast journalism students. First-year students could be required to bring in three story ideas at the end of each week based on posters they see on the walls around school. The story ideas must be accompanied by the names of at least two sources for information and at least two questions to ask each source.
BRAINSTORM AROUND A SINGLE TOPIC: Regularly ask, "Are we producing stories that reflect the entire school and not just one group of students?" Brainstorm around a single topic. For example, a discussion about the school cafeteria could lead to stories on the nutritional values of the food, whether accommodations are made for vegetarians, why students tend to segregate themselves by race at the lunch tables, the hard work that cafeteria workers do for generally low wages, the selling of sodas and restaurant chain food in the cafeteria, efforts to recycle, etc.
OFFHAND STUDENT COMMENTS: Build on an offhand comment like, "Biology class is so boring." Keep asking "why?" Interesting story angles will tumble out, such as outdated books, an overcrowded class, no labs, no funds for field trips, etc. Ask the students what their friends are talking about.
POST-MORTEM OF SHOW: While conducting a post-mortem of the current show, be sure to ask which story was the big "talker" or piqued the most interest among readers? Get the students to break it down into why a particular story "clicked" with teens.
AFTER WEEKEND: On Monday, ask students what they did over the weekend. At one school, this led a story about how the lives of today's teens are busier than what their parents experienced during their youth, from less sleep to more hours spent at after-school jobs.
SCHOOL MASTER CALENDAR AND UPDATES: Use the official school calendar and its updates as a way to check upcoming events for possible stories. Students should be looking at least six weeks into the future, or at least two weeks past the publication date of the next news show.
PTO (PTA) NEWSLETTER: They usually are crammed with names, dates, honors, etc. But they usually only devote a sentence or two to each item. Your news staff should be receiving one regularly and looking for story ideas. The PTA organization itself, along with various booster clubs, also can be a source.
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER: Be sure you are on the mailing list / distribution list for any school newsletter that is aimed at faculty and staff. Many of them can only be found online at the school’s web site.
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT HEADS: Encourage department heads to keep the news show informed about new programs, students who win awards, future competitions, interesting achievements by faculty / staff, etc. Guidance (perhaps one of the most under-covered offices in school) and athletics must be included in this list, too, and the school should have its own copy of the official list of clubs and organizations and sponsors, which probably is updated at the beginning of each school year. Establish a similar relationship with club sponsors/advisers on interesting club projects and activities.
SCHOOL BOARD / SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION: Many school boards and/or administrations publish a newsletter, which you should be getting. Most school boards and/or administrations have a public affairs or public information officer, whom you should know. (This is the person who answers questions from the press.)
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS / LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS: If your school board is elected, find out who represents the district where your school is situated and get to know that person. Know who the chairman of the board is. Know who your local district's elected official (city council, town council, county supervisor) is. These people can provide information on big education issues (budgets, boundary changes, important policy changes).
OTHER SCHOOL NEWS SHOWS/NEWSPAPERS: You need to know what other school news shows and newspapers in your district are reporting on and how they are designing their show. Go online to http://www.highschooljournalism.org (look under students & HS newspaper links) for good newspaper stories that could be worked into a broadcast package, and see the list below for high school news shows. If you see a good story idea from another school paper or news show that can be turned into a local story about your students, steal the idea.
LOCAL COMMERCIAL AND COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS: Your news show should be getting the local commercial paper daily, or at least once or twice a week, and your staff should be combing the paper for story ideas about schools, education and youth (not to mention sports). Look for story ideas to steal. (Don't plagiarize it.) Same for the weekly town newspapers often distributed free.
NEARBY AREAS OF COMMERCE AND BUSINESS: Stories about the portion of the community surrounding the school often relate to the business districts around the school. Occasional story ideas: new businesses moving in and needing teen employees; new traffic patterns around school because of new development; overviews of summer job hiring, holiday job hiring. And don't forget that these businesses might be sources of advertising revenue
OTHER STORY IDEAS
Music: what they like to listen to, why, is it sending a message?
Family generations who have attended our school.
Alumni and recent grads: What courses helped to prepare them for the post secondary education/work force.
Student Press Rights: Prior review happening by administration? Gaining freedom of the press.
School security: how safe is your school? How well do those cameras/hall passes work? Do teachers check passes when someone is walking in the halls during classes? Test it and see.
Internet as a tool, not a life: What sites are popular? Main reason for using the internet, etc?
School technology, is it up to par?
School web site, should it exist? And other club/sports sites linked to the school site?
Students and what they’re dreaming. Meaning? You run but you can’t…etc.
Sportsmanship and is it happening at our school.
Student parking: Fee? Enough spaces? Procedure?
Senior Skip Day: an old rite of passage. How it started, traditions, attendance issues, etc.
Price of senior pictures. What does that price include?
Performance Enhancing Drugs like Creatine and steroids. How safe? Effects? More about the drug.
Personal Profiles: interview someone who’s making a difference in the school. Ex.: Yearbook editor.
One in the crowd: Ex. An Asian student in an all-western cultured, caucasian high school.
MCAS as a graduation requirement: how many don’t qualify because of MCAS? What is being done? How do students feel?
Hate groups: How do they affect us.
Religion: in-depth look at how religion affects students at our school.
Students as Undercover Agents: Some students are recruited as informants for the police.
What would you do for money?
Friends: Some groups have their own names in some schools. In-depth look at these groups.
Substitutes: Story on what students do to drive subs up the wall. Interviews w/ subs.
Going back to school after a teen pregnancy.
Violence in schools
Students who quit smoking through school programs or on own.
Former student drug users and their decisions to quit.
Time on certain assignments: How much time teachers give, etc.
Vegetarians in the school.
Students’ most embarrassing moments.
Students with eating disorders.
Sleep deprivation and how it affects students: Looking at their schedules, whether it be AP courses, work, or other, are teens getting enough sleep?
Student celebrity look-alikes.
The Hauler: worst/best cars in the student parking lot.
Summer Reading/Expensive Equipment: Schools cannot force you to buy books/equipment. A look at that issue.
Verbatim: Get teachers to say their catch phrases for a fun package idea. Get interviews from students on these teachers as well.