Blog 20: Room Creativity

1. How do you plan to address the room creativity expectation?
     I plan on addressing the room creativity expectation by using posters and decor revolving around my topic of journalism. To do this, I will create various posters with my essential question and posters about small subtopics within journalism. Another idea I had for decor was to hang newspapers and magazines from around the country or globe including the New York Times, The Poly Post, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, ten57 Magazine, etc. This, I believe will enhance my presentation and allow for my audience to really capture the essence of journalism and its impact on our daily lives. Using magazines that teens read, such as TeenVogue, Seventeen, etc. will enhance this goal of mine. 
2. What activity ideas do you have for answer 1 or 2?
    For my first two answers, I was thinking of one activity revolving around the idea of good interviewing (Answer 2: TEA Method) and my Answer 1, accuracy/research. For my first answer, which revolves around research and accuracy, I plan on having an activity that is based on checking sources. This can be incorporated into the previous activity and be made into a Part 1, Part 2 sequence. Part 1 would incorporate Answer 1, which is about researching the interviewee and checking sources, while Part 2 would include the actual interviewing process of planning effective questions and working toward a presented story that their "editor" has assigned them. This will involve my audience and allow them to work with others to create effective questions for their given goal/story.

Blog 19: Answer 2

• Provide a rough draft in how you plan to address the following:
• EQ: What is most important to success in journalism?
• Answer 2: One of the most important keys to success in journalism is through using the TEA methods to have effective interviews. Interviewing is a vital source for stories, as most stories will be based off interviews with the "players" of a scenario/case in which you are reporting. 
• The TEA method consists of: 
• Telling the interviewee how questions will be used
• Preparing effective questions
• Creating a comfortable atmosphere
• Evidence/Sources= 3 pieces (facts and examples)
• 1. 13 Simple Journalist Techniques for Effective Interviews by Sarah Stueville: This article provided me with tips about the atmosphere of an interview. I had never thought about how much the setting of an interview can affect the interviewee and their responses. For example, the article states that "people are more comfortable in a familiar place". This can aid the interviewee provide insightful and useful information.
• 2. Interview Questions by Media College: This article was aimed toward the importance of having questions prepared ahead of time before an interview. This is essential for having a base of questions to start off from. Of course, an journalist should have the ability to think on their feet, but having a few set questions will allow for more time.
• 3. Interviewing: The Ignored Skill by Poynter.org: This article by Poynter.org refers to how society tends to believe that anyone can ask questions and interview, however, this is an incorrect assumption. Example:  "If we aren’t proficient at asking the right questions at the right time, we’ll miss on accuracy, fall short on context, and stumble on fairness."
• 4. Personal Interview with Cecily Arambula, EIC of Poly Post: My interview with my mentor at my service learning facility, The Poly Post, spoke to me about the importance of having effective questions prepared. This, she explained, can be achieved by doing sufficient research. She explained this to me by talking about her own experience when tracking down the University's president. She only had a few minutes between two of his meetings on campus to get an insightful story for the newspaper. She did this by researching and having a set of prepared questions beforehand.

Blog 18: The Product

As of March, my product is improved interviewing skills. This is because prior to my senior project, I would take my interviews lightly and would often have to do double-takes to get the story I wanted/needed. Now, with the combination of my service learning and research, I have been able to get my interviews done faster and have them be more efficient and therefore, not have to do them over. I feel as though the work that I have been giving has been of higher quality/standard as a result of my senior project. For example, the senior project spread I had been working on took my partner (Leah Rodarte) and I, approximately less than two weeks to complete. This was done faster than prior stories that took up to 4 weeks and had to be corrected/edited several times.

Product Definition: My interviewing skills have improved. My interviews now are more efficient in both quality and time.