Video journalism/Identify a news story

By the end of this assignment you should have identified a news story by way of assessment of its news worthiness. This will establish if the story has enough density to be developed into a current affairs piece and onwards to a documentary. To store and display this work, you will develop a basic website to work on your assignments. You will also begin to make active viewer's analysis and critique of any video material that is available on your news story. You should also espouse some basic ideas about video production, ethics and issues, and publish this on your website (blog).

Journalists taking pictures and photographs on May 20, 2010, after the army assault in Bangkok at the positions of the Red Shirts.

Set up a basic website for your news story

Establish a basic website, such as a blog, to post this your first assignment. Name the website based on your name as a journalist. This website will be the place for you to submit all of your assignments, a place for documenting your work to completion, and it may later become your professional workspace for showing your professionalism. It should be publicly available so your colleagues and your Chief of Staff Reviewer can see your work and progress.

Identify a news story

In your first post, link or display video news clips that relate to your story idea. These clips should be news, either in raw form, or as final produced video. Working with verifiable facts only, write your own perspective around this envisaged news story, and prepare a 300 word pitch for the Chief of Staff Reviewer.

The story that you identify will form the basis of your entire news to documentary project. Naturally, this pitch should be a subject area that you are familiar with, culturally, and it should be one that you are confident will remain fresh and inspiring to you throughout this study schedule.

You may find useful video at the following channels:

• http://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday
• http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRealNews
• http://www.youtube.com/user/aljazeerachannel
• http://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow
• http://www.theglobalmail.org/

Your rationale

After your pitch to the Chief of Staff Reviewer, write a 300 word rationale as to why this news story subject area is going to be productive as a news story through to documentary. Make this rationale refer to:

• news worthiness
• screen worthiness
• screen aesthetic
• usable audio
• interview richness
• dramatic qualities
• currency
• proximity
• moral breach
• transformation or change inherent in the event as portrayed in the story.

The practicalities

Then finally, write another 300 words describing how all these qualities might be practically built into a news story. Do you have the resources, the access, the contacts and the qualities to develop this news story through to a documentary? If not, how do you propose to acquire them?

Examples

(Under construction) The following are examples of previous work done for this assignment:

• Example one
• Example two
• Example three