Amna Durrani- JFreshman Application

I’m sure most journalists have come to the conclusion that the future of News Media is on the internet. People no longer want to just be viewers, they want to be able to participate and have some control over what they watch. Also, people are more likely to watch newscasts or read newspapers that present local news, as can be seen by the success of newspapers like “The Athens News.”

My first step of producing a newscast would be to create an online forum (very similar to “reddit.com”) where people could discuss, “up vote” and “down vote” recent, local news stories and comments made about them. This would be my primary method of selecting content. It would be a mixture of top voted, top discussed, and one or two stories that would be “producer’s choice” (stories that have not gotten much publicity but are about relevant issues that need to be discussed).

Once the stories have been chosen, the actual production can begin. Instead of the traditional method of having a reporter telling the story; I would have the actual, local people involved tell the viewers the facts of the story from their own mouths. Then, after the story had been introduced, I would follow up with an interview of the same people by an informed journalist. The interviewer would then pose questions that people had posted online and had “up voted” the most.

Let me use the story of the recent church arson in hocking valley as an example; it is first put on the forum for people to discuss. After a day or two, let’s say it is the most discussed story on the forum and people have voted it up to the top position. We would then go out to the location, film the pastor of the church telling us the story, then film a statement from the Sheriff and a statement from the suspected arsonist as well (all of this without a reporter). Then, we would arrange an interview with all three people (pastor, sheriff, suspect) and create a new discussion on the forum where viewers can post questions that the interviewer should ask. The interview would then be filmed (or presented live during the actual newscast). After the newscast, people can continue to discuss the story online and as new developments occur in the story, we would post a follow up to the story.

I have not had much experience with broadcasting or journalism. The only publication I have been directly involved in was a local English language literary magazine in Frankfurt, Germany. I worked on it for three years and was the Editor for one issue before moving to the US. I have some skill and experience with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, all self-taught. I am very quick to learn though and at ease using cameras, computers and graphic tablets etc. I hope that you find my ideas worthwhile because I could bring a lot to the JFreshman Newsroom with just my drive and passion.

~Amna Durrani