For this assignment you will conduct three journalistic interviews over a current event and write a news story using information from background research and the interviews you conduct.  The end product will be a three to five page story which you will also orally summarize for the class.  Your primary resources for this assignment will be Chapter 5 and materials in this section of the website.

You should begin by selecting a national, state, or local current event.  Although any event would be appropriate, you should keep in mind that you will need to be able to interview at least three "experts" on the subject.  You should conduct background research on the event.  This background research can include newspaper and magazine stories, WWW material, or other similar resources.

After researching the current event, you should find three "experts" to interview about the topic.  For this assignment, an expert can include anyone who has some expertise or interest in the topic.  After selecting the interviewees and scheduling a time to interview them, you should prepare interview guides for each interviewee which you will turn in with your story.  The format and content of the interview guides will vary depending on the topic and interviewee.  Your interview guide should contain a place for the interviewee to sign, date, and provide their phone number so that the interviews can be verified by your instructor.

After completing the interviews, you should prepare your news story.  Your story can either be written like a regular news story, or it can be written in a research paper format (your instructor may have additional guidelines).