News Gathering
Conducting Interviews
Before I go to interview a person for any story or caption, I always make a small list of questions to ask them. I do this because they are discussion points that need to be addressed in the interview. I write them down so that I'm able to get to the point and not waste the time of the person I am interviewing. It also creates a professional atmosphere during the interview and they are more likely to take me seriously. I also research about the interviewee before conducting the interview. For example, if I had to interview the boy's basketball team about their season, I would first look up their record. This way, I can ask them questions about why they are losing more than half their games or about what their plans are to improve this season. I would also find out which members are vital to the team. Of course, team captains and coaches need to be interviewed, but so do the players who score the most points or most strongly represent the team. This additional research allows me to get in-depth quotes about my story and helps me get right to the point.
Taylor-Dawn Autry Interview for Caption
InterviewCan you identify the other people in this photo for me?
“Yes, Hunter McCulley and Officer Ray.” How did it feel to be asked to homecoming at school? “It was pretty cool. It kinda took me by surprise, but it was really cool and I liked it.” What was your reaction to Officer Ray aiding in the proposal? “It scared me at first, because obviously he is a cop so I was like ‘oh no I did something wrong’ but it was cool the school got involved and helped with it.” What is your personal opinion of homecoming? “I really enjoy it. I just like being with my friends and just getting to hang out and have fun.” Explain the homecoming proposal for me. “Officer Ray came to my first period, and he said that someone had hit my car and I needed to come to the office to look at the footage. As I was walking down the hallway, he [Officer Ray] asked me where I parked and stuff. Once we got to the rotunda he [Hunter McCulley] was standing there with a sign.” What was your initial reaction of being told someone hit your car? “It scared me, because I was like really you can’t be more careful? It just scared me and I kinda got mad, but I got over it obviously." |
CaptionUNDER ARREST After being asked to fall homecoming, juniors Hunter McCulley and Taylor-Dawn Autry pose with Officer Ray. Officer Ray pulled Autry out of her class and informed her someone had hit her car while McCulley stood waiting in the rotunda. “It scared me at first because obviously he’s a cop, so I was like ‘Oh no I did something wrong’, but it was cool the school got involved and helped with it,” Autry said.
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Travis Fink Interview for Caption
InterviewDo you know who this girl is that you’re chasing?
“I don’t know who that is, so your guess is as good as mine. That was the young life club, so I could maybe ask some students when we get back and we can find out her name, but no I don’t know who that is.” So why are you a part of the Young Life club? “So about four or five years ago, we were approached by the area leader of the Young Life organization, and they wanted to start a Young Life club here at Har-Ber, and they kind of were looking for faculty that were like minded and wanted to support their work and their beliefs, and so I don’t know exactly how we got connected, but we got connected, and I appreciated their mission and their mindset that they want to reach kids and share their faith in a really fun way and in a real relational way. Specifically, trying to reach students who may not be super involved and plugged in at a local church. So that’s kind of why I got involved in Young Life personally, and that’s kind of why we have a Young Life club here.” Sweet. So you’re playing a game of tag in the picture? “Yes. I think it’s called like ‘elbow tag’ but yes, it's kind of like a variant of a tag game, so essentially it is.” So why did you play that at your club? “So Young Life really wants to be built on a foundation of fun, and so they want it to be a place where students want to come, and so the college leaders are always trying to play games, goof off, kind of be silly, and this was just the game of the day for that Friday club. It was a nice enough day to go outside, and we had a fairly big crowd, so it was kind of the game we chose.” |
CaptionLINKED BY FINK Chasing a young life member, Calculus Teacher Travis Fink plays elbow tag at a Young Life club meeting. The mission of Young Life is to spread the Christian faith and reach students who might not be well connected to local churches. "Young Life really wants to be built on a foundation of fun so they want it to be a place that students want to come, so the college leaders are always trying to play games," Fink said.
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Interviews for Indifference Story for LEMKE
Interview of Kennedy Mcclure |
Indifference Story by Madelyn Stout, Rachel Sanchez Smith, Deqlyn Buttrey |
How many hours are you on social media a day?
“Probably two or three hours a day.” Is that time you just gave me per social media outlet or in general? “It is probably per social media outlet.” What social media outlets do you use? “I use Instagram, Snapchat, sometimes Twitter. I don’t really use facebook.” Do you ever sit down and watch the news on TV? “Sometimes yeah, when it is on.” Do you read the local or national newspaper at all? “Oh no.” Do you feel like you gain a lot of information about the world through your social media outlets? “Yes. On Twitter, I follow our news station. On instagram, there are accounts I follow that keep up in the loop.” Do you read the Herald? “No. I probably should though.” So you don’t really know what is going on in our schools,but you know what is going on worldly? “Yes.” What Instagram accounts do you follow that give you your news? “I follow a newspaper, and they give little updates of what is going on. KNWA has an instagram, and they usually post stuff. Or it is just random accounts that post random stuff about what is going on, and I take a few seconds to watch the video. “ Is it more beneficial to you to get your news from social media outlets, instead of watching or reading a news program? “Yes, because the first thing I do in my free time is go to social media, and when it is already there, it is just so much easier for me to stay involved.” Do you always believe everything you read on social media? “No. There are a lot of things, you know, that you have to second guess yourself about. Sometimes I will look into and research about it, but most of the time, if it sounds out of sorts, I won’t believe it.” How do you tell fake news from reliable news? “When you read something and you think, ‘That’s just idotic or that’s just dumb,’ I know it probably isn’t true. It’s true when you have real people being interviewed and getting footage of them.” Which social media do you use the most? “Probably Instagram.” Do you feel as though you can trust a student journalist? “I think yes. I think that when it is told from the perspective of someone as if they are writing about our school and what is going on, it is easier to trust when a student is going through it and giving us their perspective." |
As Har-Ber sophomore Kennedy Mcclure scrolls through her Instagram feed, accounts such as KNWA roll over the screen of her phone, allowing her to stay updated in her community.
“I’m probably on social media two to three hours a day per social media outlet,” Mcclure said According to the Pew Research Center, ninety two percent of youths from 13 to 17 browse the internet daily using their mobile devices. With this generation, printed paper seems to be out of the competition for publication of news. According to CNBC’s Sara Salinas, Instagram stories have now doubled Snapchats daily users with a total of 400 million users. Busy schedules lead students to believe they don’t have time to sit down and read or watch a long news program. They turn to social media for quick facts. “It’s simply more convenient” said Har-Ber high school junior Aura Vargas. Many students at Har-Ber High School are part of social media outlets such as Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook. Alone Vargas has 2 Instagram accounts, a Twitter account, a Tumblr account, a Snapchat account, a Facebook account, and a Youtube account, many of which she utilizes as a source of news. Mcclure has an Instagram account, a Twitter account, a Snapchat account, and a Facebook account. Students are turning more towards social media platforms and in return turning away from the printed press, especially high school newspapers. “When I am in my free time the first thing I do is go to social media, and when the news is already there it is so much easier than finding a station and sitting there for awhile,” Mcclure said. While some students don’t follow any social media news accounts, others follow ones such as Buzzfeed News, Buzzfeed World, CBS Sports, and so on. These new accounts differ from that in the printed press by not having key ideas such as quotes and the whole detailed story. In fact in many cases the posts these accounts publish are full of statistics and quick facts. Buzzfeed News published a post about the Floods in California. The headline of this post was “Catastrophic Floods Have Turned California Towns Into Islands And The Photos Are Surreal”. The post contains a total of four photos with unidentified people and a short passage saying “Days of unrelenting heavy rains have left thousands of Northern California residents stranded. Officials say it is the worst flooding the area has seen in more than two decades, and one rivere swelled 14 feet above the flood stage.” USA TODAY’s Doyle Rice, reported on the California flooding. In contrast to the Buzzfeed News post, the reporter was recognized and a Sycamore Court resident Jesse Hagen was identified in a photo in the story. The article quotes from Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick and meteorologist Craig Shoemaker. |
Interview for Cheer Story
I had initially planned on interviewing the two separately, but they wanted to do it together and the teacher needed them back in class. Delany Wise is gray text, while Sophie Mangham is in black text
Interviews of Delany Wise and Sophie Mangham |
Taking Charge
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What was going through your mind before you performed at state and what were your feelings about your performance?
“We were so rushed.” “We were very rattled right before we went on because the practice the night before wasn’t going as planned, and I don’t know, a lot of people were just nervous.” “I mean, we’re always nervous. That’s the usual, but -” “But this one was like ten times worse because of what was at stake and how important it was.” “I mean, we knew what we had to do, but it just takes a lot to process it and like actually get it done. Before we went on, we warmed up, and as soon we warmed up, like last year after we warmed up, we had five to ten minutes to wait in the back and kinda calm our nerves and kinda take a break.” “As soon as we warmed up, we were out on the floor performing, and usually we have time to calm down and pray,” “And compose ourselves,” “But no, we were very rattled,” “Thrown on the mat, and very rushed.” So how do you guys feel your performance went? “It was definitely not our best work.” “Oh, It was not our best, at all.” “I think everybody was pretty upset about it. We know we could have done better.” How did you feel waiting for the results? “It was very tense.” “It was insane.” “Because the atmosphere at the time was just tense overall because there was kinda that attitude from other teams like -” “Some teams were like, ‘we have this in the bag,’ and other teams were like, ‘this is the end of the world for us.’” “So everyone was kinda reacting differently and acting like, we were trying to stay composed and calm, but there were just teams that were giving off that impression like -” “‘We’re winning this thing.’” “‘We’re going to beat you guys,’ so that’s how it was before the results.” What would you change about your performance? “That one stunt, because only one thing messed up but its like -” “Something that’s usually always on.” So what was this stunt? “It was our very opening stunt, it was a one-and-a-half up to lift.” “It’s the very beginning thing.” “It’s what we open up to, like we’re set, and that’s the first thing that happens.” “When we go up in the stunt, that’s the first thing, and it fell.” Was it hard to keep performing after that? “Oh yeah, I know some of those people were like, ‘I just want to stop right now.’” “Yeah. Because when that happens, you just want to stop and redo it, but you can’t. And some people don’t know, like some people did not know that it happened, but the people that did know were like, ‘oh crap, this is not good.’” “So we had to get it together and try to make everything even better. We had to, as we would say, recover.” How long have you been training for state? “Since August.” “Wait, since before August…?” “Well, tryouts are in march, and we start practicing in April, so we were working on our basic skills in mid April, so we had been working for several months before that.” When did you guys receive your state routine? “August.” “The very beginning of August.” What does it feel like to be back to back state champs? “It’s good.” “It’s freaking great.” “I mean, with the circumstances that we were in, with the situation that we were in, it was very rewarding.” “Oh yeah.” “And it reminded us that we can’t take anything for granted. It was very rewarding overall.” “It felt like the work was definitely worth it.” “It paid off.” What happens at nationals. Like, do you guys do a new routine, is it just like state? “Oh it’s not like state.” “It makes me nervous just talking about it.” “I know, I’m like shaking.” “Ok, so basically, nationals is where every high ranking team in the nation competes at one competition. So it is very competitive, and very different from state, because the teams at state are local, and we’re used to seeing them.” “And we know what they have in store. We know their skills.” “We know their skills, we know what they have, so we know how to beat them. But the teams at nationals, it’s like, we don’t know what they’re going to do.” “You don’t know who is going to be better than you or how good they’re going to be.” “When you get there, there are some teams that are so amazing, and they’re known for how good they are. That’s how it is at nationals, there are these big teams that are known for their hard skills and everything.” “Everyone at nationals is known. Like, they’re big name teams.” “So when we go there, it’s like, we know them, but we don’t know what they have. So they’re very intimidating.” “Nationals is just so much more intimidating.” “Nationals is more intimidating, but it's fun. But, at state, it’s very stressful and tense and very competitive. At nationals it's fun, but it's intimidating. So that's what nationals is. It’s just a big competition of all the big name teams in one arena. But there are different divisions, like there’s a state.” “And nationals is actually a two day competition.” And is it the same routine? “Yes, it’s the same routine. So we have the same routine throughout the whole season, but when we go to state, we know what we need to put in it to beat the teams here. But when we go to nationals, we really have to step up our game and make our skills harder because the teams at nationals, like I said, they’re the best. There’s no teams that are like ‘oh, that team is bad.’ There are no teams like that, they’re all amazing.” “Everyone’s good.” “So that’s what we do, we keep the same routine, but we will make a few changes depending on whether or not we need it, which most of the time we do, so we really up our game when we go to nationals.” Do ties happen a lot at state? How did you feel about tying this year? “Ties actually do happen pretty often.” “For the most part, they happen every year, but it has never happened in 7A All-Girl, ever.” “It never happened in our division until this year.” “And everyone was so shocked. Like we were definitely shocked, we were like, ‘What!?’” “It was a really uphill thing. Like, Rogers got second,” “And we were like, ‘What?’” “It’s a tie, we won. It was Fayetteville, we didn’t win, and then they called our name and it was crazy. Yeah, so ties are rare, but they do happen every year in for the most part every division, it’s just not really heard of in 7A All-Girl.” “I think, tying, we were very appreciative of it.” “It’s either that or nothing, so we were happy to take it.” How many hours a day do you guys practice just for State, and do you guys practice outside of school? “Well, last year, we did practice out of school, didn’t we? Yeah, we had night practices and stuff, so that was last year. This year, -” “It’s every morning.” “We have first period cheer, so we come in way before first period.” What time do you guys usually come in around? “7:00. Last year, it was like 6:30 for morning practices and after school was 5:30 practices, but this year is different. Since we have first period cheer, we just come in at 7:00 every morning.” “This year, we do not have any outside of school practices for State. Actually, we did have one showcase for like our parents to show them our routine so they know what it is supposed to look like before we do it, so that’s what we did.” How long have you been practicing just for nationals, and do you practice individually a lot, or is it just with the team? “We always practice as a team, unless there is an individual stunt group that is struggling with hitting their skills correctly. Then, they’ll come in on their own time and drill it and work on it, and work on their technique so they can perfect it.” “And I think we’ve been working for nationals since August too. Those are our two goals.” “I mean, once our season starts, it’s like, checkmark is state and nationals. So like, once we pass state, ‘check,’ but then we still have nationals.” How has being a state champion affected your team and how has tying with Fayetteville affected your team? “It put everything in perspective for us. We were winning everything all year, then this really like-” “Opened our eyes.” “Like, we can’t have it all. We actually have to work for it.” “We really realized that we can’t take anything for granted and that nothing is handed to us. Like, our season was so successful. We won every competition, we beat our top competitors, NLR and Fayetteville, at every competition by like -” “We were beating people by 20 points.” “We were blowing them out of the water at every competition locally. And then, we got to state, -” “And I think that was kinda in our heads at state.” “We were like, ‘we got this, we don’t have to worry about them.’ But then, with our performance that we did, we got a little shaky and scared, and then I think that after the time we performed up to the results, we were really just thinking to ourselves, ‘oh my goodness, what were we thinking? We should not have been thinking we had this,’ like nothing is taken for granted. We can’t take this for granted and really be thankful no matter what, so it really opened our eyes.’” “It was very eye opening.” Do you think it brought your team closer together? “Definitely. Oh yeah.” “Because, I think when everybody realizes that we have to work together to get to our goals, like ‘there’s no I in Team’, we know that phrase so well now.” “We saw how fast something can change.” “We realized that if we just come together as a team to achieve our goals, we will be more successful in the end." “That’s the golden line." |
Gathered on the mat, every team awaits the results. Starting with 3rd, the announcer works her way up to what everyone in the room was waiting for 1st. The girl's group in a circle holding hands anxious to discover if every hour at the gym practicing paid off. All ears turn to the announcer as she reads the sheet in her hands. The shock on her face says it all, two teams tied and both are taking the title of state champions. The drumroll begins and it's Fayetteville High School and Har-Ber High School. Both teams leap to their feet jumping and hugging each other while emitting eardrum shattering screams.
Once the excitement simmered down a serious question started to rise. Who would take home the trophy and banner? Of course, both teams would receive a trophy and a banner but who would take home now? In the past when a tie happened each them would pick a side of a coin and they would flip the coin for who takes the trophy home now. The loser of the coin toss would receive their own banner and trophy later. This time though things were a little different. Coach Bunting decided that they would just settle who would take what home now. After a quick friendly discussion, it was decided that Har-Ber would take home the trophy and Fayetteville would take home the banner. In the long run, though it didn’t matter because both would be going to Nationals. “We were very rattled right before we went on. The practice the night before wasn’t going as planned and a lot of people were just nervous. This one was ten times worse because we knew what was at stake,” junior Sophie Mangham said. Practice the night before wasn’t as strong as usual and that left many of the cheerleaders worried if tomorrow would be the same way. They warmed up the day of the State Championship and were immediately rushed to go and perform the real deal. Last year the girls had time to calm their nerves and pray before going onto the mats, but this year it added to the nervous not having that little time where they could think positively and build their confidence. “The stunt is the first thing that we do and when that happens you just want to stop and redo it but you can’t. Some people did not know it happened but the people that did know knew it wasn’t good. We had to get it together and make everything else better. We really had to recover,” senior Delaney Wise said. The only thing that went wrong with the routine was they had one stunt fall at the very beginning. The girls recovered the best they could and didn’t give up. They pushed through the thoughts of doubt they might have and leave everything they had on the mat and with that, they achieved to be State Champions two years in a row. “With the situation, we were in to be back to back champs were very rewarding and it reminded us that we can’t take anything for granted. It was very rewarding overall and that all the hard work paid off,” Wise said. They feel very lucky to have the chance to go to nationals and are ready for the challenge it brings. Nationals can be very scary coming from the state of Arkansas because there are so many teams there that are known for how good they are. It is though really fun as well and a very rewarding experience. The hard work though doesn’t stop after they win state because they add in more tricks to please the judges at nationals. “Winning state is like no other feeling. It’s a really great feeling even if we do have to share it,” sophomore Olivia Franklin said. This was Franklin’s first state competition and it can be very nerve-racking to compete for such a grand title. With the help of her team, though, she doesn’t feel as alone. The Har-Ber cheerleaders have been practicing together since last April and received their routine for state in August. They came in at 7 am to practice every day and some individual stunt teams come in for extra practice if they are struggling. The Har-Ber cheerleaders feel very lucky to tie with Fayetteville because it means they still go on to nationals. They are definitely ready and grateful to be able to put in the hard work and time needed to have a stunning routine for nationals. |