Overview

Perhaps the best way to understand how media works is to begin creating your own media. Shooting and editing even the most basic newscast can give you a deeper understanding of the many issues involved in making news.

• What do you film?
• Who do you interview?
• What questions do you ask in interviews?
• Do you use music? How do you choose music?
• How do you assemble your shots into a coherent piece?
• What shots to you leave out?

These are just some of the questions that you have to deal with in producing your own newscast.

Task

Create a newscast about how your community has been affected by these events. Some possible topics might include:

Materials

Cameras and editing equipment. May be completed with a VHS camera and VCR machines. The reflections in this project have many potentially useful conceptual pieces on video taping, video editing, interviewing, and developing a rhetorical literacy beyond written expression.

Time

Two weeks.

Possible Angles

• Reactions in your community
• Reactions from people who practice Islam in your community
• Ways that your community has been affected by this experience
• Ways that your school has grieved
• A documentary (using existing footage) on the events (as you see them) leading up to the attack

Upon completion of the projects, hold a screening of the films. Have each student write a one-two paragraph critique on each project. When your projects are complete, write a two-page reflection paper on the experience.

Questions to Consider

• What did you learn?
• Has this experience had an impact on the way that you understand the news?
• Has this experience affected your sense of how news is made?
• What kinds of editorial decisions did you have to make?
• What kinds of editing and filming techniques were effective?

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