We had a great journalism workshop today hosted by special guest Lisa Ling. Ling is a journalist, television presenter, and author. She is currently the host of This Is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN. Ling discussed her work and provided great tips on interviewing. Her main message was that the more we know about other people, the better we are as human being.

Below are some of our reflections from the workshop.

 

 

___________________________________________________________________________

Clara – 28 February 2019

There were so many things that I learned from Ms. Lisa Ling.  She is an accomplished television journalist, and she is now hosting a show called This is Life With Lisa Ling, (CNN).

I think that if there were ten things that I learned from Ms. Ling, I would say what she taught us about journalism.  She said never to back down or get nervous around people who intimidate us. She told us that it isn’t bad to ask people to elaborate.  One of the most important things that she said was sometimes it’s ok to go off book, meaning that if you think of interesting questions, ask them.  If you don’t get to all of your questions, that’s alright. If it feels awkward and strange, it isn’t going right. An interview should flow naturally, like a conversation.  And lastly, always thank them for their time, because every important politician has somewhere to be, and it is so important to be polite.

Ms. Ling is an amazing woman, and it was an honor to listen to her speak.

___________________

Ava – February 28, 2019

Advice For An Interview

Lisa Ling is a mother and a journalist. She started working for a show called Channel One News when she was 18 years old. Channel One News changed her life It was a great opportunity, and she got to travel all over the world. She is a very curious person who thinks that every story becomes the most important when she is working on it. Through Channel One News, she thinks that she learned to interview. At age 21, she went with Red Cross to Afghanistan. There was a war happening in Afghanistan at the time, and she was in shock. She thought to herself as she saw young boys with weapons, “What is their story? How am I so immune?” When she went back to America she found out that lots of people didn’t even know, even though America had a big part in this. She thought, “How does no one know?” That was one of her favorite experiences that really made her feel alive and compelled to be a part of journalism. Lisa Ling really likes to get to know someone who is different than her. She had a desire to know more, and that made her want to be a journalist.

Her list of suggestions for doing in an interview:

1. Be a good listener

2. Have a list of questions

3. Ask great follow up questions

4. Try to ask questions that aren’t yes or no questions.

5. Don’t be afraid to ask why because you will get a better answer

6. Push people to give you more

7. Ask questions from their questions

8. Think, “Am I obtaining enough information to write about the interview

9. Dig in more if they are passionate

10. Ask where the desire came from

11. Ease in to it if they’re sensitive

12. Thank them for their time

13. Take a breath

14. Don’t get in there immediately

15. Don’t be afraid to ask

16. Research to be confident

17. Have a sense of the story you want to tell

18. Go to a quiet place

19. Write something different

20. Care

21. Keep a neutral sense

22. Give them an opportunity to answer

23. Appreciate differences

24. Be open-ended

25. Don’t be too broad

26. Get the nuggets in your notes

Lisa Ling taught us many things on interviewing that will really help us on our Washington DC trip. I think the most important is to listen and that will help you achieve the other things. I appreciate her help and her inspirational story.

_________________________________________________________

Monica –  February 28, 2019

“I wanted to share what is going on in the world to a larger audience,” Lisa Ling recently said while talking about why she wanted to become a journalist. Lisa Ling grew up outside of Sacramento with not enough money to travel. She began working on TV when she was 16 and working as a journalist at age 18. When she was 21 she went to Afghanistan with the Red Cross. There she saw young boys carrying weapons, some larger than themselves. Some of these products were made and sold by the US. This experience inspired her to share these problems with the rest of the world. In a recent interview with Lisa she gave us tips to help us better our journalist skills.

1. Try to make the person you are interviewing feel comfortable

2. Try to find a quiet place where you can interview without too many disruptions

3. You should always try to ask more open ended questions so you are not just getting yes or no answers

4. Be able to go with the flow and not depend to heavily on your questions

5. Ask questions that follow up with the person you are interviewing answers

6. Try to dig deeper and get more personal answers

 

Today our journalism workshop guests were Janice Min and Andrew Lewis. We received great tips on interviewing anyone from Donald Trump to Jerry Lewis to school board officials.

Janice was the Co-President and Chief Creative Officer of The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, where she oversaw The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard.  She has been a journalist for twenty-eight years.

Janice Min discussed interviewing strategies and techniques, and shared insights from the day she spent interviewing Donald Trump immediately after he announced his decision to run for president.

Andrew Lewis was the books editor at the The Hollywood Reporter  and before that he was a professor of U.S. History and published two books on the civil rights movement. Lewis shared with us an experience of a now famous interview that went very “wrong.” At the time, Lewis feared that his interview with the comedian Jerry Lewis was a disaster,  however it turned out to be the mot watched video ever on the The Hollywood Reporter website. Check it out – Andrew Lewis interviews Jerry Lewis (in his last interview before he died).

Both Min and Lewis emphasized the need to be prepared for an interview but also said that journalists must be ready to debate from their script and embrace the unexpected.

In our February 8, 2019 workshop we began with written reflections on the State of the Union. We asked the students to write about how their policy concerns were addressed in the speech. In many cases, the students reported that very little or nothing was said about their issues. We discussed why this was the case and the students are gained more appreciation for the role of journalists in informing the public about a wide variety of important subjects.

Our fellows then led a discussion of how social media is used to in journalism and advocacy. We concluded our workshop by having the students create tweets about their reactions to the State of the Union.

Below is an example of one reflection. Also see the students’ tweets at https://twitter.com/KidUnity

February 7, 2019

State of the Union Reflection

While President Donald Trump did speak about the issue of education during his State of the Union address, he only said one sentence about it. He remarked, “the time has come to pass school choice for America’s children,” but he did not explain what that program might look like. We need to raise more awareness about the pressing issue of education. 

-Ryder

 

In our session on January 31st our CS Fellows led the sixth grade in a quick review of major news events from the week. Our goal is to make sure that the student journalists are prepared for many of the discussions that will be happening in Washington, D.C. (beyond their immediate policy issues) and to help the students draw connections between “other” news and its impact on their issues.

The students then worked in their policy groups to research the ways in which governments – state, national and/or foreign – are responding to the pressing problems the students’ have identified.

Below you find the service learning teams’ press conferences and written press releases.

 

This week – on workshop #3 – the teams worked on producing short (30 second) news stories about their subjects. These videos will be posted January 28-29.

 

 

Clean