WHO: MoHS Drama and Broadcast Journalism students.
WHAT: Gathered on campus for a news simulation. The drama kids played roles from a hypothetical homicide case and the broadcast kids were, well, broadcast kids.
WHERE: The residential area by Mene Square. Huh??? The portables, doubling as houses in which a shooting had taken place.
WHEN: Saturday, November 20, 2004.
WHY: Nothing to do on a Saturday morning? Masochism? Nope. Just the chance to learn from some of the best in the news business and a chance to work with some of the best in the drama business.
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The broadcasters met with Keoki Kerr, Investigative Reporter, KITV, and learned the basics of news reporting. They talked about strategies for accurate attribution and reporting, ethical journalism, types of standups, and the elements of a compelling news story.
The drama kids, meanwhile, worked with Brent Suyama, KITV, and their drama teacher, Mark Ikanaga, to develop their personae for the sim--distraught family members, concerned neighbors, police or emergency personnel, spouse abuse expert.
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At about 9 am, the news crews got word of a shooting at the Sunrise Villas. News Director Keoki Kerr sent out the teams to get the story.
Crews arrived on the scene with no more information than the initial report of a shooting. They then tried to piece together the story though interviews with family members, neighbors, police and emergency personnel. They faced everything that real news crews encounter: traumatized family, emergency crews who had only fragments of the whole story, details that were "pending investigation," a news director's demand of "what's the story???" And, of course, a real deadline.
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And, like a real news story, sources sometimes left the scene. After a while, family members left, the police were called back to the station, emergency crews returned to their base. News crews who missed key interviews lost their chance for those stories.
At 9:45, HPD called a press conference and fielded questions from the reporters. Then the crews were given a little time to do follow up "phone calls" to the various sources and some time to consult with their news director.
Then it was back to the "studio"--G201--to produce their news packages. And have lunch. Mr. Suyama and Mr. Kerr assisted and encouraged the teams and then it was up to us to finish the packages. The final step will be the expert assessment. The news packages will be sent to KITV to see which might have made it onto the evening's broadcast!
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Mr. Kerr and Mr. Suyama for sharing their time and expertise with our sim teams, helping to sharpen their skills in broadcast journalism. And we would like to thank the drama students and Mr. Ikenaga for the totally professional job they did in our news sim.
You guys were the greatest!!! We look forward to working with all of you in future news sims!
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| Thank you from the MeneMAC news crews!
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