High school students learn journalistic skills at Digital Discovery
Twenty-seven students from across the state and Ohio participated in Digital Discovery, a summer camp aimed at teaching students about the careers in mass communication.
"My newspaper adviser told us about this program, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn more about the technical aspects of journalism," said Dana Sessions, a 17-year-old high school student from Detroit. "I report a lot on sports, celebrities that visit my school and pep rallies that we have. I want to learn how to make my interviews more in depth, complex and accurate."
The high school students were split into nine teams of three. The students stayed with their groups for the remainder of the camp and picked partners to interview for a project.
The first session for students was titled "Interviews." Edgar Simpson, a journalism professor, led the session and talked about the importance of making an interview more of a conversation.
"You have to ask both open ended and close questions when you interview," Simpson said. "Open questions open up a conversation between the interviewer and the source but close questions give you the facts you need to write your story."
Students learned about ethics, questioning and context during the session. Following the interview Teresa Hernandez and Lori Brost, both journalism professors, led a session on interviewing sources on video and how to work a video camera.
Students will be able to conduct interviews and write a story on a horse show which they will attend tomorrow.
