Brief summary of activity
This activity focuses on research and scripting skills, as participants will be require to find news items in their community and construct a news radio report around them.
Aim of the activity
To be able to write reliable, interesting, dynamic and informative radio news
Expected Outcomes
By the end of the activity, participants will know how to:
- Find information
- Find sources of information
- Evaluate sources and materials
- Select and sort news in order of importance
- Practise news writing
- Evaluate news in terms of their value for the general public
Experience and skills required
Trainer requires facilitation and scripting skills.
Length
2 hours
How the activity should take place
The activity can be delivered following one of the following options:
Option 1
- The participants will have one hour to examine the sources of information and another hour to write five news stories.
- Afterwards an hour will be required for the presentations and group feedback.
Option 2
- Each participant will visit a location in the surrounding area and find three pieces of information.
- Two hours later all the participants will return and have one hour to write the news and two hours for presentation and feedback.
Option 3
- The Trainer will choose an event which all the participants must visit.
- Everyone will find three to five pieces of news related to it (this will be good for comparison).
Recommended max. number of participants and trainees to trainers ratio
10 to 1
4 to 1 for vision impaired/blind participants or trainees with learning difficulties.
Risk and possible adaptation
For Vision Impaired/Blind participants, this activity could become homework to do on their own time at home.
For trainees with learning difficulties, allow for them to work in pairs, reduce the number of news items.
If trainees have literacy issues, allow them to present the news interview style or as story-telling.
Tips for Trainers
Trainer can use the handout Scripting for Radio during the training and/or distribute it to participants.
Analysis and evaluation
The Evaluation will examine:
Quality of the content, sources used, relevance to the community and how news were selected.
Scheduling
As part of the research module