Mash Method- Teachers Fired!

Today in Rob Williams Class we worked on news reports. Here is one that I found interesting on cnn.com and chose to script-

HLN OPENING LOGO
Important news sounds

OPENING LOGO W/ FLYING WORDS
Jumbled voices collage

YOUR VIEWS' OPENING LOGO
Rock guitar riff

FADE MEDIUM SHOT: REPORTER-CHUCK ROBERTS
Guitar fades to silent
Roberts: Every teacher at ONE impoverished Rhode Island high school is fired. Gone. School board...

CLOSE UP: PROTESTS' SIGNS ZOOM OUT: CROWD
... voted this last night. The superintendent said something had to be done...

WALKING: PROTESTERS (CENTRAL FALLS, RHODE ISLAND FEBRUARY 23)
... because test scores and graduation rates are so pathetic.

ESTABLISHING: HIGH SCHOOL'S SIGN
The superintendent offered another option for teachers to provide extra tutoring.

WIDE: SCHOOL BUS
But they refused because it didn't come with extra pay.

CLOSE UP: TOP OF SCHOOL BUILDING (CENTRAL FALLS, RHODE ISLAND FEBRUARY 23)
The turn...

WIDE: PROTESTERS
...around plan...

CLOSE UP: PROTEST SIGN
...includes finding a new principal. Some teachers...

PAN RIGHT: CROWD
could be hired back. But is firing all of them, all mass, too drastic? Or a pretty good...
CLOSE UP: PROTESTS' SIGNS ZOOM OUT: CROWD
...resolution? We'd love to know what you think. And Michell Carey is...

SPLIT SCREEN: LEFT- ROBERTS RIGHT- MICHELLE CAREY
...providing comments. Manny of them arrived moments after we posted this on our facebook page.
Carey: Because it is that drastic of a move, Chuck. I mean we thought we had one topic picked in the morning meeting, we sortof talked about this and we switched gears right away...

FULL SCREEN WIDE: CAREY

Carey: ...because it grabs your attention. You're like "they did WHAT?" Ya, they fired every teacher.

For this practice assignment we only had to script the first minute of the news report and that is where it cuts off.

Observation on news story

My first observation is choosing what to say. The story could have been long and detailed with a lot of accounts of what happened from teachers, parents, and the school board. I would have liked to hear some of what people thought who got fired but it was such a short story they couldn't. I feel that they covered both sides of the story and other details well for such a short amount of time.

My second observation is how this was a fairly objective story. Most stories dealing with an issue like this might have opinions and be one sided. The report its self was not bias and showed points from both views meaning that its true news. However, after the one minute mark after I was done scripting they opened it up to opinions. This part of the report made it a lot less news worthy and was disappointing, I just want the facts!

My last observation is about the media its presented in. Having the visuals of the school building and teachers protesting and people watching the protesters brings a lot more emotion than just reading a story. But then again, once I've typed out all of his script its a few short sentences put together. Reading this script has a lot less power than hearing it spoken. If they wanted to post a written report of what happened they wouldnt be able to use this script, they would have to write an entire new story. I find it really interesting that not only is writing for the news different than TV, but depending on how the news is presented it has to be written differently.