The fundamentals of Advanced Reporting

The struggles of interviewing and writing

by Darian Bazile

Advanced Reporting, a required journalism course at UNLV, requires that students interview sources every semester and create newsworthy stories in training for a future career in journalism.

The class, taught by Gregory Borchard, is a required course for journalism majors. Students learn the fundamentals of news writing and how to conduct interviews, an essential skill for those serious about a journalism career. As with other classes in the past, the spring semester 2018 students set out to interview people to create the foundations for the three stories they must write to pass the class. Students must then write out their stories and publish them through Blogger, a new experience for Advanced Reporting.

"These are the things you have to learn if you want to be a writer in any capacity," said Anthony Milici, a student in the class and an aspiring sports journalist. "Being able to interview somebody you don't know that well or have any sort of relationship with is something you have to do if you want to be in this field."

The first few weeks focused on learning news writing fundamentals, introducing key elements in news writing, like leads and nut graphs. This also included learning AP style, the standardized rules of grammar and principles for American journalists, which the students got tested on. Confusion abounded with regards to "spokesperson," as recent changes in the AP Stylebook established "spokesperson" as an acceptable term for speakers while past editions insisted using the gendered variants. This confusion justified the importance of keeping up to date with the AP Stylebook.

Class gathering

In March, students buckled down for the next phase of the class: interviews. While doing background research provides a good foundation for stories, a majority of information must come from interviews. Students had to do a minimum of two for each story.

"Be ready to step out of your comfort zone if you don't like interviewing random people because it's something you have to do," Milici said. "So, be ready for something you haven't done before."

Most interview subjects tend to be complete strangers, with some possibly being in positions of power.

With a firm belief in using journalism for the power of good, Eduardo Rossal took on ambitious stories like the Women's March and food deserts, reaching out to voices of authority like professors. Experts and officials on a topic tend to be some of the best sources on that topic. However, timeliness matters when setting up interviews, as students have a short time period to do them and officials tend to have busy schedules.

Interview experiences can be a mixed bag. Some people conducted interviews naturally, while others needed to overcome anxiety to get it over with. Experiences differed based on the approach an individual takes. Rossal, for instance, had the strategy of intentionally coming off as foolish to interviewees to make the atmosphere less serious.

"It's probably counterproductive in a sense, 'cause the interviewee might think I'm just an idiot and not really tell me anything," he said. "But, I found that it actually breaks down that wall people hold up and it calms them down and makes them more willing to talk."

Sometimes, through follow-up questions, interviewees could reveal deeper story threads more interesting than the original story.

"Be like water, go with the flow," Rossal said. "If an interviewee is going in a more interesting direction, follow it."

Reporters need to avoid pigeonholing information into the narrative they want, because it leaves out information and does not give the full picture.

In the past, students of Advanced Reporting did their assignments using Storify, a service where users can create stories with easy integration of social media posts. However, with the announcement of the Storify service ending, the class needed to turn to a new service.

The spring semester 2018 class became the first to use Blogger for Advanced Reporting. Blogger, formerly known as Blogspot before the Google acquisition, boasts of integration with Google Plus. However, Blogger generated mixed thoughts.

"Blogger is one of the most frustrating things I've ever encountered," Milici said. "I think in the future, there should be another website to consider."

Some students, like Milici, experienced trouble with Google Plus integration. Additionally. compared to other blogging platforms, Blogger lacks a lot of customization features, proper customer support and users lack independence from Google.

However, while serious bloggers may be turned off by these things, Blogger works for the purposes of Advanced Reporting, as the class does not ask for complex blogs.

After Borchard examined the interview notes, students started writing up the actual stories, with the eventual goal of translating that work into Blogger.

A student's writing process.

Presentation on news story

Students had plenty of time to write their stories, given the Spring Break period to do so. Like interviewing, the writing experience varies from person to person. Writing can come naturally, it may not. People experienced with interviewing could have struggles with the actual writing part, like Milici.

"Just knowing where to put what and what order to put it in, just, you know, how you frame a story on paper, that has always been the more difficult part for me," Milici said.

After writing, students edited their work, re-evaluating and doing re-writes. The lessons taught in the first few weeks get applied here, students examining if their writing follows AP Stylebook guidelines and if they come off with an active voice.

"The most challenging part is editing, because I have anxiety," Rossal said. "I start thinking, "did I get enough information, am I explaining it well, am I using the right words?""

Toward the end of the year, students filled out evaluations, suggesting changes to the course. Future Advanced Reporting students will likely spend more time on honing writing skills, after troubles with the spring 2018 class' rough drafts.


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