Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Heading toward election time...and the issues

As we head into our first election assignment, it's kinda funny... I was going to have you ask people what issues are most important as they make their voting decisions for November - but from the polling info we have today, it's pretty clear that people really, really care about the economy.

To this end, we want to find out how people are feeling, and what they want to hear from their lawmakers as they head to the polls. Some sample questions:

"What issues are important to you during this Presidential Election year?"
"Are the candidates addressing these concerns?"
"Is the media talking about economic issues enough?"
"Do you think one candidate or the other has a better plan to help fix the economy?"
"Does the state of the economy influence how you'll vote in November?"

What other questions do we want to ask?

For next week, you'll need at least 3 vox (or "man on the street" interviews) fully transcribed, with first and last names, and the town where the subject lives. You should get enough vox to make sure you have at least two "contrasting" points of view.

Then, next week (October 7th) - Professor Lisa Burns will be here to talk about media coverage of issues, and how she views the messages about the economy coming out of both camps - and Congress. We'll interview her - press conference style - basing our questions on the issues that our interview subjects raise.

We'll write our stories for the following week - and produce them in class on Pro Tools.