The interview, reporting fake news

So the Bruce Coville interview went pretty well. We actually talked for close to two hours, and it was a very good interview and a lot of fun. The only rough spot came after we finished the interview, when he asked me how long the story was going to be, and I told him 1,000 words. He didn't say much about it, but he sort of made a face that said, "Why the hell did I just spend two hours being interviewed by you when you're not going to be able to use 95% of what I said?" Which is a perfectly fair question, and I did feel a little bad about taking up so much of his time. Personally, I wish the length of the assignment were much longer.

The only other thing that might pose a problem is that Coville seemed reluctant to just give out phone numbers of people he knows so that I can contact them. One of the requirements for the story is I need to talk to a minimum of 5 people in addition to the interview subject. Which is completely excessive and ridiculous considering the brevity of the assignment, but hey, they're not my rules. He did give me the names and contact info for five or six people, but he only gave me phone numbers for a couple and email addresses for the rest. So I'll just have to hope that these people will respond to my emails and be willing to talk to me. If not, I guess I'll just have to get back in touch with Coville and ask him to give me names of other people who might be more open to a reporter asking them some questions.

In class today, we did this exercise where they staged a breaking news story for us to cover and sent us out into the field, then we had to come back to the labs in the afternoon and write a story about it by 5. The exercise was a pain in the ass, but it was also really cool. I couldn't believe how elaborate it was. They had actual officials from the fire department, the police department, the university, and the FBI on hand to talk to us. A van was set on fire. At one point a helicopter became involved. I was impressed. Granted, all of this was not done solely for the benefit of my class. All the law enforcement and safety officials involved use this as a training exercise/drill, and I imagine they would do this or something similar even if 80 or so aspiring journalists weren't covering it for an assignment. But, they still did us a huge favor by staging a press conference as if the crime had actually taken place, and interacted with us and answered our questions. It was very cool.

But, like I said, writing the story was a pain in the ass. It also didn't help that I seem to be growing increasingly more fatigued lately (getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night seems to be catching up to me), and I was having trouble concentrating because all I could think about was the interview with Coville I was going to right after class. Not to mention, after talking to state legislators and covering a real news story for the cigarette tax article I wrote last week, it was a lot harder to get excited about covering fake news. So, I will go ahead and admit that I sort of mailed this story in. It still read pretty well, and I won't be surprised if I get a good grade on it, but I won't be surprised if I get a bad grade on it, either. And I'm okay with that. Because, honestly, this class is almost over and I've been doing so well that I feel like I'm practically assured of an A. Especially if I did well on the cigarette tax story, which I will get back in class tomorrow. If it turns out I got a mediocre grade on that one, then I'll sort of feel like an idiot and will probably regret not working harder on today's story, but I guess I decided that was a risk I was willing to take.

All right, that's all the time I have for tonight. I still need to read today's news (we have near-daily current events quizzes in class), then I want to try to figure out what I'm going to do for my magazine layout project in graphics this week, and I might listen to some of the Coville interview, just to get a feel for the sound quality and to start making notes. So it will be a long night, and in all likelihood, an even longer day tomorrow. But it's almost over now, I keep telling myself. It's almost over, it's almost over, it's almost over, I don't need to sleep, it's almost over. (Note: it's really not that bad. I'm being melodramatic/facetious. I mean, I do have a lot of work to do, and I am tired, and I am stressed, but it's not all that bad. I'm really enjoying the work... except for graphics... and I think I may have finally found my calling. So yeah, things are all right. And, once again, it's almost over).

-Nick