Near the very beginning of The Arizona Republic Michael Robert's (pictured right) session on "Defining 'good' in journalism," he said, "Stories fall apart when the idea isn't good enough."For all of us new or fairly new fellows at the Institute, I think a lot of us have a hard time trying to decide how to begin the year. Do you have fun activities that bond our staff? Do we be tough and jump right in to weed out the slackers? Do we focus on the history or the laws or the current trends?
I think Robert's statement is a perfect guideline on how to start teaching our students about journalism. The point of journalism, whether it is done on the high school level or the professional, is to have audiences respond to well-crafted material.
If the idea isn't good enough, audiences won't read. It doesn't really matter if the writing is flawless or if the photo is taken from the perfect angle. If the idea isn't apparent to audiences, it doesn't matter.
I plan to restructure the start of my year with Robert's comment in mind. I plan to start by teaching my students his model of Idea, Reporting, Organization, Draft and Revision. All the other aspects of journalism are important, yes, but ultimately, I think this trumps them all.
Anna Horton
Highland High School
Gilbert, Ariz.
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