Digital News Production: Story Ideas- Progession Update

To expand on our previous ideas, we decided to have a group meeting to discuss our progress. This way we can expand on our News project to date.

What categories are we going to focus on?

As i've mentioned before there are four categories that we have come up with. Entertainment, Arts & Culture, Celebrities and Gadgets. We can only use two separate stories from different categories, however. This means we have to
narrow down the choices by half.

I will now mention the different categories and which ones we have decided to focus on:

We could get some insight into these different
categories from creative students on the
Maidstone campus.

Entertainment

This categories is perhaps the most interesting sounding to our key demographic of 16-24 year olds. However it is also possibly harder for us to come with a story that has a point behind it that can be seen as substantial. We started looking for events that might be funded by local businesses, anything that we think would attract our student audience. Eventually Sam Babington thought about basing a segment around a nightclub. Some of these around Maidstone are based predominantly on a demographic in the late teens and 20's. We will look into these events to see if we can find an appropriate place. Stay tuned..

A popular nightclub in Maidstone.

Arts & Culture

The range of different ideas we can work on here is quite varied. Since the course we are doing is in the creative arts it might be good to focus on a story based on the campus. This will be relatable to students who are interested in these types of courses. Aaron Perks came up with an idea focusing on someone he knows who graduated from the fashion course. Their work had been used before and shown in a music video by Chris Brown. This would be quite an interesting story to talk about but the execution is very important. It depends on the angle we focus on. "How did it happen?", "What are you working on now"? etc.
For now this idea is on the back burner, since we need to make sure we can structure it and see how to make it appealing towards our audiences.





Celebrities

We purposely decided to avoid this category, feeling that we would struggle to find a substantial story to base around it. It could also possibly come across as 'tacky' depending on how it is done. This could give the wrong impression about what our news website is about. It would also be extremely difficult to find actual celebrities or sources that aren't just a general view at it.

Gadgets

Last but not least, is the category I have focused on. I'm biased but I certainly feel that this topic has the broadest scope and room for development. I feel that something that people can relate to is important for this topic. This doesn't have to be necessarily just for students but also for people interested in the world of technology and trending internet topics.

The "selfie" has become a cultural
phenomenon over the last four years.

One idea that I thought of was to do with a specific type of digital clock, since many students have trouble with getting enough sleep as well as waking up in the morning. However on its own this idea might not be considered very definitive. The biggest task is to make it entertaining as well as informative. So when I thought of the popularity of selfies in popular culture it made an idea based around it seem very interesting.

We could focus not only on its immense popularity but also on the cultural divide between those who despise it against those who are obsessed with it. Also important is to note that to many it is seen as a fixture of a world obsessed with phones, gadgets and the internet. Too many it is an example of how self-absorbed people are getting.
I feel confident about this idea as it has the opportunity to be entertaining, informative and most of all, relatable.

Conclusion

To end with I think we are progressing well with some of the ideas we have come up with. It's just a task of narrowing it down to two categories and making a decent story out of it. Most importantly it needs to have a point behind it. Thankfully we are pretty sure of the student-ish, arty style we are going for. It's just putting in the research now and making sure we can develop the full potential of these ideas. 

Stay tuned for further updates!