{"id":5576,"date":"2021-05-11T06:25:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T10:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/?p=5576"},"modified":"2021-08-23T13:28:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T17:28:53","slug":"wxxi-reporter-gives-journalism-students-tips-on-feature-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/2021\/05\/11\/wxxi-reporter-gives-journalism-students-tips-on-feature-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"WXXI Reporter Gives Journalism Students Tips on Feature Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/MonaQuestion.mp4\"><\/video><figcaption style=\"font-size:14px;color:grey;\">Hunter student Mona Saidi asks WXXI News reporter April Franklin how long it usually takes for a journalist to complete a story. Franklin said she has trouble hitting the 4 p.m. daily deadline.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe best way to find feature story ideas is to follow your own passions,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wxxinews.org\/people\/april-franklin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WXXI News reporter April Franklin<\/a> told MEDPL 2021 Reporting and Writing I students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Franklin visited Professor Khristopher Brooks\u2019 class and discussed how she develops feature pieces as a general assignment reporter for the NPR affiliate in Rochester, New York. During the visit, Franklin said it\u2019s easy to get overwhelmed when pondering a feature story idea. You can combat that feeling by sharpening the story angle, Franklin told students.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou can have a good idea, but I think you have to really centralize it because there might be other stories within that one story that you can always revisit when it comes to features,\u201d she said.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Editors often give reporters a longer deadline for feature stories because newsrooms want those pieces well reported, Franklin said. Feature stories also take longer to publish because newsrooms develop other components to attract readers. At WXXI, \u201cwe\u2019re also thinking about visuals for our website,\u201d Franklin said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe want to make sure that the content we\u2019re producing people are going to be interested in seeing it,\u201d she said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before joining WXXI News, Franklin spent 12 years as a medical technician at a local hospital. Years at the hospital helped Franklin realize she wanted to tell stories of people who don\u2019t have their voices heard. Anyone pursuing a journalism career should look to do the same, she said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not hard to find stories in general,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cIf you\u2019re a curious person, there\u2019s a story everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GraceQuestion_s.mp4\"><\/video><figcaption style=\"font-size:14px;color:grey;\">Hunter student Grace Littell asks WXXI News reporter April Franklin how to turn news interviews into comfortable conversations. Ask questions like you&#8217;re getting to know the person, Franklin answered.&nbsp;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April Franklin visited Professor Khristopher Brooks\u2019 class and discussed how she develops feature pieces for the NPR affiliate in Rochester, New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,18],"tags":[285],"class_list":["post-5576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage_news","category-journalism-program-news","tag-spring-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5576"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5602,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576\/revisions\/5602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}