Activities:

Story-writing
Stories are the basics of all journalism. Get a local paper and analyse it. (Target audience? Range of articles / stories covered?)
Take one story and scrutinize it. (Style? Feature-length or short? Structure of the story – journalists often use a ‘triangle’ approach, starting at the top with the most dramatic/compelling information.)

Think of a similar local story. Research it, interview the main people, write it up as if for this paper.

Edit each other’s stories.

‘Apply’ for Ayesha’s job …
Ayesha sent off hundreds of letters to get experience.

Compose a letter to the editor of a local paper, requesting work experience. Remember the qualities Ayesha talks about to sell yourself. Use the facts that came out of the paper analysis to convince them you know their publication. Refer to the story you have written above and include it.

Ayesha’s radio challenge – have a try!
Ayesha’s radio challenge was two-fold – firstly for her to gather the relevant information, scanning the week’s papers for enough interesting stories to chat about for half an hour; and secondly to perform on a live radio broadcast.
Could you do it?

Over a week, gather the daily papers from one newspaper. In small groups, collect the most interesting stories, ensuring a variety of serious / light-hearted, local / national stories etc. Summarise them in a loose ‘script’.

Do a mock-radio show, with students taking the roles of DJ / chat-show host and Ayesha. It can be recorded on tape and analysed by the class.

Self-awareness / development at work
Ayesha’s difficult moments came very close together. After a bad day with difficult deadlines, she went on her course and got some tough criticism. Then she had to pluck up the courage to interview a member of the royal family.

Discuss the different stresses and hardships of these scenes and her work. Imagine dealing with it all in just a few days. Did Ayesha handle it all well – or not? How do you maintain professionalism even when you are down? What are the aspects of this job that are most personally demanding? Has Ayesha got the right attitude to succeed?

Research
Research and write a piece about the history of the press in Britain.