ADVISER UPDATE
FALL 2013
PAGE 13A
Use inexperienced students wisely
By Steve Row
A
Steve Row
is currently a journalism
instructor at East Carolina
University. He was
journalism education
coordinator at Richmond
Newspapers Inc. from 19922003, after working 24 years
as a reporter and editor
at The Richmond News
Leader. He was assistant
director of the DJNF’s Urban
Journalism Workshop at
Virginia Commonwealth
University and chairman
of the Virginia Press
Association’s journalism
education committee, and
he has been an instructor at
state, regional and national
scholastic journalism
conferences. He served as
associate editor at CityView
magazine in Knoxville,
Tenn., 2004-05 and is doing
freelance writing and editing
from his home in Greenville,
N.C. He can be reached at
steverow_editor @hotmail.
com.
BLACK
P01.V52.I4
Require first-year reporters
to interview students
outside the journalism or
communications class.
In fact, prohibit first-year
reporters from interviewing
anyone in the class. This
improves interviewing skills and
helps get first-year reporters
comfortable with talking to
strangers, including adults.
Too often, J1s think they can
fulfill an assignment by talking
to someone in the J-class.
You might even require J1s to
interview at least three people for
any story, and they all can’t be
in the same category — not all
students, not all teachers, not all
administrators.
Allow first-year reporters
to accompany returning
reporters and editors on
feature interview assignments,
not just to observe, but also to
participate in the [