Oxford Stories 60 Questions
Please print out the Q & A and bring it to our next class.
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What is your name and age?
Where are you from?
Why did you decide to attend to the University of Mississippi?
Do you have a smartphone? What kind?
What are your favorite apps? Which ones do you use most?
What social media networks do you use? Twitter? Facebook? Others? Which is your favorite?
Are you tech-savvy? Do you enjoy working with computer programs?
What computer programs can you use or have you used? For example, Photoshop, Microsoft
Word, etc. Name all that come to mind.
9. Have you ever shot video with your phone?
10. Have you ever edited video with your phone? What app did you use?
11. Have you ever recorded audio with your phone?
12. Have you ever edited audio with your phone? What app did you use?
13. Have you ever created slideshows with your phone? What app did you use?
14. Do you have a YouTube account?
15. Have you ever uploaded videos to YouTube?
16. Are you familiar with WordPress?
17. Have you ever created a blog? What website did you use to create it? WordPress? Blogger?
Others?
18. Do you know how to imbed video, audio, etc. on a blog?
19. Do you know how to create a hyperlink on a blog?
20. Do you have any experience coding or using basic HTML?
21. What is your experience level? When do you or have you used code?
22. Why do you want to be a journalist?
23. Do you have any journalism or an internship experience? Tell me about it?
24. What are your career aspirations as a journalist? What's your dream job?
25. Do you have a journalism mentor – someone in the industry who could give you advice? Who?
26. What websites for news and entertainment do you visit most? What are your favorites?
27. If you could cover any beat or subject on a regular basis, what would it be?
28. Do you read newspapers, or do you read news online? Which do you prefer and why?
29. What would motivate you to go and buy a paper from the rack rather than reading it online?
30. Why is diversity important in journalism?
31. Give me one diversity-related issue or topic that you could write a story about? (You can
change your idea later.)
32. Who is your favorite journalist? Why?
33. What is your favorite book? Why?
34. What is your favorite band, singer or song? Why?
35. What's your favorite movie? Why?
36. What do you think that the journalism industry (newspapers, magazines, websites, etc.) or older
journalists should be doing differently?
37. What is your favorite restaurant in Oxford and Lafayette County? Why?
38. Do you have a pet? What's its name?
39. If you could do a photo essay or video about something interesting, what would it be? (You can
change your answer later.)
40. What is Oxford or Lafayette County's biggest problem or issue?
41. What makes Oxford or Lafayette County great?
42. If you could write one story about any topic you are passionate about, what would it be?
43. Give me five story ideas about Oxford and Lafayette County, or bigger topics you could
localize, that you would like to write about this semester? You can change your ideas later if
you want. Just give it a try. Think of stories that you could be passionate about writing – stories
that mean something to you.
44. If you had to create a Create a Top 10 List related to Oxford and Lafayette County, what would
it be? Don't write the list; just come up with an idea. Example: The Top 10 Best Places to Eat in
Lafayette County. The Top 10 Best Bands in Oxford. The Top 10 Serial Killers of Oxford. (Be
creative.)
45. What's your favorite charity or non-profit organization? Why?
46. Do you know a person in Oxford or Lafayette County who is making the world a better place or
doing something unique? Who? Why?
47. Besides restaurants, what is one of your favorite businesses in Oxford of Lafayette County? (It
might be a place that you visit frequently.)
48. If you could write an in-depth story on any issue or person, what would that be? Give me one
idea? (You can change your idea later.)
49. What is the best way you have found to find story ideas? What advice would you give others
about finding story ideas?
50. What is your impression of traditional news and media. What would you change?
51. Please come up with at least one fun and interesting classroom exercise that we can do this
semester. If you were teaching the class one day, what would you do? Think of an activity that
relates to journalism in some way that we could all do together. If you'd like, you can name
more than one.
52. Have you heard of the Jessica Chambers crime case? Google it and write a paragraph about it.
53. If you could cover a city or county board, department or office, what would it be? Feel free to
Google Oxford and Lafayette county boards, departments and offices.
54. What's a story you could do about someone or something that you can find Only in Oxford?
55. If you had to write a crime-related story this semester, what would it be?
56. Do you have a website that showcases your work?
57. If we were going to collaboratively do a short documentary on something, what would you like
to do?
58. If we could ask one question to people in Oxford and create a small documentary project with
their answers, what question would you like to ask?
59. What can the newspaper industry do to increase sales and generate more advertising revenue?
Any ideas?
60. What is one of the things that you really hope to learn before you graduate?
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Bonus question: Would you rather work with HottyToddy.com this semester or The
Oxford Eagle? Why?