Exploring Public Perception and News Media Connections Call one of your local schools to ask for some very basic information, such as the date and time of the next school concert or sports event.
Describe the experience in full, objective detail, as you would when writing an incident report:
Record the time and day of the call, how the call is answered (in person or electronically) and how the person answering the phone identifies himself or
herself or what menu of instructions you encounter.
If you do encounter an electronic call processing system, record details such as whether or not you are placed on hold while the information is located, if
you must leave a message and how long it takes to receive a callback, etc.
Conclude your field notes on the experience with three paragraphs:
a paragraph suggesting any changes you would suggest based on your experience
a paragraph complimenting effective components of the school�s system for processing outside calls (specify no components were effective if this is the case)
another paragraph describing your reaction to the experience, how you felt by the time you received the information, and how you may have felt if you were
calling as an angry community member with a complaint rather than a community member seeking basic routine information.
Length: One to two pages.
Exploring Public Perception and News Media Connections Assignment
Write a Feature Story
Think of new or proposed innovation for the school or district where you are employed or that was initiated in the school or district in which you were
most recently employed. Write up an informational feature story/article about the innovation, using your best journalistic writing skills:
Use the information in Chapter 10 of Bagin, D., Gallagher, D.R., & Moore, E.H. (2017). School and Community Relations to guide you.
Be sure to use positive, non-inflammatory language.
Use APA guidelines and cite at least three sources, including at least one reference to the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher.
Exploring Public Perception and News Media Connections Conclusion
In your concluding paragraph, mention two or three things you would keep in mind about working with the press if a reporter called you to discuss your
article prior to publishing it in a local newspaper. Include the plan you would prefer to have in place to process incoming phone calls, based on your
experiences in the Pre-Activity.
Length: two to three pages for the newspaper article (app. 350 words per page), including a minimum of 3 outside resources, and an additional one to two
pages for your field notes and conclusions from the Pre-Activity.
