1. For the HARD STORY, we plan to cover the NHS reforms and how they would affect
Oldham. This story was discovered through BBC news and Channel 4 news reports
from terrestrial television. This would make a suitable story because it
involves the continuing threat to healthcare (NEGATIVITY, CONTINUITY), the Prime
Minister David Cameron (PERSONALITY) and how Oldham would be affected (CLOSENESS
TO HOME). We find that this would be appropriate for broadcast on OCR. It
could be given a spin to aim at teenage health. Potential interviewees could be
the head of the children's ward at Royal Oldham Hospital.
Our contingency interviewee for the hard story is Oldham's college nurse Dawn Mills, as she would
know a lot about the NHS reforms and teenager health.
If necessary, our contingency news story would be about rising crime rates in Oldham. We could
interview a police officer from the local area on how teenagers are involved in crime and how they
can help prevent it.
For the SOFT STORY, we plan to cover Oldham Coliseum Theatre's recent moving to several different
locations and how teenagers can be involved with the theatre in their new "Out and About" tour.
This story was discovered by one of the team being involved in the Coliseum's
Ambassadors scheme. It would be a suitable story as it involves one of Oldham's old
institutions being closed temporarily (CLOSENESS TO HOME, UNEXPECTEDNESS, NEGATIVITY)
and the theatre's new shows (CURRENCY). This should make it suitable for OCR, and also for
teenagers if it shows how they can be involved. We could plan to interview the head of marketing
Lizzie Carter.
In case we would need a new interviewee, we can use vox pops with patrons of the theatre at one of
the performances.
For the final OFF THE WALL story, we plan to cover a new development in science in the creation of
artificial meat to the overall aim of creating an artificial hamburger. This story was discovered
through the BBC News' website section on Science and technology. It could be a suitable story
based upon teenager's and their stereotypical depiction of liking fast food (CLOSENESS TO
HOME), how modern this scientific development is (CURRENCY) and how unusual the overall story is
(UNEXPECTEDNESS). It should therefore probably be suitable for OCR, and would be interesting to
the teenage audience on a topic they may think they know a lot about. We should be using vox pops
with teenagers from Oldham on their opinions on the matter.
In case this is not possible, we could produce a story based around Oldham Athletic loaning out
their club car park for learner drivers to practice their driving skills on. We could use vox pops from
staff and drivers alike on why they have done this and how beneficial it is to learning to drive
respectively.