Brian Billick: Former Ravens Coach and Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

If I was asked to cover the speech about former Ravens coach, Brian Billick, I would first get background information. I would like to find out a little about his life, where he grew up and where he went to college. I would like to know how he became the former Raven’s coach and why he is receiving this lifetime achievement award. I would also try to find out how he got nominated.

According to chapter 13, a reporter should obtain any available advance information about the event. This includes news releases and obtaining the agenda for the discussion.

I would need to try to find the news release about Brian Billick speaking to Towson University students. I could contact the Towson University public relation office to start my search.

Next, I would need to conduct research on Billick. I could talk to experts and locals who may know Billick or who have worked with him. I could do various online searches such as Google and looking up the archives of local newspapers.

I need to prepare questions before I go to the speech. I could use these in case there was a question-and-answer segment at the end of the speech or even if I was able to talk to Billick one-on-one afterwards. Along with preparing questions before the speech, I need to be thinking of questions during his speech.

I would take my new reporter’s notebook and listen while jotting down important information or interesting quotes.

I need to be a good listener and a good observer. Observing the audience’s reactions can tell a lot about what people think is interesting or news worthy. I could incorporate that into my story.

Details. I need to find out the size of the audience and the exact location of the speech. I need to confirm the names and titles of the key players involved in the speech.

There would be many challenges I could potentially face. Not understanding the information or not being able to obtain necessary information can all be downfalls. I would be pleasant but persistent. I would do my homework and ask around for more information.

Multimedia is growing in importance in the journalism field. This would be a great opportunity to incorporate it with this story. I could perhaps have audio and video clips about the speech online. I could even have an interactive time line of his life or a Google map of where his life has taken him.