Journalism 133: Prof. Craig: Story Ideas Exercise, Part II

Story Ideas Exercise, Part II

1) Summary: How dangerous is it to cross streets surrounding San Jose State.

Audience: Students who live on and off campus

Interviews: University Police Department, San Jose Police Department, SJSU students, store owners near crosswalks

Info needed to gather: Find most used crosswalks by students, get stats on how often crashes have happened near them, reference stats on how often cars run red lights.

Talk to cops about how often they ticket people for jaywalking and how often they ticket drivers in the area. Ask what are the issues enforcing traffic laws and making sure drivers stay safe.

Talk to students who park in the garages about how driving around campus is. Do they have to be on alert for more pedestrians? Talk to Bus drivers, UPS and Fedex truck drivers about being alert for pedestrians.

After doing preliminary research, talk to city officials about whether they need to take any measures to increase pedestrian safety such as building more signals or stop signs.

Potential secondary story ideas: Potential fines and their amounts for reckless driving around campus. Is San Jose a pedestrian friendly city?

2) Summary: Are online food ordering services like Tapingo fulfilling their purpose to save consumers time and money

Audience: Students with the Tapingo application, Doordash/Grubhub drivers, restaurant owners/servers

Interviews: Info needed to gather: Average time per food order throughout the times of day, does every restaurant with Spartan Eats use it. How does it compare to other online food ordering service. What are students' experiences with it?

Potential secondary story ideas: Profit online food services gain.

3) Summary: How is the parking situation changing at SJSU with construction of new parking garage.

Audience: SJSU Students and Faculty that park in parking garages,

Interviews: SJSU transportation solutions, Office of Finance and Administration, privately-owned parking garages, SJSU Students, Athletes practicing around the area,
University Police Department, San Jose Police Department, parking enforcement, Park and Ride Bus Drivers, Students who use Park and Ride

Info needed to gather: How many spaces the parking garages have, prices for those parking spaces, are prices going to increase or decrease.

Talk with police about increasing parking enforcement, talk with SJPD about dealing with increased traffic in the area. Talk with students in Park and Ride about traffic right
Now, and if they're worried about increased.

Will there be more bus drivers hired to transports students. Talk with bus drivers about transporting more students.

Potential secondary story ideas: Will parking garage construction disturb athletes practicing on South Campus? Are there spots being added for Lime Scooters around parking garage for students to ride to campus?