Blog: A behind-the-scenes view

Trying to get interviews with students who had writing on their dorm windows turned out to be an interesting experience.

I am fairly outgoing, so I usually don’t have a problem talking to people I don’t know, but for some reason, knocking on students' dorm room doors and trying to get them to talk about the writing on their windows was out of my comfort zone.

I felt like a door-to-door salesman going to each room with my group member Adam as we tried to get students to give us 30-second interviews. Most of the students were surprisingly helpful, but they were also shy about being on camera.

The occupants of one room didn’t want to be interviewed and slammed the door in our faces.

I also found out that trying to get interviews on Friday afternoons in the dorms is not a good idea because most of the students are still asleep -- probably due to partying the night before.

It was also awkward for Adam and I, being two males, to enter into female dorm rooms to try to get interviews. All in all the experience was a good one, even though we had some technical difficulties, which meant that we had to re-interview students.

It made me feel like a real journalist, chasing after a story. It was a great feeling for me.

-- Chris Amarel.
Student journalist