Galactic Activity 24

News stories need to be neutral and concise. They need a catchy headline to get the audience’s attention and to present the main points of the situation. They can include quotes from interested parties or bystanders.

Activity 24 – News Story

Duration: 2 – 3 mins
Applicable Streams: Personal challenge, Leadership, Learning & Development, Workplace skills, Education, Technical, Sales, Meeting Skills, Inspiration/Motivation, Conference/events,

Aim

In this activity you are aiming to:

Present a news story as a speech or presentation

Objectives

To do this, you will need to keep the following objectives in mind:

  1. Choose a story from the weekend newspaper that is topical and has some level of intrigue or ‘two sided’ nature
  2. Prepare a neutral presentation that covers all the main points including both ‘sides’ of the situation

The Why…

There are community and business roles that involve us needing to ‘debrief’ people regarding an incident or situation that has arisen. Sometimes it can be challenging to remember and deliver all the details in a logical, or chronological sense. This activity gives you practise at this skill.

Where do I start?

Find the full page spreads in the weekend papers and choose one that has some level of intrigue that will appeal to the people you’re presenting to. Try to choose a story that has a ‘new’ angle to it – ie something that the members haven’t seen, talked about or debated before already.

The How

Specific guidelines on how to tackle this activity.

Choose a story from the weekend papers that has some sort of intrigue or double sided nature. The best place to find stories like these are on the full page spreads.

Take notes on what the main points of the story are about, including details that will help explain both ‘sides’. Try as much as possible to stay ‘neutral’ – ie don’t lean too heavily on one side of the story, or forget to mention details that will help bolster the case of the other ‘side’.

Variations:

The story can be

  1. Inspirational
  2. Factual/educational
  3. A topical event
  4. A tragedy
  5. A community debate
  6. A national conundrum

Tips and traps

TRAPS:

  • Presenting a list of bullet points in chronological or logical order. The presentation should sound more like a story, not just a bunch of facts strung together.
  • Choosing a topic that has little or no interest for the majority of the audience.

TIPS:

  • Go with a story that YOU are quite motivated or passionate about – it will be easier to engage the audience if you have a level of ‘energy’ around the story and why it’s important.
  • Rhetorically ask the audience at the start how much they know about the resolution/punchline/details of the story you’re about to deliver so their intrigue is piqued from the beginning.

Guidelines for Program Director:

As always, ensure the topic chosen for this speech isn’t highly political or religious in nature, or a topic that is too divisive for the members who will be in the audience.