Riya V. Anandwala | April 29, 2009
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| Photo by Emily Loftis |
| Graduate students Riya V. Anandwala, left, and Ann Shea watched as reporters interviewed attorneys and plaintiffs after a session at the Supreme Court. The class spent several days in Washington, D.C., reporting on oral arguments. |
The J551 Reporting the Law class left April 19 to cover oral arguments at the Supreme Court and returned five days later having blogged about their findings at IndyStar.com, the Indianapolis Star’s Web site.
The students spent the semester preparing for the trip, the second Fargo and the school have sponsored. Students spent much of this semester researching the Supreme Court cases, learning about the justices and exploring the style of reporting required to cover courts. The students formed teams of two or three to study four cases: Iraq v. Beaty, Safford v. Redding, Horne v. Flores and Ricci v Destefano.
Each day, students mingled with professional court reporters, such as those from CNN, CBS and Bloomberg. While some students were shoulder to shoulder with the likes of National
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| Photo by Riya V. Anandwala |
| Graduate student Lindsay Eckert interviewed a firefighter involved in one of the cases the Supreme Court heard while students visited Washington, D.C. |
During hearings, they watched the proceedings, studying the attorneys and justices as well as noting the court artist who sketched the scene.
Oral arguments are a chance for the attorneys to make presentations and answer justices’ questions about cases, which usually are selected because they involve interpretations of the U.S. Constitution. The justices already have read the attorneys’ briefs, submitted earlier, and often question the attorneys about significant points, according to the Visitors Guide to Oral Argument at the Supreme Court of the United States.
As soon as each case was submitted, students went to work, rushing back to their hotel to file their stories for the Star blog.
“It was gratifying to see students write such intelligent stories in a very short amount of time,” said Fargo.
During downtime, they continued to talk about cases, reflect on what they had seen and dissect each justice’s remarks and body language.
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| Photo by Emily Loftis |
| IU alumnus Bill Nichols, managing editor of Politico and Politico.com, talked with graduate students, including Alycin Bektesh, at company headquarters in Arlington, Va. He gave students a tour and talked about political reporting. |
“I realized how important a court reporter is to keeping the public informed of the evolution of law in a nation,” she said.
Loftis had no journalism experience. She saw the trip as a valuable learning experience.
“A student cannot possibly have the same experience of reporting in such a significant environment while sitting in a classroom,” she said. “It revealed elements of reporting that will help me in career decisions as well as journalism methods.”
Also during their stay in Washington, students visited IU alumni Shawn Chen, Associated Press online news editor, and Bill Nichols, managing editor at Politico.com. Each spoke about graduates’ chances to join news organizations.
“They made me feel I can be an integral part to the transformation,” said Loftis. “They balanced the optimism with a warning that it might be rough, and gaining multi-media skills and experience is vital to making me marketable.”
