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Amari Jackson MASC303 Professor Bryan-Campos 03/3/2021 Q & A with Richmond Times Dispatch sports beat reporter Wayne Epps Jr

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Amari Jackson MASC303 Professor Bryan-Campos 03/3/2021 Q & A with Richmond Times Dispatch sports beat reporter Wayne Epps Jr. Q1: If you don't mind, can you start with spelling your first and last name for me please? A: W - A - Y- N - E E - P - P -S Q2: My first question for you today is you currently work for the Richmond times dispatch as a beat writer for VCU athletics, what is it like working for such a huge platform? A: I enjoy it. You know, I think there's a lot of interest in a particular beat that I cover as far as VCU athletics. So it's fun, I just kind of interacted with readers and stuff on whether it's Twitter or stuff like that through email, and things like that. So I enjoy, you know, it’s fun getting that feedback and like to have an interactive. I'm from outside of Richmond, too. So it's cool, you know, I guess kind of growing up, you know seeing VCU basketball and getting a chance to cover them, too, for the times-dispatch it's fun. So yes, it's been fun. I've been on the beat. It's my fourth season on the beat. I've been at times-dispatch for four years. So, it's been a lot of fun. Q3: So do you have any challenges with that so far? Like, is it pretty challenging? Or is it pretty easy? Since you have interest in it, and grew up around it. A: Our jobs, I guess, it just, you know, it definitely keeps me busy. I would say like, during the season, you know, putting out content pretty much every day, trying to get at least one type of story out every day. So sometimes, you know, it can be a challenge certain times of the season, just like trying to make sure I'm coming up with interesting content and stuff like that, or some laws and stuff like that. So it's trying to constantly come up with interesting things to write about, or things like that can be a challenge. This year, which hasn't been too bad, but it's been a little bit different, honestly, with COVID. In the past, you know, for interviews, we'll go to the team facility, and I'll go talk to players there and things like that a little bit easier. This year, you know, all interviews are over Zoom, and so that can be a little bit of a challenges as far as scheduling things, just trying to make sure that you know, meet the communications, you know, representative of VCU, and also the players kind of on the same page as far as what time is the interview and stuff like that. By and large it's not too bad, just the workload can be a little bit of a challenge at times. Bbut it's also fun, at the end of the day I still get to watch basketball for a living. Q4: So that also can bring me to one of my other questions. So with COVID how has it been like coming up with BS in stores and like, have you adjusted to you know, everything going on? A: Yeah, I guess I beg from that. You know, we still get to go to games in person and things like that. Like, again, it's definitely different. Like, even when we go to games in person at the Siegel Center, or not, in the press conference room after the game like we will be in the past Now even when we're at the game, we kind of stay up on our seat at the top of the arena and do the interview over Zoom. Like Game of Thrones every day is over over Zoom or phone call. Now there's no in person interviews at this at this time. So that's a little bit of adjustment. But, again, I think the thing everyone's tried their best to still make it work as best as possible. So not too many complaints there. I think there's been a couple of incidents where games I would have gone to but I couldn't because they weren't allowing fans. I typically go cover VCU players up in D.C. at George Washington University but this year D.C. protocols are a little bit tighter than in Virginia. So they're not allowing hardly anybody in their arenas. I couldn't go to that so that was one thing that was different. But again, I think everyone has done a pretty good job of making it work as best as possible. You know, I think everyone is pretty burst on Zoom now. Even Though I think everyone may be a little bit tired of it sometimes. They are ready to go back to doing some in person stuff, but I think I think Zoom has worked pretty well. I think, in the future, or something that I would like to see continuous Zoom. In the past, you know, some road games, we wouldn't get interviews, but now every road game, they give us a Zoom interview. So things like that will be actually nice to continue in the future. Like as you can say post-COVID. So yeah, you know, I think the challenge is just not having that same personal ability and personal contact of in person interviews, but I think everyone is making it work. Q5: Okay, so you've been doing, you know, sports, writing and things for a few years now. How did you get into sports writing? A: I started with my high school newspaper, actually, in high school. My high school was in Prince George's County outside of Richmond and my high school has just 10th through 12th. So I'm going into 10th grade going into high school, I applied to work for the high school newspaper. I already kind of knew I had an interest in doing some sport writing. I had an English class in junior high that we used to do free writing for and I just always write about sports. I just thought “I kind of like this and honestly, I could do it like for real.” So, going into 10th grade I was sports writer for the school newspaper and kind of just developed a love for it and stuck with it through high school. It made me realize that I want to do it for a career. So you know, went on to that, study journalism in college at JMU, and just continue with it from there. But I guess my first formal experience was in 10th grade in high school. Q6: Do you believe your remarkable years or experience with “The Breeze”, the student newspaper, which was at JMU? Correct? While at JMU has helped with your success is such a career? A: Oh, yeah, 100%, It's kind of crazy. You know what I was gonna say journalism is one of those fields were like, that experience is the most important thing like, you know, Obviously, you know, you got to go through the classes and everything like that, but just getting out in the field and doing it getting some work experiences is really the most important thing. Sometimes “The Breeze” I say I paid more attention to “The Breeze '' than my school work a lot of times while at JMU. So I think it really paid off because I feel like a lot of work I did at “The Breeze” is not that much different from what I'm doing now at my job. So I think that experience was hugely valuable like when I started out like covering football and the football beat. And I started to cover a lot of women's basketball as well which definitely helps with what I'm doing now. So yeah, I kind of you know, what they what are kind of advisors told us back then was account it to yourself. It's like you're a B writer, like the local newspaper was at the time, a local newspaper in Harrisonburg, Virginia,where JMU is at is called the Daily News Record. So its kind of look at yourself as like you're one of those reporters yourself not just a stupid reporter, and just really do you go about your job in a professional way. And, you know, just having that experience again, you know, the paper was twice a week. So I wasn't writing as often as I am now, but still just the day to day kind of cycle of covering the team. I think that experience is really, really helped me a lot now in my current job. So yeah, it was very important. Ask at the end of the interview: Is there anything that you wanted to mention that I didn’t ask you about? Also -- if you’re asking him questions outside of the interview, you are breaking a protocol. The journalist should remain neutral and maintain their role as a journalist the entire time. It’s probably fine but I have mixed feelings about it. These interview practices are to be taken seriously -- as though you were in the field. And if you were covering someone for a story, you wouldn’t turn off the camera and ask life advice. He’s a nice guy and hopefully more than willing to help. But I recommend you don’t do that on your next interview. Your interviews should be connected to your news story next time. Amari Jackson Interview Questions MASC 303 02/22/2021 Interview Questions for Wayne Epps Jr. 1. You currently work for the Richmond Times-Dispatch as a beat writer for VCU athletics. What is it like working for such a huge platform ? - Is it challenging ? - Do you get frustrated? If So, how do you overcome the frustration:? - How did you adjust? What steps did you take? 2. How hard is it for you to create beats/stories for RTD? - What steps do you take? 3. How did you get into sports writing ? - Any inspirations ? - Have you always wanted to do sports? - What sport do you like covering the most ? 4. What new skills have you learned and found useful in your career? 5. Do you believe your remarkable years or experience with “The Breeze” , the student newspaper , while at JMU has helped with your success in such a career? (use for terrance also) 6. How has COVID affected the creation of your beats/coverage? - Were they hard to come up with at some point during the pandemic? - Pros and cons? - How did you adjust to the new COVID protocols ? Any new ways you have to go about things? 7. Sports is pretty much all you have covered throughout your career, what experiences have you had with that? - Met anyone? - Opened an opportunity? 8. When it comes to being a great sports reporter, what are some things you should know ? - DO’s and DON'Ts ? 9. You have interned with several publishers from USA Today, to The Boston Globe, to the student , to The New York times,and so on. What happened to be your favorite internship and why ? - How did they differ? - Which was the most difficult? 10. Do you do anything extracurricular outside of covering VCU athletics for RTD? Q & A With NBC12 Reporter/Digital Writer Terrance Dixon Q1: Mr.Dixon , you are currently a TV reporter for NBC 12 news, what is it like working for such a huge platform as NBC? A: Q2: Outside of your job with NBC 12, you currently have a podcast called “In the mix” which gives all the updates on the latest trending topics in sports and entertainment. What was the creation of that idea for your podcast like? A: Q3: What steps did you take to make yourself comfortable in your job atmosphere? A: Q4: Which one do you prefer? Do you prefer being behind the camera or in front of the actual camera reporting? A: Q5: So speaking with COVID and things, when COVID kind of hit and even like, as Kobe kind of went on with the con part coming up with stories and like, you know, creating those packages and things that you had to make. A: Q6: So what would you say is the goal that you're trying to reach like with your YouTube and things?