JRN 300: News Reporting and
Writing II
SUMMER 2016
SECTION 730 (MAY 16-AUG. 15,
ONLINE)
Instructor: Omar
Sofradzija (so-FRAD-zee-uh)
Office: CAS 360
Office hours: By
appointment
Email:
omars@msu.edu
Cell Phone: (702)
271-7983
On Facebook:
facebook.com/omars81
On Twitter: @omars81
On LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/in.omars81
Class
blog: jrn300isprettycool.blogspot.com
A NOTE: While the
syllabus accurately describes the content that will be discussed and acted upon
this semester, the sequence and dates are subject – and likely – to change.
This is a departmental syllabus that will be tweaked to best fit the needs of
this class section while adhering to class goals and grade outlines. Please
carefully take note of assignments and due dates as these are announced during
the course of the semester, and PLEASE READ THIS SYLLABUS CAREFULLY AND IN
ITS ENTIRETY. You will be responsible for knowing the content and course
structure from the time the semester begins. “I didn’t know we had to do that”
will NOT be an acceptable excuse, if the subject matter is contained within
this syllabus.
Also, if this is the first time
you’re taking a summer course at MSU, be aware that a college summer class
differs greatly from high school summer classes. In high school, summer classes
generally are remedial and take a much easier pace; in college, they do not and
they cover EVERYTHING that would be covered during the regular school year,
with the same expectations. So please do not expect a relaxed pace or lower
standards in this or any summer class at MSU.
Let’s make this one of the most
fulfilling courses you’ll take. Few careers offer the excitement and the chance
to really make a difference in people’s lives. That is just what we will do
this semester.
Journalism is in its greatest time of
change since the invention of the printing press. Now everyone can publish. But
the skills to do powerful journalism belong to just a few. You are becoming one
of those few. You will help invent the new journalism.
The School of Journalism continuously
reviews JRN 200, 300 and 400 to be a progressive sequence. The ideas and
experience of many professors stand behind your instructor. Using the skills
and values you have learned, you will now create multimedia news sites for
communities. This will build on what you learned in 200 and prepare you for
400.
We design and tested JRN 300 to help
you learn to gather news from real sources and to disseminate it in writing,
photos, video and graphics through websites and social media in the most
effective combination. You will tell stories for and about communities that are
hungry for coverage. Pay attention to the diversity of your community and look
for it on many levels. Gender? Race? Religion? Age? The best sites reflect the
total community. Success lies outside of your comfort zone.
We will focus on:
* Writing (a career building block
for all)
* Reporting (the fundamental skill of
interviewing that makes your work unique)
* Critical thinking (the ability to
analyze and to question)
* Digital skills (to find, gather and
convey information)
* Storytelling (powerful
communication)
Success now will qualify you for freelancing,
internships and jobs.
Required
* “Associated Press Stylebook &
Libel Manual,” 2013 or newer
* A camera or cellphone that shoots
photos and video
Suggested
· Read The New York Times, the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit
News or the Lansing State Journal daily. Also follow The State News. Seek
stories about how journalism is changing, as it is occurring quickly.
ACADEMIC & JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY
The School of Journalism’s Code of
Ethics and Standards is required reading in your first week. You must do your
own work on all assignments. If you cheat, fabricate or plagiarize, you will
receive a 0.0 on the assignment and the instructor will file an Academic
Dishonesty Report about the incident with the Dean’s Office. You will be
required to complete online training in ethical practices before receiving any
grade in this course. Dishonesty reflects poorly on the person who does it but,
worse, it hurts others MSU students, faculty and the School of Journalism. The
professor can check stories for originality by using TurnItIn software.
FORMAT
We will NOT be using D2L for this class. Instead, we will use a multitude of mediums: to check on class
assignments and homework, review lecture notes, go over past assignments, look at
strategies reporting and writing well, and do other activities we will be
checking in daily with a class blog at www.jrn300isprettycool.blogspot.com. Please make sure you check it Mondays through Thursdays for
the latest assignments, deadlines and readings.
YOU WILL NEED TO CHECK THE CLASS BLOG ON A DAILY BASIS IN ORDER
TO KEEP CURRENT ON ASSIGNMENTS AND READINGS, so please make this a
daily habit every weekday, Mondays through Fridays. The blog is formatted for
both desktop and mobile, giving you greater options in how to engage it. Again,
WE WILL NOT BE USING D2L FOR THIS CLASS;
PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK THE CLASS BLOG.
We will file our assignments in Word
documents via email to omars@msu.edu. Please make sure that you get that address correct – omar with
an s at the end – as there is an omar@msu.edu address
that’s incorrect but active. If your work is not correctly sent to omars@msu.edu, it will not be graded.
I will then post your work to a
public news Web site we are operating this summer called Spartan Dispatches at http://news.jrn.msu.edu/dispatches/. Thatis where your final work products will be shown publicly.
ASSIGNMENTS
We will be doing trend and issue
stories, which means our stories will be based not on events or happenings but
on broader in-depth matters that broadly affect a community, like poverty,
segregation, homelessness, community development, etc. We may use specific
events or happenings to illustrate a larger trend or issue, but we need to
delve into the larger issue and get into the whys and hows than simply stating
who-what-when-where. Stories must have at least two media (writing, photo,
chart, graphic, video, audio) to earn the highest grade. Even a perfect story
can earn only a 3.0 if it uses only one medium. If you wish, you may make
writing your secondary emphasis behind video, audio or photo.
Source lists accompany each story. Include phone numbers and emails for
sources so the professor may contact them.
These are our assignments:
· There will be seven weekly stories. Topics must be
pre-approved by the instructor. Stories can be to localize state or national
issues, cover local politics, or features or profiles. Broad subject areas
include education, transportation, law enforcement, the environment and growth.
Local leaders in government, schools, business, volunteerism and the like will
be some of your sources. Human interest or a character-driven story will be
essential to carrying it along, so you will need a couple of grass-roots
people. One or more sources should be outside experts such as state officials
or professors who have perspective on the issue. Do something that is
issue-oriented rather than a one-time event, an advancer or something that is
merely descriptive and lacks a news angle. Sports stories, entertainment,
fashion and opinion writing are important, but do not submit them for this
course. Everything we do will help you get better in those fields, but we do
not cover them.
·
A 300-word job shadow report.
This should help you build your network. Write as an essay, not a news story.
Write about whom you shadowed, what they do, what they like and do not like
about their job, your thoughts on which parts of the job you would and would
not like. We do not shadow relatives, students or campus media such as The
State News, WKAR or The Impact. This is not due until late in the semester but
we highly recommend you get this done early.
· The final project should be your
most ambitious and deeply-reported trend or issue story. You can start thinking
right away about what you'd like to do. Choose something you're really
interested in to make this great.
Accuracy is so important to our
professionalism and credibility! Please, please learn to be careful.
Triple-check names, dates and numbers. Major fact errors, especially an error
in the name of a person, business or place, can result in a 1.0 on an
assignment. Every semester people disappoint themselves by working hard on
stories but making careless mistakes. If the name is capitalized, any
misspelling can be a fact error. Check those especially. Persistent problems
with style, punctuation and grammar will lower your grade. Learn from the edits
I give you.
GRADING
Stories are judged on news value,
reporting, accuracy, clarity, writing, mechanics and use of
multi-media. Stories are not accepted after deadline.
Seven public affairs
stories
49 percent
Major-issue feature project
25 percent
In-class exercises and quizzes (3) 5 percent
Beat preparation assignment
3 percent
Job shadow report
5 percent
Participation and teamwork 8
percent
Work will be evaluated on a 4.0
scale. If you consistently invest time and effort you will succeed. Start with
intensity and keep it up. This is what we seek:
4.0: A newsworthy story told clearly and cleanly with four or more
varied, knowledgeable sources employing at least three media. These might be
text, photos (with original captions and a map or graphic, slideshow, video or
audio, depending on what best tells the story. Uses elements like subheads and
block quotes to hold readers. Completely accurate, well-organized, solid
grammar, punctuation and style and links to relevant resources.
3.5: A clear, well-written story with three good human sources and,
in addition to the text, links and visual elements—either your original photos
or graphics—high up on the Web page. (You may incorporate handout photos with
permission from the owner, but these typically cannot count as your original
work Get in the habit of shooting or making a visual element—even a good head
shot—with everything you do. Elements like subheads and block quotes are
included to good effect. Consistently good mechanics.
3.0: Better-than-average
report based on solid reporting with three relevant sources. Story answers
questions readers want to know. Writing is accurate, but copy needs rewriting
and polishing before it can be published.
2.5: On time and a little above average. Story has some problems
with organization, focus and sentence structure. Uses only one medium or has
fewer than three named, human sources. Problems with writing mechanics have
caused 0.25-point deductions.
2.0: Average. Basic organizational writing and reporting
deficiencies. Mechanical difficulties. Story lacks minimum sources or has weak
ones; used only one medium. The story is not of the type required in this
class. (For example, a story about a game or something that is not from your
beat.)
1.5: Weak. The lead does not state the news. Insufficient sourcing.
There are problems in news interpretation. Weak mechanics. Story goes off track
or is incomplete. Needs substantial rewriting and editing.
1.0: Major fact error. Or, lacks fundamental reporting and writing.
Problems might include omission of key facts, several deductions for errors in
AP style, spelling or punctuation. Poor news judgment. Weak sourcing. Needs
substantial rethinking. Cannot be published.
0.0: Story misses deadline or contains plagiarism or fabrication.
Extra credit:
·
You may do extra weekly stories. Each extra weekly story
will replace your lowest-graded weekly story when considered toward your final
grade.
Deductions
Errors in the name of a person, place
or business or number will result in a 1.0 grade with further deductions
possible. If it starts with a capital letter or is a number, check twice.
Each mechanical error in spelling,
grammar, style, punctuation, or in formatting your byline will reduce the
assignment grade by 0.25 up to a full 1.0 off for that assignment.
Deadlines: Stories must be in by deadline. This class is run like a
newsroom. Late stories can mean a zero on that assignment.
Rewrites: You may rewrite two stories for re-grading. A rewrite must reflect
additional content such as new sources or information, not merely correcting
mistakes or edits. A rewrite might also mean restructuring your story. Grades
on the original and rewritten stories will be averaged to determine the final
grade on that assignment. Rewrites and a copy of the graded original must be
submitted within one week after the instructor grades the original.
There is no final exam.
ATTENDANCE
We need you regularly checking the
class blog and making ALL deadlines. Missing deadlines will negatively affect
your participation grade, in addition to netting you a zero on the assignment.
TEAMS
Your will cover your community with
extensive fieldwork. You should visit your community in person each week. The
only way to get to know a place and its people is to be there. People will
invite you into their homes and offices, tell you about their biggest hopes,
dreams and disappointments and they will trust you with their stories. This is
an honor and a responsibility. Use initiative to find stories by talking to
people, reading, listening and watching. If you say, “I can't find (the source,
a copy of the budget, etc. …)” you probably need to spend more time on your
beat. Students who do stories one at a time invariably run into a problem and might
miss a deadline. Successful reporting cannot be done online or by phone.
Success requires a sustained time commitment from the beginning of the
semester. Make sure you have the time to succeed.
Although we will work in teams,
grades are based on individual work. We work in teams because that is how most
places of business work. We are graded individually because that is how
employers evaluate and determine raises.
Teamwork is part of individual
evaluations.
THE KEYS TO SUCCESS
•
Be organized.
•
Talk to people.
•
Find some super sources early.
•
Work on more than one story at a
time.
SOURCING
Our goal is to get you good at
finding and interviewing sources. For that reason, each story should have three
sources who have heartbeats and names we can publish. (A web page does not have
a heartbeat; we do not use unnamed sources.) Here is an example of three
well-distributed sources: The mayor or a council member, an expert who knows
about the issues, people who will be affected by the decision. Interviews
should be in person or, as a second resort, by phone. Email and texts are
discouraged. Someone whose quote you hear at a public meeting is not a source.
Interview them after or outside the meeting. Something you read online or in a
book may be used, but it is not a source. Do develop good sources whom you can
interview more than once during the semester. They can save you time.
To maintain journalistic
independence, do not use relatives, roommates, classmates and friends as
sources. This includes your Facebook friends. We don’t interview friends
and family because ethical journalists maintain independence. If a friend is
the best source for a story, talk to the professor to see if you should even be
doing the story. If you use sources without revealing that you have close ties
to them, this could be treated as a violation of trust.
EXCLUSIVITY (NO DOUBLE-DIPPING)
Work for other classes or campus
publications cannot be used for a grade here. Professional newsrooms have
similar rules. It would be unfair for one student to use campus activities for
grades when others can’t. However, if another news outlet wants to republish
work you do for our newsroom, talk to the professor.
PARTICIPATION AND CONDUCT
This is 8 percent of your grade, more
than any individual story. Be job-ready: on time, alert and engaged every
weekday. Show respect to all. This is basic workplace professionalism.
MSU's Code of Teaching Responsibility
says appropriate conduct involves “the right of faculty members to conduct
classes, and of students to participate in those classes, without interference
or disruption.” If a student's behavior interferes with teaching and learning,
the student could be referred to the student judicial affairs office for a
disciplinary hearing.
When interviewing, be courteous and
respectful. Introduce yourself as an MSU journalism student working for an
online news site, informing the source of how much time the interview will
take, that your intend to publish and thanking them.
DISABILITY POLICY
Michigan State University is
committed to equal opportunity in all programs, services and activities.
Requests for accommodations by persons with disabilities may be made by
contacting the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities, rcpd.msu.edu. If
you have a Verified Individual Services Accommodation form, please give it to
the instructor at the start of the term or two weeks prior to the date of the
test, project, etc.
RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS
We respect and value the diversity
that each of us brings to MSU. If religious holidays require alternative
arrangements to do your work, speak to the instructor in advance.
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