Reporting 3/Newsgathering 2

 

JOUR 4502/5502

Spring 2006

 

 

Professors:       Tom Yulsman                                                       Kirby Moss

Office:                 Armory 213                                                            Armory 1-B29

Phone:                 303-492-3009                                                        303-735-2280                   

E-mail:                mailto:tom.yulsman@colorado.edu                       kirby.moss@colorado.edu

Office hours:   TBA                                                                  T/Th 1-3 p.m.

 

                                                     

 

Course Description

Newsgathering 2 (Reporting Seminar) and Reporting 3 are the final reporting classes in the Newsgathering and News-Editorial sequences. The class is designed to give you a professional reporting experience. This arrangement will allow you to put to use what youÕve learned in the classroom. Your internship will be a rare and valuable opportunity to gain experience and clips and to establish contacts with reporters and editors. Treat this opportunity as a job and it may very well lead to one.

                  To succeed you must have a sound grasp of spelling, grammar, punctuation and AP style; be well informed about international, national and local news; and adopt a professional attitude toward each assignment you are given. The internship is an intense experience that will require you to focus your energy and carefully schedule your time.       

                  Class sessions are aimed at helping you get the most out of your internship by focusing on the standards and ethical principles of good journalism, by enabling you to share your experiences and questions with visiting professionals and classmates, and by addressing difficult journalistic situations. Your attendance is required.

 

Requirements

                  You have been assigned to work at a local newspaper or other approved media outlet. You are expected to spend at least two days, about 16 hours, each week developing, reporting and writing stories or working as an editor or photographer or in some other approved position.

1. Reporters: Your editor will assign many stories, but you will be expected to come up with your own story ideas. By the end of the term each undergraduate student reporter is required to have submitted a minimum of 12 stories. Each graduate student must submit a minimum of 16 stories.

       Your instructors will edit your raw copy to give you feedback and insure that you are receiving consistent editing. Turn in to your instructor a copy of the stories as they were written when you handed them to your editor -- in other words, raw, unedited, original copy. Place them in your manila folder in the plastic file on the shelf near the front desk in the main office of the Armory by 5 p.m. Friday of each week. Your instructor will edit them and return them to your folder. When the story is published, staple it to the edited raw copy and turn it in again. If you have not written a story, submit a few graphs summarizing your activity during the week.

You will be given credit for work done. So if you work on a story that falls through, or you help another reporter gather quotes, or do research for a story, or are asked to perform other work that doesnÕt result in a story, you will get credit. Please put a note in your folder outlining what you did.

At the top of each story write a sentence or two telling your instructor if the story was your idea or an editorÕs idea. Tell us if you began with a press release and made several phone calls, covered an event or meeting or interviewed a source or sources in person. In other words, tell what it took to get the story.

At the end of the semester, reporters will be required to turn in a Òclip packageÓ illustrating your six best stories.

 

2.       Photographers, copy and other editors, and online editors are required to turn in a weekly log of activities. Tell us in some detail what youÕve been up to. You also need to submit appropriate materials for our review.

a.       Copy editors and online editors: We want to see unedited and edited copy, as well as headlines, cutlines and other display copy youÕve written. Include your suggested copy and what actually ran in your publication. Online editors: You may be doing a variety of work. For example, you may design web pages, or incorporate material into pre-designed templates. Whatever you do, we want to keep track of it over the course of the semester. So submit appropriate examples.

b.       Photographers: Give us copies of photographs you shot that wound up in the newspaper. If your work wasnÕt published, you should still give us samples of some of the shooting you did.

c.       Magazine editors: If one of your duties is coming up with story ideas, tell us what ideas you pitched to your editors. Also give us copies of stories or other work youÕve edited. We would like to see the unedited stories and your edits, so make sure to include both. If writing is part of your job, give us raw and edited copy. Also provide any display copy (headlines, etc.) you wrote.

 

Put all these materials in your manila folder in the plastic file on the shelf near the front desk in the main office of the Armory by 5 p.m. Friday of each week. Please note that depending on the nature of the work you do, we may have to lean more or less heavily on the evaluation of your supervisor. At the end of the semester, editors and photographers will turn in portfolios, as described by your instructor.

                 

Preparation

                  Begin by getting information on the town, city, agency or topic youÕll be covering. Buy a map; visit the chamber of commerce. Clip anything and everything that may help you write a story later. Read a weekÕs worth of your newspaper as well as the competition. They are in your newspaperÕs library and in the reading room in the lower level of the Armory. They are also at Norlin Library. Read about your beat in the newspaperÕs library. Your editors will expect you to come up with fresh story ideas – not ones the paper has done recently. YouÕll have to get up to speed quickly. It will pay off. If youÕre working at a magazine, read a yearÕs worth of the publication. (Fewer issues if youÕre working at a weekly.) Ask your editors for back copies. Make sure you understand what kinds of topics your magazine covers and how it covers them. Familiarize yourself with the format of the magazine, its tone, and the readership it targets. Given the work assignment your editors give you -- for example, to edit and write stories for a particular section -- start coming up with appropriate ideas. Note that ideas for stories, illustrations, graphics, etc., are the lifeblood of every magazine. The better yours are, the more you will impress your editors, and the bigger contribution you will be able to make to the enterprise.

 

 

Grading

                  Grades will be based on 15 percent for class attendance and participation, 40 percent for instructor grades assigned to your stories or portfolios, and 45 percent supervising editorÕs evaluation. Your editor will evaluate you on writing mechanics and reporting or photography or editing skills as well as your attitude and professionalism. Absence from class will be tolerated only if there is an irreconcilable conflict with the hours your newspaper needs you to work. If you miss a class, call a classmate – not your instructor – for information on what you missed.

                  Story grades will be reduced for errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, style, proofreading and general information in your raw copy. In accordance with the policy adopted last year by the news-editorial faculty, an error in fact or a misspelled name will result in an F on that story, no matter how good it may be otherwise.

 

A few words on professionalism: Your editors and supervisors are willing to work with you to make you better journalists, but they should not have to train you regarding basic matters of professionalism. Among the things you should know going into your internship are:

á          Show up on time (or even a few minutes early).

á          Dress appropriately.

á          Stay until your shift is done É or longer if a story still needs your attention.

á          Meet deadlines É always.

á          Stay in contact with your editor so that he or she knows how far along you are on your stories, what problems youÕre having with sources, etc. If you suspect a problem is going to surface, let your editor know ahead of time.

 

We will not tolerate any professionalism problems at your internship. We will be in contact with your editors regarding your work ethic and, if we get complaints regarding failure to show up or to meet deadlines, we will give you a failing grade in the class. The work that you do this semester has impacts for other students in future semesters, so it is very important that you treat this internship – whether paid or not – as you would a job.

 

 

Plagiarism/Academic Ethics

Plagiarism, defined as presenting the words or ideas of another person as if they were your own, is a very serious breach of journalistic and academic ethics and will not be tolerated. We will check for plagiarism in your stories, and if we find that youÕve plagiarized information, you could fail the course. Finding plagiarism is almost as easy as committing it. So be forewarned that if you do it, there is a very high probability that we will find it. And depending on the egregiousness of the offense, it could mean not only an F in the class but suspension from the university and the end of your career in journalism. The same sanctions apply to fabricating information and other serious breaches of journalistic and academic ethics.

Please be aware that in the age of the Internet, it is very easy to plagiarize material without even intending to do so. As a result, you need to be proactive and assiduous in keeping track of the sources of the information you gather, which information youÕve copied verbatim into your notes, and which youÕve paraphrased. To avoid plagiarism, you need to provide clear and appropriate attribution for information AND use quotation

marks for information you are using verbatim. (Providing a source for copied information without using quotation marks is still plagiarism.)

This is not intended as a complete discussion of plagiarism. So if you have any questions concerning what it is, how to avoid it, and the consequences for committing it, please do not hesitate to speak to your instructors. Also, a student honor code has been adopted in all academic units of the university, including the journalism school. For more information about the honor code, please go to: http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/

 

 

Attendance and Participation

You are expected to attend all classes and to offer insights during class discussions. (Unexcused absences will lead to a lowering of your final grade.) Again, your careful reading of the assignments and knowledge of news events are essential for meaningful discussion.

In accordance with university policy, we will make every effort to accommodate students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with required attendance and assignments. But you must notify your instructor at least two weeks in advance of the conflict to request special accommodation.

 

 

Students with Disabilities

If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit to your instructors a letter from Disability Services early in the semester so that your needs may be addressed. This office determines accommodations based on documented disabilities. You can reach Disability Services at 303-492-8671. The office is located in Willard Hall, Room 322. For more information, see: www.colorado.edu/sacs/disabilityservices

 

 

CLASS SCHEDULE

(Note: this schedule is subject to change!)

 

 

Date

On the agenda

 

 

1/17

-- Introductions

-- Internship assignments

-- Class and internship expectations

 

1/24

-- NO CLASS. Orientation at the Daily Camera at 9 a.m. sharp

 

1/31

-- Role of journalism

-- Influences on news

-- Media effects

-- read chapters 1, 4 of The Elements of Journalism, on

electronic reserve

 

2/7

 

 

-- Story ideas: bring in six developed story ideas for your news

organization

 

2/14 5-7:30 p.m.

--Pizza and showing of ÒAll the PresidentÕs Men.Ó Room TBA. If you canÕt make this session, you need to check out and view the movie before the next class.

 

2/21

--Guest speakers. From Deep Throat to Judith Miller. Panel of print and radio journalists on how to work with sources

 

2/28

Guest speaker (Todd Hartman)

-- Backgrounding a story

-- Working with data

 

3/7

-- Covering violence and trauma

 

3/14

-- Interviewing skills

-- Use and editing of quotes

 

3/21

Guest speaker (TENTATIVE: Gil Asakawa, online editor of the Denver Post)

-- Online journalism

 

3/28

-- NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK

4/4

Guest speaker (George Merritt)

-- Finding ledes and nut grafs

4/11

Guest speakers: Maximillian Potter & Cheryl Nedderman, 5280 magazine; Dan Glick, freelance; and others

-- Magazine journalism and careers

4/18

-- Ethics

 

4/25

Guest speaker (TBA)

-- Thinking visually

 

5/2

Guest speaker (TBA)

-- Getting ready for the job market

 

6/2

-- Wrapping up