The Contemporary World of Print Journalism 138b
Fall 2015
Professor: Eileen McNamara
Time: Tuesday and Friday 9:30 a.m. – 10:50 a.m.
Place: Brown 316
Office Hours: Tuesday and Friday 8 a.m.– 9 a.m. and by appointment
Office: 321 Brown
Telephone: 781-736-3049 (office), 781-929-1934 (cell)
E-mail:
"Journalism provides something unique to a culture — independent, reliable, accurate and comprehensive information that citizens require to be free." — The Elements of Journalism,Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of news reporting and writing. Students will learn by doing, developing the skills to generate story ideas, gather information, conduct interviews and write news articles. Through lectures, reading, in-class writing exercises and out-of-class reporting assignments, students will learn the basic principles and practices of journalism with an emphasis on accuracy, fairness and clarity. Because print journalism is practiced across many platforms, students will learn how the foundational tools and values being examined in this course apply to all journalism in the digital age.
REQUIREMENTS:
This is a Writing Intensive class. We will adhere to the standards of a professional newsroom. Deadlines are fixed; late assignments and absences will not be accepted unless students inform me by e-mail of illness or family emergencies in advance. Correct grammar, punctuation and spelling are required. Faithfulness to the AP stylebook is mandatory. Plagiarism will result in an “F” (as it would in termination at any reputable news organization.) Because there is no good writing without re-writing, you willcritique one another’s work and revise your own. In class exercises will be filed electronically so bring your laptop to class every Friday. Outside assignments must be typed, double-spaced, and submitted on paper.E-mailed submissions are not acceptable. Students must read assigned material prior to class, including The New York Times and The Boston Globe daily and The Justice and The Hoot weekly. Students are responsible for material on Latte; check it often. Because we learn by example, students will share examples of the best and/or worst journalism they are reading each week. Please keep all electronic devices turned off during class unless otherwise instructed.
COURSE GOALS:
Students will master basic journalistic concepts, including the importance of accuracy, the meaning of deadlines, and the legal and ethical standards that apply to the craft. Students will develop reporting and writing skills, including background research, interviewing techniques, the inverted pyramid style, the use of attribution and quotes and mastery of Associated Press style.
GRADING:
Grading will be based on outside reporting assignments (40%), in-class writing exercises (20%), a midterm (20%) and class participation, including a weekly quiz that will test your knowledge of current events and/or news style (20%). Students are required to revise outside reporting pieces to improve their writing. Revisions are due the class after the original is returned. Do not ask for extensions. Journalism is a deadline business. Students will retain a portfolio of their work, including originals and revisions. Invest in a stapler to keep originals and revisions together. During the semester that work will be reviewed with the instructor to focus on individual writing/reporting challenges.
ACCOMODATIONS: If you are a student who needs academic accommodations because of a documented disability, please contact me and present your letter of accommodation as soon as possible. If you have questions about documenting a disability or requesting academic accommodations, you should contact Beth Rodgers-Kay in Academic Services (x6-3470 or .)Letters of accommodation should be presented at the start of the semester to ensure provision of accommodations. Accommodationscannot be granted retroactively.
REQUIRED READING:
The Responsible Journalist, Oxford University Press
The AP Stylebook
The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White
The New York Times and The Boston Globe, daily
The Hoot and The Justice, weekly
Additional reading material will be posted on LATTE.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:
August 28 Introduction
An overview of course content and expectations. This is your first and best chance to run if you are not committed to the rigors of a newsroom.
September 1-4 The Fundamentals of Journalism
For democracy to work citizens need timely and reliable information accurately reported. We will examine the foundational principles of journalism and its role in a self-governing society. (Reading: Chapter 1, The Responsible Journalist; Numbers, Stylebook)
September 8-11 News Judgment
We explore what does (and does not) constitute news in an era when information is plentiful but news judgment is rare. Cable TV traffics in assertion; journalism is rooted in verification.(Reading: Chapter 2, The Responsible Journalist; Titles, Stylebook)
September 18 The Language of News
News writingis not creative writing. It is not opinion writing. Its purpose is to provide factual, verifiable information in a clear and concise manner. That is not as easy as it sounds. (Reading: Chapters 3,The Responsible Journalist; Titles,Stylebook)
September 22-25The Basic News Story
The structure of a breaking news story is the inverted pyramid, a formula that presents the most important information first and answers six key questions: who, what, when, where, why and how. (Reading: Chapters 4-5, The Responsible Journalist; Titles, Stylebook)
October 2 Finding A Focus: The Lede
How do you find your focus? In a hard news story, the opening paragraph, or lede, is a concise summary of the story to follow.(Reading: On LATTE; Abbreviations, Stylebook)
October 6-9 News Gathering: Research
Reporters need to go beyond Google. They must master such basic reference tools as their own news organization’s archives and such databases as Nexis/Lexis. (Reading: Chapter 6, The Responsible Journalist; Abbreviations, Stylebook)
October 13-16 News Gathering: Research, continued
Reporters need to know how to read academic reports, government files and medical studies, as well as how to analyze datain order to provide context in their reporting, all while avoiding plagiarism. (Reading: Chapter 7, The Responsible Journalist; Briefing on Media Law, page 382-425,Stylebook)
October 20 Midterm
October 23 Individual Conferences
October 27-30: Finding Sources
How do reporters identify people to provide accurate information? How do they cultivate those sources? How do they avoid class, racial and gender bias in their selection of sources? (Reading: Chapter 8, The Responsible Journalist; A Guide to Punctuation, Stylebook)
November 3-6: Interviewing
We explore how to interact with sources and how to conduct an interview in a way that elicits fresh information. We discuss how to listen and we learn the rules governing attribution, use of quotations and “off the record” communications. (Reading: Chapters 9-10, The Responsible Journalist)
November 10-13: Beat Reporting
The advantages and challenges of beat reporting. Reporters who cover a beat develop valuable expertise. Cover a beat too long and they risk identifying too closely with their sources. (Reading: Chapter 11, The Responsible Journalist)On November 10 at 5:30 p.m. there will be a campus panel on “Spotlight,” a new movie examining The Boston Globe’s coverage of the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, with the reporters and editors who broke the story. Attendance is mandatory. We are arranging for the class to see the movie in advance.
November 17-20 Feature Writing
Features, also known as human interest stories, offer an opportunity to write more creatively(but always factually.) Feature stories cover topics in greater depth, usingnarrative techniques of the storyteller.(Reading: Chapter 12, The Responsible Journalist)
November 24 Page One
December 1-4 Explainers and News Analysis
Not all stories fit neatly into the inverted pyramid style. What if a complex issue needs to be explained or a congressional vote placed in historical context? We look at more complicated stories that need telling. (Reading: Chapter 13, The Responsible Journalist)
December 8: Commentary
News writing and opinion writing are two different journalistic animals but if the latter is good, it is built on the principles of the former. We will consider how to distinguish informed commentary from hot air. (Reading: Chapter 14, The Responsible Journalist.)