Tabloids
Traditional journalists hate that readers confuse their mainstream news outlets with these "gossip sheets." The tabs carry loads of fiction, made-up stories like the baby who turned green because his mother fed him too much mashed peas and spinach. They have fabricated quotes, given phony names, paid for interviews and engaged in all manner of behavior unethical and unacceptable for journalists. On the other hand, they write engagingly and simply so that people never feel like they have been assigned homework. They also in recent times have broadened the definition of news. They have made rape, for example, a topic far less taboo than it was. They have led coverage of sensational crimes and trials. Most traditional journalists have responded with disdainful comments comparing the tabloids to garbage. Smarter traditional journalists have taken a lesson from this lower-class about aggressive reporting that goes beyond official sources and about narrative writing that captures the drama and intrigue of crime and trials.
To sum up this odd issue: I refer you to the movie "Men in Black" in which Tommy Lee Jones' character buys tabloids religiously because they are the only ones that tell the truth about aliens invading earth.
Is there news in blogs?
For way too long traditional journalists made fun of this form as news too. They scoffed that not anyone could create news and that reader/viewers needed editors to filter out what was important. Too slowly, but increasingly, mainstream media has begun putting information into new forms including video streaming, audio reports --and blogs. CNN, as one example, has begun using blogs and video to cover trials. Political coverage -- and campaigning -- is moving to coverage through blogs.
They can be fun to read because they are written in a more personal and conversational style than news in magazines and newspaper. They also allow for more opinion and commentary than straight news stories. But when this form is used by people who do not research and interview as they would for any old-style story, the result can be a stew of half-baked ideas and misconceptions.
As a final note, the question of whether bloggers are journalists has stirred up a lot of legal debate in recent years. Government officials appear to be willing to grant journalists some important protections that would shield them from having to reveal secret sources or be forced to testify in many court cases. But they don't want to include bloggers. This is understandable. Anyone could create a blog, claim they were now a journalist, and escape duties citizens are expecte to perform in helping the criminal justice system.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
What makes it news? (Recap of Class 1/28)
Definitions of news change across time and countries and with new technology.
In many parts of the world the press only writes about the doings of the national government -- the president and congress mostly. In the U.S. for a long time news was simply EVENTS, things, usually campaigns, war and disaster, that happened which reporters covered as witnesses or stenographers reporting back to citizens who couldn't see the events themselves.
It was revolutionary a century ago, at a time when masses of people began reading the news in the US, when reporters began writing about everyday rather than extraordinary events. Housing, schools, profiles of interesting people began appearing them for the first time. Investigations of predatory businesses and slum housing were done by journalists, not government officials.
Today, for you, I'd say that news is anything you find interesting...that you can also make interesting to other people.
Some elements that help to make topics interesting and compelling to write about are these:
*TIMELINESS. Stories about anything relating to the Super Bowl, including weather, injuries to team players, mood of the coaches is big news now because the game is coming up this weekend. Next month, these stories will be harder to interest readers in.
*PROXIMITY. In general, readers and viewers want to know about their neighbors and colleagues. Think of it in terms of gossip: you are interested if your former boss gets a divorce or the man who sits at the desk next to you; you are not so interested in the number of divorces issued by the state of New Mexico last year. The trick is that proximity is wider now than it ever has been. For example, UAlbany students are likely to read about other UAlbany students, about other US college students, other students globally, news from their hometowns, news from foreign countries they'd done foreign study programs in, topics of interest to people in their 20s including technology, sports and relationships.
See, anything that interests you that you can get others interested in. Show readers how they too are connected to the story you are telling them.
*PROMINENCE. In news, all people are not equal. Anything at all the U.S. President does can be turned into a story, including minor operations. Same for Brittney Spears, for that matter. Celebrity news has gotten out of hand because of the public fascination with the prominent. It's more fun to read about Lindsay Lohan than the sub-prime lending crisis. But remember this: Ordinary people also can be made extraordinary when reporters examine their lives. Walt Harrington, a newspaper writer turned professor, calls this "Intimate Journalism" or "reporting everyday life." Others call it simply....
*HUMAN INTEREST. A grandfather saves his 11-year-old granddaughter from an attacking rottweiler...a young man stops a woman with a gun from shooting a politician speaking to a crowd of people. Two women who are identical twins and marrying a set of identical twin husbands and they all live next door to each other in identical houses furnished identically. Strange things happen to anyone and they become newsworthy. Or, people living routine lives, coping with illness, loss, success, boring jobs...that can make for news stories too.
*CONFLICT. Like prominence, this is another news factor that the media may be overplaying. Of course, the war in Iraq and civil war in Kenya are news. But journalists taking an easy way out in trying to make their reports interesting turn everything into a conflict. Ever hear about two teams battling to win a championship? Or a sick person waging a courage battle against a fatal disease?
*CONSEQUENCES. Reporters call these Dull But Important stories. Journalists sometimes make readers and viewers do homework. They feel justified because they know the readers' pocketbook or their future or their children are affected by events that are hard to follow and understand and, frankly, boring. You all listened to the State of the Union, so you know what I mean. The job of a journalist is to pay attention to all the boring activities of government and business that citizens do not have time to pay attention to. And then to tell them about what happened, to explain it in simple terms and to relate this to their lives. Think of the journalist as a translator. You don't write about passage of a city budget. You tell homeowners how much more in property taxes they have to pay next year and what new services they may get as a result. You don't give UAlbany students a play-by-play of dry State Legislative hearings. You sum them all up in a story about whether lawmakers are gong to give themselves a raise -- while also hiking your tuition.
*HOBBIES and INTEREST. Sports is news. Technology reports are news. Stock market reports are news. To repeat: anything that is of interest to you that you can make interesting to others. Under this category come all those dog and pets stories in the media. (Some of us would rather read about Angelina.)
*ODDITY OR "HEY, MABEL, TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!!" Into this category go all the quirky, weird and strange predicaments people can find themselves in, the kind of thing that readers and viewers will talk about. "Hey, did you see that story about..." My favorite recent example of this kind of story was the guy in Illinois who got his finger caught in a public telephone. He was trying, obviously, to dig out money from the change-return and then couldn't extract himself. Police had to take him and the phone to a hospital. Hey Mabel!
In many parts of the world the press only writes about the doings of the national government -- the president and congress mostly. In the U.S. for a long time news was simply EVENTS, things, usually campaigns, war and disaster, that happened which reporters covered as witnesses or stenographers reporting back to citizens who couldn't see the events themselves.
It was revolutionary a century ago, at a time when masses of people began reading the news in the US, when reporters began writing about everyday rather than extraordinary events. Housing, schools, profiles of interesting people began appearing them for the first time. Investigations of predatory businesses and slum housing were done by journalists, not government officials.
Today, for you, I'd say that news is anything you find interesting...that you can also make interesting to other people.
Some elements that help to make topics interesting and compelling to write about are these:
*TIMELINESS. Stories about anything relating to the Super Bowl, including weather, injuries to team players, mood of the coaches is big news now because the game is coming up this weekend. Next month, these stories will be harder to interest readers in.
*PROXIMITY. In general, readers and viewers want to know about their neighbors and colleagues. Think of it in terms of gossip: you are interested if your former boss gets a divorce or the man who sits at the desk next to you; you are not so interested in the number of divorces issued by the state of New Mexico last year. The trick is that proximity is wider now than it ever has been. For example, UAlbany students are likely to read about other UAlbany students, about other US college students, other students globally, news from their hometowns, news from foreign countries they'd done foreign study programs in, topics of interest to people in their 20s including technology, sports and relationships.
See, anything that interests you that you can get others interested in. Show readers how they too are connected to the story you are telling them.
*PROMINENCE. In news, all people are not equal. Anything at all the U.S. President does can be turned into a story, including minor operations. Same for Brittney Spears, for that matter. Celebrity news has gotten out of hand because of the public fascination with the prominent. It's more fun to read about Lindsay Lohan than the sub-prime lending crisis. But remember this: Ordinary people also can be made extraordinary when reporters examine their lives. Walt Harrington, a newspaper writer turned professor, calls this "Intimate Journalism" or "reporting everyday life." Others call it simply....
*HUMAN INTEREST. A grandfather saves his 11-year-old granddaughter from an attacking rottweiler...a young man stops a woman with a gun from shooting a politician speaking to a crowd of people. Two women who are identical twins and marrying a set of identical twin husbands and they all live next door to each other in identical houses furnished identically. Strange things happen to anyone and they become newsworthy. Or, people living routine lives, coping with illness, loss, success, boring jobs...that can make for news stories too.
*CONFLICT. Like prominence, this is another news factor that the media may be overplaying. Of course, the war in Iraq and civil war in Kenya are news. But journalists taking an easy way out in trying to make their reports interesting turn everything into a conflict. Ever hear about two teams battling to win a championship? Or a sick person waging a courage battle against a fatal disease?
*CONSEQUENCES. Reporters call these Dull But Important stories. Journalists sometimes make readers and viewers do homework. They feel justified because they know the readers' pocketbook or their future or their children are affected by events that are hard to follow and understand and, frankly, boring. You all listened to the State of the Union, so you know what I mean. The job of a journalist is to pay attention to all the boring activities of government and business that citizens do not have time to pay attention to. And then to tell them about what happened, to explain it in simple terms and to relate this to their lives. Think of the journalist as a translator. You don't write about passage of a city budget. You tell homeowners how much more in property taxes they have to pay next year and what new services they may get as a result. You don't give UAlbany students a play-by-play of dry State Legislative hearings. You sum them all up in a story about whether lawmakers are gong to give themselves a raise -- while also hiking your tuition.
*HOBBIES and INTEREST. Sports is news. Technology reports are news. Stock market reports are news. To repeat: anything that is of interest to you that you can make interesting to others. Under this category come all those dog and pets stories in the media. (Some of us would rather read about Angelina.)
*ODDITY OR "HEY, MABEL, TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!!" Into this category go all the quirky, weird and strange predicaments people can find themselves in, the kind of thing that readers and viewers will talk about. "Hey, did you see that story about..." My favorite recent example of this kind of story was the guy in Illinois who got his finger caught in a public telephone. He was trying, obviously, to dig out money from the change-return and then couldn't extract himself. Police had to take him and the phone to a hospital. Hey Mabel!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Finding interesting blogs
Just as you can use a number of search engines to find items of interest on the World Wide Web, you have a choice of engines to help you find blogs of interest to read.
And just as Google is probably the first engine you go to, and the one you go to if you time only to go to one, Technorati is the best one-stop blog search engine. It is at http://technorati.com/
Some other engines you should try are:
Blogsearch at www.blogsearchengine.com/
Blogarama at www.blogarama.com/
Feedster at Feedster.com/
There are more if these don't serve.
On any of these plug in a name of a blogger or a subject you are interested in and see what you come up with. Then when you find a blog you like, bookmark it. I have a few I read everyday, some I read weekly, others once in a while. And I look for new ones all the time.
In researching stories you can find ideas and sources in blogs. As with anything from the Internet, ideas and sources must be verified and checked thoroughly. You may have heard that there is false information online.
Some possible blogs of interest:
www.gawker.com
www.obscurestore.com
www.jaws.org/blogroll/ for a list of blogs of interest especially to women and journalists
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/ for politics with a liberal slant
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/blog/10/05/carlson.blog/ for politics with a conservative slant
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/ a blog on race and other issues by UAlbany Journalism Professor Debra Dickerson
And just as Google is probably the first engine you go to, and the one you go to if you time only to go to one, Technorati is the best one-stop blog search engine. It is at http://technorati.com/
Some other engines you should try are:
Blogsearch at www.blogsearchengine.com/
Blogarama at www.blogarama.com/
Feedster at Feedster.com/
There are more if these don't serve.
On any of these plug in a name of a blogger or a subject you are interested in and see what you come up with. Then when you find a blog you like, bookmark it. I have a few I read everyday, some I read weekly, others once in a while. And I look for new ones all the time.
In researching stories you can find ideas and sources in blogs. As with anything from the Internet, ideas and sources must be verified and checked thoroughly. You may have heard that there is false information online.
Some possible blogs of interest:
www.gawker.com
www.obscurestore.com
www.jaws.org/blogroll/ for a list of blogs of interest especially to women and journalists
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/ for politics with a liberal slant
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/blog/10/05/carlson.blog/ for politics with a conservative slant
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/ a blog on race and other issues by UAlbany Journalism Professor Debra Dickerson
Thursday, January 24, 2008
What would you do?
Recently a young reporter for the Winona Daily News wrote into the Investigative Reporters & Editors listserve seeking advice from colleagues with more experience covering city government.
She presents a problem that is typical for new reporters covering a beat for the first time. What would you tell her to do?
Here's the posting:
"To experienced city government reporters,
I'm looking for new avenues to tackle a non-responsive and uncooperative
city council in a southeastern Minnesota town of 1,500 residents. I feel
like I've tried everything.
The council has been an adamant "no comment" for a while now. They said
it's not their job to talk to me. When I do get comment from them, it's
statements they make during a council meeting or approaching them after
a meeting while they're walking out the door or packing up.
They tell me that they don't trust me or my paper. They say my reporting
is inaccurate. I'll ask what's wrong in my stories and they'll say "half
of it." I've offered several times to have them meeting with me and my
editor to work out communication issues, but they've turned us down.
The mayor gave me a 20-minute phone interview a few months ago, but said
he was unhappy I didn't print "everything" he said and that the story
included quotes from people who disagreed with the council's actions.
One of the council members said he didn't like stories the reporter
before me did so he won't talk to our paper. Another council member said
he gave me a chance, but I messed it up. I'm not sure when that chance
was or how I messed it up because we've never had a sit-down interview
with him.
The city administrator is a little better with communication, but she
can be ridiculously vague and often dodges my phone calls. I have
discussed my concerns with the city attorney and he has said he'll find
a way to help me access information and possibly get statements from the
council for me, but it sounds like what he's suggesting is press
releases after decisions are made.
I'm looking for a council that will clue me in on their plans so I can
let residents know before they vote on it. They tell me I'm harassing
them by calling them to discuss agenda items. I've tracked the time and
date of every phone call, and I've only had one returned call.
If any one can offer advice on how I can better handle the situation, it
would be really appreciated.
She presents a problem that is typical for new reporters covering a beat for the first time. What would you tell her to do?
Here's the posting:
"To experienced city government reporters,
I'm looking for new avenues to tackle a non-responsive and uncooperative
city council in a southeastern Minnesota town of 1,500 residents. I feel
like I've tried everything.
The council has been an adamant "no comment" for a while now. They said
it's not their job to talk to me. When I do get comment from them, it's
statements they make during a council meeting or approaching them after
a meeting while they're walking out the door or packing up.
They tell me that they don't trust me or my paper. They say my reporting
is inaccurate. I'll ask what's wrong in my stories and they'll say "half
of it." I've offered several times to have them meeting with me and my
editor to work out communication issues, but they've turned us down.
The mayor gave me a 20-minute phone interview a few months ago, but said
he was unhappy I didn't print "everything" he said and that the story
included quotes from people who disagreed with the council's actions.
One of the council members said he didn't like stories the reporter
before me did so he won't talk to our paper. Another council member said
he gave me a chance, but I messed it up. I'm not sure when that chance
was or how I messed it up because we've never had a sit-down interview
with him.
The city administrator is a little better with communication, but she
can be ridiculously vague and often dodges my phone calls. I have
discussed my concerns with the city attorney and he has said he'll find
a way to help me access information and possibly get statements from the
council for me, but it sounds like what he's suggesting is press
releases after decisions are made.
I'm looking for a council that will clue me in on their plans so I can
let residents know before they vote on it. They tell me I'm harassing
them by calling them to discuss agenda items. I've tracked the time and
date of every phone call, and I've only had one returned call.
If any one can offer advice on how I can better handle the situation, it
would be really appreciated.
Anyone Can Blog, so Don't Panic
These suggestions come mostly from Sandra Fish, a journalist and professor and a friend from the Journalism & Women Symposium:
How to Blog:
1. Identify some blogs that you like and figure out what it is you like, their style and look, the tone of the writing, the content (although some of that will not be your choice while you are blogging for class.) figure out what software is "powering" the sites you like. This is usually written on the blog somewhere or you'll see an icon before the URL in the address line of your browser.
(For those of you who don't know where to look to identify blogs you like, start here with this list of blog search engines: http://websearch.about.com/od/internetresearch/a/newsblog.htm)
2. Here're too free blogging software sites. If any of you have had good experience with free software, comment here and let the rest of the class know.
*Blogger http://www.blogger.com is part of the Google empire. It's easy to set up and easy to upload photos and videos to.
*WordPress http://wordpress.org is versitle and may be the best choice if you are planning to write long post. It allows you to file the tops of these post onto a front page and then moves readers to "inside" pages to reach the rest. It has plug-ins too, for the more advanced bloggers.
Once you've chosen your software, follow the installation directions you'll find in them. This is easy. Play with different "themes" which are the layouts or templates available for blog.
Create a title for your blog and include your photo and contact information as part of the design.
Let me know your address when you have set up your publishing empire.
How to Blog:
1. Identify some blogs that you like and figure out what it is you like, their style and look, the tone of the writing, the content (although some of that will not be your choice while you are blogging for class.) figure out what software is "powering" the sites you like. This is usually written on the blog somewhere or you'll see an icon before the URL in the address line of your browser.
(For those of you who don't know where to look to identify blogs you like, start here with this list of blog search engines: http://websearch.about.com/od/internetresearch/a/newsblog.htm)
2. Here're too free blogging software sites. If any of you have had good experience with free software, comment here and let the rest of the class know.
*Blogger http://www.blogger.com is part of the Google empire. It's easy to set up and easy to upload photos and videos to.
*WordPress http://wordpress.org is versitle and may be the best choice if you are planning to write long post. It allows you to file the tops of these post onto a front page and then moves readers to "inside" pages to reach the rest. It has plug-ins too, for the more advanced bloggers.
Once you've chosen your software, follow the installation directions you'll find in them. This is easy. Play with different "themes" which are the layouts or templates available for blog.
Create a title for your blog and include your photo and contact information as part of the design.
Let me know your address when you have set up your publishing empire.
Syllabus for Introduction to Reporting and News Writing
AJRL 200Z Spring 2008 Section 1
Introduction to Reporting and News Writing
Mondays and Wednesdays 4:15-5:35 p.m.
Social Sciences Room 134 on Mondays and AS13 lab on Wednesdays
Rosemary Armao
Assistant Professor
Office: Humanities 327
rarmao@albany.edu or roarmao@hotmail.com
(office) 518 442-4997 or (home) 518 459 7095
Available anytime by phone or email or as you catch me. Official office hours are Mondays and Wednesday from noon- 3 p.m.
OBJECTIVES
In this class you will begin to think and work like a professional journalist. We will explore how and where story ideas come from and how to turn ideas into publishable copy. You will learn something about critical thinking and healthy skepticism while cultivating and working with sources. The unchanging basics of newsgathering rather than rapidly evolving technological skills will be strongly emphasized in this course. They include observing, interviewing, documenting with records, following the money and behaving ethically. Also stressed will be the organizing, structuring and writing of reader-friendly news stories. In short, when you come out of this class you will know much more about the standards, ethics and style of journalism no matter your medium or beat.
READINGS
Required
*The Associated Press Stylebook” No one really loves this book. But it is a classic and you need to obey its picky rules on everything from whether you use “10" or “ten” to is it “Muslim” or “Moslem”? (And when does the end punctuation go outside and inside the quote marks?) I’m not saying you have to get this book, but if you don’t follow its rules on assignments for this class, you’ll get lower grades in school and curses from copyeditors in any print journalism job.
*“Writing and Reporting the News: A Coaching Method (5th ed.)” by Carole Rich. This is an excellent and newly updated text on doing journalism. Readings will be assigned from this text during the course of the semester.
In addition, you must regularly check Class Notes, a blog at http://armao200z.blogspot.com for additional readings and notices about assignments and readings.
Recommended
The following are books that serious journalists, especially interested beginners, will want to read. If not during this course, then sometime during your career.
*”The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect,” by Bill Kovatch and Tom Rosenstiel. It’s short and it’s great on what journalism should be at this time.
*”The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. And EB White. It’s very short and it’s a classic on the mechanics of correct writing. It’s even a little humorous. No less a personage than Stephen King lists this as required reading for writers.
*News is a Verb” by Pete Hamill. My favorite, this is a short (you seeing a trend here?) and powerful. A long-time newsman and novelist fires off an essay about what’s wrong with modern newspapers and how to fix it. The ideas apply to journalism beyond print.
*“On Writing Well,” by William Zinsser. Another classic on writing non-fiction and well-written itself. This is a how-to for writing clean and strong.
*The “Best Newspaper Writing” series from the Poynter Institute. These books – the latest is for 2007-8, include notable pieces in a number of categories such as deadline writing, investigative etc with illuminating interviews with reporters on how they got their stories.
*All the President’s Men” by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. The inside story of an investigative reporting effort that ended the Nixon presidency and changed US journalism. It’s a primer on persistent and imaginative sourcing and use of anonymous sources.
OBLIGATIONS
Think of 200Z as a newsroom rather than a classroom because the same rules will apply.
*Attendance. Just as you must show up to work in the professional world, you must come to class. We will be hearing from speakers, holding news conferences and doing interviews, all of which, unlike traditional lectures, cannot be made up. You cannot “get the notes” from a classmate. Some rare excuses are acceptable for missing class, such as court appearances and deaths in the family. But you must let me know BEFORE the class you are going to miss. Each unexcused absence will lower your final grade by a third of a mark (from A to A-) for example. Absences I do not know about ahead of time will be treated as unexcused absences.
*Laptops and cellphones. These are the instruments of our profession which allow for excellent note-check and fast fact-checking. You are allowed to bring them into class and keep them turned on. You will be expected to act professionally, however. That means no text-messaging friends, surfing the net or taking lengthy calls from friends during class.
*Deadlines. Missing deadlines is professionally unacceptable for journalists and for you too. If you cannot keep to a set deadline for some reason related to newsgathering, you may get a sympathetic hearing. But you may not miss a deadline and then give an excuse. Assignments will be marked down one grade for every day it is late. On the other hand, you may choose to turn in assignments and stories before deadlines, which will win you the right to an early edit and a chance to rewrite for a higher grade.
*Plagiarism and fabrication. Making up quotes or other information or copying the work of others and passing it off as your own may result in a F for the course and referral to university officials for other action. Admittedly, it is not always the easiest thing to distinguish between legitimate backgrounding and reference and plagiarism. We will be talking about this in class and if you have any doubts on this score, consult me.
GRADING
There will be no exams. Stories are what count
Half of your grade will depend on a news article that you will find, develop, report, write and try to publish as a final project. The idea is that this story will pull together all that you should learn in class. Length should be about 1,500 words depending on your topic, about which you should consult with me. USE OF MULTI MEDIA PICTURES EETC.
The other half of your grade will depend on class assignments and exercises and on homework. Homework includes a personal blog that you will set up and file frequent dispatches to. MORE MORE. Not every assignment will count in the calculation of your final grade. Some assignments are intended (what a concept!) simply to help you learn. But it will not always be clear to you whether or not you are working on an assignment that “doesn’t count.” This may be maddening to you, but in journalism you have to act like every assignment matters.
You may find the grading system confusing, unfair or subjective. And you will be right, as is every reporter who has ever whined about a vague, biased and subjective editor. If you work hard or show big improvement over time you are likely to be rewarded. But then, a completely mediocre performance broken by a spectacular performance on a single story could get you that reward too.
DISABILITY If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability... DO WHAT
sexual harassment – religious observation????
SCHEDULE OF CLASS AND OUTSIDE WORK (subject to abrupt and radical alteration)
WEEK 1:
Jan.23 – News that changes lives. In-class writing exercise.
WEEK 2:
Jan. 28 - What is News and What’s it For? Set up blogs no later than the end of this week
Jan. 30 - The notes that help you earn A’s as a student won’t cut it when you become a journalist In-class writing exercise.
WEEK 3:
Feb. 4 - What can I write about? Beats and idea generation. By end of this week submit at least two possible ideas for final stories ETHICS: When does background and context cross into plagarism? Can you plagarize yourself?
Feb. 6 – How do I get people to talk? Finding, cultivating and using sources. Homework: turning a news release into a real story ETHICS: Getting too close to sources and burning them and keeping them secret
WEEK 4:
Feb. 11 – Interviewing – framing great questions that get you answers to Who What Where When How and Why.
Feb. 13 – More on effective interviewing from reading body language to figuring out how to tell when someone is lying to you. Before the start of Winter Break you will turn in a summary with quotes from an interview with someone DIFFERENT.
WEEK 5
Feb. 18 – Winter Break. No class.
Feb. 20 – Interviewing wrap-up In class exercise
Week 6
Feb. 25 – Researching online, in libraries and in public records. Freedom of Information requests. Homework: backgrounding an individual
Feb. 27 – In lieu of class at 3 p.m. – Screening of film The Paper followed by Q&A with Aaron Matthews. Homework: write a news article on Matthews’ presentation
WEEK 6
March 3 - Following the money. Reading a budget. In-class exercise
March 5 – Math for journalists. In-class exercise
WEEK 7
March 10 – The form and structure of a news story is as set in tradition as a fairy tale In-class exercise
March 12 – Organizing a story In-class exercise with small groups
WEEK 8
March 17 – Focus and pre-writing. Leads and kickers and middles that make sense Homework Deconstruct a major news story
March 19 – Point of view and tone. Objectivity is the goal – or not.
WEEK 9
SPRING BREAK. NO CLASS.
WEEK 10
March 31 – Editorial writing GUEST SPEAKER
April 2 – Good campaign coverage
WEEK 11
April 7 – Investigative reporting GUEST SPEAKERS
April 9 – Emerging new sources of news and the technology that goes with them from blogs and cell phones to You-Tube and multi-media
WEEK 12
April 14 – Photojournalism GUEST SPEAKER
April 16 – Covering a public meeting Homework: do it.
WEEK 13
April 21 – No Class.
April 23 – ETHICS Empathy and doing no harm when you publish. In class news conference with a victim of the press
WEEK 14
April 28 – The No. 1 Topic beginning journalists wish they’d learned in J-School: Time organization and management.
April 30 – Libel, privacy and other legal issues related to newsgathering
WEEK 15
May 6 – Last day of classes and all rewrites and final projects are due.
May 14 – Final day to turn in rewritten projects for credit.
Introduction to Reporting and News Writing
Mondays and Wednesdays 4:15-5:35 p.m.
Social Sciences Room 134 on Mondays and AS13 lab on Wednesdays
Rosemary Armao
Assistant Professor
Office: Humanities 327
rarmao@albany.edu or roarmao@hotmail.com
(office) 518 442-4997 or (home) 518 459 7095
Available anytime by phone or email or as you catch me. Official office hours are Mondays and Wednesday from noon- 3 p.m.
OBJECTIVES
In this class you will begin to think and work like a professional journalist. We will explore how and where story ideas come from and how to turn ideas into publishable copy. You will learn something about critical thinking and healthy skepticism while cultivating and working with sources. The unchanging basics of newsgathering rather than rapidly evolving technological skills will be strongly emphasized in this course. They include observing, interviewing, documenting with records, following the money and behaving ethically. Also stressed will be the organizing, structuring and writing of reader-friendly news stories. In short, when you come out of this class you will know much more about the standards, ethics and style of journalism no matter your medium or beat.
READINGS
Required
*The Associated Press Stylebook” No one really loves this book. But it is a classic and you need to obey its picky rules on everything from whether you use “10" or “ten” to is it “Muslim” or “Moslem”? (And when does the end punctuation go outside and inside the quote marks?) I’m not saying you have to get this book, but if you don’t follow its rules on assignments for this class, you’ll get lower grades in school and curses from copyeditors in any print journalism job.
*“Writing and Reporting the News: A Coaching Method (5th ed.)” by Carole Rich. This is an excellent and newly updated text on doing journalism. Readings will be assigned from this text during the course of the semester.
In addition, you must regularly check Class Notes, a blog at http://armao200z.blogspot.com for additional readings and notices about assignments and readings.
Recommended
The following are books that serious journalists, especially interested beginners, will want to read. If not during this course, then sometime during your career.
*”The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect,” by Bill Kovatch and Tom Rosenstiel. It’s short and it’s great on what journalism should be at this time.
*”The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. And EB White. It’s very short and it’s a classic on the mechanics of correct writing. It’s even a little humorous. No less a personage than Stephen King lists this as required reading for writers.
*News is a Verb” by Pete Hamill. My favorite, this is a short (you seeing a trend here?) and powerful. A long-time newsman and novelist fires off an essay about what’s wrong with modern newspapers and how to fix it. The ideas apply to journalism beyond print.
*“On Writing Well,” by William Zinsser. Another classic on writing non-fiction and well-written itself. This is a how-to for writing clean and strong.
*The “Best Newspaper Writing” series from the Poynter Institute. These books – the latest is for 2007-8, include notable pieces in a number of categories such as deadline writing, investigative etc with illuminating interviews with reporters on how they got their stories.
*All the President’s Men” by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. The inside story of an investigative reporting effort that ended the Nixon presidency and changed US journalism. It’s a primer on persistent and imaginative sourcing and use of anonymous sources.
OBLIGATIONS
Think of 200Z as a newsroom rather than a classroom because the same rules will apply.
*Attendance. Just as you must show up to work in the professional world, you must come to class. We will be hearing from speakers, holding news conferences and doing interviews, all of which, unlike traditional lectures, cannot be made up. You cannot “get the notes” from a classmate. Some rare excuses are acceptable for missing class, such as court appearances and deaths in the family. But you must let me know BEFORE the class you are going to miss. Each unexcused absence will lower your final grade by a third of a mark (from A to A-) for example. Absences I do not know about ahead of time will be treated as unexcused absences.
*Laptops and cellphones. These are the instruments of our profession which allow for excellent note-check and fast fact-checking. You are allowed to bring them into class and keep them turned on. You will be expected to act professionally, however. That means no text-messaging friends, surfing the net or taking lengthy calls from friends during class.
*Deadlines. Missing deadlines is professionally unacceptable for journalists and for you too. If you cannot keep to a set deadline for some reason related to newsgathering, you may get a sympathetic hearing. But you may not miss a deadline and then give an excuse. Assignments will be marked down one grade for every day it is late. On the other hand, you may choose to turn in assignments and stories before deadlines, which will win you the right to an early edit and a chance to rewrite for a higher grade.
*Plagiarism and fabrication. Making up quotes or other information or copying the work of others and passing it off as your own may result in a F for the course and referral to university officials for other action. Admittedly, it is not always the easiest thing to distinguish between legitimate backgrounding and reference and plagiarism. We will be talking about this in class and if you have any doubts on this score, consult me.
GRADING
There will be no exams. Stories are what count
Half of your grade will depend on a news article that you will find, develop, report, write and try to publish as a final project. The idea is that this story will pull together all that you should learn in class. Length should be about 1,500 words depending on your topic, about which you should consult with me. USE OF MULTI MEDIA PICTURES EETC.
The other half of your grade will depend on class assignments and exercises and on homework. Homework includes a personal blog that you will set up and file frequent dispatches to. MORE MORE. Not every assignment will count in the calculation of your final grade. Some assignments are intended (what a concept!) simply to help you learn. But it will not always be clear to you whether or not you are working on an assignment that “doesn’t count.” This may be maddening to you, but in journalism you have to act like every assignment matters.
You may find the grading system confusing, unfair or subjective. And you will be right, as is every reporter who has ever whined about a vague, biased and subjective editor. If you work hard or show big improvement over time you are likely to be rewarded. But then, a completely mediocre performance broken by a spectacular performance on a single story could get you that reward too.
DISABILITY If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability... DO WHAT
sexual harassment – religious observation????
SCHEDULE OF CLASS AND OUTSIDE WORK (subject to abrupt and radical alteration)
WEEK 1:
Jan.23 – News that changes lives. In-class writing exercise.
WEEK 2:
Jan. 28 - What is News and What’s it For? Set up blogs no later than the end of this week
Jan. 30 - The notes that help you earn A’s as a student won’t cut it when you become a journalist In-class writing exercise.
WEEK 3:
Feb. 4 - What can I write about? Beats and idea generation. By end of this week submit at least two possible ideas for final stories ETHICS: When does background and context cross into plagarism? Can you plagarize yourself?
Feb. 6 – How do I get people to talk? Finding, cultivating and using sources. Homework: turning a news release into a real story ETHICS: Getting too close to sources and burning them and keeping them secret
WEEK 4:
Feb. 11 – Interviewing – framing great questions that get you answers to Who What Where When How and Why.
Feb. 13 – More on effective interviewing from reading body language to figuring out how to tell when someone is lying to you. Before the start of Winter Break you will turn in a summary with quotes from an interview with someone DIFFERENT.
WEEK 5
Feb. 18 – Winter Break. No class.
Feb. 20 – Interviewing wrap-up In class exercise
Week 6
Feb. 25 – Researching online, in libraries and in public records. Freedom of Information requests. Homework: backgrounding an individual
Feb. 27 – In lieu of class at 3 p.m. – Screening of film The Paper followed by Q&A with Aaron Matthews. Homework: write a news article on Matthews’ presentation
WEEK 6
March 3 - Following the money. Reading a budget. In-class exercise
March 5 – Math for journalists. In-class exercise
WEEK 7
March 10 – The form and structure of a news story is as set in tradition as a fairy tale In-class exercise
March 12 – Organizing a story In-class exercise with small groups
WEEK 8
March 17 – Focus and pre-writing. Leads and kickers and middles that make sense Homework Deconstruct a major news story
March 19 – Point of view and tone. Objectivity is the goal – or not.
WEEK 9
SPRING BREAK. NO CLASS.
WEEK 10
March 31 – Editorial writing GUEST SPEAKER
April 2 – Good campaign coverage
WEEK 11
April 7 – Investigative reporting GUEST SPEAKERS
April 9 – Emerging new sources of news and the technology that goes with them from blogs and cell phones to You-Tube and multi-media
WEEK 12
April 14 – Photojournalism GUEST SPEAKER
April 16 – Covering a public meeting Homework: do it.
WEEK 13
April 21 – No Class.
April 23 – ETHICS Empathy and doing no harm when you publish. In class news conference with a victim of the press
WEEK 14
April 28 – The No. 1 Topic beginning journalists wish they’d learned in J-School: Time organization and management.
April 30 – Libel, privacy and other legal issues related to newsgathering
WEEK 15
May 6 – Last day of classes and all rewrites and final projects are due.
May 14 – Final day to turn in rewritten projects for credit.
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