Spring 2010 News II Syllabus

21200-01 News Writing & Reporting II

Professor Ed Bond
E-mail: ebond@ithaca.edu
Phone: (607) 274-3637
Office: Park 251
Office hours: 1-2 p.m., M, W; 9-12 T.


Course Description: This course continues on the foundation of News Reporting and Writing I. It explores the techniques used to research and report complex political, social, and economic issues for all media. Students learn advanced strategies for how to investigate the most common areas covered by reporters, including education, zoning and development, crime, legal affairs, public forums and other governmental entities. Advanced writing techniques for various types of news articles, including tight deadline reporting and writing, are also taught. Strategies are developed for individual reporting projects in print, broadcast, and digital media. Published examples are critiqued to lead students toward an ethical and analytic approach to public affairs reporting.

The plan: This course is designed to bring students into the professional world of journalism. After being challenged on reporting and writing skills and knowledge of Associated Press style, students will be broken into groups that will work as competing news agencies. While the work will be graded individually, the atmosphere will be collaborative. Journalists work as teams within their news organizations to cover a variety of angles when a story breaks. It is a fast-paced environment where the strong survive. Your ideas and stories will be subject to criticism within your group and the class, but the goal is for the criticism to be useful and respectful. Still, remember that you will need a thick skin in this business.

There are a series of assignments throughout the semester, but it is better to think of it as one proposition: You’ve been hired as a reporter to cover the Ithaca community and the surrounding area. To succeed in this job you need to get out into that community and meet people, find out the issues, uncover the unreported stories and coordinate with your colleagues on how to best report them. Fire, business, sports and science are some of the topics that you will be covering, but don’t restrict yourself by tackling these in order. Instead, you should be working contacts with the idea that anyone you meet could be a source for any one of these topics. Part of your job in this class is to tell stories from the Ithaca community, not the Ithaca College community. In this class you have the opportunity to use the city of Ithaca and the surrounding areas as your “real world” news market. Part of your grade comes from the story you pitch. If you pitch an IC story, it better be something the community as a whole would be interested in. You are not to use Ithaca College students as sources unless you have cleared it with me.

Grading:
The tryout 5%
Beat notes/blog 10%
AP Style test 10%
Fire assignment 10%
Business assignment 10%
Sports assignment 10%
Science assignment 20%
Final project : 25%

Course Outcomes: Through each of these assignments, you will learn and be assessed on these skills:

1) Working a beat for a news organization. Demonstrated by writing news stories and video for the Web, as well as writing a blog and covering issues in collaboration with your fellow students.
2) Optimizing the Web to reach an audience. Demonstrated by posting stories and video on blogs and YouTube.
3) Editing video in a variety of software. Demonstrated through editing projects with iMovie and Final Cut Pro.
4) Using audio, video and Web elements in a news report. Demonstrated by writing for and posting blogs online.
5) Writing for all aspects of journalism. Demonstrated through written news stories, video reports and online journalism.
6) Understanding the importance of voice pitch and clarity when telling a story. Demonstrated through video news reports.


Required:
The Associated Press Stylebook
Flip Video camera or comparable equipment
Final Cut Express editing software
Reading the local newspaper and watching local news every day.

Rules for the classroom:

1) Can’t eat food in class (because of the computers).
2) No cell phones going off during class.
3) No use of laptops in class, unless your professor has approved their use as part of an assignment.
4) Maintain respect for your colleagues.
COURSE POLICIES
Attendance: Your active attendance and participation is required. After a third unexcused absence, your grade for the semester will drop by one step for each subsequent absence. For example, a student getting a B+ in class would drop to a B. Excused absences are for bereavement or documented illness. If you have a conflict with another class assignment, let me know about the situation ahead of time. If you are absent from class, it is your responsibility to get assignments, handouts, notes from discussions and lectures, etc, from a fellow student. Please come to class prepared.
Students at Ithaca College are expected to attend all classes, and they are responsible for work missed during any absence from class. At the beginning of each semester, instructors must provide the students in their courses with written guidelines regarding possible grading penalties for failure to attend class. Students should notify their instructors as soon as possible of any anticipated absences. Written documentation that indicates the reason for being absent may be required. These guidelines may vary from course to course but are subject to the following restrictions:

• In accordance with New York State law, students who miss class due to their religious beliefs shall be excused from class or examinations on that day. The faculty member is responsible for providing the student with an equivalent opportunity to make up any examination, study or work requirement, which the student may have missed. It is suggested that students notify their course instructors at least one week before any anticipated absence so that proper arrangements may be made to make up any missed work or examination. Any such work is to be completed within a reasonable timeframe, as determined by the faculty member.

• Any student, who misses class due to a verifiable family or individual health emergency, or to a required appearance in a court of law, shall be excused. The student or a family member/legal guardian may report the absence to the Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life, which will notify the student’s dean’s office, as well as residential life if the student lives on campus. The dean’s office will disseminate the information to the appropriate faculty. Follow-up by the student with his or her professors is imperative. Students may need to consider a leave of absence, medical leave of absence, selected course withdrawals, etc., if they have missed a significant portion of classwork a student may be excused for participation in College-authorized
co-curricular and extracurricular activities if, in the instructor’s judgment, this does not impair the specific student’s or the other students’ ability to succeed in the course.

For all absences except those due to religious beliefs, the course instructor has the right to determine if the number of absences has been excessive in view of the nature of the class that was missed and the stated attendance policy. Depending on the individual situation, this can result in the student’s being removed from or failing the course.
Academic honesty: The use of work other than your own without proper citation or credit is a serious offense. Penalties for plagiarism include: failure on the assignment and/or failure in the course and/or College academic discipline, which could mean suspension or dismissal from the College. Plagiarism can involve not only written work but computer programs, photographs, artwork, films, videos, and audios. If you are at all unsure about what constitutes plagiarism, or how to give credit, see your instructor and consult the Student Handbook (see "plagiarism" in the index).In a collaborative project, all involved students may be held responsible for academic misconduct if they are either knowing participants in plagiarism or complicitous. Our recommended style manual is published by the American Psychological Association and is available in the bookstore.
Students with disabilities : In compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, reasonable accommodation will be provided to students with documented disabilities on a case by case basis. Students must register with the Office of Academic Support Services and provide appropriate documentation to the college before any academic adjustment will be provided. To contact that office call 274-1005, or contact Leslie Schettino, Director of Support Services for Students With Disabilities, at lschettino@ithaca.edu.

Mental health: Diminished mental health, including significant stress, mood changes, excessive worry, or problems with eating and/or sleeping can interfere with optimal academic performance. Problems with relationships, family worries, loss, or a personal struggle or crisis can also contribute to decreased academic performance. Ithaca College provides a Counseling Center to support the academic success of students. The Counseling Center provides cost-free services to help you manage personal challenges that threaten your well-being. Getting help is a smart and courageous thing to do – for yourself and for your loved ones.

Safety: You must respond to and report conditions and actions that may jeopardize your safety, or that of other people and/or equipment. Report to the responsible College employee. During class sessions that person would be your instructor or lab assistant. Outside of class the person might be your instructor, lab supervisor, co-curricular manager, equipment and facilities manager, or one of the engineering support staff. You must be aware that misuse of equipment or use of damaged equipment can create the risk of serious injury, infectious contamination, and expensive damage. You may be liable for damage or injury resulting from such use. Unsupervised use of facilities puts you at risk. Failure to be alert to safety problems, or to report them, may have serious consequences for you or others

DEADLINES: Deadlines are FINAL. There are no exceptions – you will receive a failing grade if you hand in an assignment after deadline. Most of your assignments will be posted online. It is your responsibility to make sure all technical problems have been resolved and the assignment is readable by the public by deadline. If a technical problem arises, contact me immediately.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Jan. 25-27: Introduction and course overview. Reviewing the basics and AP Style.
Assignment: THE TRYOUT – find and report a news story for print.

Feb. 1 and 3: Working in a newsroom, working a beat and developing sources. Pitching story ideas, writing skedlines, beatnotes and future files. Turn in tryout assignments.

Feb. 8 and 10: The business assignment. Picking teams that will work as news agencies. Learn iMovie HD or Final Cut Pro. Individual sessions to review tryout assignments.

Feb. 15 and 17: Pitching business stories, choosing a theme, writing a budget, making assignments within groups. Blog assignment: Observation writing.

Feb. 22 and 24: Business packages due. AP Style test.

March 1 and 3: The sports assignment.

March 8 and 10: Pitching and planning the sports assignment.

March 13 to 21: Spring Break.

March 22 to 24. Sports packages due.

March 29 and 31: Pitching and planning the fire/rescue assignment.

April 5 and 7: Fire assignment due.

April 12 and 14: Pitching and planning the medical/science assignment

April 19 and 21: Medical/science assignment due.

April 26 and 28: Pitching and planning the final project

May 3 and 5: Work on the final project

May 10 to 14: Final Exam week. The final for the 10 a.m. class will be 7:30 a.m., Wednesday, May 12. The final for the 2 p.m. class will be 10:30 a.m., Thursday, May 13.