Writing for the Media (3 Credits)

C&J 171 Sec. 001 – Spring 2008

Lecturer: Richard J. Schaefer, Associate Professor

Office Hours: Tues. 3:30-4:30 p.m. and Wed. 1:30-2:30 p.m. C&J Building, Room 252

Phone: 917-9909

Email:

Lab Instructors:

Santhosh Chandrashekar, email: 505-620-4584

Kathleen Sandner, email: w: 917-6724

Melanie Salazar, email: 235-4294

Toby Smith, email: w: 823-3832

NOTE: Students should first consult their lab instructors about assignments, deadlines and other matters before scheduling a meeting with Richard Schaefer.

Lectures: Sec. 001, (15001), Tues. 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m., Education Room 103

Labs: ** Lecture students must be enrolled in one of the following labs in C&J 134.**

Sec. 002, (30330), Thurs., 8 to 9:50 a.m.– Melanie Salazar

Sec. 003, (15004), Thurs., 10 a.m. -11:50 p.m..– Santhosh Chandrashekar

Sec. 004, (15005), Fri., 8 to 9:50 a.m.– Toby Smith

Sec. 005, (15006), Fri., 10-11:50 a.m.– Kathleen Sandner

* The $35.00 course fee is for use of C&J 134.

Description: This class is designed for students who are interested in becoming Journalism majors (print and broadcast) and Mass Communication majors (advertising, public relations and media studies) who plan careers in the mass media. The course offers a practical introduction to journalism, emphasizing journalistic conventions and gathering and writing of news for the print and broadcast media, as well as an overview of the types of writing required in public relations and advertising. Language and typing skills required. Prerequisites: 15 hours, 2.0 GPA, English 102 with a grade of C or better.

Texts: Associated Press or Goldstein, Norm. The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual. Associated Press, current edition.

Fedler, Fred; Bender, John R.; Davenport, Lucinda & Drager, Michael W. (2005). Reporting for the Media, 8th Ed. Orlando, FL: Harcourt College Publishers. (Students may wish to purchase a used copy of this text. Both new and used copies are available from the UNM Bookstore. Two copies are also on reserve in Zimmerman Library.)

Schaefer, Richard J. (Spring 2008). Writing for the Mass Media Notebook, Spring 2008. Available at the UNM Bookstore, approximately $24.00.

Materials: During the first 10 weeks of the semester, students will be required to read the top three national news stories in the Monday and Wednesday evening (5 p.m.) online edition of The New York Times. URL: http://www.nytimes.com/

Course Objectives:

· To help students write accurately, fairly, correctly and clearly in forms and styles appropriate for communication professionals.

· To expose students to the most common styles and grammar used by print and broadcast journalists and public relations experts.

· Students should gain an appreciation for fairness and clarity in writing, as well as the advantages and craft involved in creating objective reports. Even if students do not become media writers, this course should help them become more proficient and versatile writers.

· To help students understand news values and the way that professionals critically evaluate information.

· To take the diversity of the audience into account and strengthen citizenship in a global society.

· To introduce research and information-gathering techniques, including interviewing and electronic information searching, so students can write on unfamiliar topics and address issues of concern to audience members with varied interests and identities.

· To introduce some of the basic concepts of journalism, public relations and advertising, as well as some of the legal restraints and ethical issues facing media workers.

· To make class participants more informed and critical producers and consumers of media.

· To prepare students for further courses in the journalism, mass communication and media studies concentrations.

Materials:

Students should bring some means of storing their lab writings, such as a “thumb drive,” and have access to an e‑mail account. Save all your lab work to your storage device. Microsoft Word is on the personal computers in the classroom, as well as Adobe Creative Suite 3. Always bring your Notebook to the lectures and your AP Style Manual and Notebook to the labs. Bring No. 2 pencils to the three tests during lectures. Students will also need a UNM Internet account to access materials on Web CT.

Class Attendance and Other Expectations:

It will be impossible to do well without regular class attendance. Since emergencies may come up throughout the semester, students will be permitted to miss two lectures and two labs without penalty. Each additional lecture or lab absence will result in approximately a 2 percent reduction in the student's overall grade. Students who arrive late for lectures or labs will also be penalized.

Journalistic credibility rests on accurate reporting. Students who make factual errors will be heavily downgraded on that assignment. Standard grammar and spelling will also be emphasized, since these are both professional norms and mechanisms for clear and concise communication.

Strategies for reporting on minorities and writing for diverse audiences will be discussed during the semester. Students are expected to interact and report in a manner that adds to multicultural awareness, not one that detracts from it.

Students should develop an awareness of current events. At an absolute minimum they should read the online edition of The New York Times on Monday and Wednesday evening. This will help them understand conventional news values and begin to think like journalists and media professionals. Students will be expected to write stories for media outlets, such as the Daily Lobo and the KUNM news programming (FM 89.9). Some basic techniques of radio and television news coverage will be presented in the appropriate weeks, as will the basics of public relations and advertising.

Deadlines are crucial to journalists, advertising teams and other media professionals. For this reason, there will be penalties for late assignments. Students can also expect to write under simulated deadline pressure in the labs. Students should expect that their written work could be published in a mass media outlet, along with being carefully examined by the instructors and their fellow students.

The success of this class is each student's responsibility. Students are expected to participate in class discussions, help edit other students' work and encourage their peers. Students who are unwilling or unprepared to interact in class detract from the course and will be penalized.

Whenever possible, students with documented disabilities will be granted reasonable accommodations in this class. During the first few weeks of the semester those students should take the initiative to inform their instructors and help make arrangements that address their particular needs.

Students who miss a test may be permitted to make it up on the following day during Richard Schaefer’s office hours. This can occur no more than once.

Plagiarism and academic dishonesty:

Plagiarists take someone else's ideas and words and pass the work off as their own. Plagiarists do this without attributing the work to its source. Professional writers who are caught plagiarizing are fired and they may be sued. In an academic environment, plagiarism is cheating and will be treated as a form of academic dishonesty.

Students may discuss assignments, topics and techniques outside of class. But students who allow classmates to copy parts of their assignments will be participating in a form of academic dishonesty and both parties will be treated accordingly.

ADA Accessibility:

Qualified students with disabilities needing appropriate academic adjustments should contact me as soon as possible to ensure your needs are met in a timely manner. Handouts are available in alternative accessible formats upon request.

Diversity:

This course encourages different perspectives related to such factors as gender, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and other relevant cultural identities. This course seeks to foster understanding and inclusiveness related to such diverse perspectives and ways of communicating.

Ethics:

The course emphasizes ethical practices and perspectives. Above all, students and instructors should strive to communicate and act, both in class interactions and in assigned coursework, in a manner directed by personal integrity, honesty, and respect for self and others. Included in this focus is the need for academic honesty by students as stated by the UNM Pathfinder. Students need to do original work and properly cite sources. For example, be aware of plagiarism—directly copying more than 3 or 4 words from another author without quoting (not just citing) the author is plagiarism. Furthermore, course content will encourage the ethical practices and analysis of mass media writing.

CAPS:

The Center for Academic Program Support (CAPS) offers free one-on-one peer tutoring. CAPS tutors have proven particularly effective at helping C&J students with basic writing problems. The CAPS offices on the Third Floor of Zimmerman Library are usually open during business hours. Students can call 277-4560 to verify times for walk-in service. This is a wonderful service, which is typically used by the most competent students. Students who are struggling with the course should not hesitate to use it.

Grading:

This class emphasizes writing. The 10 written assignments will account for 71 percent of the course grade. Rewrites will be encouraged on at least two of the assignments. Three in-class tests will determine another 21 percent of the grade. Each test will cover materials from the lectures, labs, current events and the book. In the labs unannounced quizzes and writing exercises will account for another 7 percent of the grade. Finally, up to 3 percent of a student's grade will be determined by the student’s ability to publish work in the Daily Lobo, the KUNM Evening Report, the C&J Online News site < http://www.unm.edu/~cjdept/department/c&j_online.html> or other media outlets. Students who are absent, tardy, not available to perform lab work or participate in class discussions will also have their grade lowered.

10 assignments (30 points each) 300 points (includes 2 rewrites)

3 tests (30 points each) 90 points

In-lab quizzes (unannounced) 30 points

TOTAL POINTS 420 potential points

Potential publication points 12 points

The final grade is likely to be "curved,” although the relative weight of each aspect of the class will not change. Furthermore, each of the individual lab instructor’s grades will be conformed to those of the other instructors. This will eliminate the overall differences in grades given by each instructor, so that no student will be penalized for having a more demanding instructor. As a result, the final grades represent a relative, rather than an absolute, measure of student performance.

Publication Points and Quizzes:

The following "tentative" guidelines are subject to change during the semester.

Students can earn 3 "publication points" for C&J 171 assignments that are published in a professional or UNM media outlet, such as the Daily Lobo , the KUNM news programs, the C&J Online News Website or the other professional media outlets. Students should consult with the Daily Lobo news editor before they begin working on assignments they hope to publish in the Lobo. This will increase the likelihood that a student's story will be published. Lab instructors may use their discretion to award 2 of the 3 potential points prior to publication if the instructor believes that an assigned story has significant publication merit. Similarly, assigned stories for the KUNM Evening Report may be awarded 3 points of extra credit prior to broadcast. Students who work on advertisements should also submit copies of the ads to their instructor for varying publication points.

Extra credit work must not be published as part of the letters to the editor section of a publication. Each student is responsible for demonstrating publication to the lab instructor by giving the instructor a copy of the published work. Students may also earn up to 3 publication points for writing news and public affairs pieces that are used on the C&J, Lobo or KUNM Websites. Students should turn in their news scripts, a copy of the Daily Lobo, a page from the Webcast or an MP-3 or other common format air-check that shows the venue in which the report was published.

Finally, at their lab instructor’s discretion, students may earn up to 3 points for touring a newspaper facility or local television station.

Students can receive a maximum of 12 publication points in this course.

Quizzes will be given at the lab instructor’s discretion. They will usually cover current events and style issues.

The fine print on turning in assignments and making up tests:

Students should hand assignments to the lab instructor on the days the assignments are due. In an emergency, late or early assignments can be turned in by arrangement with the lab instructor or at the C&J Department Office The lab instructor's name and lab section number should be on the first page. An office worker can stamp the date on the assignment and provide a receipt for work turned in at the office. Get your work stamped if turning it in to the C&J Office.

If a student misses a test, the student can contact Richard Schaefer immediately and arrange to take a make up on the following Wednesday in during office hours (1:30 p.m. in Richard Schaefer’s office). Students should provide a written university excuse for missing a test.

Course Schedule: The schedule below is subject to change!

Lecture on. . . Lecture Lab

1) Jan. 22 Fedler Ch. 1-3 and pp. 650-651, 655-656

(Punctuation & Possessives)

Orientation to C&J (Oetzel & Bebeau)

Notebook, Basic Grammar & Les. 1

Accuracy, Spelling and Clarity Case

Common Grammar Problems Voice (active/passive)

AP Style and Standard English AP Punctuation & Possessives

Take Assessment Test on Web CT

2) Jan. 29 Fedler Ch. 4-6

Notebook, Les. 2

News Values

• Press Theory (read in class)

• News values

• elements of sensationalism (elite

newspapers and tabloids)

• news and current events versus history

• features versus straight news Objectivity -- style or goal? Summary Leads

• objective writing

-accuracy Objective style writing exercises

-attribution of controversial or 5 W's exercises

opinionated information Assign. 1 (Leads) distributed

-balance and/or fairness

• interpretation

• commentary

• third , first and second person

Reporter Conflicts of Interest

3) Feb. 5 Fedler Ch. 7-8, 12 and pp. 649-650 (Numerals)

Notebook Les. 3-4

Summary and alternative leads

Nut graphs

Perspective graphs

Newspaper Organization

• headline

• subhead Assign. 1 (Leads) due

• lead story Assigns. 2 & 3 distributed

• dateline

• story leads (ledes)

• byline

• slug

• the fold

• kicker

• sections, jumps, pages (including op-ed page)

• jumps

• index

• masthead

• photo credits and cut lines

• sidebar

• types of ads

• news hole

• News angles

• Story structure

• Transitions

Lecture on. . . Lecture Lab

4) Feb. 12 Test #1 (in lecture) Review test

Fedler Ch. 9 and p. 652 (Time)

Notebook, Les. 5

Sources

• primary and secondary sources

• attribution attribution exercise

-plagiarism

• handling quotes

-indirect quotes

-direct quotes (partial)

-purist approach

-pragmatic approach

-fictional approaches

5) Feb. 19 Fedler Ch. 10, 14 and pp. 647-649 (Capitalization)

Notebook Les. 6 Assign. 2 due

• interviews

-news interviews (straight news)

-depth interviews (feature stories)

-anonymous sources

-on background & Assign 4 distributed

off the record

-rights of the interviewee

6) Feb. 26 Fedler Ch. 20

Notebook Lec 7 Assign 3 due

AP Stylebook --Libel Manual and

Copyright Sections

Basic Legal Issues -Criminal and civil

• libel

-libel versus slander

-proving and defending libel

Assign 5 discussed

7) March 4 Fedler Ch. 22 and p. 647 (Addresses)

Notebook: Read 2003 Annual Survey

of JMC Graduates

More legal issues . . . Assign. 4 due

• invasion of privacy

-four recognized types

of privacy invasions Reporting allegations

• copyright

• conducting phone interviews

-one party and two-party consent

• open and closed meetings

-pretrial stages

• shield laws

Steps to trial in NM

Assign 6 (occupational shadow or review) discussed

Assigns 8 and 9 (Features) discussed

Lecture on. . . Lecture Lab

8) March 11 Fedler Ch. 13, 15, and

pp. 595-596, 602-603 (Abbreviations & Titles)

Notebook Les. 8

Specialized stories Assign 5 storyline due

-brights

-updates

-followups

-roundups

-sidebars

-advance story

-follow or event story

-feature

• localizing national stories

• beats

-inverted pyramid

-transitions

-nut graphs

-perspective graphs

-narrative structure

• sidebars and backgrounders

Covering meetings

Beats and crime coverage

9) March 18 (SPRING BREAK)

10) March 25 Fedler Ch. 16 Assign 5 due

Notebook Les. 12

"catch up" lecture

Writing from documents

11) April 1 Test #2 (in lecture) Review test

Fedler Ch. 19

Notebook Les. 9 News release exercise

Public Relations

• internal public relations

• external public relations

• news releases

-timing

-written format

-video news release

• common news release problems

-lack of news value

-pseudo-event

-lack of objectivity Assgn 7 distributed

12) April 8 Notebook Les. 12

Packaging Information for the Internet

More public relations Assign 6 due

Assigns 8 & 9 discussed

13) April 15 Fedler Ch. 18 (Broadcast Writing)

Notebook Les. 10 Assign 7 due

• actualities (sound bites & NATS)

-attribution

-blind leads

-open leads

• writing conversationally and creatively broadcast exercise

-contractions, sentence length,

and active voice

Lecture on. . . Lecture Lab

Week of April 15 Cont’d. -

• story transitions or segues

-transition lead

-umbrella lead

-throwaway lead

• radio reports

-announcer

-packages

-narrator

• television jobs

-producer

-reporter

-anchor

-organization of TV news

-rundown

-open

-package

-tease

-voice-over (VO)

-sound on tape (SOT)

-reader

14) April 22 Fedler Ch. 21 (Ethics)

More broadcast writing

15) April 29 Advertising - Notebook Les. 11

***Assigns. 8 & 9 due in lecture*** Assgn 8 & 9 due in lecture

• Basic steps for designing an ad

• AIDA structural formula

-attention

-identify sponsor or product

-desire

-action

• Radio ad formats

-straight copy -dramatization

-dialogue -musical

-testimonial

16) May 6 More advertising *** Return Assgns 8 & 9*** -lecture evaluations Advertising group work