Advanced Reporting - English 3760
Journalism faculty recommend that you take Journalism Workshop, English 3717L, before enrolling in this intensive course. This course will challenge you as a reporter and a writer. Additionally, you will be forced to use analytical skills to help bring meaning to a collection of facts and pieces of information.
Advanced Reporting Fall 2009 Syllabus
Advanced Reporting Power Point Presentations
Excel Course to take online
Financial Disclosure Reporting Exercise.
Reporting for the Radio
English 4825
Class meets Mondays from 7 a.m. to 9:40 a.m.
Instructor: Alyssa Lenhoff
Lenhoff's Office Hours: - Mondays - 10 a.m. to noon, Tuesdays and Thursdays 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. (Please check with me to see if I will be in the news service or her DeBartolo Hall office.)
To reach me - email -ajlenhoff AT ysu DOT edu; office - x 1647
Course Description - Students selected for admission into this special course will be reporting, writing and producing enterprise stories for broadcast on WYSU-FM and for publication in the Vindicator, vindy.com or The Jambar. Students will be drawing upon all of the journalism skills they have acquired, including news judgment, interviewing, information gathering and analyzing. In this course, students will learn the basics of radio reporting and production, including the required technical exposure.
Foundations - As a member of this class, you are expected to already have knowledge of some basic concepts of story identification, information gathering and reporting. On the following pages, there are concept maps. We will review each of the concepts during the first several weeks of class. (Please refer to a basic news reporting and writing textbook for additional help or review. Please see Lenhoff if you need a basic textbook.)
Textbook - Sound Reporting
* The class starts at an unconventional time - 7 a.m. Mondays. This unorthodox hour is by design. You are expected to be on time.
* We will spend from 7 a.m. until 8 a.m. each day covering concepts, developing story plans, listening to and discussing radio stories and critiquing our work. This first hour will be spent working as an entire class.
* From 8 a.m. until 9 a.m., you will be working on your stories - either on the computer or in the sound booths. Students working in sound booths will work one-on-one with David Lusher or with the audio student intern on production and packaging of stories. Those not working with the technicians will work independently on story reporting and development with guidance from Lenhoff and Francisco. Note that these sessions are to be used to order and improve existing material—do not come to class unprepared—refer to reporting notebook requirements below. If you are unprepared for these meetings you will be counted as absent. There is no distinction between excused and unexcused absences and more than one will negatively affect your grade.
* From 9 a.m. until 10 a.m., you need to be conducting interviews or scheduling interviews. This is absolutely the best time to reach people and we need to see you on the phone. You may also bring people into the news bureau to interview them here during this time. Or, you may go to interview them. If you are leaving to conduct an interview or some other aspect related to reporting your story, you must have this in your reporting notes. Remember that you are acting in a professional capacity for established news organizations and you should dress and behave appropriately and professionally when conducting interviews.
Expectations
You will be working in teams of two. You will be reporting, writing and producing one story every two weeks. Every two weeks, you will receive a new partner and a new story. Your story will be assigned on a Monday. The following Monday, your rough draft and your notebook will be due and you will need to go through it with a faculty member. Then, one week later, your final draft will be due. There will be no deadline extensions.
Requirements for Reporting Notebook
Keep your interview notes in a separate notebook and be prepared to show them to your editor when you turn in your story. None of the information described below needs to be long. One or two simple sentences will be fine. You must have a printed copy of this for conferences and also keep a copy on your jump drive. If your notebook entry is incomplete or non-existent, you will receive an F for the notebook.
For each story:
- The story slug.
- The name of your partner on the story.
- A nut graph.
- Your plan for how to approach the story:
- - who you will talk to and what you will ask (at least four or five opening questions.)
- - the steps you will take to investigate the background of the story.
- - a summary of the background.
- - a summary of each interview - what went right, what went wrong, what the person said.
- - new angles that developed from each interview or new ideas of who to talk to or where to look for information.
- Your deadlines for first draft, second draft.
- A division of labor. Who will do what?
- A timeline. (For instance, you will do research Tuesday, set up interviews Wednesday, etc.)
Requirements for Stories
All stories must have no fewer than three sources.
When you complete your stories and turn them in, you must also provide a sheet of the names of people you talked to with their contact information.
Grading: 100 possible points
Quizzes: 15 points.
Story notebook: 25 points
Story quality: 60 points - (Six stories worth 10 points each. You and your partner will receive the same grade for each story.)
* Any factual errors will result in a failing grade for the assignment. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. This course will adhere to YSU's policy on plagiarism.
* If you miss more than six hours of instruction or lab time, your final grade will be lowered. Lab time must be completed each week and cannot be made up. Weeks begin on Monday and end on Friday.
Course Outline
Week One: The Oral Tradition, History of Radio News. JOURNALISM FACULTY
Week Two: Dissection of a public radio enterprise story. JOURNALISM FACULTY WITH INPUT FROM WYSU
What is the lead? What is the nut graph?
What makes it a story?
Quiz 1: Dissection - 5 points.
Week Three: Interviewing. JOURNALISM FACULTY
As with all forms of journalism, radio requires reporters to be able to conduct quality interviews.
Quiz 2: Live interview. - 5 points.
Week Four: Story Selection. JOURNALISM FACULTY WITH INPUT FROM WYSU.
What makes a good radio story?
Play examples.
Brainstorm ideas.
Develop and submit story plans.
Week Five: Field reporting. JOURNALISM FACULTY WITH TECHNICAL INPUT FROM WYSU.
* How to gather quality sound.
* How to operate equipment.
* Refresher on interview etiquette and conventions.
Submit online story with photographs.
Week Six: Script writing. JOURNALISM FACULTY WITH INPUT FROM WYSU.
Quiz 3: Current events
Week Seven: Open to write scripts.
Script due.
Online story due.
Photos due.
Week Eight: Producing a radio story. WYSU with input from journalism faculty.
Quiz 4: Comprehensive
Week Nine: Producing a radio story. WYSU with input from journalism faculty.
Week 10: Producing a radio story. WYSU with input from journalism faculty.
Week 11: Producing a radio story. WYSU with input from journalism faculty.
Public broadcast of stories.
Week 12: Expanding the radio story to other platforms.
Week 13: Voice Quality. |
