Introduction to Journalism
(Reporting for Public Media)
COM 3133
Fall, 2001
Terry Mattingly
Associate Professor of Mass
Media & Religion
Palm Beach Atlantic College
I.
OVERTURE
With her unusual name and outspoken style, Faith
Popcorn has become one of America’s most controversial and quoted market
researchers. Her BrainReserve company has served a long list of major clients,
including IBM, McDonald’s, American Express, Eastman Kodak, Coca-Cola,
Chevrolet, Campbell Soup and so forth.
Popcorn is best known for her prediction that New
Coke would crash. It did.
Back in the late 1970s, she predicted that the Baby
Boom generation would eventually flee life’s fast lanes and begin hiding in
their living rooms. Millions did, a decade later. She called this
``cocooning,’’ a term now commonly used by researchers. Sure enough, Popcorn
didn’t act like a conventional market researcher when she created BrainReserve.
``My former colleagues were horrified. If you want
to be a marketing consultant, act
like one, they told me. Give your staff important sounding titles. Develop a
scientific approach (cut-and-dried) to what you’re doing. ... And you must hire
some M.B.A.s,’’ wrote Popcorn, in her best-seller, The Popcorn Report.
``Instead, I hired my best friend, Lys Marigold, a
journalist, who turned out to be a genius at generating Big Ideas, at knowing
something about everything, and at translating marketing-ese into English.’’
In other words, Popcorn hired someone who knew how
to have ideas, research them quickly and then communicate them clearly.
That’s what this class is about: learning to start
reading, thinking and writing like communications professionals. These are
broad skills and they will serve you well in a surprising number of kinds of
work, whether you become a print journalist, do graduate studies, work in
public relations or fill one of the slots in a modern television or radio news
room.
II.
OBJECTIVES
(a) Our primary goal is to
learn how to research, write and edit a 500- to 600-word news story. Then,
during the final weeks of this semester, we will take a preliminary look at how
this basic form of research and writing is affected by the needs of the public
relations, radio and television industries.
Please remember: we are studying the
basic, entry-level form of reporting that is used by news wire services. In
future classes you will apply these basic skills to other communications
specialties. You must learn simple scales and chords before you can play
advanced concertos, let alone attempt to play jazz.
(b) Our second goal is to
radically increase each student’s awareness of the form, style and content of
newspapers, magazines and other print media. It is impossible to learn to write
or do media research without being a fervent reader.
III.
TEXTBOOKS:
Telling the Story: Writing for Print, Broadcast and
Online Media,
by the Missouri Group of Brian S. Brooks, George Kennedy, Daryl R. Moen and Don
Ranly. 2001 edition.
The Associated Press: Stylebook and Libel Manual,
by the staff of The Associated Press. We will use the most recent available
edition.
The main text for this class is a daily newspaper.
You can reach the Palm Beach Post through http://www.goPBI.com
For testing purposes, students will be required to
read at least one daily newspaper and to watch news reports on the CNN Headline
News network, at least several times a week. If you need help subscribing to a
newspaper, please let me know. I have plenty of telephone numbers. I will,
several weeks into the semester, ask you to turn in a photocopy of your receipt
for ordering delivery of a newspaper for the semester.
Also, I recommend that you create your own online
newspaper. I will distribute some sites for this, but an easy one is through http://www.washingtonpost.com You
want to use the “My Washington Post” function in the upper left-hand corner of the
screen.
IV.
REQUIREMENTS
(a) Concerning my priorities in
assigning grades: please keep the following in mind. This class is built on
lively participation, especially in lab sessions. When in doubt, dive in. Come
up with new ideas. Speak up. Attendance is critical and will affect your final
grade.
(b) During the semester, there
will be numerous -- unannounced -- short tests on news events. These tests will
not be announced in advance and will count as 25 percent of your grade. I'm
serious.
(c) Beginning approximately
one-third of the way into the semester, students will be required to find --
every week or so -- one news story on the World Wide Web that illustrates the
skill being studied in that week’s class. These stories will be printed out and
turned in, so I can review them.
(d) There will be no mid-term
exam. The final exam will cover lectures and the assigned texts. It will count
as 25 percent of the final grade.
(d) Each student will submit
approximately 10 news stories or written exercises during the semester. Each
must be written on a word processor, using Microsoft Word. Writing assignments
will always be announced several days in advance. Lab time will often be used
as writing time.
As is the case with any editor, I will accept
assignments early, but rarely if ever late.
V.
COURSE OUTLINE:
(a) The course will open with a
set of five lectures on these topics: ``The modern media market,’’ ``What is
news?’’, ``What is a newspaper?’’, ``What is a news story?’’ and ``The first
step: Ideas and information.’’
(b) As a general rule, lectures
will be on Tuesdays, with Thursday and appropriate Friday sessions used for
writing, editing, personal conferences and discussions. Students are asked to
arrive for class sessions at the assigned time, even on lab days. NOTE: During lab sessions, I urge
students to ask for my input on story ideas, research tips and writing
questions. Reporting skills are ``caught’’ through contact with a professional,
just as much as they are ``taught’’ in a classroom.
(c) Topics covered will
include: news style; the structure of a story; leads (two weeks); re-writing
copy; interviewing and research skills; covering speeches, meetings and press
conferences; press releases; and broadcast media.
(d) Students will be encouraged
to interact with the editors and staff of The Compass and to allow
edited versions of stories written in this class to be used in the online
newspaper.
Thanks, in advance, for your efforts. Work hard.
(w)
803-2253
(h)
687-2660
***
Four
biblical rules for communication: Ephesians 4: 25-32
No.
1: HONESTY – “Put away lying – speak truth with all individuals.” (25)
No.
2: STAY CURRENT – Don’t let the sun go down without working on a communications
problem. Don’t let the devil get ahead of you. (26-27)
No.
3: ATTACK PROBLEMS, NOT PEOPLE – Corrupt communication attacks people rather
than problems and grieves God. (29-30)
No.
4: ACT, DO NOT REACT – Put away evil speaking. Be kind and forgiving to others,
just as Christ has been with us. (31-32)
***
+ O Heavenly King, O Comforter, Spirit of Truth, who art in all places
and fillest all things; Treasury of good things and Giver of Life: Come and
dwell in us and cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls, O gracious
Lord.
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