Syllabus: MEA 110, writing for journalism and new media: College of the Canyons

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1 Syllabus: MEA 110, writing for journalism and new media: College of the Canyons Instructor: Paul Bond Office hours: After each class session and by appointment. Course Number: MEA Term: 2014FA. Hours: TTH. Room: MENH 329 Required textbooks: The Associated Press Stylebook and Inside Reporting, by Tim Harrower Journalism is the process of collecting, writing, editing and publishing or broadcasting news. Journalists allow us to know what is going on locally and throughout the world. In this course you will learn some of the history of journalism and of its importance to a free society. You will learn the meaning of libel and the importance of accurate reporting. We ll discuss the differences between print and broadcast journalism. Above all, though, this is a WRITING course, so you ll learn how to write a news article that is worthy of publication in a newspaper or magazine or news Web site. Please note that this is a beginning news writing course and not merely a beginning writing course. In other words, this course is for those who are already pretty fair writers and, in fact, are thinking of pursuing writing as a career. If you are looking for a more basic course in writing, you should be pursuing English 90, or something of that nature. Participation: You ll note below that class participation is a big part of your overall grade. So feel free to respectfully offer your opinions. As this course directly deals with the news of the day, and of the past, there will be plenty of opportunity for you to chime in. Don t be shy, even it means disagreeing with something your instructor says. I ve been known to be opinionated, so you may find yourself wanting to challenge me. Go for it, but be prepared to defend your positions intellectually. And because class participation is a major part of your grade, you NEED TO BE HERE. You get points for showing up, and you get points deducted for missing class. On your fourth absence, you get a FAIL grade. I will not drop you from the class, I will just issue you a failing grade. If you want to drop or withdraw from the course, filing the correct paperwork is up to you, not me. This course is pretty easy for those of you who are here and are paying attention! Work ethic: In journalism, deadlines are of monumental importance. In the real world, it doesn t matter how great a job you might have done preparing a story if your story misses deadline and doesn t make it in the newspaper or on air. If that s the case, then you have failed in your mission to supply your audience with the news they expect. So, in this class, deadlines are also of the utmost importance. Finish your in-class writing assignments on time, and turn in your homework on time! I will make it easy on you by not assigning you too much homework, but the homework that is assigned will weigh heavily on your overall grade, so do it and do it on time! Late homework is unacceptable, just as filing a story late in the real world is unacceptable.

2 One more word about homework.... use a computer and printer. No excuses. If you have none at home, use the ones provided for you here at the school. This means you should not wait until the last moment to do your homework. You need to do some advance planning so that you can have it all typed out and ready to turn in at the appropriate time. If it s more than a page, us a STAPLER. Exams and quizzes: Again, I m going to make it easy on you, provided you study and stay up to date with your reading. For quizzes, I ll tell you in advance the questions I will be asking, so there s no excuse for not acing quizzes. And for your two exams (mid term and final), you may use your books and your notes. Please do not show up on exam days without your two books! The exams are difficult, but they are made easy by way of your being able to use your notes and books. Do not squander this huge advantage, please. Your quizzes are fill-in and multiple choice. All you will need to take them is a pen. Your exams, however, are multiple choice and will require you to use a Scantron form 882-E and No. 2 pencil. The 882-E Scantron form is the long, skinny one with 50 questions on each side of the form. Your mid-term and final exams will take about three hours each to complete. So, for classes that meet twice weekly, that means that each of them is a two-day event. Grading: Class participation and in-class writing assignments...25% Quizzes and homework 25% Mid term exam.25% Final exam 25% Your reading schedule: You need to read the first nine chapters of the book, which is only 174 pages. That s not much reading for a college student to do in one course over an entire semester. Plus, it s an unusually good textbook, so there s no excuse not to read it. It is informative, interesting, and it makes the material fun and easy. Keep up with your reading and you ll do well. Fall behind, and all bets are off. Your goal should be to finish the 174 pages of your textbook by Week 12 of this course. When I refer below to your text, I am talking about Inside Reporting. When I refer to the Stylebook, I mean your other book (the smaller of the two). Weeks 1 and 2: Read Chapters 1 and 2 in your text book. Study the proofreaders marks that are in your Stylebook. I ll also issue a handout that features the proofreaders marks, just to make sure everyone knows what proofreaders marks are and how they are applied. Read through the letter A in your Stylebook. Weeks 3 and 4: Read Chapters 3 and 4 in your text. Read letters CDEF in your Stylebook. Week 5: Read Chapter 5 in your text. Read letters GHI in your Stylebook. Week 6: Read Chapter 6 in your text. Read letters JKL in your Stylebook.

3 Week 7: Read Chapter 6 in your text. Read letters MN in your Stylebook. Study the mathematics handout I give you. Week 8: Continue studying Chapter 6 in your text, letters MN in your Stylebook and the math handout. Week 9: We ll take our two-day mid-term exam on or about this week. Use your text, Stylebook and notes. You will be tested on everything we learned about style and more. You will need a Scantron, form 882-E, the long and skinny one with 50 answers on each side. Week 10: Read Chapter 7 in your text. Read letter O in your Stylebook. Week 11: Read Chapter 8 in your text. Read letter P in your Stylebook. Week 12: Read Chapter 9 in your text. Read letter Q in your Stylebook. Week 13: Read letter R in your Stylebook. Week 14: Read letter S and T in your Stylebook. Week 15: Read all remaining letters in your Stylebook (UVWXYZ). Week 16: Whatever we haven t yet covered, plus review for the final exam. Week 17: Final exam. Bring your Stylebook and text book. This two-day exam consists of writing a news story in the inverted pyramid style of writing. The Top 10 things you should have accomplished by the end of the semester: 1. Learned how to write a news story in the most common form: the inverted pyramid. 2. Learned the differences between hard news, feature and opinion writing. 3. Learned the subtle differences between writing for print and writing for online. 4. Learned the very basic differences between print and broadcast 5. Learned the basics of libel. 6. Learned the basics of the history of journalism. 7. Learned about bias, propaganda, framing and other tricks of the trade for shaping opinion. 8. Seen lots of examples of journalism in action, for better and for worse. 9. Learned a lot about style (it s a large part of your grade, in fact). 10. Learned the three C s that are crucial to good news writing: consistent, clear, concise. Two random thoughts: 1. Since this class is about news, we get to discuss everything: current events, past events, sports, TV, music, movies, video games, business, politics, science, the economy. Nothing is irrelevant in this course! 2. Journalism, like all forms of media, is a competitive business. It takes perseverance, skill and a strong work ethic to make it in this industry. And it also takes luck. But consider what I mean by that. My definition of luck is: When opportunity meets preparation.

4 More about grading: I ll add up all your assignments in the four categories. If your overall grade exceeds 90 percent, you will earn an A in the course. From percent is a B. From percent is a C. From percent is a D. Anything below 60 percent is an F. Course Objectives: 1. Appraise the relationship between literature, verbal usage and electronic media. 2. Analyze the basic news story elements and organization (Inverted Pyramid and T-Formation). 3. Distinguish sound news judgment including script development. 4. Develop information-gathering and research skills. 5. Use and assess the validity of the Internet search engines and other electronic resources to understand New Media Journalism workflow. 6. Examine and analyze the issues surrounding public access and public records. 7. Examine the need to uphold core ethics and journalistic decision-making requiring fairness, balance, accuracy, credibility. Academic Integrity: Cheating is immoral and will earn you a failing grade in the course, plus it could get you kicked out of COC. Cheating, of course, includes plagiarism. Student Conduct: You re expected to be here, and be on time, whenever class is scheduled. You re expected to pay attention to the lesson, and not to you phones or other distractions. You re expected be fully engaged in the lesson plan and not bother other students. You are expected to type all of your homework, not write it out by hand. Teacher biography: I am primarily a print journalism professional. I spent four years as a crime reporter, and since 1999 I have been reporting on the entertainment and media businesses. I write stories about movies, TV shows and music, and I appear on television and radio to give commentary about those businesses. I have also been teaching journalism and media courses at COC since I am a graduate of the Institute for Political Journalism at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and my bachelor s degree in journalism is from California State University, Northridge.

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