Journalism 202: Mass Communication Practices Fall 2013 Stacy Forster 5058 Vilas Hall forster2@wisc.edu @stacylf9 Website: 202.journalism.wisc.edu Lecture: Monday 9:30 to 10:55 a.m. 2195 Vilas Hall Office hours: Monday Noon-1 p.m. or by appointment Introduction Welcome to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW-Madison! I hope you have rested up this summer and are prepared to work hard, because we re going to cover a lot of ground this semester. We re going to work to provide you with the practical and conceptual toolkit you ll need to work in a professional media role. Much of our time will be spent on various forms of media writing, critical thinking and developing your ability to take what you know and adapt to changing scenarios. You will also develop skills for both informative and persuasive communication, such as research, writing, editing, analysis, as well as video, audio and Web production. By the end of the semester, you ll be ready to use those skills in higher-level classes in the school. You ll be able to find everything you need to know for this class on the course website at http://202.journalism.wisc.edu. It will be updated regularly with more information about assignments, readings, tip sheets, quiz keys and more. You ll also find a due date calendar for your lab. Check the website regularly. We ll use Learn@UW for grading. Goals By the end of J202, you should be able to do these things: Write clearly, concisely, effectively and efficiently for a variety of media platforms and formats Think critically (asking the right questions in interviews, collecting and analyzing information, and putting together information) Review information, decide what is important and communicate it in an appropriate way Create professional, ethical work that uses proper grammar and style Work well in partnership and teams Speak and write with authority about current events and trends Meet deadlines and competing demands Evaluate how to best present stories in a variety of formats, including audio, video and online and produce them that way Expectations The rumors about J202 are true: you re going to work hard. Very hard. But by the end of the semester, you will be proud of all that you ve accomplished and have to show for the course. Reaching those achievements will require a strong commitment from you.
You are expected to be in every class that means every lecture and lab and to be an active participant when you re there. J202 involves a mix of individual and group work, and you have a responsibility to be a strong contributor to your lab. Participating in class discussions, group work and other assignments will not only translate to higher grades, but you ll also get more out of the class. Everything you do in J202 has a purpose, and if you do not take time to learn it now, you will find yourself lacking certain skills or knowledge needed for higher-level classes in SJMC. The expectations are just as high for your TAs and me, and we are an important part of your learning experience. You are not alone here, and you should feel free to seek me out for any purpose. I make myself highly available to students and welcome as much one-on-one interaction as is possible. Please come see me in my office, even outside of my posted hours. I am also online through much of the day and evening, so don t hesitate to contact me via email or social media (just know you probably won t get an immediate response between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.). I want J202 to be a meaningful, important experience for you and will do all that I can to help you succeed. Grading Here are the elements that make up your grade: A. Individual assignments (15 percent, lowest score dropped) B. Midterm writing assignments (5 percent) C. Group projects (10 percent) D. Individual story (25 percent, lowest score dropped) E. Final project (30 percent) F. Quizzes (10 percent, lowest score dropped) G. Engagement and participation (5 percent) Every assignment is graded from 0 to 100. By showing up, doing the work and turning it on time, you start with a 70 and earn and lose points from there. The better you do on meeting the expectations for the assignment, the higher your grade will be. Any fact errors, spelling or grammar mistakes, poor analysis, style issues or other problems that take away from the quality of your piece will mean fewer points. You will get a zero if you fail to turn in an assignment, submit it after the appointed deadline, or miss a class when an assignment is given, critiqued or turned in. In the real world, there is no excuse for not turning in a story or assignment when it s due. I spent more than a dozen years in my professional career hitting deadline after deadline it can be done with proper planning and hard work. You may make up an assignment under two related conditions: 1. You have an excused absence (such as an illness documented by a health care professional; participation in a UW-sponsored activity, such as a sports team or artistic performance; or observance of a religious holiday). For absences you know about now, you must give me a schedule of your
planned absences by the end the first two weeks of class. You should include your name, the date of the absence and the reason you won t be in class. AND 2. You notify your TA and me in advance of your absence I know many of you watch your grades closely, but there are so many assignments coming at you this semester, you will find it difficult to keep track of your grade at any given time. No one assignment will make or break your grade, so you ll want to consistently do well over the entire semester. In case you oversleep or forget about an assignment, remember that some of the lowest scores are dropped. If you have any questions about how you are doing, please seek me out to discuss it. If you need learning accommodations for disabilities of any kind, please bring me a visa from the McBurney Center within the first two weeks of class. I m happy to work with you and your TA to make any necessary arrangements. Here is a rough idea of how course grades will be calculated: A=100-93% C=74.9-67% AB=92.9-88% D=66.9-60% B=87.9-80% F=59.9-0% BC=79.9-75% Rounding up is at my discretion. Some factors will contribute to a potentially higher grade, such as perfect attendance in class, attendance at office hours, your TA s lobbying on your behalf or completion of extra-credit opportunities. Academic misconduct You should all know what plagiarism is. It can take many forms, but here are some examples of what we often see in the school: cutting and pasting material from others, taking from stories or papers written by other students, or replacing only a few words or phrases but keeping the meaning and context of another work. Your work should only include your own writing, paraphrased material or direct quotes from sources. If you have questions about plagiarism or whether what you re doing is wrong, please ask. You will not be punished for asking, but you will be disciplined for plagiarism. (For more on academic integrity, check out http://students.wisc.edu/saja/misconduct/uws14.html and watch the plagiarism tutorial at http://journalism.library.wisc.edu/plagiarismtutorial.html). Like many instructors in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, I will be using Turnitin software as one tool for maintaining academic integrity. Once an assignment is submitted to Turnitin, it will be compared with published or submitted material, such as websites, print publications and a database of prior papers. I will receive a report with a similarity score and details about possible matches between a student s story and other sources. After reviewing that report, I not the software will evaluate and decide whether or not there has been plagiarism or other academic misconduct. Your assignments will be
kept in the global Turnitin database to be compared with future students work, but I will be the only person who can view your assignment there. If I determine there has been academic misconduct, including plagiarism, making up quotes or sources, or turning in material that s not your own, your punishment will include an F for that segment of your grade for the course. It might also mean an F for your final grade and referral to the Division of Student Life for discipline by the university. Tools Readings There are two required books for J202: The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual (2013 edition, Basic Books) Aim for the Heart, by Al Tompkins (2 nd edition, CQ Press) Also (highly) recommended: Working With Words, by Brian S. Brooks, James L. Pinson and Jean Gaddy Wilson (8 th edition, Bedford/St. Martin s) Other readings will be posted to the class website. All readings should be completed before the lecture for the week they re assigned. Technology Poynter grammar quiz $12.95 to be completed within first two weeks (you ll receive an assignment sheet in lab) https://www.newsu.org/ Minimum 4GB flash drive for labs (get the most storage you can afford) Soundslides Plus a six-week license for use in your Individual Story and Final Project will cost you $10 (however DO NOT buy this until you need it for class or your license will expire before you need to use the software). http://store.soundslides.com/order/wisc_subscription_3/ You may use the SJMC servers during your time in J202, so you should take a few minutes to read the policies at https://support.journalism.wisc.edu/kb/appropriate-use and http://www.cio.wisc.edu/policies/appropriateuse.aspx Media consumption It should go without saying that you should be consuming the news daily, but I will say it anyway you should be consuming the news every day! At the very least, it will help you with our weekly quizzes, but you cannot hope to work in media without consuming what is being produced already. It is part of building a foundation for you as a communicator, whether that s in journalism, public relations, advertising or another area of the field. Here are some ways to stay plugged into the things we ll be talking about
in class: Follow #J202 on Twitter Read a local and national newspaper every day locally, check out the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin State Journal or Capital Times, and nationally, the New York Times (you can get a discount at www.nytimes.com/uwisconsin), Wall Street Journal or Washington Post offer a full array of stories Listen to or check out a daily local and national newscast on TV or radio Keep up on student news through the Badger Herald, Daily Cardinal, Inside-UW (from the university administration) and wisc.edu Take advantage of websites that pull together news for you, such as Google News Seek out at least one specialty publication in an area that interests you, (think Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, AdAge) Schedule Here s how the semester shapes up: Week Date Class In class Quiz Week 1 Sept. 2 Lecture None (Labor Day) None (Labor Day) Introductions WordPress training AP Stylebook introduction Week 2 Sept. 9 Lecture Fundamentals of writing and structure Identifying writing problems Ranking information Translating priorities into leads Lead writing Week 3 Sept. 16 Lecture Story elements and structure part I 1 Nut grafs Rewrite poor story Media analysis #1 Discussion of ethics module Writing breaking news Week 4 Sept. 23 Lecture Story elements and structure part II 2 Writing a follow-up story Media analysis #2 Writing for broadcast Week 5 Sept. 30 Lecture Interviewing 3
Interview exercise Information gathering exercise Week 6 Oct. 7 Lecture Bias and analyzing information 4 Excel training Analyzing data Media analysis #3 False equivalence exercise Bias exercise Week 7 Oct. 14 Lecture Persuasive writing and storytelling 5 Public relations strategy Writing a press release Media analysis #4 Breaking press release Week 8 Oct. 21 Lecture No lecture meet one on one with TA on Individual Story assignments Midterm writing workshop Media analysis #5 Midterm writing workshop Week 9 Oct. 28 Lecture Photo and graphic design 6 Newsletter layout Alternative story forms Create IS websites on WordPress Week 10 Nov. 4 Lecture Audio 7 Audio story assignment IS project work Week 11 Nov. 11 Lecture Video 8 Video story assignment IS presentations Week 12 Nov. 18 Lecture Online and social media Break into labs to talk about final project ideas Survey writing assignment Week 13 Nov. 25 Lecture No lecture No lab Thanksgiving
Week 14 Dec. 2 Lecture No lecture Week 15 Dec. 9 Lecture Presentation run-throughs for presenters Week 16 Dec. 16 Presentations (during final exam time) Wednesday, Dec. 18, 10:05 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.