3 Month Course

3hrs a class

Snack, Meal (Provided)

On Site Training

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will be your gateway to the exciting and evolving world of journalism. It is practical, designed to teach you to think like a journalist, analyze and critique the news media and introduce you to basic writing, reporting, interviewing and editing skills and habits.

In this class, you will work as a journalist, learning the ingredients of news and news-gathering as well as how to tell stories across media platforms (print, radio, television, digital and social media) in our ever-changing era of 21st-century media disruption and convergence. You will learn how to cover a variety of people, places, things, events and issues – and discuss and understand the importance of news and media literacy

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

This course will enable students to:

• Write stories of 300 to 500 words in a variety of forms.

• Understand news value in order to generate timely and innovative ideas for news and features.

• Gather information, including research, reporting, interviews and photographs.

• Craft succinct, engaging and newsworthy leads and nut graphs.

• Work comfortably on deadline.

• Think critically, independently and creatively about issues, events and trends locally and throughout the world.

• Understand the disruptions in the media industry and the basics of digital journalism.

• Use math and statistics to report on measurable changes and to provide context.

• Work ethically in pursuit of truth, accuracy, fairness and diversity.

REQUIRED READING

You must keep up with current events. 

Read Sports illustrated 

Espn news , espn daily , fsn, and such every day and listen to espn First take podcast, The Daily. 

Go to sports outlets and sports models 

Go to a news aggregator…like yahoo or google sports and stay on top of the news on sites—local and national. 

We will have frequent news quizzes, so if you aren’t following the news you will fail.

Supplemental readings will be provided including various short essays, articles and news reports. I will direct you to links or post them on our website.

ATTENDANCE

In journalism, in school, at work and in life, time and timeliness are of the essence. You are expected to come to class prepared and on time. I will take attendance at the beginning of class and at the end. If you’re late, be sure to sign in at the end –or alert me; you’ll be marked present but late. Also:

• Two unexcused absences will result in a lower grade. If you have to miss class, SEND ME AN EMAIL BEFOREHAND.

• More than four and you will be asked to withdraw from class. An excused absence must be documented by a note from a medical doctor, fire fighter, court of law or funeral director.

• Three instances of lateness—of even a few minutes—count as one unexcused absence.

GRADING

• Writing Assignments: 30 percent

• Class Participation and news quizzes: 20 percent

• Midterm Exam: 20 percent

• Final Grammar Exam: 10 percent

• Final Writing Assignment: 20 percent

GIVING FEEDBACK

Editing, giving and receiving comments and revising are critical to success. You’ll be asked to be not just a writer, but also an editor. The role of an editor is to bring out the best in the writing and the writer. With that in mind, you should give positive and constructive feedback.

• Start with a positive comment.

• Honest, but positive.

• Being hyper-critical or mean-spirited won’t help anyone be a good writer.

• Instead, look for possibility.

ASSIGNMENTS

All assignments will be posted on our class website and must be turned in on the due date. No Exceptions. If you must miss class (because of an emergency) go to site, get the assignment, turn it in via email. If a huge crisis comes up, you MUST email me a short, but detailed explanation.

Example 

COURSE CALENDAR

June 29th class

M-W-F

July 6th class

T-Thurs-Saturday