JOUR 4090 Multiplatform F21 Syllabus

Policies and procedures

Books and other required materials

Assignments and grades

Stories and process

Schedule

Learn the world

Find the stories

Produce them for an audience

Portfolios

Editing checklist

Beat memo

Explore

Stories and process

You will be working on two story packages this semester. (NOTE: in TV reporting, "packages" refers to video stories; here, I'm referring to composites of stories and supporting items.)

The topics and specific focuses of these stories are largely up to you. We'll be immersing ourselves in how the Athens community is changingーin terms of buildings, demographics, businesses, and other things. But you'll be finding great stories and interviewing people and experts who can help you understand issues and explain them to a broader audience. I'll be working with you to surface and refine both stories and topics along the way, and you'll be supporting your classmates as well.

As final products, your stories will consist of a main item (either a written story or a video piece, depending on your interests and abilities) and two multimedia elements. Below is a fuller guide to the finished product, but there are a couple of key things to think about as we get into these.

First is finding the stories out in the real world. I will have plenty of ideas, but want to give you the opportunity to explore topics and issues of most interest to you. The key thing is that these topics need to be concrete, not theoretical, and specific to the Athens community so that you have can access real people who can become sources so you can understand more about what's going on. As an example of what not, I had a great student a couple of years ago who wanted to write about human trafficking because it was a cause that she really cared about. But she struggled significantly to find sources because she couldn't find local people with experience either in policing trafficking or working with victims. On the other hand, students who have written about how local businesses are dealing with changes in the economy have gotten great stuff.

You do not have a specific number of sources you need to quote, but you should speak to as many people as you need, and you’ll see deadlines for specific numbers of interviews you need to conduct.

The other thing I want to emphasize this semester is working more specifically on information-gathering and interviewing. I am going to encourage you strongly to work together on reporting similar storiesーprofiles of entrepreneurs in similar industries, for example so that you can support and provide feedback for one another. These are not group projects, but I encourage you to share background material and plan interviews together.

Story grades

Story grades

Component

100%

90%

80%

70%

Factual errors

Zero

Headline

Clear, relevant, implied verb, invites reader into story

Missing one of those characteristics

Missing two of those characteristics

Present, but missing all of the characteristics

Lede/intro

Hooks reader with compelling image or story in first graf/10 seconds of video

Explains topic but fails to include image or story

Double lede, news lede, failure to connect lede to rest of story

Generic lede

Nut graf/hook

Clearly encapsulates story and explains why it's important

Nut graf/hook clear and hook but misplaced

Nut graf/hook missing clear encapsulation,

No nut graf/hook

Grammar and style

Error-free

Fewer than two errors

2-3 errors

No more than 4 errors

Structure and sequencing

Clear, logical flow from paragraphs/points

Mostly clear flow with some difficult transitions

Many difficult transitions

Difficult to follow

Conclusion

Revisits character/point and/or looks ahead to the future

Offers basic ideas for what will happen next

Concludes by offering unsupported praise for subject

Stops abruptly

Length

Within 50 words/15 seconds of assigned length

Within 100 words/30 seconds

More than 100 words/30 seconds

More than 150 words/45 seconds

Image composition

Original photo, clear point of focus, relevance to story

Original photo, relevant to story, lacking clear point of focus/relevant details

Original photo, significant composition errors

Unoriginal photo

Image captions

Complete sentences explaining relationship of photo to story, including credit

Complete sentences explaining relationship of photo to story, missing credit

Vague captions but cleanly written

Vague captions and/or grammatical/stylistic errors

Infographic composition

Clean presentation; easy-to-comprehend process or relationship among variables

Fairly clean presentation; easy-to-comprehend process or relationship among variables

Problems with presentation; difficult-to-comprehend process or relationship among variables

Presented with poor executiion

Infographic chatter

Headline, descriptive sentence(s), and sourcelines all clearly explaining relevance of graphic to story

Missing one of elements at left

Missing two elements from left

Audio/video quality

Interviews in focus, little or no background noise/images

Poor focus or audio problems

Poor focus and audio problems

Audio/video transitions

Smooth transitions with little if any difference in audio levels, no jump cuts, no pops or other distractions

At least one problem from those at left

At least two problems from those at left

No more than three problems from those at left

Sources noted/quoted

At least five

Fewer than five

There are no rows in this table

Count

⁠

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.